tracy

Well, they've left David Attenborough off the list for the last two years, and if he was a miss the forum would explode. Clint is four years younger and he still seems very active (there's also a photo of him, in his office, reviewing scripts for his next project from earlier this month), so I think he'll probably be dropped, although, yeah, if this year wasn't so awful I think they'd just leave him on until he dies like DVD.

I'd probably click Harris if there was a poll, but I don't really have a strong take either way. On paper, Donald Trump has an easier path to victory (he just has to maintain his lead in Arizona and Georgia, hope he squeaks it out in Nevada, and then carrying one of WI/MI/PA wins him the race). Still, despite the fact that he's more popular than ever, he's still Donald Trump, and the race isn't really looking locked-in anywhere. As I was typing this, Marist dropped a poll that has Trump and Harris tied in Georgia and Trump up by one in Arizona/two in North Carolina, so the dominoes could easily fall against him (and vice versa). I don't really think either term will be that eventful. If Trump wins, he'll become the oldest president ever, and he isn't looking his best as of late. He could easily have a Democratic majority in the House and a 51-49 Senate, a lot more precarious for him in than in 2016 where he could do whatever because he came in with a trifecta and the GOP was sure to gain senate seats in 2018. A Harris win on the other hand probably just means four years of lame duck quacking thanks to the GOP senate. Pretty exciting stuff.

Fernando Valenzuela dead at 63.

Charles Bates died in May 2023, per Endato: I assume that IP is probably dumb/a troll, given their moronic edits to Susan Blanchard's article. Still, I figured there was no harm in checking the records again, given my previous Charles Bates post is almost a year old, and he seemed a likely candidate to die off radar at some point.

1924: Art Schallock / Polly Allen Mellen 1925: Lester Crown / Martha Firestone Ford 1926: Charles Dolan / Stella Hackel Sims 1927: Fred Risser / Leontyne Price 1928: Sidney Kimmel / Pilar Pallete 1929: Jerry Adler / Vikki Dougan 1930: Ion Iliescu / Taina Elg 1931: Mack Mattingly / Ann Roth 1932: Bob Pettit / Jenny Craig 1933: Michael Parenti / Joycelyn Elders

1924: Art Schallock / Polly Allen Mellen 1925: Lester Crown / Martha Firestone Ford 1926: Charles Dolan / Stella Hackel Sims 1927: Fred Risser / Barbara Dane 1928: Sidney Kimmel / Pilar Pallete 1929: Jerry Adler / Vikki Dougan 1930: Ion Iliescu / Taina Elg 1931: Mack Mattingly / Ann Roth 1932: Bob Pettit / Jenny Craig 1933: Michael Parenti / Joycelyn Elders Congrats PD

1924: Art Schallock / Polly Allen Mellen 1925: Lester Crown / Martha Firestone Ford 1926: Charles Dolan / Stella Hackel Sims 1927: Fred Risser / Barbara Dane 1928: Sidney Kimmel / Pilar Pallete 1929: Jerry Adler / Vikki Dougan 1930: Ion Iliescu / Taina Elg 1931: Mack Mattingly / Ann Roth 1932: Bob Pettit / Jenny Craig 1933: Michael Parenti / Joycelyn Elders Congrats SIT

1924: Art Schallock / Polly Allen Mellen 1925: Lester Crown / Martha Firestone Ford 1926: Charles Dolan / Stella Hackel Sims 1927: Fred Risser / Barbara Dane 1928: Sidney Kimmel / Pilar Pallete 1929: Jerry Adler / Vikki Dougan 1930: Ion Iliescu / Taina Elg 1931: Mack Mattingly / Ann Roth 1932: Bob Pettit / Jenny Craig 1933: Michael Parenti / Joycelyn Elders Congrats Bobytomi

Robert Durst also wasn't very well-known prior to the mid-2010s. His DL description and obituary make it pretty obvious that without The Jinx, which isn't even a decade old, he never would have been picked. (I'd equate his name recognition pre-HBO to, say, Steve Bechtel or T. Cullen Davis.) And obviously this year's list has Josef Fritzl, and Swift was already famous before he ever made the news. Yeah, there is a bit of a theme with the guy from The Wanted, Sarah Harding, Irwin, maybe others I'm blanking on, but there haven't been that many young DLworthy A-listers for pretty obvious reasons, so you can't really rule anything out.

1924: Art Schallock / Polly Allen Mellen 1925: Lester Crown / Martha Firestone Ford 1926: Charles Dolan / Stella Hackel Sims 1927: Fred Risser / Barbara Dane 1928: Sidney Kimmel / Pilar Pallete 1929: Jerry Adler / Vikki Dougan 1930: Ion Iliescu / Taina Elg 1931: Mack Mattingly / Ann Roth 1932: Bob Pettit / Jenny Craig 1933: Michael Parenti / Joycelyn Elders

Cissy Houston dead at 91.

I don't really have any strong feelings about who stays on the list or not. "You can't drop James Whale, he looks fine now but he's still got cancer." Normally I'd agree, but there aren't many good drops anyway. Like, let's say you cut Duvall (which I would endorse) for Whale, and then Duvall trips over his shoelaces and dies. A few deaths like that are bound to happen, but I'd take it as long as we surpass 4/50, which should likely just happen by default. I'd like to see some riskier drops, on that note. They were willing to ignore Attenborough for two years, despite his age and the fact that he's the most too-big-to-miss person in existence. Misses are rarely that logical, anyway. Just look at 2023's.

I think William Russell, Doherty, and JEJ are the only deaths I'd call misses, in terms of "I think they'd have made the 2025 list had they lived". Field and Irwin were ignored for so long I assume they'd just never pick them for whatever reason. The score with the aforementioned three would still be pretty mediocre, but not as abysmal as it looks at the moment. (I also wanted to see Corman and Gossett on the list, but I didn't really expect them to be picked, so whatever.)

1914? Come on. He's the guy that runs the shop in Misery. Clearly he's not ~5 years older than Richard Farnsworth there. He's still alive, and he was still acting recently. This IMDb page is also him. He was born on December 2, 1938. Here's his Facebook page.

He was born at 7 AM:

Pete Rose dead at 83.

Dead

Mildly interesting DL-related trivia is that he was Dick Van Dyke's IRL gym pal, hence why DVD appeared on Days as Hogestyn's dad last year.

1924: Art Schallock / Polly Allen Mellen 1925: Lester Crown / Martha Firestone Ford 1926: Charles Dolan / Stella Hackel Sims 1927: Fred Risser / Barbara Dane 1928: Sidney Kimmel / Pilar Pallete 1929: Jerry Adler / Vikki Dougan 1930: Ion Iliescu / Taina Elg 1931: Mack Mattingly / Ann Roth 1932: Bob Pettit / Jenny Craig 1933: Michael Parenti / Cissy Houston Congrats DS

Daniel J. Evans is a hit for me here. I'll keep the governor train rolling and replace him with George Nigh.

Steve Limbaugh was interviewed in that "out here in deep red Missouri, people aren't impressed by Kamala Harris" article last month, which talked about how, even at 96, he still goes to work at his law firm every day and has no plans to stop (his dad, Rush Limbaugh Sr., only retired from law at 102). I'd bet he becomes a centenarian, with the obvious caveat about not everyone 100 blah blah.

1924: Art Schallock / Polly Allen Mellen 1925: Lester Crown / Martha Firestone Ford 1926: Charles Dolan / Stella Hackel Sims 1927: Fred Risser / Barbara Dane 1928: Sidney Kimmel / Pilar Pallete 1929: Jerry Adler / Vikki Dougan 1930: Ion Iliescu / Taina Elg 1931: Mack Mattingly / Ann Roth 1932: Bob Pettit / Jenny Craig 1933: Michael Parenti / Cissy Houston Congrats SIT

Daniel J. Evans dead at 98.

1924: Art Schallock / Polly Allen Mellen 1925: Lester Crown / Martha Firestone Ford 1926: Charles Dolan / Stella Hackel Sims 1927: Fred Risser / Barbara Dane 1928: Sidney Kimmel / Pilar Pallete 1929: Jerry Adler / Vikki Dougan 1930: Ion Iliescu / Taina Elg 1931: Mack Mattingly / Ann Roth 1932: Bob Pettit / Jenny Craig 1933: Michael Parenti / Cissy Houston Congrats DS

There's pretty much a 0% chance it isn't Walters.