Dead Pool 6th September 2015

Welcome all, yet another newsletter in your inboxes! There’s a few big names in the list this week, alas no points to award. ’tis a cruel game indeed!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Wes Craven, 76, American film director, writer and producer (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, The Hills Have Eyes), brain cancer.
• Joy Beverley, 91, British singer (Beverley Sisters), stroke.
• Dean Jones, 84, American actor (The Love Bug, Company, Beethoven), Parkinson’s disease.
• Sir Adrian Cadbury, 86, British businessman and rower, chairman of Cadbury.
• Chandra Bahadur Dangi, 75, Nepalese primordial dwarf, shortest man in recorded history, pneumonia.
• Rico Rodriguez, 80, Cuban-born British trombonist (The Specials).
• Alan Steel, 79, Italian bodybuilder and actor (Samson, The Rebel Gladiators, Hercules Against the Moon Men).

In Other News 

Sue Perkins, the comedian and co-host of The Great British Bake Off on BBC2, has revealed that she has been living with a brain tumour for the past eight years. The broadcaster said the benign growth, which is on her pituitary gland, was found during tests which she underwent as part of another BBC show, Supersizers. Perkins, 45, who is in a relationship with the Channel 4 presenter Anna Richardson, also talked about how the tumour prevented her from having children due to its impact on the secretion of reproductive hormones. “We live in a time and place where we think everything is possible,” she said. “I don’t know if I would have gone on to have children. But as soon as someone says you can’t have something, you want it more than anything,” she said. “I’m lucky that it’s benign so it’s not in itself a worrying thing. Sometimes it’s big and makes me mad, and sometimes it’s small and is in the background. Sometimes it screws up my hormones. I have various tests now to make sure the side effects aren’t too onerous.”

Motorhead cancelled a show on Wednesday after a series of abbreviated performances amid renewed health concerns for the famously hard-living frontman, Lemmy. The English rockers left the stage in Austin, Texas, after playing three songs on Tuesday. The 69-year-old Lemmy told the crowd, “I can’t do it,” according to social media postings. The band, who also cancelled or cut short two other recent shows, said they would not perform a scheduled concert on Wednesday in San Antonio. It said Lemmy was suffering from altitude sickness after a performance in the Rocky Mountains state of Colorado. The 40-year-old metal band have won a loyal fan base for their high-decibel guitar rock and Lemmy’s instantly recognisable gravelly voice. Lemmy, also known for his lambchop sideburns and facial moles, was long synonymous with the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle. He has said he used to drink a bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey every day and that he has slept with more than 1000 women. But Lemmy has faced a series of health concerns including diabetes in recent years, forcing Motörhead to postpone a European tour in 2013. Lemmy has said he has cut down on drinking and quit smoking.

On Saturday evening, Markus Persson – the creator of Minecraft – overshared on Twitter. In a series of rambling and unabashed tweets, the multi-billionaire revealed that selling his independent gaming company Mojang to Microsoft has left him feeling empty inside. Many will undoubtedly scoff at Persson’s sentiments; they will find it difficult to feel sympathy for a man who cashed a $2.5 billion cheque not 12 months ago. But do Persson’s tweets prove that the age-old maxim – money can never really make you happy – is right? Is instant gratification, wealth and success not all we think it’s cracked up to be? If loneliness and depression is the outcome, then I suppose not!

Two-time major winner John Daly is out of hospital after collapsing during a minor tournament in the USA. The American, 49, was checked over by doctors who diagnosed a collapsed lung. He returned to playing less than 24 hours later and, according to the Associated Press, was smoking cigarettes on the clubhouse patio, definitely one to watch for us! Speaking about Saturday’s health scare, Daly said: “I was having a great time and then suddenly – boom – I’m falling down while on the 18th tee.” He added: “The next thing I know I’m in an ambulance. It was scary.” Not that scary, he’s not changed his smoking habits!

South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu has been discharged from hospital after spending more than two weeks receiving treatment for a recurring infection, his foundation has said. The 83-year-old Nobel peace laureate has been in and out of hospital in recent months. He was previously treated for an infection resulting from his prostate cancer treatment. The statement said Mr Tutu has expressed his thanks to staff at the Cape Town hospital. “The love, prayers and good wishes expressed by people around the world had been just as important as the medical attention in aiding the arch’s [Tutu’s] recovery,” his daughter Rev Canon Mpho Tutu said. Let’s see how long he lasts!

On This Day

• 1492 – Christopher Columbus sails from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, his final port of call before crossing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.
• 1522 – The Victoria, the only surviving ship of Ferdinand Magellan‘s expedition, returns to Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the world.
• 1620 – The Pilgrims sail from Plymouth, England, on the Mayflower to settle in North America.
• 1803 – British scientist John Dalton begins using symbols to represent the atoms of different elements.
• 1870 – Louisa Ann Swain of Laramie, Wyoming becomes the first woman in the United States to cast a vote legally after 1807.
• 1992 – Hunters discover the emaciated body of Christopher McCandless at his camp 20 miles (32 km) west of the town of Healy, Alaska.
• 1997 – The Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales takes place in London. Well over a million people lined the streets and 2.5 billion watched around the world on television.

Deaths

• 1998 – Akira Kurosawa, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1910)
• 2007 – Luciano Pavarotti, Italian tenor and actor (b. 1935)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Cameron Diaz (43), Richard Gere (66), Raquel Welch (75), Van Morrison (70), Salma Hayek (49), Michael Keaton (64), Keanu Reeves (51), Beyonce Knowles (34), Charlie Sheen (50), Lily Tomlin (76), Barry Gibb (69), Rose McGowan (42), Jimmy Connors (63), Gloria Estefan (58), Warren Buffett (85), Lennox Lewis (50), and Al Jardine (73).

Next Week peeps!