Death happens. Why not make it interesting?
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), and Grim Up North (2020-22). Now the Committee of DI (2022), Reptile (2020), and Banana (2023) oversee the biggest deadpool going...
KENWRIGHT TURNS BLUE It’s not October without a casual or theme team getting a unique hit off 2024 shortlist fodder. Bill Kenwright was one of those fabled instances of “Ben Carson syndrome” – a figure widely known in two fields yet practically Jekyll-and-Hyde for how diametrically opposite their respective talents were. In theatre, he was […]
SAARI NOT SAARI The year before Obama got a Nobel Peace Prize for not being Dubya, the Peace Nobel laureate was a little more meritorious. When elected president of Finland in 1994, Martti Ahtisaari had decades of diplomacy under his belt that including leading the UN peacekeeping operation that paved the way for Namibia’s independence […]
HAYDEN FADIN’ Former Governor-General of Australia Bill Hayden has died aged 90. He served as treasurer under Gough Whitlam’s government (and died nine years to the day after Whitlam’s death) before the controversial dismissal of Whitlam in 1975. Whitlam remained at the helm of Labor in opposition, but their shellacking in the next two elections […]
BULL GETS THE HORN Gargantuan character actor Richard Moll has died aged 80. He was best known as bailiff Nostradamus “Bull” Shannon on Night Court, an eccentrically gentle character who in the series finale was abducted by aliens who needed someone to reach their highest shelves. His height and deep voice lent well to fearsome […]
GATES OF HEAVEN No, this guy is not a local Washington state computer store owner. That guy is only known for being the son of Bill Gates Sr, which would be an obvious violation of our family of the famous rules. This Bill Gates was a defender for Middlesbrough who played under the helm of […]
BALABANNED Hollywood royalty Judy Balaban has died aged 91. Though a longtime civil rights activist with the ACLU, she was probably moreso known for who she hobnobbed with than for her own accomplishments. The daughter of Paramount president Barney Balaban, she built ties with Hollywood’s upper crust quickly – she was a bridesmaid at Grace […]
ESCALATOR OVER THE HEAVENS Jazz innovator Carla Bley has died aged 87. Often considered avant-garde, she was overall difficult to pigeonhole over the course of a long and varied career that included everything from elegant piano suites to politically-inclined big band numbers. She also channeled rock in the jazz opera Escalator over the Hill, boasting […]
TWO IN THE HOLE One of the riveting subnarratives of recent DDPs is whether or not one of the two golf theme teams can disjoint itself from the other. That has now happened with Ivor Robson, “the Voice of the Open”, who has died aged 83. He started the Open from 1975 to 2015 with […]
OFF, MAN Actress Elizabeth Hoffman has died aged 97. Her career didn’t kick off until her mid-fifties with a bit part on Little House on the Prairie. She was probably best known as troubled matriarch Beatrice Reed Vendor on NBC drama Sisters, and also played Eleanor Roosevelt in Herman Wouk adaptation The Winds of War. […]
THEY’RE ALL HAVING THE LAST LAUGH ON YOU! Actress Piper Laurie has died aged 91. She began her Hollywood career as a studio product of Universal Studios who was marketed as eating flower petals to keep her skin smooth. She acted as the innocent co-star to Ronald Reagan, the innocent co-star to Tony Curtis, and […]
