# The Celebrity Death Pool 2005 **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** death-pool\ **Created:** [December 1, 2004, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574 "2004-12-01T21:22:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 32
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2005, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574/621 "2005-03-29T22:58:09Z")
> [@MC$E](#): > > Did anyone have Johnny Cochran? He passed away today. The lawyer? I hadn’t heard that he was ill. Does anyone know how he died? ---
**Author:** ![Jaade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@Jaade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaade)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2005, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574/622 "2005-03-29T23:02:20Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > The lawyer? I hadn’t heard that he was ill. Does anyone know how he died? I just looked it up after seeing that annoucement because I thought surely he wasn’t talking about THE Johnnie Cochran - apparently I was mistaken. Inoperable brain tumor - the family has been keeping it a secret. ---
**Author:** ![Jaade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@Jaade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaade)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2005, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574/623 "2005-03-29T23:03:21Z")
[Here’s a link](http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-032905cochran_lat,0,1676319.story?coll=la-home-headlines) ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574/624 "2005-03-30T03:58:21Z")
In addition to Cochrane, former U.S. Senator Howard Heflin died today, and former Rep. Tom Bevill died yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574/625 "2005-03-30T04:01:53Z")
> [@Governor Quinn](#): > > Howard Heflin . That would be **Howell** Heflin. (Slaps self in face, slams head against wall) ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/47e85d/32.png) [@Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Lance_Murdoch)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574/626 "2005-03-30T04:53:11Z")
On the religious front, it’s starting to look like Jerry Falwell is going to out-hustle Pope JP2 into box city. I’ll bet, however, His Holiness doesn’t have a quote like this in his autobiography… > [@](#): > > There were times that Dad’s pranks bordered on cruelty. One of his oil-company workers, a one-legged man he nicknamed “Crip” Smith, complained about everything. Dad and Crip’s co-workers got tired of the old man’s bellyaching and decided to take revenge. One morning Crip called in sick and Dad volunteered to send by lunch to his grateful but suspicious employee. Dad and his chums caught Crip’s old black tomcat, killed it, skinned it, and cooked it in the kitchen of one of Dad’s little restaurants. They called it squirrel meat and delivered it to Crip on a linen-covered tray. When Crip returned to work the next morning, Dad and his co-conspirators asked him how he liked his meal. They knew he would complain even about a free home-cooked lunch, and when Crip called it “the toughest squirrel meat” he had ever eaten, they were glad to tell him why. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574/627 "2005-03-30T12:38:06Z")
:eek: Yeah, that’s a man I want mediating my relationship with the Almighty. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574/628 "2005-03-30T13:44:40Z")
Well, that puts Falwell in a whole new light. Oh wait, no it doesn’t. Actually, it explains much. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574/629 "2005-03-30T13:52:57Z")
Actually, it explains nothing about Rev. Jerry. He did not do it, and it didn’t seem was relating that story in praise of his father. I can’t find my copy of his autobio (I do have the one titled STRENGTH FOR THE JOURNEY), but I’d bet that story is probably in his account of what his Dad was like before trusting in Christ (Falwell was always up front about coming from a line of hell-raisers). If anything, admire his candor. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574/630 "2005-03-30T17:04:32Z")
His opinion from that quoted section that the incident there “bordered on cruelty” does say something about Falwell. And nothing very good. Lok ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2005, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574/631 "2005-03-30T18:39:42Z")
He called what his father did a “prank.” He said it “bordered on cruelty.” Falwell is a vicious, cruel man. It appears that he takes after his father. The anecdote explains much. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2005, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574/632 "2005-03-31T05:36:31Z")
I have got to start work on my 2006 list. This is getting depressing. Not a single winner on my list yet. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2005, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574/633 "2005-03-31T06:43:05Z")
> [@](#): > > World-renowned inventor Andrew Toti, designer of the Mae West vest flotation device that saved the life of a president, has died. > > He passed away at his rural Modesto home last Sunday. He was 89. Source: [http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20050326-2110-ca-inventordead1stld-writethru.html](http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20050326-2110-ca-inventordead1stld-writethru.html) ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/47e85d/32.png) [@Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Lance_Murdoch)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2005, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574/634 "2005-03-31T16:47:17Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > I have got to start work on my 2006 list. This is getting depressing. Not a single winner on my list yet. There’s still a long way to go. So who had Schaivo? I thought about her and blew her off as not being famous enough. Little did I know she would become maybe the most famous woman in the country by the time she flat-lined. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2005, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574/635 "2005-03-31T18:19:06Z")
> [@Captain Lance Murdoch](#): > > There’s still a long way to go. > > So who had Schaivo? I thought about her and blew her off as not being famous enough. Little did I know she would become maybe the most famous woman in the country by the time she flat-lined. I take my 59 points, but with no pleasure in the experience. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574/636 "2005-04-01T00:31:24Z")
Had you chosen comedian [Mitch Hedberg,](http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/news/bal-artslife-news-hedberg31,1,6888591.story?coll=bal-entertainment-headlines) you’d have picked up 63 points. ---
**Author:** ![CowPatty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/439d5e/32.png) [@CowPatty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CowPatty)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574/637 "2005-04-01T01:18:46Z")
I surely never expected Johnnie Cochran to be my first. Cow “no longer a death pool virgin” Patty ---
**Author:** ![Rachm\_Qoch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Rachm\_Qoch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachm_Qoch)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574/638 "2005-04-01T05:09:14Z")
> [@Captain Lance Murdoch](#): > > There’s still a long way to go. > > So who had Schaivo? I thought about her and blew her off as not being famous enough. Little did I know she would become maybe the most famous woman in the country by the time she flat-lined. I kinda pictured a dramatic ACLU/700 Club face-off, so I thought she’d be news; but I certainly didn’t expect the masses to care so much one way or the the other. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574/639 "2005-04-01T14:05:28Z")
Looks like 2005 will be The Year of the White Smoke! [http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/04/01/pope1/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/04/01/pope1/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574/640 "2005-04-01T14:40:22Z")
Will this be the single biggest “hit” in the history of the game? A lot of people had Reagan – but I, for one, didn’t (too old – not enough points). Who is the person who appeared on the most lists? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574.md?page=31) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-celebrity-death-pool-2005/277574.md?page=33)