VSBfromH

Anne Wiggins Brown "African-American soprano who was the original Bess in George Gershwin's folk opera Porgy and Bess, has died at age 96"

Canadian born singer Edmund Hockridge has died aged 89. He was a huge star in his heyday (50s and 60s) in such musicals as "Carousel", "Guys and Dolls", "Can-Can" and "The Pajama Game". He also performed leading operatic roles in "Don Giovanni", "La Boheme" and "Peter Grimes".

Coy Watson Jr (see above) has died aged 96

"actress"???

Winner of pancake eating contest chokes to death whilst accepting his prize "He had really enjoyed the pancakes but then he started foaming at the mouth and went down like a sack of stones"

Jimmy Boyd has died aged 70. He was the original singer of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" in 1952. Now, I'm no conspiracy theorist but Molly Bee, who also had a hit with the same record, died last month, as did Estelle Bennett of the Ronettes who also recorded it, so it's interesting to note that the song has also been recorded by Michael Jackson (along with his brothers) and Amy Winehouse...

Oh, another piece of childhood gone. I wonder if he will be cremated, in a puff of smoke - poof! Name association - I should have had him!!! Just goes to show what a really bad year I'm having!!! Wasn't he also married to Victoria Wood? No, that was Geoffrey Durham, The Great Soprendo. Great big fat twat, more like. I think it was a popular misconception that he was Wood's husband, one which I fell prey to some time ago until corrected.

Magician Ali Bongo (real name William Wallace), a regular on TV in the 70s has died age 79. He was also president of the Magic Circle.

Joan Turner Belfast-born comedienne, actress and singer has died aged 86. Hugely popular in the 60s and 70s, topping the bill at the London Palladium, she was reported "living as a bag-lady on the streets of Los Angeles" in 2004. Her career "was marred by a lifetime of heavy drinking and gambling" - so she did well to get to 86! Guardian obit

Veteran sports journalist John Rodda has died aged 78.

Alexandre Leontieff former president of French Polynesia, has died of a heart attack aged 61.

BBC Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time stalwart Geoffrey Smith has died aged 80.

Kamila Skolimowska, who at 17 won the first ever gold medal in the women's hammer event when it was staged for the first time at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney has died during a training session in Portugal aged 26. If anyone picked her on the DDP, I'd be very surprised!

Already reported here. Sorry to bang on about this, but drummers of all types are a special breed and so have their own thread.

"Legendary big band drummer Louie Bellson , who performed with such greats as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Oscar Peterson, has died. He was 84... ... Bellson's career spanned more than six decades, performing on more than 200 albums with jazz greats including Tommy Dorsey, Harry James, Woody Herman, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong and his late wife Pearl Bailey."

Harry Hill No, not that one. This one "won a bronze medal at the Berlin games in 1936 in the 4,000m team pursuit" and "was the oldest surviving male winner of an Olympic medal" (not sure if that's in the world or just UK).

Hi di Die! Bobby Butlin, son of holiday camp founder Billy, who took over the business when his father retired in 1968, has died aged 74.

Anybody watch "Who do you think you are?" with Rory Bremner last night? He went to a community archivist to get information on his great grandfaher's death. She went by the wondeful name of "Di Stiff"!!! (I've checked and she can be googled - they didn't make it up!)

Jacques Bar dead at 87. Not a seedy drinking den, but the prolific French film producer (since 1949). Died back on Jan 19th. Got a French obit the day after, but not picked up by the English press until now. He produced "My Father, ce Héros" and the TV series "The Count of Monte Cristo", both starring Gérard Depardieu

German born American composer, conductor and pianist Lukas Foss has died aged 86.

Former F1 boss Teddy Mayer "the man who rescued the team after the death of its founder, Bruce McLaren" dead at 73. Phew, knowing his penchant for watching grown men drive pointlessly round in circles for the best part of a day, I'm relieved that Mr Odstock has NOT picked him for the DDP!

Boxing great Ingemar Johansson has died aged 76. "Ingemar Johansson shocked the boxing world by upsetting Floyd Patterson for the world heavyweight title in 1959 to become only the 5th man born outside of the US to hold the fight world's loftiest prize. He passed away in Sweden Friday night at the age of 76" Another hit for Octopus and 2 others on the DDP.

Yes, very familiar!

John McCarthy The singer for '80s Boston punk metal pioneers Post Mortem, has died at age 40. Never heard of them personally, but I think it's quite interesting to read down the post and see some of the comments people have made speculating as to how he might have died... Oh, and you may wish to check out their Wikipedia entry and see what former member Seth Putnam is up to these days. Think I might take my dear grandmother to see his latest band play...

And who could forget "Sutherland's Law" - most of you obviously! That's what I most remember him for. I too must admit I would have assumed him to be long gone, given that it's been so long since I've seen him in anything new. However, IMDB has his most recent appearance as the ghost in a 2003 version of "Hamlet".