Spade_Cooley

Of the names I haven't seen mentioned here thus far: Keith Schembri - absolutely love this pick. Former chief of staff to the prime minister of Malta, who was alleged in a blog post to be suffering from terminal cancer. The journalist who wrote the post was then promptly killed by a car bomb and the Maltese political scene has been a trash fire ever since. Does seem to be doing very well for a man with terminal cancer though. Tammy Peterson - wife of nutjob "clean your bedroom" merchant Jordan. Had terminal cancer that couldn't be treated at all in April, was completely in remission thanks to an all-meat diet in August. I'm guessing the real truth is somewhere between those two. Fay Vincent - former MLB chief, not the one everyone had interest in though. Wrote some "what I've come to realise in my dying days" pieces in mid-2019, but was back to just talking about sports by December. Probably the last name I dropped and wouldn't be at all surprised to see him go in 2020.

David Quantick's Showbiz Pals Tom Smith (JOKER) Mark Allen John Andretti Jana Bennett Tim Bilton Chris Doleman John Downing Bob Gibson David Gulpilil David Hagen Samantha Jaelle Lee Kerslake John Lewis Litsa Menounos Laura Nuttall Genesis P-Orridge Yoo Sang-chul Roger Scruton Belinda Sykes Alex Trebek Theme team: Color Me Abbad - an attempt to break the record for the earliest DDP hit alphabetically, currently held by Claudio Abbado Hank Aaron (JOKER) Philip Aaberg Harald Aabrekk Lee Aaker Rauno Aaltonen Willie Aames Shaker Aamer Rolf Aamot Fredric Aasbo Nikita Ababiy Ricardo Abad Yitzchak Abadi Tommy Aaron Frank Abagnale Ababiya Abajobir Susan Aaron-Taylor Amira Abase Bonfoh Abass Loris Abate Patrice Abanda

David Quantick's Showbiz Pals have now been filed for the first time in two years. Spent the past 48 hours with food poisoning and no sleep so if I fuck it up completely this year, that's my excuse.

In fairness Eat. doesn't exist anymore, Pret bought it out and is in the process of converting all locations into branches of Veggie Pret.

Nope. His death barely got any attention in the US media, let alone the UK.

Right, I've gone through the List of the Lost and done final checks for any QOs anywhere. Still nothing. Gustav Gerneth still has a BBC article for his birthday but not his death. Barbara Hammer and Nadia Toffa still have obits from non-QO sources (as does Ezra Castro if anyone wants to open the "should ESPN.co.uk be a QO source?" argument (please don't)). Ken Nordine's death was still big enough to be the #5 story on BBC World Service when he died, but not on an actual news page of the site. So.... unless anyone can find any hidden, that's that.

I'm not picking him in 2020 (spoiler), but something tells me his cancer is a lot more progressed than he's letting on. He claimed it was only at stage 2 when caught, but the amount of tribute shows I'm seeing to him on Italian TV and sports press... I wouldn't be at all shocked if he goes next year.

Here's a listmania for everyone mentioned on "The Intro and the Outro" "Legs" Larry Smith - alive Martin "Sam Spoons" Ash - died 2018 Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell- alive Neil Innes - died 2019 Rodney Slater- alive Roger Ruskin Spear- alive Vivian Stanshall - died 1995 Eric Clapton - alive John Wayne - died 1979 Robert Morley - died 1992 Billy Butlin - died 1980 Adolf Hitler - was dead at song's release Princess Anne - alive Liberace - died 1987 Garner Ted Armstrong - died 2003 Lord Snooty and his Pals - not real. Although their original Beano run ended in 1991 Harold Wilson - died 1995 Franklyn MacCormack - died 1971 Sir Kenneth Clark - died 1983 A session gorilla - average life expectancy of a gorilla in captivity is 40 years, so would have died around 2007 (Quintin Hogg's name was originally used in place of a session gorilla but he filed a legal complaint to stop it. He died 2001) Incredible Shrinking Man - Grant Williams, who played the Incredible Shrinking Man, died 1985 Peter Scott - died 1989 Casanova - was dead at song's release General Charles de Gaulle - died 1970 Roy Rogers - died 1998 Trigger - was dead at song's release Wild Man of Borneo - date of death unknown but would have been 105 if alive when the song was released Count Basie Orchestra - still in existence and touring despite Basie dying in 1984 The Rawlinsons - Trevor Howard died 1988, Vivian Stanshall in 1995 Dan Druff - a scalp condition Quasimodo - not a real person Brainiac - not a real person. His creator Otto Binder died 1974 Val Doonican - died 2015 Max Jaffa - died 1991 Zebra Kid - died 1977 Horace Batchelor - died 1977 J Arthur Rank - died 1972

Ah man. Biggest shame is that he didn't live long enough to dance on Eric Idle's grave.

Gotta be the "Piano Man" himself.

Feel like we should now be keeping a suicide check on Lars Sullivan. For the uninitiated, here's his past 12 months: get picked as a cant-miss superstar prospect and possible Wrestlemania headliner main roster debut delayed because he suffers anxiety attack backstage finally debuts old forum posts he wrote under his own name resurface, contain racism, homophobia and insults about his (now) WWE coworkers gets physically attacked for real in a match by Mexican wrestler angry at his anti-Hispanic comments injured for a year now it's discovered he was a gay porn actor before wrestling, with his real initials tattooed on his shoulder and thus removing any plausible deniability

Looks like I picked the wrong transwoman esport athlete for my DDP theme team. Remilla, a professional League of Legends player, has died in her sleep aged 24.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_have_declined_a_British_honour

Of note this year: 90-year-old holocaust survivor Mindu Hornick, Battle of Arnhem veteran Wilf Oldham (99) and D-Day participant/fundraiser Harry Billinge (94).

Don Imus dies aged 79 of nappy-headed cancer.

Probably Jewish as well.

I think this is "Superstar" Billy Graham's year, lads.

Can we talk about Paul Mooney in this thread as well?

And they didn't make the starting line. Died on Christmas Day as well: David Faber, Arsenal blogger known as "Goonerholic".

The fact that the funkiest song of all-time was written by a tiny Jewish woman never fails to amaze me.

Ruby "met Malcolm X once" Muhammed just ahead of Fergie "was in Toto about five years after anyone stopped listening to them" Frederikson

Johanna Lindsey, sold 60 million novels in the romance category, died in October but her death has only just been publicised. Even if you don't know the name, you'll recognise her distinctive cover art style:

Also, I urge at least one person to carry on the most unlikely sequence in the DDP and ensure Maude Apatow is picked for a fourth year running.