2015 Off Topic Celebrity Dead Pool

[EPW]

You needed to PM me about them. I would have removed them and moved up your reserves if I had noticed that they were deceased. PMing ensures that I notice.

I did PM you about them like on December 30th. I gave you a new list and everything.

[ColdWizard]

I did PM you about them like on December 30th. I gave you a new list and everything.

I only have PMs from you from the 17th and 23rd. The only PM I have on the 30th is Ming's.

[EPW]

I only have PMs from you from the 17th and 23rd. The only PM I have on the 30th is Ming's.

Okay, you're right. I got confused about what happened.

[SlowwHand]

We're approaching the 1/4 mark.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

I have another hit. Hans Erni died on 21st March at the ripe old age of 106.

Swiss artist Hans Erni, whose prolific work ranged from tiny postage stamps to enormous frescoes, has died, his daughter has said. He was 106.

Erni’s daughter, artist Simone Fornara-Erni, announced on her Facebook page that he “passed away peacefully” on Saturday.

Erni produced hundreds of paintings, sculptures, lithographs, engravings, etchings and ceramics. He kept up a punishing work schedule deep into old age, completing a series of paintings for the International Olympic Committee in his 80s and painting a fresco at a church in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in southern France, where he had a holiday home.

Born on 21 February 1909, in Lucerne, Erni studied art in Paris and Berlin. He was strongly influenced in his early days by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, but his abstract era ended with his first public success, a huge mural titled Switzerland, Vacation Land of the People, commissioned for the 1939 national exhibition in Zurich.

Many other official commissions followed though Erni’s communist sympathies then got him into trouble, and he later said that for 20 years he was “boycotted, defamed, spied on, and banned from cultural life as a national traitor”. Swiss bank notes he designed in the 1940s weren’t printed because he was deemed a Marxist.

However, the crushing of Hungary’s 1956 uprising against communist rule was an ideological turning point for him. “Tanks destroyed my vision of life,” he declared at the time.

Erni created more than 90 stamp designs for Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the United Nations.

“I am convinced that it is possible to express something even on the smallest space – supposing that you have something to say,” he once wrote. He also designed theatre costumes and sets, as well as ceramics.

Erni’s first wife, artist Gertrud Bohnert, died in a horse-riding accident. Simone, their daughter, is herself a prominent artist. With his second wife, Doris, he had a son and two daughters, one of whom died of leukaemia.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/22/swiss-artist-hans-erni-dies-aged-106

[ColdWizard]

171 - 5 + 100 - 106 + 25 = 185

Plus there's now potential for a grand slam.

[regexcellent]

Erm, CW, I know this is kind of late to notice, but what happened to my list? Cause Lee Kwan Yew was on it IIRC and he just died.

If you don't have it it was the same one as last year since none of my celebs died.

[ColdWizard]

I insist on strict adherence to rule 4; all things about your list must be PM'd.

(People on my ignore list may appeal by posting in the thread. People who are ignored and banned can go play something else.)

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

**** YEAH!!! GRAND SLAM!!!!

Sorry. Deeply missed, RIP, etc etc.

http://www.kentnews.co.uk/news/tributes_paid_to_one_of_britain_s_most_distinguished_musicians_roy_douglas_after_he_dies_aged_107_1_4007351

After a lifetime of music, one of the country’s most distinguished pianists, composers and arrangers, Roy Douglas, has died aged 107.

The president of the Royal Tunbridge Wells Symphony Orchestra (RTWSO) became a driving force for music in the south east. Mr Douglas was a player with the RTWSO between 1950, and 1987, becoming president of the organisation in 1988. At the age of 73, he conducted the orchestra for the first time.

RTWSO chairman, Giles Clarke, said: “We are all saddened at the news that our President, Roy Douglas, has died at the extraordinary age of 107.

“Roy has been a great friend of the RTWSO over many years, and thanks to his help it has grown and matured to become a significant force for music in the southeast.

“Roy was a consummate musician in all he did, and as player, composer, arranger and advisor as well as friend, he will be sorely missed by all who know him.”

The gifted and versatile musician worked with both William Walton and Ralph Vaughan Williams giving pleasure to a worldwide audience. He also worked as a pianist and organist in the London Symphony Orchestra for several years in 1933. Mr Douglas also took part in, and became the librarian for the last season of the Promenade Concerts at the Queens Hall in 1940, and the first season at the Royal Albert Hall in 1941. He spent much of his early career composing film scores. The last of these was orchestrating the theme music for David Lean’s Great Expectations, before he withdrew from the film industry in 1946. He composed music for 11 films, and a further 32 broadcast programmes.

From 1944, Mr Douglas was the musical assistant and friend of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, until his death in 1958. He helped to prepare his work for performance and publication, including the last four symphonies by the composer and the opera Pilgrim’s Progress. For 30 years, between 1942 and 1972, Mr Douglas did similar work for Sir William Walton. He rehearsed Walton’s Violin Concerto with the soloist Henry Holst and the composer, as they prepared for the first performance.

Mr Douglas’ non-musical hobbies included acting and he also delighted in motor-cycling.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Looks like my strategy of "Make them all incredibly bloody old" might be paying off.

[ColdWizard]

171 - 8 + 100 -107 + 125 = 281

There's now potential for a hat trick.

[-Jrabbit]

n/m old link

[SlowwHand]

Dennis Hopper, dead of prostate cancer. 72.

[-Jrabbit]

Yeah. Hopper died of prostate cancer on May 29, 2010.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Hopper

For some reason, that old story was making the rounds on social media today. Thus my n/m edit above.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

The greatest Australian ever, Richie Benaud, has died.

Richie Benaud: Australia cricket legend & commentator dies at 84

Former Australia captain and legendary cricket commentator Richie Benaud has died at the age of 84.
A pioneering leg-spin bowler, Benaud played in 63 Tests, 28 as captain, before retiring in 1964 to pursue a career in journalism and broadcasting.
His final commentary in England came during the 2005 Ashes series but he continued to work for Channel Nine in Australia until 2013.
In November, he revealed he was being treated for skin cancer.
Some famous Benaud one-liners:
"Morning everyone"
"It's gone into the confectionery stall and out again"
"And Glenn McGrath dismissed for two, just ninety-eight runs short of his century"
Benaud took 945 wickets in 259 first-class matches and made 11,719 first-class runs, scoring 23 centuries at an average of 36.50.
He was the first man to achieve 2,000 runs and 200 wickets at Test level.
He was also a highly regarded tactician and never lost a Test series as Australia captain, winning five and drawing two.
After such an impressive playing career, he became even better known as a prolific author, columnist and commentator on cricket.

ollowing the 1956 Ashes tour in England, he completed a BBC training course while still a player, marking the beginning of 40-year association with the corporation.
His first BBC radio commentary came in 1960, followed by his first television appearance three years later.
With his mellifluous, light delivery, enthusiastically imitated by comedians and cricket fans alike, Benaud also became the lead commentator on Australian television's Channel Nine from 1977.
At the age of 83, he crushed two vertebrae when his 1963 Sunbeam vintage sports car hit a brick wall near to his Coogee home in Sydney.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/32182999