The 2022 Crowdsourced Deathlist

[msc 17,712]

41 minutes ago, drol said:

14 vs 4... and all but Burgess and Steiner felt deathlisty enough.

 

Hmm.

 

Trintignant - Maybe, maybe not.
Poitier - DL hit
ONJ - former DL pick
Tom Smith - former DL pick
Vitti - Nah, not big enough in UK
Parker - Not their type of pick
June Brown - DL hit
Lovelock - Felt DLy but they ignored him for some reason
Nichols - A surprise omission. 
Perez - Never thought he'd get close
Weiskopf and Elford - Felt like names they might go for in the right mood.
Steiner - No chance
Burgess - No chance

[Gooseberry Crumble 5,201]

48 minutes ago, msc said:

 

Hmm.

 

Trintignant - Maybe, maybe not.
Poitier - DL hit
ONJ - former DL pick
Tom Smith - former DL pick
Vitti - Nah, not big enough in UK
Parker - Not their type of pick
June Brown - DL hit
Lovelock - Felt DLy but they ignored him for some reason
Nichols - A surprise omission. 
Perez - Never thought he'd get close
Weiskopf and Elford - Felt like names they might go for in the right mood.
Steiner - No chance
Burgess - No chance

I wonder if the ONJ  situation  will cause the committee  to reconsider putting another long term terminal  breast cancer case Linda Nolan back on next years list?

I think she has cancelled a few appearances this year for health reasons. 

[msc 17,712]

33 minutes ago, Gooseberry Crumble said:

I wonder if the ONJ  situation  will cause the committee  to reconsider putting another long term terminal  breast cancer case Linda Nolan back on next years list?

I think she has cancelled a few appearances this year for health reasons. 

 

Nolan seems more obviously on the decline than Olivia NJ was start of the year. She'll return imo. Doherty is the one I'm unsure about.

[Gooseberry Crumble 5,201]

2 minutes ago, msc said:

 

Nolan seems more obviously on the decline than Olivia NJ was start of the year. She'll return imo. Doherty is the one I'm unsure about.

I don't think Doherty will make 60 but beyond that I agree difficult to read.

[drol 10,028]

On 07/06/2022 at 14:21, msc said:

 

192.                       19 points – Jacob Zuma, John Ashton, Akira Suzuki, Helen Langevin Joilot, Iron Sheik, Bert Gordon, Chubby Checker, Derek Jacobi, David musugari, Mable John, Hariet Anderson, Dick Vitale

 

 

Mable John dead at 91.

[The Unknown Man 559]

Gorbachev is hit #15 here.

[msc 17,712]

LET'S GET METAPHYSICAL

 

13/50

 

 

8th August 2022

 

Beloved singer and actress Olivia Newton John has died after a long battle with cancer to give The Crowdsourced Deathlist another success. Newton-John was a celebrity while still in her teens, appearing on Australian TV and signing for Decca Records. She toured Europe and in the early 1970s, had a number of UK top 20 hits under her belt. In 1974, she represented Britain at the pinnacle of international relations, The Eurovision Song Contest, but not even a neutron bomb could stop the rise of ABBA that year. By the mid-70s she had even delved into country music, to the ire of country music purists, and then won a Grammy for her efforts, which probably riled them even more! 

 

And then, came Grease, the film that turned this well known young woman into an international icon. As Sandy, she sent pulses (of not just her co-stars, and not just the men, so I reliably hear) racing, and the songs became hits on every continent, including Summer Nights and the annoyingly catch You're The One That I Want. Olivia originally didn't want the role, viewing herself, at 28, as two old for the part. At which point the producers no doubt said: "Yes, and John Travolta could pass for 40 instead but that's not going to stop the royalties for the next gazillion years!" 

 

After Grease, she released Physical, a song banned by radio stations and then later called the most popular song ever written about shagging by readers of Billboard! In the 1990s she successfully battled breast cancer, but it returned in a more malignant state in 2017. In the 30 years between first diagnosis and eventual demise, Newton-John raised millions for charity, and promoted cancer awareness for young women, helping in her path to save countless other lives. She was 73, and was making her fourth appearance on the list. Australia, still reeling from the double loss of Newton-John and Judith Durham in the same week, plans to give her a state funeral.

[msc 17,712]

BIG SKY GUY DIES

 

14/50

 

 

20th August 2022

 

American golfer Tom Weiskopf has died after suffering from the dreaded pancreatic cancer. Admired for his talents and especially his swing, Weiskopf was unfortunate to be around in the time of Jack Nicklaus's prime. As a result, he was a frequent contender, but his only major triumph  was at the 1973 Open in Scotland, where he beat Nicklaus to the victory. He was a member of the US's Ryder Cup teams of both 1973 and 1975, and won both of them, despite the point scoring excellence of Pete Oosterhuis (who now suffers from dementia). His reputation for flare ups on the course gave him the nickname The Towering Inferno, and after retirement he became a CBS sports analyst and designed golf courses. Tom Weiskopf was 79 years old, and this was his debut on The Crowdsourced Deathlist.

[msc 17,712]

PERISH-STROIKA!

 

15/50

 

 

30th August 2022

 

One of the most noteworthy statesmen of the 20th Century, Mikhail Gorbachev has died after a long illness. In the modern world, after 20 plus years of Vladimir Putin, it is perhaps strange to look back on a time when a Russian leader was praised, worldwide, as a diplomat and peacemaker. Even Putin himself felt compelled to give tribute to his predecessor and long time rival. Rumours the Russian leader was last spotted in the vicinity of a Moscow hospital clutching a pillow cannot be confirmed, however.

 

A committed Communist from an early age, Gorbachev belonged to the generation of politicians in Russian who felt they would have to wait until the old guard died before they were given any opportunities. This proved entirely accurate, but in a stroke of luck for Mikhail (and the world), just as the Cold War got to its coldest in decades, the entire old guard snuffed it in a matter of a few years. The world had gone from "Only Nixon can go to China" to watching Threads and fearing nuclear Armageddon. Over in America, they had the softer and friendlier The Day After, which terrified the shit out of elderly President Ronald Reagan. 

 

Gorbachev was elected to the Politburo in 1979, but by then, through his involvement in Russian agriculture (which had suffered three bad harvests in a row through mismanagement) he had already had his Damascus moment on reform. He was also to prove a canny political operator, not revealing to the old men who controlled his career that he disagreed with their invasion of Afghanistan. He became close with Yuri Andropov, who replaced the brutal Brezhnev in 1982, and when Andropov died in 1984, he named Gorbachev as his successor, only for the older Politburo members to say that, aged 53, Mikhail was too young and inexperienced to be leader. So he would have to wait his time. He would have to wait...13 months.

 

In those 13 months, he became chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, in which he travelled the world as an official representative, and made friendly contacts in America and with Margaret Thatcher herself. He also built up friendships and allies in Russian political circles, as everyone knew the ailing Chernenko would barely last as leader. When the man died, Gorbachev was made the new General Secretary, as he was now a mature and experienced 54 years old. He spent his first year in charge smiling at crowds, and encouraging the older Politburo members to retire or take honorary alumni positions, at which point they were replaced with younger allies. Ironically, Gorbachev managed to gain a majority on the Politburo through bribery and persuasion faster than Stalin had by just killing people.  And then he brought in Perestroika and Glasnost. Under the former, market reforming and decentralisation occurred. Under the latter, greater degrees of political freedom and freedom of speech, which directly led to the other countries in the USSR announcing their political freedom. Dissidents were freed and private enterprise encouraged. Talks were held on nuclear limits with Reagan, and the cold war thawed out, despite both men' distrust of the other.

 

Gorbachev had hoped his reforms would lead to a democratic USSR, but the union cracked up instead, and in his defining moment as leader, he agreed to the reunification of Germany. He had gone the typical Russian route of sending in the tanks earlier on when states declared independence, but once the Baltic countries declared independence, he announced it was an internal matter instead. And so went the entire bloc, one by one. In 1991, a coup of hardliners attempted to party like it was 1917, but the popular drunk Russian, Boris Yeltsin, lead a popular uprising against it to protect Gorbachev. Gorbachev and Yeltsin were rivals, but everyone saw where this was heading, by the end of the year, Boris Yeltsin was in charge. Of the country, as well as the vodka cabinet.

 

Gorbachev's legacy is complicated. He was not a flawless liberal and if we had more space we could brush on his multi-faceted achievements - but we've already written quite a bit!

 

Through most of the world, he is acclaimed as the Soviet leader who ended the dreadful Cold War and brought independence, however unintentionally, to the former USSR. In the former Iron Curtain countries, his legacy is more mixed, though the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza paid tribute, noting Gorbachev as the right man in history at the right time. (Yes, Rad, a Polish newspaper quoted on Deathlist, who'd have thought it?) His popularity in Ukraine was not great after muddled comments post-Invasion of Crimea in 2014, although Gorbachev's last public statements were against the 2022 invasion.  In Russia, however, there was a strong wind of media opinion that he brought their whole house of cards crashing down, a view promoted by his strongman successor Putin. In 2017, he had an approval rating in Russia of -31, which is worse than Donald Trump and Boris Johnsons in their respective countries. 

Gorbachev was not easily forgiven. In 1996, he ran to be the democratically elected President of Russia, and won 0.5% of the popular vote. Not a typo. While many of his predecessors and successor would cry foul and harm people, Gorbachev instead became the star of a surprisingly successful Pizza Hut advert campaign! It had Russians arguing his legacy before all agreeing that at least he brought pizza. It was banned in Russia,  and the money was used to fund The Gorbachev Foundation, which promotes Russian history and democracy. 

 

In summary, Gorbachev's legacy can be summed up thusly. As General Secretary, he could have strengthened his own position and wealth, and been leader for life, like so many before him. Instead, through acting in what he felt was the best interests of the country, he wound up dismantling his own position. In terms of the people who successfully climb the Greasy Pole, that attribute is, indeed, rare.

 

Gorbachev was an ever-present since the first Crowdsourced Deathlist, and was 91 years old.

[msc 17,712]

Yes, I have been sitting on that godawful Gorbachev pun headline for 7 years, and yes, I am glad the Cmme didn't nab it for the front page first!

[msc 17,712]

TURNBULL PALLS

 

 

 

16/50

 

 

 

31st August 2022

 

Popular BBC presenter Bill Turnbull has died after a long battle with cancer to sadly give the Crowdsourced list another success. For most of the 21st century, Turnbull was a regular presence as the host of BBC Breakfast News each morning, guiding sleepy viewers through the latest world turmoil. A solid hand, he presented other BBC shows such as Sunday nights schedules answer to Dracula, Christian music show Songs of Praise. He was a dependable, regular TV face. His notoriously gentle nature belied the fact that he'd been a BBC news correspondent for 30 years, finding himself reporting on the front lines of civil wars or in Northern Ireland. In 2017 he announced he had incurable cancer, and, alongside his colleague George Alagiah, did a lot of work on raising public awareness of the illness so others would be diagnosed sooner. A few months ago, a visibly ill Bill Turnbull appeared on popular evening quiz show House of Games, and even in the face of death, his amiable nature and razor wit were clear to see, as was the respect the other celebrity contestants had for him. He was 66 years old.

 

[msc 17,712]

 ANNUS MORTIS

 

17/50

 

 

8th September 2022

 

Calm on the seas, and silver sleep,

   And waves that sway themselves in rest,

   And dead calm in that noble breast

Which heaves but with the heaving deep.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson's In Memoriam

 

Some thought it would never happen. The chances of an asteroid wiping out all life on Earth seemed more likely. Lord Lucan showing up for a Cup of tea. Boris Johnson personally taking the blame for anything. Surely, like Tithonus on a dead planet, immortality would pull through, at the quiet limits of the world? But, no. Nary Tithonus but, like all Titans of history, eventually all are Ozymandias. Queen Elizabeth the Second, the corgi loving British head of state since 1952, has died, at the age of 96. 

 

The Queen was born in 1926, eldest child of the decent but ordinary spare to the throne, Prince Albert. (It's a very common name for royals, in line with Queen Victoria's genuinely popular other half, but none of them have used it as their regnal name, again on her request.) The future Queen would be destined to live the life of Harry, with her uncle the King, until events in 1936. There, the King (George V) died, and his son Edward VIII, became King. Edward's deepest desire, when not bullying his disabled younger brother, was to marry his Hitler sympathising American divorcee wife, Wallis Simpson. The British establishment were shocked by this, with even then Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin - a man scared of his own shadow - pushing the King to pick his sex life or the monarchy. Edward promptly abdicated and was later shoved off to some island when he kept trying to make peace with the Nazis during World War Two. 

 

This meant Prince Albert became the new King George VI, and Princess Elizabeth,  at the age of 10, was suddenly heir to the throne. This meant her pre-planned life of Harry was the domain of her younger sister Margaret, who promptly travelled the world, shagged gangsters and was undefeated at bar room drinking contests. Instead, Elizabeth (after driving ambulances in WW2), married a childhood friend called Philip (you might remember him) and prepared for the eventual job of being Queen. It was during this time she learnt the attribute which would endear her to the public time and again, of showing up after war bombings and seemingly genuinely sympathetic and her ability to invoke an "we're all in this together" when Buckingham Palace was hit. This line was summed up by the Queen Mother, when asked to evacuate her children: "I won't eave London without the children, the children won't leave without their dad, the King will never leave..."

 

She became Queen in 1952, when her father, whose health had never been the greatest, died of cancer. Elizabeth (and her formidable mother) blamed the abdication for shortening her dad's life, and she was absolute in her belief she would reign until the Grim Reaper called full time. Over the next 70 years, she saw 15 Prime Ministers come and go, as well as 13 US Presidents,8 Russian Premiers, 7 Popes and 5 Sex Pistols. In the 1990s, all of her children got divorced, and Windsor Castle went up in flames in what she later referred to as her Annus Horriblis. Later in 1997, when a famous lady died by speeding in a car and not wearing a seatbelt, the press tried to turn the story of "doting grandmother looks after grieving grandsons" into one of "heartless Queen mocks nation's princess", but in her usual apt way, the Queen turned that all on its head, by appearing in public, looking sad and expressing her sympathy.  (Look at the aftermath of Grenfell, in hardly the most royalist friendly territory in London, where the Queen showing up to express sympathy was compared with Theresa May's handling of the disaster.)

 

She got on with most of her Prime Ministers, especially the great war leader Winston Churchill and the great reformer Harold Wilson, the latter of whom she held special affection for. Her quarrels with Margaret Thatcher were also legendary, through secondary sources, with Andrew Neil claiming Thatcher said the problem with Her Majesty was she was a "bloody social democrat"! But, the thing about the Queen is, she was very discrete. Prime Ministers will go on record saying how invaluable she was, but are unable to give examples. Maybe she pushed Wilson to decriminilizing homosexuality with Wilson, maybe she was braying for the Iraq War with Blair, we're unlikely to ever know. Unless you are inherently unfit for Office and leak to the press that the Queen was a Remainer in 2014. 

 

Why is it that when we think of incompetence, David Cameron always comes up?

 

The main legacy of her tenure is the swift decolonisation of the British Empire, which had started under her father but gained significant pace in the 1950s and 1960s. Numerous gay celebrities cited being defended by the Queen when government ministers tried to censor them in the 1950s (but on the flipside, we know there were employment issues for non-whites at the Palace too). We do know, thanks to leaky governments, that she was pro-sanctions on South Africa, that she was opposed to the state visit of the Ceaucescus (bet she loved hosting Donald Trump then), and that she thought Princess Diana was a bit of a tit. Oh, and she bloody loved dogs. Given her role in history, and the vast number of people she'd met and discussed events with, the Queen would have written the most fascinating memoirs. But then she wouldn't have been the Queen.

 

Of those who aren't ardent royalists, most have taken a respectful stance, bar your odd drunken Celtic fans or boisterous American Meghan drama lovers. We'll be taking the same stance here. By the standards of monarchs, Elizabeth II was one of the better ones. By the standards of nearly all of her predecessors in the role as British, England and Scotland monarchs, she was a class apart. But more than that, she was a living signpost of British society, an ever present to most of the population. Her popularity ratings made even people like Blair and Thatcher seem like Jeremy Corbyn by comparison. Millions are gutted today, understandably so, and for some of us, there is a melancholy in the symbolism that all hopes for Titanic immortality are as much as myth as Tithonus was, and our elder family members are getting up in age, also. 

 

We'll remember her final act as Queen, grimly holding onto life so she could outlast Boris Johnson's Premiership. 

[msc 17,712]

On 10/05/2022 at 18:09, msc said:

 

Highly respected comic book artist George Perez has died...

 

We note that cruelty of fate that a man clearly beloved in his field is no more, yet that fucker Tobin continues to breathe.

 

Took 5 months this time, @Death Impends, I'm clearly out of practice! 

[Summer in Transylvania 1,607]

Angela Lansbury has died. Hit #18. 

[Summer in Transylvania 1,607]

Jerry Lee Lewis actually dead this time, it seems. Hit #19. 

[msc 17,712]

THE LADY VANISHES

 

18/50

 

 

11th October 2022

 

Much loved actress Angela Lansbury has died to give The Crowdsourced Deathlist another success. The granddaughter of Labour party giant George Lansbury, Angela was an early success as an actress, appearing as the maid in Gaslight when still a teenager. (She had claimed she was three years older than she was to get her start in theatre!) By the time she was twenty, she had been nominated for two Oscars, although it took her until 2013 to finally win an Honorary award from the Academy. In the 1950s, she didn't stop working, acting in theatre, radio, TV and film alike. Typecast in older roles from her 30s on by studio executives, Lansbury instead used this to propel her career to greater highs. First came The Manchurian Candidate, where she played a devious pro-Communist planning to overthrow the US government. This comes as one hell of a twist if you are used to cuddly old Angela Lansbury, everyone's TV gran, incidentally. Candidate earned her a third Oscar nomination, but she lost out to Patty Duke playing Helen Keller. Yes, folk were losing to Oscar bait material even then.

 

In the 1970s, she starred in what many rightfully call a film far better than Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Miss Price, the trainee witch, takes on a family of evacuees during the Blitz, tangles with a cartoon lion king, and defeats a Nazi invasion. I must have watched that film about 500 times as a kid. Also in the 1970s, she convincingly played a drunk witness in the all-star cast Death on the Nile, the Peter Ustinov Agatha Christie film. Her love for Agatha Christie led to playing Jane Marple herself in The Mirror Crack'd, a surprisingly decent adaptation of one of Christie's later books. Lansbury may not have been Joan Hickson, but she proved herself well above the Julia McKenzie category.

 

And that led to playing a Marple like figure on screen for twenty years. Created by the brains behind Columbo, Lansbury was so interested in playing a Marple like sleuth she took the role over a sitcom one offered, and Jessica Fletcher, crime novelist turned murderer finder, solved TV murders for years. While not exactly taxing dramas, no one watched Murder She Wrote for the whodunnit plots. They watched it to see Jessica Fletcher solve them with panache. Although I swear Cabot Cove had more deaths than Midsummer, Taggart's Maryhill and your average Dalek invasion combined. 

 

It would be remiss to mention Angela Lansbury without Beauty and the Beast, or Gypsy, or Sweeney Todd, or The King and I, or A Little Night Music. (Send in the Clowns, best musical song, or best musical song?) She was at home equally in Hamlet, Disney or TV melodrama. Her dexterity in talents put her among the best.

 

The Academy eventually gave Angela Lansbury an honorary award in 2013. Lansbury also failed to win a BAFTA, and infamously was nominated for EIGHTEEN Emmys without a single win, by far the most in that category. It was theatre which rewarded her talents most. She won 5 Tony awards for her roles in musicals, and an honorary award for being a legend in old age.  She won 6 Golden Globes, and perhaps more pertinently, the Olivier and Gershwin awards for theatre, which probably meant a lot more than an Oscar. (They gave Oscars to Three 6 Mafia but none to Peter O'Toole or Alfred Hitchcock, fact fans.)

 

A devout socialist, Angela Lansbury used her fame to promote domestic abuse charities, and other charitable causes, and was an early supporter of AIDS sufferers in Hollywood. And, having been rejected as a leading lady in her youth, she went onto be a trailblazer across multiple media for actresses, musicals and the elderly. Angela Lansbury died shortly before her 97th birthday, and such was her strong health well into her 90s, that this is only her second appearance on the Crowdsourced Deathlist.

 

[msc 17,712]

BREATHLESS

 

19/50

 

 

28th October 2022

 

Jerry Lee Lewis celebrated his debut on The Crowdsourced Deathlist by snuffing it aged 87. The rock and roll wildman popularised wild piano scores such as Great Balls of Fire and Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On. However, his career was badly hurt when it was revealed he had married his 13-year-old cousin, and his nickname of The Killer looked unfortunate when two of his wives died within 14 months of each other in the 1980s. That's pure Robert Durst bad luck, that is. He was arrested for shooting his bassist accidentally, and for not killing Elvis in the 1970s. In later life he married his previous 13-year-old bride's sister-in-law, and had a different kind of stroke, which led to his spot on this list. 

 

In 2017, Vince McMahon, on a whim, decided to call a PPV Great Balls of Fire, assuming the song was out of copyright. Legal matters with the elderly rock and roll star were sorted ahead of time, however, when it turned out that Jerry Lee Lewis and wrestling commentator Jerry "the King" Lawler shared the same lawyer.

 

Of course they did.

 

 

 

 

[msc 17,712]

DING GONE

 

20/50

 

 

 

8th November 2022

 

Well, goodbye...

 

Legendary comic actor Leslie Phillips has said his final hello to a pretty girl, dying aged 98 after a looooong period of frail health. After his father's death, the child Leslie was sent to acting school, and made his film debut aged 14 in 1938. During World War Two, he served in the Royal Artillery, until being invalided out, and after World War Two, he dived headfirst into theatre and film alike. Leslie appeared in several classics of the 50s and 60s (Pool of London, The Longest Day, etc). He appeared in music halls, Pressburger films and alongside Gene Kelly, and in 1959, he took a small role in Carry on Nurse. Where the catchphrase "Ding Dong" was born, and his reputation sorted. 

 

Leslie Phillips only appeared in four of the Carry On films, but he became synonymous with their comedy style. Nobody could say "well, hello" quite like him.  The Doctor films series followed, along with a host of 1960s British comedies. On radio, he performed The Navy Lark with his real-life friends Jon Pertwee and Ronnie Barker. And, playing on that reputation for roguish upper-class lovers, came Casanova 73.

 

But while the public linked him to these roles for the rest of his life, Leslie Phillips himself became increasingly uncomfortable with them, and the portrayal of women in such films, and strove to break out of that typecasting. He played a prisoner of war in Empire of the Sun and was Lord Astor in the excellent Profumo scandal film Scandal. Phillips also received great acclaim for his Falstaff in a number of Shakespeare tours, and toured Chekhov's Cherry Orchard in the 80s. In his own 80s, he voiced the Sorting Hat in the Harry Potter films, and played a Nazi sympathiser in Churchill the Hollywood Years, which allowed him to appear alongside Harry Enfield and Rik Mayall. 

 

His love life was as complicated as his earlier comedies. His first marriage ended after a stream of affairs, and he caused a family rift by refusing to go to the funeral of his first wife. However, he was devoted to his second wife, the actress Angela Scoular. He raised her son as his own, and he tried to protect her against her increasingly severe mental illness. In 2011, she killed herself, devastating the elderly actor. He was never the same after this tragedy, though he lingered on for some time. Leslie Philips had appeared on every single Crowdsourced Deathlist since the first.

 

 

[Summer in Transylvania 1,607]

Jiang Zemin dead. Hit #21.

[msc 17,712]

2 minutes ago, Summer in Transylvania said:

Jiang Zemin dead. Hit #21.

 

Forgot he was picked.

 

The record is 22/50 btw in 2017 and 2020.

[Grimgrass 474]

Pelé and Barbara Walters were hits #22 and #23, meaning the record is now broken.

[msc 17,712]

Let's catch up, somewhat.

 

ZEMIN CONGRESSES TO THE OTHER SIDE

 

21/50

 

 

 

30th November 2022

 

Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin has died to provide another Drol assist for the list. Zemin was the compromise candidate of the Chinese communist upper brass to become General Secretary in 1989, who wanted a friendlier headliner after the Tiananmen Square massacre. Under his tenure as President, China gained Hong Kong, and entered the World Trade Organisation. He also grew into the other roles of President, such as cracking down on the human rights of various minority groups. He stood down from the Presidency in 2003, but remained a powerful figure in Chinese politics until near the end. Zemin, who was 96, was the 21^st hit for the 2022 Crowdsourced Deathlist.

[msc 17,712]

PELE ESCAPES TO VICTORY

 

22/50

 

 

29 December 2022

 

Widely regarded as the greatest footballer of all time by all bar Maradona and Robin Friday fans, Brazilian footballer Pele has died to give The Crowdsourced list a melancholic success. Pele burst on the scene as a fifteen year old boy playing for Santos in the Brazilian top flight. Before he was eighteen, he was the league top scorer, and over the course of eighteen years with the football giants, he scored a ludicrous 618 goals. In that time he won six league titles, and two Copa Liberatadores (the South American version of the European Cup). Eventually he retired, only to unretire and join the New York Cosmos.

 

But I’m assuming you know him best for his international career. It’s that, or his advocacy for SPAM. Pele tormented the Welsh and the Swedes on his way to his first World Cup, still a teenager in 1958. In 1962, he made it two World Cup trophies from two World Cups, even though he was injured for the final. In 1966, he was infamously hacked out of the tournament, and his international career seemed done, until, in 1970, the Brazil junta decided to court favour with the Brazilian public, and entice Pele back into the squad. Their manager Saldanha was ordered to pick Pele, and told the dictator he wanted to pick their Cabinet! Mysteriously, Saldanha was soon out of a job, and Pele’s mate Mario Zagallo was in.

 

Pele’s 1970 World Cup is what sporting myth is made of. They played fluid attacking Total Football, with an added degree of pragmatism born from four years previously. Brazil beat England in an oft-repeated game, the highlight remaining Gordon Banks expert save from Pele’s almost certain goal. Almost goals were his tournament trademark. Pele swung round the Uruguayan keeper, tried to shoot from an impossible angle, and the ball so nearly went into the net. Earlier, against the Czechs, Pele had attempted to lob the keeper from the halfway line with one of the heavy old school balls, and the TV cameras caught Czech keeper Viktor scrambling backwards in panic to try and clear, as the ball fell just inches short of the net.

 

But don’t dwell on the goals that never happened. There was six scored in 1958, another one in 1962 and 1966 each, and four in 1970. This still comfortably has Pele in the top ten scorers in World Cup  history, with only Klose, Ronaldo (the original one), Der Bomber Gerd Muller, Just Fontaine and some guy called Leo Messi having surpassed him.

 

After football, there was Escape to Victory, the WW2 film. He hobnobbed with Queens and actors, won honorary knighthoods, shrugged off financial issues while at the same time proposing corruption laws in Brazilian politics, and was the face of countless charities. His lingering ill health and death saw world wide mourning, as shown during the Word Cup itself,  but there are worse ways to go than, surrounded by your family, fully aware of best wishes being broadcast from all over the world. After all, when Muhammad Ali calls you the Greatest, you know you’re pretty damn good at what you do.

 

Pele was also almost captured during a military coup in Nigeria in the 1970s, but somehow, the most famous person in the entire word was able to successfully disguise himself as an air pilot and escape the country!

 

Pele was the 22^nd hit for the 2022 Crowdsourced Deathlist.

 

(Note – while he was never picked for TCD, the man who coined “The Pele Kick” in tribute to the footballer, commentator Don West, died within hours of Pele himself. A larger than life excitable man, he’ll be missed.)

[msc 17,712]

BARBARA WALTERS 1 MOST FASCINATING DEATHS

 

23/50

 

 

30th December 2022

 

 

Heavyweight American broadcaster Barbara Walters has died after a long period of ill health. Best known for her work on 20/20 and The View, Walter’s TV career stretched nearly 65 years. She interviewed everyone from Jiang Zemin (déjà vu), to Fidel Castro, to Sean Connery, in a famous interview where Connery doubled down on his views on domestic violence. She remained loyal to her ex, the McCarthy supporting AIDS denialist Roy Cohn, until his death from the disease he denied existed in 1986. She won a GLAAD award, among many others for her longevity in the business. Barbara Walters was the 23^rd hit for the 2022 Crowdsourced Deathlist, breaking the record for most hits in one year.

 

Thus concludes the 2022 Crowdsourced Deathlist. Well done everyone.

[chilean way 1,724]

29 minutes ago, msc said:

 

 

23/50

 

30th December 2022

 

Thus concludes the 2022 Crowdsourced Deathlist. Well done everyone.

And Benedict???