# 2026 Celebrity Life Pool **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [December 20, 2025, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879 "2025-12-20T01:21:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879/21 "2025-12-31T18:41:06Z")
Let me give this a shot: Dick Van Dyke Mel Brooks Carol Burnett Alan Alda William Shatner George Takei Jaye P. Morgan Luis Aparicio Raymond Berry Rita Moreno Barbara Eden Barbara Feldon Nancy Pelosi Ages list: Dick Van Dyke, 101 Mel Brooks, 100 Carol Burnett, 93 Alan Alda, 90 William Shatner, 95 George Takei, 89 Jaye P. Morgan, 95 Luis Aparicio, 92 Raymond Berry, 93 Rita Moreno, 95 Barbara Eden, 95 Barbara Feldon, 93 Nancy Pelosi, 86 ---
**Author:** ![Dancer\_Flight](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dancer_flight/32/7601_2.png) [@Dancer\_Flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancer_Flight)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879/22 "2025-12-31T20:42:53Z")
Wikipedia is an awesome resource and these people have gotten very good at not dying Plain Text: Elizabeth Kelly Beulah Garrick Patricia Wright Annabel Maule Jaqueline White Vincent Ball Anne Vernon Woody Woodbury Laurie Webb Eva Marie Saint Alice Toen Thelma Ruby Dick Van Dyke | Name | Known For | D.o.B. | Age on 2027-01-01 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Elizabeth Kelly | British Actress | 5/29/1921 | 105 | | Beulah Garrick | British Actress | 6/12/1921 | 105 | | Patricia Wright | American Actress | 7/5/1921 | 105 | | Annabel Maule | British Actress | 9/8/1922 | 104 | | Jaqueline White | American Actress | 11/27/1922 | 104 | | Vincent Ball | Austrailian Actor | 12/4/1923 | 103 | | Anne Vernon | French Actress | 1/9/1924 | 102 | | Woody Woodbury | American Comic Actor | 2/9/1924 | 102 | | Laurie Webb | Welsh Actor | 5/6/1924 | 102 | | Eva Marie Saint | American Actress | 7/4/1924 | 102 | | Alice Toen | Belgian Actress | 7/25/1924 | 102 | | Thelma Ruby | British Actress | 3/23/1925 | 101 | | Dick Van Dyke | Actor, Centenarian | 12/13/1925 | 101 | ---
**Author:** ![distaccato](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/distaccato/32/16779_2.png) [@distaccato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/distaccato)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2026, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879/23 "2026-01-01T02:52:14Z")
Christian Lamb Franca Pilla Edmund W. Gordon Patricia Wright Edgar Morin Ray Anthony Rhoda Wurtele Rachel Robinson Woody Woodbury Marshall Allen Torsten Wiesel Bill Greason Martha Firestone Ford alternates: Brenda Milner Caren Marsh Doll | # | Name | Born | Age on 2027-01-01 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Christian Lamb | 1920-07-24 | 106 | | 2 | Franca Pilla | 1920-12-19 | 106 | | 3 | Edmund W. Gordon | 1921-06-13 | 105 | | 4 | Patricia Wright | 1921-07-05 | 105 | | 5 | Edgar Morin | 1921-07-08 | 105 | | 6 | Ray Anthony | 1922-01-20 | 104 | | 7 | Rhoda Wurtele | 1922-01-21 | 104 | | 8 | Rachel Robinson | 1922-07-19 | 104 | | 9 | Woody Woodbury | 1924-02-09 | 102 | | 10 | Marshall Allen | 1924-05-25 | 102 | | 11 | Torsten Wiesel | 1924-06-03 | 102 | | 12 | Bill Greason | 1924-09-03 | 102 | | 13 | Martha Firestone Ford | 1925-09-16 | 101 | | A1 | Brenda Milner | 1918-07-15 | 108 | | A2 | Caren Marsh Doll | 1919-04-06 | 107 | ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2026, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879/24 "2026-01-03T22:18:49Z")
Here is the amazing spreadsheet made by @distaccato , who has always helped our Life Pool by making a spreadsheet for us. Feel free to mark anyone who dies on the right column of the sheet and it will apply the change to everyone. > **[SDMB 2026 Life Pool](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1E0RFywQdLrUtcQ6JqRAVHVNLcHEwMb7qJ4PcTzN1VFI/edit?usp=sharing)** > > This Sheet is private ---
**Author:** ![distaccato](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/distaccato/32/16779_2.png) [@distaccato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/distaccato)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2026, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879/25 "2026-01-04T20:07:14Z")
Some statistics and factoids, for those who like that sort of thing. We have 13 entries in this year’s pool. Out of the 169 people named on all entries (13 x 13), there are 110 unique selections. 82 of these selections, 75% of the total, appear on only a single entry. Of the 28 people selected on more than one entry, [William Shatner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shatner) is the most popular, appearing on eight entries. [Eva Marie Saint](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Marie_Saint) and [Dick Van Dyke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Van_Dyke) follow, appearing on six entries each. The oldest selection is [Christian Lamb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Lamb), currently 105 years old. Lamb is “a British World War II veteran who helped to plan the D-Day landings in Normandy.” The youngest selection is [Judy Moran](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Moran), currently 81 years old. Moran is “the matriarch of the Moran criminal family of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.” The current average age of all selections is 93.7 years old. Best of luck to everyone in 2026! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2026, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879/26 "2026-01-07T16:07:51Z")
Week 1 update: Nobody died. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879/27 "2026-01-09T23:15:04Z")
I see @distaccato went for the oldest group overall. This is actually probably the best strategy. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879/28 "2026-01-09T23:23:39Z")
Do we have results from previous Life Pools to verify that? I wasn’t sure about whether to go with high-value picks or try for volume of picks. (I also mixed in a strategy of hedging some of my death pool picks, so I’m not a model of coherence here). ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2026, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879/29 "2026-01-10T16:51:17Z")
> [@distaccato](#): > > Out of the 169 people named on all entries (13 x 13), there are 110 unique selections. There are lots more unique picks in this game than in the Death Pool. I guess overall, more people don’t die than do, so picking who will is harder than picking who won’t, and there’s more cribbing in the Death Pool. Anything else operating there that I’m missing? ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2026, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879/30 "2026-01-10T16:55:08Z")
> [@SunUp](#): > > Do we have results from previous Life Pools to verify that? I wasn’t sure about whether to go with high-value picks or try for volume of picks. (I also mixed in a strategy of hedging some of my death pool picks, so I’m not a model of coherence here). I don’t have anyone personally on both lists, but I have someone on my Death Pool list who is on several people’s Life Pool list. My research turned up that this person is under hospice care, and has severe dementia. Wondering if I goofed, or if a lot of people just cribbed from one wishful thinker in this game. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2026, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879/31 "2026-01-10T17:38:11Z")
People with severe dementia can live for a very long time if their body is taken care of and risky behaviour prevented. One of the many horrible things about dementia is that it does not kill you, although it significantly increases the risk of life-threatening conditions. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2026, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879/32 "2026-01-10T18:02:38Z")
Yeah, it seemed to me that a lot of people put a dementia diagnosis on their list of things to prompt an addition to their death pool lists. My grandmother lived in a nursing home for a decade with Alzheimers, basically catatonic the entire time, so that probably influences my avoidance of that trend. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2026, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879/33 "2026-01-10T18:05:17Z")
I was going more by the hospice care than the dementia; albeit, I kinda assumed there’d be a DNR in place, and since the person had some other frailties, I thought “Eh, better than 50/50, and while not a lot of points, probably a unique pick or close to it.” ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2026, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879/34 "2026-01-10T18:10:38Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I was going more by the hospice care It’s been my personal observation recently that people are being placed into hospice care MUCH earlier than was previously done. It used to be that if hospice was called for somebody, that person had a few weeks, if not days, to live. Now, however, hospice might be called several months before death is imminent. My mother, for instance, was under hospice care for nearly a year before she passed. Obviously, this is done on a case-by-case basis. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2026, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879/35 "2026-01-10T18:11:50Z")
> [@SunUp](#): > > Yeah, it seemed to me that a lot of people put a dementia diagnosis on their list of things to prompt an addition to their death pool lists. I don’t look for it, and if it is all someone has, I go on; but if I see it with specific other things, I think there’s probably a DNR. Or if it’s in combination with liver or kidney disease that requires a transplant, I think “Won’t be on the transplant list,” if I see “dementia” and a modifier like “severe.” Not like I’m winning or even coming in close second every year, though, so don’t copy me. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2026, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879/36 "2026-01-10T18:27:15Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > Now, however, hospice might be called several months before death is imminent. I think that might have to do with a couple of things: the first is the emergence of home-hospice care. Someone might technically be “in hospice,” but living at home, having someone come by like a visiting nurse once a day, and a few other things. There are also some new medications that are giving cancer patients several extra months, but they can’t take care of themselves during those extra months. My only personal experience with something like that was about ten years ago, and it’s not exactly the quintessential example, but a friend was in a drug trial, and pretty obviously in the group getting the actual medication-- in fact, so obvious, there was some ethics call to break protocol early, so the control group didn’t die a whole year earlier, on average. Point being, he well-outlived original prognosis. He had to go to Texas, though, where the trial was, and his wife couldn’t go with him. She made some arrangement to go there weekends, and a lot of other days, until she could take leave; he got a hospice bed instead of taking an apartment by himself, because no one was exactly sure how safe that would be. When his wife finally got there, they got an apartment, and switched to home hospice for a bit. But he still was technically “in hospice” for a very long time. Double-blind studies aside, a lot of people do travel for treatment now, so that could result in people reaching out to hospice if family can’t come with them. ---
**Author:** ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2026, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879/37 "2026-01-10T18:31:02Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > There are lots more unique picks in this game than in the Death Pool. I guess overall, more people don’t die than do, so picking who will is harder than picking who won’t, and there’s more cribbing in the Death Pool. Not so much cribbing as someone with Stage 4 cancer in hospice or has stopped treatment is kind of a gimme, even if they’re old. I can’t be bothered to look, but early in December someone complained how one of their “sure thing” picks died and they implied that it was going to be unique, and someone else chimed in that no, it wouldn’t have been since it was early December and the person was likely going to be chosen by many. (The recently deceased had been on my list of prospects for a while, for example.) Also, bandwagons based on the likely to die are far more devastating to your relative score if you’re not on them, and the person dies, as opposed to the flip situation here. ---
**Author:** ![distaccato](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/distaccato/32/16779_2.png) [@distaccato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/distaccato)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2026, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879/38 "2026-02-05T04:14:10Z")
> **[Former EastEnders star Elizabeth Kelly dies at the age of 104](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgj2e7g3pro)** > > Actress Elizabeth Kelly died peacefully in Scarborough in December, her agent said. > **[Coronation Street and EastEnders icon dies aged 104 as fans pay tribute](https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/national/uk-today/25825554.eastenders-corrie-star-elizabeth-kelly-dies-aged-104/)** > > Elizabeth Kelly played Nellie Ellis in EastEnders and Edie Burgess in Coronation Street. Turns out Elizabeth Kelly died in December 2025, but her death wasn’t reported until now. And her funeral isn’t until later this month. ---
**Author:** ![Dancer\_Flight](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dancer_flight/32/7601_2.png) [@Dancer\_Flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancer_Flight)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2026, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879/39 "2026-04-03T17:08:32Z")
Laurie (Lawrence) Webb died March 29, 2026, which means I’m now down 2 candidates… [https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-laurie-webb-death-newsupdate/](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-laurie-webb-death-newsupdate/) Spreadsheet has been updated… -DF ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879/40 "2026-04-05T16:52:15Z")
Good news for those of us who have William Shatner on our lists. Apparently the reports that he announced he has cancer were AI fakes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2026-celebrity-life-pool/1025879.md?page=3)