Who? Yes, that’s how it is this week. A lack of celebrity deaths has brought us down to a German voice actor and a civil servant! Let’s hope this cold weather gives us a good pool next week!    

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Chris Martin, 42, British civil servant, Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister (since 2012), cancer.
• Norbert Gastell, 86, German actor and voice actor (Homer Simpson).
• Gerry Byrne, 77, English footballer (Liverpool and national team), Alzheimer’s disease.

In Other News

The ongoing saga of Casey Kasem’s life and death is still in the news. Three of  Kasem’s children and his brother have sued the late star’s widow for wrongful death in the latest move in a bitter family feud. The lawsuit accuses Jean Kasem of elder abuse and inflicting emotional distress on Kasem’s children by restricting their access to him before his death. They claim she abused him before he died, moved him from Santa Monica to Washington without telling them and, after his death, had him buried in an unmarked grave in Norway despite his wishes to be laid to rest in Los Angeles. “What she did to my father is reprehensible,” daughter Kerri Kasem said. “It’s disgusting. It’s horrific.” She added that the family members were taking legal action after US prosecutors decided not to bring criminal charges against her. Kerri has taken out the lawsuit with siblings Julie and Michael Kasem and their uncle Mouner. They are seeking damages of $250,000 (£166,000). But Kerri said: “We would rather see her in jail than receive one dime. We don’t care about the money. We care about justice.” Casey Kasem began his career in the 1950s and found fame with the chart programme in the 1970s. He was also the voice of Shaggy in the TV animation Scooby Doo.

St Louis Rams wide receiver Stedman Bailey is in  critical but stable condition after being shot in the head on Tuesday night, according to multiple reports in the media. The Rams said in a statement they were “aware Stedman Bailey was involved in an incident” in Miami Gardens late on Tuesday and that they had spoken with him. Police did not describe the nature of Bailey’s injuries, but a source confirmed that he was shot twice in the head while travelling in a car. Bailey, 25, was scheduled to undergo surgery Wednesday at the Aventura Hospital Trauma Center. A Rams source said the team believes Bailey’s injuries are not life-threatening.

Idris Elba has revealed how he almost died while shooting a film in Ghana, when he slipped behind a waterfall over a 30-metre drop. The 43-year-old actor admitted he had a lucky escape when his foot slipped off a rock and the branch he held on to snapped. Recalling the incident while filming the Netflix film Beasts of No Nation, in which he plays the warlord Commandant, Elba told The Jonathan Ross Show: “I nearly died … We decided to do this waterfall scene where all these child soldiers were walking behind this massive waterfall. “Cary Fukunaga, the director, decided to shoot it for real. We went to this waterfall and in this scene my character is standing there watching all the child soldiers go past. Now in the setup of that, the stunt co-ordinator says, ‘Listen everyone, this is a waterfall, that’s a 90, 100ft drop down there and the ground is very slippery, just be careful!’ “I put my foot on this rock just to hang out and chill out while they were setting up and as I’m doing that it’s slippery, obviously. I slip … I put my hand on this tree – it’s not a tree, it’s a branch. It snaps and I go literally about six feet before I go bang over and I got caught by the security guy.” So, he slipped next to a waterfall, talk about being overdramatic!

On This Day

• 1781 – The crew of the British slave ship Zong murders 133 Africans by dumping them into the sea to claim insurance.
• 1877 – Thomas Edison demonstrates his phonograph for the first time.
• 1972 – Atari announces the release of Pong, the first commercially successful video game.

Deaths

• 1530 – Thomas Wolsey, English cardinal (b. 1470)
• 1924 – Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer (b. 1858)
• 1975 – Graham Hill, English race car driver (b. 1929)
• 1981 – Natalie Wood, American actress and singer (b. 1938)
• 1986 – Cary Grant, English-American actor and singer (b. 1904)
• 1991 – Ralph Bellamy, American actor and singer (b. 1904)
• 1998 – Giant Haystacks, English wrestler (b. 1947)
• 2001 – George Harrison, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (The Beatles) (b. 1943)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Scarlett Johannson (31), Jon Stewart (53), Christina Applegate (44), Ed Harris (65), Tina Turner (76), Randy Newman (72), Miley Cyrus (23), Mark Ruffalo (48), Jamie Lee Curtis (57), Judd Nelson (56), Sarah Hyland (25), Rita Ora (25), Robin Givens (51), Billie Jean King (72), Bill Nye (60), Natasha Bedingfield (34), Peter Facinelli (42), Bruno Tonioli (60), Zoe Ball (45), Kelly Brook (36), Boris Becker (48) and Terry Gilliam (75).

Next week peeps!

Afternoon all, welcome to this weeks Dead Pool roundup in which we sadly report the shocking death of Jonah Lomu at the too young age of 40!! Although this week in history seemed unbelievably busy for deaths, none of us managed to score a point, and yet the looming end of year results are fast coming upon us! It’s almost time for me to start badgering you to begin researching your lists for 2016, as some of you newcomers have noticed, scratching the surface of celebrity does not cut the mustard. Anyhow, less procrastination, we have a busy newsletter for you!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Saeed Jaffrey, 86, Indian-born British actor (The Man Who Would Be King, Shatranj Ke Khilari, My Beautiful Laundrette).
• Vincent Margera, 59, American reality television personality (Viva La Bam, Jackass, CKY), kidney and liver failure.
• Cynthia Payne, 82, British brothel keeper.
• Michael C. Gross, 70, American graphic designer and producer (Ghostbusters, Heavy Metal, Beethoven), cancer.
• Jonah Lomu, 40, New Zealand rugby union player (All Blacks).
• Peter Dimmock, 94, British broadcaster (Sportsview).

In Other News

Former Liverpool and Rangers manager Graeme Souness has been taken to hospital in Bournemouth, but no details of the 62-year-old’s condition have been made available as of yet. Since leaving his last job in football as manager of Newcastle in 2006, Souness has worked in the media, most notably as a pundit for Sky Sports. His colleague Jeff Stelling opened the station’s Soccer Saturday broadcast by saying: “Souey, if you’re watching, get well very quickly.” He had a triple heart bypass operation in 1992, when he was 38, so one can assume that his Scottish hereditary love for deep fried pizza might have caught up with him.

Actress Kim Cattrall has pulled out of a play at London’s  Royal Court Theatre, less than a week before opening night on doctors’ orders. The Sex and the City star was due to play the lead role in a new play called Linda, by Penelope Skinner. n a statement, Cattrall said “with great sadness and at the advice of my doctors” she would not be able to continue with the production. The star, 59, thanked the theatre “for allowing me to put my health first”. Royal Court artistic director, Vicky Featherstone, said the theatre was “deeply sorry that Kim is unable to continue with the production”. Again, no real details on what is occurring, so we’ll just have to make up a story next week.

Sir Bruce Forsyth is back at home after undergoing successful keyhole surgery. The former Strictly Come Dancing host underwent a procedure on an abdominal aortic aneurysm last Thursday. “It is anticipated, given the minimally invasive nature of this operation, he will make a speedy recovery,” his manager said. The 87-year-old’s condition was discovered after he had extensive medical checks following a recent fall. “It is not connected in any way with the fall itself from which Sir Bruce has made a full recovery – indeed, he recorded Strictly Come Dancing’s Children In Need Special with Tess Daly, which aired last Friday,” his manager added. Sadly, the surgery is not expected to prevent the veteran entertainer from fronting the show’s upcoming festive edition.

Charlie Sheen has disclosed that he is HIV positive, in a television interview that followed weeks of speculation about his condition. “I am here to admit that I am in fact HIV positive and I have to put a stop to this onslaught, this barrage of attacks, of sub-truths – very harmful … stories that are threatening the health of so many others,” the actor told NBC’s Today show on Tuesday. He said he had learned about the diagnosis “roughly four years ago”, adding: “It’s a hard three letters to absorb.” Asked whether he had transmitted HIV to anyone since his diagnosis, Sheen said: “Impossible.” He also said he was “not entirely” aware of how he contracted the virus. Sheen’s doctor, Robert Huizenga, told the program the actor did not have Aids, yet. Sheen claimed that people who knew his HIV-positive status had extorted money from him to keep it a secret. And the Hollywood star said he would stop paying them now that his HIV status was public, adding: “I release myself from this prison today.”

Tony McCoy, who retired from race-riding earlier this year after 20 consecutive seasons as National Hunt’s champion jockey, escaped unhurt on Wednesday morning after the car he was driving was involved in a pile-up that closed the M4 motorway. McCoy was travelling east between junctions 14 and 15 of the M4 when a van and a car collided immediately in front of him. The van overturned, and all three lanes of the eastbound carriageway and one lane westbound were then closed as emergency services attended the scene and police cleared wreckage. “I’m fine and so is the other person in the car,” McCoy told the Racing Post on Wednesday evening. “We were involved in an accident on the M4 between junctions 14 and 15. A van and a car collided in front of us and I ended up with nowhere to go as a result. Fortunately, nobody was injured but all the vehicles were badly damaged.” However, the crash resulted in your Dead Pool Master being 10 minutes late for work, the bastard!

And finally, Argentina football legend Diego Maradona has had a second gastric bypass operation after his doctor warned that the 55-year-old fat bastard is 75kgs (11st 11lbs) over his ideal weight. Maradona had his first gastric bypass 10 years ago but has since gained weight and developed complications. “He told me he was feeling fine, that he wasn’t in any pain,” said Dr Carlos Felipe Chaux after the procedure. Maradona had surgery in the Venezuelan city of Maracaibo. He will stay in the city for at least eight days before travelling to capital Caracas to complete his recovery.

On This Day

• 1718 – Off the coast of North Carolina, British pirate Edward Teach (best known as “Blackbeard“) is killed in battle with a boarding party led by Royal Navy Lieutenant Robert Maynard.
• 1869 – In Dumbarton, Scotland, the clipper Cutty Sark is launched and is one of the last clippers ever built, and the only one still surviving today.
• 1963 – In Dallas, Texas, US President John F. Kennedy is assassinated and Texas Governor John Connally is seriously wounded.
• 1977 – British Airways inaugurates a regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service.
• 1986 – Mike Tyson defeats Trevor Berbick to become youngest Heavyweight champion in boxing history.
• 1990 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher withdraws from the Conservative Party leadership election, confirming the end of her premiership.
• 1995 – Toy Story is released as the first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery.
• 2005 – Angela Merkel becomes the first female Chancellor of Germany.

Deaths

• 1718 – Blackbeard, English pirate (b. 1680)
• 1963 – Aldous Huxley, English-American author and screenwriter (b. 1894)
• 1963 – John F. Kennedy, American lieutenant and politician, 35th President of the United States (b. 1917)
• 1963 – C. S. Lewis, Irish-English author, poet, and critic (b. 1898)
• 1980 – Mae West, American actress, singer, and screenwriter (b. 1893)
• 1986 – Scatman Crothers, American actor, singer, and dancer (b. 1910)
• 1992 – Sterling Holloway, American actor and singer (b. 1905)
• 1993 – Anthony Burgess, English author, playwright, and composer (b. 1917)
• 1996 – Mark Lenard, American actor (b. 1924)
• 1997 – Michael Hutchence, Australian singer-songwriter and actor (INXS and Max Q) (b. 1960)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Anni-Frid Lyngstad (70), Chad Kroeger (41), Beverley D’Angelo (64), Martha Plimpton (45), Maggie Gyllenhaal (38), Missi Pyle (43), Martin Scorcese (73), Lorne Michaels (71), Danny DeVito (71), Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (57), RuPaul (55), Sophie Marceau (49), Rachel McAdams (37), Linda Evans (73), Kim Wilde (55), Owen Wilson (47), Larry King (82), Meg Ryan (54), Jodie Foster (53), Bo Derek (59), Sean Young (56), Ming-Na Wen (52), Goldie Hawn (70), Bjork (50), and Carly Rae Jepsen (30).

Next week peeps!

What a week! The flying monkeys have certainly been busy. Lets begin by dishing out the points! With the demise of Helmut Schmidt, 54 points to Paul G, Ashley and Barry, well done all of you! And with Warren Mitchell kicking the bucket, 61 points go to me!!! I scored at last!!! Woo! With little over six weeks left to go, there’s still hope for all of us!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Yitzhak Navon, 94, Israeli politician, President (1978–1983).
• Carol Doda, 78, American stripper, kidney failure.
• Andy White, 85, British drummer (The Beatles), stroke.
• Pat Eddery, 63, Irish jockey, eleven-time Champion Jockey, four-time Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner, three-time Lester Award and Epsom Derby winner.
• Helmut Schmidt, 96, German politician, Chancellor of West Germany (1974–1982), complications from surgery.
• Allen Toussaint, 77, American musician, producer, songwriter (“Fortune Teller“, “Working in the Coal Mine“, “Southern Nights“) and arranger, heart attack.
• Phil Taylor, 61, English drummer (Motörhead).
• Jihadi John, 27, Kuwaiti-born British Islamic State propagandist, drone strike.
• Warren Mitchell, 89, British actor (Till Death Us Do Part, Death of a Salesman).

In Other News

Convicted paedophile Rolf Harris has been taken to hospital amid fears about his health. The 85-year-old former children’s entertainer, who is diabetic, is feared to have fallen ill after gorging on chocolate and sweets in jail. Harris was taken from Stafford prison, where he is serving nearly six years for carrying out a string of sex attacks, to Stafford hospital, and we all know how shit that hospital is! Singer Vince Hill, 81, told the newspaper that he had heard from one of Harris’s friends that he had “sort of overdosed on chocolate”. He added: “According to him, that was the scale of the problem … he didn’t know he was eating too much chocolate.” Yeah, a diabetic not knowing that too much sugar is bad for him!

Sir Terry Wogan did not host BBC1’s Children in Need appeal for the first time in its 35-year history due to poor health. The 77-year-old presenter said he missed presenting the “wonderful, inspiring evening” on Friday night. A BBC spokesman said that Wogan was having a procedure on his back and, under doctor’s orders, cannot host a six-and-a-half hour show, adding: “We are so sorry that Terry won’t be able to host the show as we know how passionate he is about Children in Need. We wish him a very speedy recovery.” The veteran presenter recently admitted that he “probably drinks too much”, but walked for 30 minutes a day and ate a lot of fruit and vegetables. Wogan told the Daily Record he had no plans to retire: “They’ll have to carry me off stage. I do seven hours on my feet of live television for Children in Need every year, so the day that I can’t stand up is when I will stop doing it. So is this it?

Former US President Jimmy Carter is responding well to cancer treatment, according to his spokeswoman. Doctors in Atlanta have told the 91-year-old the tumours in his brain are being treated successfully and there are no signs of further cancer growth. However, the spokeswoman said that doctors will continue tests. Mr Carter, who served as president of the US from 1977 to 1981 and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, announced his illness in August. He said then he would receive radiation and chemotherapy for four tumours that had formed in his brain. Media reports have suggested that Mr Carter was not experiencing any pain or discomfort during the treatments, and that his work with The Carter Centre had not been scaled back. The former president had been planning to travel to Nepal this month for volunteer work, but the trip was cancelled due to “civil unrest” in the country, so he can’t be all that bad.

Suspended Fifa president Sepp Blatter is in hospital after what has been described as a “small emotional breakdown”. Blatter, 79, who has led world football’s governing body for 18 years, was provisionally suspended for 90 days last month amid a corruption scandal. He was admitted last week, initially for a check-up, said his former publicist Klaus Stoelhker. “He is very happy and he is relaxing a few days,” he said. Last Friday, Blatter’s lawyer Richard Cullen confirmed that the Swiss had undergone stress-related health checks in hospital.

Michael Phelps, the American swimmer whose 22 Olympic medals make him the most decorated Olympian of all time, has revealed that he was “in a really dark place” after he was arrested last year for drunk-driving – and admitted to feelings of “not wanting to be alive anymore.” Shortly after his arrest, he entered a treatment facility in Arizona. He says his 45-day stint rejuvenated him, but at the time he felt frightened. “Hug-hug, kiss-kiss, turn in my phone and go to my room. It’s probably the most afraid I’ve ever felt in my life.” Phelps was pulled over in September 2014 after being clocked doing 84mph in a 45mph zone in Baltimore. He failed two sobriety tests and was charged with DUI, excessive speed and crossing double lane lines. Phelps’s coach, Bob Bowman, said “I had been living in fear that I was going to get a call that something had happened. Honestly, I thought, the way he was going, he was going to kill himself. Not take his own life, but something like the DUI, but worse.” However, Phelps has not drunk alcohol since his arrest, and has vowed not to drink until the Rio Olympics are finished next August. After years of enduring workouts with a hangover, Phelps is training clean. So, let’s see what happens next August…

And finally, a daughter grieved over the body of a stranger after hospital nurses mistakenly told her her mother was dead. Bernadette Walsh spent almost half-an-hour stroking and holding the hand of the dead woman – until medics revealed her mother was alive on another ward. She had not been told her mother had been moved out of the room on an orthopaedics ward, where she had been for the previous week and had been replaced by a patient who later died. The dead woman was said to bear a striking resemblance to her mother. It was only when nurses told Ms Walsh that “Roy’s on his way” that the mistake began to unravel. The 53-year-old told the staff she did not know anyone called Roy and nursing staff realised the mistake, apologised and took her to another ward where her mother Elizabeth, a 82-year-old widow from Whitefield, was recovering from a hip operation. Mother of four Ms Walsh, from Droylsden, Greater Manchester, said: “No one told me she’d been moved so I went into the room to visit her, the same room she’d been in all week. “Mum’s duffle coat was on the chair. The woman in the bed had grey hair and had thin bones like my mum. She had a pink nightie like my mum. I had no reason to think it wasn’t mum. “She didn’t look right and I didn’t think she was breathing. I went out of the room to ask one of the nurses what was wrong and they said ‘don’t you know? She died half-an-hour ago’. “Well, I just lost it then. I’d only spoken to her the previous night. I was in shock and completely hysterical. They were trying to calm me down. The nurses were saying I should stroke her hand and show her some love. So I was holding her hand and stroking her. I called my sister and told her she was dead. “Then one of them said ‘Roy’s on his way’ and I said ‘who’s Roy?’. They took me into another room and said ‘that’s not your mum’. They took me to my mum on another ward and she was sitting in a chair looking at me, saying ‘what’s up?’ I told her I’d had a shock. I couldn’t really tell her ‘they just told me you’re dead’.” Oh my days!

On This Day

• 1859 – The first modern revival of the Olympic Games takes place in Athens, Greece.
• 1971 – Intel releases the world’s first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004.
• 2007 – Cyclone Sidr hits Bangladesh, killing an estimated 5,000 people and destroying parts of the world’s largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans.

Deaths

• 1630 – Johannes Kepler, German astronomer and mathematician (b. 1571)
• 1983 – John Le Mesurier, English actor (b. 1912)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Neil Young (70), Tracy Morgan (47), Whoopi Goldberg (60), Leonardo DiCaprio (41), Demi Moore (53), Ryan Gosling (35), Anne Hathaway (33), Jimmy Kimmel (48), Prince Charles (67), Calista Flockhart (51), Gerard Butler (46), Tara Reid (40), Stanley Tucci (55), Gordon Ramsay (49), Jack Osbourne (30), Gretchen Mol (43), Lou Ferrigno (64), Wallace Shawn (72) and Condoleezza Rice (61).

Next week peeps!

Afternoon all, yet another rendition of the newsletter in your inbox. Alas, no points to award this week, but some interesting deaths and plenty of news to catch up on.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Stephen Hancock, 89, English actor (Coronation Street).
• Fred Thompson, 73, American politician and actor (Die Hard 2, Law & Order, Sinister), U.S. Senator from Tennessee (1994–2003), minority counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee, lymphoma.
• Colin Welland, 81, British actor and screenwriter (Kes, Straw Dogs, Chariots of Fire), Oscar winner (1982).
• Melissa Mathison, 65, American screenwriter (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Black Stallion, Kundun), neuroendocrine cancer.
• George Barris, 89, American custom car designer (Batmobile, Munster Koach), cancer.
• Gunnar Hansen, 68, Icelandic-born American actor (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Leatherface), pancreatic cancer.

In Other News

Andy Cole has withdrawn from an upcoming charity match at Old Trafford and the former Manchester United striker revealed he has been suffering from kidney failure. The 44-year-old, who won five Premier League titles and the Champions League during a trophy-laden spell with United, said he is not well enough to play in the Unicef Match for Children, which will take place on 14th November. “In June of this year I suffered kidney failure, caused as a result of contracting an airborne virus and I have been under medical care ever since,” Cole said in a statement. “I was admitted to hospital and diagnosed with a condition called Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis.” Cole said he had spent close to three weeks in hospital undergoing a kidney biopsy and dialysis, and he is continuing on a course of steroids which has led to a slight change in his appearance. 0_o

In further football news, Tony Adams revealed he has undergone minor heart surgery in Azerbaijan, an operation the former Arsenal defender said had saved his life. Adams, who is director of football at Gabala in Azerbaijan, went under the knife after becoming unwell. “After feeling some acute chest pain while exercising in Azerbaijan, and liaising with Gabala club doctors, I went to the Medical Plaza hospital in Baku where I was admitted for an angiogram, and then following diagnosis of a severely blocked vein, an immediate angioplasty,” Adams said. “I know full well that without the brilliance of Dr Uzeyir Rahimov and his team I would not be alive now: a minor heart operation saved my life.” Adams, 49, is said to be recuperating with his family in the UK.

Trevor Noah, who took over as host of The Daily Show in September, has undergone emergency surgery to remove his appendix. Comedy Central cancelled Wednesday’s live show and aired a repeat, but said “the procedure went well” and Noah was “currently recuperating from surgery”. “We expect he and the show will be back with an original episode tomorrow,” said a statement on Twitter. However, Noah’s experience of US healthcare has already come under the microscope. Criticising the amount of paperwork he was asked to fill out before being attended to while in excruciating pain, Noah said, “I don’t know if ‘Emergency Room’ is the right term, because they make you wait … The lady’s like, ‘Can you fill out the form?’ I’m like, ‘Well, no, I’m dying.’” After Noah nearly fainted, he says the woman followed him to ask how he would be paying for the surgery, asking if he had health insurance (which he wasn’t sure about). Questioning whether he would be able to afford paying for the procedure without insurance, she answered her own question: “You know what, I’ve seen the billboards, you’re fine, you can pay for this.” Thank god for the NHS!

Trainer Gary Moore is out of intensive care as he recovers from being kicked in the back by one of his horses. The 59-year-old was helping wife Jayne onto a horse at their Cisswood Stables in Sussex on Thursday morning when another horse kicked out. Moore, whose sons Ryan, Jamie and Joshua are all jockeys, spent Thursday night in intensive care with fluid on his lungs and damaged ribs. “He’s a bit groggy, but nothing worse than that,” said Joshua Moore. “I think he’s pretty OK. He’s out of intensive care. He’s having a lot of antibiotics and painkillers, but he doesn’t need any operations or anything like that, as far as I know.”

Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher is “still fighting”, almost two years after suffering severe head injuries in a skiing accident, says FIA president Jean Todt. Schumacher spent six months in an induced coma after the December 2013 accident and is continuing his rehabilitation at home. “Michael’s a close friend,” said Todt. “His family is very close to me. We must keep him fighting with the family,” he added. So, no real news then…

On This Day

• 1745 – Charles Edward Stuart invades England with an army of ~5000 that would later participate in the Battle of Culloden.
• 1895 – While experimenting with electricity, Wilhelm Röntgen discovers the X-ray.
• 1960 – John F. Kennedy defeats Richard Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of the twentieth century to become the 35th president of the United States.
• 1965 – The Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 is given Royal Assent, formally abolishing the death penalty in the United Kingdom.
• 1973 – The right ear of John Paul Getty III is delivered to a newspaper together with a ransom note, convincing his father to pay US$2.9 million.
• 1987 – Remembrance Day bombing: A Provisional IRA bomb explodes in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland during a ceremony honouring those who had died in wars involving British forces. Twelve people are killed and sixty-three wounded.

Deaths

• 1674 – John Milton, English poet and philosopher (b. 1608)
• 1887 – Doc Holliday, American dentist and poker player (b. 1851)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Emma Stone (27), Ethan Hawke (45), Sally Field (69), Lamar Odom (36), Matthew McConaughey (46), Roseanne Barr (58), David Schwimmer (59), Jenny McCarthy (43), Toni Collette (43), Loretta Swit (78), Ralph Macchio (54), Tatum O’Neal (52), Billy Graham (97), Joni Mitchell (72), Maria Schriver (60), Rebecca Romjin (43), Thandie Newton (43), Sam Rockwell (47), Tilda Swinton (55), Bryan Adams (56), Art Garfunkel (74), Larry Flynt (73), Lyle Lovett (58), K.D. Lang (54), Kate Capshaw (62), Adam Ant (61), Dolph Lundgren (58) and Famke Janssen (51).

Next week peeps!

Welcome all to the special “Day After Halloween” edition of the Dead Pool. Yes, we’re all partied out and have a hangover, so other than to award a few points, I’ll not ramble on too much. With the death of Al Molinaro, we award 54 points to Dave, well done that man. Which makes things very interesting at the top of the table. I shall take this opportunity to say thank you for the birthday wishes, I made it another year, with any luck I might be able to carry on with the Dead Pool next year too!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

Sam Sarpong, 40, British-born American model and actor (Love Don’t Cost a Thing, Farm House, Anchor Baby), suicide by jumping.

Al Molinaro, 96, American actor (Happy Days), complications from infected gall bladder.

In Other News

Comedian Bob Mortimer has undergone a triple bypass heart operation. The star, known for being one half of comedy duo Vic and Bob alongside Vic Reeves, has had to cancel the first leg of the pair’s upcoming tour. Mortimer, 56, had been due to take to the stage in Glasgow in early November for 25 Years of Reeves & Mortimer: the Poignant Moments. Neil Reading, Mortimer’s spokesman, said: “Bob would like to thank his consultant and all the nursing staff at the hospital for looking after him so well. “He now needs several weeks to fully recover, so unfortunately the first leg of the UK tour will be cancelled. “Bob very much hopes to be fit and well enough to perform the second leg in January next year.”

The BBC news presenter, George Alagiah, has said that his treatment for cancer is over, and expressed thanks for the “thoughts, prayers and support” he has received. The journalist, a popular face of the BBC Six O’Clock News, shared the news on Twitter on Wednesday after it emerged last April that he was to receive treatment for bowel cancer. “A long time coming but the cancer treatment is finally over. Now I can look forward again. Thank you for thoughts, prayers and support,” he said. The corporation said last year that Alagiah was to undergo treatment, but “is optimistic for a positive outcome”. The newsreader, who joined the BBC in 1989 and became a foreign correspondent specialising in Africa, is expected now to make a phased return to work.

Phil Collins has confirmed he will return to making music after a 13-year break, with new recording sessions beginning next month. Collins hasn’t released brand new music since 2002 album Testify, though did release a Motown covers album in 2010. But in a new interview in Rolling Stone, he declares: “I’m no longer officially retired. The horse is out of the stable and I’m raring to go.” In 2011 he announced his retirement, “so I can be a full time father to my two young sons on a daily basis” – this was following his third divorce in 2008, from Orianne Cevey, who eventually took their sons to live with her in Miami while he remained in Switzerland. In the Rolling Stone interview he said the period “left me with a lot of time on my hands to think about what happened. I went through a few bits of darkness; drinking too much. I killed my hours watching TV and drinking, and it almost killed me. But I haven’t had a drink in three years.” He also has had to go through surgery, after nerve damage suffered on a Genesis reunion tour in 2007 left him unable to play the drums. Let’s see how he copes with his comeback, we all know what happened to Michael Jackson!

And finally, a dog named Trigger accidentally shot his owner during a hunt in the US. The chocolate Labrador retriever stepped on top of a 12-gauge shotgun on the ground without the safety on, and shot Allie Carter in the left foot. Indiana conservation officer Jonathon Boyd says 25-year-old Allie Carter laid her shotgun on the ground without the safety on during a waterfowl hunt Saturday at Tri-County Fish and Wildlife Area. Boyd says Carter’s chocolate Labrador retriever, Trigger, stepped on top of the shotgun and depressed the trigger. He says Carter was shot in the left foot at point-blank range, suffering injuries to her foot and toes. She was treated at two hospitals and released. Even American dogs are batshit crazy!

On This Day

• 1512 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time.
• 1520 – The Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, is first discovered and navigated by European explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the first recorded circumnavigation voyage.
• 1800 – John Adams becomes the first President of the United States to live in the Executive Mansion (later renamed the White House).
• 1896 – A picture showing the bare breasts of a woman appears in National Geographic magazine for the first time.
• 1951 – Operation Buster–Jangle: Six thousand five hundred American soldiers are exposed to ‘Desert Rock’ atomic explosions for training purposes in Nevada. Participation is not voluntary.
• 1993 – The Maastricht Treaty takes effect, formally establishing the European Union.

Deaths

• 1952 – Dixie Lee. American actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1911)
• 1979 – Mamie Eisenhower, American wife of Dwight D. Eisenhower, 36th First Lady of the United States (b. 1896)
• 1982 – King Vidor, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1894)
• 1985 – Phil Silvers, American actor and singer (b. 1911)
• 2007 – Meredith Kercher, English murder victim (b. 1985)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Katy Perry (31), Richard Dreyfuss (68), Julia Roberts (48), Henry Winkler (70), Caitlyn Jenner (66), Hillary Clinton (68), Winona Ryder (44), Seth McFarlane (42),  Vanilla Ice (48), John Cleese (76), Emilia Clarke (29), Joaquin Phoenix (41), Simon LeBon (57), Bill Gates (60), Diego Maradona (55), Dan Castellaneta (58), Kelly Osbourne (31), Cary Elwes (53), Peter Jackson (54), Nancy Cartwright (58), Jon Heder (38), Annie Potts (53) and Rufus Sewell (48).

Next week peeps!