VSBfromH

Alan A'Court Former Liverpool player who scored 63 goals in 381 appearances during the 50s and 60s has died at the age of 75.

Kenyan athlete Patrick Konchellah, brother of the more famous Billy has died of cancer aged 41. He won the 800m in the 1994 Commonwealth Games.

Scooby dooby dispute - was it written by Schroeder or Raleigh & Mook? {cue furious argument at the Dog and Duck} Also, I think a certain Eduardo de Capua can take at least some of the credit for It's Now or Never. From what I can gather looking at various sites, it appears Schroeder was the "music director" for Scooby Doo (and also "The Banana Splits") and Raleigh and Mook worked under him. Yes, granted de Capua wrote "O Sole Mio" (where the "sun" he is referring to is actually his home city of Naples), but Schroeder can claim the credit for the Presley song, albeit he was apparently inspired by another song "There's No Tomorrow" which itself was based on Capua's tune.

I can't believe it's not Betty! (maybe we should have that as a new topic tag line for a Coronation Street thread until Ms. Driver / Turpin finally cooks her last hot-pot (yes I know she's got her own thread!).

Aaron Schroeder The songwriter has died aged 84. He wrote "It's Now or Never" for Elvis Presley. "He is also credited with helping launch the careers of Randy Newman, Jimi Hendrix and Barry White as a record producer, as well as writing the theme song for Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" I'll have to remember that one for pub-quiz purposes if the question of a connection between Elvis Preseley with Scooby Doo ever comes up!

Asim Butt Lahore-born cricketer who played 5 one day internationals for Scotland and featured regularly for them in the B&H Cup and other competitions, has died in his sleep aged 42.

Genevieve Joy The French classical pianist has died aged 90. Not a major name, more noteworthy perhaps for being the wife of composer Henri Dutilleux, who is mentioned in various threads on this site, and is one of my DDP picks. They were married for 63 years and he will be 94 in January...

One of the world's most eminent musicologists, Boston-born H C Robbins Landon has died aged 83. I can't find an English obit as yet. Found one He was especially an authority on Haydn and Mozart.

Top linguistics expert Stanley Ellis has died aged 83. He was the man who concluded that the "I'm Jack" tape claiming to be from the Ripper and taunting police for their failure to catch him, was a hoax.

Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi has died in London aged 78. He was briefly interim Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1990 following the dismissal of Benazir Bhutto's government.

Swedish soprano Elisabeth Söderström has lost her fizz at the age of 82.

European Union? He looks like the result of a union between Sven-Goran Eriksson and William Hague! Or is he so named as he was conceived in the back of Peter Noone's tour bus?! Lets not forget the EU's poster girl: Baroness Ashton of Upholland - will be High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy fomr 1st January. They make a lovely couple... Tattyfilarious! How tickled she must be! Etc., etc.

Paul O'Grady's dog Buster who until recently featured regularly on his TV chat show, has died aged 14.

European Union? He looks like the result of a union between Sven-Goran Eriksson and William Hague! Or is he so named as he was conceived in the back of Peter Noone's tour bus?!

Ana Maria Perez "A Mexican once put forward for the title of world's oldest woman has died at 119, government officials said Thursday ... Perez has a valid birth certificate stating she was born June 22, 1890 ... State authorities applied about three years ago to have Perez declared the world's oldest woman by the Guinness Book of World Records, but the attempt foundered when officials could not raise enough money for a Guinness judge to visit and confirm the claim"

Actually it says Mary Josephine Ray is a week younger than China's Kama Chinen who is the current oldest person.

Olivia Patricia Thomas "A 114-year-old woman believed to be the third-oldest person in the world has died at a nursing home near Buffalo, N.Y. ... in addition to being the third-oldest in the world, Thomas was the oldest person born in the United States"

I thought I'd check further on his father-in-law Roy Dotrice - not literally, I've no idea where he lives (unlike Woodward who infamously had the South West Coastal Path redirected away from his property at Hawker's Cove to "protect his privacy"!). The 86 year old former "Clochemerle" star is appearing in a production of "White Christmas" at the Lowry in Salford from November 27th onwards, and is still refreshingly active in theatre and film. His IMDB bio also mentions that he "considers one of his greatest achievements as introducing baseball to the Royal Shakespeare Company into what had been a cricket stronghold. In 1959 the actor pitched for his classically-trained team that included at first base, Paul Robeson (Othello); second base, Sam Wanamaker (Iago); third base, Laurence Olivier (Coriolanus), short stop, Peter O'Toole (Shylock); Charles Laughton (Lear) plate umpire and Albert Finney his catcher.". Quite a line-up!

Derek B "One of the first UK hip-hop stars to enjoy chart success and an influence on future urban artists, has died aged 44. Derek Boland had UK top 20 hits with Good Groove and Bad Young Brother in 1988 and co-wrote the Anfield Rap for Liverpool Football Club."

Sounds familiar Handrejka, are you reading my mind? I'm gonna plump for him again, maybe we can raise the poor guy's profile a bit!

Tomaž Humar "Slovenian climber recognised as one of the world's greatest-ever mountaineers has died after a daredevil solo attempt on a Himalayan peak ... Humar was hailed by Italian legend Reinhold Messner, the first to climb the world's 14 8,000-metre peaks, as the greatest climber of the modern era"

How is this possible when Christopher Lloyd is 71? different Christopher Lloyd... Mea culpa! Didn't check - just made the connection in my head that David Lloyd worked on "Taxi" in which the more famous Christopher Lloyd starred, so that was the Christopher Lloyd being reffered to in the article. It didn't occur to me that he too is a senior citizen these days!

David Lloyd No, not that one or that one, this one "David Lloyd, the Emmy-winning writer whose credits include Taxi, Cheers and Frasier, has died of prostate cancer at the age of 75" Also the father of Christopher Lloyd ("Taxi", "Back to the Future")

A great shame! Always wonderful to watch, but even more so to hear his wonderfully distinctive "crackling voice that belied a lack of training" (as the Guardian put it in their obituary). Always understated and underrated in mostly cameo roles, such as the guy putting up the screen in Margo's garden in "The Good Life". (Corrected from earlier, when I said he was the guy delivering the Christmas tree - that was of course the equally wonderful and droll David Battley, who sadly is no longer with us too)

Jerry Fuchs The drummer has died aged 34 after plunging down an elevator shaft. Fuchs played in the bands Turing Machine, Maserati and The Juan Machine as well as !!! (never heard of any of them, but he's a drummer, and does have a page on Wikipedia)