The online competition to guess which famous people won't make it to the end of the current year. If they're elderly, ill, or just live a high-risk lifestyle, stick 'em in your team, and for each one whose death you correctly predict, you'll score points. DDP was dreamt up in Derby, England (hence the name...) by Big Iain back in 1996. Other hosts: Siegfried Baboon and Rude Kid (2003-7), Octopus of Odstock (2008-9), The Man in Black (2010-17), Spade Cooley (2018-19), msc (2020-21), Grim Up North (2020-22), and Reptile (2020-23). Now the Committee of DI (2022), time (2024), and Banana (2023) oversee the biggest deadpool going...
Time to chalk off, in terms of numbers, the biggest DDP hit of the year thus far. And what can you say about Robert Mugabe? Well, he was a big Cliff Richard fan – indeed, he wanted The Peter Pan of Pop to play at Zimbabwe’s independence celebrations in 1980, rather than Bob Marley. He […]
The son of a doctor, Stan Cosgrove worked as a GP himself until his early 40s when he spotted a gap in the market: equine medicine. He soon became the preferred vet to nearly every major Irish racing trainer and set up the first private horse hospital in the British Isles. His expertise was so […]
Sir Hugh Beach was one of the more respected British military minds of his generation, serving from 1941 to 1981. He saw active service in France and Java during his early years, and eventually ascended to the post of Master-General of the Ordnance. After retiring from the military he advised the government on warfare and […]
“My name is Rhoda Morgenstern. I was born in the Bronx, N.Y., in December 1941. I’ve always felt responsible for World War II.” went the voiceover at the start of the sitcom Rhoda, helpfully illustrating the average American’s complete ignorance of military history. Its star, Valerie Harper, may not have started any world wars but she […]
One of history’s least effective bodyguards, Jim Leavelle, has died. A sailor with the US Navy during World War II (he was present during the bombing of Pearl Harbor), Leavelle became a homicide detective in 1950. His contribution to world history came in 1963 when, while wearing a stupid tan suit and hat, he escorted […]
At a time Prince Andrew needs all the friends he can get, one person who won’t be coming to the ebephile royal’s defence is his old mucker Guy Innes-Ker. Innes-Ker was the 10th Duke of Roxburghe and attended all the expected locales (Sandhust, Eton). Other than his friendship with the nonce he was an important […]
David Koch was one of four sons borne to Fred Koch, an engineer who made his fortune in oil refining. Koch Sr helped build refineries in Nazi Germany (which he really liked) and Stalinist Russia (which he really didn’t like). David Koch, along with his brother Charles, followed eagerly in his footsteps: in business (at […]
Fred Rister spent most of the 80s and 90s as a minor dance musician, working in the French “new beat” genre and occasionally scoring a hit towards the lower end of that country’s top 40. However, after meeting the boyishly haired, pensioner-faced David Guetta he started a second career as the DJ partner and co-producer […]
The other late pass for an obituary belongs to character actress Freda Dowie. A theatre actress from a working class background, she found a niche in her 60s and 70s playing downtrodden matriarchs of northern families. Her most famous role was probably as Mother in Terence Davies’ semi-autobiographical Distant Voices, Still Alives alongside Pete Postlethwaite, but […]
A couple of late passes have been handed in at DDP Towers, giving qualifying obits to those who died a little while back. First up, making it to The Times obituary page over a month after he carked it, is Mortimer Caplin. A promising amateur boxer in his youth, Caplin instead took his talents to the […]