Dead Pool 22nd November 2020

If you thought you were big and tough and Covid wasn’t going to get you, today I can share that a 34yo contender to be the Worlds Strongest Man died of the virus. So it doesn’t matter how tough you think you are, everyone is still a target. So with that in mind and that the vaccine is still a few months away for most of us, you have less than 6 weeks to come up with a list of potentials who are still friends with Donald Trump for instance. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Ray Clemence, 72, English footballer (Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, national team), prostate cancer.   
• Vincent Reffet, 36, French BASE jumper, wingsuit flyer and jetpack pilot, training accident.  
• Kirby Morrow, 47, Canadian voice actor (Dragon Ball Z, Inuyasha, Ninjago).  
• Jan Morris, 94, Welsh historian and travel writer.  
• Aaron Page, 34, Australian strongman, COVID-19.

In Other News

A French stuntman famous for airborne feats using jetpacks and carbon-fibre wing packs has been killed in an inevitable training accident in Dubai. Vincent Reffet was part of the company Jetman Dubai. The 36-year-old went viral for flights over the Gulf city’s waterfront and the Alps. A statement said Reffet died “during training in Dubai” but did not give any further details. An investigation into his death is now under way and is expected to disclose that he went splat on the ground somehow. “Vince was a talented athlete, and a much-loved and respected member of our team. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and all those who knew and worked with him.” Reffet was the child of skydivers and had performed numerous stunts throughout his career, including BASE-jumping off the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. Reffet’s exploits often went viral on social media, including one occasion when he jumped from a mountain into a moving plane!    

My apologies beforehand, there’s a lot of Bobby’s in this tale. Bobby Brown’s son, Bobby Brown Jr, has died aged 28 – five years after the singer lost his daughter Bobbi Kristina and eight years after the death of her mother Whitney Huston. Bobby Jr was the half-brother of Bobby’s daughter with Whitney Houston, Bobbi, who passed away aged 22, in 2015. Bobby Jr was reportedly found dead at his home, cause of death is yet to be established but foul play is not suspected, so we can rule out Bobby Brown offing his family one by one. However, going from family history, we can suspect drowning and/or toxic levels of alcohol and cocaine to be a factor in his death. Bobby Jr is one of Bobby Brown’s seven children, most likely they are also called Bobby. He was involved in the family’s reality show on Bravo – Being Bobby Brown – when he was 13, starring alongside Bobbi Kristina. Bobby Jr’s mother is Kim Ward, who had dated Bobby for 11 years on and off, before he sparked a relationship with Whitney, leading to them getting engaged. 

If you thought Wipeout was just a bit of fun and games, think again! An unidentified male Wipeout contestant died shortly after completing the show’s obstacle course. “We are devastated to have learned of his passing and our deepest sympathy goes out to the family,” a TBS spokesperson said in a statement. Apparently, he contestant suffered an undisclosed medical emergency on the show’s Santa Clarita set and was being treated by on-site medical personnel before being taken to the hospital, where he ultimately died. In order to participate in the show, contestants must pass a medical examination in order to proceed, so a death on-set was very unexpected. Hosted by John Cena, Nicole Byer, and Camille Kostek, Wipeout is a TBS reboot of the original, which ran for seven seasons on ABC between 2008 and 2014. The show’s official description reads, ”Each game is three rounds, with each round featuring a jaw-dropping, multi-stage obstacle course with numerous strategy and decision points designed to further challenge the stamina of the competitors and deliver hilarious and surprising wipeouts. And of course, the iconic staple of the show—the big balls!”

On This Day

• 1307 – Pope Clement V issues the papal bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae which instructed all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Knights Templar and seize their assets.   
• 1963 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated. 
• 1977 – British Airways inaugurates a regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service.  
• 1986 – Mike Tyson from Brooklyn, New York becomes the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history at age 20. 
• 1990 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher withdraws from the Conservative Party leadership election, confirming the end of her Prime-Ministership. The world rejoices!  
• 2005 – Angela Merkel becomes the first female Chancellor of Germany.

Deaths

• 1718 – Blackbeard, English pirate (b. 1680)  
• 1963 – Aldous Huxley, English novelist and philosopher (b. 1894) 
• 1963 – John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States (b. 1917) 
• 1963 – C. S. Lewis, British writer, critic and Christian apologist (b. 1898)   
• 1980 – Mae West, American actress, singer, and screenwriter (b. 1893)  
• 1986 – Scatman Crothers, American actor and comedian (b. 1910)  
• 1993 – Anthony Burgess, English novelist, playwright, and critic (b. 1917)  
• 1996 – Mark Lenard, American actor (b. 1924)  
• 1997 – Michael Hutchence, Australian singer-songwriter (b. 1960)  

 Last Meals

On the last night of his life, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, dined on Chicken Virginia, bread rolls, green beans and pumpkin pie. The meal was simple because the chefs from the Rice Hotel didn’t have the correct equipment for an elaborate dinner for 3200 covers at the Sam Huston Coliseum for the testimonial dinner JFK was residing over. Once done, he and his entourage boarded Air Force One on a flight  to Fort Worth. On arrival at 11:35pm, despite the late time and rainy weather, the President and Mrs. Kennedy take some time to shake hands with well-wishers gathered outside the hotel before retiring to their assigned suite (Room 850) for the night.

On the morning of November 22nd, 1963, JFK ate breakfast in his room at the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth. According to the hotel’s executive chef, Otto Druhe, he served the president “coffee, orange juice, two boiled  (five-minute) eggs, some toast, and marmalade on the side.” Nothing too substantial as President Kennedy was scheduled to deliver a speech and share a steak luncheon with local government, business, religious, and civic leaders and their spouses at the Trade Mart in downtown Dallas at 1pm, however unbeknownst to him, he would never make it.  

What happened next is indelibly etched on everyones mind, even if you weren’t born yet. At 12:29 p.m. CST, the presidential limousine entered Dealey Plaza after a 90-degree right turn from Main Street onto Houston Street. Over two dozen known and unknown amateur and professional still and motion-picture photographers captured the last living images of President Kennedy. Witnesses recalled the shooting occurred shortly after the limousine made the sharp left-hand turn from Houston onto Elm Street. Most of the witnesses thought that the first shot was fired after the president had started waving with his right hand. Several onlookers recalled hearing at least three shots, with the second and third shots bunched distinctly much closer together than the first and second shots. The assassination complete the limousine began speeding up, Mrs. Kennedy was heard to scream “I have his brains in my hand!” The limousine driver and police motorcycles turned on their sirens and raced at high speeds to Parkland Hospital, passing their intended destination of the Dallas Trade Mart along the way, and arriving at about 12:38 p.m, unfortunately, way too late for Kennedy. 

Last Week’s Birthdays

Scarlett Johansson (36), Jamie Lee Curtis (62), Mads Mikkelsen (55), Mark Ruffalo (53), Michael Kenneth Williams (54), Terry Gilliam (80), Goldie Hawn (75), Alexander Siddig (55), Björk (55), Liza Tarbuck (56), Sean Young (61), Ming-Na Wen (57), Bo Derek (64), Joe Biden (78), Jerry Hardin (91), Jodie Foster (58), Meg Ryan (59), Adam Driver (37), Terry Farrell (57), Robert Beltran (67), Chloë Sevigny (46), Owen Wilson (52), Linda Evans (78), Delroy Lindo (68), Alan Moore (67), Rachel McAdams (42), Tom Ellis (42), Martin Scorsese (78), Danny DeVito (76), Sophie Marceau (54), Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (62), RuPaul (60), Jonathan Ross (60), Missi Pyle (48), Maggie Gyllenhaal (43), Martha Plimpton (50), and Gigi Edgley (43).