Dead Pool 17th May 2026

Quite a few familiar faces from last week, sadly nobody scored. A few names even missed being called out in the Telegram Group, you lot are slipping!  

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Dennis Rush, 74, American actor (The Andy Griffith Show, Wagon Train). 
• David Burke, 91, British actor (Sherlock Holmes, Reilly, Ace of Spies, The Love School). 
• Günther Maria Halmer, 83, German actor (Sophie’s Choice, Gandhi, Amen.). 
• Donald Gibb, 71, American actor (Revenge of the Nerds, Bloodsport, 1st & Ten), complications from throat cancer. 
• Michael Pennington, 82, English actor (Return of the Jedi, The Iron Lady), co-founder of the English Shakespeare Company and writer.
•  Jack Taylor, 99, American actor (Succubus, Conan the Barbarian, The Ninth Gate). 
• Raymond Eugene Johnson, 52, American convicted murderer, execution by lethal injection.
• Alan Rothwell, 89, English actor (Coronation Street, Brookside, Heartbeat). 
• Jill Curzon, 87, English actress (Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., Hugh and I). 
• Albert Beckles, 95, Barbadian-born British bodybuilder. 
• Dennis Locorriere, 76, American singer and guitarist (Dr. Hook), kidney disease. 

In Other News

The Hoff is falling apart, but don’t count him out just yet. The man who once ran in slow motion across Baywatch’s beaches is now navigating parking lots with a walker, spotted shuffling through West Hills, Los Angeles with wife Hayley Roberts. His people were quick to reassure everyone that he’s “doing well and feeling good”, which is exactly what you say when you’re 73 and have just had both your knee AND hip replaced. This isn’t his first mobility-related media moment either. Back in May 2025, airport staff were wheeling him through LAX after a Cancun holiday, at which point he cheerfully informed waiting paparazzi that he had knee surgery booked for the following week. Ever the showman, he reportedly flashed a thumbs-up and a grin from the wheelchair. The Hoff does not do undignified. The tabloids, naturally, have been less charitable. Unnamed “insiders” are lining up to declare that decades of hard living are “finally catching up with him,” that he’s “living on borrowed time,” and that his body is basically held together with surgical staples and optimism. Apparently he even has a defibrillator fitted. To top it all off, 2025 was already a rough year before the joint replacements kicked in; his ex-wife Pamela Bach tragically passed away in March. He’s patched up, in physio, and apparently in good spirits. The Hoff has survived Knight Rider, Baywatch, a very public battle with alcohol, and whatever the German pop music scene did to him. A hip replacement isn’t taking him down anytime soon, probably… 

Ray J says his days are numbered — and the number he’s citing is 2027. “Just almost died!! I’m alive because of your prayers and support!!” the singer wrote in an Instagram caption posted Sunday. “I wanna thank everyone for praying for me. I was in the hospital,” he said in the accompanying video. “My heart is only beating like 25%, but as long as I stay focused and stay on the right path, then everything will be all right, so thank you for all your prayers.” It was a different story in another livestream, however, captured in clips on the @Livebitez Instagram page. “2027 is definitely a wrap for me,” the 45-year-old, real name William Ray Norwood Jr., said in one video posted Tuesday, making a “cut off” motion across his neck. “No, don’t say that, brother,” a friend says off camera. “That’s what the doctor says,” Ray J replied meekly, then seemingly grew frustrated as his friend talked loudly over him and insisted he was going to live long enough to see his children’s children. In the next clip, the singer says, “It don’t matter if my days are counted. But guess what — my baby mama gonna be straight. My kids are gonna be straight. If they want to spend all the money they can spend it, but I did my part here.” Then he looks up and tells his friend, “I shouldn’t have went this hard, bro. I shouldn’t have went hard. And then, when it’s all done, burn me, don’t bury me.” In clips assembled on the next Livebitez post, Ray J admits heavy alcohol and drug use and says that messed up his heart “on the right side, here, it’s like, black. It’s like done.” He said he might go to Haiti to “do some voodoo” because he thinks “they got the cure.” He also said he thought he was “bigger” and “had more weight” to put up against the onslaught of substances. “I thought I could handle all the alcohol, I could handle all the Adderall.” Cut to the next clip where he says he thought he “could handle all the drugs, but I couldn’t. … And it curbed my time here.” The R&B singer was hospitalised in early January in Las Vegas, sidelined by heart pain and pneumonia, according to the Flying Monkeys. Four years ago, he battled pneumonia as well.  

It was supposed to be a feel-good moment. A chance for long-time American Idol fans to see one of the show’s most beloved original judges back where he belonged. Instead, within hours of the episode airing, fan concern about Randy Jackson’s health had spread across social media. Jackson, 69, sat in a chair throughout the mentoring sessions, speaking with the remaining contestants as they prepared for their live performances. Viewers described him as frail and soft-spoken, moving more slowly than in previous appearances, with a voice some called hoarse. He did not stand up during the sessions. To be fair, Randy Jackson’s body has been through a lot. He was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2002 and underwent gastric bypass surgery in 2003, losing more than 100 pounds. Then came spinal surgery in 2019 for a back injury. Decades of diabetes management, neuropathy, and the long-term effects of bariatric surgery. The man has been quietly fighting a whole series of battles while the rest of us were just watching him say “dawg” on television. His team has offered no statement. No new diagnosis has been announced. Jackson has not announced any new illness and says he remains focused on managing his health. One UCLA bariatric surgeon offered a more measured take: “Fifteen to twenty years post-bypass, muscle mass naturally declines with age. That can look like frailty.” In other words, this might just be a 69-year-old man who has had a lot of surgeries, sitting down because sitting down is comfortable, and the internet catastrophising accordingly. 

On This Day

• 1902 – Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer.
• 1990 – The General Assembly of the World Health Organisation (WHO) eliminates homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases. 
• 1995 – Shawn Nelson steals an M60 tank from the California Army National Guard Armoury in San Diego and proceeds to go on a rampage.

Deaths

• 1922 – Dorothy Levitt, English racing driver and journalist (born 1882).
• 2012 – Donna Summer, American singer-songwriter (born 1948). 
• 2022 – Vangelis, Greek musician, composer (born 1943).

Last Meals

Raymond Eugene Johnson was an American convicted murderer who killed his ex-girlfriend and her infant daughter in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2007, shortly after being paroled from a previous manslaughter conviction in 1995. For the latter crimes, Johnson was sentenced to death. 

On September 11th 1995, the 21-year-old Johnson was in the company of 25-year-old Clarence Ray Oliver in Oklahoma City when the pair got into an argument. In the ensuing scuffle, Johnson pulled out a gun and threatened to shoot Oliver, who got into his car and attempted to drive away, and was then shot through the passenger side window. The car crashed into a nearby ditch, where it was found the following day.

About two weeks later, Johnson was questioned by detectives regarding the killing and was soon arrested for the murder. In the ensuing trial, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. 

After being paroled in 2005, Johnson moved to Tulsa, where he entered a relationship with a woman named Brooke Whitaker, a mother of four children. Their relationship quickly deteriorated as Johnson became physically abusive, stalked her, and even threatened to kill her on more than ten occasions. Due to this, she eventually filed a restraining order against him in April 2007, but the order was dropped the following month when neither party attended a court hearing scheduled for May 21st.

On June 23rd, Johnson went to Whitaker’s home, where he brutally beat her with a hammer, almost to the point of cracking her skull. He then doused her in gasoline, lit her on fire, and fled. Whitaker suffered severe burns, and her 7-month-old daughter, Kya, burned to death. Firefighters brought Whitaker to Hillcrest Medical Center, where she died of her injuries. Shortly after the discovery of the crime, an arrest warrant was issued for Johnson. He was arrested later that same day in Coweta and extradited to Tulsa, where he was charged with  two counts of first-degree murder and one count of arson. According to the arrest report submitted by the Tulsa Police Department, Johnson admitted to both slayings. 

Jury selection for Johnson’s trial took place in June 2009, with prosecutors announcing that they would seek the death penalty against him. Not long after, Johnson was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to death for each of the murder charges and to life imprisonment on the arson charge. He did not offer a statement after the verdict, and the verdict itself was welcomed by the victims’ family members.

Following his incarceration on death row, all of Johnson’s appeals were rejected by the respective courts. His final appeal was denied by the Supreme Court in November 2019, allowing for an execution date to be set. 

On May 14th 2026, Johnson was executed by lethal injection and was pronounced dead at 10:12 a.m. CDT. Johnson’s last meal consisted of chicken, a pint of gizzards, and fried pickles with hot sauce and ranch dressing. In his final statement, Johnson apologised to the victims family and asked for forgiveness stating he “hopes people can speak their names without his name attached to it”. 

Last Week’s Birthdays

Paul Whitehouse (68), Pierce Brosnan (73), Megan Fox (40), Thomas Brodie-Sangster (36), David Boreanaz (57), Danny Trejo (82), Debra Winger (71), Stephen Mangan (58), Tim Roth (65), Cate Blanchett (57), Francesca Annis (81), Danny Huston (64), George Lucas (82),  Siân Phillips (93), Greg Davies (58), Martine McCutcheon (50), Bonnie Blue (27), Robert Pattinson (40), Harvey Keitel (87), Samantha Morton (49), Stephen Colbert (62), Iwan Rheon (41), Zoë Wanamaker (78), Mark Heap (69), Rami Malek (45), Malin Akerman (48), Rhea Seehorn (54), Domhnall Gleeson (43), Emilio Estevez (64), Gabriel Byrne (76), Ving Rhames (67), Jason Biggs (48), Jeffrey Donovan (58), Coby Bell (51), Tim Blake Nelson (62),  and Holly Valance (43).