Welcome all, another edition hits the stands. Congratulations to Millie, the only one to guess that Henry Heimlich would pass away this year. Luckily she listed him as a Cert, thus garnering a total of 154 points! Woo!

Now, we only have two weeks left to go, I hope you are all working hard on your lists. Also, remind your friends and get them in on the game as well. The rules are here, if you want to link them and also point them towards the donations page 😉

Onto email Klaxxons, I’d like to know what you think of them. Some people love them, others despise them. I have had a few people drop out of the email list because of them, but some of you, perhaps like me, do rather enjoy having the interaction within our group and a reminder of who’s died. Sometimes it seems the email arrives before the media get hold of the news!! Depending on your reaction, Klaxxons may be consigned to The Hole™

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Ian McCaskill, 78, British meteorologist and weatherman.
• Michael Nicholson, 79, British journalist and war correspondent.
• E. R. Braithwaite, 104, Guyanese novelist (To Sir, With Love) and diplomat.
• Jim Prior, Baron Prior, 89, British politician, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1981–1984) and Employment (1979–1981).
• Alan Thicke, 69, Canadian actor (Growing Pains, Not Quite Human), talk show host (The Alan Thicke Show), and songwriter, heart attack.
• Bernard Fox, 89, Welsh-American actor (Bewitched, Titanic, The Mummy), heart failure.
• Henry Heimlich, 96, American physician and inventor of the Heimlich maneuver, complications from a heart attack.

In Other News

Bruce Springsteen’s wife helps him pull “back into his life” when he is gripped by depression. The 67-year-old musician revealed earlier this year he was “crushed” by the disease in his early 60s, and says his spouse Patti Scialfa helps him see how “blessed” his life is when he is experiencing one of his dark periods. He said: “Patti’s very helpful, and sometimes just time. Or sometimes the correct medication, you need the right drugs. That can really help also. “These are all things that can pull you back into your life and certainly in my case how blessed my life has been. “I have developed some skills that help me deal with it but still, it is a powerful, powerful thing, it really comes up and there are things that still remain unexplainable to me.” Let’s hope that she goes on a long vacation…

Larry Lamb finds ageing “frightening at times”. The 69-year-old actor says everything changed for him when he turned 65 and admits it was then he realised that the “clock had started ticking”. He said: “You suddenly realise that you’re not immortal anymore. One minute you’re mortal and then you suddenly realise that you’re not. The clock starts ticking, you get your pension and you know you’re heading towards the end. “You never used to know where you were heading in life and then it all changes, You begin to feel like an old man and it’s frightening at times.”

Tony Bennett has decided he’ll never retire from making music because “it’s too late” to give up. The 90-year-old music legend has decided it would be pointless to end his career despite being only 10 years off 100 as there is still so much more he wants to achieve. Talking about reaching the ripe age of 90, he previously said: “I turn 90 tomorrow and feel like I’m just getting started and look forward to each day.” So do we Tony, so do we.

Lionel Blair has “always” lied about his age for many years, but has finally revealed he is three years older than he had previously let on. The British actor has admitted he has been pretending to be three years younger than he actually is for his entire life, but has finally decided to come clean about how old he is whilst celebrating his 88th birthday this week. However, the veteran performer has revealed despite telling a little white lie about his age, his hair is real and all his own. Lionel has revealed he would like nothing more than to follow in the footsteps of fellow actor Kirk Douglas, who hit a major milestone of 100 years old last week. And the star has hinted his hectic lifestyle and heavy work schedule is the secret to keeping him feeling young and, although he he hasn’t been offered many acting roles lately, he believes he will be inundated with work commitments in the New Year.

On This Day

• 1777 – The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the American rebels over British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga in October.
• 1898 – Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets the first officially recognised land speed record of 39.245 mph (63.159 km/h) in a Jeantaud electric car.
• 1981 – First flight of the Russian heavy strategic bomber Tu-160, the world’s largest combat aircraft, largest supersonic aircraft and largest variable-sweep wing aircraft built.

Deaths

• 1932 – Eduard Bernstein, German theorist and politician (b. 1850)
• 1993 – Sam Wanamaker, American-English actor, director, and producer (b. 1919)
• 1997 – Chris Farley, American comedian and actor (b. 1964)
• 2000 – Kirsty MacColl, British singer-songwriter (b. 1959)
• 2006 – Joseph Barbera, American animator, director, co-founded Hanna-Barbera (b. 1911)
• 2008 – Majel Barrett, American actress and producer (b. 1932)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Taylor Swift (27), Jamie Foxx (49), Eugene Levy (70), John Kerry (73), Christopher Plummer (87), Steve Buscemi (59), Dick Van Dyke (91), Vanessa Hudgens (28), Don Johnson (67), Jennifer Connelly (46), Bill Pullman (63), Milla Jovovich (41), Pope Francis (80), Ernie Hudson (71), Billy Gibbons (67), Dionne Warwick (76) and Laurie Holden (47).

Next week peeps!

Welcome all, a short and sweet edition hits the press! No points to be awarded this week but if things     were slightly different, one of next years contestants would have close to 300 points already!!!! So this should show you how hard you should be trying to make sure your list hits the top spot next year!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Billy Chapin, 72, American child actor (The Night of the Hunter).
• Wayne Duncan, 72, Australian musician (Daddy Cool), stroke.
• Margaret Whitton, 67, American actress (Major League, The Secret of My Success, Steaming), cancer.
• Peter Vaughan, 93, British actor (Game of Thrones, Brazil, Porridge).
• Greg Lake, 69, English singer and musician (King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer), cancer.
• John Glenn, 95, American astronaut (Mercury-Atlas 6) and politician, U.S. Senator from Ohio (1974–1999).
• Joseph Mascolo, 87, American actor (Days of Our Lives, The Bold and the Beautiful, Jaws 2), complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
• A. A. Gill, 62, British writer and restaurant critic (The Sunday Times), cancer.

In Other News 

One of Jared Leto’s L.A. homes was the scene of a panic Friday evening that had firefighters searching the grounds. LAFD says it got a call to the residence in Laurel Canyon because someone smelled smoke. We’re told everyone inside the house had been evacuated by the time firefighters arrived and started going through the 50,000 sq. ft complex. Good news for Jared — who was home at the time, we’re told — firefighters found nothing burning. No fire. No damage. No messy insurance claims. No deaths. Win-win-win-boo.

Batman star Val Kilmer has been seen struggling to speak with a severely swollen tongue – after denying he has cancer. Last month, Val clarified rumours around his health, but now the actor shocked an audience in LA on Thursday night when he had  trouble speaking. The 56 year old took to the stage to explain that his tongue and swollen and he was still recovering. He didn’t explain what caused the swelling and dabbed saliva from his mouth while he joked with the audience. The actor explained that he’s had to cancel his tour of his one-man play version of Twain. Earlier this month, Michael Douglas — who beat stage 4 oral cancer in 2013 — was speaking at a Q&A in London when he talked about Val battling oral cancer. “Things don’t look too good for him,” the 72 year old said.

On This Day

• 1282 – Battle of Orewin Bridge: Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last native Prince of Wales, is killed at Cilmeri, near Builth Wells, in mid-Wales.
• 1972 – Apollo 17 becomes the sixth and last Apollo mission to land on the Moon.

Deaths

• 1964 – Sam Cooke, American singer-songwriter (b. 1931)
• 1996 – Willie Rushton, English cartoonist, author, and publisher, co-founded Private Eye (b. 1937)
• 2008 – Bettie Page, American model (b. 1923)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Jay Z (47), Marisa Tomei (54), Judd Apatow (49), Nicki Minaj (34), John Malkovich (63), Judi Dench (82), Tyra Banks (43), Jeff Bridges (67), Kim Basinger (63), Kirk Douglas (100), Ann Coulter (55), Teri Hatcher (52), Dominic Monaghan (40), Kenneth Branagh (56), Beau Bridges (75), Sinead O’Connor (50), Donny Osmond (59), Margaret Cho (48), Little Richard (84), Frankie Muniz (31) and Nicole Appleton (42).

Next week peeps!

Welcome all to the first Dead Pool Newsletter of December!!! As per usual, I do a bit of housekeeping and go through each of your lists with a fine tooth-comb and award points for all those dead people I missed throughout the year. I thought I’d been rather good at not missing anyone, however, I was very wrong! But before we get onto that, lets congratulate Julia for getting Margaret Rhodes for 59 points!

• Apologies to Julie and Martin, both guessed that TV Presenter Cliff Michelmore would die this year, 56 points each.
• Apologies also go to Alex & Eliza, the musician Scotty Moore died back in June, another 66 points awarded!
• Apologies to Laura, actress Lupita Tovar died in November at the age of 106, but she also listed her as her Woman, so 144 points!
• Apologies to Wombat, who correctly guessed cinematographer Douglas Slocombe who died at the age of 103 back in February.
• Apologies to Luke, chemist Adam Bielañski died in September at the age of 103.

Points awarded all round!! So, that changed a few positions on the league table with only four weeks to go!!!  I hope I don’t need to remind you that you should be working on your list for 2017!!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Bernard Gallagher, 87, British actor (Casualty, Crown Court, Downton Abbey).
• John Mansfield, 108, British centenarian, oldest man in the United Kingdom.
• Keo Woolford, 49, American filmmaker and actor (Hawaii Five-0), complications from a stroke.
• Andrew Sachs, 86, German-born British actor (Fawlty Towers, Coronation Street, Hitler: The Last Ten Days), dementia.
• Margaret Rhodes, 91, British writer, cousin of Elizabeth II.
• Alice Drummond, 88, American actress (Awakenings, Ghostbusters, Where the Heart Is), complications from a fall.
• Peng Chang-kuei, 97, Taiwanese chef, inventor of General Tso’s Chicken, pneumonia.
• Jim Delligatti, 98, American entrepreneur, creator of the Big Mac.
• Don Calfa, 76, American actor (The Return of the Living Dead, Weekend at Bernie’s, Me, Myself and I).
• And an airplane full of Brazilians.

In Other News

Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the Moon, has been evacuated from the South Pole after falling ill. The 86-year-old former astronaut was visiting Antarctica in a tourist group and was evacuated to New Zealand. He has fluid in his lungs but is responding well to treatment, a statement on his website said. He is being kept overnight for observation. Mr Aldrin’s manager Christina Korp, who accompanied him, said he was in good spirits. She described the last 24 hours as “gruelling”, posting a picture on Twitter of Mr Aldrin giving the thumbs up while being lifted on a stretcher.

Ex-youth football coach Barry Bennell, who is at the centre of a sex abuse scandal, has been taken to hospital after being found unconscious. The convicted sex offender was found at an address in Knebworth Park, Stevenage on Friday, Thames Valley Police said. The force said it was called to a “fear for welfare” incident and the 62-year-old was still in hospital. Bennell was named last week by several former footballers who alleged they were abused as children. Five police forces are now investigating claims of historical abuse. Bennell, who also worked for Manchester City, Stoke and junior teams in north-west England and the Midlands, was given a four-year sentence for raping a British boy on a football tour of Florida in 1994 and a nine-year sentence in 1998 for 23 offences against six boys in England. He was jailed for a third time in 2015 after admitting abusing a boy at a 1980 football camp in Macclesfield. Bennell was said to have moved out of his home in Milton Keynes when the new allegations came to light.

Kanye West is reportedly back at home more than a week after he was admitted to hospital with exhaustion. According to multiple reports in the US, the rapper left UCLA Medical Centre in Los Angeles with wife Kim Kardashian and his doctor, Michael Farzam. The 39-year-old was admitted to hospital last Monday suffering from “temporary psychosis due to sleep deprivation and dehydration”. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) responded to a report of a disturbance last week but later said it was a “medical emergency”. The rapper was admitted to hospital a day after he cancelled his Saint Pablo tour after a series of rants on-stage.

And finally, Emma Morano, who just turned 117 years old, says she doesn’t want to celebrate her birthday, but people came from all over the world to see her anyway. When she was born, Umberto I was still reigning over Italy, Fiat had only just been established and Milan Football Club was still a few weeks off creation. Looking back on a life which has not only spanned three centuries but also survived an abusive marriage which started with blackmail, the loss of her only son and a diet which most would describe as anything but balanced. Ms Morano, the oldest of eight siblings, all of whom she has outlived, was born on 29th November 1899 in the Piedmont region of Italy. This year, she officially became the world’s oldest living woman after American Susannah Mushatt Jones died in May. She is also officially the last person still living born in the 1800s. Ms Morano’s longevity, she admits, is partly down to genetics – her mother reached 91 and several sisters reached their centenary – and partly, she says, down to a rather unusual diet of three eggs – two raw – each day for more than 90 years. It was a regime she took up as a young woman, after the doctor diagnosed her with anaemia shortly after World War One. These days, she has cut down to just two eggs a day, and a few biscuits. Let’s all wish her a very happy birthday!

On This Day

• 1791 – The first edition of The Observer, the world’s first Sunday newspaper, is published.
• 1872 – The crewless American ship Mary Celeste is found by the Canadian brig Dei Gratia. The ship had been abandoned for nine days but was only slightly damaged.
• 1954 – The first Burger King is opened in Miami.

Deaths

• 1642 – Cardinal Richelieu, French cardinal and politician, Chief Minister to the French Monarch (b. 1585)
• 1850 – William Sturgeon, English physicist, invented the electric motor (b. 1783)
• 1902 – Charles Dow, American journalist and publisher, co-founded the Dow Jones & Company (b. 1851)
• 1993 – Frank Zappa, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1940)
• 2015 – Robert Loggia, American actor and director (b. 1930)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Ben Stiller (51), Woody Allen (81), Ozzy Osbourne (68), Julianne Moore (56), Don Cheadle (52), Britney Spears (35), Jon Stewart (54), Bette Midler (71), Ed Harris (66), Randy Newman (73), Joel Cohen (62), Lucy Liu (48), Billy Idol (61), Mandy Patinkin (64), Amanda Seyfried (31), Ridley Scott (79), Nelly Furtado (38), Brendan Fraser (48), Bill Nye (61), Judd Nelson (57), Diane Ladd (84), Tom Sizemore (55) and Daryl Hannah (56).

Next week peeps!

Welcome to a busy week for the Dead Pool! A stalwart name on many a list has finally    passed away, Fidel Castro died at the age of 90. This gives 60 points to Lee, Laura, Mark, Dave, Wendy, Sarai, Stu, Millie and Paula. Strangely enough, nobody had him down as a Cert. This has changed the league table somewhat, we have a new points leader and with just over a month to play, it’s very close at the top.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Peter Sumner, 74, Australian actor (Ned Kelly, Star Wars, Heartbreak High).
• Florence Henderson, 82, American actress (The Brady Bunch) and singer (Fanny), heart failure.
• Fidel Castro, 90, Cuban politician, Prime Minister (1959–1976), President (1976–2008).
• Ron Glass, 71, American actor (Barney Miller, Firefly, Lakeview Terrace).
• David Hamilton, 83, British photographer, suspected suicide.

In Other News

US rapper Kanye West has been taken to hospital following an emergency services call. A police spokesperson said they had received a “disturbance call” on Monday afternoon, but did not name the singer. The disturbance was later deemed a medical incident, he said, and the fire department responded. A spokesman for the LA Fire Department said an unnamed man had been taken to hospital for “further assessment”. Further details of the incident naming West varied in conflicting reports from multiple news sources. NBC News said officers had been responding to a “medical welfare call” and the decision to hospitalise West was for his own health and safety, citing “multiple authorities familiar with the case”. Gossip website TMZ said that West was taken to hospital for “psychiatric evaluation” and had been seeking treatment for “severe sleep deprivation”. Before news broke of West’s hospital treatment, Kardashian West’s mother, Kris Jenner, spoke to US media about the rapper’s reasons for cancelling his shows. “He’s exhausted, he’s just really tired. He’s had a gruelling tour and it’s been a grind so he just needs some rest,” she told US TV show Extra. The rapper had cancelled all remaining dates on his current tour after abandoning a Sacramento performance at the weekend. He had performed just three songs on Saturday night, before embarking on an unscripted rant, criticising Facebook, Jay Z and Hillary Clinton. He criticised Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg for failing to give him $53m (£42.5m) to get out of debt and said he was hurt that Jay Z failed to visit his family after last month’s robbery. West then appeared to suggest that Jay Z employed hit men, saying: “Jay Z, I know you got killers, please don’t send them at my head.” “Get ready to have a field day, press, because the show’s over,” he said, as he dropped his microphone and walked out. His promoter, Live Nation, has announced refunds for all tickets from the show.

The former British middleweight champion Nick Blackwell was in a “stable condition” in hospital last night after he was taken ill having reportedly been involved in a sparring session. Blackwell had retired from competitive boxing after recovering from being put into an induced coma following March’s fight against Chris Eubank Jnr, where he collapsed shortly after being stopped. The 26-year-old from Trowbridge was found to have suffered a bleed on the skull following that fight, but woke without requiring an operation and made encouraging progress. Although Blackwell had his boxer’s licence removed by the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) after his ordeal, he retained a trainer’s licence. The BBBofC general secretary, Robert Smith, confirmed on Saturday evening that Blackwell was in hospital. “We are investigating this matter and it will be fully looked into, but it is very early days. We understand that Blackwell was sparring some time this week and he has undergone a procedure. We don’t know exactly what the procedure was yet. We have spoken to a number of people about this and we will be putting the full facts together.”

On This Day

• 176 – Emperor Marcus Aurelius grants his son Commodus the rank of “Imperator” and makes him Supreme Commander of the Roman legions.
• 1835 – James Pratt and John Smith are hanged in London; they are the last two to be executed for sodomy in England.
• 1895 – At the Swedish–Norwegian Club in Paris, Alfred Nobel signs his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after he dies.

Deaths

• 1852 – Ada Lovelace, English mathematician and computer scientist (b. 1815)
• 1895 – Alexandre Dumas, French novelist and playwright (b. 1824)
• 1934 – Baby Face Nelson, American criminal (b. 1908)
• 1978 – Harvey Milk, American lieutenant and politician (b. 1930)
• 2010 – Irvin Kershner, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1923)
• 2011 – Ken Russell, English actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1927)
• 2011 – Gary Speed, Welsh footballer and manager (b. 1969)
• 2014 – P. D. James, English author (b. 1920)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Miley Cyrus (24), Mark Ruffalo (49), Goldie Hawn (71), Joe Binden (74), Scarlett Johansson (32), Jamie Lee Curtis (58), Christian Applegate (45), Tina Turner (77), Sarah Hyland (26), Bo Derek (60), John Larroquette (68), Rita Ora (26), Bjork (51), Boris Becker (49), Carly Rae Jepsen (31),  Terry Gilliam (76), Billy Jean King (73), Natasha Bedingfield (35), Peter Facinelli (43) and Ming-Na Wen (53).

Next week peeps!

Afternoon all, welcome to spot the dead celebrity week. Maybe I’m being a little cruel and uneducated, but fuck me, who are these people? Six more weeks to go and all to pay for.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Leon Russell, 74, American Hall of Fame musician (The Wrecking Crew) and songwriter (“Tight Rope“).
• Lisa Lynn Masters, 53, American actress (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The Girl in the Book, Gossip Girl), apparent suicide by hanging.
• Sharon Jones, 60, American singer (Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings), pancreatic cancer.
• Yevgeni Lazarev, 79, Russian-American actor (Iron Man 2, The Sum of All Fears, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare), cardiac arrest.

In Other News 

Restaurant critic AA Gill has revealed he has been diagnosed with the “full English” of cancers. The illness prompted his engagement to his partner of 23 years, Nicola Formby, with whom he has two children. Doctors found he had cancer, which has spread from his lungs to other parts of his body, after he went for an X-ray when people noticed he had lost weight. Gill, 62, who is having chemotherapy, said he does not “feel cheated” and has been “very lucky” in his life. The columnist, who is restaurant and TV critic for the Sunday Times, told the paper: “I’ve got an embarrassment of cancer, the full English. “There is barely a morsel of offal not included. I have a trucker’s gut-buster, gimpy, malevolent, meaty malignancy.” Doctors found he had a smoking-related cancer which had spread from his lungs – despite him giving up smoking 15 years ago. The illness has meant he is unable to ride a bike because one tumour affects his balance and he has been banned from flying because he cannot risk infections. Gill told readers of his column he was revealing his diagnosis because chemotherapy can alter the way things taste, adding: “If ever things start tasting like licked battery terminals, I’ll tell you.” Gill said he had visited a private doctor and paid for his own X-rays, but wanted to go back into the NHS because of the “connection it brings”. He told the newspaper: “My father would say he didn’t want to die in the trench, and I don’t want to die in a trench in Harley Street.”

Tara Palmer-Tomkinson has told how she feared she was going to die when doctors revealed she had a brain tumour. The 44-year-old former “It girl” has received treatment for the non-malignant growth in her pituitary gland since January and said it had now cleared. She told the media: “I went to the doctors to talk about my latest blood test results when I got back from skiing in January. I said: ‘What does this mean? Can you translate it?’ And the doctor said: ‘As I suspected, you have a brain tumour’.” “I got terribly frightened. I started thinking, ‘I’m going to die, I’m going to die. I’ve only got a couple of weeks to live.’ Stuff like that.” Palmer-Tomkinson, who has battled drug problems in the past, also said the blood tests found she was suffering with an auto-immune disease which had caused tiredness, joint pain and acute anaemia. So nothing to do with cocaine then..

An 89-year-old Canadian has made headlines for digging his own grave. “I love digging,” Jimmy Kickham, from Prince Edward Island, told CBC News, saying he feels pride in his personal project. Mr Kickham, who owns a construction business, has been digging graves and trenches for more than 60 years. “One day I just thought I’d do my own if I lived to be 90,” Mr Kichkam explained. He is in good health but turns 90 on Thursday. “I love digging. Just one of those things that gets into your system. It’s just work. Money. No matter what they wanted dug, I could do it,” he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Mr Kichkam still works on most days, using the same earth mover that he bought 45 years ago. Eric Gallant, a maintenance worker for the St Alexis church in Rollo Bay, said he had never come across anything like it. “It’s something else. That’s one of a kind, I figure,” he said. “The only thing that’s missing is his casket.” “And me!” Mr Kickham quipped.

On This Day

• 1947 – The Princess Elizabeth marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, who becomes the Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey in London.
• 1985 – Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released.
• 1990 – Andrei Chikatilo, one of the Soviet Union‘s most prolific serial killers, is arrested; he eventually confesses to 56 killings.
• 1992 – In England, a fire breaks out in Windsor Castle, badly damaging the castle and causing over £50 million worth of damage.
• 1998 – The first module of the International Space Station, Zarya, is launched.

Deaths

• 1910 – Leo Tolstoy, Russian author and playwright (b. 1828)
• 2006 – Robert Altman, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1925)
• 2015 – Peter Dimmock, English sportscaster and producer (b. 1920)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Rachel McAdams (38), Owen Wilson (48), Jodie Foster (54), Prince Charles (68), Meg Ryan (55), Jimmy Kimmel (49), Danny DeVito (72), Whoopi Goldberg (61), Larry King (83), Maggie Gyllenhaal (39), Linda Evans (74), Martin Scorsese (74), Gerard Butler (47), Anni-Frid Lyngstad (71), Beverly D’Angelo (65), Calvin Klein (74), Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (58), Lauren Hutton (73), Martha Plimpton (46), RuPaul (56), Delroy Lindo (64), Sophie Marceau (50), Missi Pyle (44), Chad Kroeger (42) and Condoleezza Rice (62).

Next week peeps!