The Graffe's Celebrity Death Pool

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker

Wow. I did not expect him so soon.

---

74 isn't super old but also not young, so I don't know that "so soon" is the phrase I would use.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KelanNaal

R. Lee Ermey

http://abc7.com/entertainment/actor-...at-74/3347853/

---

Did he die from a "major malfunction"?

Damn, he was great in Full Metal Jacket (and several other movies as well)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Khieran

Did he die from a "major malfunction"?

Damn, he was great in Full Metal Jacket (and several other movies as well)

---

Plus he was Sarge in Toy Story, not a big part but he was still good.

Harry Anderson, ‘Night Court’ Star, Dies at 65

Natural causes at 65. That's sad.

Harry Anderson was a guy who spent a lot of time with material that didn't match his talent. But I can't blame him for his choices; most actors would be thrilled to have a dozen years starring on TV.

I was a big Harry Anderson fan, and Night Court was one of my favorite shows when it was on. Very sad loss at his age.

I had seen Harry Anderson do some standup on HBO's Young Comedian Show and loved it, even before he got his TV break. So I was a big fan of Night Court as well.

My brain used to always put harry anderson and dave barry in the same file cabinet drawer.


Im shocked.

As of about 750pm eastern the news reported Barbara Bush died

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker

As of about 750pm eastern the news reported Barbara Bush died

---

R.I.P.

A bit of hypocrisy that pisses me off: MSNBC spent the entire night gushing over Barbara Bush, which I'm fine with. But can you imagine Fox News doing the same for Michele Obama or Hillary? Me, neither.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nerkahia

R.I.P.

A bit of hypocrisy that pisses me off: MSNBC spent the entire night gushing over Barbara Bush, which I'm fine with. But can you imagine Fox News doing the same for Michele Obama or Hillary? Me, neither.

---

Kudos to MSNBC for doing the right thing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nerkahia

R.I.P.

A bit of hypocrisy that pisses me off: MSNBC spent the entire night gushing over Barbara Bush, which I'm fine with. But can you imagine Fox News doing the same for Michele Obama or Hillary? Me, neither.

---

Barbara Bush always seemed to me to be a genuinely caring and nice person, and politics be damned. CNN also had nothing but good to say about her (at least what I heard and saw for the short while I watched it). Fox News is all lunatics and idiots, so anything they would have to say is shit anyway.

Eremius put it succinctly and well.

Regardless of how you feel about her husband's and son's presidencies, Barbara Bush was a wonderful First Lady, and deserves all the respect she is getting.

And of course, Trump's statement of condolences had the wrong date on it... because of course it did.

Before the time of most folks here, I suppose, but Bruno Sammartino was The Man in pro wrestling for longer than anyone else:

http://www.wwe.com/article/bruno-sammartino-passes-away

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3jgMjehI1E

I remember him from when he was a broadcaster for the WWE. He lived a long life for a pro wrestler.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

He lived a long life for a pro wrestler.

---

Not for a pro wrestler of his era -- when he started in 1959, you probably wouldn't make it as a pro wrestler unless you were a tough, hard-to-kill son of a gun who was likely to live a long time (only exceptions I can think of would have been the unnaturally large types, like Andre the Giant and Gorilla Monsoon, both of whom died relatively early).

Also, steroids weren't a big thing in his time, so his generation wouldn't be as susceptible to the kind of physical problems that plagued the guys who came after and killed 'em young.

NPR Newscaster Carl Kasell Dies At 84, After A Lifelong Career On-Air

I knew him mostly as the judge and scorekeeper for "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me", the NPR quiz show.
Wait Wait's Peter Sagal gave a great eulogy piece this morning on my local NPR.

EDM DJ Avicii

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.0056d4cc26c9

Verne Troyer

http://www.tmz.com/2018/04/21/verne-troyer-dead-at-49/

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shatter

Verne Troyer

http://www.tmz.com/2018/04/21/verne-troyer-dead-at-49/

---

Sad.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Khieran

Regardless of how you feel about her husband's and son's presidencies, Barbara Bush was a wonderful First Lady, and deserves all the respect she is getting.

And of course, Trump's statement of condolences had the wrong date on it... because of course it did.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shatter

Verne Troyer

http://www.tmz.com/2018/04/21/verne-troyer-dead-at-49/

---

Given his achondroplasia dwarfism, the acloholism is not at all surprising, given how painful that particular kind of dwarfism is purported to be.

It's sad, but he never thought he'd live to a ripe old age, apparently.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ackar

"Each president in this photo did things I disagreed with politically. Quite a lot, in fact, for most of them.

"And yet I never doubted that every single one of them acted based on core values, including love of country—not, primarily, love of self." — David Priess

---

Maybe, at some level, they loved their country (although one of their wives publicly admitted she had no pride in her country until her husband was elected). But without exception, all of them sought the Oval Office primarily because they love themselves. You don't run for that job unless you have an incredibly massive ego, no matter how humble you may seem on the outside. If your primary motivation is love of country, there are many more direct ways you can fulfill it than running for president.

(That doesn't mean I'm equating them with Trump, who, unlike most of his predecessors, never really thought he'd become president and just wanted some publicity. At least the others actually expected to do the job.)

TBH to survive the process you need "This much ego to ride". I mean you have to love yourself enough to not lose confidence when the mud slinging moves up to using trebuchets and 55 gallon drums of mud.

When I think of former presidents, I may not agree with them, but they always at least seemed to be following what they thought best for the country for the most part. Yeah, not 100% of the time, but mostly (IMO)

Trump is only out for himself and his rich friends. The only time he does something good for the country is by accident while trying to make himself or his friends richer.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Khieran

When I think of former presidents, I may not agree with them, but they always at least seemed to be following what they thought best for the country for the most part.

---

I agree. My quibble is with the tweet's dismissal of ego as the main motivation for seeking the Oval Office.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Khieran

Trump is only out for himself and his rich friends. The only time he does something good for the country is by accident while trying to make himself or his friends richer.

---

I wonder. His businesses reportedly have taken a downturn since he became president -- it would have been much easier for him and much better for his wallet had he followed presidential norms rather than blowing convention to pieces.

Margot Kidder

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eremius

Margot Kidder

---

I hope this little ascension into the afterlife doesn't put her off from flying. Statistically speaking, it's still the safest way to travel.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eremius

Margot Kidder

---

I am truly surprised it took that long.

She had some very unfortunate struggles with serious mental issues, IIRC.

Yes, bipolar. She did a lot of work educating people about it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

Yes, bipolar. She did a lot of work educating people about it.

---

That I didn't know.

Good for her.

Lots of stigma around mental illness when she was at the height of her difficulties in the news.

Tom Wolfe, author, 87:

http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/15/news...ary/index.html

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

Tom Wolfe, author, 87:

http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/15/news...ary/index.html

---

Highly recommended to anyone here: The Right Stuff, his recounting of the early days of the American space program. (Not so highly recommended: His novels, though YMMV)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eremius

Margot Kidder

---

This is seriously one of the poorest edited obituary articles from a news organization that I have read.

Dean Cain, STARE of SUPERMAN. That's the glaring one, but blech. I had to stop reading after that.

One of the most significant American authors of the last 50 years:

Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Philip Roth Dies at 85

He largely made his reputation with this, still the best piece of fiction written on the general subject matter:

Spoiler for Most famous excerpts from Portnoy's Complaint:

Then came adolescence–half of my waking life spent locked behind the bathroom door, firing my wad down the toilet bowl, or into the soiled clothes in the laundry hamper, or splat, up against the medicine-chest mirror, before which I stood in my dropped drawers so I could see how it looked coming out. Or else I was doubled over my flying fist, eyes pressed closed but mouth wide open, to take that sticky sauce of buttermilk and Clorox on my own tongue and teeth–though not infrequently, in my blindness and ecstasy, I got it all in the pompadour, like a blast of Wild-root Cream Oil. Through a world of matted handkerchiefs and crumpled Kleenex and stained pajamas, I moved my raw and swollen penis, perpetually in dread that my loathsomeness would be discovered by someone stealing upon me just as I was in the frenzy of dropping my load. Nevertheless, I was wholly incapable of keeping my paws from my dong once it started the climb up my belly. In the middle of class I would raise a hand to be excused, rush down the corridor to the lavatory, and with ten or fifteen savage strokes, beat off standing up into a urinal. At the Saturday afternoon movie I would leave my friends to go off the candy machine–and wind up in a distant balcony seat, squirting my seed into the empty wrapper from a Mounds bar. On an outing of our family association, I once cored an apple, saw to my astonishment (and with the aid of my obsession) what it looked like, and ran off into the woods to fall upon the orifice of the fruit, pretending that the cool and mealy hole was actually between the legs of that mythical being who always called me Big Boy when she pleaded for what no girl in all recorded history had ever had. “Oh shove it in me, Big Boy,” cried the cored apple that I banged silly on that picnic. “Big Boy, Big Boy, oh give me all you’ve got,” begged the empty milk bottle that I kept hidden in our storage bin in the basement, to drive wild after school with my vaseline upright. “Come, Big Boy, come,” screamed the maddened piece of liver that, in my own insanity, I bought one afternoon at a butcher shop and, believe it or not, violated behind a billboard on the way to a bar mitzvah lesson.

It was at the end of my freshman year of high school–and freshman year of masturbating–that I discovered on the underside of my penis, just where the shaft meets the head, a little discolored dot that has since been diagnosed as a freckle. Cancer. I had given myself Cancer. All that pulling and tugging at my own flesh, all that friction, had given me an incurable disease. And not yet fourteen! In bed at night the tears rolled from my eyes. “No!” I sobbed. “I don’t want to die! Please–no!” But then, because I would very shortly be a corpse anyway, I went ahead as usual and jerked off into my sock. I had taken to carrying the dirty socks into bed with me at night so as to be able to use one as a receptacle upon retiring, and the other upon awakening.

If only I could cut down to one hand-job a day, or hold the line at two, or even three! But with the prosper of oblivion before me, I actually began to set new records for myself. Before meals. After meals. During meals. Jumping up from the dinner table, I tragically clutch at my belly–diarrhea! I cry, I have been stricken with diarrhea!–and once behind the locked bathroom door, slip over my head a pair of underpants that I have stolen from my sister’s dresser and carry rolled in a handkerchief in my pocket. So galvanic is the effect of cotton panties against my mouth–so galvanic is the word “panties”–that the trajectory of my ejaculation reaches startling new heights: leaving my joint like a rocket it makes right for the light bulb overhead, where to my wonderment and horror, it hits and it hangs. Wildly in the first moment I cover my head, expecting an explosion of glass, a burst of flames–disaster, you see, is never far from my mind. Then quietly as I can I climb the radiator and remove the sizzling gob with a wad of toilet paper. I begin a scrupulous search of the shower curtain, the tub, the tile floor, the four toothbrushes–God forbid!–and just as I am about to unlock the door, imagining I have covered my tracks, my heart lurches at the sight of what is hanging like snot to the toe of my shoe. I am the Raskolnikov of jerking off–the sticky evidence is everywhere! Is it on my cuffs too? in my hair? my ear? All this I wonder even as I come back to the kitchen table, scowling and cranky, to grumble self-righteously at my father when he opens his mouth full of red jello and says, “I don’t understand what you have to lock the door about. That to me is beyond comprehension. What is this, a home or a Grand Central Station? “. . . privacy . . . a human being . . . around here never,” I reply, then push aside my dessert to scream, “I don’t feel well–will everybody leave me alone?”

After dessert -- which I finish because I happen to like jello, even if I detest them -- after dessert I am back in the bathroom again. I burrow through the week’s laundry until I uncover one of my sister’s soiled brassieres. I string one shoulder strap over the knob of the bathroom door and the other on the know of the linen closet: a scarecrow to bring on more dreams. “Oh beat it, Big Boy, beat it to a red-hot pulp –” so I am being urged by the little cups of Hannah’s brassiere, when a rolled-up newspaper smacks at the door. And sends me and my handful an inch off the toilet seat. “–Come on, give somebody else a crack at that bowl, will you?” my father says. “I haven’t moved my bowels in a week.”

I recover my equilibrium, as is my talent, with a burst of hurt feelings. “I have a terrible case of diarrhea! Doesn’t that mean anything to anyone in this house?”–in the meantime resuming the stroke, indeed quickening the tempo as my cancerous organ miraculously begins to quiver again from the inside out.

Then Hannah’s brassiere begins to move. To swing to and fro! I veil my eyes, and behold!–Lenore Lapidus! who has the biggest pair in my class, running for the bus after school, her great untouchable load shifting weightily inside her blouse, oh I urge them up from their cups, and over, LENORE LAPIDUS ACTUAL TITS, and realize in the same split second that my mother is vigorously shaking the doorknob. Of the door I have finally forgotten to lock! I knew it would happen one day! Caught! As good as dead!
“Open up, Alex. I want you to open up this instant.”

It’s locked, I’m not caught! And I see from what’s alive in my hand that I’m not quite dead yet either. Beat on then! Beat on! “Lick me, Big Boy–lick me a good hot lick! I’m Lenore Lapidus big fat red-hot brassiere!”

“Alex, I want an answer from you. Did you eat French fries after school? Is that why you’re sick like this?”

“Nuhhh, nuhhh.”

“Alex, are you in pain? Do you want me to call the doctor? Are you in pain, or aren’t you? I want to know exactly where it hurts. Answer me.”

“Yuhh, yuhhh –”

“Alex, I don’t want you to flush the toilet,” says my mother sternly. “I want to see what you’ve done in there. I don’t like the sound of this at all.”

..........................

The bus, the bus, what intervened on the bus to prevent me from coming all over the sleeping shikses arm–I don’t know. Common sense, you think? Common decency? My right mind, as they say, coming to the fore? Well, where is this right mind on that afternoon I came home from school to find my mother out of the house, and our refrigerator stocked with a big purplish piece of raw liver? I believe that I have already confessed to the piece of liver that I bought in a butcher shop and banged behind a billboard on the way to a bar mitzvah lesson. Well, I wish to make a clean breast of it, Your Holiness. That–she–it–wasn’t my first piece. My first piece I had in the privacy of my own home, rolled round my cock in the bathroom at three-thirty -- and then had again on the end of a fork, at five-thirty, along with the other members of that poor innocent family of mine.

So. Now you know the worst thing I have ever done. I fucked my own family’s dinner.

The only novel of his I've read is The Human Stain, which I loved. I'm definitely going to read more of his work.

Not a celeb for most, but the people here likely know him (especially the WoW players): John "Totalbiscuit" Bain, 33, cancer:

https://kotaku.com/game-critic-total...Kotaku_Twitter

EDIT: and as befits a gamer, his death post is number 1337 in the thread.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

his death post is number 1337 in the thread.

---

Your post shows as #1338 on my screen:

Attachment 5754

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

Not a celeb for most, but the people here likely know him (especially the WoW players): John "Totalbiscuit" Bain, 33, cancer:

https://kotaku.com/game-critic-total...Kotaku_Twitter

---

Damn shame. Get your regular checkups done, guys!

One of the larger Hearthstone streamers, Trump, reacting to the news about Totalbiscuit dying while on stream:

https://clips.twitch.tv/EphemeralExcitedDiscDoggo

Trump is very upbeat in general, and wasn't close with Totalbiscuit - they had done some stuff together like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDn48dtcTVI&feature=share

- so seeing that gives some idea how hard it's hit people in the community. The community managers for Warframe, who worked closely with him, had to shut their stream down because they couldn't continue after they heard (Trump shut his down after that clip).

The fourth man to walk on the moon, Alan Bean, 86:

https://gizmodo.com/astronaut-alan-b...oon-1826349975

All the others that have walked on the Moon are in their 80's. Hopefully that changes soon.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

All the others that have walked on the Moon are in their 80's. Hopefully that changes soon.

---

The only way that I see that changing is tourism or serious He-3 mining.

He's not really a celebrity, but his name makes me laugh because I enjoy sophomoric and juvenile humor:

Dick Tuck dies

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by PPatty

He's not really a celebrity, but his name makes me laugh because I enjoy sophomoric and juvenile humor:

Dick Tuck dies

---

Trump needs a Dick.

The man who made the most lauded reception in NFL history:

https://www.bing.com/th?id=OIP.BbR6D...BQHaE2&pid=Api

But it should be noted that he was way more than The Catch. Clark was possibly the perfect receiver for the West Coast offense because he was such a precise route runner.

49ers great Dwight Clark dies at 61

I'm surprised that no one on this site, with its roots in a PC game, has posted this one until now. But the guy was essentially a co-founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, which pretty much makes him a father of video games and kid pizza. Wouldn't that make him one of the most significant cultural figures of the last 50 years?

Ted Dabney, Co-Founder Of Atari And Video Game Pioneer, Dies At 81

Jerry Maren, the last surviving munchkin from 'The Wizard of Oz,' dies at 98

Anthony Bourdain 61 apparent suicide.

wow

Such a shame.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mileron

Anthony Bourdain 61 apparent suicide.

wow

---

JfC. Just read about Bourdain. What in the actual fuck.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tinthalas Tigris

JfC. Just read about Bourdain. What in the actual fuck.

---

That was my reaction as well. Ever since I heard him on the Nerdist podcast (I believe one of you guys recommended that episode), I've been a fan.
Really hits home when these people who are, by all accounts, on top of the world decide to end their own life.

I wonder if he was on anything, Not abuse illegal stuff but any of those medications that have been known to cause suicides even when used exactly as stated on the label.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dawlin

That was my reaction as well. Ever since I heard him on the Nerdist podcast (I believe one of you guys recommended that episode), I've been a fan.
Really hits home when these people who are, by all accounts, on top of the world decide to end their own life.

---

Either you referred me, or i referred you, and that episode made me beyond infatuated with him.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker

I wonder if he was on anything, Not abuse illegal stuff but any of those medications that have been known to cause suicides even when used exactly as stated on the label.

---

Probably ambien or something else that is prescribed for sleep.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tinthalas Tigris

Either you referred me, or i referred you, and that episode made me beyond infatuated with him.

---

Ah! I think it was you who mentioned it, actually. I hadn't listened to the Nerdist podcast before that.

I thought it made you a racist.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tinthalas Tigris

Probably ambien or something else that is prescribed for sleep.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Merkus

I thought it made you a racist.

---

Only if you also suffer from affluenza.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Schezar

Only if you also suffer from affluenza.

---

I thought Affluenze only made you deliberately murder people with a car(while drunk).

As of this weekend, Chris Hardwick's career. The #metoo movement is necessary, but for me, this latest one is absolutely crushing.

RIP to Big Van Vader, one of the best big men ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZdGZ52_k8k

https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/ww...EY4?li=BBnbfcL

For people who can't see the tweet on the MSN link (I couldn't):

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Twitter announcement

Around a month ago my father was diagnosed with a severe case of Pneumonia. He fought extremely hard and clinically was making progress. Unfortunately, on Monday night his heart had enough and it was his time.

---

63 years old, pneumonia. My younger sister was bedridden for over a week recently with pneumonia, as was her husband. Scary stuff.

Someone call Torcer and offer him a shoulder to cry on - Koko, sign language gorilla, age 46:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44559261

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tinthalas Tigris

As of this weekend, Chris Hardwick's career. The #metoo movement is necessary, but for me, this latest one is absolutely crushing.

---

After Hardwicks reply, it's a lot of "he said, she said" - I'm guessing that videos and texts will surface soon.

He does, by all accounts, seem very happy with his wife, who has a net worth of about $100 million. He'll be fine and not starve to death, ever.
It's like the Brady/Bündchen marriage: The husband can do whatever he feels like, wife has the stash secured.

I do agree that it's one of the #metoo instances where I went "Aaaaaaah, fuck noooo!" out loud when I read it.
He's always been very open about his alcohol/self esteem issues on the podcast, and I had hoped this was an indication of a person at peace. Perhaps not.

Lydia Hearst spoke up in defense of Chris, as tasteful as she could be.

https://www.billboard.com/articles/n...edium=referral

Vinnie Paul of Pantera
Age 54

The old man from Pawn Stars.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/richard-a...?.tsrc=fauxdal

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Merkus

The old man from Pawn Stars.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/richard-a...?.tsrc=fauxdal

---

Wow.

I stopped watching it about 4 years ago. It was a show i enjoyed being a buzz on and just vegetating. I might watch it again.

Died at 77, so when the show started in 2009, the Old Man really wasn't that old. Sure looked it, though.

Harlan Ellison, sci-fi writer, 84, in his sleep (natural causes assumed):

https://deadline.com/2018/06/harlan-...84-1202419133/

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

Harlan Ellison, sci-fi writer, 84, in his sleep (natural causes assumed):

https://deadline.com/2018/06/harlan-...84-1202419133/

---

I should give his Deathbird Stories collection another try. Maybe it will engage me more now that I'm older.

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment...at-age-90.html

Co-Creator of Spiderman slings his last web.

Tab Hunter, 86, blot clot causing heart attack:

http://dlisted.com/2018/07/09/tab-hunter-has-died/

Nancy Sinatra Sr., 101, natural causes:

https://deadline.com/2018/07/nancy-s...01-1202426649/

Things I learned today: "senior" and "junior" are not gender-specific.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FilanFyretracker

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment...at-age-90.html

Co-Creator of Spiderman slings his last web.

---

He's best known for Spidey and Dr. Strange, but I always got a chuckle (very much not intended on Ditko's part) from Mr. A:

https://scannedthoughts.files.wordpr...10/05/mr-a.gif

https://benjaminherman.files.wordpre...ditko-mr-a.jpg

Ray Emery, former NHL goaltender (2003-2015), 35, drowned in his home swimming pool:

https://www.tsn.ca/hamilton-police-f...t-35-1.1139647

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

Ray Emery, former NHL goaltender (2003-2015), 35, drowned in his home swimming pool:

https://www.tsn.ca/hamilton-police-f...t-35-1.1139647

---

The link says he jumped off a boat to swim and disappeared under the water. Hate hearing stories like this. Sad.

They've significantly updated the story since it first broke. Agreed - very sad.

"Goooood morning, Vietnam" DJ dies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuk8AOjGURE

https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/jon...se-1202880082/

Sergio Marchionne, former CEO of FiatChrysler, 66, complications from surgery:

https://money.cnn.com/2018/07/25/new...bit/index.html

Hardwick has been reinstayed by amc to host talking dead. This might be the first step to a redemption story.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tinthalas Tigris

Hardwick has been reinstayed by amc to host talking dead. This might be the first step to a redemption story.

---

Redemption from what? Unsubstantiated rumors?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Schezar

Redemption from what? Unsubstantiated rumors?

---

Precisely. Aka, Guilty until almost never proven innocent.

I would not say his are unsubstantiated rumours, but instead major allegations.

Another WWE Hall of Fame member, Nikolai Volkoff, 70:

http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/2...er-dies-age-70

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

Another WWE Hall of Fame member, Nikolai Volkoff, 70:

http://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/2...er-dies-age-70

---

It's only fitting that we honor his memory accordingly by rising and respecting his singing of the Soviet National Anthem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TVU-sjy5_4

Another WWE star, Jerry Lawler's son Brian Christopher, 46, dead in his cell:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/29/us/br...ath/index.html

The career obit:

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...aign=editorial

Charlotte Rae, 92, likely bone cancer (diagnosed in 2017):

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/06/enter...rae/index.html

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

Charlotte Rae, 92, likely bone cancer (diagnosed in 2017):

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/06/enter...rae/index.html

---

You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and....

You lived 92 years.

No more donuts for Wayne and Garth: Stan Mikita, 78, likely complications from Lewy body dementia:

https://www.tsn.ca/blackhawks-icon-m...t-78-1.1154392

Coroner's report on Margot Kidder's death: suicide.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-45126522

For my next pick: Ms. R-E-S-P-E-C-T herself, Aretha Franklin.

TMZ seems to has sources she does not have long
http://www.tmz.com/2018/08/13/aretha...ely-ill-dying/

see the 958AM update at the top of the article.

The family has asked folks to pray for her. Not long at all.

PPatty, you should have picked another former pro wrestler: Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, 63, accidental (slipped and struck head at home):

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...aign=editorial

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

PPatty, you should have picked another former pro wrestler: Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, 63, accidental (slipped and struck head at home)

---

Given how hard he lived, I was mildly surprised that he was still alive.

Well, we knew it was getting close, but it's still quite sad. Aretha Franklin has died at 76

The DListed article on Miss Franklin, with tons of music clips in the article and in the comments:

http://dlisted.com/2018/08/16/we-are...etha-franklin/

The Nessun Dorma one is amazing. Start at 3:25 to skip to the "wow". That she even nailed the very end after being surprised on stage shows what a performer she was.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

The Nessun Dorma one is amazing.

---

DListed's description is a little deceptive. They talk about the time she replaced Pavarotti at almost the very last minute for the 1998 Grammys, but the clip they embed is a 2015 performance for the pope. Still great, but not quite as "Wow" as the 1998 one, given the circumstances.

It's "wow" if you consider that's she's 73 in the 2015 clip.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

It's "wow" if you consider that's she's 73 in the 2015 clip.

---

Again -- it's great. But there's a big difference between having a lot of time to study the play book, watch film and practice with the 1st team for a few weeks (2015), and suddenly coming out of the stands to run the 2-minute drill because the quarterback went down on the sidelines as he was putting on his helmet to go into the game (1998).