Dead Pool 22nd July 2018

Afternoon Poolers. Let’s begin with some housekeeping. It was brought to my attention that I had forgotten to award some points last week when Peter Carrington died, luckily for Abi, Shan and Trish that Doug was on the ball and spotted my omission, so 51 points each!! It’s a bit of a slow week to be honest, so you are forgiven for not knowing who the hell these people are!    

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Gary Beach, 70, American actor (The Producers, Beauty and the Beast, La Cage aux Folles), Tony winner (2001).  
• Shinobu Hashimoto, 100, Japanese screenwriter (Seven Samurai, Rashomon, I Live in Fear), pneumonia.
• Adrian Cronauer, 79, American disc jockey (AFN), subject of Good Morning, Vietnam.
• Brickhouse Brown, 57, American professional wrestler (CWA, AWA, USWA), prostate cancer.  
• Jon Schnepp, 51, American animator, filmmaker and voice actor (Metalocalypse, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, The Death of “Superman Lives”), complications from a stroke.

In Other News

Sir Tom Jones has told fans he is “determined” to return to performing after being treated in hospital when he fell ill. The 78-year-old has called off four shows this week – three in the UK – due to a “bacterial infection”. Sir Tom has apologised to fans, and a Twitter  statement says he is in “good spirits” and the condition is being “well managed under doctor’s orders”. “Appropriate recovery time and rest is advised,” the statement added. The Grammy and Brit award-winning superstar – a judge on The Voice UK Saturday night TV show – was due to perform at Stansted Park near Portsmouth on Wednesday and Chester Racecourse on Thursday. The It’s Not Unusual singer cancelled his US tour last September, five days before it was due to start. Sir Tom later revealed he had had to have a hip replacement.  

Television and radio presenter Richard Bacon has paid tribute to his wife Rebecca ahead of his expected release from hospital. The 42-year-old, who lives in Los Angeles, became ill on a flight from the US with suspected pneumonia. He was later put into a coma to allow his body to fight the infection. Bacon tweeted: “Last full day in hospital. Every facet of my life would be worse without Rebecca in it. How will I ever thank her?” The message continued: “I was in a coma for nine or ten nights (I just learned). That’s a lot of staring at your husband and his pipes. And a lot of worry. Former Blue Peter presenter Bacon, who was born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, said he had been diagnosed with an “unidentified double chest infection”. On Monday he posted on social media saying he had “nearly died”. “At one point, as I was run down a hallway to ICU (an intensive care unit) at midnight, with a massive needle jammed in my chest – bit like Pulp Fiction – I thought, ‘This is it.’”   

Former Emmerdale star Roxanne Pallett is said to be “lucky to be alive” after crashing into a concrete wall at high speed. The actor, 35, was airlifted to hospital after losing consciousness for 30 seconds at a stock race in Hunmanby Raceway near Scarborough. Pallett was rescued by firefighters who spent two hours cutting her from the wreckage before a helicopter transported her to Hull Royal Infirmary 41 miles away. The star – who was racing her Minister FM breakfast show co-host Ben Fry – is reportedly awaiting results of a CT scan and has suffered severe bruising. They were racing to promote the Outlaw Gold Top Shootout event scheduled to take place on 11th August. Pallett starred in Emmerdale as Jo Stiles nee Sugden on the ITV soap between 2005-08. More recently, she starred in BBC series Waterloo Road and will star in forthcoming horror film Habit.   

And just when you thought most people were normal, thousands of people have signed a petition to drink the red liquid found in a 2000-year-old  sarcophagus. Speculation and mystery has surrounded the strange black granite box since it was found in Alexandria earlier this month and some even suggested that it should not be opened, for fear that it could unleash a hideous curse. Upon finally being opened archaeologists found it was filled with dirty water and three skeletons, according to Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities. The water probably found its way into the box from a sewage trench, the ministry said. It may have caused the mummies to decompose and leave only their skeletons. The bodies are probably those of warriors. One of them appears to have a wound that is the result of being hit by an arrow. Should you feel the need to drink this unholy juice, please feel free to sign the petition and fuck off out of my life. 

On This Day

• 1797 – Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Battle between Spanish and British naval forces during the French Revolutionary Wars. During the Battle, Rear-Admiral Nelson is wounded in the arm and the arm had to be partially amputated.
• 1942 – The Holocaust in Poland: The systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto begins.
• 2005 – Jean Charles de Menezes is killed by police as the hunt begins for the London Bombers responsible for the 7 July 2005 London bombings and the 21 July 2005 London bombings.

Deaths

• 2004 – Sacha Distel, French singer and guitarist (b. 1933)  
• 2008 – Estelle Getty, American actress (b. 1923)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Paloma Faith (37), John Woodvine (89), Ross Kemp (54), Diana Rigg (80), John Francis Daley (33), Gisele Bündchen (38), Benedict Cumberbatch (42), Jared Padalecki (36), Ramin Djawadi (44), Brian May (71), Kristen Bell (38), Vin Diesel (51), Donald Sutherland (83), Alex Winter (53), David Hasselhoff (66), Will Ferrell (51), Phoebe Cates (55), Corey Feldman (47), Travis Fimmel (39), Diane Kruger (42), Forest Whitaker (57), Jan-Michael Vincent (74), Brigitte Nielsen (55), Celia Imrie (66) and Jesse Ventura (67).