Dead Pool 1st December 2024

I was all ready to award some points following our Telegram group revelation that the worlds oldest mad had died, alas nobody had him listed! 38+ points gone wasted!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

Chuck Woolery, 83, American game show host (Wheel of Fortune, Love Connection).
Barbara Taylor Bradford, 91, British-American novelist (A Woman of Substance, Hold the Dream).
Earl Holliman, 96, American actor (Police Woman, The Rainmaker, The Twilight Zone).
John Tinniswood, 112, English supercentenarian, world’s oldest man.
Jim Abrahams, 80, American film director and screenwriter (Airplane!, The Naked Gun, Hot Shots!), leukaemia.
Bob Bryar, 44, American drummer (My Chemical Romance).

In Other News

Dolph Lundgren has confirmed that he is cancer-free after previously being told he only had a few years to live by doctors. The Swedish actor, 67, has been in a nine-year battle with lung cancer but confirmed on Wednesday that he was cancer-free. The star, best known as Soviet boxer Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, filmed from his hospital bed and told fans that he was undergoing a lung ablation. The procedure is minimally invasive and targets cancer cells with heat or cold, without surgery. In the video, he told his Instagram followers: ‘Here I am at UCLA, I’m about to go in and get rid of that last tumour,’ he said. ‘Since there are no cancer cells in my body anymore, I guess I’ll be cancer-free, so I’m looking forward to this procedure. It’s been a rough ride and really taught me how to live in the moment and enjoy every moment of life. I mean, it’s the only way to go.’ He captioned the video: ‘Health update – finally cancer free with gratefulness and excitement for a bright future. Thanks for all your support always. ’ In 2023, the actor revealed he had been privately battling cancer. Dolph was first diagnosed in 2015 but it was in 2021 – when a ‘lemon-sized’ tumour was found in his liver – that he was told he wouldn’t live longer than a few more years. During an interview on In Depth With Graham Bensinger, Dolph revealed: ‘‘The doctor kind of started talking about all these different tumours, like, in the lung and the stomach and the spine, outside the kidneys. I asked him, “How long do you think I’ve got left?” I think he said two or three years, but I could tell in his voice that he probably thought it was less. I thought it was it, for sure.’

Veteran stage actor Julien Arnold died suddenly on Sunday, November 24th, midway through a performance of A Christmas Carol, after experiencing a medical emergency. He passed after collapsing onstage during an evening performance of the stage production at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, according to the theatre. The cause of death has not been announced. The Flying Monkeys reported that he died at the theatre “despite resuscitation attempts” from paramedics, according to a spokesperson for Alberta Health Services. He was 60, the Edmonton Journal reported. The theatre announced Arnold’s death in a statement on Instagram. “It is with heavy hearts we share the news of the sudden passing of Julien Arnold, a beloved actor and dear friend of the Citadel Theatre. A cherished member of the Edmonton theatre community, Julien was a gifted performer whose charisma and talent graced our stage in countless productions, including A Christmas Carol. Julien’s passing is a profound loss to his family, friends, fellow Carol company members, Citadel staff, and the Edmonton community he loved so dearly. His presence brought joy, heart and depth to every role, and his artistic contributions – and big hugs – will be deeply missed.” The theatre said that the remaining performances of A Christmas Carol will be dedicated to the actor, who also performed in productions of The Wizard of Oz, Beauty and the Beast, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Once.

Dame Esther Rantzen told the Flying Monkeys that she is “determined” to live to see the next stage of the assisted dying bill after MPs voted in favour of it on Friday. In a historic step towards backing the right for adults with less than six months to live to choose to end their own lives, a total of 330 MPs voted for the bill and 275 voted against. Speaking in the minutes after the result of the vote was read out in the House of Commons, Dame Esther’s daughter, Rebecca Wilcox, spoke to her mother on the phone. When asked if she had heard the news, Dame Esther replied: “I certainly did, my goodness me, was that thrilling.” On having to see the bill through the next stage in parliament, she said: “I’ve got to stay alive a bit longer, haven’t I?! It’s quite a responsibility. It is a very important next stage, and I’m sure it will be taken through very very carefully because some of the best judicial minds, medical minds and political minds will make sure every detail is right.” The 84-year-old broadcaster, who is terminally ill, has been a strong advocate for changing the law to allow dying adults to take their own lives in limited circumstances, without fear of their families being prosecuted for helping them. She revealed in December last year that she had joined Dignitas, to give her the choice of an assisted death in Switzerland. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was among those to vote in favour, along with the majority of his Cabinet, as well as former PM Rishi Sunak who was one of only 23 Tories to do so.

On This Day

1919 – Lady Astor becomes the first female Member of Parliament (MP) to take her seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
1952 – The New York Daily News reports the news of Christine Jorgensen, the first notable case of sex reassignment surgery.
1955 – American Civil Rights Movement: In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city’s racial segregation laws, an incident which leads to that city’s bus boycott.
1958 – The Our Lady of the Angels School fire in Chicago kills 92 children and three nuns. God remains silent…
1990 – Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet beneath the seabed.
2019 – The outbreak of coronavirus infection began in Wuhan.
2020 – The Arecibo Telescope collapsed.