Derby Dead Pool

THE MAN FROM DEL MONTE SAYS LESS! The world of canned fruit connoisseurship has plunged into crisis with its most esteemed critic no longer around to give his stamp of approval. Brian Jackson was the actor who thumbs-upped Del Monte products as the debonair, white-clad Man from Del Monte in numerous 80s commercials, which created […]

BLOSSOMED OUT Actress Mona Hammond has died aged 91. Born in Jamaica, she immigrated to the UK in pursuit of a theatre career. She paved the way for subsequent black actors in British theatre through both her esteemed career and her co-founding of the Talawa Theatre Company. Her best-known role however was on the telly […]

THE LEADER OF THE PACK, NOW HE’S GONE… Hellraising outlaw biker rebel Sonny Barger has died aged 83. A troublemaker in his youth, he learned to swear from a parrot at a bar, dropped out of school after frequently skirmishing with classmates and teachers, and was honourably discharged from the Army for faking his birth […]

DEBBIE HARRIED The aughts had Jane Tomlinson, the 2010s had Kate Granger, now for the 2020s edition of the FFBI-transcending cancer campaigner. Deborah James was a deputy head teacher at the time of her 2016 bowel cancer diagnosis, which spurred her to pursue a path in journalism to raise cancer awareness. In 2017 she started […]

BIG EYES SHUT   Yep, the master of painting saucer-eyed staring children, Margaret Keane, has blinked her last aged 94. From a young age, the hearing-impaired Keane studied people’s eyes during conversations to help comprehend them. This would lead to a lifelong fascination with eyes as means of expression, which she considered to be windows […]

THE SICKER In the first year where deadpoolers no longer have to worry about disambiguating him from the F1 chap, penultimate Dad’s Army remnant Frank Williams has died aged 90. Ian Lavender is now the very last regular among the Walmington-on-Sea denizens. Williams began his career working in a theatre troupe ran by Jimmy Perry, […]

COLD TURKEL Actor Joe Turkel has mixed his last drink aged 94. Highly active from the 50s on, he initially toiled about in B-movies when a role in one caught the eye of Stanley Kubrick. He appeared twice in 50s Kubrick films – a bit part in The Killing, and a more substantial role in […]

THE KING IS DEAD 50s NFL star Hugh McElhenny has died aged 93. Nicknamed “The King”, he played most prominently for the San Francisco 49ers. His allrounder playstyle, which was noted for his elusive running, led to five Pro Bowl appearances with the 49ers and one with the Minnesota Vikings. He was inducted into the […]

HEADSTONE French racehorse trainer Alec Head has died aged 97. Belonging to an esteemed horseracing dynasty, Head was noted for winning the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe four times and the Derby once. In the late 50s, he transformed the abandoned Haras du Quesnay breeding farm into an epicentre of French horseracing. His children have […]

FREUDIAN SLIPPED Psychosociologist Sophie Freud has died aged 97. The last surviving grandchild of Sigmund Freud and one of his last living relatives to know him on a personal level, she fled from Europe to the USA in 1939 amidst the Nazi onslaught. Her own psychological beliefs, which were sharply critical of her grandpa’s androcentric […]