Apolyton Celebrity Dead Pool 2009

[SlowwHand]

45 isn't very old.

[Winston]

45 is the new 30.

[SlowwHand]

R I P

Last survivor of Titanic disaster dies at age 97

04:04 PM CDT on Sunday, May 31, 2009

Associated Press
LONDON — Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the sinking of RMS Titanic, died Sunday in her sleep, her friend Gunter Babler said. She was 97.

Babler said Dean's longtime companion, Bruno Nordmanis, called him in Switzerland to say that Dean died at her nursing home in southern England, on the 98th anniversary of the launch of the ship that was billed as "practically unsinkable."

He said staff discovered Dean in her room Sunday morning. Babler said she had been hospitalized with pneumonia last week but she had recovered and returned to the nursing home.

A staff nurse at Woodlands Ridge Nursing Home in Southampton said no one could comment until administrators came on duty Monday morning.

Dean just over 2 months old when the Titanic hit an iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912. The ship sank in less than three hours.

Dean was one of 706 people — mostly women and children — who survived. Her father was among the 1,517 who died.

[SlowwHand]

RIP

Chicago blues legend Koko Taylor dies at 80

Koko Taylor more than once said she hoped that when she died, it would be on stage, doing the thing she loved most: Singing the blues.

She nearly got her wish. The Chicago musical icon died Wednesday at age 80 of complications from gastrointestinal surgery less than four weeks after her last performance, at the Blues Music Awards in Memphis, Tenn. There she collected her record 29th Blues Music Award, capping an era in which she became the most revered female blues vocalist of her time with signature hits "Wang Dang Doodle," "I'm a Woman" and "Hey Bartender."

Taylor died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital 15 days after her May 19 surgery. She appeared to be recovering until taking a turn for the worst Wednesday morning, and was with friends and family when she died.

[-Jrabbit]

R.I.P.

Koko was a beautiful lady and an amazing performer. I met her several times, and she was always very humble, very real, very gracious -- and seemed genuinely grateful to those who supported her.

I'm literally crying right now... Damn.

[Lord Avalon]

Damn, she could sure belt out some blues! RIP

[SlowwHand]

[Tuberski]

RIP David Eddings

Fantasy master David Eddings dies aged 77 Colleagues pay tribute to self-effacing pioneer of the doorstopping fantasy-novel series




The man who started the craze for doorstopper-sized fantasy series, David Eddings, has died aged 77.
Prolific and bestselling, Eddings was the author of more than 25 books, many of them written with his wife Leigh Eddings, who passed away in 2007. Best known for his Belgariad and Mallorean series, which follow the adventures of the orphaned farm boy Garion as he fulfils an ancient prophecy, Eddings turned to fantasy after he spotted a copy of The Lord of the Rings in a bookshop, and saw that it was in its 73rd printing.
He'd already written a thriller about deer hunting, High Hunt, and had begun drawing a map of an imaginary world while writing another contemporary novel that hadn't been working out. After his epiphany with Tolkien, when he realised the fantasy field was under-served but potentially extremely lucrative, he began to use the map to plot the world of Garion, Belgarath the Sorcerer and his daughter Polgara, and their fellow cast of thousands.
Despite his success, Eddings was known for his humble nature. "His huge worldwide success and fame did not change Dave at all," said his long-term publisher at HarperCollins, Jane Johnson, herself a fantasy author. "He was unfailingly self-effacing on the subject of his success, once saying: 'I'm never going to be in danger of getting a
Nobel prize for literature, I'm a storyteller, not a prophet. I'm just interested in a good story'."
Eddings was always delighted, he said, to hear that he'd turned non-readers into readers. "I look upon this as perhaps my purpose in life," he said in 1997. "I am here to teach a generation or two how to read. After they've finished with me and I don't challenge them any more, they can move on to somebody important like Homer or Milton."
Born in Spokane in Washington State, Eddings studied English at university in Oregon, and then spent two years in the army in Germany, which funded him through graduate studies in Middle English. He went on to work for Boeing, eventually settling in Denver where he began his writing career.
Fellow fantasy author Stephen Hunt said that Eddings was one of the reasons he became a writer. "I was in my early teens when I discovered these books, and they opened my eyes to the fact that not all fantasy had to be the 'Ye Olde Speake' variety favoured by Tolkien – they were fantasy, but they carried a modern feel to the dialogue and
characterisation, while still being firmly placed in a deeply believable fantasy world," Hunt wrote on his blog today. "Along with writers like Moorcock and Gemmell, David is one of the reasons I became a writer, so I guess you can partially blame my Jackelian series on him. He's probably pottering around Garion's farm right now with a smile on his face, wondering what all the fuss is about."
Johnson said he would be missed "tremendously" at HarperCollins, which published his last title, The Elder Gods, in 2006. "He was a towering force of modern commercial fiction, a master of the epic, and a delight to work with," she said. "The Voyager team and I were immensely sad to hear the news."

[SlowwHand]

Oh, man. The Belgariad was really good.

RIP

[DanS]

I really liked a lot of Eddings' work. Some of it tended toward pulp, unfortunately.

RIP.

[Grandpa Troll]

David Carradine is no more

American actor David Carradine has been found dead in a Bangkok, Thailand, hotel, according to his personal manager, Chuck Binder.


David Carradine became famous in the 1970s after starring in the television series "Kung Fu."

Binder said Thursday that the death is being investigated but could provide no other details.

Carradine's death was "shocking and sad. He was full of life, always wanting to work ... a great person," Binder told People magazine.

Carradine, who became famous in the 1970s when he starred in the television series "Kung Fu," was 72.

Modern audiences may best know him as "Bill" in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" films.

His career included more than 100 feature films, two dozen television movies and theater work, according to the Internet Movie Database.

[Ming]

RIP Grasshopper

[SlowwHand]

Damn. This run of deaths.

RIP, too.

[Lord Avalon]

Damn, Grasshopper, WTF? This report says he was found hanged.

RIP.

[Straybow]

The man who started the craze for doorstopper-sized fantasy series, David Eddings, has died aged 77.

No, that was Terry Brooks.