Post your oldest Death Pool list. Who's still alive?

The Game Room
1

What’s your first Death Pool list and is anyone still alive from it? If not that one, which one is the oldest that still has a survivor?

My first list was 2003. That list is:

  1. Pope John Paul II
  2. Warren Zevon
  3. Michael Jackson
  4. Ronald Reagan
  5. Gerald Ford
  6. Madonna
  7. Luciano Pavarotti
  8. Jerry Lewis
  9. Eli Wallach
  10. Christopher Lee
    **11. Britney Spears
  11. Larry King
  12. Michelle Tractenburg**

15 years and I still have four people alive from it!

I thought I participates in the years before, but I did not see my list online.

2

My list, posted on December 29, 1999, was the very first one:

Leo DiCaprio
Snoop Dogg
Kirk Douglas - Yes, my “sure thing” pick from 1999 is still alive.
Robert Downey Jr
Kate Moss
Richard Pryor - died 2005
Roseanne
Anna Nicole Smith - died 2007
Elizabeth Taylor - died 2011
Scott Weiland - died 2015

3

That seems awfully random. What am I missing? Or was it just a joke/random one off?

4

I used to take one big gamble for huge points. Kind of the List “left eye” Lopez wannabe guess. One person, I believe had her, and she actually died that year.

Huge points, little chance.

5

I used to pick models and former Disney stars for this reason. But they’ve proven to be surprisingly durable. I’m thinking of switching to porn actresses.

6

Kirk is now worth negative points, right? He’s 101!

7

102 this year at some point.

8

I’m a relative latecomer to the game; I first played in 2014, and scored zero points with this list. In the three years and 9+ months since, only three of them have kicked the bucket:

Lindsay Lohan
Valerie Harper
Clive James
Wilko Johnson
Daisy Berkowitz
John McVie
Frankie Muniz
Bill Gallagher
Francois Bozize
Michel Djotodia
Gedeon Kyungu Mutanga
Mary Valastro
Michael Schumacher

Notes(as of 12/31/13):

Bill Gallagher is a commissioner on the Montana Public Service Commission.
Francois Bozize is the former President of the Central African Republic.
Michel Djotodia is the current President of the Central African Republic.
Gedeon Kyungu Mutanga is the leader of the Congolese militia, Mai Mai Kata Katanga.
Mary Valastro is the “Cake Boss” mom.

9

From my 2008 list

Fidel Castro
B.B. King
David Crosby
Amy Winehouse
Loretta Lynn
Estelle Getty
Robert Byrd
Stan Musial
Georgia Frontierre
Suzanne Pleshette
Ethel Kennedy
Jimmy Carter

Sure, Jimmy Carter’s survival is a medical miracle, but looking back at the list, it’s David Crosby who surprises me the most.

10

Ah, the nostalgia of revisiting my picks from December 29, 2004:

Liz Taylor (d. 2011)
**William Rehnquist (SCORE)
**Arthur Clarke (d. 2008)
**Jimmy Doohan (SCORE)
**Rick Majerus (d. 2012)
Lou Henson
Augusto Pinochet (d. 2006)
Kirk Douglas
Bowie Kuhn (d. 2007)
**Rosa Parks (SCORE)
**Patrick Moore, astronomy writer (d. 2012)
Norodom Sihanouk (d. 2012)
Studs Terkel (d. 2008)

I’m glad that Lou Henson is still alive; he was the basketball coach at the University of Illinois when I was in college and he’s a good guy. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2004, which is why I picked him, but he pulled through.

I appended the following comment to my picks:

Pope John Paul II died on April 2, 2005. This is why I no longer do death pools.

11

5 still alive from my 2008 list:

Ariel Sharon
Albert Hofmann
Claude Levi-Strauss
Abe Vigoda
Kirk Douglas
Micky Rooney
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Roger Ebert
Henry Kissinger
Betty Ford
Adam Bernard “Pacman” Jones
Roman Gabriel (former NFL QB)
Danny Bonaduce

12

Trying to figure out what my first one was.

13

Ok looks like 2005. I believe I came up with a big goose egg for the year

Axl Rose
Whitney Houston (died 2012)
Steve Jobs (died 2011)
Elizabeth Taylor (died 2011)
Gerald Ford (died 2006)
James Earl Jones
Willie Mays
Henry Kissinger
Colin Farrell
Peter O’Toole (died 2013)
Ed Koch (died 2013)
Willard Scott
James Brown (died 2006)

14

https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5558699&postcount=9

  1. Rosa Parks, civil activist
  2. Gerald Ford, former US president
  3. Thurl Ravenscroft, voice actor
  4. Billy Graham, Christian evangelist
  5. James Doohan, actor
  6. John Paul II, Pope
  7. James Stockdale, Adm. USN, ret.
  8. Bob Barker, game show host
  9. Charlton Heston, actor
  10. Hugh Hefner, publisher
  11. Imelda Marcos, politician
  12. Fred Phelps, hatemonger
  13. Stephen Hawking, physicist

Not a single one is still living

15

You missed Bob Barker and Imelda Marcos in your killing spree.

16

Dang, I actually did think they are deceased.

Now, where did I put my passport? Gotta brush up on my Tagalog.

17

From 2005:

  1. Da Pope (PJ2 to be specific) (score)
  2. Don Knotts (missed it by 2 months… d. 2006)
  3. Abe Vigoda (d. 2016)
  4. Joey Bishop - the last of the Rat Pack (d. 2007)
  5. James Doohan - he just can’t take anymore, cap’n! (score)
  6. Barbara Billingsley (d. 2010)
  7. Mickey Rooney (d. 2014)
  8. Jesse Helms (d. 2008)
  9. Betty Ford (d. 2011)
  10. Red Auerbach (d. 2006)
  11. Jack Chick (d. 2016)
  12. Fidel Castro (d. 2016)
  13. Wilford Brimley

Alternate: Rosa Parks (d. 2005)

18

Don’t go after Bob Barker. He’ll karate chop you while telling you to spay and neuter your pets.

19

I’m a brown belt, is Bob at a higher belt level?

20

My picks (2005):

  1. James Garner (dead)
  2. Gary Rossington from Lynyrd Skynyrd (dead this year, 2023)
  3. Andy Griffith (dead)
  4. Barbara Billingsley (dead)
  5. Rip Taylor (dead)
  6. Loretta Lynn (dead)
  7. James Brown (dead)
  8. Carol Burnett (alive)
  9. Jerry Lewis (dead)
  10. Mary Tyler Moore (dead)
  11. Dick Van Dyke (alive)
  12. Jesse Jackson (alive)
  13. Barbara Bush (dead)

10 out of 13!