VileBody

I think he looks like Uncle Fester...

Couple of petty-minded thoughts: the "staunch opponent of Nazism"-dad was.. er, the village policeman, so that sounds pretty likely, and... It said in the Telegraph this morning that he "deserted from the German army in May 1945"... I suppose it would have been more embarrassing if he'd left it until June... Never mind, I'm sure he will be a jolly decent Pope.

Lifelong Tory I'm afraid...but please don't let this turn into a major political rant thread - there's plenty of other places to do that... STICK TO THE DEAD FAMOUS!!!!

This is ridiculous - of course he's famous enough (even if he is Canadian) Wellington in Waterloo Atuhalpa in Royal Hunt of the Sun Charles Litton in the Return of the Pink Panther (although rather upstaged by Sellars) Commodus in Fall of the Roman Empire plus Battle of Britian, Aces High etc, etc see below Christopher Plummer IMDB Thing is tho, that he still seems to be going strong and working on 2-3 projects even now - better pick for 2007? Still worth keeping an eye out for health reports this year, I guess

Anyone know why Benedict? He used to be Head of the Inquisition - they call it something more cuddly these days but it's the same thing. Nice.

I'd really drop this one, guys...

Fascinating tho all this is..... I'd quite to go back to where this all started, ie the actuary idea.... which is, I would submit, my lord, utter bo*locks of the greatest weight and circumference. Firstly, there's the nationality point: doing a quick count up I reckon there are about 20 Yanks and 15 Brits in the list and all the others are "one-offs" ranging from Afganisthan to Austria by way of Argentina and India. Obviously all these countries have wildly differing average life expectancies so an average is pretty meaningless even if weighted by country. Second - and far more interesting - the celebs on the list have specific high risk and low risk factors - at its simplest, most are worth a few quid so can afford top-end medical treatment - plus will have been able to enjoy better diet, health, fitness throughout most of their lives than someone living in, say, a Santiago tower block or up the Khyber Pass (ahem...). However, the downside is that celeb status, despite giving the opportunity to be very healthy, long lived etc, also gives the chance to get trashed every night, do tons of drugs, have ostentatious nervous breakdowns, drive fast cars and generally act the t*at. Now I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that per se. God knows. However, celebs can do it all the time without the inconvenience of having to get up for the bloody tube in the morning, which probably puts most of us off the drink, drugs, etc to quite the same extent. Consequently, there is no realistic chance of correlating the "average" celeb life expectancy with even a national average. A final point which makes a statistical approach irrelevant is that a lot are subject to higher risks of assasination than Joe Bloggs - either for political reasons or out of general looniness. This again skews the average - Khazai being the most egregegious example. Now does all that mean I should or should not be spending the weekend train spotting?

untrue there's still a couple left here in Australia. Not too many though. Fair enough - maybe it was last one at Gallipoli

I think this is out of date - the Telegraph had an obit of the last ANZAC a couple of years ago

Georg Solti laid down his baton on the same day Di popped - might be him you're thinking of. All part of my "Deaths come in 3's theory" you see... My fave death was defitnitly Emlyn Hughes - reaction was just a hoot...

Ah but this is where you are right and wrong all at the same time. You see on this day as the news of The Pope passing reaches his faithful in New York City it is true, it is a Rainier day than we've had for at least a week. So in conclusion a Rainier Pope on the same day. (and of course he was a rainier Pope when he spoke in the Boston Commons area years back on a rainy day as compared to his New York City Central Park sunny day appearance). All a matter of how you choose to look at it. Okay, okay! I'm leaving. I've always had a theory that celebs croak in 3s - the classic was Di, Mother Theresa and Solti all going toes up within about 24 hours of each other So this time we get the Pope, Rainier and Callaghan in a week - I'm trying to think of something hugely significant about Church, State and Monarchy but have hangover and can't be arsed...

And of course the grammar isn't too distinguished either..."monarchy" is, "members of the royal family" are... I do like a spot of pedantry on a Friday afternoon... Pope died yet? Can't stand the suspense

I've got to tell this joke since it won't work for much longer: Englishman Scotsman and Irishman are touring the Vatican and get lost. Trying to find the way out, they wander into this room with a big ornate bed in it. “Isn’t dat the Holy Father?” says Paddy. “I think you’re right” says the Englishman. “I think he’s deed” says the Scotsman At that moment the doors burst open to admit loads of cardinals priests, Swiss guard etc etc. who are horrified that the secret of the Pope’s death has got out before they had gather the Cardinals together to elect a new one. They offer the 3 guys $1,000 each to keep quiet until the end of the week when the announcement will be made. On the way out the English says: “Here, we can make some real money out of this – we’ll all put a bet on that they announce the Pope’s dead on Friday” So they agree to meet up at the Ritz in London on Saturday to see how they got on. Come Saturday, the Englishman arrives in a new Aston Martin, orders Dom Perignon and a Cohiba and, when Jock arrives next, tells him he won £250,000 The Scotsman admits “Och, I was a wee bit careful and only bet half, but I still won a canny amount. Where’s Paddy?” At that moment the Irishman arrives on the bus and they ask how he got on. “Well, Oi wasn’t so lucky – Oi put it on a double with the Archbishop of Canterbury”

Trouble is that Belgians are just French without any of the redeeming features... which escape me for the moment....

Well Trotsky's pretty damn dead - ice pick in the head i believe - wonder if he was shagging Sharon Stone?

Live ones are tougher Gorbachev (real commie?) Milosovic Egon Krenz (last East germany leader - dead already?) Presumbaly there must be some wrinkly Hungarians or Czechs or something... Then again who cares... Suppose you should add Trotsky to the dead list...

Am sitting at desk trying to write slide for a presentation with the title "Reasons to invest in Belgium" I have been looking at it for two hours and it is still very, very empty.

Personally I think Lady Bird Johnsonshould be excluded for simply having the most bloody stupid name in the world. Ever.

Funny you should say that - a lot of the lads from school were keen, fit and healthy young rowers with tanned and powerfully muscled limbs... oo-er....

Oh God - don't start up this thread again or all those scouse loons will be back on bleating about what "bonch o fockin saad bahstods" look at this sight... Actually it was fun wasn't it - any chance of another dead Beetle or something soon so we can wind'em all up again?

Hmmm.... Been re-watching the Dad's Army series (son is old enough to enjoy them now). There is an awful lot of innuendo (!) in the scripts about the Vicar/Verger being "close"... I'd have thought Williams was getting on a bit for that sort of thing these days, if indeed, which i'm not of course suggesting, he ever was...your honour...

You help a pervert buy his way out of jail and wife-murderer walk free. What a great life. Something to look back on. Rot in hell, asshole...

A few guys from my old school used to go to the disco where all this took place in the early 80's. I didn't go - probably cos I prefer Bach and was busy being a spotty geek (QED). King's name did get mentioned, but in the context of blokes going to his place and getting pissed (plus maybe a spliff or 2??). Certainly can't remember there being any suggestion of kiddie fiddling activities at the time but then frankly there was quite a lot of it going on - and although it's unfashionable to say it, all totally consensual involving 16-18 year olds - ie it would be legal today, thanks to Mr Blair legalising old blokes sodomising teenagers. That said, King is clearly a grade A, self-pitying dickhead and pervert who should have his anal cavity opened up with a roll of barbed wire. It appears the only reason this didn't happen while he was inside is that he spent the whole time on a nonce's wing under protection. Nice.

I think we are having a US/UK language moment here - the IMDB thinggie says he was a "Minister" in Dad's Army, ie a Minister in the Government (who if memory recalls had come to see if the lads were too old and they all wear hair dye and make up which runs in the rain, etc etc) - not a "minister" in the US sense of a greasy clown with a fake tan who extorts billions of dollars on behalf of God Inc.

What a shame - 68's no age really even for all the smokin' and drinkin'. His son went to the same school as me. Great man - let's hope for many re-runs on the TV...