2020 Obituaries quiz

[`]

Of which noted figure who died this year was it said, written or recalled:

If you don't know an answer, please don't spoil it for someone else by looking it up - just leave a space so another poster can have a go.

1 An elderly prop man had the bra attached to a fishing rod. On the first take, when he started to reel the bra in, the top stayed put and she was dragged unceremoniously through the mud.

2 He taught French and German at Eton . . . but could never accept its ethos, which he saw as a “deliberately brutalising process [that] integrated you with imperial ambitions and then let you loose into the world with a sense of elitism — but with your heart frozen”.

3 He was named in a drug smuggling ring involving the Neapolitan mafia. He claimed he had been framed, though prostitutes he had been involved with had already disclosed to the Italian press his drug, and indeed his sex, habits.

4 In 1960, with his impressive physique, he was encouraged to enter that year’s Mr Universe contest. He made the final but failed to win. Asked about the result, a judge told him it was on account of his ugly feet — a Mr Universe, he was informed, could never have bunions and hammer toes.


5 He recalled how he had returned home, and had surprised a taxi driver by naming every street he passed. “How come?,” the cabbie asked, not recognising his passenger. “As a boy I used to deliver milk around here,” he replied. “So what do you do now?” the cabbie asked. “That,” he wrote, “was rather harder to answer.”

6 In her free time she enjoyed escaping to her château, southeast of Bordeaux. “Well, it calls itself a château. I would call it a manor house,” she told The Sunday Times last year, adding that it only had one tower whereas “really self-respecting châteaux have two”.

7 Eventually she found work as secretary to a judge but only by reassuring him that she would never wear trousers to work.

8 Alongside the obligatory industrial quantities of booze, contract riders stipulated the dressing-room provision of packets of M&M’s with all the brown sweets removed.


9 He claimed once to have slept with 29 women in as many days and then told his therapist that he was worried he might be impotent because on the 30th night he couldn’t manage a repeat performance. His therapist reputedly told him that even God gave himself a day of rest.

10 Her West End auditions were subsidised by a series of waitressing jobs. “Pizza Express, Pizza Hut, Pizzaland. All the pizzas,” she said.

11 There were addictions to booze, narcotics and “wonderful orgies”, including a threesome with Buddy Holly. “I’ll never forget that. He came and he went.”

12 He professed to be a devout Christian, did not smoke or drink, and condemned hippies and miniskirts.

13 “I had some extraordinary offers. There were some lesbians who lived near me and used to pop notes through my letterbox, asking if I’d go to their parties with a whip,” she noted.

14 When he attempted to befriend his fellow academicians, they made fun of his wooden smile and nicknamed him “laughing cow” after the image on the packaging of the French processed cheese.

[Rayge]

Got in early and mopped up the easy ones...

1 An elderly prop man had the bra attached to a fishing rod. On the first take, when he started to reel the bra in, the top stayed put and she was dragged unceremoniously through the mud.
Barbara Windsor

2 He taught French and German at Eton . . . but could never accept its ethos, which he saw as a “deliberately brutalising process [that] integrated you with imperial ambitions and then let you loose into the world with a sense of elitism — but with your heart frozen”.

3 He was named in a drug smuggling ring involving the Neapolitan mafia. He claimed he had been framed, though prostitutes he had been involved with had already disclosed to the Italian press his drug, and indeed his sex, habits.
Diego Aramanda Maradona

4 In 1960, with his impressive physique, he was encouraged to enter that year’s Mr Universe contest. He made the final but failed to win. Asked about the result, a judge told him it was on account of his ugly feet — a Mr Universe, he was informed, could never have bunions and hammer toes.

5 He recalled how he had returned home, and had surprised a taxi driver by naming every street he passed. “How come?,” the cabbie asked, not recognising his passenger. “As a boy I used to deliver milk around here,” he replied. “So what do you do now?” the cabbie asked. “That,” he wrote, “was rather harder to answer.”
Sean Connery?

6 In her free time she enjoyed escaping to her château, southeast of Bordeaux. “Well, it calls itself a château. I would call it a manor house,” she told The Sunday Times last year, adding that it only had one tower whereas “really self-respecting châteaux have two”.

7 Eventually she found work as secretary to a judge but only by reassuring him that she would never wear trousers to work.

8 Alongside the obligatory industrial quantities of booze, contract riders stipulated the dressing-room provision of packets of M&M’s with all the brown sweets removed.
Eddie Van Halen

9 He claimed once to have slept with 29 women in as many days and then told his therapist that he was worried he might be impotent because on the 30th night he couldn’t manage a repeat performance. His therapist reputedly told him that even God gave himself a day of rest.

10 Her West End auditions were subsidised by a series of waitressing jobs. “Pizza Express, Pizza Hut, Pizzaland. All the pizzas,” she said.

11 There were addictions to booze, narcotics and “wonderful orgies”, including a threesome with Buddy Holly. “I’ll never forget that. He came and he went.”
Litte Richard

12 He professed to be a devout Christian, did not smoke or drink, and condemned hippies and miniskirts.

13 “I had some extraordinary offers. There were some lesbians who lived near me and used to pop notes through my letterbox, asking if I’d go to their parties with a whip,” she noted.

14 When he attempted to befriend his fellow academicians, they made fun of his wooden smile and nicknamed him “laughing cow” after the image on the packaging of the French processed cheese.

[Rayge]

Number 4 - Dave Prowse/Darth Vader?
Number 2 - John Le Carré

Thanks for doing this btw – I alwyas used to enjoy Thesiger's weekly quizzes, and quizzing was the only thing that could ever get me in to a pub in the evenings.

[Tom Waits For No One]

9 is either Nicholas Parsons or Des O’Connor

13 Diana Rigg

[`]

Who says this place is on its arse!/no one reads my threads!

A whopping three responses and just short of 50 views so far (shame on you, R, for not using an alias to make my thread look a bit busier/more popular!)

Number 4 - Dave Prowse/Darth Vader?
Number 2 - John Le Carré

Thanks for doing this btw – I alwyas used to enjoy Thesiger's weekly quizzes, and quizzing was the only thing that could ever get me in to a pub in the evenings.

All correct so far, R. Unfortunately, you omitted to read the small* type and PayPal the £5 entrance fee thereby disqualifying yourself from any chance of receiving the £4.99 star prize.

9 is either Nicholas Parsons or Des O’Connor

13 Diana Rigg

Wrong on both counts, I'm afraid, although you're very close to two of the answers, TW (he said gnomically).

That leaves 6,7, 9, 10, 12 and 14 still to get.

Number 12 and 14 are by far and away the hardest to get.

I only know the answer to 12 because I used to live next door to him. Despite being in the country the day he came to
power, I had no idea about 14 myself.


Would you both like me to PM you the answers or do you want to keep on going?

Will post another quiz later today if either of you are interested.

* microscopic really

[Jimbly]

7. RBG?

[Deebank]

Keep going! I love a quiz.
Unfortunately apart from the two Ray got early-doors I don’t have a clue here

[Tom Waits For No One]

9 12 is either Nicholas Parsons or Des O’Connor

[`]

7 is indeed RBG

9 is either Nicholas Parsons or Des O’Connor

9 12 is either Nicholas Parsons or Des O’Connor

Big clue - The answer to number 9 and no 12 is definitely NOT NP or DO'C

[Tom Waits For No One]

13 Honor Blackman

14 Rich Pansolass or Ned Socroon ?

[C]

Ok, this is good stuff and I want to contribute but it is not my forte.

However, I'll have a go but work backwards

What famous deaths do I recall off the top of my head:

Van Halen - there were others like Gordon Haskell and Ken Hensley but they are a little too obscure - oh, and Spencer Davis - ditto
John Sessions
Sean Connery
Frank Bough
Nobby Stiles
Geoffrey Palmer
Ray Clemence

Right:

Van Halen and Connery already gone.

All the names I remember are men so that rules out 6, 7 and 10.

That only leaves 14.

"fellow academicians' - that rules out them all with the exception of Nobby Stiles.

14. Nobby Stiles




.

[Hightea]

9. Kirk Douglas ?

[`]

9) Kirk Douglas - correctumundo
13) Honor Blackman - correctumundo
14) Nobby Stiles. - toothless answer from C

Remaining answers are in the "Good Stanley Kubrick" thread halfway down the first page in Screenadelica