Matt’s Death List

It’s one of my more morbid hobbies. Each year, I compile a list of celebrities who I believe will shuffle off this mortal coil this year. I don’t usually do very well. I usually only get one right per year, and in 2010 I struck out completely. My two successes were Milvina Dean, the last living survivor of the Titanic (not anymore) and Charlton Heston, who I expected to die of a gunshot wound.

While I don’t participate in any of the organized “death pools” out there, I do adhere to the generally accepted rules for such lists.

Candidates must be famous enough that their death will make the news.
Candidates cannot be famous solely because they’re dying.
No Death Row inmates; that’s too easy.
No murdering or assassinating anyone on my list; that’s cheating.
No kids; that’s just cruel.
This list becomes locked in at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, and cannot be changed after that, except to update their status when/if someone on the list dies.

Score So Far: 1 out of 10
([fergcorp_cdt_single date="1/1/2012 00:00"] left)

Matt’s Death List 2011
Ranked by age, in descending order
	Name	Age*	Claim to Fame
	Kirk Douglas b. December 9, 1916	94	Actor (Spartacus)
	Zsa Zsa Gabor b. February 6, 1917	94	Actress and cop-slapper. Last year I thought she was 100 because of some bad research. She’s really 94 as of this list’s inception.
	Betty White b. January 17, 1922	88	Last of the Golden Girls. Estelle Getty died in 2008, Bea Arthur passed away in 2009 and we lost Rue McClanahan in 2010. Will Betty White continue the streak?
	George H.W. Bush b. June 12, 1924	86	41st President of the United States.
	Jerry Lewis b. March 16, 1926	84	I don’t think he even does the telethon anymore. They just keep him cryogenically frozen, and thaw him out to warble his way through “You’ll Never Walk Alone” at the end.
	Fidel Castro b. August 13, 1926	84	Former Cuban dictator who handed power over to his son Raoul in anticipation of his imminent demise.
	Martin Landau b. June 20, 1928	82	Actor (Mission: Impossible, Space: 1999). Won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar™ for playing Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood.
	Dick Clark b. November 30, 1929	81	World’s Oldest Teenager. I’ve got a feeling we’ll be rockin’ in New Year 2012 without him.
	Harmon Killebrew b. June 29, 1936 d. May 17, 2011	74	Baseball great and local sports icon. He’s mostly famous in Minnesota, with a couple of streets named after him. On December 30, 2010 it was announced that he had been diagnosed with throat cancer.
	Aretha Franklin b. March 25, 1942	68	The Queen of Soul is reported to have been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, though this has not been confirmed by any credible news source.
* Age as of January 1, 2011