The Off Topic 2010 Celebrity Dead Pool

[Winston]

..who led Britain’s Labour Party to a disastrous defeat in 1983

A great man is gone.



What!!?

[Grandpa Troll]

Merlin Olsen R.I.P.

Hall of Fame football player and actor Merlin Olsen has died after a long battle with cancer, the St. Louis Rams said Thursday.

He was 69.

Known as much for his brain as his brawn, the 6-foot-5, 270-pound defensive tackle also graduated summa *** laude and Phi Kappa Phi from Utah State University in 1962 and earned a master's degree in economics in the off-season during his 15-year career.

"Merlin Olsen was a coach's player. Punctual, steady, gifted, a quiet leader, a player you could always count on," says his biography on the Pro Football Hall of Fame Web site. "He was a standout as a rookie and thereafter stood out in every game he played for the Rams in a 15-year career. Every game. Fifteen years."

Olsen played in 14 Pro Bowls, made two All-Decade teams and was a six-time All-Pro. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982.

He accomplished all those feats while playing for an often less-than-stellar Los Angeles Rams team. The Rams moved to St. Louis in 1995.

"It was Olsen's hard luck to perform for many mediocre teams in Los Angeles -- he never won a Super Bowl -- but he had as much to do as any other individual with glamorizing defensive football in the NFL," his NFL biography says.

Olsen was a defensive lineman for the Los Angeles Rams from 1962 to 1976. Wearing No. 71, he was part of the Rams' "Fearsome Foursome" line with Deacon Jones, Roosevelt Grier and Lamar Lundy. His brother Phil also played for the Rams.

On television, Olsen played the gentle Jonathan Garvey opposite Michael Landon on "Little House on the Prairie" from 1977 to 1981, and the lead role in "Father Murphy" from 1981 to 1983, according to entertainment database imdb.com.

Parlaying his gentle giant image, Olsen for many years was the spokesman for floral wire service FTD.

[Wezil]

Proof you don't have to be white to be an *******.

SHELLBROOK, Sask. - David Ahenakew, a former Saskatchewan aboriginal leader who was stripped of the Order of Canada for calling Jews a "disease", has died in hospital after a long battle with cancer. He was 76.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2010/03/13/13216456-cp.html

He'll be unknown except to Canadians but I thought you guys might like to know the planet has gotten a little lighter. We lost a moron.

[SlowwHand]

Adios.

[Grandpa Troll]

This taped message has self destructed Jim, R.I.P.

Actor Peter Graves, best known for his starring role on TV's "Mission: Impossible," was found dead Sunday at his home, according to a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department. He was 83.

There was no sign of foul play in the actor's death, officer Karen Rayner said.

Graves portrayed the character Jim Phelps for all but one of the seven years "Mission: Impossible" ran on CBS, from 1967-1973. He won a Golden Globe in 1971 for his work on the show, and he was also nominated for an Emmy.

He reprised the role from 1988 to 1990 when the show resurfaced on ABC.

In an interview with CNN in 1996, Graves expressed disappointment with Hollywood's movie version of "Mission: Impossible" -- starring Tom Cruise -- which included none of the stars from the original TV series. Actor Jon Voigt played the Phelps character.

"I am sorry that they chose to call him Phelps," he said at the time. "They could have solved that very easily by either having me in a scene in the very beginning, or reading a telegram from me saying, 'Hey boys, I'm retired, gone to Hawaii. Thank you, good-bye, you take over now.'"

Graves also appeared as Capt. Clarence Oveur in the 1980 movie spoof "Airplane!" -- a role he originally turned down, according to the Web's Internet Movie Database. He changed his mind after meeting with the film's writers, according to IMDb.

In recent years, Graves was part of a larger group that won an Outstanding Informational Series Emmy for the 1997 TV documentary "Judy Garland: Beyond the Rainbow." Graves hosted the documentary.

He is survived by his wife, Joan Endress, and three daughters, Kelly, Claudia and Amanda Graves, according to IMDb.

[-Jrabbit]

Mission: Impossible was a huge favorite of mine growing up. I was about 12 or 13 when it started, and I was instantly hooked. To this day, I love a good caper flick.

Good evening, Mr. Phelps. RIP.

[SlowwHand]

RIP.

[SlowwHand]

LOS ANGELES - Actor Fess Parker, who became every baby boomer’s idol in the 1950s and launched a craze for coonskin caps as television’s Davy Crockett, died Thursday of natural causes. He was 85.

Family spokeswoman Sao Anash said Parker, who was also TV’s Daniel Boone and later a major California winemaker and developer, died at his Santa Ynez Valley home. His death comes on the 84th birthday of his wife of 50 years, Marcella.

“She’s a wreck,” Anash said, adding Parker was coherent and speaking with family just minutes before his death. Funeral arrangements will be announced later.

RIP

[Ming]

Yeah... RIP.

One of the few times I heard of a Death somewhere else first besides here

[SlowwHand]

It took me a while to pull myself together.

[Grandpa Troll]

Yes a sad day indeed

[Lord Avalon]

RIP.

His land is biggest and his land is best
From grassy plains to the mountain crest
He's ahead of us all, meetin' the test
Followin' his legend into the West.
Davy, Davy Crockett, King of the wild frontier!

[embalmer42]

* Sigh *

[embalmer42]

Robert Culp ("I Spy" actor) has left this mortal coil.

RIP

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/03/24/obit.robert.culp/index.html?hpt=T2

* Heavy Sigh *

[Wezil]

Why didn't you pick him?