Afternoon Poolers. Not a lot to report this week, a dearth of deaths means a paucity of points. However, if a few pipe bombs would have worked, we would have had a bonanza week!    

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Gilberto Benetton, 77, Italian businessman, co-founder of Benetton Group, pneumonia.  
• James Karen, 94, American actor (Poltergeist, The Return of the Living Dead, Nixon), cardiorespiratory arrest.  
• Mighty Shadow, 77, Trinidadian calypsonian, stroke.

In Other News

Former England manager and Tottenham midfielder Glenn Hoddle remains in a “serious  condition” in hospital after suffering a heart attack on Saturday. Hoddle, who is “responding well to treatment”, collapsed after appearing on BT Sport on his 61st birthday.  The station’s Saturday afternoon football results show was cancelled as a result. Hoddle earned 53 England caps and was considered one of the best players of his generation. A spokesman for Hoddle said: “The family are grateful to everyone in the football family – and beyond – that have sent kind messages of support. They are very much appreciated. In particular, Glenn and his family would like to publicly thank the BT Sport staff that treated him immediately on set following his collapse. Glenn is now in the care of the professional NHS medical services, who have also been exemplary in helping him and the family during the last 24 hours. Doctors have advised the most important thing for Glenn is time to rest. Therefore, his family have reiterated the request for their privacy to be respected during this period.”   

 WWE champion Roman Reigns has revealed that he is suffering from leukaemia. The 33-year-old, real name Leati Joseph Anoaʻi, publicly revealed live on Raw that he was first diagnosed with the disease 11 years ago, having been in remission as he rose to the top of the WWE. But in an emotional address on Monday night, Reigns revealed that his leukaemia had returned. “Y’all have made my dreams come true,” Reigns said to the crowd. “It didn’t matter if you cheered me or you booed me, you’ve always reacted to me and that’s the most important thing and for that I have to say thank you so much.” He also stressed that his address “wasn’t a retirement speech”, but confirmed that he will need to take a leave of absence to undergo treatment and, as a result, was relinquishing his WWE Universal Championship title. “When I do [return] it’s not going to be just about titles or being on top. It’s about a purpose,” he added. “I will beat this and I will be back so you will see me very, very soon.” The announcement left fans and viewers stunned given that Reigns had never spoken of his illness publicly before, and it triggered an outpouring of emotion from his colleagues, with his former Shield partners Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose appearing on stage to embrace him after his announcement.  

And finally, a game ranger who was shot through the mouth with an arrow pursued his attacker for almost an hour, with the shaft clenched between his teeth. William Hofmeyr, 51, was on patrol at Olarro Conservancy, Kenya, when he saw a Maasai warrior sleeping under a tree. As he woke up the man to warn him of a hungry pride of lions nearby, he felt a sharp pain in the side of his mouth where an arrow had hit him. The arrowhead sliced through his right cheek and back out of his open mouth, causing it to fill with blood. Unable to call for help on his radio, he ran back to his car and drove after his attacker through the conservancy. “It was painful, but I spent a lot of time in the military and in the police, so my first instinct was to go after him,’’ Mr Hofmeyr told The Herald newspaper. “I’ve been shot before, it happens.” Mr Hofmeyr said he fired two warning shots from his rifle, which led his attacker to flee. “He came after me and I ran to my car but couldn’t easily open the driver’s side because the arrow shaft was hooking on everything. I had to fire warning shots with my left hand and he ran off.” Mr Hofmeyr said the arrow was sticking out of the window of the car and kept hitting against the bushes he was driving through. “To stop the arrow flapping about I had to bite down on the shaft – it may sound like something out of Rambo but I was bloody angry and upset he shot me.” After chasing his attacker for almost an hour, the ranger lost his tracks and drove to a nearby clinic, where staff were unable to remove the arrow from his mouth. Eventually he removed it himself by pulling the tip out through his mouth followed by the shaft.  Police said they were investigating but that the man’s tracks were disturbed by elephants. 

On This Day

• 1492 – Christopher Columbus lands in Cuba on his first voyage to the New World.  
• 1726 – The novel Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift is published.   
• 1929 – Black Monday, a day in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, which also saw major stock market upheaval.  
• 1995 – 289 people are killed and 265 injured in Baku Metro fire, the deadliest subway disaster in history.

Deaths

• 1998 – Ted Hughes, English poet and playwright (b. 1930)
• 2002 – Erling Persson, Swedish businessman, founded H&M (b. 1917)
• 2010 – James MacArthur, American actor (b. 1937)  

Last Week’s Birthdays

Joaquin Phoenix (44), Julia Roberts (51), Matt Smith (36), Gwendoline Christie (40), Annie Potts (66), Bill Gates (63), John Cleese (79), James Cosmo (71), Robert Picardo (65), Cary Elwes (56), Seth MacFarlane (45), Jon Heder (41), Roger Allam (65), Hillary Clinton (71), Katy Perry (34), Nancy Cartwright (61), Glynis Barber (63), Kevin Kline (71), F. Murray Abraham (79), Drake (32), Emilia Clarke (32), Ryan Reynolds (42), Sam Raimi (59), ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic (59), Cat Deeley (42), Jeff Goldblum (66), Bob Odenkirk (56), Christopher Lloyd (80), Catherine Deneuve (75), Derek Jacobi (80), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (43), Ken Watanabe (59) and Everett McGill (73).

Firstly let me apologise for the lack of a weekly newsletter last week, life got in the way and to be fair, not many famous people died over the last fortnight. However, we now have a bumper two week edition full of facts and news. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Celeste Yarnall, 74, American actress (Eve, The Mechanic, “The Apple” (Star Trek: The Original Series)), ovarian cancer.  
• Tony Hopper, 42, English footballer (Carlisle United), motor neurone disease.   
• Sir Doug Ellis, 94, English entrepreneur and football club chairman (Aston Villa).  
• William Coors, 102, American brewer (Coors Brewing Company).  
• Paul Allen, 65, American businessman and sports team owner (Seattle Seahawks, Portland Trail Blazers), co-founder of Microsoft, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.  

In Other News

John McCririck, 78, sparked serious health concerns last week when he appeared on Bit On The Side. John, who presented on Channel 4 racing for over 30 years, began: “I’m getting better. I couldn’t speak for about three months. It really was awful.” The telly personality was struck down with the flu back in January. He added: “I’m recovering, but only slowly. “I’m not well. I’m never going to fully recover because age has taken over.” John urged audiences to “set yourself a target that you will reach. Have an aim, an ambition, a drive.” The former CBB housemate, who appeared in the 2005 series, said being sacked from Channel 4 contributed to his poor health. “I wake up in the morning now and I have no purpose in life,” he admitted. “I’ve worked over 50 years in my life. Work comes first, because you can’t look after your family if you’re not working. “You feel you’re lacking something.” Viewers were gobsmacked by John’s telly appearance and rushed to Twitter worried. One person tweeted: “It’s so sad when you see a usually strapping old man fade to virtually nothing! Wishing John well.” “This John McCririck interview is really uncomfortable. He’s speaking so incoherently,” said another. We’ll give him three months….       

Bill Turnbull has described dealing with cancer every day as “relentlessly boring” and admitted he asked doctors to stop his “unbearable” chemotherapy. The former BBC Breakfast anchor, who’s now a presenter on Classic FM, said: “I just couldn’t bear it any longer.” After that round of chemo in July – his eighth – he went on to have one more. Turnbull said he coped with the “bad phases” of chemo by watching “lots” of TV, including all 67 episodes of Game of Thrones. The broadcaster, who was diagnosed with incurable prostate cancer in November 2017. “It’s the fact that having cancer is so relentlessly boring. You go to bed at night thinking about it, and it’s still there when you wake up. “It’s there all day, every day – a fact of life you have to get used to. And it’s a massive pain in the backside.” Turnbull, whose cancer has spread to the bone – across his pelvis, hips, legs and spine – said of chemo: “Each round felt worse.” He lost his sense of taste, and some days could only cope by lying down to wait “for the feeling of crushing fatigue and nausea to pass”. By round six, “it felt as if the chemo was now taking on a life of its own, like some malevolent gremlin”. Turnbull said the disease has stopped spreading but “hasn’t been beaten back entirely”, adding: “We’re at a stalemate.” He said: “I’m still optimistic about hanging around for some time yet.”  

Selma Blair has revealed she has multiple sclerosis (MS). The 46-year-old actor shared the news with fans on Saturday, explaining how she had been diagnosed with the lifelong condition, which affects the brain and the spinal cord, in August. Writing on Instagram, Blair said that despite only just being diagnosed, she has been experiencing symptoms for years, leading her to believe she might’ve had the disease for more than a decade. The Cruel Intentions star begins the candid post by recalling a recent wardrobe fitting for Another Life, the 10-part Netflix series she is currently filming for, explaining how she has the “deepest gratitude” for the show’s costume designer, Allisa Swanson, for helping her into her clothes. “She carefully gets my legs in my pants, pulls my tops over my head, buttons my coats and offers her shoulder to steady myself,” Blair writes. “I have Multiple Sclerosis. I am in an exacerbation.” She goes on to thank the producers at Netflix for their compassion before illustrating how the disease is beginning to have an adverse effect on her daily existence. “I am disabled. I fall sometimes. I drop things. My memory is foggy. And my left side is asking for directions from a broken GPS.” MS is an incurable condition that disrupts the central nervous system and can cause a number of physically debilitating symptoms, including blurred vision, difficulty walking, muscle spasms and fatigue. Two months after receiving the initial diagnosis, Blair explains she is now “in the thick” of her illness and feels perpetually exhausted. 

On This Day

• 14th October
• 1066 – Norman conquest of England: Battle of Hastings: In England on Senlac Hill, seven miles from Hastings, the Norman forces of William the Conqueror defeat the English army and kill King Harold II of England.  
• 1322 – Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland’s independence.  
• 1912 – While campaigning in Milwaukee, the former President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, is shot and mildly wounded by John Schrank, a mentally-disturbed saloon keeper. With the fresh wound in his chest, and the bullet still within it, Mr. Roosevelt still carries out his scheduled public speech.   
• 1913 – Senghenydd colliery disaster, the United Kingdom’s worst coal mining accident claims the lives of 439 miners.  
• 1926 – The children’s book Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne, is first published.  
• 1947 – Captain Chuck Yeager of the United States Air Force flies a Bell X-1 rocket-powered experimental aircraft, the Glamorous Glennis, faster than the speed of sound at Mach 1.06 (700 miles per hour (1,100 km/h; 610 kn) over the high desert of Southern California and becomes the first pilot and the first airplane to do so in level flight.  
• 2012 – Felix Baumgartner successfully jumped to Earth from a helium balloon in the stratosphere in the Red Bull Stratos project.

• 21st October
• 1854 – Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses are sent to the Crimean War.  
• 1879 – Thomas Edison applies for a patent for his design for an incandescent light bulb.  
• 1966 – Aberfan disaster: A colliery spoil tip collapses on the village of Aberfan in Wales, killing 144 people, mostly schoolchildren.  
• 1983 – The metre is defined at the seventeenth General Conference on Weights and Measures as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second, just because… 

Deaths

• 14th October 
• 1066 – Harold Godwinson, English king (b. 1022)  
• 1944 – Erwin Rommel, German field marshal (b. 1891)  
• 1959 – Errol Flynn, Australian-American actor, singer, and producer (b. 1909)  
• 1977 – Bing Crosby, American singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1903)  
• 1990 – Leonard Bernstein, American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1918)  
• 2010 – Simon MacCorkindale, English actor, director, and producer (b. 1952)

• 21st October
• 1805 – Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, English admiral (b. 1758)  
• 1984 – François Truffaut, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1932) 

Last Two Week’s Birthdays

Viggo Mortensen (59), Danny Boyle (61), Snoop Dogg (46), John Lithgow (73), Michael Gambon (78), John le Carré (87), Zac Efron (31), Jean-Claude Van Damme (58), Pam Dawber (67), Paul Chuckle (71), Eminem (46), Mark Gatiss (52), George Wendt (70), Angela Lansbury (93), Tim Robbins (60), Suzanne Somers (72), Peter Bowles (82), Dominic West (49), Sarah Ferguson (59), Steve Coogan (53), Sacha Baron Cohen (47), Paul Simon (77), Chris Carter (62), Hugh Jackman (50), Robin Askwith (68), Michelle Trachtenberg (33), Emily Deschanel (42), Jane Krakowski (50), Joan Cusack (56), Stephen Moyer (49), John Nettles (75), Dawn French (61), Rose McIver (30), Manu Bennett (49), Charles Dance (72), Martin Kemp (57), Guillermo del Toro (54), Brandon Routh (39), Scott Bakula (64), Chris O’Dowd (39), Tony Shalhoub (65), Brian Blessed (82), Sharon Osbourne (66), Kristanna Loken (39), Matt Damon (48), Sigourney Weaver (69), Chevy Chase (75), Paul Hogan (79), Ardal O’Hanlon (53), Bruno Mars (33), Simon Cowell (59), Alesha Dixon (40), Tim Minchin (43), Thom Yorke (50), Britt Ekland (76), Ioan Gruffudd (45), and Bree Olson (32).

What a week! Plenty of interesting people kicking the bucket and too many stories to add to this weeks issue! Sadly no points to award and with little under three months to go, it does seem to be a two horse race at the moment, but this game is as cruel as the unbelievers portray it to be, albeit for a different reason, one Cert could change everything!   

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Geoffrey Hayes, 76, English television presenter (Rainbow) and actor (Z-Cars), pneumonia. 
• Charles Aznavour, 94, French-Armenian singer (“La Bohème“, “She“), lyricist and actor (Shoot the Piano Player), complications from pulmonary edema.
• Peggy Sue Gerron, 78, American namesake of songs “Peggy Sue” and “Peggy Sue Got Married“.
• Geoff Emerick, 72, English recording engineer (Abbey Road Studios, The Beatles), multi-Grammy winner, heart attack. 
• Ray Galton, 88, British scriptwriter (Hancock’s Half Hour, Steptoe and Son), dementia.  
• Scott Wilson, 76, American actor (The Walking Dead, In Cold Blood, The Ninth Configuration), complications from leukemia.  
• Montserrat Caballé, 85, Spanish opera singer, gallbladder infection

In Other News

DJ Mark Radcliffe will be taking time off from his BBC Radio 2 and 6 Music shows to have treatment for cancer. The 60-year-old, who began his BBC career in 1983, revealed  his diagnosis to listeners while presenting The Folk Show on Wednesday 3rd October. “I’m said to say that I’ve got some cancerous tongue and lymph node issues,” he said, adding that he hoped to be back on air in the New Year, “or sooner, if I feel well enough.” “It’s all been caught very early and so everything should be fine,” he reassured fans. On Twitter he added: “All being well I’ll be back in action in the New Year – or sooner if I feel well enough – but I will be back, you can depend on it, I just can’t say exactly when that will be. So you won’t hear from me for a while now and therefore… well… Merry Christmas I guess. Life eh?” Radcliffe confirmed that he would broadcast his Thursday 6 Music show with Stuart Maconie on 4th October, as usual, before taking a break. Ricky Ross will present the Radio 2 Folk Show for the next few weeks.

The German scientist nicknamed Dr Death because of his pioneering work on preserving corpses has asked his wife to plastinate his own body after he himself passes away. Gunther von Hagens told partner Angelina Whalley he then wants his body to be displayed at the entrance to London’s new Body Worlds Museum Experience – where preserved organs, skulls and corpses are all on show in various poses. The 73-year-old, who is suffering with Parkinson’s disease, is the driving force behind the museum, which opens on Saturday. His decision to be among his exhibits when his own time comes is “a finalising [of] his life’s work”, said Dr Whalley. Plastination involves replacing certain body fats and tissues with silicone so the corpse does not deteriorate or smell. It takes a year to complete. Dr Whalley said her husband’s request had left her “stunned”. “Of course, in the very beginning I thought, Gunther, you are kidding me. This is something I would never be able to do,” but she says she slowly came round to the idea. “He said to me: ‘Angelina, you are entitled to freeze me down to -25C for one year, but after that time you really need to put your hands on me because otherwise I will get freeze burn’,” she said. “So I have one year for mourning and then I will have to do it.” She told the newspaper her husband – who wears a trademark fedora – would like his final pose to be a welcoming one, adding he would like to be wearing his much-loved hat. Dr von Hagens – who has toured his Body Worlds exhibits all across the globe – is perhaps best known in the UK for performing the country’s first public human autopsy for 170 years in 2002.      

Actor Ben Affleck has thanked his family after completing yet another stay in rehab for alcohol addiction. The Oscar-winner wrote on Instagram that he had spent 40 days at a treatment centre, and was still in outpatient care. “The support I have received from my family, colleagues and fans means more to me than I can say,” his post read. “It’s given me the strength and support to speak about my illness with others.” Affleck was pictured looking bedraggled in August while being driven to rehab by his ex-wife, Jennifer Garner. The actress filed for divorce in April 2017, but the former couple remain close and have three children together. Garner “staged an intervention” after seeing photos of her ex-husband getting an alcohol delivery outside his home. The Batman star’s latest spell in rehab is his third, following stints in 2001 and 2017. “Battling any addiction is a lifelong and difficult struggle,” he wrote on Instagram. “I am fighting for myself and my family.”  

And finally… A hunter is fighting for life after a bear he shot tumbled down a slope and landed on him. Alaska state police said William McCormick, 28, was also struck by a rock dislodged by the bear as it fell on Saturday afternoon. He was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Anchorage, where he was in a critical condition. Mr McCormick and his hunting partner, 19-year-old Zachary Tennyson, are both US army soldiers stationed at Alaska’s Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. Mr Tennyson was not hurt and alerted authorities by sending a distress signal. Police did not say what kind of bear was shot, how far how it fell, or whether it died. Alaska is home to several species of bear, including an estimated 30,000 brown bears and 100,000 smaller black bears. Nearly 1,500 brown bears are hunted each year in the state but at least this one got its own back. 

On This Day

• 1959 – U.S.S.R. probe Luna 3 transmits the first ever photographs of the far side of the Moon. 
• 1988 – An Iñupiat hunter discovers three gray whales trapped under the ice in Utqiaġvik, Alaska, US; the situation becomes a multinational effort to free the whales.
• 1996 – Fox News Channel begins broadcasting, the birth of fake news.

Deaths

• 1849 – Edgar Allan Poe, American short story witer, poet, and critic (b. 1809)
• 1956 – Clarence Birdseye, American businessman, founded Birds Eye (b. 1886)
• 1959 – Mario Lanza, American tenor and actor (b. 1921)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Kate Winslet (43), Guy Pearce (51), Jesse Eisenberg (35), Karen Allen (67), Neil deGrasse Tyson (60), Clive Barker (66), Bob Geldof (67), Dakota Johnson (29), Melissa Benoist (30), Alicia Silverstone (42), Christoph Waltz (62), Susan Sarandon (72), Liev Schreiber (51), Alicia Vikander (30), Seann William Scott (42), Lena Headey (45), Neve Campbell (45), Clive Owen (54), Gwen Stefani (49), Greg Proops (59), Avery Brooks (70), Ian McNeice (68), Sting (67), Brie Larson (29), Julie Andrews (83), Zach Galifianakis (49), Randy Quaid (68), Ioan Gruffudd (45) and Britt Ekland (76).

Slightly food related this week, you can blame Nickie for that as she kept sending these awesome stories she found. The highlight of this week is the passing of John Cunliffe, the creator of Postman Pat, we can only assume that Jess the Cat has been re-homed appropriately. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Al Matthews, 75, American actor (Aliens, The Fifth Element, The American Way).  
• Gary Kurtz, 78, American film producer (American Graffiti, Star Wars, The Dark Crystal), cancer.   
• Shoki Mokgapa, 34, South African actress (The First Grader, Dredd, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), suicide.   
• Marty Balin, 76, American Hall of Fame rock singer and musician (Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship).
• Otis Rush, 84, American Hall of Fame blues guitarist and singer, complications from a stroke.
• John Cunliffe, 85, English children’s book author, creator of Postman Pat and Rosie and Jim.

In Other News

A judge in Pennsylvania has jailed US comedian Bill Cosby for three to ten years for sexual assault. Cosby, 81, was classified as a “sexually violent predator” and immediately sent to a state prison in Pennsylvania to serve out his three-to-ten sentence for the 2004 sexual assault of Andrea Constand. (Constand is one of more than 60 women who have accused Cosby of sexual assault.) Other than putting ‘America’s Dad’ on suicide watch, I’m sure we’d all like to know what he had to eat once Big Brenda finished with him. Meals vary depending on the day and the week. For breakfast, Cosby will have access to fruit and cereal every day, as well as milk, coffee and sugar. On Saturdays, on the current rotation, there are pancakes. For lunch and dinner, the menu is more varied. On Mondays, lunch could be a cheese pizza or a garden burger with bread. This coming Monday, the dinner entrees are roast pork or a tofu oat burger. At lunch that day, the prison is serving chocolate pudding, a product Mr. Cosby was associated with as a pitchman for Jell-O. Cosby famously promoted Jell-O products starting in 1974, with his work talking up Jell-O Pudding Pops in 1979 attaining iconic status. Pudding Pops were discontinued in the late ‘90s. Cosby was discontinued in 2018.    

Remember Gladiators? Other that the sexy Jet, no, I don’t either. However, former Gladiator star Cobra has revealed that he can still fit into his iconic leotard – but that his body is now ‘worn out’ and he is preparing to get both hips replaced. ‘I need new hips. I’ve bolts in this shoulder, bolts in that shoulder. I’ve torn my bicep. I’ve torn the bicep on this side. I’ve got arthritis up and down the spine,’ he said. ‘But it’s just like a car, if you do too much. You do too many miles and your parts wear out.’ Cobra, real name Michael Willson, is now 54; he found fame on the ITV Saturday night game show which saw four contestants compete in a series of physical events against the show’s Gladiators. ‘My friends keep telling me I should stop living in the past, let the Gladiator thing go, but I can’t. I keep looking at myself on the Gladiator magazines and albums. I once was on the front of a cereal packet. I’ve even had my own action figure,’ he said. Michael became a household name alongside co-stars Diane Youdale (Jet), Kim Bets (Lightning), Warren Furman (Ace), and Michael Van Wijk (Wolf), but these days he lives in Kent by the coast, crying into his cornflakes each morning. Just goes to show, being a couch potato is probably better for you.  

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more food related, notorious serial killer Rose West has scooped first prize in a prison bake-off competition. West, 64, who was convicted of ten murders in 1995, came up trumps when inmates in F-Wing at HMP Prison Low Newton voted for her Victoria sponge. West, who is serving a life sentence, loves to bake and uses her culinary skills to impress fellow lags. ‘There are some very violent women on the wing and a lot of them are very aggressive towards West because of her crimes. ‘But she tends to defuse situations by offering other prisoners cakes and biscuits.’ West along with her husband Fred raped and murdered their daughter Heather and buried her under their patio – then did the same to nine others. Despite being a sadistic serial killer, West, who is serving a life sentence for her despicable crimes, is allowed to use knives while under staff supervision. West suffers from breathlessness and high blood pressure and has been warned that she must diet or face developing type 2 diabetes or premature death after her weight ballooned to 18 stone. You can send her more sugary treats c/o HM Prison Low Newton, Brasside, Durham, DH1 5YA.

On This Day

• 1888 – Jack the Ripper kills his third and fourth victims, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes.  
• 1965 – In Indonesia, a coup by the 30 September Movement is crushed, leading to a mass anti-communist purge, with over 500,000 people killed.
• 1993 – The 6.2 M_w Latur earthquake shakes Maharashtra, India with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe) killing 9,748 and injuring 30,000.

Deaths

• 1955 – James Dean, American actor (b. 1931)  
• 1987 – Alfred Bester, American author and screenwriter (b. 1913) 
• 1998 – Marius Goring, English actor (b. 1912)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Erika Eleniak (49), Ian McShane (76), Mackenzie Crook (47), Luke Goss (50), Patricia Hodge (72), Naomi Watts (50), Mira Sorvino (51), Hilary Duff (31), Brigitte Bardot (84), Jeffrey Jones (72), Dita Von Teese (46), Moon Unit Zappa (51), Gwyneth Paltrow (46), Avril Lavigne (34), Meat Loaf (71), Denis Lawson (71), Jim Caviezel (50), Linda Hamilton (62), Olivia Newton-John (70), Lysette Anthony (55), Serena Williams (37), Ricky Tomlinson (79), Will Smith (50), Catherine Zeta-Jones (49), Mark Hamill (67), Michael Douglas (74), Michael Madsen (61), Heather Locklear (57), Felicity Kendal (72), Sven-Ole Thorsen (74), Jack Dee (57), Karl Pilkington (46) and Bruce Springsteen (69).

Let’s begin with awarding Ashley 66 points for correctly guessing that Denis Norden would finally climb that stairway to heaven. Well done that man! Norden used to be a very popular choice at one time, but like most dwindling celebrities, if they ain’t on the TV, people forget them. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Zienia Merton, 72, Burmese-born British actress (The Chairman, Doctor Who, Space: 1999).
• Walter Mischel, 88, Austrian-born American psychologist, pancreatic cancer.
• Albert Dryden, 78, British steelworker and convicted murderer, complications from a stroke.
• Celia Barquín Arozamena, 22, Spanish golfer, stabbed.
• Enzo Calzaghe, 69, Italian-born Welsh boxing trainer.
• Arthur Mitchell, 84, American dancer and choreographer, founder of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, heart failure.
• Denis Norden, 96, English comedy writer (Take It from Here), television presenter (It’ll Be Alright on the Night) and radio personality (My Music).  
• Chas Hodges, 74, British musician (Chas & Dave), organ failure.

In Other News

Former X Factor contestant Chico Slimani has suffered a stroke. The 47-year-old, who was a popular star on the second series of the show, fell ill on the way back from performing a ‘gig’ at the weekend, which was most likely a singalong down the pub. A statement from his publicist said he was undergoing further tests and asked for privacy for his family. He reached the quarter-finals of the 2005 series and had a number one in 2006 with It’s Chico Time. He also took part in Dancing on Ice in 2012. He appeared in the Christmas special of Ricky Gervais’s BBC One sitcom Extras in 2007, and also released a fitness DVD. Since then we assume he’s been selling kebabs from a roadside cafe. His publicist Kym Rowlingson said: “This has been a great shock to Chico, his wife and their two children, also his close friends and family. “We thank you in advance for giving Chico and the family some privacy at this time.” Which sort of suggests that nobody has tried to disturb that privacy as of yet…  

Bolton defender Stephen Darby has announced his retirement from football, aged 29, after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND). Fully taking upon himself the mantle of Professor Stephen Hawking, Darby stated “I would like to ask for privacy at this time so I can adjust to the battle I have ahead and that I can spend time with those closest to me. I’d like to take the opportunity to thank my team-mates, manager and all the staff at Bolton for their amazing support at what has been an extremely difficult period,” he said. MND is a degenerative condition that affects how nerves in the brain and spinal cord function. There is currently no cure.  

Former EastEnders star Danniella Westbrook has said she will undergo a hysterectomy as she has been diagnosed with cancer of the womb. The actress and reality TV star, whose battle with substance abuse issues has been highly-publicised over the years, said she does not want to die and that she is determined to get better, but that she took cocaine to cope with the news initially. Westbrook, 44, said that her thoughts turned to her late friend Jade Goody, who died in 2009 from cervical cancer. She told Dead Pool Towers: “I’ve always said I am not scared of dying. But when the doctor said, ‘You have cancer’, straight away my thoughts turned to Jade and that I don’t want to die. I know I need to fight.” Westbrook said her mother was diagnosed with womb cancer 30 years ago, and that she is “still here” thanks to undergoing treatment on the NHS and that she will follow suit. She added: “They are taking me in in three weeks for a full hysterectomy. Before they take it out they won’t know to what extent the cancer has grown.” Westbrook said her doctors believe the cancer is “containable so I’m hopeful”. Westbrook, who rose to fame in the 1990s playing Samantha Mitchell in EastEnders, said the cancer was diagnosed by a doctor in Spain, where she lives, after weeks of heavy bleeding and being unwell. So, yet another immigrant coming into our country and using the NHS!

On This Day

• 1641 – The still undiscovered Merchant Royal, carrying a treasure of over 100,000 pounds of gold (worth over £1 billion today), is lost at sea off Land’s End.
• 1980 – Bob Marley plays what would be the last concert of his life in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• 2002 – The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox (“Phoenix 0.1”) is released.

Deaths

• 1889 – Wilkie Collins, English novelist, short story writer, and playwright (b. 1824)
• 1939 – Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist (b. 1856)
• 1994 – Robert Bloch, American author and screenwriter (b. 1917)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Tom Felton (31), Billie Piper (36), Sue Perkins (49), Joan Jett (60), Ruth Jones (52), Nick Cave (61), Andrea Bocelli (60), Bill Murray (68), Stephen King (71), David Wenham (53), Ethan Coen (61), Ricki Lake (50), Alfonso Ribeiro (47), Jon Bernthal (42), Asia Argento (43), Sophia Loren (84), Moon Bloodgood (43), George R.R. Martin (70), Danielle Panabaker (31), Jeremy Irons (70), Jimmy Fallon (44), Twiggy (69), Victoria Silvstedt (44), Faye Reagan (30), Jason Sudeikis (43), James Marsden (45), Jada Pinkett Smith (47), Tim McInnerny (62), Cassandra Peterson (67), Bryan Singer (53), Baz Luhrmann (56), Bruce Spence (73), Bingbing Fan (37), Mickey Rourke (66), Amy Poehler (47), Jennifer Tilly (60) and Danny John-Jules (58).