I agree with keeping de Havilland off the list. True, her A-list quality makes her tempting, but she seems quite active and lucid for her age; there are many who are older and many who are sicker.
Keeping Solzhenitsyn around seems important to me - both him and Vonnegut seem to be just sitting around waiting to die, and you can never overestimate the impact of losing "joie de vivre."
I'm a Canadian born to American parents, so I'm not sure who flies as celebs in the UK (neither one of my 60-something New York City parents has ever heard of Stanley Kunitz), but here are a few, some already mentioned here, some not:
Jack Kevorkian - may be suffering from a strain of Slowly Dying Dictator Syndrome, in which a controversial figure claims to be dying for ten years and still won't kick it; I suspect he's on the level. And who would know better, really?
Les Paul - it's hard to know at his age, but he seems to have missed numerous public appearances
George Jones - may not be known in the UK. country singer with chronic history and recent bouts with pneumonia.
Rogert Ebert - sure, he SEEMS fine now, but that was an awful lot of sick in the past year.
Janez Drnovsek - last i heard, the Slovenian president was refusing treatment and sticking with all-natural remedies.
Humphrey Lyttelton - aw, but i like him, so please don't pick him.
John Mahoney - Frasier co-star has something up with his pancreas.
Paddy Roy Bates - how much longer can Sealand carry on?
Suzanne Pleshette/Tom Poston - this could be a duprass in the works. If one of the American sitcom actors goes, so will the other. Again, I don't know how well they're known in the UK.
General Paul Tibbets - was reported as "too ill to fly," which is exactly what they said about Don Knotts.
Wendy Richard - Served!
Most of the other obvious picks (Forsythe, Sharon, Astor, Heston, Griffith, Castro, Vidal, etc.) have been set. This forum is so expansive - is there a keep/drop poll option for names on the current list, or one where we people can pick, say, 5 out of 20 tentative new names? I realize such things wouldn't be official, but it would be handy.
Also, what is the current status of Harold Pinter? He seemed like a lock last year but reports have fallen silent in my neck of the woods.
