Squonk

Have been away for a few days and having just got back, checked to see if anyone had picked Gloria Vanderbilt, but apparently not; so here goes for another round: 1920: John Paul Stevens, Norma Barzman 1921: Al Jaffee, Iris Apfel 1922: Carl Reiner, Beverly Pepper 1923: Murray Walker, Gloria Henry 1924: Tony Britton, Carole Cook 1925: Baron Christopher, Honor Blackman 1926: Stanley Baxter, Cloris Leachman 1927: Harry Belafonte, Estelle Parsons 1928: Joss Ackland, Jean Ann Kennedy 1929: Max von Sydow, Lady Pamela Hicks

Very sad to hear this news, I missed the Pointless Celebrities episode he was on, so didn't realise till I read his obit that he'd had his legs amputated. Blake's 7 was always must watch viewing at Squonk Towers. I might have to dust the DVDs off and re-live a bit of my younger days. Farewell Avon, and thanks for many happy hours glued to the TV.

Having considered it carefully, with the Freudian possibility of sexual innuendo (lock and key) I came to the conclusion: she was looking for a word that rhymed with 'me'.

And my list, cunningly exactly the same as last time.... 1920: John Paul Stevens, Norma Barzman 1921: Al Jaffee, Iris Apfel 1922: Carl Reiner, Beverly Pepper 1923: Murray Walker, Gloria Henry 1924: Tony Britton, Carole Cook 1925: Baron Christopher, Honor Blackman 1926: Stanley Baxter, Cloris Leachman 1927: Harry Belafonte, Estelle Parsons 1928: Joss Ackland, Jean Ann Kennedy 1929: Max von Sydow, Lady Pamela Hicks

I came on here expecting a new round with Doris Day taking a sentimental journey...am I missing something, or did none of us pick her in the current round???

How very dare you...I'll have you know when I stole Carl Reiner I was not naked, I was wearing my least smeggy pjs, the ones with only three holes in each armpit and only two custard stains down the front.

Yes, I don't know where Irene came from...apart from the fact it's a name that sounds appropriate for a 97 year old! Thanks for spotting. To confirm my (corrected) list.... 1920: John Paul Stevens, Norma Barzman 1921: Al Jaffee, Iris Apfel 1922: Carl Reiner, Beverly Pepper 1923: Murray Walker, Gloria Henry 1924: Tony Britton, Carole Cook 1925: Baron Christopher, Honor Blackman 1926: Stanley Baxter, Cloris Leachman 1927: Harry Belafonte, Estelle Parsons 1928: Joss Ackland, Jean Ann Kennedy 1929: Max von Sydow, Lady Pamela Hicks

Been away for a bit and surprised to find how many of my original picks have expired since I first compiled my list! 1920: John Paul Stevens, Norma Barzman 1921: Al Jaffee, Irene Apfel 1922: Carl Reiner, Beverly Pepper 1923: Murray Walker, Gloria Henry 1924: Tony Britton, Carole Cook 1925: Baron Christopher, Honor Blackman 1926: Stanley Baxter, Cloris Leachman 1927: Harry Belafonte, Estelle Parsons 1928: Joss Ackland, Jean Ann Kennedy 1929: Max von Sydow, Lady Pamela Hicks

Been away for a few days but wasn't agitating to see how I was doing given my miserable result! Congrats to Spade and I hope you go on to win, so I can say I was beaten by the best!

D'oh, took my eye off the ball there....I'd have entered the same team again, but missed this round, and Andre Previn would have been a hit. Still, you snooze, you lose.....

The Aviator?

If we can still join in, accepting I'm starting some way behind..... 1) Jean-Louis Tringtignant 2) James Earl Jones 3) Peter Alliss 4) Mikhail Gorbachev 5) Norman Tebbit 6) Frank Williams (Dad's Army actor, not the F1 bloke) 7) Don King 8) Angie Dickinson 9) Jean Boht 10) Jack Smethurst (Love Thy Neighbour) 11) Loretta Lynn 12) Brian Murphy (George of George and Mildred) 13) Ray Reardon 12) Jacques Chirac 14) Little Richard 15) Dickie Davies 16) Gene Kranz 17) Tom Skerritt 18) Larry King 19) Wole Soyinka 20) Dave Prowse 21) Dean Stockwell 22) Bill Wyman 23) John Hume 24) Jill Gascoigne 25) Tommy Chong 26) Diana Rigg 27) Ginger Baker 28) Valerie Harper 29) Clive James 30) Harry Reid

Well, knock me down with a feather! Seeing as I'm getting my ass well and truly whupped in the 2019 Deathlist Cup, I think we can chalk this one down to luck rather than anything else. Pity I didn't enter ole' Lyndon in that competition.... 1920: Le Duc Anh, Norma Barzman 1921: Hugh Downs, Irene Apfel 1922: Dilip Kumar, Beverly Pepper 1923: Murray Walker, Gloria Henry 1924: Tony Britton, Carole Cook 1925: Baron Christopher, Honor Blackman 1926: Stanley Baxter, Cloris Leachman 1927: Harry Belafonte, Estelle Parsons 1928: Joss Ackland, Jean Ann Kennedy 1929: Andre Previn, Lady Pamela Hicks

Yeah, rather let myself in for that one when I picked my user name.....

Please....look at my medic-alert bracelet......(Homie the Clown , classic episode, great choice!). Well, it was fun whilst it lasted, but safe to say I'm not bothering to prep a March team, even though we're not half way through the month yet.

Clive James....he's gotta go sometime?

Half time team talk? My team aren't even at the ground, never mind on the pitch. They're all enjoying a nice cup of tea at the Sunshine Home for the Terminally Eternal.

1920: Le Duc Anh, Norma Barzman 1921: Hugh Downs, Irene Apfel 1922: Lyndon LaRouche, Beverly Pepper 1923: Murray Walker, Gloria Henry 1924: Tony Britton, Carole Cook 1925: Baron Christopher, Honor Blackman 1926: Stanley Baxter, Cloris Leachman 1927: Harry Belafonte, Estelle Parsons 1928: Joss Ackland, Jean Ann Kennedy 1929: Andre Previn, Lady Pamela Hicks

Edit: didn't see alt obits guy's post on this company before I posted mine, how did I miss that! The story just gets weirder as time goes on, though.... QuadrigaCX. (Who???). A Canadian cryptocurrency exchange. Run by a 30 year old chap called Gerald Cotten. Poor old Gerald suffered from Crohn's disease, and he died in December 2018 in India from complications of that disease whilst opening up an orphanage - so much for karma. Or does karma know something we don't? Rumours had surfaced the company may have been in trouble when it was slow to repay investors who wanted to withdraw their currency, prompting speculation that they were using other customer's deposits to repay withdrawals. Was the money lost, or hacked? Was it all a giant ponzi scheme? Luckily Gerald had filed a will a few days before he died, so his widow will inherit some properties, a yacht, a plane, and two pet chihuahuas. And presumably the laptop on which he conducted all the company's business. Except (and here's the kicker) the laptop is encrypted, but Mrs Cotten can't get into it. Gerald clearly followed the advice not to write his passwords down anywhere, and he didn't trust anyone else with them either. Without the data on the laptop, no-one can access the £140m or so of digital currencies. Experts brought in to try and hack it have met with 'limited success'. The fact he died in India where fake death certificates are not unknown, together with the implausibility of one guy with a laptop running a multi million dollar currency exchange more or less by himself, has caused more than one person to express doubt that all is not necessarily as it seems at QuadrixaCX. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47123371

Thanks for the clarification.

Ayub Ogada, Kenyan musician and actor died on February 1st: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayub_Ogada Haven't seen any UK obits but he had worked with Peter Gabriel, who commented on his website: https://petergabriel.com/news/ayub-ogada-1956-2019/

Seen in school grounds this week talking to someone working there, and 'waving to children'. Didn't say 'what' he was waving, though. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-47141888

Thanks @Spade_Cooley; the bit about which papers obit which types of celeb is a point I'd already considered, although not that successfully! It does seem to me that the BBC and newspapers in general do give undue prominence to 'one of their own'; journalists, and newsreaders who did two shifts in 1967 may well get a write up even though they've mostly been forgotten except by their nearest and dearest. Of course, it's not enough predicting who will get an obit, you have to also work out who's going to die....! (Ayub Ogada, a Kenyan actor and musician who had played with Peter Gabriel, died on Feb 1st but it doesn't look like he's scored a UK obituary...yet). Perusing the Graun today (Guardian website for those not in the UK, a newspaper famed for its lack of proofreading and spelling errors which get published) I noticed an obituary published yesterday evening for Oliver Mtukudzi, the Zimbabwean musician. I'd never heard of him, but I thought 'ah yes, world musician, precisely the sort of character the Guardian would obit'. Then I cross referenced to the BBC website and found he'd died two weeks ago and I missed the obit at the time. That'll be why no-one entered him in the February deathlist cup. Must. Try. Harder.

Seconded! And thanks to @Sir Creep and @msc for their replies. I have, as I'm sure many here also have, known friends and family with cancer. Some of them live with it for ages and then suddenly deterioriate and expire, which is why Clive James and Leah Bracknell feature in my own shadow list for 2019; the one thing I always think about cancer is that it's unpredictable. Johnny Clegg diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2015? My mum lasted 34 days between her diagnosis from pancreatic cancer and death, although admittedly she was around fifteen years older than him. This is the first year I've had time to put together a list and I've been doing a bit of research, expanding my list since considerably even I put my shadow list together. I've now got over 250 names on a list, ranging from the 'they're old so statistically can't last much longer', surely' to the 'got something nasty' (James, Bracknell), to the 'well you never know' (Schumacher, Minelli). For a shadow list of 50 I'm happy to put a couple in the latter category on the list, but I wouldn't enter them into a monthly competition unless there was a specific and suitably downbeat update on their health. In which case they'll feature on lots of lists. As i'm sure you've found, googling 'celebrities with cancer' throws up unhelpful lists dated 2013, or 'celebrities who have survived cancer'. Googling 'who will die soon' helpfully often points you back to this very forum. One promising website of 'celebrities with serious diseases' gives you Cher with ME, or a chef with agoraphobia. And, god help me for mentioning her name, Kim Kardashian with psoriasis. Did psoriasis ever feature as cause of death on the death certificate? In short (thank fuck for that, I hear you say) to some extent I think it's a bit of luck as to who will go in the short term, and hats off to those who do find the cancer-ridden Australian novelists in their trawls of the internet. Either that, or despite what people say about their occupations, the successful deathlisters are all oncologists.

Thanks!