The 2012 Off Topic Celebrity Dead Pool

[Wezil]

David Kelly.

[Guynemer]

God damn it. I knew it couldn't last.

[Wezil]

We've had 3 different leaders so far this season.

The Rabbits are holding back.

[-Jrabbit]

The big rabbit walks late.

[Wezil]

Hiding in the tall grass...

[Guynemer]

I've been playing this game since we started, it was the first time I had ever held the lead.

Lasted all of a month.

[Wezil]

Take a look at my All Time points. A strong 2nd but I have never won.

-Jrabbit does let me sit in the big boy chair every now and then during the season though.

[-Jrabbit]

Noblesse oblige.

[Ming]

What does the big chair look like

[ColdWizard]

There's graffiti on the armrest. It's a list of celebs that's titled "Mingapulco Graveyard Don't pick these"

[Wezil]

What does the big chair look like

It has rabbit fur all over it with bones scattered about.

[Uncle Sparky]

Dorothea Tanning was one of my favourite artists. Again, I thought she died years ago. RIP.

Did anyone have Canadian actor Neil Hope in 2007?

Degrassi star Neil Hope, a.k.a. Wheels, died a lonely death unnoticed.

For millions, Neil Hope was “Wheels” — the lovable, troubled onscreen teen with that feathered blond hair and huge glasses.

To the public, the Toronto actor’s role as Derek Wheeler on the hit Degrassi TV series thrust him into the realm of celebrity, but in real life he died anonymously.

Police have confirmed to the Star that Hope was found dead on Nov. 25, 2007 in a Hamilton rooming house. That shocking revelation was made known to friends and family only this January — and became public Thursday.

He was 35.

To former castmates, producers, friends and relatives of the Degrassi celebrity, he was just Neil, quiet and bright-eyed.

“Neil made an important contribution to our lives, to the lives of our television team, who are like a family to us, and indeed to the live of many Canadians and others around the world who were influenced by Neil and the roles he played,” said statement from executive producers Linda Schuyler and Stephen Stohn. (Schuyler was involved in the original series.)

“His life was not an easy one, but the time he spent with us was a shining example of determination, hard work and hopeful optimism and he is sorely missed.”

From its original iteration as The Kids of Degrassi Street in 1979 to the still-running Degrassi: The Next Generation, the series is one of Canada’s prime television success stories. It developed a cult following, was picked up in the U.S. and is now watched the world over.

Many former actors, who were mobbed in malls for their Degrassi fame, went on to successful careers, including Aubrey Graham, better known now as award-winning recording artist Drake.

But Hope met a very different end in that Hamilton rooming house, where local police found him dead, according to former fiancée Christina Boulard, 37.

“I was shocked,” said Boulard, fighting back tears as she talked to the Star.

She and Hope dated between 1998 and 2001 and were engaged until the relationship ended amicably. “I was devastated (by his death). I still am.”

Little is known about how the intensely private Hope came to a sudden end, alone and unnoticed. “Everybody falls on hard times,” Boulard said. “Neil had a hard life.”

...

“He didn’t know any other life,” she said. “That’s why he latched on to his Degrassi family so hard … They were his brothers and sisters.”

Former Degrassi castmates began sharing the news of Hope’s death a couple of weeks ago, Woods said.

“We’re all pretty shocked about the news. We’re saddened by it. Neil was a great guy and a great light,” he said.

Boulard met Hope when they were both working at a Money Mart in Hamilton. “I’ve gotta work,” she said he told her. “I’ve gotta make a living.”

He moved on to blue-collar jobs, including one at United Furniture Warehouse. But Boulard said he always talked about becoming a director, but never reached out to Degrassi’s producers or former castmates.

“Wheels” made his last guest appearance on Degrassi in 2003 with former castmates Pat Mastroianni and Stefan Brogren, who play Joey Jeremiah and Archibald “Snake” Simpson — the original Degrassi trio who formed the fictional rock band the Zit Remedy.

His last moment on camera shows the three singing a Zit Remedy classic in the car after reuniting at a bowling alley. Hope’s character is all smiles in the passenger seat.

Everybody wants something they’ll never give up,

Everybody wants something, they’ll take your money and never give up

In his quiet off-screen life, Hope romanced Boulard. She remembers one dinner in particular, where the entire kitchen staff came out to ask for Hope’s autograph. While she was annoyed at the intrusion, Hope took it all in stride.

“He was smiling and joking with them and he signed everything,” she said. “He loved being known as ‘Wheels.’ ”

For an audience of teens, Hope represented an awkwardness and personal strife many could relate to.

“You can’t underestimate the phenomenon and how people believed in Wheels,” said former Star journalist Catherine Dunphy, who wrote two Degrassi books and conducted a Degrassi Talks interview with Hope. “This awkward, shy, grinning, bespectacled kid was very endearing.”

His legacy showed on social media sites Thursday, as fans expressed shock at the sudden news of Hope’s death.

“Neil Hope,” “RIP Wheels” and “Zit Remedy” (the fictional band of which Hope’s character was a member) were all trending on Twitter in Canada Thursday.

On a Facebook page dedicated to getting Hope to join the social networking site, Tracy Northrup Hope, his sister-in-law, wrote in January: “RIP You will always be in our hearts and always remembered. Now we all can be at peace. We miss you soo much !!!!xoxox.”

Hope’s family has asked to be left in privacy, Boulard said.

[Wezil]

Did anyone have Canadian actor Neil Hope in 2007?

This Dead Pool didn't start until 2008.

Another one I was going to post but didn't figuring only the Canadians would know who he was and we all heard yesterday anyway.

[-Jrabbit]

Another musical acquaintance of mine has passed -- Michael Davis, badass bassist for the MC5.

RIP to a fine musician and a great guy.

Michael Davis, MC5 bassist, dies at 68
by Associated Press

Michael Davis, the bassist of influential late 1960s rock band MC5, has died of liver failure, his wife said Saturday. He was 68.

Davis died at Enloe Medical Center in Chico, Calif., on Friday afternoon after a month-long hospitalization for liver disease, said Angela Davis.

Born on June 5, 1943, the bassist gained attention in the revolutionary Detroit band MC5 and later played in a version of the group called DKT-MC5 with former MC5 members Wayne Kramer on guitar and Dennis Thompson on drums.

The original MC5 rose to prominence from 1964 to 1972, making waves with incendiary anti-establishment lyrics and a blistering early-punk sound, starting with their first album Kick Out the Jams, released in 1969.

A sought-after bassist and also producer, Davis was planning to be in Belgium this week recording with punk rock musician Sonny Vincent, said Davis’ wife.

Davis had a scare in 2006 when he injured his back in a motorcycle accident on a Southern California freeway. He later co-founded the non-profit Music Is Revolution Foundation, dedicated to supporting music education programs in public schools.

In the last few years, Davis also returned to a love of painting, fostered when he first studied fine arts at Wayne State University in Michigan. He dropped out of the program in 1964 to play music, but started studying art again recently in Oregon and California, with the intention of finishing his bachelor’s degree in fine arts.

Davis is survived by his wife, their three sons, and a daughter from a previous marriage.

http://music-mix.ew.com/2012/02/19/michael-davis-dies/

I'm getting old. WAY too many people I know passing away...

[Guynemer]

MC5 was awesome.