Octopus of Odstock

Er.. yes they had. Again - a week ago on the Dead Thread. There's about 5-6 posts on his death if you bothered to search. That & Brian Wilde too. And yes, Richard Widmark is dead too in case you bring this news to us in a week's time.

Yeah - basically, to cut it short, he's suffering from the same kind of hangover previous excess drinking does to you in your old age. Think how Brian Clough was in his last days/years. Having said that, although he looks very frail, he does still (and indeed was at their most recent home game) watch Manchester City's home games, so whatever is going inside him, it's not stopping him going out & about & taking part in club social events - as proved here.

Ah, that's a bit of bad luck. I guess what I'll have to do is - because he can't go on the List of the Missed for 2008 or List of the Lost for either 2007 or 2008 is to mention him in the next e-mail & leave him ON the site, but obviously with a full explanation of why he won't be scoring any points. I did have a look on the Google thingy to see if he had picked up any mention, but no-go. Meanwhile, Abby Mann, writer of Judgement of Nuremberg, the same film that starred the recently deceased Richard Widmark, and which earnt Mann an Academy Award, has died.

Gone for the obvious, but when Variety says someone is ill, then it's normally true... Sydney Pollack.

Well, of all people with an award, it was actually Abby Mann in the end. If public demand is high & I get time (both doubtful), I might put all the other possibles with an Academy Award. Widmark, of course, did not win an Oscar, but was nominated all those years ago...

Someone mentioned Kiss of Death as the tagline, but Death of a Gunfighter isn't bad either. Personally, a great shame. As I mentioned before, he was one of my favourite living actors & one of the true stars of the past. But, looking at it objectively, 93 is a good innings, he had stopped making any films & I have plenty of DVD's with him in to remember him by. Well done to Deathlist & all those who chose him on DP's. How bizarre (but these things often happen) that Abby Mann should die 24 hours later, when they both worked on the same film! (Judgement At Nuremberg - Damn fine film, by the way) Looks like all that fudge got him in the end...

Randy Pausch is now confined to bed & has stopped treatment for his cancer. So he probably won't be long going now. This is from a UK broadsheet, no less, so now I have no doubts at all he'll get a UK obit - a quite remarkable story, really.

Hmm.. Interesting. As far as I can see, Pollack has only given a short statement on Minghella's death, but revealed that Minghella's death stopped them "from doing many many more movies". So, you think, hmm.. irons to the fire, he's okay. But when a tome like Variety say he's gravely ill, says this blog, in a tribute to Minghella, you have to still favour the National Enquirer's report last year.

Not only that, young Mr Trip, because you have now given the curse to someone else in 24 hours: Neil Aspinall Dead EDIT: Curses, TAKFAG beat me to it... Also interesting to note Cushley apparently aged a year in a day.....

Bert WILLIAMS, I think you mean. I'm innocent for that one, it was up there already, but regardless, I'll change it for the next time. You're responsible for one pic though - Lenox Hewitt - couldn't find any pic at all - any ideas?

Once my e-mail server is fixed (again), I will be able to send out the update for Wilde/Scofield & the update for Wallace/Ewing. All pictures are up, apart from those people that couldn't be found - I'll send an e-mail for help with these, but I think it's about 18 of the 1,000+ picked, which ain't bad at all. Inane Analysis is currently being analysed, so that will be up soon (albeit in a slightly different format than before). Then I hope to do two new pages :- List of the Missed DDP History The first is those who were picked before, but died this year - a bit like what CP has on his pool - because I am fed up of people picking already dead picks & this might go some way to eliminating that. The 2nd is what it says - the history of the DDP, but updated - a bit of a stats cruncher, but current (and past) players can see where, precisely, they lie in the DDP Halls of Fame. Then, I'll get the 2009 game set-up, which should - all being well - leave me with only death updates to do between late April to late November & I can have a wee bit more social life! In the meantime, suggestions are always welcome & if it can be done & I think it enhances the game or the site, then it will be done.

Sigh... Academy Award winners of a certain age/illness: Best Actor Ernest Borgnine b. 1917 Richard Dreyfuss b. 1947 (Depression) Robert Duvall b.1931 Gene Hackman b.1931 Charlton Heston b.1924 Anthony Hopkins b. 1937 (Heavy Drinker) Paul Newman b. 1925 Jack Nicholson b. 1937 (Lifestyle) Sidney Poitier b. 1927 Maximillian Schell b. 1930 Best Actress Luise Rainier b. 1910 Joan Fontaine b. 1917 Jennifer Jones b. 1919 Olivia de Havilland b. 1916 Joanne Woodward b.1930 Elizabeth Taylor b. 1932 Patricia Neal b. 1926 Liza Minelli b. 1946 (Drink & lots more!) Ellen Burstyn b. 1932 Maggie Smith b. 1934 Louise Fletcher b. 1934 Best Supporting Actor Karl Malden b. 1912 George Chakiris b. 1934 George Kennedy b. 1925 Sir Michael Caine b. 1933 Sir Sean Connery b. 1930 Martin Landau b. 1931 Best Supporting Actress Celeste Holm b. 1917 Eva Marie Saint b. 1924 Dorothy Malone b. 1925 Shirley Jones b. 1934 Rita Moreno b. 1931 Estelle Parsons b. 1927 Cloris Leachman b. 1926 Olympia Dukakis b. 1931 That's the actors & actresses - I am sure someone can put together a list of directors, cinematographers, other notables & Honorary Award winners. From the above, prime candidates would be: (In no particular order): Holm, Kennedy, Malden, Neal, Smith (if cancer fight goes badly), Rainer, de Havilland, Fontaine, Jones, Schell, Newman (if he DOES have cancer), Borgnine & Heston.

Despite spelling her name wrong through the whole article - a total of six times, and despite being a feed from America, rather than a bona fide obit, yep - it does, under the rules, count.

Arbella Ewing, a DDP pick, has died aged 114. This link has all the facts, plus a picture, which helps me big time because she was one of those I was missing. As was Merv Wallace, strangely enough. Well no more - for either of them. Ewing, unlike Wallace, is yet to garner a suitable obituary. Apologies - btw - for not being able to send the e-mails out after I updated the site yesterday - this is due to a fault with the server & is being fixed asap.

I met him too - lovely man. Had a lot of time for the general public & none for luvvies. He probably would have detested Scofield then, ironically. Scofield's death has been woefully under-reported - the man was an acting colossus - better than Olivier (Controversial, but my opinion nonetheless). Looks like the Easter drop-out season is still as fresh as new baby lambs.

Oh jolly bean. Another hit for my lacklustre 2008 season & another hit for my very strong CPDP season. However, not so jolly bean as that's a 3rd update for the DDP. May have to do that tonight if I get 30 mins spare..

I have consulted with the oracle of all wisdom and she said... Bobby Robson.

Neither has anyone else - his name was John Hewer.

Noooooooooooooooooo! The entire nation is plunged into mourning. Why the media thinks Minghella's death is more important, I'll never know. His films were long, normally sh*t & I always got him mixed up with Sam Mendes. But Captain Birdseye.... I am griefstricken.

Yeah, I did want to, but I notice Twelvetrees has posted the relevant obit & I've also just realised Bill Brown wasn't chosen this year - very surprisingly - on the DDP so it makes my post (as usual) competely irrelevant...

I HAVE gone through what you're going through not once, not twice, but THREE times. And before you dismiss that statement with a "yes, but..", I am damn well educated, a damn good worker & each time I found myself in these situations it was through no fault of my own. So, I feel qualified to say stop acting like a snivelling, pathetic little sh*t. No-one on this earth is going to automatically give a job to someone who thinks they are above everybody else & has the potential to do well, but prefers to blame everyone else & rather than fight, just give up and curl up & die - because that's the impression I'm getting of you. If I were an employer in the US, and I had a choice between an educated, qualified white boy who had no fight, backbone & a chip on his shoulder, and a young, enthusiastic Hispanic, with limited qualifications but bags of energy, hope & enthusiasm, I'd know who I'd choose, and it wouldn't be you. Is the above harsh? Perhaps. But fair? Undoubtedly. I could have done what you did - whinge, cry, blame everyone & hope everyone else suffers as a result. But I didn't. I don't often blow my own trumpet on here, but I rolled my sleeves up, got on with it & now I have a day job I love, albeit relatively low paid compared to some, but still a job I love, plus, when chance allows, I can supplement my normal wage with a sideline in motor racing journalism - another dream job that has given me so much AND I also find the time to run two huge websites, play badminton at a decent level, have a girlfriend & other normal mularkey. I did all that by using what I had to me & making the most of it - you will have to do that as well. The above may seem to you I am against you - but I am not. If anything, I want you to succeed just as I did in the same situation. But if you are going to do that, you HAVE to get out of this snivelling little creep stage & work as hard as you have ever done and believe me, recession or no recession, you CAN do it. Besides, you could be a lot worse off. At least you're still alive, and, I presume, healthy. That should never be taken for granted, never. Sorry to everyone else for the above, but I hope it helps wake him out of his baby-like tantrum. PS Well said Banshees. Ooh, I might need a lie down after saying that....

I knew someone would be a smart-arse. However if I had put that Ponticelli was the last surviving person to fight pre-tank, then no doubt I would have got a deluge of irate posts saying that the equivalent of a tank design was first used in the late 1400's during the Hussite Revolution in Bohemia- the brainchild of the great patriot & fighter, Jan Zizka...... http://victorian.fortunecity.com/benjamin/440/tank.html and a far better & more concise read - http://www.hotelpraguecity.com/fotky/okoli/zizka2.html ...... so I made the distinction just in case. Still, it's somewhat amazing to think that Ponticelli was, in many aspects, fighting as they did for aeons, albeit with more modern guns & a different style of fight, and equally amazing that such a man was still alive at the start of 2008, when warfare has changed out of all recognition.

That's a very Ameri-centric & myopic view. Since Scheider, we've lost:- One of Britain's most prominent politicians of the 1970's & 1980's, once touted to be a Prime Minister The last man alive who fought in a war before armoured tanks were used - in other words, a real part of history One of Europe's most successful easy listening singers of the 20th century The long-time former President of Slovenia - a key name in the process that split Yugoslavia up. One of the 20th century's greatest opera singers - regarded by some as one of the best of all time I could also add to that a war hero, a prominent American politician, one of motor racing's all-time legends & a top British TV presenter. To dismiss them as not famous is a bit much... From a DDP point of view, I'm delighted no-one's gone in the last week bar Ponticelli. Makes my life easier...

Pop star (Founder member of the Foundations "Build Me Up Buttercup" etc.) and child sex abuser Peter MacBeth. He has terminal cancer & is now starting a jail sentence for his crimes. Fits the bill, exactly, me thinks - gravely ill & not a nice person, always a good mix for any DP.

It's not the results. Ian Porterfield was a completely sh*t manager for us, but he did his job with dedication, commanded respect & did his best to help Reading out of a financial crisis which was not of his doing. Thus, at his passing last year, there was sadness for a man much higher than 6 loan games as a player & two rubbish years as a manager deserved. It's the man. Scrapped our reserve & youth teams out of his own choice. No financial pressure - just sacked 20 hard working members of staff (including Alan Pardew, who later came back & saved us from the brink). Then sacked the reserve & youth playing staff in one fell swoop - some as young as 14 year old kids. Then there's his treatment of the remaining first team staff - http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn41...11/ai_n14484966 Then, there's the small matter of turning a club which made £2.1 million profit the season before he arrived, to a club that made a loss of £5.7 million at the time he was sacked, with the club heading to relegation & oblivion - with Burns pocketing a HUGE amount for himself, but freezing the wages of the club's kit cleaner "to save money". His contempt of the fans was such that he never once turned up for a Fans Forum. He openly presided over a drugs & drink culture at the club which saw two players getting sacked (Jim McIntyre & Byron Glasgow) & the club being investigated, The PFA said it was the worst case of player management they "had ever seen." In short, Burns pocketed at least a million in cash & left the club, its players, its future players & its fans to rot. You can't do all that from just looking at the league table & going "oh that's not so bad", you have to know the truth behind it. I make no apology for it. Burns is a twat & I don't have time for twats on this earth. One less twat in the world is fine by me. Here endeth my Burns rant & the end of the topic. If you really want to take it up further, PM me, but let's keep on topic in at least ONE DL thread, heh? PS You missed a relegation, CR. He got us relegated once. That in itself is not a crime worthy of evil, but it didn't help his record.