Leaderboard

John Jacob Astor IV died on this day 111 years ago, aged 47. - Astor was (of course) a member of the wealthy Astor family, who got their money from the fur trade. His sister Helen married a James Roosevelt- making him the half-brother-in-law of president Franklin D. Roosevelt. - Astor published a science fiction novel titled A Journey in Other Worlds in 1894, making predictions on what the year 2000 would be like. Among the things it got right was a global phone network (kind of like the Internet) and solar power. - In 1897, he built the Astoria Hotel- this soon became the original Waldorf-Astoria, which was demolished to construct the Empire State Building. - Astor served in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War (rather than using his fame and money to buy himself out), and became a colonel. - Astor married his second wife Madeleine when he was 47 and she was 18. While in France, he got her pregnant, and he wanted their baby to be born in America. They boarded the RMS Titanic in Cherbourg along with their dog named Kitty. - After the ship fatefully scraped the iceberg on the night of April 14, Astor remained unconvinced the ship would sink- he and his wife went to the ship's gym, and he even cut open the lining of a lifejacket thinking it wouldn't work. - Astor eventually helped his wife into Lifeboat #4, and then ordered two female passengers to fill up the remaining seats. He was last seen alive at 1:55 AM on the starboard bridge, smoking a cigarette. - Astor's cause of death remains uncertain- reports stated that he either drowned, froze, or was crushed when the first funnel collapsed about 20 minutes after he was last seen. - At the time of his death, Astor was one of the world's richest people, with a net worth of $87 million (equivalent to $2.5 billion today).

Radha Devi Joshi dead.

Angie at the TCM Classic Film Festival yesterday. Wow! Doesn't she look and sound the healthiest 91 year old ever? Drop Angie and Imelda for 2024, DL Committee!!! https://variety.com/2023/film/news/tcm-festival-angie-dickinson-steven-spielberg-classic-film-1235583643/

A couple of weeks ago I was told I passed my final research paper, which means I have obtained my bachelor at university! It's something I'm quite happy with. And all of that while taking part in deathpools, talking about having priorities And this evening I got the news we'll get a kitten, she'll be welcomed in our home in May if everything goes to plan. It'll be the first time we have a cat since our last one passed away aged 17 at the end of 2021. It will be quite a change to suddenly have such a young animal at home but I'm looking forward to it.

Trying to round up some names of Toho old timers who haven't yet left us for a death watch list. Godzilla's, Rodan's & King Ghidorah's all welcome. Katsumi Tezuka - Played monsters in several films including Godzilla (born August 31st 1912) Shoichi Hirose- Played King Ghidorah (born June 23rd 1918) - Possibly Living Riichiro Manabe - Music Composer for Toho (born November 9th 1924) Hiroshi Koizumi - Actor in a spate of Monster films - (born August 12th 1926) Kazuo Kumakura - Toho voice actor - (born January 30th 1927) Yoshio Tsuchiya - Actor known for several Toho Monster flicks - (born May 18th 1927) Haruo Nakajima - First man to play Godzilla (born 1st January 1929) Rhodes Reason - King Kong Escapes leading man (born April 19th 1930) Kyoko Kagawa - Mothra Heroine (born 5 December 1931) Koji Furuhate - Played Frankenstein's Monster (born in 1933) Akira Takarda - Godzilla leading man (born April 29th 1934) Goro Mutsumi - Mechazilla star (born September 11th 1934) Teruyoshi - Special Effects Artist (born October 1st 1935) Akira Kubo - Destroy All Monsters lead (born December 1st 1936)

The Godfather of soul has prostate cancer. He has told doctors 'I don't feel good' and will be going for surgery next week.

"Records indicate the buyer is fellow Brit and London-based gallery owner India Rose James — an heiress to her late grandfather Paul Raymond’s multimillion-dollar porn and property empire — who doled out $6.5 million for the place, or nearly $5 million more than the legendary Monty Python star and his wife Tania paid musician Mike Oldfield for the property some 18 years ago, back in April 1995." Why are American journalists so thick?

Garn Stephens (Wiki), American actress who played Harriet Hasting in sitcom Phyllis dead at 87 She also appeared in other sitcoms like Barney Miller, All in the Family and The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Jackie Stewart must be one of the last alive (and possibly the last) to have won a race on the Aintree Grand Prix circuit - having won the Formula 3 race there in 1964, the circuit's final year.

Another veteran German actress has died: Maria Sebaldt at age 92 on April 4th. She is best known for starring in 80s TV series like "Ich heirate eine Familie" and "Die Wicherts von nebenan". I always liked her and her acting characters. R.I.P. https://www.gala.de/stars/news/maria-sebaldt------der--ich-heirate-eine-familie--star-ist-gestorben-23050718.html

A search has been done but nothing turned up. Report here of the death of one of the keyboardists and producers of KWS, Chris King, who died back on 22 March 2023: https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/celebs-tv/ilkeston-former-brit-award-winning-8305187 Who? Well, they only had a huge #1 in the UK in May 1992 with Please Don't Go: How the major press haven't picked this up is a mystery.

Current Lawrenceburg sprint car track champion Justin Owens has died from injuries sustained in Qualifying for Saturday nights USAC event

Holy shit. I was going to see them in October... I knew Paul had issues but figured he would get healthier by October for the tour. This song hits different now:

She hasn't resigned yet. SNP might be quite glad to get someone in place to prove themselves, but it's a terrible swing seat which could easily go to Labour. Who knows?

From page 1.

Remember Devin Lima, who died of cancer back in 2018? Well, the man he replaced in LFO, original member Brian "Brizz" Gillis has also now reportedly died: This means that there is only one surviving member of that group now alive - Brad Fischetti. While Gillis was with the group, they had a minor UK chart hit with If I Can't Have You, reaching #54 in May 1999:

Anne Clark seems to have recovered well enough to tour again, but she was in intensive care for a while: https://www.side-line.com/anne-clark-back-on-tour-after-battling-with-cancer/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=anne-clark-back-on-tour-after-battling-with-cancer

There is a group for oldest olympians ? What do they do apart from reporting every death ? A very restrictive topic indeed

By-Election is on. He has just resigned from the commons.

So near yet so far. "Joanna Lumley reveals she was ambushed by bandits in Haiti". https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/celebrity/joanna-lumley-reveals-she-was-ambushed-by-bandits-in-haiti/ar-BB10FS6V?ocid=spartanntp

Re 2021 deaths - on their current disappointing form I think we should consider ALL the low hanging barrel scraper picks languishing on the under-performing Deathrace. I can only apologise to sponsors and avid television viewers for this appalling failure to deliver fucking good fun! We're on it, or summat

peter kay is dead not the comedian though. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/peter-kay-cofounder-of-the-sporting-chance-clinic-which-has-helped-names-such-as-paul-gascoigne-and-paul-merson-has-died-8821617.html i'm sure there was a thread on here about people who shared similar names to famous people dying.

I saw a photo of Hillary Clinton today. I think she's turning in to Cilla Black!

I blame Beverley Knight.......