Dead Pool 11th December 2022

Welcome all, another week flies by and more celebrities die! Thank you to all of you who have already submitted your lists for 2023, there’s nothing quite like being very organised! Feel free to send in yours, either email your list to mail@thedeadpool.rip or fill in the form on the website. Remember, you need 13 names in total. One must be your Woman, one your Dead Cert, and one your Maverick, an individual aged under 50 who is not expected to die, so nobody suffering from cancer or in a death-defying job. The other ten are up to you. Think long and hard over your Big Three, there is an extra 100 points if one of them die, so well worth the effort. The rules are here.

Also a big thanks to Nickie this week, she found most of the stories and linked me to the yearly St Peppers image by Chris Barker.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

Bob McGrath, 90, American actor and singer (Sesame Street, Follow That Bird, Sing Along with Mitch).
Patrick Tambay, 73, French racing driver (Formula One), complications from Parkinson’s disease.
Kirstie Alley, 71, American actress (Cheers, Veronica’s Closet, Look Who’s Talking), colon cancer.
Jet Black, 84, English drummer (The Stranglers).
Mills Lane, 85, American boxing referee and television personality (Judge Mills Lane, Celebrity Deathmatch).
Johnny Johnson, 101, British Royal Air Force officer (Operation Chastise) the Dambusters Raid.
Ruth Madoc, 79, British actress (Hi-de-Hi!, Fiddler on the Roof, Little Britain), and singer.
Tracy Hitchings, 60, English singer (Landmarq), cancer.
Georgia Holt, 96, American singer and actress (Watch the Birdie, Grounds for Marriage), subject of Dear Mom, Love Cher).
Richard Miller, 80, American visual effects artist (Star Trek: First Contact, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Rocketeer).
Joseph Kittinger, 94, American air force officer and command pilot (Project Manhigh, Project Excelsior), lung cancer.

In Other News

Former Jackass star Bam Margera has reportedly been rushed to hospital with a “very serious” case of pneumonia. The stunt performer and skateboarder is reported to have tested positive for Covid while in hospital, and is currently on a ventilator. The Flying Monkeys claim that Margera is currently undergoing treatment in the ICU of a San Diego hospital. His condition, however, is said to be stable. Last year, Margera entered a 12-month drug and alcohol treatment programme. Alongside Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius and others, Margera was one of the original members of the Jackass crew, performing stunts in the MTV series and subsequent film adaptations. However, Margera did not feature in the recent sequel, Jackass Forever, and claimed that he had been fired partway through production after failing a drugs test.

The Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan has been taken to hospital, with his wife asking fans to ‘send prayers and healing vibes’. The 64-year-old, who has used a wheelchair since he broke his pelvis in 2015, has been in and out of hospital in recent years. On Twitter on Monday, his wife Victoria May Clarke shared a picture of the musician smiling and said he had been admitted again. She said: ‘Please send prayers and healing vibes to Shane MacGowan in hospital again and really hoping to get out asap!! Thank you.’ Fans wished the singer, whose hits include Fairytale of New York, a speedy recovery. One wrote: ‘Not at Christmas, the man is the sound of Christmas… I hope he recovers swiftly and not too much discomfort.’ Ms Clarke told the Flying Monkeys that Shane is finding it ‘frustrating’ and wants to get out after being admitted last Friday. She said: ‘I’m definitely hoping he gets out this week. The Irish singer-songwriter has had health troubles since he broke his pelvis. In 2021 he fell and broke a knee, before tearing ligaments in his left knee, never fully recovering from the injuries. In April he confirmed that he ‘can’t walk any more’. He has also been open about his battle with addiction and in 2015 had to get a full set of teeth implants after decades of drinking and drugs destroyed his real ones.

Al Roker has been discharged from hospital for the second time. NBC’s Today show weatherman, 68, posted a picture to Instagram on Thursday announcing his return. “Home! So incredibly grateful to family, friends, medical folks, @todayshow family and all your thoughts and prayers,” Roker wrote in the caption. In the picture, Roker is smiling with his wife Deborah Roberts, and their daughter, Leila. Just hours before his release from hospital, he had posted a scenic photo of the sunrise taken from his patient bed with the caption: “Hopefully coming home soon but when your spirit sags a bit, you get to see that and recharge.” He added: “God Bless you all for all the prayers and well wishes for me and my family.” Fans grew worried after Roker disappeared from the Today show in mid-November. Roker later revealed that he was in hospital for blood clots in his legs and lungs. The host was able to celebrate Thanksgiving at home with his family, but was rushed back to hospital the following day and remained there for nearly two weeks. Today show co-anchor Hoda Kotb later confirmed to viewers that Roker had been hospitalised a second time due to “some complications”. “He’s resting, and his doctors are keeping a close eye on him,” she said on the show. In 2020, Roker announced that he had been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” prostate cancer. He underwent the surgery in November 2020, and in January 2021 he received the good news that his cancer was “considered undetectable”.

Danniella Westbrook has been warned by doctors that she would have had a heart attack if she hadn’t been rushed to the hospital on Thursday night. The EastEnders star was told that she was only “hours away from cardiac arrest” after she told her followers she had been experiencing blackouts and seizures. She shared a clip from her hospital bed, showing her in a hospital gown, and wrote: “Sepsis, Strep A, and constant temperature of 39.8C.” A few hours later, Westbrook, 49, posted another update on her Instagram Stories and thanked NHS staff at Whipps Cross Hospital in Leytonstone, London. She wrote: “Huge thank you to Whipps Cross and the NHS, who have managed to get me stabilised. They informed me if I’d of left it till the morning I would of had a heart attack, the pressure on my chest was so bad. If you have this flu bug and tight chest, ring an ambulance. I was hours away from a cardiac arrest, my chest was so tight. Now I need complete bed rest for a few days. Her health scare comes amid several outbreaks of Strep A in UK schools that have left hospital A&E departments “overflowing”. The bacterial infection has resulted in the deaths of 15 children and health authorities have launched an investigation in the cases.

Britain’s only female Spitfire pilot has been killed in a car crash in Australia, 34 years after her husband suffered the same fate. Carolyn Grace, 70, who lives in Australia, was driving her Suziki car in the city of Goulbourn, southwest of Sydney, when she collided with a silver Hilux on Friday. Carolyn, believed to have been the only practising female Spitfire pilot in the world, was visiting her family at the time of the crash. Carolyn, originally from Australia, was airlifted to hospital but died of her injuries, 34 years after her husband, Nick, was killed in a car crash in Sussex, UK, in 1988. Her 38-year-old son Richard was a passenger in the car and survived the crash and was treated for minor injuries. Carolyn’s daughter, Daisy Grace, said the family had been left ‘traumatised’ by her unexpected death. Mrs Grace pioneered the restoration of Second World Spitfires in the 1980s with her late husband, Nick, at their home in Cornwall. After Nick died in 1988, the mother-of-two learned to fly the restored plane to keep her husband’s memory alive. Over the next three decades, the aviation pioneer clocked over 900 hours in the aircraft, flying it at air shows and memorial events across Europe.

Rhod Gilbert has given fans an update on his health, revealing that he has been diagnosed with stage four cancer. In July, the comedian announced that he was undergoing treatment for cancer at Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, a hospital which he had previously raised funds for. At the time, he commended the NHS care he was receiving as “incredible”. The 54-year-old has given fans an update on his health during a recent interview with BBC Radio Wales. “I’m feeling good and feel like I’m recovering day-by-day,” he said. Gilbert went on to recall the symptoms he suffered prior to his diagnosis, stating that he had been forced to cancel shows because they had been so severe. “I had a terribly sore throat, tightness through my neck. I was having to cancel shows because I couldn’t breathe,” he said. “I was having all sorts of problems and we couldn’t get to the bottom of it.” Gilbert explained that the symptoms became progressively worse while he was fundraising for Velindre Cancer Centre in Cuba. In May, he noticed “lumps started popping up in places they shouldn’t be”. “It turns out I’ve got stage four cancer,” he said. “I also caught Covid on that walk as well. I came home with cancer and Covid from a Velindre fundraising trek… the irony of that! I went as a Velindre patron and came home as a patient.” The comedian praised the care he has received, revealing that he has gone through chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery. Although, he is yet to find out if the treatment “has worked”. He also suggested that he may be working on material for future shows. “The things people say when they find out you’ve got cancer… people panic. There’s a lot of humour in it,” he said. “Hopefully I’m going to jot it all down and one day bring it to the stage.”

Cher has appeared to confirm the death of her mother, singer and actor Georgia Holt, aged 96. The singer, 76, shared the news on social media, tweeting “mom is gone” with a sad-face emoji. Holt had been admitted to hospital with pneumonia and had been suffering from recurring health issues, Cher shared in September. “Sorry I’ve been MIA. Mom’s been sick off and on. She just got out of hospital. She had pneumonia. She’s getting better,” wrote the “Believe” singer on 9th September. She thanked her fans for their prayers the following day, adding that “home is the best medicine” for her mother and “she’s getting better”. However, on 11th December at 5.02am GMT, the artist tweeted, “Mom is gone,” with a sad-face emoji. Fans of the singer and her mother took to social media to share their condolences. “I’m so very sorry to hear that your beloved mother has passed. My heart goes out to you. What a blessing to have had her in your life for as long as you did,” wrote one fan on Twitter. “Sending you nothing but love, light, and healing. She was a firecracker, and she will be so deeply missed,” shared another. Holt, born in 1926, was a singer-songwriter as well as a model and actor. She famously appeared in the hit sitcom I Love Lucy. She leaves behind two children, Cher – real name, Cherilyn Sarkisian – her sister, Georganne LaPiere, and partner of 46 years, Craig Spence.

Depraved necrophiliac David Fuller – who evaded police for over 30 years after carrying out a double murder in 1987 – was handed a further four years in prison today for defiling women’s bodies in hospital mortuaries. The 68-year-old is already serving a whole life sentence for murdering Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in 1987 as well as the sexual abuse of the corpses of 78 women and girls at hospital mortuaries in Tunbridge Wells. He appeared at the Old Bailey today to be sentenced for a second tranche of offences against a further 23 dead women. After being linked to the murders in 2020, police uncovered the systematic sexual abuse of the corpses of females aged between nine and 100 at the now-closed Kent and Sussex Hospital and the Tunbridge Wells Hospital, in Pembury, where he had worked in maintenance since 1989. An examination of Fuller’s computer hard drive at his home in Heathfield, East Sussex, revealed 818,051 images and 504 videos of his abuse as well as evidence of his ‘persistent interest in rape, abuse and murder of women’. Jailing Fuller for four years, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said: ‘You violated the bodies of all these women while many were still wearing medical equipment from treatment they had received from doctors trying to save their lives, such as catheters and defibrillator pads. ‘The women you abused were women who lived fulfilling lives. They were the best, one had flown a propeller plane across Iceland, one was a talented skier and one worked at Bletchley Park during World War Two. ‘A number had long marriages, some had long careers such as teaching and nursing. All had families they nurtured and loved. ‘Some spent their last years in pain but kept their dignity, until you took it from them.’ Fuller sat expressionless in the dock at the Old Bailey wearing a grey jumper and glasses. He spoke only to confirm his name. One man shouted ‘scum’ from the public gallery as he was taken down from the dock.

On This Day

1901 – Guglielmo Marconi transmits the first transatlantic radio signal from Poldhu, Cornwall, England to Saint John’s, Newfoundland.
1913 – More than two years after it was stolen from the Louvre, Leonardo da Vinci‘s painting Mona Lisa is recovered in Florence, Italy. The thief, Vincenzo Peruggia, is immediately arrested.
1962 – Arthur Lucas, convicted of murder, is the last person to be executed in Canada.
1972 – Apollo 17 becomes the sixth and final Apollo mission to land on the Moon.
2009 – Finnish game developer Rovio Entertainment releases the hit mobile game Angry Birds internationally on iOS. People go batshit crazy for no reason.

Deaths

1282 – Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Welsh prince (b. 1223).
1880 – Oliver Winchester, founded the Winchester Repeating Arms Company (b. 1810).
1964 – Sam Cooke, American singer-songwriter (b. 1931).
1996 – Willie Rushton, English cartoonist, author, co-founded Private Eye (b. 1937).
2008 – Bettie Page, American model (b. 1923).
2017 – Keith Chegwin, British TV presenter (b. 1957).
2021 – Anne Rice, American author (b. 1941).

St Peppers 2022

As the end of the year approaches, we’ve come to experience a combined sense of anticipation and dread, as we wait for artist, illustrator and art director Chris Barker to release his Sgt Pepper-style tribute to the public figures who have died during the year.

So – this is the role-call of those we’ve lost in 2022. Get ready for some utter gut punches. Click on the pictures for full size versions.

Last Week’s Birthdays