The Dead Pool Review of the Year 2017

January

The year began with veteran actor John Hurt signing off at the age of 77, TV star Mary Tyler Moore saying goodbye aged 80 and Bollywood actor Om Puri leaving us too soon at the age of 66.

We also bid farewell to the art critic John Berger, ‘Allo ‘Allo star Gorden Kaye, British singer-songwriter Peter Sarstedt, Exorcist author William Peter Blatty and French actress Emmanuelle Riva. We also lost Graham Taylor, ex-England football manager, Lord Snowdon, Princess Margaret’s former husband  and John Wetton, Derbyshire-born singer-songwriter with Asia and King Crimson and American actor Miguel Ferrer.

February

The year’s shortest month saw Battlestar Galactica star Richard Hatch die at 71, jazz crooner Al Jarreau silenced at 76 and Aliens star Bill Paxton die suddenly at the age of 61.

We also saw stage actor Alec McCowen and Twin Peaks actor Warren Frost bow out, both at 91, and The Archers’ Sara Coward, Japanese manga artist Jiro Taniguchi and pop star turned priest Peter Skellern all die at 69.

We also lost Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, socialite and television presenter and Sir Ken Morrison, president of Morrisons and South African rugby union player Joost van der Westhuizen.

March 

The third month of 2017 brought the deaths of rock and roll legend Chuck Berry, Inspector Morse creator Colin Dexter and Caribbean poet Derek Walcott.

Others to leave us included British artist Howard Hodgkin, Sister Sledge singer Joni Sledge, novelist and playwright David Storey, and Robert James Waller, the American novelist best known for The Bridges of Madison County.

Also we lost John Surtees, the only man to win the Formula One and motorcycle Grand Prix titles and Ronnie Moran, former Liverpool captain and caretaker boss, the Northern Irish PIRA commander and ‘politician’ Martin McGuinness and American banker David Rockefeller.

April

TS Eliot called April the cruellest month, something with which fans of Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme, Happy Days star Erin Moran and British actor Tim Pigott-Smith are sure to agree.

James Bond actor Clifton James, broadcaster Brian Matthew, US comedian Don Rickles and Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko also took their leave in April aged 96, 90 and 84 respectively.

May

Among those who left us in May were imposing US actor Powers Boothe, Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell and Sir Roger Moore, the much-loved star of seven James Bond films.

Rock and roll trailblazer Gregg Allman, Blue Peter presenter John Noakes, Catweazle actor Geoffrey Bayldon, Darling Buds of May star Moray Watson, Italian DJ Roberto Concina – better known as Robert Miles – and actor Michael Parks, a favourite of Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith, also died this month. We finally got rid of Ian Brady too! Yay!

June 

In the month Britain went to the polls, we sadly lost Paddington creator Michael Bond, US actress Glenne Headly and Last of the Summer Wine actor Peter Sallis.

Others to die in June included Coronation Street’s Roy Barraclough, Rocky director John G Avildsen, film critic Barry Norman, Animal House star Stephen Furst, Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist, model/actress Anita Pallenberg, classical conductor Jeffrey Tate and Adam West of TV Batman fame. We also lost Brian Cant, actor and presenter of Play School and Cheick Tiote, ex-Newcastle United footballer at the young age of 30. We also said goodbye to the German politician Helmut Kohl.

July

The suicide of Linkin Park lead singer Chester Bennington cast a tragic pall over a month that also saw the deaths of legendary French actress Jeanne Moreau and the American playwright and actor Sam Shepard.

Others to bow out in July included True Blood star Nelsan Ellis, Home Alone actor John Heard, Ed Wood Oscar-winner Martin Landau, children’s TV star Carol Lee Scott, former Doctor Who companion Deborah Watling and zombie maestro George A Romero. We also lost Hywel Bennett, the actor who starred in TV show Shelley at the age of 73. With a cackle and a swish of her besom, off went Grotbags actress Carol Lee Scott too.

August

Three show business legends left us in August – country singer Glen Campbell, entertainer Bruce Forsyth and comedy star Jerry Lewis – at the ages of 81, 89 and 91 respectively.

We also bid a fond farewell to science-fiction author Brian Aldiss, US comedian Dick Gregory, All Creatures Great and Small actor Robert Hardy and the horror director Tobe Hooper. American bodybuilder Richard Piana’s body finally gave up on him and we said nothing as Predator actor Sonny Landham quietly walked back into the jungle.

September 

Coronation Street actress Liz Dawn, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and the actor Harry Dean Stanton, of Alien and Repo Man fame, were among the dearly departed this month.

Others to take their leave included Steely Dan co-founder Walter Becker, theatrical giant Peter Hall, quiz show host William G Stewart, The Ginger Man author JP Donleavy, Scorsese regular Frank Vincent and country singer Don Williams. We also lost Jake LaMotta, world middleweight boxing champion and inspiration for the film Raging Bull and Tony Booth, actor who played Mike Rawlins in the BBC sitcom Till Death Us Do Part .

October

Ain’t That A Shame? That’s what many people thought in October when they learned that rock and roll singer Fats Domino, Benson actor Robert Guillaume and musician Tom Petty had left us.

The Irish comedian Sean Hughes, French screen star Danielle Darrieux , British actress Rosemary Leach, Guernsey-born character actor Roy Dotrice and AC/DC producer George Young were among others to die this month.

November

The music world was hit hard in November by the deaths of Partridge Family star David Cassidy, 21-year-old rapper Lil Peep and AC/DC’s Malcolm Young, who passed away less than a month on from his brother George.

Others to depart included Magnum PI actor John Hillerman, The Likely Lads star Rodney Bewes, Duty Free actor Keith Barron, Scooby-Doo voice performer Heather North and the Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky. We also lost Antonio Carluccio, Italian TV chef and founder of the Carluccio’s chain of restaurants. American criminal  and cult leader Charles Manson finally got what he deserved as well.

December

As the year drew to a close, we said goodbye to bubbly TV presenter and Twitter cunt Keith Chegwin, France’s biggest rock star Johnny Hallyday and Bollywood veteran Shashi Kapoor.

We also lost Heather Menzies-Urich, the actress who played Louisa Von Trapp in The Sound of Music; Leon Bernicoff, one of the regulars on Channel 4’s Gogglebox; and British actor Alfie Curtis, whose Dr Evazan character memorably threatened Luke Skywalker in the first Star Wars film. We also lost Christine Keeler, model and showgirl who was at the centre of the “Profumo Affair” in the 1960’s, Max Clifford, disgraced celebrity publicist and Heinz Wolff, scientist and presenter of The Great Egg Race.