Dead Pool 23rd March 2025

A surprisingly pointless week, I thought some of you had George Foreman listed, but alas nobody did.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

Wings Hauser, 77, American actor (Tough Guys Don’t Dance, The Siege of Firebase Gloria, Vice Squad).
Émilie Dequenne, 43, Belgian actress (Rosetta, Our Children, Not My Type), adrenocortical carcinoma.
Jack Lilley, 91, American actor (Little House on the Prairie) and stuntman.
Oleg Gordievsky, 86, Russian-British double agent.
Eddie James, 63, American convicted murderer and rapist, execution by lethal injection.
Eddie Jordan, 76, Irish Formula One team owner (Jordan Grand Prix), prostate and bladder cancer.
George Foreman, 76, American boxer (The Rumble in the Jungle), Olympic champion (1968) and businessman (George Foreman Grill).
Andy Peebles, 76, British radio DJ, television presenter and cricket commentator.

In Other News

Frank Bruno is recovering after falling ill while on a plane and being rushed to hospital. The 63-year-old former world heavyweight champion spent nearly two weeks in a hospital in Doha, Qatar after becoming unwell on a flight that took off from Heathrow on March 3rd, according to the Flying Monkeys, he’s contracted a viral infection. A post from Bruno on Twitter included a picture showing him smiling, while sat on a plane. That was accompanied by the message: “Morning so the Frank Bruno World tour continues up early for a plane I don’t sleep well on planes but trying to catch up on some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz’s.” Bruno’s manager Dave Davies explained: “Frank was flying out to work in Thailand when he was taken ill on the plane at Doha. Medical crew attended Frank on the plane and at hospital. He’s now recovering and hopes to be back at work as soon as possible.” Bruno, who was accompanied by his PA Paul Hunter, is said to have fallen ill shortly after the flight took off and after initially suspecting food poisoning, they realised it was something more serious. A source said to the Flying Monkeys: “Frank was fine when he boarded the plane – but quickly went downhill during the flight. He was in a really bad way and they were unsure what the problem was. Frank was in a bad way and was sweating profusely and had fever-like symptoms. Paul was worried but was doing his best to keep him calm. He was treated on the flight at Doha, in the airport and then at the hospital. Doctors were really worried and carried out all sorts of tests, including for meningitis. They then diagnosed him with a viral infection, which at least meant they could start treating him.” An ‘Evening with Frank Bruno’ event that was scheduled for this Sunday in Manchester has been postponed.

Bulgarian club Arda Kardzhali have apologised for holding a minute’s silence for a former player who is still alive. Petko Ganchev was mourned ahead of Sunday’s 1-1 league draw with Levski Sofia, with both teams lining up on the centre circle and bowing their heads. However, the club then announced it had been misinformed in a Facebook post shared before the top-flight match finished. “The management of PFC Arda would like to express a huge apology to the former Arda player Petko Ganchev and his relatives after the club received wrong information about his death,” read the statement. “We wish Petko Ganchev many more years of good health and to enjoy the success of Arda.”

The last surviving Battle of Britain pilot John ‘Paddy’ Hemingway has died, aged 105. The Royal Air Force said he passed away peacefully on Monday. Paddy Hemingway – one of “The Few” and a revered figure in British aviation history – played a key role in defending the skies over the United Kingdom against the Nazis in the summer of 1940, when he was just 19. “The Few” refers to a speech by Sir Winston Churchill in the House of Commons in August that year as the Battle of Britain reached its peak. Praising the efforts of RAF fighter pilots, the wartime prime minister said that “never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”. In an online tribute, the RAF said Mr Hemingway’s squadron shot down 90 enemy aircraft during an 11-day period in May 1940. In August, he was twice forced to bail out of his Hurricane fighter plane – and the following year, he broke his hand in another bailing out, this time at 600ft after his plane’s instruments failed in bad weather. His parachute failed to open properly – but luckily it caught on the branches of a tree, sparing him further injury. Near the end of World War Two, while serving in the Mediterranean, he was forced to bail out a fourth time near Ravenna in Italy after his Spitfire was hit multiple times by anti-aircraft fire. Dropping into enemy territory, he contacted Italian partisans, who helped him return to his squadron. Mr Hemingway never saw his role in the Battle of Britain as anything other than doing the job he was trained to do, the RAF said. The force described him as always having a “twinkle in his eyes as he recalled the fun times with colleagues in France and London – his courage in the face of overwhelming odds demonstrated his sense of duty and the importance of British resilience”. Mr Hemingway, the RAF said, was a “quiet, composed, thoughtful and mischievous individual” who “embodied the spirit of all those who flew sorties over this green and pleasant land”. In July 1941, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and in September of that year, he was Mentioned in Dispatches.

On This Day

1801 – Tsar Paul I of Russia is struck with a sword, then strangled, and finally trampled to death inside his bedroom at St. Michael’s Castle.
2014 – The World Health Organisation reports cases of Ebola in the forested rural region of southeastern Guinea, marking the beginning of the largest Ebola outbreak in history.
2020 – Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the United Kingdom into its first national lockdown in response to COVID-19.

Deaths

1964 – Peter Lorre, American actor (b. 1904).
2011 – Elizabeth Taylor, American-British actress, socialite and humanitarian (b. 1932).
2021 – George Segal, American actor (b. 1934).

Last Week’s Birthdays

Michelle Monaghan (49), Amanda Plummer (68), Joanna Page (48), Reese Witherspoon (49), Matthew Modine (66), William Shatner (94), Lena Olin (70), Carter Wong (78), Gary Oldman (67), Rosie O’Donnell (63), Timothy Dalton (79)), Matthew Broderick (63), Sonequa Martin-Green (40), Holly Hunter (67), Ruby Rose (39), David Thewlis (62), Freema Agyeman (46), John de Lancie (77), Theresa Russell (68), Bruce Willis (70), Glenn Close (78), Ursula Andress (89), Harvey Weinstein (73), Brad Dourif (75), Queen Latifah (55), Kurt Russell (74), Rob Lowe (61), Morfydd Clark (36), Gary Sinise (70), John Boyega (33), and Patrick Duffy (76).