msc

Not as soon as the words "palliative care" and "rapidly downhill" were used in news reports.

A name will come to you. I admit Pan Breed was very much an 11th hour thing trying to think of Scottish sounding names back in 2011, but I've grown accustomed to it over the years.

We'll cross that bridge when we get there.

I'll pick and choose. *evil laughter* Nah, what I was going to do last time, but never needed to, was that if we had, say, twenty-six from the previous year voted into the top 50, then the twenty-sixth would be axed, and replaced by the 51st person on the list, and so on.

I've just remembered TJI is technically a title rival for 2017 (in the way Arsenal talk of title chases to Liverpool, I guess): yeah, you're right, he'll make 2018, no bother!

June 2015, died August 2016. He had his operation 10th October 2016 at the latest - and I suspect it was about a month ago, as he was doing a Reddit AMA on the 13th in which he refers to "recently" having surgery. He has age on his side, however.

Word to the wary, DI, that was my view on a certain Miss Caslavska, especially when she was said to be doing well after surgery.

Well, that one lasted...a week before showing up on the forum! And there goes my other guaranteed 100% BBC obit pick that hadn't been mentioned yet. Not who I thought it'd be, but, well, that's the thing Spade, with you being Van Gerwin (I even went to check your favourite analogy - christ, 17 titles in 3 years is good going in any sport!) - others have to raise their game to compete. He's bullish about his chances, but then, so were many, many celebrity pancreatic cancer sufferers.

Well, that one lasted...a week before showing up on the forum!

Good question. I'd suggest only keeping 25 of the Crowdsourced lot, as the two lists differ.

I'd drop Gazza, Hawking, Banks (to fit St John on the list), Walker, Stan Lee, Piggot, Pirsig, Dole, Kissinger, Liz Smith, Gall, Ellis, Chong, Randi, MT Moore and Clive James, in no particular order. I'd advise the return of the Queen and Sean Connery, and beyond the soap star/terminally ill cases, would push for Sidney Poitier, Tony Booth, the Pope Emeritus and Gorbachev to make their debuts. (I know we have no power in the matter, I took joey's question as a role playing exercise...)

I'd recognise Dot Cotton, but had to google her name, because I always mix the actress up with June Whitfield.

Genuinely, I've tested her name out on a few casual folk I know, non-Deadpoolers, and they've all known who she was. I knew those of us who don't watch soaps didn't really know of her before, but a lot of people are addicted to the bloody things, and she was apparently far better known than I'd thought. In my book - Meads, Bracknell, Christie, St John, King Michael, Booth, and Sellers are all famous enough for the front page, given earlier precedents (and I'd pick Downie, citing the Beeb! Hah), but I am not the Committee. They have their ways. Whereas even people into Christian country hadn't really heard of Feek.

Not happy with that. I had no idea who she was. I am thinking Desmond Tutu might be the right sort of pick for the top slot. #1 is usually a Deathlist lifetime achievement spot, so Olivia de Havilland and Kirk Douglas might be other options. If Lee Bracknell makes the list, I'll be impressed.

It'll be Zsa Zsa.

A long time ago, I was at uni, and my wife-to-be was struggling with the classes on Habermas's work/theories/whatever it was. After the third night of this, I had a chat around a few people, and came back to her with the words: "Look, I've got hold of his phone number and email contact here, do you want me to ask him to explain it for you?" The answer, sadly, was no. I hope he's a successful hit for you. True story: in 2012, they made a big deal of the 45th anniversary of Just A Minute as, due to age, Parsons wasn't expected to be around for the 50th. He's got two months to go to prove them all wrong. He might be dead already?

The only edit I ever made to WIki - after struggling in the early days with their sourcing issues - was to edit in the fact that was a famous actor was a Moray eel once, just to see how long it would take for anyone to spot. 22 minutes. Somewhere on Wiki, there's an editor talk section where someone tried to cite me on a matter, and it got deleted by other editors as I "was an atrocious source". I was so proud.

Hmm, is there a way you could set up the site to allow other folk to do a lot of the typing/deleting photos/other non-programming issues that might need done? I'm so technologically inept, I once set a microwave on fire - but surely there's some way of lessening the load through more hands, as it were? Just thinking aloud. PS - See for the bios, do we actually need pics? They must add a bunch to the server, you get asked to take some down, others die, and it must take time to find and upload each one. Seems like it'd be easier just to axe them and stick to pics on the front page/news archive bits. Again, just musing aloud.

Ah don't take it so seriously. Chap lost a relative, clearly cares enough to tell this forum of loonies, folk pass on their empathy/sympathy/politeness/whatever the fuck you want to call it. Shaun might be a serial killer in real life, but the little I know of him on here he seems like a cool enough guy, so, yeah, I'm sorry his uncle died. I've a great aunt I'm very close to, so I can well imagine it in those terms, even without the evidence.

Just to give some context, Weebl, Harry Houdini's oldest living assistant got an obit in 2011, when there were less qualifying obits. An 104 year old who worked with Logie Baird and was involved in the first colour TV experiments = Guardian, Telegraph and BBC references when he dies.

I can see Sir Creep's signature too.

Story I heard from my ex-music journalist wife. Phil Collins was having one of his periodic huffs back about fifteen years ago, and was telling people that he had played the congas as an noncredited session musician on one of the tracks on All Things Must Pass, and not only did he never got any praise for this from George Harrison, but his playing had been axed. News of this got to the late Beatle, who couldn't remember off hand Collins working on the album. But anyhow, he got a session musician to play a set on the drums really badly, taped it, and then sent it to Phil with a note saying: "Found your recording.." A quick Google shows Collins mentioned it earlier this year, so I'll assume its true then.

Family, eh? Sorry for your loss.

Someone apparently never mentioned before on this forum, but Denis Mack Smith will 97 in 2017. Widely regarded by his peers as one of the greatest living British historians, he specialised in Italian history. No idea on his current health, mind you. Also, Norman Kember is still alive. For some reason I keep thinking he got killed. Also, so is Harry Whittington, the chap who got shot by Dick Cheney.

Raine Spencer, Jimmy Perry, Stylianos Pattakos, Howard Davies, Bobby Vee, apparently.