The DeathList 2004

On today, gone tomorrow.

The DeathList 2004

So with the mighty 2003 now behind us DeathList 2004 is now up and running. Just a quick recap on the basics. The DeathList committee draws up DeathList at the end of each year with the objective selecting the most celebrities who will die in the next calendar year. The list comprises 50 celebrities with no more than 25 who appeared on the previous year's list. Some vigorous debate this year, but the new record of 14 deaths in 2003 is an ambitious target, which will be tough to beat. Thanks to all the people who made suggestions on the forum and to our in-house coding team. As usual comments by email are welcomed to comments@deathlist.net Now we sit and wait for them to drop...

Rank	Prev Year	Appear	Name	Age	Desc	Discuss
1	3	11	Pope John Paul II	84	Pope	735 posts
2	11	7	Fay Wray	97	King Kong's squeeze	32 posts
3	5	6	Max Schmeling	99	Hitler's Boxer (or maybe not)	320 posts
4	10	4	Ronnie Biggs	75	Ambassador	947 posts
5	22	14	Ronald Reagan	93	(former) Idiot	215 posts
6	17	7	Simon Wiesenthal	96	Nazi Hunter	91 posts
7	29	5	Michael Foot	91	Tramp	258 posts
8		3	Ernest Gallo	95	Wine maker	132 posts
9		4	Artie Shaw	94	Big Band leader	28 posts
10			Rodney Dangerfield	83	Comedian	49 posts
11	7	9	Princess Alice	103	Queen Mum's sister-in-law	51 posts
12	9	3	Albert Hofmann	98	Creator of LSD	246 posts
13	16	9	John Mills	96	Actor	64 posts
14		5	Henri Cartier-Bresson	96	Photographer	18 posts
15	15	4	Estée Lauder	98	Fashion leader	16 posts
16		2	Claude Levi-Strauss	96	Scientist	200 posts
17	43	4	Peter Ustinov	83	Writer, Actor & Raconteur	16 posts
18	13	10	Alistair Cooke	96	Broadcaster	43 posts
19		2	Frankie Laine	91	Singer	69 posts
20		2	Queen Juliana	95	ex Queen of Netherlands	41 posts
21		2	Maharishi Mahesh Yogi	93	Guru	54 posts
22	21	5	Lord Scarman	93	Judge	15 posts
23	20	3	Joseph Barbera	93	Cartoonist (Hanna-Barbera)	90 posts
24		3	Gretchen Franklin	93	Eastender (Ethel)	86 posts
25	24	7	Lord James Callaghan	92	ex-PM	43 posts
26		2	Byron Nelson	92	Golfer	0 posts
27		2	Charles Haughey	79	ex Irish PM	166 posts
28		3	Edward Heath	88	ex PM	273 posts
29	27	4	Gerald Ford	91	ex US President	1038 posts
30		3	Alexander Solzhenitsyn	86	Author	117 posts
31		2	Ian Brady	66	All round Mr Nice Guy	215 posts
32	26	3	Bill Deedes	91	Journalist	74 posts
33	30	4	Karl Malden	92	Actor	95 posts
34	35	3	Yitzhak Shamir	89	Ex PM Israel	90 posts
35			General Pervez Musharraf	62	Pakistani President/Moving target	27 posts
36	34	8	Red Adair	89	Fire Fighter	25 posts
37		8	General Pinochet	89	Dictator	347 posts
38		2	Eli Wallach	89	Actor	104 posts
39		2	Arthur Miller	89	Playwright	25 posts
40	36	4	PW Botha	88	Dictator (deposed)	292 posts
41			Dom Mintoff	88	Ex Malta PM	126 posts
42		3	Kirk Douglas	88	Actor	159 posts
43		2	Vincent O'Brien	87	Horse Trainer	28 posts
44			Herbert Lom	87	Actor	70 posts
45		3	Arthur C Clarke	87	Scientist/Author	103 posts
46	38	8	Kurt Waldheim	86	Nazi	215 posts
47			Cliff Michelmore	85	TV Presenter	66 posts
48	41	5	Mickey Rooney	84	Actor	85 posts
49			Robert Mugabe	80	Dictator	191 posts
50		9	Clive Dunn	84	DeathList Favourite	492 posts

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2004 News

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Shaw thing!

30th Dec 2004: Big band leader, Artie Shaw, has given DeathList 2004 its 12th success with just hours remaining in the year. The 94 year old clarinettist was number 9 on this year’s list and had appeared three times previously. Most famous for his hit recording of "Begin the Beguine", he will never begin it again. His other claims to fame are that he was once married to Ava Gardner and Lana Turner (reportedly not at the same time) and also wrote a book called "I Love You, I Hate You, Drop Dead!", which ultimately he did.

Good Lord - it's eleven in heaven

8th Dec 2004: Lord Scarman has passed away, aged 93, to give DeathList 2004 its eleventh success. Scarman was clearly one of the more sane British judges, most famous for his official enquiry into the Brixton riots of the early 80’s, which seemed to identify the fundamental issues that created the conditions for the riots. He had made five appearances on DeathList since 1999 and was selected as number 22 this year. Now at eleven deaths for the year, this is the second best performance in DeathList’s history.

Alice doesn't live here anymore

30th Oct 2004: After nine appearances on DeathList, the 102-year-old Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, has finally thrown in the royal towel. Whether she was famous enough for DeathList was debated many times but the media coverage in the UK seems to have clarified that. Reaching as high as number 4 on DeathList in 1999, Alice was this year’s number 11 selection and brings the year’s total to 10. Most interesting fact about her seems to be that she had a car crash on the way back from Winston Churchill’s funeral. No doubt Winston will be keeping a careful eye on his car when she drives up to the parking lot outside the pearly gates.

Rodney out of Danger...

5th Oct 2004: 82-year-old comedian, Rodney Dangerfield, has died after being in and out of a coma following heart surgery to give DeathList 2004 its 9th success. Dangerfield, selected at number 10 for this year’s list, was possibly best known (in the UK anyway) for his appearance in Caddyshack and had clearly been below par since surgery in August. Despite an endless list of witty quotes attributed to him he doesn’t seems to have come up with an appropriate one for his death, although he did once say "Life is just a bowl of pits" - so perhaps that’s the one.

No more monkey business!

9th Aug 2004: 96 year old Fay Wray has finally flirted with her last gorilla to give DeathList 2004 its eighth success of the year and the third in just five days. The ancient actress, most famous for her role in the 1933 version of King Kong (was this the first instance of "gorilla" warfare??), has been a DeathList regular since 1998 and was justifiably elevated to the number 2 spot this year. Not much to report about Miss Wray other than she was regarded a great actress and an even better DeathList candidate.

Flames out for the last time for Red

8th Aug 2004: The world's most famous fire fighter, Red Adair, has extinguished his last flame to give DeathList 2004 its 7th success. The 89-year-old Texan, who died of natural causes made 8 appearances on the DeathList since 1992 but won't be making any more. No details yet but he'll presumably be choosing cremation. Adair is quoted as once saying "I've done made a deal with the devil. He said he's going to give me an air-conditioned place when I go down there, if I go there, so I won't put all the fires out." We guess the installation of the air-conditioning system must now be complete.

Negative Development for Henri

4th Aug 2004: Ancient photographer and DeathList regular, Henri Cartier-Bresson, has guaranteed one final exposure and the focus of the world's obituary writers with news of his demise at the age of 95. With five appearances on the DeathList and this year's number 14 slot, the French flasher is the 6th success for DeathList 2004. Cartier-Bresson came up with the photographical concept of "The Decisive Moment" and, frankly, his final moment appears to have been as decisive as it gets.

Ron's Gone

5th Jun 2004: After appearing on DeathList for an incredible 14 times, finally our perseverance has been rewarded with news of Ronald Reagan's death. Reagan spent years suffering from a complete state of confusion and then, when his presidency ended, things got worse and he developed Alzheimer's disease. Ronnie may be remembered for many things (Reaganomics, the Star(t) Wars Project, dealing with naughty air traffic controllers etc.) but his DeathList job description of "idiot" proved to be a particularly controversial point for some forum visitors (most of them seemed fine about the prediction of his death though). So after another quiet spell, it's the fifth success for DeathList 2004 - a respectable performance so far for the first half of the year.

Estee Lauder: Fashion Victim

25th Apr 2004: Cosmetics Queen, Estee Lauder, has had her final make over to give DeathList 2004 its fourth success. The 97 year old finally succumbed to the extravagantly described 'cardiopulmonary arrest'. Appearing on the DeathList for every year since 2001 and selected at number 15 this year, perseverance has finally paid off. The DeathList drought now seems well and truly over and the monsoon season is here.

That's the way the Cookie crumbles

30th Mar 2004: Veteran broadcaster, Alistair Cooke, has lived up to recent anticipation of his imminent demise by becoming the third success of the year for DeathList 2004. Cooke, who was famous for his 'Letter from America' radio show, quit the programme a few weeks ago, prompting speculation that the 95 year old was about to quit the planet too. Cooke was this year's number 18 selection and becomes the third death in 10 days emphatically bringing to an end one of the worst barren spells in recent DeathList history.

Ustinoff keeps his Appointment With Death

29th Mar 2004: Peter Ustinov once declared, "The point of living and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe the best is yet to come." Well, it's with Stiff Upper Lips that we can announce that Peter has finally managed to keep his Appointment With Death, gracing us the the second success this year for the Deathlist 2004. It's fair to say that the Winds of Change are finally beginging to blow for the Deathlist. There must be a few more nervous people on the list, following this landmark death.

Queen Juliana pops her clogs!

20th Mar 2004: Its Edam all round at DeathList HQ with the news that Juliana, the former queen of the Netherlands, has picked her last tulip and triggered DeathList 2004 into bloom. The 94 year old stepped down from the Dutch throne in 1980 but took 24 years to succumb to a lung infection. She appears to have one famous quote attributed to her: "I can't understand it. I can't even understand the people who can understand it." I’m sure I speak for everyone in saying I know just what she means. Thank goodness those Dutch drug laws have been tightened up a bit in recent years! Juliana was number 20 on this year's list and will hopefully be the catalyst for plenty more DeathList activity.

Green light for DeathList 2004

1st Jan 2004: So the 2004 list has been compiled to its usual high quality. Now lets see who's first for DeathList fame in 2004...

The DeathList 2004

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