Dead Pool 29th November 2015

Who? Yes, that’s how it is this week. A lack of celebrity deaths has brought us down to a German voice actor and a civil servant! Let’s hope this cold weather gives us a good pool next week!    

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Chris Martin, 42, British civil servant, Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister (since 2012), cancer.
• Norbert Gastell, 86, German actor and voice actor (Homer Simpson).
• Gerry Byrne, 77, English footballer (Liverpool and national team), Alzheimer’s disease.

In Other News

The ongoing saga of Casey Kasem’s life and death is still in the news. Three of  Kasem’s children and his brother have sued the late star’s widow for wrongful death in the latest move in a bitter family feud. The lawsuit accuses Jean Kasem of elder abuse and inflicting emotional distress on Kasem’s children by restricting their access to him before his death. They claim she abused him before he died, moved him from Santa Monica to Washington without telling them and, after his death, had him buried in an unmarked grave in Norway despite his wishes to be laid to rest in Los Angeles. “What she did to my father is reprehensible,” daughter Kerri Kasem said. “It’s disgusting. It’s horrific.” She added that the family members were taking legal action after US prosecutors decided not to bring criminal charges against her. Kerri has taken out the lawsuit with siblings Julie and Michael Kasem and their uncle Mouner. They are seeking damages of $250,000 (£166,000). But Kerri said: “We would rather see her in jail than receive one dime. We don’t care about the money. We care about justice.” Casey Kasem began his career in the 1950s and found fame with the chart programme in the 1970s. He was also the voice of Shaggy in the TV animation Scooby Doo.

St Louis Rams wide receiver Stedman Bailey is in  critical but stable condition after being shot in the head on Tuesday night, according to multiple reports in the media. The Rams said in a statement they were “aware Stedman Bailey was involved in an incident” in Miami Gardens late on Tuesday and that they had spoken with him. Police did not describe the nature of Bailey’s injuries, but a source confirmed that he was shot twice in the head while travelling in a car. Bailey, 25, was scheduled to undergo surgery Wednesday at the Aventura Hospital Trauma Center. A Rams source said the team believes Bailey’s injuries are not life-threatening.

Idris Elba has revealed how he almost died while shooting a film in Ghana, when he slipped behind a waterfall over a 30-metre drop. The 43-year-old actor admitted he had a lucky escape when his foot slipped off a rock and the branch he held on to snapped. Recalling the incident while filming the Netflix film Beasts of No Nation, in which he plays the warlord Commandant, Elba told The Jonathan Ross Show: “I nearly died … We decided to do this waterfall scene where all these child soldiers were walking behind this massive waterfall. “Cary Fukunaga, the director, decided to shoot it for real. We went to this waterfall and in this scene my character is standing there watching all the child soldiers go past. Now in the setup of that, the stunt co-ordinator says, ‘Listen everyone, this is a waterfall, that’s a 90, 100ft drop down there and the ground is very slippery, just be careful!’ “I put my foot on this rock just to hang out and chill out while they were setting up and as I’m doing that it’s slippery, obviously. I slip … I put my hand on this tree – it’s not a tree, it’s a branch. It snaps and I go literally about six feet before I go bang over and I got caught by the security guy.” So, he slipped next to a waterfall, talk about being overdramatic!

On This Day

• 1781 – The crew of the British slave ship Zong murders 133 Africans by dumping them into the sea to claim insurance.
• 1877 – Thomas Edison demonstrates his phonograph for the first time.
• 1972 – Atari announces the release of Pong, the first commercially successful video game.

Deaths

• 1530 – Thomas Wolsey, English cardinal (b. 1470)
• 1924 – Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer (b. 1858)
• 1975 – Graham Hill, English race car driver (b. 1929)
• 1981 – Natalie Wood, American actress and singer (b. 1938)
• 1986 – Cary Grant, English-American actor and singer (b. 1904)
• 1991 – Ralph Bellamy, American actor and singer (b. 1904)
• 1998 – Giant Haystacks, English wrestler (b. 1947)
• 2001 – George Harrison, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (The Beatles) (b. 1943)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Scarlett Johannson (31), Jon Stewart (53), Christina Applegate (44), Ed Harris (65), Tina Turner (76), Randy Newman (72), Miley Cyrus (23), Mark Ruffalo (48), Jamie Lee Curtis (57), Judd Nelson (56), Sarah Hyland (25), Rita Ora (25), Robin Givens (51), Billie Jean King (72), Bill Nye (60), Natasha Bedingfield (34), Peter Facinelli (42), Bruno Tonioli (60), Zoe Ball (45), Kelly Brook (36), Boris Becker (48) and Terry Gilliam (75).

Next week peeps!