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), 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...
SMET-HEARSE UK film and TV regular Jack Smethurst has died aged 89. His career began with a bit part in the first Carry On movie, and acted in various films and sitcoms before assuming his best-known part as racist union leader Eddie Booth in sitcom Love Thy Neighbour. The basic premise featured Eddie Booth struggling […]
END OF HERRERA Cuban-American painter Carmen Herrera, who has died aged 106, waited even longer than Grandma Moses to gain widespread recognition. Unlike Moses, who hadn’t painted at all until she was 78, Herrera was 11 years older and deep into a decades-long career when she sold her first piece. Both her gender and Hispanic […]
HAGEDORN AND DUSTED Until the death aged 59 of incumbent Representative Jim Hagedorn a few days ago, you would have to go back to early 1958 to be in a time where the then-seat holder of Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District has since died. Hagedorn first won election in 2018, a rare Republican House flip amidst […]
BALLET SLIPPED The post on the DeathList forums announcing this guy’s death got a lot of likes, for some reason, so I figured he deserved a lengthy obit. Unfortunately, I don’t care enough about ballet to do so. Henry Danton was a fixture of the London dance scene during WWII, and toured internationally after the […]
YOUR DEPARTER FOR TEN To succeed as a game show host, one must match the nature of the programme. More simplistic concepts call for a more easygoing host, whereas ones with an intellectual bent call for someone respectfully erudite with a touch of humour who can convincingly convey knowing all the answers. Someone that even […]
ISABEL TOLLS Singer and trans pioneer La Veneno, who died in 2016, was an icon among Spain’s LGBT community. One of the first public transgender figures in her homeland, her scrappy personality with a flair for the tall tale endeared her to many and led to routine appearances on popular talk shows of the late […]
ABUNE A BOON FOR ALTERNATIVE OBSERVATIONS 2022 Horn of Africa nation Eritrea has been under the iron-fisted rule of Isaias Afwerki since its founding in 1993, and his is considered one of the most oppressive governments in the world. It was also among the dwindling ranks of countries that never clocked a DDP hit. Lara […]
I’M SORRY FOR YOUR TRUMBULL Groundbreaking SFX wiz Douglas Trumbull has died at 79. The son of Donald Trumbull (who did the effects in The Wizard of Oz), the younger Trumbull’s early work caught the eye of Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick recruited Trumbull for 2001: A Space Odyssey, where Trumbull was responsible for some of its […]
NIGHTINGALE’S LAMP EXTINGUISHED The playback singer, essentially the usage of a seasoned siren to dub the singing bits in a film, is commonplace in India, and Bollywood’s go-to for decades was Lata Mangeshkar, affectionately known as the “Nightingale of India”. The eldest child of theatre actor Deenanath Mangeshkar and sister of fellow playback singer Asha […]
PLEASE YOURSELF, THE POINTS ARE ROUND THE BACK Beloved stalwart of UK comedy Barry Cryer has died aged 86. Held in high regard for his quick wit, Cryer was inclined towards comedy from a young age. Although his snowtop head and rimmed glasses would eventually become a familiar face, careerwise he quickly decided to focus […]
