The 2010 Christmas Celebrity Death Cull Thread!

Who shall be shuffling off this mortal coil over the festering period? As is traditional, I will start with Jimmy Saville (who, I suspect, is becoming the new Queen Mother and refusing to die). Possibly Eric Sykes (but I hope not). Paul Gascoine has to be worth a shot, especially now Amy Whinehouse seems to have grown up a bit.

Who else?

Michael and Kirk Douglas.

Ooh, Julian Assuage (sp?). That one might be worth putting a fiver on.

^ Hope that's not leaked information.

Michael and Kirk Douglas in the same incident? Father and Son jousting tournament possibly?

You have a right to know, OR.

The Thatcher. Fucking hope so, anyway.

Probably Captain Birdseye, Sara Lee, Ben and Jerry as well. Bernard Mathews went recently, and I've noticed that when someone from one particular branch of an industry (ie; frozen food) or arts goes, others in the same branch tend to follow.

JT beat me to it! Rita Sullivan on Corrie :D

Bernard Manning

Ronnie Biggs

I've always had problems telling Bernards Manning and Mathews from one another, actually.

Aretha Franklin

Sadly, Patrick Moore (I've decided to forgive him his distinctly dubious politics), David Attenborough (short illness round about September time, I reckon), Tony Benn (midsummer) and Rolf Harris (November).

Kim Jong-Il.

Bigmal - auto-erotic asphyxiation, hanging in a wardrobe wearing a priest's robe with a photo of a Magimix glued to the end of his love-haggis.

*vomits*

Nick Clegg. Tomorrow.

Incidentally, I mean that the wardrobe will be wearing a priest's robe, not that Bigmal will. I wouldn't want to suggest that he's weird or anything.

Deleted Post

OK, first death of the season - Tom Walkinshaw - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Walkinshaw. Involved in rugby and F1, one time owner of the Arrows team.

Any other suggestions? I reckon we stop taking entries at the end of the week.

Simon Cowell!

Prince Philip

They're starting early this year! Blake Edwards - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_Edwards

Captain Beefheart.

Deleted Post

Anthony Howard as well. They're dropping like flies.

Brian Hanrahan! :O

Elisabeth Beresford. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12079067

Elizabeth Beresford stole my idea - many years ago I wrote an outline of a story about some furry uterus-shaped creatures who lived on Wimbledon Common, called the Wombles (pronounced 'Woom-les'). I happened to mention this to her at a lunch party held by a leading literary agent, and the following week the first Wombles story - complete with changed pronunciation to avoid awkward questions from impressionable children) appeared. The whole gynaecological slant of the story - which was a serious metaphysical study of contemporary attitudes and social interaction - was abandoned, in favour of puerile nonsense about litter collection. So unfair.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12052144

Teena Marie

Fuck me , just got up and heard that Rolf Harris is dead.

http://www.didtheydie.com/morgue/rolf_harris.html

Bobby Farrell
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12094005

Didn't Bobby Farrell not actually sing in Boney M? Fairly sure they got someone else in to sing on the records, Milli Vanilli Style.

Incidentally, today is the anniversary of the deaths of Robert Boyle (clever bloke), Maureen Starkey (Ringo's missus), Mary Wesley (Camomile Lawn), Artie Shaw (Jazzman), Saddam Hussein (walrus impersonator) and Ling Ling (panda).

It'd also be Rudyard Kipling's birthday, only he died in 1936. Other births on this day: Titus (emperor), John Milne (seismograph inventor), Bo Diddley (rock and roll god), Patti Smith (punk god), Jay Kay (notable hat enthusiast and environment hypocrite) and Tiger Woods (tiger and golfist).

Jean Simmons

Who?

Oh, an actor. Died in January, apparently, so she's probably relatively unlikely to be subject to a festive death.

Bonnie Tyler.

I keep trying to hide her body but... every now and then she falls apart.

Chuck Berry

Is a bit ill.

Anne Francis - woman from bestest film ever Forbidden Planet, dropping dead hot on the heels of her co star Leslie Neilson.

Goodbye Keyser Söze .... Pete Postlethwaite

^ A truly fine actor. RIP.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/actor-pete-postlethwaite...

Chuck had a funny turn on stage apparently. Pete, that is awful, a great actor.

BrrrRapDapDappaDaaaaaaaaaaaaargh....

Gerry Rafferty RIP - http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jan/04/gerry-rafferty-obituary

Mick Karn

http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/very-sad-news-re-japan-bassist-m...

This is waay too many for the start of 2011.

Dick King-Smith

Dick King-Smith

:'(

Almost Gordon Ramsay..... http://uk.news.yahoo.com/1/20110103/ten-ramsay-held-at-gunpoint-by-gan...

Broadcast's Trish Keenan. Very sad.

Shit. That's really sad. Only heard yesterday she was seriously ill, but the statements about her family asking for privacy didn't sound too good.

Very sad indeed. :(

that is sad... she had contracted swine flu... what a waste

Grim news. Rest in peace.

Susannah York, actor

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12200725

That's sad - If I remember correctly she was always fairly politically sound. I saw her at a demo/rally many years ago when I used to attend such things.

Norman Taylor died on Saturday, the guy who discovered that pointing a camera at its monitor looks really really cool, and used it for the Dr Who title sequence.
http://tech-ops.co.uk/next/2010/11/norman-taylors-story-of-dr-who/

Well, it's not Christmas 2010 any more, so it's a bit late for the speculation, but this one doesn't seem all that unlikely:

Steve Jobs.

John Barry :-(

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12321610

When I got married we signed the register with 'Somewhere in Time' playing. This version 'tho: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkKue_MEnkk

Gary Moore.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMhfo7nWukA

Didn't he have Peter Green's old guitar?

*pops out with some housebreaking equipment*

it was a long term 'loan' from Green, doing Moore a favour, then Moore gave Green a £100 for it!!! Gary Moore allegedly recently sold it to an American dealer for $1.2million... several people have confirmed this...

*pops back without guitar, drinks heavily and cries*

Today's death (extremely sad) is Nicholas Courtney, the Brig from Dr Who.
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/02/22/nicholas-courtney-passes-this-d...

That is a bummer.

Is he the first of the assistants to die?

No, The guy who played Harry Sullivan died in the early 80's. The woman who played Barbara from the first few stories died in 1993. I think the others are still alive though.

Ah, I forgot about Barbara, didn't know about Sullivan. That's really not bad though for something that started nearly 50 years ago.

Actually the woman who played Katarina is dead too. She was also one of the few companions to die onscreen. She's in a story which is entirely lost so I've no idea what she looks or sounds like.

I just had a thought. With the 50th anniversary coming up, they really should do something special. I can't see them trying to get all the doctors together now three of them are dead, plus Tom and Colin Baker both being almost unrecognisable since they discovered pies. What do you think of this - a shortlived doctor. Maybe a regeneration that doesn't "take". I know he's a bit old compared with recent doctors, but William Shatner. He tends to play roles with something of a mania and would be a lovely tie up with Star Trek.

Just an idea.

A quick scan of the list of companions on Wiki shows me that I forgot about Kamelion. This was the robot which only appeared in two stories with Peter Davison because the guy who built it died just after he was introduced and no one else knew how to control it. The bloke who did his voice is now dead too.

But yes, four dead out of 40 odd companions is pretty good. Possibly because the companions were generally younger members of the cast?

I'd love to hear William Shatner doing a song at the end of the special. :)

Katarina: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrienne_Hill

So that's what she looks like!

I've just found that a clip of Katarinas death still exists, plus that same clip has Nicholas Courtney in! WAN is nothing if not educational. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65gGWc0Gins

Todays obscure rock death is Eddie Serrato, drummer from the Mysterians. They had a bonkers singer who was called "?" and who claimed to be a time traveller who lived with dinosaurs.

You'll know this song, even if you don't know the band:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgfnCTp3p7U

Polly Styrene has cancer, apparently :(

Doctor Who 'Brigadier' Nicholas Courtney is dead.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12549622

old news I'm afraid Katebush...
posted yesterday at 8.30am by silent rob

It's a like 1960's psychedelic garage band massacre at the moment as Mark Tulin, bass player with the Electric Prunes kicks the bucket over the weekend.

Jane Russell - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12604858

Jah Woosh

http://www.reggae-vibes.com/concert/jahwoosh/jahwoosh.htm

I shall play a few of his tunes on Sunday's Revelation Time on Cambridge105 - 8pm-10pm, on 105fm.

It's a like 1960's psychedelic garage band massacre at the moment as Mark Tulin, bass player with the Electric Prunes kicks the bucket over the weekend.
Published by Silent Rob

Tulin had joined Corgan and the Smashing Pumpkins in 2009 as a temporary bassist. I'll have to drag out my vinyl copy of the first EP album... Too much to dream and get me to the world on time... classics

When I worked at the Record & Tape Exchange in the late 80s, Woosh was a regular visitor - he would come in with armfuls of his own records to sell, as would Bim Sherman.

In the traditional Jamaican marketing style I guess.

(You haven't got any stashed in a cupboard somewhere by any chance?).

Not sure if it's worse that Mark Tulin died, or that he played with Smithering Pipkins. Either way, "Underground" is the classic Prunes album.

Alice in Chains again prove theirselves to be the most depressingly bleak band on earth after their bass player from the grunge years Mike Starr is found dead yesterday.

Alice in Chains are still one of my all time favourite bands. Probably my favourite from back in the day.

I quite enjoyed how JOYLESS they sounded. They got pretty big back in the day, to the point of being in indie magazines and stuff as well as Kerrang.

I've no idea who is in the band these days since the singer is dead, and now at least one other.

On further reflection I recall that there has been only two occasions where I've had to turn a record off because it was making me feel physically ill. One was Kid A by Radiohead. The other was an Alice in Chains album. I think that's quite a successful achievement.

Michael Gough. Played Alfred in all the Batman films plus he was in Hammer Horror's Dracula and lots of other stuff. Naturally he was also in Dr Who in the story Arc of Infinity. There's generally a Dr Who death at least once a week these days.

Also this week Tsutomu Katoh, co-founder of Korg:

http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2011/03/rip-mr-tsutomu-katoh-founder-o...

I didn't hear about that BT, thanks. I'm looking foward to watching the video on that site later.

I only heard from Nochexxx -- he hasn't even got a Wikipedia page.

Jet Harris

For a moment there I read that as Jet Black - who, amazingly, is actually older!!

How ironic that Jet Harris should die on the same day that Cliff is in the news talking about eternal youth.

I've always been rather bored by the Shadows. They seem to take all the dancing energy and raucous glee of surf guitar music and turn it into a lot of guitars going "boooinnk" a bit anemicly and sadly. I don't quite know how they did it.
Still, it's very sad one of them has gone.

Don't forget Diamonds - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxLqUERvnTY&feature=related

The guitarists influenced by Hank are legion who then went on to influence other guitarist and so on...

Liz Taylor, well she was 79.

Loleatta Holloway and Fred Titmus as well - dropping like flies!!

Fred Titmus!

hopefully Half Man Half Biscuit will be doing a tribute.

Liz Taylor, well she was 79.

“The problem with people who have no vices is that you can be sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues”

Pinetop Perkins, one of the very last of the surviving pre-World War II bluesmen, pianist Pinetop Perkins backed many of the greatest names in the blues, including Sonny Boy Williamson and Muddy Waters, before becoming a star in his own right and outliving almost all of his contemporaries. he was 97.

Born in 1913 in Belzoni, a tiny settlement on the Yazoo River deep in the Mississippi delta.

That leaves David "Honeyboy" Edwards as one of the last (if not the last) original acoustic Delta blues players from that iconic era... Edwardse was a friend of Robert Johnson and claimed to have been present on the fateful night Johnson drank the poisoned whiskey that took his life.

I've got his autograph (Honeyboy's, not Ted's).

Isn't Honeyboy a coupla years younger than Ted?

I remember seeing David "Honeyboy" Edwards at the Boatrace a looooooong time ago ,my mate Mush took me along afterwards we smoked a few and watched Mush jam into the early hours

I don't think I've ever seen a Liz Taylor movie, though ironically I did record The Mirror Crack'd last week starring her - featuring the mysterious death of an actress. Coincidence?

...or is rishistar a sinister psychic killer?

Que ce que c'est?

That's easy for you to say.

Ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay.

Hearing rumours that Poly Styrene has died today. Anyone got a link?

Now confirmed :-(

http://www.nme.com/news/x-ray-spex/56316

SR, i'm disappointed in your lack of google use. It took two seconds: http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2011/04/x-ray-spex-singer-dead-at-53/

The notice only went on the Wikipedia death list about 45 seconds ago, with the NME link.

It was on google before then though via other outlets.

It wasn't on NME, wiki, BBC when I posted that. I did a yahoo search too but it didn't show anything I can access at work.

It shows that half an hour makes all the difference in reporting dead people these days. A bit like if the sun stopped working we wouldn't notice for 4 minutes because of the time lag.

I didn't mean to imply it had been there all along SR -- I couldn't see any confirmation at 9:30 so searched again out of interest.

No implication taken BT. Like you, I was waiting for comfirmation. And we shouldn't let that overshadow how sad it is.

I'm impressed how quickly it changed :) Like you say though, sad news.

:(

Poly in her pomp:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogypBUCb7DA

Very sad indeed - I almost burst into tears.

When they played the Corn Exhange in 1978, it was announced that "If there is any spitting, Mis Styrene will leave the stage" - there was but I can't remember if she went off for a bit or not.

^ My first gig. Sad news.

Sir Herny Cooper and Osama Bin Laden! Not at the same or in the same place.

Clive James has leukemia.

Whispering Ted Lowe.

This weeks extremely obscure death is Oliver Elmes. He designed the title sequence for The Good Life with the duck going round the flower, as well as title sequences for The Goodies, Top of the Pops, The BBC 2 logo and, of course, Sylvester McCoy era Dr Who.

I have never truly understood why the title of the Good Life says "Starring Richard Briars" then "WITH Felicity Kendal and Penelope Keith". Surely Felicity Kendal is as big as star as Briars if not more so?

But it was the 1970s, and she was a woman. Still is, in fact.

Yeah I know that, but it still annoys me. I know of quite a lot of people who wouldn't have watched the Good Life has she not been in it, this is still true today. :)

I actually always fancied Penelope Keith more.

With Briars, it was probably his agent who insisted on the billing. Showbiz, eh?

Cue Spinal Tap reference.

I actually always fancied Penelope Keith more.

+ 1

But... but... Felicity Kendal's so cute!

Who had the best bottom?

I rest my case.

I always thought Felicity overdid the doe-eyed cutesy look-at-me expression, and that she was trying a bit too hard. Penelope, on the other hand, was just all woman.

I was quite insightful as a 12-year-old :)

^ Agreed.

Also, Penelope knows how to handle a crocodile. You've gotta like that in a woman.

Unfortunately there appears to be a complete lack of Penelope Keith's bottom on the internet. But there is this:

Briers was by far the biggest name when the show was originally broadcast - apart from anything else he had starred in the film "Fathom" alongside Raquel Welch in 1967 (great film if you haven't seen it).

Felcity for me - phwoooooaaar!!

Briers was pretty much the only "name" in it when it was first shown. He'd played the lead in a few sitcoms going back into the mid 60s. I think The Good Life was Kendall's break into TV from theatre.

The Guardian scared me today with an article titled - 'A Tribute to Steve Reich'

Philip Solomon - not exactly a celebrity but important in his own way - http://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/psolomon.htm

Seve Ballesteros, only 54.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/may/07/seve-ballesteros-golf-pass...

Zsa Zsa Gabor, probably within the next 24 hours or so. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gossip/2011/05/zsa-zsa-gabor-pneumonia...

I wonder if this thread would work like the film Death Note. If I wrote down a Celebrity name on here would they die within a few weeks.

Let's all type "Ant and Dec" as many times as possible, just in case.

Ant and Dec.

ant and dec.

Like many people I keep a death list competion running with a collegue. He has Zsa Zsa and to our continual amusment she keeps getting fatally ill, given hours to live, then recovering again refusing to give him a point. I hope for his sake that she goes this time. I'm currently in the lead 4 nil this year after my Corinne Day, Norman Wisdom, Simon McCorkindale and Claude Choules run of luck.

Ant and Dec are both strongly rumoured to be insured against the death of the other one for millions and millions of pounds. I think the one who always stands on the left will go first. I still don't know which one is which.

Ant always stands on the left.
They are contracted out to do so.
Thing that makes me laugh is that they are constantly getting decked (forgive the pun) by drunks getting them mixed up.

Dana Wynter - female lead of the bestest and most creepy cold war paranoia film ever Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Coming less than a year after her co star Kevin McCarthey too.

"Big" George Webley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Webley

David Cameron.

The sun ain't gonna shine anymore, John Walker.

Dolores Fuller: girlfriend of Ed Wood, as played by Sarah Jessica Parker in the really good Tim Burton film. Again, it's one of those "I didn't realise she was still alive" things.

Randy 'Macho Man' Savage.....

All the good righteous celebrities i.e Chris Martin (Coldplay) will die and ascend to heaven tommorow and all the bad celebs e.g Arnie Schwarzenegger will die in 5 months time. This thread is done ;-]

Kenickie from 'Grease'.

Flick Colby - founder of Pan's People - 65.

Pan's People make me go a bit 'embarrassed dad'.

They built up from a trio to a sextet ;-]

I've been enjoying their "interpretive" routines on the TOTP reruns - it's quite amazing what passed for quality entertainment back in the day!!

Not actually Pans People, but one of my all time fave TOTP moments is Legs and Co doing a punk rock inspired dance to Sid Vicious: http://youtu.be/H9n0fjof9pc

Martin Rushent, Producer of Buzzcocks, Stranglers and Human league (amongst Others)

Roy Skelton - did the voice of Zippy and George from Rainbow, but also voiced all the Daleks for nearly 20 years!

*EXTERMINATE!*

It's never occurred to me until now how similar Zippy and the Daleks sound.

It's sort of an in joke with some fans, no one ever notices until you tell them it's the same voice actor - and then they can't stop noticing forever more.

I wonder, does the same voice actor do Jon Bentley (Gadget Show, Top Gear, Fifth Gear) and Gyles Brandreth (Countdown, Just a Minute, Tory Scum Party)? They sound and look very similar.

I don't usually bother to put every single death up, but while I'm here some other people related to Dr Who who've died this week are:

Donald Hewlett (The Claws of Axons and also appeared It Aint Half Hot mum)
Roger Hancock (agent to Terry Nation, bother of Tony),
Yolande Palfrey (Trial of a Time Lord and also Blake 7)
and finally John Mason who did the lights and set design for everything from the Two Ronnies to Box of Delights.

There's usually at least 3 or 4 Dr Who deaths a week.

It's like that chap with the deep throaty voice who narrated every single hollywood trailer for 20 years. No one realised it was the same person.

I vaguely remember hearing in some programme or another a few years back that there were five people who did the Hollywood trailer voiceovers. Presumably easy to track down by the trail of Woodbines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_LaFontaine
Is the one I'm thinking of. You're right - he wasn't the only one though, he just did an awful lot.

Got to love anyone with a taste for self-parody, especially in Hollywood.

Incidentally, Muhammed (as in the Prophet of Islam, not the bloke who runs the shop down the road) died on this day in 632.

The historical death list is almost as interesting as the contemporary ones. :)

Often is, I find, as you're quite often thinking "I never knew he/she/they lived that long ago!"

I notice that Andrew Gold has "slipped away"...

I dislike clicking on this thread, one 'cos it means someone is not around anymore and secondly the pedant in me says "hang on a min it is 2011."

I like clicking on it because it usually reveals a celebrity is dead - and I hate 99.9% of famous people. :-)

Dunno if he counts as a celebrity, but Jorge Semprún died yesterday. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge_Sempr%C3%BAn

I hear you JT but what about the fact that it is actually 2011 ;-) I also guess it depends on how one defines celebrity too.

I hadn't even noticed that until you pointed it out. Definition of celebrity is a factor - Muhammed probably doesn't count, even though he's certainly famous. I can't imagine him appearing on Celebrity Love Island any time soon, but you never know.

Carl Gardner, main singer from the Coasters, makes a break with tradition by dying of natural causes and not being shot or stabbed to death like at least half of the rest of his band.

Ryan Dunn from Jackass.

Simon Brint, check linky and it will become clear, well to most of you:

http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2011/06/20/13507/raw_sexs_simon_brint_di...

Cinnamon, the original Disapproving Rabbit, at the age of 13.

I disapprove

http://cuteoverload.com/2011/06/19/the-final-disapproval/

Clarence Clemons, of the E Street Band.

Like many people I keep a death list competion running with a collegue. He has Zsa Zsa and to our continual amusment she keeps getting fatally ill, given hours to live, then recovering again refusing to give him a point.

"She only awoke from a coma three weeks ago.
But it appears that ailing actress Zsa Zsa Gabor in back in good spirits and even capable of enjoying a glass of champagne as she celebrated her husband's 68th birthday yesterday."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2005995/Ailing-Zsa-Zsa-Ga...

Peter Falk AKA Columbo. Very sad but he has been very ill for quite a while.

Zsa Zsa's husband's 68th birthday?

Blimey, he's half her age!

Columbo...

Wake up Ted!

damn...

Has anyone else noticed that it's not Christmas anymore? I'm beginning to think that this thread might actually outlast 'name and shame' and 'old cambridge bands'.

I thought Janet Ellis was dead this morning, but once I'd had my coffee and turned up the resolution on my eyes it turned out the headline was "Blue Peter: Janet Ellis remembers" not "Blue Peter's Janet Ellis remembered." I'm not quite sure why they pulled her in to do the remembering, since she was one of the least memorable presenters, but I suppose she probably doesn't have much to do these days other than being listed as Sophie Ellis-Bextor's mum in every single interview and review with/of the weirdy-faced singer.

Right buster you're on the list Mister Man.

Anna Massey from Peeping Tom and Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy.

St Etienne sampled Peeping Tom to bits on So Tough so you'll know her voice if not her films.

Andrew Gold, passed away from? heart failure on June 3, 2011. aged 59... very good guitarist/pianist and had hits with Lonely Boy and Thank You for Being a Friend as well as session work in 70s. Liked his 1996 album recorded under a pseudonym, The Fraternal Order Of The All, "Greetings from Planet Love" on his own record label, QBrain Records. This album utilized a fake 1960s band, with original songs in the style of Gold's favorite 1960s bands, such as The Beatles, The Byrds and The Beach Boys. bit of fun. RIP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIR1QR5YEq8

fucking hell. there are a lot of deaths this year.

I think about 4 people are born a second depending on who you ask. The worlds population is increasing but not THAT quickly so I would guess that about 3 people die every second. That's quite a lot.

So at least a few more have passed on since you've read this post.

And a few more.

Any more? ;-]

There's a pile of them round Rob's place. That's how he knows.

Rumbled! The Bloody corpses get everywhere too. Always getting in the way of my wandering round the house and cleaning up.

Betty Ford, her of the clinic.

The forth person from my death list ten to die this year incidently.

And someone told me Kenny Baker died this morning. I thought it was the superstar of Time Bandits / bloke inside R2D2 but it turned out to be some Irish violin player with the same name.

Didn't one of the Time Bandits gang die recently?

Did Betty Ford die of drugs and drink? ;-]

A quick look on wiki shows that of the 6 dwarves in Time Bandits, two are sadly dead - one committed suicide, the other broke his neck in a fall. Kenny Baker is still with us, as is the one who played Jabba the Huts tail and the one who appeared in the Men Without Hats safety dance video.

Did Betty Ford die of drugs and drink? ;-]

Published by daggg

if she did at 92 it can be argued the drugs do work for her and fuelled her longevity...

The one I thought was quite recent was the one who committed suicide :-(

Also to add to the roster - an ex-guitarist from Motorhead from 84 to 95
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jul/10/wurzel-obituary-motorhead

I love Time Bandits so feel sad to know that any of them are dead.

Würzel had a fantastic Heavy Metal Amulett. I think he was with the band when Motorhead did Ace of Spades in the Young Ones kitchen.

Edit: Yes he was now I've actually read the obituary above. Doh.

Lucian Freud, a man who, in the words of my mum, spent his life painting "those horrid and ghastly pictures of those poor people looking so ugly".

Since he's dead all the papers are saying he was one of the most inventive and original painters of the last century. For once I'd agree with them.

Agreed - I think some of his stuff is stunning.

Excuse the boobage :)

Odd how things often seem to link up isn't it? I've spent much of this week reading about Stanley Spencer, going to see his stuff in the Fitzwilliam and reading over and over again how he was an influence on Freud and Bacon - now Freud comes into it yet again.

The question is, was he pushed, or did he slip?

Amy Winehouse 90 minutes ago?

Yep, think your right with that one. Death will always sell more records for you she maybe faking.

That's a yes then.

Sadly proving gs wrong in his post that opened this thread

Amy Winehouse is on wiki's recent deaths but not BBC or any other news yet. Damn the slow internet. I want to know for sure!

It's all over Sky news.

And another member of the 27 club!

Apparently her dad is on a flight in the US and doesn't know yet. URGH!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14262237

BBC is very slow which is why I'm not believing anything until I see it from them.

Deleted Post

Be quick and have a look at the 27 club on Wiki and see how her death is recorded. To late it has been taken down.

Whatever it was it seems to have gone - no mention of her
on there.

Was it this version?
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=27_Club&oldid=441024388

Actually quite gutted about Amy W. She may have been annoying and a bit thick, but she had the sort of voice that doesn't come along very often. In fact, I'd say the last female singer as good as her was Sarah Vaughan.

http://my-vipzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/amy-winehouse-before-...

drugs are bad, m'kay?

Now on BBC site

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14262237

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhgoXZDA7ig

To be quite brutally honest I can't ever remember hearing one of Ms Winehouse's records. I knew who she was from tabloid stories, I remember what she was like from appearances with chatshows and trashed appearences on Never Mind the Buzzcocks. She had a very memorable presense so I remembered her. I watched her once on Glastonbury and remember thinking that Soul music always leaves me completely cold, even a classic like What's Going On so that might be why.

I've never known anyone so famous who I've never actually heard their work before.

I've never liked soul, but she had a great jazz voice. I heard her do an unplugged set once and she was incredible.

I'm quite good at not hearing/seeing/otherwise experiencing the works of famous people. For example, I've never head a song by Justin Bieber. I hope this won't change - somehow I just know I wouldn't like it.

oh this is very sad. can't say i was a fan but she did have an amazing voice and presence. very sad indeed.

Like you BB, not a huge fan but amazing voice and I thought genuinely different. Interesting to read the comments on Twitter and people attempting to do the impossible and evaluate grief over Norway against a singer.

I still don't believe it. I mean, I saw the film of her dying in Serbia.

I'll get my coat.

Max the Rhino, star of Kenya's Ol Pejeta park was shot and killed by poachers on 30th June. He was featured in Stephen Fry's last chance to see.

This makes me feel much sadder than most deaths somehow. :(

http://youtu.be/enY9XybXNew

Bubba Smith. http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/blog/article/228934/police-academy-star-bub...

From the name, I always thought that he was actually the little black woman with the squeaky voice. At least I got one thing right.

Two rock deaths this weekend: Joe Yamanaka from the Flower Travellin Band and Marshall Grant who was Johnny Cash's bass player for about 30 years.

Robert Robinson tried to call Death's bluff, but it Death wasn't going for it.

Ah, would that it were, would that it were.

Stop the Week: Best Radio 4 programme ever.

Jerry Leiber and Nickulas Ashford, Ain't No Jailhouse High Enough?

David Honeyboy Edwards, believed to have been the oldest surviving member of the first generation of Delta blues singers, died on Monday at his home in Chicago. He was 96.

^
I guess he didn't wake up this morning, eh.

Tony Sale, Colossus rebuilder at Bletchley Park

Honeyboy Edwards, eh?

*dusts off signed photo of him and consults ebay*

He did a couple of gigs at the Boat Race and a few people I've spoken to today have said that he was both a) bloody good and b) very kind and friendly.

^
I guess he didn't wake up this morning, eh.

Published by sam i

http://tinyurl.com/5c5emx ...

Bert Jansch passed...founding member of the band Pentangle and a well-known guitarist in his own right...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOIt7fOgeFk

also Marv Tarplin, guitarist died, 70... who he you may asked... the beautiful guitar work on Tracks of my Tears, Marv, he was one of the the original members of the Miracles (with Smokey Robinson) and co wrote several of the hits including Tracks of my tears, My Girl Has Gone, Going to a Go-Go and The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage. The guitarist also co-wrote I'll Be Doggone and Ain't That Peculiar for Marvin Gaye in the mid-60s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coh7n6dYj5Y

classic song...

Haven't heard of Marv, but what a great credit list.

Sad about Jansch though, only got into Pentangle fairly recently but have very much enjoyed their music during the last few years. From a few personal anecdotes on twitter he seemed a very lovely, funny man too.

Pentange are another one of those fantastic bands who successfully polerize opinion. People either love them or think they are the epitome of tedious hippy accoustic noodling. I listen to them occasionally and quite enjoy them when I do.

Graham Dilley!!

Well, it's not Christmas 2010 any more, so it's a bit late for the speculation, but this one doesn't seem all that unlikely:

Steve Jobs.

Published by Wrongfellow at 9:47am on Wed 19th January 2011.

WOOHOO I WIN!

Also passing on today is Charles Napier. One of those character actors who's been in everything but most people will know him as Tucker McElroy in the Blues Brothers or as Adam in the Space Hippies episode of Star Trek.

Mikey Welsh, bass player from Weezer. Unexpected.

Also this weekend we had George Baker who was in three bond films, played the second Number 2 in the Prisoner and (obviously) was in the Dr Who story Full Circle. His entry on imdb reads like a page of the radio times.

Just found out, Charles Napier, 10 days ago.

I said him three posts ago. :p

Danny Horton, last weekend. He was British Cycling road race champion in 1970.

I'm just having a thick day, toady.

Gaddafi is being reported as having been captured and is apparently either injured or dead.

That's a shame. He was such a nice bloke.

Raymond Brown is there live ;-]
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Breaking-news-Gaddafi-captured-an...

Hmm... I read the other day that Gaddafi had quite an extensive tunnel network under Libya... sounds perfect for Raymond, don't you think?

IS LIBELLOUS!

Gaddiff is dead - official.

Jimmy Savile.

As mentioned in the first post!

"Veteran TV and radio personality Sir Jimmy Savile will have the honour of lighting up Ilkley for Christmas for the third time. http://www.ilkleygazette.co.uk/news/9329840.Jim_ll_switch_it_/

Don't reckon.

^Unless they try to reanimate him like Frankenstein`s monster with 100,000 volts in Ilkley and light it up that way ;-]

I can just imagine the noise he'd make if they did. "OoOOOooooOOOOOOoOoHHHhhhHHH!" like he used to do on Jim'll Fix It.

His jewellery would arc and make more of a jingle jangle with sparks ;-]

This thread has given me inspiration on who to dress up for halloween ;-]

Now then, now then, jewellery jewellery ;-]

Cory Smoot, guitarist from Gwar, possibly the second most amusing Heavy Metal Band of all time, just behind Manowar.

Sad, more so because band will probably get someone else to wear his costume and pretend nothing has happened.

We also had Leonard Stone this week who played Violet Beauregarde's father in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He spent much of the 60's and 70's appearing in bit roles in Lost in Space, Mash, The Invaders, Land of the Giants and Hawaii Five-O.

Moogy Klingman. He was a keyboard player who played with or had his songs recorded by a lot of famous people.

I've never heard of him but I've included him because he had the best name for a keyboard player I've ever seen.

Hall of Cosgrove-Hall fame, creators of Dangermouse

As well as Basil D'Oliveira - who I started a separate thread about as I had no idea about his historical significance

Hall of Cosgrove-Hall fame, creators of Dangermouse

It wouldn't be right and proper if I didn't bore everyone with links to recently dead people and Dr Who. Cosgrove Hall made animated story Scream of the Shalka and have animated missing episodes of 60's stories for DVD.

Lynn Margulis, inventor of the symbiosis theory of mitochondria and chloroplasts, and co-inventor of the "Gaia hypothesis":

http://science.howstuffworks.com/dictionary/famous-scientists/biologis...

Unfortunately she seemed to be going a bit dotty in recent years:

http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/worst-paper-of-the-...

Ross MacManus, one of those poor people who spends a lifetime making music but is sadly only remembered for writing the music for an advert, in this case "R Whites Lemonade - I'm a secret lemonade drinker".

Well to be fair he is also remembered as being Elvis Costello's dad!

R Whites was a classic.

It was quite clever of them to show the same advert every day for a decade then suddenly decide to change the wife into Ronnie Corbett.

I stand corrected about Elvis Costello's dad - I didn't know that.

I was under the impression that Margulis only supported the Gaia hypothesis rather than invented it, but it appears she had a bit more input than that. I quite like the theory, personally - its scientific value may be a little shaky in parts, but if it inspired Feynman to come up with such a great term as "cargo cult science" it's ok by me.

The caterpillars and butterflies stuff (which I believe she did in fact support, rather than invent) is fairly obviously on the madder side of evolutionary biology, but where would we be without half-mad old ladies with bizarre theories?

I did quite a lot of essays on Lovelock and Gaia when at university. It's a very good thing to write about because you can easily digress into Deep Earth Ecology, spiritualism and all the interesting characters and ideas involved with it.

The Gaia hypothesis is one of those ideas that I just find really interesting to think about, regardless of whether there's actually any evidence for it or not.

Panspermia's another one. What a brilliant thought! It's just a pity there's no real reason to think it's actually true. :(

As for the caterpillar/butterfly hybridization rubbish: no, she didn't invent it, but she did somehow manage to "fast-track" it into a published paper without having to survive any of that awkward peer-review nonsense...

"The Gaia hypothesis is one of those ideas that I just find really interesting to think about, regardless of whether there's actually any evidence for it or not." Me too.

Ken Russell, 84, Director

Harry Morgan, think he was in High Noon as well as Mash.

Dobie Gray...

The annoying elf from Harry Potter? Banging, I hate that twat.

elfs are big in Northern Soul circles...

Ah, gone to join the In Crowd....

... out on the floor...

Drift Away is a good song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaPnOASOWIU

Christopher Hitchens

is RIP an appropriate thing to say about an Athiest? that would be the only possibility

Vaclav Havel - a playwright turned politician who was pretty fortunate in being able to oversea the transistion to democracy and then savvy enough for the split of Czechoslovakia to be done peacefully.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16236393

The man behind the light sabre Darth Vader scenes, Bob Anderson -

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/news/a357944/star-wars-sword-master...

Gary Ablett - ex-Liverpool and Everton player, aged 46.

Ronald Searle :-(

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16391857

^Sad news - I love Molesworth. Searles used to live on Mill Road, didn't he?

Not sure if they lived on the Mill Road JT ... I am sure that Ted can furnish us with this information ;-)

Molesworth - brilliant - all my old copies had fallen apart so I got the reprint of the "Compleet Molesworth" a couple of years ago and it still makes me laugh.

Bob Holness. Legend of quiztime TV, the first man to ever play James Bond and he who didn't play sax on Baker Street.

Can I have a R I P please Bob ;-]

Ronald Searle used to work in the shop that's the former Co-op on Mitcham's corner - indeed, it might have been the Co-op in those pre-war days too. In his Guardian obit it said that he was a box packer; a lady in the Haunted Bookshop said he was in accounts.

He was a fabulous cartoonist.

Bob Holness didn't play sax on Baker Street but i believe he was first actor to play James Bond (on the radio)

Deleted Post

I said both of those things above. :)

oops sorry :( teach me to read the whole thing before i comment