Dead Pool 31st December 2023

With only a few hours left of the year, it looks like Nickie might have it in the bag. This years winner will be declared tomorrow, along with the yearly roundup covering some of the most notable deaths of 2023. Remember to get your list in before midnight! 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Richard Romanus, 80, American actor (Mean Streets, Strike Force, Wizards).  
• David Leland, 82, British film director (Wish You Were Here, Virgin Territory) and screenwriter (Mona Lisa). 
• Richard Franklin, 87, English actor (Doctor Who, Crossroads, Emmerdale), writer and director.  
• Bill Granger, 54, Australian chef and food writer (The Independent), cancer. 
• Henry Sandon, 95, English antique expert (Antiques Roadshow).  
• David Kernan, 85, British actor (Mix Me a Person, Zulu, Carry On Abroad). 
• Jacques Delors, 98, French economist and politician, former minister of finance, MEP and president of the European Commission.  
• Gaston Glock, 94, Austrian engineer and weapons industry executive, founder of Glock. 
• Maurice Hines, 80, American dancer, singer and actor (The Cotton Club).  
• Killer Khan, 76, Japanese professional wrestler (Mid-South, Stampede, WWF), aortic dissection.
• Tom Wilkinson, 75, British actor (The Full Monty, In the Bedroom, Michael Clayton). 

In Other News

Shannen Doherty says she is committed to battling stage four breast cancer, which has now spread to her bones. Speaking to the Flying Monkeys, the Beverly Hills 90210 actress says she is determined to keep going with treatment. “I’m not done with living. I’m not done with loving. I’m not done with creating,” the 52-year-old said. Doherty has been sharing her health battles for several years, having been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. In 2016 she underwent a mastectomy, but surgery showed the cancer cells could have spread beyond the lymph nodes. She then underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy, announcing in 2017 that she was in remission. But in February 2020, Doherty revealed her breast cancer had returned at stage 4 after several years of remission. Earlier this year she posted a video of herself on Instagram receiving chemotherapy, revealing that it had spread from her chest to her brain and is now terminal. With new cancer treatments and clinical trials being offered, she hopes to get better and says “her greatest memory is yet to come”. “People just assume that it means you can’t walk, you can’t eat, you can’t work. They put you out to pasture at a very early age – ‘you’re done, you’re retired’, and we’re not,” she said in the interview. “We’re vibrant, and we have such a different outlook on life. We are people who want to work and embrace life and keep moving forward.” She is about to release her new podcast Let’s Be Clear with Shannen Doherty, which will look back on her life so far and discuss her cancer story.  

James Whale has celebrated being made an MBE in the New Year Honours list for his services to broadcasting and to charity, as he described his stage four kidney cancer being “a bit bad at the moment”. The broadcaster and talk show host has been a popular voice on radio and TV for five decades, and still hosts a regular Saturday slot on TalkTV and TalkRadio. “Nobody could have been more surprised than me, thank you to all the guys who made it possible over the years, everybody at TalkRadio and TV and everywhere,” Whale said on Twitter. “I’ve worked since the 70’s and the guys that run the charity Kidney Cancer UK, thank you, all this is for us.” Whale began his career with Metro Radio in 1974 where he pioneered the late-night radio phone-in. The 72-year-old rose to fame in the 1980’s with his frank style, dry wit and no-nonsense approach on late-night programme The James Whale Radio Show, gaining a legion of loyal listeners. Whale then spent 13 years at TalkSport before hosting the drive-time show on LBC and the breakfast show on BBC Essex. Whale was diagnosed with cancer in 2000 and had to have one of his kidneys removed. In 2018, his wife Melinda died after being diagnosed with lung cancer and in August 2020, Whale revealed cancer had returned in his kidney, spine, brain and lungs. The radio DJ’s past experience with cancer led him to form the James Whale Kidney Fund in 2006, which merged with Kidney Cancer UK in 2015. Whale now hosts a weekly podcast with his second wife Nadine Talbot-Brown talking about their journey together with his stage four kidney cancer. Appearing on TalkTV for A Lifetime Of Night-Time: The James Whale Story, which will air on Saturday at 10pm, Whale said his cancer “is a bit bad at the moment” but spoke of his desire to continue hosting his Saturday night show. His wife described the show as his “reason for being” at the moment. Whale said: “If I have a few more months that would be great, if I have until next Christmas or this coming Christmas would be nice wouldn’t it, but if I die tomorrow I’ve had an amazing time and I married an amazing lady. And I’ve had a lifetime of not having to have a job, I don’t work.”  

Slade icon Noddy Holder provided a positive update on his health amid his cancer battle. When he was first diagnosed five years ago, the 77-year-old musician was told he only had six months to live. He was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer and doctors told him his only option was to take part in a clinical trial for a new form of chemotherapy, which had never been tried on someone over the age of 60. He kept his diagnosis a secret until a few months ago and fans were shocked to find out the news. And now, he opened up about how he reacted to the new drugs he’s been on as part of a trial he signed up for. Speaking to Radio 2, he said: “It was touch and go. I lost all my hair. My weight was down to about eight stone. So every cloud. I’ve just had a scan last week and everything’s on an even keel at the moment, so I hope it carries on that way. I’m fit, fit, fit… but I’m fit for nothing.” His wife, Suzan, previously said that his initial prognosis was far from good but he agreed, along with staff from The Christie Hospital in Manchester to take part in an experimental treatment. But this had no guarantees of working. Thankfully, the star reacted positively to the treatment. Noddy said: “I went to the Christie hospital in Manchester, and I said ‘Is it six months? Is that the end of the line?’” The doctor he was speaking to told him the only other option was the new intense chemotherapy. Noddy said they told him his “positive outlook” could help him if he was to try it. After a brief moment of indecision – one that frightened Suzan “to death” – he agreed to go ahead with the trial. Noddy explained he didn’t want to be ill for his last six months, but after the doctors told him more about it, he wanted to “give it a go”. 

On This Day

• 1759 – Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000-year lease at £45 per annum and starts brewing Guinness. 
• 1879 – Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time. 
• 1999 – The first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, resigns from office, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President and successor. 
• 2019 – The World Health Organization is informed of cases of pneumonia with an unknown cause, detected in Wuhan. This later turned out to be COVID-19.

Deaths

• 2013 – James Avery, American actor (b. 1945). 
• 2015 – Natalie Cole, American singer-songwriter and actress (b. 1950). 
• 2015 – Wayne Rogers, American actor (b. 1933). 
• 2016 – William Christopher, American actor (b. 1932). 
• 2021 – Betty White, American actress, comedian and producer (b. 1922). 
• 2022 – Pope Benedict XVI, German Roman Catholic cardinal and theologian (b. 1927). 

Last Week’s Birthdays

Anthony Hopkins (86), Val Kilmer (64), Ben Kingsley (80), Eliza Dushku (43), Russ Tamblyn (89), Caity Lotz (37), Tracey Ullman (64), Jude Law (51), Jon Voight (85), Ted Danson (76), Danny McBride (47), Michael Cudlitz (59), Lilly Wachowski (56), Marianne Faithfull (77), Denzel Washington (69), Maggie Smith (89), Noomi Rapace (44), Sienna Miller (42), Joe Manganiello (47), John Legend (45), Timothée Chalamet (28), Olivia Cooke (30), Gérard Depardieu (75), John Amos (84), Jared Leto (52), Kit Harington (37), Temuera Morrison (63), Sissy Spacek (74), Helena Christensen (55), and Annie Lennox (69).