August goes out with a bang with some huge names falling. We’ve another eight to report alongside Dolly Parton:
Art
Any trypophobic readers can rejoice as polka dot enthusiast Yayoi Kusama can’t hurt them anymore. The Japanese artist came to prominence in the 1960’s during the avant-garde pop art movement, with her work focusing on the enigma of the simple circle. Her popularity waxed and waned over the decades but pieces from her signature Infinity Nets series tend to sell absolute stonks at auction, time will tell how much the “artist now dead” multiplier will affect them.
She had long struggled with mental health problems stemming from childhood trauma and moved in to a Tokyo psychiatric hospital permanently in 1977 following several suicide attempts. But it’s plain old organ failure at 97 that puts this circle fanatic into a rectangular box, scoring for three teams and earning ten as the joker for Japanese themed Easy Peasy Japanesey.
Film
The 25th saw not just Dolly Parton departing but fellow gay rights icon and long standing coffin dodger Tim Curry checking out with her. The actor first came to fame as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and over the decades would appear in every medium you can think of. Notable performances range from It, Muppets Treasure Island, Home Alone 2, Tales From The Crypt, The Wild Thornberrys and a legendarily memetic turn as Premier Anatoly Cherdenko in Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3.
His on-screen career was all but ended by a crippling stroke in 2012, the sad outcome of a less than healthy lifestyle over the years. He’s been a dead pool mainstay ever since, physically degrading to such an extent that even Curry himself expressed bemusement at managing to reach the age of 80. His final curtain call brings the points for 21 teams in total, with Wanted Dead, Not Alive netting their joker for twelve points.
Media
A less famous pick comes from the world of print, with longtime Guardian environmental correspondent Paul Brown. Brown spent the first half of his career in local media across the Midlands before making it to Fleet Street in 1981 with The Sun. Recruited by The Guardian one year later, he gravitated towards the environment as climate change began to really enter the public eye.
His announcement in November last year of terminal lung cancer caught the attention of several frequent contenders for the DDP crown. Chief among the beneficiaries are GUN Fishing and Once You Go Black in joint fifth, activist themed LW’s Protesticles reach 16th place on the theme board, and Imelda’s Terrahawks netting their joker for 12 points. He’s a popular pick with multiple teams currently residing in the top 50, not least reigning champions David Quantick’s Showbiz Pals. The start of a traditional Spade comeback perhaps?
Royalty
As if one dead pooling tease in Tim Curry wasn’t enough, another iconic “will this be his year” candidate, King Harald V of Norway, is finally in need of a state funeral. The Norwegian king was of the House of Glücksburg and had reigned since 1991. He bucked the trend of Norway’s reigning kings by actually being born there too, though did have to spend a few years of his early life in the USA during the Nazi occupation in World War II.
He was a noted water sports enthusiast before taking the throne and represented Norway at three different Olympic games, being the flag bearer in 1964. Harald’s reign saw big reforms to the public image of the Royal Family, with them being far more open to the public and media than his predecessors. He was seen as a modern and liberal leader and won the hearts of the nation for his leadership during events such as the 2011 terrorist attack by Anders Breivik and the COVID pandemic. His children, less so, given both have had some fairly controversial relationships in their time. The highlight being the new Queen Mette-Marit’s extremely problematic ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Harald made his first appearance on the DDP way back in 2004 following a bladder cancer diagnosis the year before. He would however spend the next 23 years teasing his fans, surviving the cancer, multiple hospitalizations for heart conditions and various infections. It would be anemia that finally brought down the king of the fjords, and his funeral was done and dusted the same day he died. An efficiency Britain might hopefully learn from in the future! At 89, he makes no real impact on the board, scoring for seven teams. The world leader theme team Ruling The Afterlife score their joker and reach the top 30 on the theme league as the chief beneficiary.
Sport
Sir Billy Boston was one of the all time great Rugby League players, the Welshman scoring 571 tries in his career. Only Brian Bevan was able to boast of more. The bulk of them came for the Wigan Warriors where he spent most his career, playing either on the wing or in the centre. He went into pub management after retiring, and his final accolade list includes a World Cup, three different Hall of Fame inductions, an MBE and a knighthood that he only got to enjoy for a year. Diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2016, his ten year struggle with it ended this week, just a month on from losing his wife of seventy years. He scores five points for three teams, with twenty year veteran Windsor the Troll the highest in joint eightieth.
Television and Radio
Jaye P. Morgan started out in music with a string of pop hits in the 1950’s before gravitating towards television and film. A minor part in Home Alone 2 makes her the third cast member to cark it this year. A worrying trend for everybody’s favourite POTUS per chance? It’s variety shows that were the bread and butter in her career though, with a notable spell as a judge on The Gong Show before being sacked for getting her tits out live on air during a bonkers skit of Gene, Gene, the Dancing Machine. Despite reports of her death being related to complications from a fall, most of the obits have her demise down as natural causes, including the qualifying Daily Mail one so no bonus points beyond the four for being unique. Her appearance on The Muppet Show in 1978 put her on the team It’s time to meet the music, and she scores nine points.
Another vintage actress/singer to cease all recording was Shelley Fabares. She was best known for One Day at a Time, The Donna Reed Show and Coach, as well as the certified gold No. 1 hit “Johnny Angel” in 1962. She survived a bout of hepatitis in 2000 courtesy of a liver transplant, but a new pair of lungs were not so forthcoming this week when hers packed in from pneumonia. Tumbling Dice score their first ten of the year.
Finally, the famed voice of Optimus Prime himself, Peter Cullen, completes the trio of small screen switch-offs at the age of 85. Alongside the Transformers franchise he could be heard lending his voice to projects ranging from the innocence of Winnie the Pooh to the less children-oriented Predator and Invincible. He was also the first actor to voice Nintendo’s Mario in Western media, doing so for Saturday Supercade in 1983. 80’s pop culture takes a massive blow but the voice acting themed I Hear Voices can at least take solace in their first ten points of 2026.
Scores
| Name | Age | Date of Death | Teams and Scores |
| Yayoi Kusama | 97 | August 14 | 2 Teams 💀💀💀💀💀 = 5 Points Easy Peasy Japanesey 🃏 = 10 Points |
| Shelley Fabares | 82 | August 22 | Tumbling Dice 💀💀💀💀💀💀+👻= 10 Points |
| Billy Boston | 92 | August 24 | 3 Teams 💀💀💀💀💀 = 5 Points |
| Jaye P. Morgan | 94 | August 24 | It’s time to meet the music 💀💀💀💀💀+👻= 9 Points |
| Paul Brown | 82 | August 25 | 15 Teams💀💀💀💀💀💀 = 6 Points Imelda’s Terrahawks 🃏 = 12 Points |
| Tim Curry | 80 | August 25 | 20 Teams 💀💀💀💀💀💀 = 6 Points Wanted Dead, Not Alive 🃏 = 12 Points |
| Peter Cullen | 85 | August 26 | I Hear Voices 💀💀💀💀💀💀+👻= 10 Points |
| King Harald V of Norway | 89 | August 28 | 6 Teams 💀💀💀💀💀💀 = 6 Points Ruling The Afterlife 🃏 = 12 Points |
Month number eight is in the rearview mirror and the heat of the summer begins to give way to the heat of the autumn. The podium remains unchanged, with I Will Not Die, it’s the World that Will End! retaining the lead, DDP Tofoa in second and The Sound of the Underground rounding it off. With only Esther Rantzen and Ben Sasse to be found on all three teams and plenty of still breathing picks between them and in the chasing pack, the tight race of 2026 rolls on.
The theme board remains equally unchanged with Nature’s Way in the gold, Elton Welsby’s Sporting Triangles in silver and Doubles to Finish on bronze for now.