The 2011 Christmas Celebrity Death Cull Thread!

Since it's nearly Christmas I think we should treat ourselves to a brand new celebrity deathlist thread.

And what better way to start than Kim Jong-Il? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16239693

http://kimjongillookingatthings.tumblr.com/

If not much else he was very good at looking at things. The expressions of fear on the people behind him say all there is to know about the rest of him.

did you know...

that Kim Jong-il shot an amazing 11 holes-in-one to achieve an unprecedented 38-under-par game on a regulation 18-hole golf course - on his first try at golf...

Reports say each of his 17 bodyguards verified the record-breaking feat....

strangely enough the imperialist pig dog lazy western over seers of Guinness World Records decided not to ratify his alleged feat...

According to the official biography on the North Korean state web site, Kim Jong-il didn't defecate...

no shit...

He lured short people with a wonder drug that promised to make them tall, then kidnapped them...
Kim Hyun-sik, a former tutor to Jong-il, said the government handed out pamphlets to thousands of people selling a wonder drug that would make them taller. When they responded to the ad, they were sent away to "uninhabited islands in an attempt to end their 'substandard' genes from repeating in a new generation," Hyun-sik said.

that's a bit low down...

It's not that surprising that he died, really.

After all, they did say that he was Il.

(boom boom)

Where do you get this drug from Ted?

Usually I meet him just round the corner from 222.

eurgh, can't you change the thread title? or maybe change it in Jan. you *know* I hate that word.

Will this be the Shitmas no 1 ;-]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrJdhIqeJGM

Etta James on the way...
what a great singer...
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/music/news-and-interv...

I am waiting for the call...

"Handsome Dick" Manitoba is ahead of you on that score, Dick.

So lonely...

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eGNKnBN9S7g/TsMEGcokbEI/AAAAAAAAAoQ/JjRCY5oH...

Just for a change here's a story saying that a famous person is still alive, In this case soft rocker Jon Bon Jovi - one of those people who's chart success can be stastically linked to the size of their mullet:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jon-bon-jovi-death-275490

Troll

Aaaaaahah wooooaaaaaaahaaaaaaamsteeelalaaaaaav waaayay yaaaaahaaaaa wooooooaaaaaaaaahamsteeelaaaaav

Duke of Edinburgh, sometime before New Year? He's in the Papworth at the moment.

Nah JT - that lot are pretty indestructible.

He is 90, not much left in him yet. I think the Jubilee celebrations next year will polish him off and he'll go towards the start of 2013.

The Queen on the other hand, I think she's going to easily outlive her mum and stay on the throne so long that poor Charles isn't going to get a look in.

Cheetah died :(

Is there something Papworth isn't telling us?

Do you think Philip throws monkey poo at the Queen ;-]

Joe Bodolai, producer of Kids in the Hall and co writer of Waynes World. Wrote a lot of Saturday Night Live stuff but not the More Cowbell sketch.

Bob Holness.

(screw you Death Cull 2010 thread)

Quick everyone, bump the other one! ;)

He's now become Silent Bob

We meet again Mr Bond, and for the last time!

death to Death Cull 2010...

and Frederica Sagor Maas American playwright, screenwriter, memoirist and author died a few days ago...

I mention this as my sister read her book 'The Shocking Miss Pilgrim: A Writer in Early Hollywood' last year... Maas wrote that book In 1999, at age 99.

she was 111...

Ed makes a blunder ;-]
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/ed-miliband-in--blackbusters--gaffe.html

and lets look at this an 'a' and 'o' are at differing ends of the keyboard...

very ostute ted.

I would be surprised if Ed's in charge of his own twitter. Bet the work experience boy got sent home though.

Etta James

At last!

From the world of reggae - Winston Riley, artist and producer (after a couple of months in a coma having been shot in the head) and Errol Scorcher DJ/toaster.

Joining King Tubby, Peter Tosh, Carlton Barrett and the like by being shot to death as well.

Johnny Otis, the “godfather of rhythm and blues”, loads of albums and had an instinct for finding talent, he discovered Little Richard, Jackie Wilson, Hank Ballard — and Etta James. His son Shuggy is a phenomenal guitarist.

Dick Tufeld, the voice of the Robot on bestest, greatest ever 60's sci fi series and shitest, worst ever 1990's hollywood film remake Lost in Space.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Science_Fiction_Museum_and_Hall_of_F...
"Danger! Danger!"

Nicol Williamson - an actor who played Sherlock Holmes in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Father Morning in The Exorcist III and Badger in the 1996 film of The Wind in the Willows - died "in relative poverty" in Amsterdam overnight/yesterday, says the Torygraph.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/9036632/Excalibur-st...

Jimmy Castor, one of the daftest, and best, pieces of 70's funk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sovl5qIrOjM

Samuel Youd, aka John Christopher, author of my all time favourite children's adventure book The Tripods.

Also wrote a lot of cosy adult books about middle class characters struggling to adapt to the end of the world.

*Cries*

Whitney Houston:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-17001548

i knew this was coming.

Thought John Christopher had already died. And I always used to confuse him with John Wyndham. But yes, The Tripods was a trilogy that really left me wowed when I read it as a kid.

Well. a re-release of I will Always Love You, and alot more money for Dolly.

I'd play a Whitney tune to mark her passing but I don't possess any.

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I'm sure that I remember reading about a bloke who sued his neighbour for playing "I will always love you" over and over again at loud volume for months on end. The court case found that the bass notes of the song were very simple and repetitive and it was indeed scientifically irritating and therefore found in his favour. I can't find an article online. Anyone else remember this?

I do. I remember it because I cut out an article on it to show to my then girlfriend who used to play it all the fucking time.

Just spotted on Twitter: "I couldn't give a flying fuck about some crack-head who co-wrote a few album fillers. More important things going on in my life/the world."

Yes i remember that SR. I was never a fan so sympathised with the bloke. In fact any song played over and over again for months on end is doing to drive you up the wall.

I think that most people empathised with him because that song was number one forever and ever and played over and over again, then the boring slow moving film came out on video, then it was on TV, and we had to hear it again and again. It's like I never really liked the Jam and have come to loath them from sheer overexposure over the years.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2473913/Karaoke-singer-faces-fine-for-...

David Kelly - one of those actors that people always get in when they need a stereotypical Irishman. He was the builder O'Riley in Fawlty Towers and played Grandpa Joe in the rubbish Tim Burton version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Even though he's been in a ton of UK TV he has inexplibly never been in Doctor Who.

Michael Davis from MC5, meaning than now most of the band are now dead.

Doesn't that make them MC2 now, or have i missed someone?

Yep, only two left - unless you count the new blokes they drafted in when they reformed a few years back.

Frank Carson

Peter Halliday: played Dr Segal in UFO, various bit characters in Man in a Suitcase, The Avengers and The Tripods then spent 30 years playing Vicars on TV in everything from Goodnight Sweetheart to The Bill.

In Doctor Who (obviously) he was the voice of various aliens in loads of stories over the years including the Cyber Director in The Invasion and he was in all four episodes of the best ever story City of Death. Plus he was a vicar in Rememberance of the Daleks, just to challenge his range a bit.

Davy Jones from The Monkees.

That's really sad, I love the Monkees. :(

Only 66 too - not old at all by today's standards.

http://youtu.be/ornP4eeCyBI
Here is Davy doing his solo spot in the fantastic Monkees movie Head. He is very cute, a bit punchable, then at the end he has a quick chat with Frank Zappa with a cow.

It's that sort of movie.

I was never a fan, but they were interesting as (possibly) the first example of a manufactured boyband - and then went rogue and on to better things.

Genuinely sad. Before my time but we used to watch them post Saturday Swap Shop and I've drunkenly sung Day Dream Believer many a time...

Maurice de Muer, today at the age of 90. I'm probably the only one here who knows who he was.

"Ralph McQuarrie, the conceptual designer that created the look of characters such as Darth Vader, Chewbacca and R2-D2, and helped design sets and scenes for George Lucas has passed away at 82. From the article: 'The success of his Star Wars paintings launched a late feature film career for McQuarrie that included helping design such classics as Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T.: The Extra-terrestrial, Back to the Future, Cocoon, Total Recall, and the original TV series Battlestar Galactica.'"

For me, he was the spaceship designer who designed the ships for ET and Close Encounters. You can't really imagine ET without the ship making the rainbow at the end can you?

Robert Bernard Sherman, half of the Sherman brothers who wrote the songs for Mary Poppins, nearly all the Jungle Book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and so on.

Sadly they didn't write The Bare Necessities but they did do Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, and Chim Chim Cher-ee.

Dropping like flies today we also have Philip Madoc, who played the German U Boat captain in Dads Army as well as lots of other stuff. Been in Dr Who 4 times, plus one of the Peter Cushing Dalek movies.

Authentic Dr Who 6 volt battery powered ride-in Dalek. Soft inflatable body with a plastic base unit. A 6V-4AH rechargeable battery and charger are both included. 10 authentic Dalek phrases including 'Exterminate.' Was £199.99, now £99.99.

Go on, Silent Rob. You know you want one.

Ronnie Montrose the guitarist of Montrose. On the third of March.

Go on, Silent Rob. You know you want one.

People tend to buy me toy Daleks when they don't know what to get me for Christmas. So you can probably imagine how many of the things I have now. The star is a radio control one which says all sorts of dalek phrases as it trundles round the carpet.

But have you got one you could drive to work in (at 2mph)...?

What a busy week. Today we have Joan Taylor - one of those glamorous 1950's actresses who appeared in Ray Harryhausen films about stop motion monsters from space.

She was one of those who played characters who actually had a bit of a brain and didn't scream as much as you'd expect in that sort of film.

You'd think celebrities would be exempt from death ;-]

Following on from Ralph McQuarrie we have Jean Giraud this weekend. He was a comic book artist who designed most of the costumes and sets for Tron, plus he designed the Imperial Probe Droid in Empire Strikes Back.

These things normally come in threes, I wonder who's next? :(

Top film director chappy Pedro Almodóvar, according to rumour. The Guardian's heard so, but hasn't got confirmation yet.

^ Not true. It was Twitterers being twatterers again. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/318689/20120323/pedro-almodovar-dead...

Phew.

Jocky Wilson.

Here's the Dexy's TOTP appearence when TOTP put a photo of him behind the band, you know you're thinking of it.
http://youtu.be/5Ao9p3ou7-U

Warren Stevens, played the Doctor in Forbidden Planet - last of the main cast of the film to die.

He spent most of the 1960's appearing in Land of the Giants, Man from Uncle, Star Trek, The Twilight Zone and lots of stuff like that.

Jim Marshall of amp type fame

Sad news today as Barney McKenna, the only original living member of the Dubliners, dies suddenly.

This week we've had Greg Ham of Men at Work, Andrew Love from the Memphis Horns, Dick Clark from America and Peter Wragg who designed all the models and sets for Red Dwarf (as well as some Peter Davison era Doctor Who).

Well fuck me, I did not know about Jocky Wilson. Hre was Scotllands finest Sportsman ever.

Levon Helm...

Oh no. A GREAT drummer, truly great. And a wonderful singer too. I feel a big Band retrospective coming up this weekend...

had the Band albums out all day....

That's a bugger.

Bert Weedon

We are normal and we dig Bert Weedon.

Speak for yerself

You dig a pony.

Oops

Never liked ponies much after one sat down when I was on it and I rolled into some poo.

Thomas "Tommy" Marth, 33, who played saxophone on live tours with The Killers between 2008 and 2010 and on their albums "Sam's Town" and "Day & Age," was found dead on Monday.

He went and done shot himself in the head.

Charles Pitts, guitarist for Isaac Hayes. Yes: it's the bloke who goes "whaka whaka whaka" on the Theme from Shaft.

It's a Coloursound Wah, not a CryBaby for anyone interested.

Chris Etheridge, cofounder of the Flying Burritto Brothers with Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman co writing the some songs on the album with Parsons, was on the classic first album The Gilded Palace of Sin. He had been a session musician throughout his career, recording with many leading country-tinged acts, including Judy Collins, Johnny Winter, Ry Cooder, Leon Russell, Randy Newman, Linda Ronstadt, The Byrds and Jackson Browne.

This lovely chap, Lloyd Brevatt, from The Skatalites:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17952383

MCA from Beastie Boys after quite a few years with cancer I think. Still, quite young to go like that.

Deleted Post

George Murdock. Dr. Salik in the old school Battlestar Gallatica, one of the Admirals in Star Trek and played God in Star Trek V. And lots of other stuff.

I am beginning to think that CSI is like Casualty for American actors. ie, if you are any kind of actor of any standing at all then you've been in it at least once.

Maurice Sendak, author of best book ever Where The Wild Things Are. He was 83 and had recently suffered a stroke.

Noo Yoik Tahms says: "Maurice Sendak, widely considered the most important children’s book artist of the 20th century, who wrenched the picture book out of the safe, sanitized world of the nursery and plunged it into the dark, terrifying and hauntingly beautiful recesses of the human psyche, died on Tuesday in Danbury, Conn. He was 83 and lived in Ridgefield, Conn.

Roundly praised, intermittently censored and occasionally eaten, Mr. Sendak’s books were essential ingredients of childhood for the generation born after 1960 or thereabouts, and in turn for their children."

Vidal Sassoon. Until quite recently I thought he was a man who made Shampoo.

No, that was Siegfried.

When I was a hairdresser, Sassoon was the only celeb 'dresser for whom I had any respect whatsoever. All the rest of them are bullshitting shit-for-brains who trade on their own names rather than talent.

Carroll Shelby, creator of this >>>

...which, even if you have no interest in cars, is amusing even if only for the sheer lunacy of it.

Duck Dunn. Very sad.

Guy from Booker T and the MGs?

Yep.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-7QSMyz5rg

3,144,717 likes , plus us lot, I hope.

Oh to be a Mod, in the sixties.

Proper sixties like.

None of your seventies rubbish.

I'd have had to have been a rocker - they had much better bikes. Fancy meeting up on Brighton for a fight?

Handbags at dawn it is.
YOU ASKED FOR IT FERRET FACE

I think Mods are a bit better than rockers because the music was slightly better and Mods have only been revived 2 or three times since the 1960's (once with the Jam, another in the 90s, plus a brief one in the 2000s).

Rockers have been revived constantly for the last 40 years. Though they do certainly seem to be the less annoying ones in Quadrophenia.

Chuck Brown

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/may/17/chuck-brown-godfather-go-g...

Donna Summer.

Dum Dum Dom dom Dum Dum Dom dom Dum Dum Dom dom.

I don't usually give a shit one way or the other about slebs, but Donna Summer's death at a really quite young age is sad. I only know one of her songs, but the world would be worse off without "I Feel Love."

Bet you know 'Love to Love You Baby' too.

Nope. Just checked it on Youtube - don't remember ever hearing it before (though I did recognise a few bits that have been sampled.

Well, colour me incorrect. I thought that was one of those songs that was universally known, you know, undiscovered Amazonian tribes singing it and whatnot.

A sad day, she was musically very influential:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/may/17/donna-summer-dies-of-cance...

Well, colour me incorrect. I thought that was one of those songs that was universally known, you know, undiscovered Amazonian tribes singing it and whatnot.

I have an ability of which I'm very proud to have absolutely no knowledge of things that absolutely everyone else knows.

^ hardcore geek Mr JT :-)

Bikegeek. I can name every Tour de France winner, but I've never head of either Tuesday or the colour blue. You know those people who proudly claim not to have seen Star Wars? I'm not one of them - reason being I've never heard of Star Wars. Nor film. Nor stars. Nor wars. Nor WAN, for that matter. The Interwhat?

You must know "Hot Stuff" JT. Even Prince Charles showed he knew that one, though that was mostly because of The Full Monty.

He even grinded his royal loins to that song when meeting full monty cast ;-]

The Full Monty is another of those films I like - not so much because of the film, but because it's a neat little time capsule of another age and how people are affected by changing values.

Alan Oakley, designer of the Raleigh Chopper. Born in Nottingham, Oakley lived on Mill Road fora while.

(Just checked Hot Stuff and yes, I did know that one. Didn't know it was by her though.)

Is there anything more iconic and collectable than a Raleigh chopper?

Also today, Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi after being at deaths door for at least 3 years. Fact of the day: John Lyndon was nearly on that very plane but survived because he missed his flight. The other day I looked at the street in Lockerbie where the plane landed on google street. I wish I hadn't because even now it is plainly obvious how horrible a disaster it was by how many houses are missing. :(

Like many iconic and collectible things, the Raleigh Chopper was also a total pile of shit.

Peter Jones (45) drummer in Crowded House.

Fairly sure the drummer of crowded house hung himself about a decade ago. The wasa period when drummers of heavenly, lush and feeder all went the same way. This must be a new one, I can't say I'm an expert on the band.

You are right Rob he was the second drummer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18137221

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was a scumbag and the world is obviously better off without him, but I was most impressed by Scotland's "fuck you, we won't do what you tell us" attitude towards the USA when they let him go.

A great deal of odd things about the ill fated Pam Am 103 flight...

The Luqa-Frankfurt-Heathrow transfer of an invisible, unaccompanied suitcase which miraculously found itself situated in the perfect position in the hold of 103 to create maximum destructive effect having eluded no fewer than three separate country security checks. No evidence provided for any such luggage ever having left the ground in either Malta or Germany... Accusations of the key Crown witness having been bribed for testimony; serious question marks over some material evidence, including the very real possibility of the crucial fragment of PCB having been fabricated; discredited forensic scientists testifying for the prosecution... Crown witness testimony being retracted after the trial and, most worryingly, allegations of the Crown’s non-disclosure of evidence which could have been key to the defence.... Evidence supporting the alternative and infinitely more logical ingestion of the bomb directly at Heathrow was either dismissed at the trial or withheld from the court until after the verdict of guilty had been returned.

I can't help feel there are more guilty parties to be found and some dodgy goings on to be explained. One can only suppose the powers now want it all to go away.

Robin Gibb. Canker.

Boudicea Bambaataa. Wanker.

Happyted, I don't want to sound like I'm saying "shut up you stupid hippy, that's just a conspiracy theory" (reason being that you don't come across as either stupid or a hippy) but you have to admit that that does sound a bit like a conspiracy theory. Since you're not a stupid hippy, where did you come by the information? :-)

ha. you're just jealous because you have a weeny weiner and I have a schlong-like salami.

JT

an old university friend was a court clerk at the trial and has seen the transcripts and the submitted evidence that was 'overlooked' as it is presented to both sides and the court pre trail for scrutiny plus there have been two judicial meetings with the Scottish Law Commission. He views it as just that, over looked evidence that was not seen for what ever reasons, not conspiracy stuff but would benefit from being heard/scene via an independent review.

Only a few hours back Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond says the Lockerbie case remains a live investigation whilst David Cameron rules out an an independent review, at the moment...

The only basis for an appeal under Scots law is that there has been a "miscarriage of justice" which is not defined in statute and so it is for the appeal court to determine the meaning of these words in each case.

William Taylor QC, leading the defence, said at the appeal's opening on 23 January 2002 that the three trial judges sitting without a jury had failed to see the relevance of "significant" evidence and had accepted unreliable facts. He argued that the verdict was not one that a reasonable jury in an ordinary trial could have reached if it were given proper directions by the judge. The grounds of the appeal rested on two areas of evidence where the defence claimed the original court was mistaken: the evidence of Maltese shopkeeper, Tony Gauci, which the judges accepted as sufficient to prove that the "primary suitcase" started its journey in Malta; and, disputing the prosecution's case, fresh evidence would be adduced to show that the bomb's journey actually started at Heathrow. That evidence, which was not heard at the trial, showed that at some time in the two hours before 00:35 on 21 December 1988 a padlock had been forced on a secure door giving access airside in Terminal 3 of Heathrow airport, near to the area referred to at the trial as the "baggage build-up area". Taylor claimed that the PA 103 bomb could have been planted then.

On 2 September 2009, former MEP Michael McGowan demanded that the British Government call for an urgent, independent inquiry led by the UN to find out the truth about Pan Am flight 103. Three UN calls for an enquiry plus a resolution put forward.

Jim Swire, a Briton whose daughter Flora was killed in the Lockerbie bombing, believes Megrahi was innocent (is he a conspiracy nut then?). A member of the Justice for Megrahi group, he told The Guardian: "I met him face-to-face in Tripoli in December last year, when he was very sick and in a lot of pain.

This is not conspiracy... this has been put forward by established trial barristers as evidence JT and an independent review would put all the grassy knoll tosh surrounding this to bed and focus on the facts and evidence overlooked in the first case and give a finding on that. As I said, there's more to this than was first presented. That's not to say there were many part of this plot including the one found guilty...

That's good enough for me. :-)

Eugene Polley - clearly the most important person to be featured on this thread - just imagine a world without him!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18164200

*switches over to Dave*

Was just going to add Polley, thinking that nobody else would have heard of him.

I used to use a long piece of bamboo.

Did anyone have one of those TVs that had a dial to tune them in? I did, then I replaced it with one that had buttons - so I could finally use a long stick to change channel without getting up. It was a good day.

^Yes, and I also used a long stick when I got one with buttons.

You can't even use a big stick when you lose the remote control these days. Usually the TV only has one button for on / off.

I hate modern TVs for that reason and many others. I'd much rather have a late 1960s model with a wooden cabinet.

That terrible moment when you buy a new TV... and realise you can't plug your SNES into it.

A SNES is far too modern for me.

It would be a fitting tribute if Polley is cremated and they operate the conveyor belt into the incinerator with a remote control device - which they first have to search for down the back of some chairs and then have to press the button several times while varying the angle until the mechanism works.

Doc Watson a week ago and muscian's musican guitarist Pete Cosey...

as a Chess session guitarist Cosey played on sides by Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, the Rotary Connection, and Etta James and Miles Davis.

By 1975, Cosey had developed a remarkably advanced guitar approach — involving numerous alternate tunings, guitars restrung in unusual patterns and a post-Hendrix palette of distortion, wah-wah and guitar synth effects — that has influenced many adventurous guitarists, including Henry Kaiser and Vernon Reid.

he was quite experimental at times and did some interesting stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUgopxrWImY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PruMPJTsqvo&feature=player_embedded#!

http://m.chicagoreader.com/chicago/blogs/Post?basename=chicago-guitar-...

Richard Dawson who played the game show host on the 80's action movie classic The Running Man.

Apparently he was a real american game show host and he was in Hogans Heroes too.

And Russian singer Mr Trololo. He sang this:
http://trololololololololololo.com/

Which is now stuck in my head.

Right, earlier in the year we had John Christopher, my childhood favourite. Now we have Ray Bradbury - my early teens favourite. I'm glad that Charlotte Bronte, Arthur C Clarke and Charles Dickens are already dead that's all I can say.

I'm so upset I'm not even going to post THAT Ray Bradbury video.

THAT song is sadly what immediately took up residence in my head :-/

While that song really is trying far too hard, in poor taste and quite questionable you can't deny that it is very catchy. Irritatingly so.

Apparently, Bradbury never learned to drive and got about by bicycle or public transport. Another reason to like him!

Bob Welch from the pre Stevie Nicks era of Fleetwood Mac. Suicide apparently.

Sometimes I think that Fleetwood Mac must be the greatest band in the world. Not so much for their music which is often AOR rubbish, but if you want constant drama behind the scenes then they really have had it all: Drugs, Divorces, Relationship breakdowns, mental breakdowns, religious cults, Death, hiring out a whole stadium to record Tusk with a 100 peice brass band, presenting the Brits with Sam fox... anything you can think of.

I'm glad I'm not in Fleetwood Mac. I don't think I could handle it.

Why do you think I got out before they hit the big time?

Henry Hill Jr, the guy that Goodfellas was based on.

He didn't quite live the rest of his life like a schnook because he got back into crime and TV appearences towards the end.

Brian Hibbard from the Flying Pickets.

He was actually in Doctor Who once, in that period when it went really bad in the mid 80's. He appeared when the Doctor and Bonnie Langford went to a 50's holiday camp. In the same story Ken Dodd made a guest appearence.

I also noticed this morning that Eminem's wikipedia page says that he died today. It's been like it for most of the day. I am assuming this is a very poor hoax until I hear otherwise.

Rodney King.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18478979?filter=EditorPicks

Victor Spinetti today.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-18148017

Victor Spinetti. Was in three Beatles films, Said "A Rheuuuhm????" to Peter Sellers in Return of the Pink Panther and did the voice of Texas Pete in Superted.

not as of yet but sad news for a local celeb... with Christopher Hitchens gone I always felt that Clive James is one of the last few of that generation of intellectual giants along with James Fenton, Salman Rushdie and Martin Amis.

http://www.itv.com/news/2012-06-21/clive-james-has-lost-his-battle-wit...

Caroline John, played John Pertwee companion Liz Shaw.

Doctor Who Companions seem to be dropping like flies, thats the third one in 18 months.

Very sad about Clive James. He did some awful TV but his memoirs, criticism and short stories are outstanding. I love how he reads his own stuff aloud too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18574279
Lonesome George, the last Galapagos Giant Tortoise. Now extinct.

Well, the last of his subspecies.

Some 20,000 giant tortoises of other subspecies still live on the Galapagos.

Still very sad, though.

These stories make me much sadder than most celebrity deaths.

Lonesome George looked a bit like Vince Cable.

Ha

Nora Ephron. I didn't know who she was until today but apparently she wrote two of the very few recent ish romantic comedies that I watched and I thought were quite good, rather than the sort of modern rubbish you usually get that has someone like Jennifer Aniston in.

WHY don't people make films like Roman Holiday anymore, sigh... :(

The first screenplay she wrote was Silkwood which is pretty impressive in my book. Starring Meryl Streep as a union activist in a nuclear plant who died in "mysterious circumstances" after highlighting wrong doings at the plant and Cher in one of her first acting roles. Nora was a pretty powerful force in Hollywood which as a female filmaker is relatively unusual.

I've decided to seek out Silkwood after today because it sounds quite good.

It is very good SR.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18704263

Eric Sykes. From tonnes and tonnes of quality comedy stuff.

I didn't know until today that he was the narrator who says "Tele..tubbies!" before the theme music starts. What a peculiar choice of part to play.

Not totally surprising given his age, but sad.

Andy Griffith, who played Matlock.

Rob Goris, Belgian cyclist and ex-hockey player. Died last night in a hotel in Honfleur after going there to watch a stage of the Tour de France - since he was only 30 and had been cycling at professional level for some years, he was too old for the "sudden cardiac arrest" syndrome that kills a surprisingly high number of athletes with previously-undetected heart defects. This raises the possibility that he may have been using an erythropoietin-type drug that, by increasing red cell production, thickens the blood and puts increased strain on the heart. If so, he was a wanker because the last thing cycling needs right after Riccardo Ricco (who was banned for eleven years after revealing himself to be a doper by needing urgent medical attention as a result of a self-administered transfusion using two-week old blood that he hadn't kept in the fridge - he's not the brightest cyclist) and Lance Armstrong (currently being accused as part of an investigation into a large doping ring that may lead to the end of the RadioShack team and possibly Lance's seven Tour wins being disallowed) is another doping scandal.

James Grout. Was in loads of TV including someone or other in Inspector Morse.

Notable because he played my favourite character Granville Bennett in All Creatures Great and Small, which I do not like, and definitely do not have all 7 series on DVD, nor secretly watch an episode every few weeks, oh no.

I know exactly what you mean. I never had all the books it was based on when I was a kid, nor did were they at least partially responsible for me wanting to be a vet and spending my summer holidays cleaning stuff you don't even want to know about off the floor of a local surgery's operating theatre.

I've certainly not read all the books either, and especially not giggled when Mrs Pumprey reappears again.

Apparently there's a museum about James Herriot in Thirsk. That seems like something definitely worth not going to.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/08/showbiz/obit-borgnine/index.html

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the sublime saxophonist Lol Coxhil...RIP

Discovered busking by the late John Peel
played with Kevin Ayers, Henry Cow, Damned, Rico Rodriguez, Martha and the Vandellas, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Mose Allison, Otis Spann, Champion Jack Dupree, Lowell Fulson. As a member of the London Music Collective, Coxhill was later championed by the likes of Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore. He was a member of the London Improvisers Orchestra, The Dedication Orchestra and The Recedents, as well as performing in duos and trios with the likes of Lu Edmonds, jazz pianists Veryan Weston and Howard Riley, Hugh Metcalfe, and Steve Beresford.

A Great British Eccentric of an increasingly rare breed, he is irreplaceable.

Mal's not going to like this...

I was going to post this the other day purely for the Lols

Mal's not going to like this...

Published by arthurCRS

yeah... he named and shamed me as he thought it hilarious to get a cheap laugh out of a fine deceased British musician... about his level but I'm just remembering the last time I saw Coxhil and his family and I'll put on some Kevin Ayres and Rico Rodriguez and raise a glass.

Bob Babbitt - Bass player for the Funk Brothers. Played on War by Edwin Starr and Tears of a Clown among many many other Motown things.

William Asher - Directed a lot of I Love Lucy, Bewitched, The Twilight Zone, The Dukes of Hazard

Ginny Tyler - Did the voices for the animals in Jolly Holiday in Mary Poppins and Jan in Space Ghost.

Morgan Paull.

"The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can't. Not without your help. But you're not helping. I mean, you're not helping.

Why is that, Leon?"

Sally Ride. Not the first woman in space (which was Valentina Tereshkova), but she was the first American woman and the first gay woman in space.

Simon Ward Actor

He was James Herriot in the crap film version of All Creatures Great and Small. But he's done a lot of other good stuff too.

Mary Tamm, played the first Romana.

I am getting a mite depressed with all these Dr Who Companions passing away this year. Sort it out.

No one's mentioned Anghared Rees, 'I'll do it for a shilling.' (Poldark)

Lupe Ontiveros. One of those people you don't really notice but she plays the Mexican maid in pretty much every American film or TV series ever made. She was Rosalita (the Mexican maid) in the Goonies. "Always seperate the drugs."

Geoffrey Hughes. Was in Dads Army, Keeping up Appearances, The Royal Family, voiced Paul McCartney in Yellow Submarine and he was in the last two parts of Trial of a Timelord when he was in Dr Who.

otherwise known as eddie yates in corrie, about a billion years ago.

Chris Marker, directed sci fi classic La Jetée.

Gore Vidal, writer. I've just realised I've never actually read any of his. Any good?

Bill Doss from The Olivia Tremor Control.

I loved some of his social commentary on America. Got two of his books too...

Bernard Lovell, very famous radio astronomer.

Has this telescope named after him at Jodrell Bank (which he helped build)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovell_Telescope

The scientist in Quatermass was named after him.

Bernard Lovell never been in Doctor Who, but the telescope named after him has. Tom Baker fell off it and rejenerated into Peter Davison.

Mel Stuart, directed the good version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

And its Jockey on the hockey...

RIP Sid Waddell

Phyllis Thaxter, played Superman's mum in the Christopher Reeve film. The mum on earth, not the one on Krypton standing next to Marlon Brando.

Tony Scott has jumped off a bridge. He directed Top Gun, Days of Thunder, The Hunger, Beverly Hills Cop 2, The Last Boy Scout, the shit John Travolta remake of Taking of Pelham 123, True Romance, Enemy of the State and Crimson Tide.

Jerry Nelson, did the Count on Seasame Street (and many other muppet characters too).

mwahahahahahahah

Neil Armstrong, according to rumour...and some early reports. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/neil-armstrong-dead...

Confirmed. Neil Armstrong dead at 82.

Sad. Not only was Armstrong a true pioneer but he handled it with such dignity and humility through the decades that followed. I think NASA chose him to be first for that reason. Can you imagine how unbearable Buzz Aldrin would be had he been first?

Armstrong was apparently very fond of telling really bad Moon jokes, then following them up with "Ah, I guess you had to be there..."

God hates moon walkers first Michael Jackson now Neil Armstrong ;-]

Malcolm Browne, took the photo of the burning monk which is nowadays more famous as an album cover rather than the impact it had during the Vietnam War.

Max Bygraves.

And Hal David

Sun Myung Moon. I got so many warnings and lectures about this man as a child that when I actually saw a member of the Moonies giving out leaflets in Petty Cury as a teenager I was so terrified I thought it was like seeing Charles Manson himself.

I still don't know anything about his movement other than there was an enormous Daily Mail type moral panic about it around the 1980's. I was told that his cult brainwashed people, and made people believe that other people were evil, made people scared of other people especially if they belong to a different branch of Christianity. Rather funny since that was exactly what happened to me. :)

^And now you`re in the cult of WAN ;-]

Careful now, those spiral things are dangerous!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NWAq8zQIUE&feature=youtu.be#t=8m54s

It always seemed like a bit of a long winded way to have sex with a stranger to me.

Michael Clarke Duncan, played John Coffey in the Green Mile.

Joe South. Wrote (among many other things) Hush, which was a hit for Deep Purple and (definitely one of the five worst bands of all time) Kula Shaker.

I liked Kula Shaker. Why so bad?

I probably hated them because I was a serious musical snob and I decided that they represented the worst of boring retro revivalism, with added psudeo hippy bollocks thrown in. They did get big at exactly the same moment as Britpop started to decline and become stale, not helped by Chris Evans being a fan. At the time I also didn't like how the singer came from an upper class showbiz family (son of Hayley Mills and one of the Boulting Brothers) which meant that he possibly got more breaks than he might have deserved. His Swastika comments barely need mentioning.

I think I'm nearly past the age of getting so worked up about bands I don't like, but I always remember how much I disliked them back in the day. Kula Shaker weren't even the worst britpop band (Cast anyone?) and they are certainly much better than, say, Mike and the Mechanics. ;)

Hearing reports of Terry Nutkins on Twitter. :(

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19520824
Confirmed. Noooooo! :(

Very very sad. I always liked Terry, more so as he got older and kept his hair long despite being bald on top.

My mother in law has a paticular dislike of bald men who still have long hair. I think it looks quite cool on them, very free spirited and groovy.

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Monti

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19534262

Terry Nutkin`s next of nutkin have been informed jk :-]

Derek Jamieson. I had no idea that he was still alive.

Jacques Antoine, chap who created the Crystal Maze - or at least the French game show that the Crystal Maze was ripped off from. Whether contestants on the French version were as inexplicably thick as the ones on our Crystal Maze I don't know.

Herbert Lom

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19743817

And Andy Williams. The first thing I thought of was how sad Nelson Muntz is going to be: http://youtu.be/eaDbCVkoa1Q

A tearful Nelson..."He sang Moon River!" Oddly, Nelson's grief was almost the first thing I thought of too. The annoying catch phrase, "You're WEIRD Andy" was the first.

Big Jim Sullivan, session guitarist who played on thousands of songs including The James Bond theme, I love you Baby, and Itchycoo Park.

He played on over 50 number one singles, busy fellow. Three of the more novelty ones (Two Little Boys, Ernie the fastest Milkman in the West and Lilly the Pink were Christmas number one) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Jim_Sullivan#Number_one_singles

...did a lot of the sessiony stuff that Jimmy Page usually gets credited with. Also George Gallacher from Scottish beat group The Poets, who had a minor hit with "Now We're Thru" in 1964. And Frank Wilson, Motown producer/writer (Supremes, Jackson 5) who recorded the original of "Do I Love You".

Eric Lomax, Wrote Railway Man about his time in the war including a Japanese POW camp.

My grandfather was also in a POW camp at the same time as him and refused to talk about his experiences so I don't know how accurate it is, but I thought Railway Man was quite good and also gave me some background to what my grandfather experienced but never spoke of.

My grandfather didn't have a very good war. There were three batallions in his area of rural Norfolk. Two of them went to fight in France, were almost immediately evacuated at Dunkirk and spent the rest of the war as home guard. The battalion which included my grandfather went to defend Singapore, which then fell to the Japanese just 32 days later. He spent three years building the Burma railway before coming home, where he would quietly live in his Norfolk village until he died in the late 1990's. He never ate rice ever again.

I'm pretty sure my grandfather was a spiv.

Paddy Roy Bates, aka Prince Roy. Founder and ruler of The Principality of Sealand!

Mongo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28khv-BydeY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Karras

John Clive: voiced John Lennon in Yellow Submarine, was the actor who Malcolm McDowell was unable to beat up after Ludovico treatment in Clockwork Orange and was in The Italian Job and lots of Pink Panther and Carry on Films.

Fiorenzo Magni, 07.12.1920 - 19.10.2012. He won the Ronde van Vlaanderen three times and was the first man to do so, also three Giri d'Italia - but was never able to win against Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi at the Tour de France. At the 1956 Giro d'Italia (which he didn't win) he broke his collar bone; rather than abandon the race he had a length of tubing tied to his handlebars so he could pull up on the bars using his teeth when climbing. Because he couldn't brake properly he crashed again four days later, landing on his broken collar bone and also breaking his arm, then fainted from the pain. When he regained consciousness in the ambulance he managed to escape, found his bike and finished the stage. Four days later, on a stage that had such bad weather sixty riders abandoned the race, he came second behind Charly Gaul - who was probably the only cyclist in history to have been even madder than Magni was.

...and amazingly, they just had Magni's obituary on Radio 4. If that isn't proof that cycling is becoming more popular in Britain I don't know what is.

Jo Dunne from Fuzzbox.

I used to really like them when I was starting secondary school but revisiting them this morning they don't sound nearly as fantastically technicolour bubblegum pop as I remembered. I always preferred Transvision Vamp anyway. Still, sad. They always seemed so full of energy in the videos.

Goodness me, I've just found their early stuff, when they were called We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Going to Use It. This is much better, and exactly how one should play a violin.

Aaw I loved Fuzzbox back un the day and Transvision Vamp. Saw Wendy James at the Man On The Moon about six years ago - wasn't very good and I walked out after a couple of tunes.

I think most people in my class at school were really into Transvision Vamp at one time. Then they all split into different directions when they decided pop music wasn't cool enough. Some got into Happy Hardcore, some went towards Iron Maiden, some went into The Smiths and there was allways one who got into The Clash, just to be different. But for just 3 months we were all united and into the same thing, and all in love with Wendy James. It would never happen ever again.

Tommy Godwin, born 05.11.1920, died today. Won two medals in the cycling at the 1948 London Olympics and was an Olympic Ambassador and torch carrier in 2012.

Brian Cobby. Was the only male voice to do the speaking clock and he claimed to have done the "standby for action" countdown on the introduction to Thunderbirds. Was in the Doctor Who audio story The Creed of the Kromon.

Clive Dunn, aged 92. RIP

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Clive Dunn has never been in Doctor Who but he was actually the very first person to do a spoof version of the timelord for It's a Square World in 1963, just a few weeks after Dr Who started.

You love my Doctor Who facts really, admit it. :p

Bill Tarmey. Was apparently in Coronation Street for years and years.

There has actaually been an episode of Dr Who where the Doctor meets the cast of Eastenders in Albert Square, but never Coronation Street. That's more a Red Dwarf sort of thing.

Some more obscure deaths this week:

Lucille Bliss who voiced Smurfette in the Smurfs as well as Bam Bam in the Flintstones,
Cleve Duncan from the Penguins, who did the song "Earth Angel, will you be Mine" which was used at the school dance in Back to the Future,
Train Robber James Hussey,
and Roger Hammond who has been in tons of historic dramas and was in Doctor Who twice in 1983 and 1965.

Cat man: Dead.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/stalking-cat-daniel-avne...

Boris Strugatskiy, wrote lots of sci fi books including Roadside Picnic which was filmed by Andrei Tarkovsky as Stalker.
http://youtu.be/njkM1NAOj6I

Larry Hagman - JR from Dallas.

Ooo blimey

Who shot JR

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20474197

Dinah Sheridan, played the mother in the Railway Children. This was my mums favourite film and at her funeral the vicar quoted it saying "Mother was always there".

She was also in Doctor Who in 1983 in The Five Doctors in which she played a Time Lady.

Chris Stamp, co-manager of The Who in the 70s. He was the brother or Terence Stamp.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20492072

He wasn't in Dr Who, but close to The Who, Silent Rob!

That seems like a challenge Trigger!
Just for you, here is The Who, played by the first four doctors from Doctor Who as shown on shooting stars.
http://youtu.be/Gc7_7jm-OhI

Thanks Silent Rob. Hadn't seen that clip before. Always liked Shooting Stars... Saw them record one of the shows at the BBC for the last series and it was great. Bob Mortimer seemed to be the one running round with the all the ideas, which is what I always suspected. What with him being the funnier one.

Sorry but anyone that likes Shooting Stars especially that Bob Mortimer wanker really needs to be shot.
I mean what is funny about it?

I think this is a celebrity death cull, not a WAN one :-)
I liked Shooting Stars 'cos it was just ridiculous. It shouldn't be funny, but if you were in a silly mood it was great. Bit like You've Been Framed... One of the worst programmes on telly but sometimes seeing an idiot falling off a bmx into a ravine is funny.

I think everyone has TV programmes that they watch and enjoy but know they shouldn't like. Personally I secretly quite like Micheal Palin travel documentaries and All Creatures Great and Small.

Secretly?

Yeah, no one knows - so keep it quiet OK?

*Taps nose* ;-]

Why 'shouldn't' anyone like Michael Palin's travel progs? With you on All Creatures Great and Small, though. It's viewers should be drowned in a barrel of their own phlegm.

I,d rather watch 9-5 All Creatures Great And Small back to back , than watch that shooting Stars crap.
I mean come on.

Euuuureeekkakakaka,,,,,,,,erm no.

Hot on the heels of Clive Dunn we have Bill Pertwee, played ARP Warden Hodges in Dad's Army.
http://www.comedy.co.uk/news/story/00000983/dads_army_star_bill_pertwe...

He has never been in Doctor Who but he is the second cousin of third Doctor Jon Pertwee's father.

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No, that was also third Doctor Jon Pertwee. Busy fellow.

Says Bill Pertwee is not dead on link now ;-]

That's good - so his ruddy light hasn't been put out after all.

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There have been quite a few people who have died from shock after reading about their wrongly reported death in a newspaper. I do hope this didn't happen to Bill.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_premature_obituaries

Dave Brubeck :-(