Dead Pool 5th April 2020

Here we go again, yet more deathly news. Surprisingly, still no scoring even though the world is currently experiencing an apocalypse of sorts. Maybe we’ll see more deaths when the toilet roll runs out. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Andrew Jack, 76, British dialect coach (The Lord of the Rings, Sherlock Holmes) and actor (Star Wars), COVID-19.  
• Bill Withers, 81, American Hall of Fame singer-songwriter (“Lean on Me“, “Ain’t No Sunshine“, “Lovely Day“), heart disease.  
• Julie Bennett, 88, American actress (What’s Up, Tiger Lily?, The Yogi Bear Show, Sole Survivor), COVID-19. 
• Logan Williams, 16, Canadian actor (The Flash, When Calls the Heart).  
• Eddie Large, 78, British comedian (Little and Large), COVID-19.

In Other News

Celebrities have been criticised for “fanning the flames” of conspiracy theories linking 5G technology to coronavirus after several videos claiming to show 5G towers on fire emerged on social media. A Facebook page, which was created on Thursday, encouraged people to set fire to the towers due to baseless claims about the health risks posed by 5G technology, before the social media company took down the page on Friday morning. Amanda Holden, reality TV star Calum Best, Actor Woody Harrelson, Blue singer Lee Ryan and former Dancing on Ice judge Jason Gardiner were among the celebrities who shared theories connecting 5G to the Covid-19 pandemic. Perhaps it’s at times like these we should take the opportunity to thin the herd and relive us of the stupid to decrease the surplus population, or perhaps just remove the ‘Do not drink’ label on bottles of bleach and see what happens.  

Comedian Eddie Large, best known for being part of double act Little and Large, has died with a very dubious case of the coronavirus. The star, 78, was a well known face on TV in the 1970s and 80s and was famous for his partnership with Syd Little. His family confirmed the news “with great sadness” on Facebook, saying he had been suffering with heart failure and then contracted the virus in hospital. Little said he was “devastated” by the news. “He had been ill for a while but when it happens, it hits you,” he said. His death leaves us with the question, what finally killed off Eddie Large? The fact that his heart was fucked for a long time or catching the lurgy whilst in hospital? I doubt he was in hospital if he was able to do cartwheels down the corridors, so to publicise his death, they stuck the C-19 label on him. Large stepped away from the limelight when the Little & Large Show ended in 1991, after doctors told Large his heart couldn’t stand the rigours of the live show. “That phone call to Syd was the most painful I’ve ever had to make,” he told the Mirror in 2017. “I was crying my eyes out because I knew I was putting him out of work. He had bills to pay. “I felt horrible. We weren’t just a double act. We were mates, right from the start.” Large had a heart transplant in 2003, and became a spokesman for the British Heart Foundation. Little said he had remained in almost daily contact with his stage partner, and spoke to him on Wednesday night, shortly before he died. “He was in pain, bless him, but he even asked me how we were,” he said. “He was so thoughtful to everybody.”

The Newly Infected

• Dominic Cummings: is self-isolating at home after showing symptoms Downing Street has confirmed.    
• Dynamo: has revealed he has tested positive after experiencing “severe” symptoms. 
• Ali Wentworth: said on April 1st that she’s “never been sicker” after testing positive. “High fever. Horrific body aches. Heavy chest. I’m quarantined from my family,” she said on Instagram. “This is pure misery.” 
• Debi Mazar: took to Instagram to reveal that she tested positive for the disease. “I have just tested positive for Covid-19. I AM OK!” 
• Indira Varma: appeared to confirm that she tested positive for coronavirus. The “Game of Thrones” and “Carnival Row” star said I’m in bed with it and it’s not nice. Stay safe and healthy and be kind to your fellow people.”  
• Pink: announced she tested positive for coronavirus, in an Instagram post that criticised the US government’s handling of the crisis. 
• Greta Thunberg: the teenage climate change activist, has revealed that she has self-isolated after showing coronavirus symptoms. 
• Lee Mack: the comedian said on March 26th that he was self-isolating at home after developing symptoms. 
• Paul Chuckle: is currently recovering from having contracted Covid-19. 
• Robbie Williams: he believes he had coronavirus while he was self-isolating away from his family for three weeks.  
• Marianne Faithfull: the singer, who also has pneumonia, is “stable and responding to treatment”, according to her agent.

On This Day

• 1722 – The Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen discovers Easter Island.  
• 1951 – Cold War: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are sentenced to death for spying for the Soviet Union.  
• 1998 – In Japan, the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge opens to traffic, becoming the longest bridge span in the world.

Deaths

• 1923 – George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, English archaeologist and businessman (b. 1866)  
• 1964 – Douglas MacArthur, American general (b. 1880)  
• 1976 – Howard Hughes, American pilot, engineer, and director (b. 1905)  
• 1994 – Kurt Cobain, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1967)  
• 2006 – Gene Pitney, American singer-songwriter (b. 1941)  
• 2008 – Charlton Heston, American actor, director, and political activist (b. 1923)  
• 2012 – Jim Marshall, English businessman, founded Marshall Amplification (b. 1923)

Last Meals

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were American citizens who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. The couple were accused of providing top-secret information about radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and valuable nuclear weapon designs; at that time the United States was the only country in the world with nuclear weapons. Convicted of espionage in 1951, they were executed by the federal government of the United States in 1953 in the Sing Sing correctional facility in Ossining, New York. 

The trial of the Rosenbergs on federal espionage charges began on March 6th, 1951. The prosecution’s primary witness, David Greenglass, said that he turned over to Julius Rosenberg a sketch of the cross-section of an implosion-type atom bomb. This was the “Fat Man” bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, as opposed to a bomb with the “gun method” triggering device used in the “Little Boy” bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The Rosenbergs both remained defiant as the trial progressed. During testimony, they asserted their right under the US Constitution’s Fifth Amendment not to incriminate themselves when asked about their involvement in the Communist Party or their activities with its members. On March 29th, 1951, the Rosenbergs were convicted of espionage. They were sentenced to death on April 5th under Section 2 of the Espionage Act of 1917, which provides that anyone convicted of transmitting or attempting to transmit to a foreign government “information relating to the national defence” may be imprisoned for life or put to death. They were transferred to New York State’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York, for execution. The execution was delayed from the originally scheduled date of June 18th, because Supreme Court Associate Justice William O. Douglas had granted a stay of execution on the previous day. The execution was scheduled for 11 p.m. that evening, during the Jewish Sabbath, which begins and ends around sunset. Their attorney asked for more time, filing a complaint that execution on the Sabbath offended the  defendants’ Jewish heritage. Rhoda Laks, another attorney on the Rosenbergs’ defence team, also made this argument before the Judge. The defence’s strategy backfired. The Judge, who also stated his concerns about executing the Rosenbergs on the Jewish Sabbath, rescheduled the execution for 8 p.m. before sunset and the Jewish Sabbath and before 11 p.m., the regular time for executions at Sing Sing, thus not allowing for the Rosenbergs time to have a last meal. 

Julius died after the first electric shock. Ethel’s execution did not go smoothly. After she was given the normal course of three electric shocks, attendants removed the strapping and other equipment only to have doctors determine that Ethel’s heart was still beating. Two more electric shocks were applied, and at the conclusion, eyewitnesses reported that smoke rose from her head. The Rosenbergs were the only two American civilians to be executed for espionage-related activity during the Cold War.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Lily James (30), Mitch Pileggi (67), Jane Asher (73), Agnetha Fältskog (69), Pharrell Williams (46), Robert Downey Jr. (54), Hugo Weaving (59), Natasha Lyonne (40), Cherie Lunghi (67), Xenia Seeberg (51), Amanda Bynes (34), Eddie Murphy (59), Alec Baldwin (62), Paris Jackson (22), Pedro Pascal (45), Michael Fassbender (43), Clark Gregg (58), Penelope Keith (80), Mackenzie Davis (33), Ali MacGraw (81), Michael Praed (60), Ewan McGregor (49), Christopher Walken (77), Rhea Perlman (72), Daniel Mays (42), Richard Chamberlain (86), Robbie Coltrane (70), Warren Beatty (83), Eric Clapton (75), and Céline Dion (52).