Filenos

Yes, a bit strange; he had his own singing number in the most famous musical movie of his time (albeit uncredited) and then nothing more is known about him. I once read in a blog entry a few years ago that he had recently died, but of course not in a way that could really be verified. There are probably quite a few people called James Thompson.

Actor Rolf Schimpf, who is on the list, has reached his 100th birthday. New pictures and a few words from him: https://www.bild.de/unterhaltung/stars-und-leute/der-alte-rolf-schimpf-hat-runden-geburtstag-haette-nie-gedacht-dass-ich-100-werde-6733119dfcff7e66e5df81c0

I believe that very direct statements about health are quickly removed from the media. It has happened before. Georg Gänswein, who has a few mentions on this website as Pope Benedict's private secretary and health update provider, once spoke quite openly to the German press in 2018 about a visit to Schuhmacher. Gänswein gave some details, after which you didn't need much imagination. This was only online for a certain amount of time, and later there was a court case, according to which newspapers in Germany can no longer print Gänswein's statements because it leaves Schuhmacher's privacy. That's why I'm not repeating anything here. If another indiscreet clergyman comes along, we'll find out more again.

One has to consider that 99 percent of the people born in 1923 are in their graves for a long time, and were more or less skeletons at their 100th birthday. It is amazing that Johns was seemingly wheelchair-bound for about 20 years, judging on some photos of her from 2004. I appeared in a school play of "The Court Jester" around ten years ago, and I googled that the only surviving cast members from the film were Angela Lansbury and Glynis Johns. Lansbury was still very active, while Johns was already in a wheelchair and retired for a long time. And yet, Johns survived Lansbury. And the Deathlist had a perfect timing.

1940's Hollywood child actor Charles Bates has died in May 2022 at the age of 87, according to his Wikipedia page (which uses a memorial site as the source). He was best-known for appearing in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, 1943 (which leaves Edna May Wonacott the last surviving cast member of one of my favorite Hitchcock films).

Well, there is the so-called "birthday effect", partly explainable by people who want to hold on until a certain goal they have (like the next birthday or perhaps a record) and then die when they reach it. But I doubt that Carter has John Nance Garner as a goal.

https://www.htr.ch/story/hotellerie/the-palace-eine-schraege-hommage-an-den-hotelfilm-34815.html Article from two weeks ago (in German), Polanski just filmed a hotel movie called "The Palace" this spring in Switzerland. He looks good for a guy in his late 80s in the photo.

Left is the Beaver of the Cleavers.

Very old, but obviously still quite well according to a new interview: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/may/06/name-names-never-never-never-lee-grant-on-her-decades-of-defiance Although a sudden death can always happen at 95.

Very sad. I always love him singing this song in Rochefort: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atgHEhyJAnw ... but also remember him from other films like Cinema Paradiso or Z. I wonder if or when a melancholic, dramatic tribute by Alain Delon about Perrin's death will come.

https://www.vaticannews.va/de/vatikan/news/2022-04/vatikan-papst-emeritus-benedikt-xvi-geburtstag-gaenswein-horeb.html An article from Vatican News in which his secretary Gänswein describes Benedikts health in detail (Gänswein seems to love to tell such stuff, as he also snitched stuff about Schuhmacher's health to the yellow press after he visited him). I couldn't find a translation, so I just sum it up. As it is obvious, Benedikt is quite frail and can't walk longer distances anymore and his voice is weak, so he can't hold a mess as the main celebrant. But he is also described as mentally still very sharp. Their days obviously consist out of praying, correspondence and writing, midday sleeping, visitors and watching TV. Benedict still does a small daily walk in the afternoon and play some music.

I'm not from the UK, so I didn't know him, haven't been on this website for a long time, and I'm a movie fan... My first reaction was: Isn't there even a movie about his death with Ian McKellen sinking in the swimming pool?

By the way, Don is survived by their mother Margaret who is 101 years old -- no one should bury their own children, but what if their children are also already way above the average life exspectancy? And that leaves Jerry Lee Lewis as the last surviving founding member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Who would have thought that 30 years ago?

Thanks for the research, Spade_Cooley and Ulitzer! His Wikipedia articles are in Italian, German, Japanese and Azerbaijani (strangely no English one), so the news are probably travelling slower - especially since there were no obituaries.

By the way: Benedict has overlived with his 94 years two of Germany's most prominent theologians this spring -- Ute Ranke Heinemann (died in March at age 93) and Hans Küng (died in April at age 93), both liberal opponents to Benedict, both studied/worked with him and both later criticized his church politics.