Dead Pool 6th August 2017

Several prominent names have dropped this week, however no points scored. Rather a lot of juicy news too, in fact it was rather difficult to edit this issue down to the usual size, if only every week was the same!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

  • Jeanne Moreau, 89, French actress (Elevator to the Gallows, The Lovers, Jules and Jim).
  • Jeffrey Brotman, 74, American businessman, co-founder of Costco.
  • Mariann Mayberry, 52, American actress (War of the Worlds, August: Osage County, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), ovarian cancer.
  • Goldy McJohn, 72, Canadian keyboardist (Steppenwolf), heart attack.
  • Robert Hardy, 91, British actor (All Creatures Great and Small, Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years, Harry Potter).
  • Hywel Bennett, 73, Welsh actor (The Virgin Soldiers, Shelley, EastEnders).

In Other News

TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson is being treated for pneumonia after being admitted to  hospital in Majorca. The 57-year-old was on a family holiday on the Spanish island when he was taken ill. He tweeted friend Jemima Goldsmith he was “in a wheelchair, connected up to tubes, in a hospital”, and also posted a picture of himself on Instagram. A spokesman for The Grand Tour confirmed the TV presenter was being treated for pneumonia. Clarkson is the second Grand Tour host to be admitted to hospital this year. Fellow Top Gear alumnus Richard Hammond, 47, was flown to hospital in Switzerland after crashing an electric super car in Switzerland in June. The car, which was being filmed for the latest series of The Grand Tour, burst into flames after Hammond escaped the wreckage. The presenter said he thought he was going to die during the incident, during which he became airborne and crashed after completing the Hemberg Hill Climb in Switzerland. He described the experience as “like being in a tumble dryer full of bricks going down a hill”.

Controversial columnist Katie Hopkins had to be rushed to hospital after being treated by paramedics at a train station. The reality TV star was left in agony after dislocating her shoulder while carrying a suitcase onto the platform. She had to be given emergency gas and air inside Paddington, west London, before being taken to nearby St Mary’s Hospital. Katie’s husband Mark Cross told the Sunday Mirror: “This is a legacy from her years with epilepsy. The staff at St Mary’s were brilliant and managed to get her patched up in a couple of hours.” The ex-Apprentice contestant Katie, 42, was her way to Heathrow to catch a flight to LA where she appeared as a guest speaker at the Politicon conference in Pasadena. Mark added: “I’m pleased to say Katie, although in a great deal of pain and doped-up, still made her flight.” Katie was diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 19 and last year underwent brain surgery but surgeons failed to find her brain.

The Duke of Edinburgh met Royal Marines in his final solo public engagement before he retires from royal duties. The 96-year-old announced his retirement in May, after decades of supporting the Queen as well as attending events for his own charities and organisations. Prince Philip has completed 22,219 solo engagements since 1952. Prime Minister Theresa May took to Twitter to thank him for “a remarkable lifetime of service”. She added that she hoped he “can now enjoy a well-earned retirement”. While his diary of engagements will come to an end, Buckingham Palace has said the duke may still decide to attend certain events alongside the Queen in the future.

Martin Shkreli, the hedge fund manager turned pharmaceutical entrepreneur once dubbed “the most hated man in America”, has been found guilty on three of eight federal charges that he deceived investors in a pair of failed hedge funds. The jury of seven women and five men reached their verdict on the fifth day of deliberations after a month-long federal fraud trial. Shkreli, nicknamed “Pharma Bro” for his wilfully provocative behaviour, faces up to 20 years behind bars on the charges of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Prior to the trial, Shkreli boasted he would be acquitted entirely because he was “so innocent” and jurors would apologise to him. Shkreli also faces a heap of civil lawsuits. Shkreli achieved notoriety in 2015 after the 34-year-old increased the price of a life-saving drug, Daraprim, used by people with Aids, by 5,000% overnight, shortly after his pharmaceutical startup bought the commercial rights to it. Let’s see how long he lasts if he gets put in jail.

On This Day

  • 1890 – At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed by electric chair.
  • 1926 – Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel.
  • 1945 – World War II: Hiroshima, Japan is devastated when the atomic bomb “Little Boy” is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.
  • 1991 – Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW debuts as a publicly available service on the Internet.

Deaths

  • 1623 – Anne Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare (b. 1555)
  • 2005 – Robin Cook, Scottish educator and politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (b. 1946)
  • 2009 – John Hughes, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1950)
  • 2012 – Bernard Lovell, English physicist and astronomer (b. 1913)

Last Week’s Birthdays

M. Night Shyamalan (47), Michelle Yeoh (55), Mark Strong (54), Loni Anderson (72), Lexi Belle (30), Kara Tointon (34), Billy Bob Thornton (62), Barack Obama (56), Evangeline Lilly (38), Martin Sheen (77), John Landis (67), Steven Berkoff (80), Sam Worthington (41), Kevin Smith (47), Edward Furlong (40), Joanna Cassidy (72), Jason Momoa (38), Sam Mendes (52), Michael Biehn (61), Wesley Snipes (55), Dean Cain (51), Emilia Fox (43), J.K. Rowling (52), Christopher Nolan (47), Arnold Schwarzenegger (70), Lisa Kudrow (54), Hilary Swank (43), Laurence Fishburne (56), Jean Reno (69), Richard Linklater (57), Carel Struycken (69), and Frances de la Tour (73).

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