Leaderboard

Come on now, it’s not that good.

Here's a spooky tale for Halloween. Peter Stumpp, known as the "Werewolf of Bedburg", died on this day 433 years ago, aged 54. According to his confession, Stumpp claimed that he began practicing black magic since he was 12, and that Satan had given him a magical belt that allowed him to transform into a wolf-like creature when he wore it. Another thing the Devil gave him was a succubus that he had sex with- presumably when he was older. Things got dark beginning in 1564. Stumpp consumed the flesh of sheep and goats, and eventually, he craved human flesh. Stumpp would allegedly kill and eat 14 children- including his own son, whose brain he devoured (zombie werewolf?). Stumpp also killed two pregnant woman, and tore out and ate the fetuses inside. Stumpp was also accused of having incestual relations with his daughter, who would be sentenced to death alongside him. On October 31, 1589, Stumpp was tied to a wheel, flayed with burning pincers, had his limbs mangled, beheaded, and then burned. His head was placed on a pole with the torture wheel and a decoration of a wolf as a warning to other potential werewolves. Stumpp was either just a child murderer whose story was sensationalized over time, or he really was the Albert Fish/Jeffrey Dahmer of his day.

Dan Rather, the acclaimed and prestigious American journalist and news anchor remembered for his coverage on the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement, the assassination of President Kennedy, and the Watergate scandal, is 91 today. He was the anchor and managing editor of CBS Evening News for twenty-four years, the longest tenure in television history. In the course of his long career, Rather has authored or co-authored seven interesting books, too. Marcel "Marco" van Basten, the elegant and phenomenal Dutch footballer, one of the finest strikers of all time, who played for Ajax Amsterdam and A.C. Milan in the 1980s and early 1990s, is 58 today. He also made 58 appearances for his national team and scored 24 goals. Marco van Basten won three times the Golden Ball (1988, 1989 and 1992), and the FIFA World Player of the Year in 1992.

Grace Slick is 83 today

With the Deathlist rules only allowing 50 candidates per year, it is inevitable that each year will contain some sort of miss - or in other words the death of a celebrity who was not on that year's deathlist. The thing is though, that could be just about anyone bar 50 people, therefore criteria has to be defined as to what makes someone's death a Deathlist miss. The definition of "significant" in this context is rather subjective, but generally I would say that for a DL miss to be significant, it must meet either of the following criteria: 1: The candidate has made several consecutive appearances on previous Deathlists 2: The candidate is a very high-profile celebrity who is aged 90+ or has a known serious health condition Working it out based on both of the above would take months, therefore I have compiled a rough list of who I believe was each year's most significant miss, based on the most DL appearances for the earlier years while moving towards the most high-profile of these for latter years 1987 - N/A 1988 - N/A 1989 - Bette Davis 1990 - Malcolm Muggeridge 1991 - John Arlott 1992 - Alexander Dubeck 1993 - Kenneth Connor 1994 - Doris Speed 1995 - Harold Wilson 1996 - Jon Pertwee 1997 - Stefan Grappelli 1998 - Fred Davis 1999 - Robert Dougall 2000 - Alec Guinness 2001 - Geoffrey Dickens 2002 - Princess Margaret 2003 - Paul Getty 2004 - Brian Clough 2005 - Prince Rainier 2006 - Saddam Hussein 2007 - Boris Yeltsin 2008 - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi 2009 - Corazon Aquino 2010 - Tony Curtis 2011 - Osama bin Laden 2012 - Patrick Moore 2013 - Bob Godfrey 2014 - Ariel Sharon 2015 - Terry Pratchett 2016 - Harper Lee 2017 - Chuck Berry 2018 - Aretha Franklin 2019 - Peter Tork 2020 - Sean Connery 2021 - Desmond Tutu 2022 - Pope Benedict XVI

On this day in 2020 scottish actor , the one and only Sean Connery died aged 90. Notably played the legendary iconic film role of british spy 007 James Bond and was voted and lauded as the sexiest man in the world innumerable times.

American rapper Robert Winkle, best known by his stage name Vanilla Ice, celebrates turning 55 today . He will also be better known to some for dating Madonna for around eight months in 1991-1992 and posing for some very raunchy photos with his then superstar girlfriend in a book called sex. American musician Bob Siebenberg, who is best known as the drum and percussion player in british progressive rock band Supertramp, celebrates turning 73 today.

How QE2 can be a miss while being on the list ? Interesting !

Peter Capaldi would like a word

40 T. Rex – Get It On 40 Simon & Garfunkel – Bridge over troubled water 40 Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – Tears of a Clown 30. Slade - Coz I Luv You 29 Jimi Hendrix Experience – Voodoo Chile +4 27 Freda Payne - Band of Gold -6 16 Dave Edmunds – I Hear You Knocking

40 T. Rex – Get It On 40 Simon & Garfunkel – Bridge over troubled water 40 Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – Tears of a Clown +4 33 Freda Payne - Band of God -6 30. Slade - Coz I Luv You 25 Jimi Hendrix Experience – Voodoo Chile 16 Dave Edmunds – I Hear You Knocking

Perenially ill Indian political heavyweight Sharad Pawar hospitalised , but expected to be discharged soon.

40 T. Rex – Get It On 40 Simon & Garfunkel – Bridge over troubled water 36 Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – Tears of a Clown -6 35 Freda Payne – Band of Gold 32 Slade - Coz I Luv You 31 Jimi Hendrix Experience – Voodoo Chile +4 16 Dave Edmunds – I Hear You Knocking

My candidate is Harry Belafonte.

Brian Doyle-Murray, older brother of Bill Murray and actor/voice actor best known as Captain K'nuckles on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack and the Flying Dutchman on SpongeBob, is 77.

2022 : Newton John

On this day 22 years ago in the year 2000 american television and radio personality, comedian , actor and musician , Steve Allen died after a minor traffic accident aged 79. He had jokingly made light of another driver accidentally hitting the side of his car causing a small amount of damage as oh the things people will do to get my autograph! But it had caused an injury to his heart that if left untreated would be fatal. He simply went for a lie down and a sleep at home not realising he had suffered a serious internal injury of any kind. Steve achieved a national level of fame in the US when he became the co-creator and first presenter of The Tonight show- Americas first late night television talkshow.

Thought he'd have a long standing thread but damned if I can find one. http://radaronline.com/celebrity-news/michael-j-fox-battles-parkinson-disease-health-declines/ Meant to be on the wane in a sad last days way, but deserving of his own I reckon.

American actor Henry Winkler , best known as the Fonz in legendary US tv show Happy Days, celebrates turning 77 today. American actor Harry Hamlin who has starred in a number of hit tv shows most notably LA Law, Veronica Mars and Mad Men, celebrates his 71st birthday today.

Arthur Foulkes please

Just Fontaine

Another way time flies... we're only a week or so away from learning Reptile has XXXX XXXXX XXXXXXXXXXX as a sub in here again

Let's see: - Covid excess mortality will still be a factor for much of this year since vaccine roll-out will take time - World's population, including its famous people, gradually getting older https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.65UP.TO.ZS - Early TV era of celebs getting ancient now, and TV rather expanded the celeb population I expect there will indeed continue to be many famous deaths this year. Not sure how many though.

Mugabe and Schmidt are probale DLr's Thingywhathisname sounds like a good harvester of points for DDP, so he's on that provisional list... ...which is getting ever larger....

Unless, of course, the heart attack was brought on by the electrocution.