CRAZY CRAVES' TOP 20 OBITUARIES

It comes that time of year when I usually publish CRAZY CRAVES' TOP 20 OBITUARIES; cheery one liners paying tribute to some of the departed.
But this year I'm not.
Last year I got so much flak and back-chat from people complaining "why did you leave her out?" or "why didn't you put Omar Sharif in?" or more commonly "what'd he ever do?"
Joisus, peoples, what do you want?
On average, about 56 million folk drop off the twig every year.
As I pointed out 12 months ago, it's a very personal list anyway; usually people who may or may not have had a major influence on my life, they may be famous or completely obscure, or they could just be plain human beings who led interesting lives in their own right and may or may not have met unusual fates - that's the only criteria for inclusion, oh, and a few deceased animals thrown in for good measure to placate the bloody vegans.
Make up yr own Top 20 dammit - I'm through with editing - so this year, instead, I give you....

CRAZY CRAVES' TOP 111 OBITUARIES 2016

*January*

Bob Oatley AO, 87, January 10, Sydney. Champion Australian yachtsman, boat owner, vintner, billionaire property developer. Owner of the Wild Oats series of yatchs. Brief illness.
David Bowie, 69, January 16, New York. Eccentric musician, singer/songwriter, artist, actor, superstar. Sold 140+ million albums world-wide. Turned down a knighthood 2003. Liver cancer
Yasutaro Koide, 112, January 17, Nagoya, Japan. Japanese centenarian. World's oldest man, to that point. “The best thing to do is avoid overwork and live with joy.” Pneumonia. Ancientism.
Dale Griffen, 67, January 17, London. British musician. Mott the Hoople drummer. Alzheimer's disease.
Glenn Frey, 67, January 18, New York. Musician, co founder of the Eagles. Complications from rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis and pneumonia.
Cu Rua [Great-Grandfather Turtle], Indeterminate age, January 19, Hanoi. Sole surviving Yangtze giant turtle in Hoan Kiem Lake. Found belly up on the shores weighing 163kg. Legend has it the turtle cast magic spells to help repel armies of invading Chinese in the 15th century. Extreme old age.
Henry Worsley, 55, January 24, Antarctica. Eccentric British adventurer. Dropped dead after 71 days on the ice within 48km of his target of becoming the first person to trek solo and unaided across Antarctica. Peritonitis.
Sir Terry Wogan KBE, DL, 77, January 30, Taplow, Buckinghamshire. British radio broadcaster, entertainer, royalist. Most popular breakfast radio host in the UK [1993-2009]. 35 year long television English language announcer at the Eurovision Song Contest. Undisclosed cancer.
Benoit Violier, 44, January 31, Crissier, Switzerland. French chef and restauranteur of Le Restaurant de l'Hôtel de Ville. Shot himself one month after restaurant named by French Goverment in La Liste as "best in world". Suicide.

*February*

Maurice White, 74, February 3, Los Angeles. American musician and band leader. Founder of Earth, Wind & Fire. Sold 90 million albums world wide. Parkinson's Disease.
Dan Hicks, 74, February 6, Mill Valley, California. American singer-songwriter, band leader of Chris Hicks and the Hot Licks. Throat and Liver cancer.
Viola Beach, various ages, February 6, Stockholm. Popular British "indie" rock band and manager all killed after driving off opening bridge and plummeting 25m into frozen river. Impact injuries, drowning.
Antonin Scalia, 79, February 13, Big Bend, Texas. Serving US Supreme Court Justice. Died in his sleep, after a day of quail shooting. Natural Causes.
Boutros Boutros-Ghali, 93, February 16, Cairo. Egyptian Former UN Secretary-General, nicknamed "The Pharaoh". Complications of a fractured pelvis after fall.
Harper Lee, 89, February 19, Monroeville, Alabama. American Pullitzer Prize winner [1960] for novel To Kill a Mockingbird, selling 40+ million copies. Natural causes.

*March*

Martin Crowe MBE, 53, March 3, Auckland. Former New Zealand cricket captain. Widely regarded as the country's greatest ever batsman. Lymphoma.
Sarah Tait, 33, March 3, Melbourne. Three-time Australian Olympian. London [2008] silver medalist in rowing. Cervical cancer.
Paul Couch, 51, March 5, Near Apollo Bay, Victoria. Former Australian Rules footballer. Brownlow Medal winner [1989]. 259 games for Geelong. Fell off his bicycle stone dead. Cardiac arrest.
Ray Tomlinson, 74, March 5, Lincoln, Massacusetts. American inventor of the prototype of modern e-mail [1971]. Inductee of "Internet Hall of Fame". Known to his friends as "Prof @". Cardiac Arrest.
Nancy Reagan, 94, March 6, Los Angeles. Former American First Lady and philanthropist. Wife of 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. Congestive heart failure.
Ross Hannaford, 65, March 8, Melbourne. Australian musician, eccentric. Guitarist with hit Australian band Daddy Cool. Regarded as the "slowest guitarist in Melbourne" and nicknamed the "The Robot". Undisclosed cancer.
Sir George Martin CBE, 90, March 9, London. British audio artist and sound engineer. Produced almost the entire Beatles catalogue. Author of autobiography All you Need is Ears. Went stone deaf in his later years. Burnt out. Old age.
Jon English, 66, March 9, Newcastle, NSW. British-born Australian entertainer. Singer-songwriter. Television Personality. Musical actor. 1983-1985 "Entertainer of the Year" MO awards. Complications of cardiac surgery.
Sir Ken Adam OBE, 95, March 10, London. British WWII fighter aircraft ace, motion picture set designer. Built the largest sound stage in the world [1977]. Designed the "war room" in the motion picture Dr Strangelove. Designed 7 James Bond films. Won two Oscars. Brief illness. Old age.
Keith Emerson, 70, March 10, Santa Monica, California. American musician, songwriter. Founder of 1970's "supergroup" Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Suicide by gunshot.
Frank Sinatra Jr, 72, March 16, Daytona Beach, Florida. American kidnap victim. Son of Frank Sinatra. Cardiac Arrest.
Rob Ford, 46, March 22, Toronto, Canada. Colourful Canadian political identity. Former crack-cocaine smoking Mayor of Toronto. Pleomorphic Liposarcoma.
Johan Gruyff, 68, March 24, Barcelona, Spain. Dutch international soccer player and serial chain-smoker. Regarded as one of the best association football players of the 20th century. Inventor of "Total Football", revolutionising club coaching methods. Lung cancer.
Ronnie Corbett CBE, 85, March 31, London. British television comedian, entertainer, film actor. One half of the "Two Ronnies". Motor neurone disease.
Imre Kertesz, 86, March 31, Budapest. Obscure Hungarian novelist. Holocaust survivor. Won Nobel Prize for Literature [2002]. Chronic illness.

*April*

Bob "Comrade" Ellis, 73, April 3, Sydney. Australian author, playwright, essayist, critic, film maker, speech writer, red flag waving rascal, failed politician, hobo, serial womaniser, drinker, provocateur, raconteur, scholar, gentleman. Liver cancer.
The Right Reverend Bishop Ronald Mulkearns, 85, April 3, Melbourne. Catholic bishop emeritus of Ballarat. Notorious cockatoo for buggering priests. Royal Commission witness. Never saw evil. Meat sickness, colorectal cancer.
Kerrie Lester, 63, April 5, Sydney. Australian artist. Perennial finalist in the Archibald Prize, twice runner-up, never won. Leukemia.
Merle Haggard, 79, April 6, Palo Cedro, California. American country music singer-songerwiter. Pioneer of the "Bakersfield Sound" and later "outlaw country". 38 No.1 singles on US Country Music charts. Lung cancer, pneumonia.
Dennis "Howard" Marks, 70, April 10, Leeds, England. Oxford-educated Welsh author, drug smuggler. Busted and jailed for seven years in the US for running legendary hashish and cannabis international import/export racket in the 70's & 80's. Author of best-selling autobiography Mr Nice and The Howard Marks Book of Dope Stories. Colorectal cancer.
Prince Rogers Nelson aka The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, 57, April 21, Chanhassen, Minnestota. American singer-songwriter, musician, seven times Grammy award winner, superstar. Fenatyl overdose, complications of prescription drug addiction, chronic pain, influenza, pneumonia, cardiac arrest, Zika virus.
Tony Munro, 52, April 23, Sydney. Australian cricket journalist and dwarf. Stature 4'2". Reported on cricket in small nations around the world for ESPN. Stroke.
Jenny Diski, 68, April 27, Cambridge, England. Professional pessimist. English critic, prolific author, schoolteacher, novelist, essayist, eccentric. Who's Who list of recreations “taking baths, middle-distance staring, and pain management". Lung cancer.
David Page, 55, April 29, Sydney. Contemporary Australian composer in theatre, film and television. Playwright. Musical Director of Bangarra Dance Theatre. Cause of death unknown, suspected suicide.
Daniel Berrigan, 94, April 30, New York City. American Jesuit priest, poet, anti-war activist. Principally known for doing jail time with his brother in 1971 after setting fire to Vietnam draft files with home-made napalm in protest. Old age.

*May*

Isao Tomita, 84, May 5, Tokyo. Japanese musical techno-whiz. Internationally renowned "father" of Japanese electronic music. Best known for shape-shifting classical music in the '60 & 70's. Congestive heart failure.
Reg Grundy AC OBE, 92, May 8, Bermuda. Australian media mogul, television producer and enterpenuer. Invented The Wheel of Fortune in 1957. Produced smash hit TV series such as the Young Doctors, Prisoner, Sons & Daughters, Neighbours. Natural causes.
Jonathan Cainer, 58, May 10, London. British astrologer with 12 milliion readers. Told the future six days a week in Britain's Daily Mail, Sydney's Daily Telegragh, Melbourne's Herald Sun, and the Botswana Echo. Cocaine-induced cardiac arrest.
Tony Cozier, 75, May 11, Bridgetown, Barbados. West Indian cricket historian, author, journalist, broadcaster and media commentator. Sepsis.
Cindy Waldron, 46, May 29, Thornton Beach, Queensland. Careless New Zealand-born tourist. Devoured whole by saltwater crocodile. Eaten.

*June*

Cassius Clay aka Muhammad Ali, 74, June 3, Phoenix, Arizona. American Champion of the World. Olympic gold medalist [1960]. Three-time world heavyweight boxing champion. Conscientious objector. Complications of Parkinson's Disease.
Christina Grimmie, 22, June 11, Orlando, Florida. Third-rate American cover song singer. Shot to death by own fan while signing autographs after concert. Murdered.
Phillip Cox, 76, June 19, Sydney. Dutch-born Australian film maker, auteur, photographer, author. Liver cancer followed by liver transplant followed by liver cancer.
Greg Pierce, 66, June 24, Terrigal NSW. Former Australian rugby league captain. 210 games for Cronulla-Sutherland. Cancer of the throat and oesophagus.
Bill Cunnigham, 87, June 25, New York City. Eccentric American street photographer. 40 year long fashion photographer for the New York Times. Legion of Honor recipient. Until his death, a Living Landmark of New York. Stroke.

*July*

Elie Wiesel, 87, July 2, New York City. Romanian-born Nobel Peace Prize winner [1986]. Presidential Medal of Freedom and Legion of Honour recipient. Author, political activist, Holocaust survivor. Chronic illness.
Michel Rocard, 85, July 2, Paris, France. Former French Prime Minister [1988-1991]. Champion of the French Left for five decades. Architect of the Matignon Accords [1988]. Aneurysm.
Michael Cimino, 77, July 2, Los Angelos. American Oscar winning film director and screen writer. Directed the biggest box office flop in cinematic history Heaven's Gate [1980]. Died in his sleep. Natural causes.
Lady Susan Renouf, 76 [?], July 15, Melbourne. Australian socialite, philanthropist, serial gold-digger and divorcee. Former wife of Andrew Peacock, Robert Sangster, and Sir Frank Renouf. Ovarian cancer, kidney failure.

*August*

Elyse Miller-Kennedy, 19, August 10, Townsville, QLD. Finalist in 2016 Miss World Australia competition. Motor crash.
Dalian Atkinson, 24, August 15, Telford, England. Former English Premier League and European soccer player. Death by police high-voltage taser.
Kenny Baker, 81, August 13, Preston, England. British actor and professional dwarf. Played R2-D2 in the Star Wars franchise. Stature 3'8". Chronic illnesses.
Toots Theilmans, 94, August 24, Brussels. Belgian musican and composer. Jazz harmonica player, whistler, scat-singer. Wrote the initial theme music for Sesame Street which lasted 40 years. Complications of a fall.
Gene Wilder, 83, August 29, Stamford, Connecticut. American Hollywood actor, comedian, author, director, screenwriter. Complications of Alzheimer's Disease.
Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, 41, August 30, Aleppo, Syria. Syrian ISIS media warlord and high-profile public relations director. Tactical air strike. Assassinated.

*September*

Isam Karimov, 78, September 2, Tashkent, Uzbekistan. President of Uzbekistan. Popular dictactor in un-elected power for 25 years. All round despot. Died in office. Stroke.
Richard Neville, 74, September 4, Byron Bay, New South Wales. Professional ratbag. Australian author, social commentator, scholar, gentleman. Co-publisher of Oz Magazine in 1964. Star witness and accused at long running obscenity trial. Complications of Alzheimer's Disease.
Prince Buster, 78, September 8, Miama, Florida. Jamaican musician. Widely regarded as the pioneer of ska and rocksteady music. Complications of strokes and congestive heart disease.
Norman "Nugget" May, AM, 88, September 11, Sydney. Australian radio and television sports commentator [1957-1984]. Commentated on 11 Olympic Games. Famous for single line at Moscow [1980] "four, three, two, one ... Gold! Gold to Australia! Gold!" Member Australian Sports Hall of Fame. Old age. Burnt out.
W.P. Kinsella, 81, September 16, Hope, British Colombia. Canadian novelist. Author of Shoeless Joe adapted into motion picture "Field of Dreams". Assisted suicide.
Edward Albee, 88, September 16, Montauk, New York. American playright. Three-time Pullitzer Prize winner. Regarded as the last dramatist to shape-shift American culture in the 20st century. Author of Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf. Died in his sleep. Natural Causes.
Ron Massey, 86, September 18, Sydney. Australian Rugby League mentor, advisor and legend. Regarded as having the "sharpest mind in football". Chronic illnesses.
Bill Mollison, 88, September 24, Hobart. Australian scientist, academic, author, revolutionary agronomist. Considered the world wide pioneer of permaculture agricultural systems. Natural causes.
Arnold Palmer, 87, September 25, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. American golf legend. Nicknamed "The King". One of the three "all time greats". Winner of seven Major tournaments, including four US Masters. Played at least one professional tournament for 52 consecutive years. Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient. Complications of cardiac surgery.
José Fernández, 24, September 25, Miami, Florida. Cuban-born American baseballer. Regarded as the best young pitcher prospect of the century. Attempted defection from Cuba to the USA three times by boat before successful immigration. Recreational boating accident.
Max Walker AM, 68, September 28, Melbourne. Former Australian test cricketer, Australian Rules footballer, architect, author, scholar, gentleman. 34 Test matches for Australia. Three seasons in World Series Cricket. 85 matches Melbourne VFL Club. Nicknamed "Tangles" for unique, unorthodox bowling style. Author of 14 books including How to Hypnotise Chooks. Melanoma.
Shimon Peres, 93, September 28, Tel Aviv. Joint Nobel Peace Prize winner [1994]. Former Israeli Prime Minister and President. Stroke.
Jim Kilroy, 94, September 29, Los Angeles. American property developer, philanthropist, yachtsman. Owner and skipper of maxi-yacht Kialoa II, which set the Sydney-Hobart race record in 1975, which stood for 21 years. Old age.

*October*

Trịnh Thị Ngọ aka "Hanoi Hannah", 87, Ho Chi Minh City, October 3. Vietnamese radio broadcaster. Famous for popular English language propaganda and music show on Radio Hanoi during the Vietnam War. Cause of death unknown.
Rebecca Wilson, 54, Sydney, October 7. Australian sports journalist, outspoken radio broadcaster, television personality. Breast cancer.
Ross Higgins, 85, Melbourne, October 7. Australian singer, radio and television comedic actor. Famous for starring role as Ted Bullpit in pioneering sit-com Kingswood Country [1980-84]. Chronic illness.
John Gleeson, 78, Tamworth, NSW, October 8. Former Australian test cricketer. 27 test matches for Australia [1967-73] as a "mystery spinner". Once insured his right hand for $10,000. Chronic illness.
His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej aka Rama IX, 88, Bangkok, October 13. King of Thailand. Commander of Royal Thai Army. Philanthropist, author, inventor, musician, yachtsman and boat-builder. World's longest serving monarch and head of state, having been on the Thai throne for 70 years and 126 days at the time of his death. Richest man in the world in 2008. Pneumonia, kidney failure.
Dario Fo, 90, Milan, Italy, October 13. Italian absurdist playwright; author, actor, theatre director. Winner of Nobel Prize for Literature [1997]. Best known for political polemic play The Accidental Death of an Anarchist [1970]. Pneumonia.
Junko Tabei, 77, Tokyo, October 20. Japanese mountaineer. First woman to climb Mt Everest in 1975. First woman to climb the "Seven Summits". Founder of the Japanese Ladies Climbing Club. Climbed the highest peaks in 56 countries. Undisclosed cancer.
Simone Schaller, 104, Arcadia, California, October 20. Oldest living Olympian at the time of her death. Competed for the USA in the 1932 [Los Angeles] and 1936 [Berlin] Olympics in the women's 80m hurdles. Old Age.
Richard Nicoll, 39, Sydney, October 21. Award-winning Australian fashion designer. Cardiac arrest.
Pete Burns, 57, London, October 23. British lead singer of one-hit-wonder 1980's band Dead or Alive. Eccentric punk-goth cross-dresser, pansexual, self-confessed cosmetic surgery addict. Cardiac arrest arising from chronic illnesses.


*November*

Leonard Cohen, OC, QOC, 82, Los Angeles, November 10. Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, novelist, aspiring Jewish Zen monk. Best known for the most covered popular song of the modern era "Halleujah". Recorded by more than 200 singers, originally having had more than 80 verses. Complications of a fall.
Robert Vaughn, 83, Ridgefield, Connecticut, November 11. American television, film and stage actor. Best know for his starring role in the 104 episode 1960's television spy series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Leukemia.
Bob Francis, 77, Adelaide, November 11. Australian radio broadcaster. Notorious Adelaide "shock-jock" who remained on-air for 57 consecutive years before retiring in 2013. Locally famous for petition to bring the Beatles to Adelaide in 1964. Cardiac arrest.
Mose Allison, 89, Hilton Head, South Carolina, November 15. Obscure American jazz-style blues composer, producer, arranger, singer-songwriter, pianist. Best known for humourous ironic lyrics and unique vocal syle. Recorded final LP at the age of 83. Natural causes
Sharon Jones, 60, New York, November 18. American funk and soul singer. Lead singer Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. Genre revivalist, recording first album at age 40. Sometimes known as "the female James Brown". Pancreatic cancer.
Hugh McDonald, 62, Melbourne, November 18. Australian singer-songwriter. Founding member of folk-rock bands The Bushwackers and Redgum. Nicknamed "Bullet". Prostate cancer.
Andrew Sachs, 86, London, November 23. German-born British stage, film, and television actor and documentary narrator. Best known for the comedic role as Manuel in the Fawlty Towers television series. Complications of vascular dementia.
Florence Henderson, 82, Los Angeles, November 23. American television actor. Star of long running 1970's sit-com The Brady Bunch. [117 episodes] "it's the story, of a lovely lady...". Congestive heart failure.
David Hamilton, 83, Paris, 25 November. Controversial British fashion photographer. Ended own life by drug overdose after being accused of raping four teenage models in the 1980's. Suicide.
Fidel Castro, 90, Havana, 26 November. Charismatic Cuban Marxist-Leninist revolutionary. Cuban nationalist and agrarian socialist. Seized power in 1959 after four year guerilla war. Cuban Prime Minister [1959-76]. President [1976-2008]. Big man in effective power for 47 years, one of the longest serving Heads of State of the 20th century and all-round totalitarian ruler. 638 unsuccessful assassination attempts. Hero of The Soviet Union, Order of Lenin. Author, gourmand, sports fan. Chronic illness.

*December*

John Glenn, 95, Colombus, Ohio, December 8. American astronaut, fighter pilot, engineer, politician. First American to orbit the earth [Friendship 7, 1962]. Veteran of WWII and Korean War. US Senator for Ohio for 25 years. Oldest man in space at age 77 aboard Space Shuttle Discovery. Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient. Complications of chronic illness after stroke.
Georgia Blain, 52, Sydney, December 9. Australian author and journalist. Author of eight novels. Daughter of Anne Deveson. Brain cancer.
A.A.Gill, 62, London, December 10. Outspoken British author, artist, journalist, and controversial critic. Restaurant reviewer for the London Sunday Times for 23 years. Non-practicing alcoholic for 32 years. Sudden death from mastatised lung cancer.
Mario Milano, 81, Sydney, December 10. Italian-born legendary Australian pro-wrestler. Arguably Australia's finest in his field. IWC World Champion and World Brass Knux title holder. Inventor of the Atomic Drop. Prefected the Sleeper and Claw Holds. Cardiac arrest.
Anne Deveson AO, 86, Sydney, December 12. Australian author, journalist, broadcaster, film-maker. Anti-Vietnam war activist, social commentator. Mental health advocate and founder of Schizophrenia Australia. Complications of Alzheimer's disease.
Thomas Schelling, 95, Bethedsa, Maryland. December 13. American economist, author and political theorist. Winner Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Sciences [2005] for the development of "game-theory" during the Cold War. Author of The Stategy of Conflict. Complications of a fall.
Saintly, 24, Melbourne, December 15. Champion Australian thoroughbred racehorse. Winner of 1996 Melbourne Cup and WS Cox Plate. Owned and trained by "Cups King" Bart Cummings. "The horse from Heaven". Old age.
Henry Heimlich, 96, Cincinnati, Ohio, December 17. American thoracic surgeon and inventor. Devised the eponymous "Heimlich Manoeuvre" for preventing people choking to death [1974]. Also invented a portable medical oxygen supply system and the 'flutter-valve' to drain collapsed lungs. Cardiac arrest.
Zsa Zsa Gabor, 99, Los Angeles, December 18. Legendary Hungarian-born American entertainer and socialite, Hollywood film and television actress. Appeared in more than 70 motion pictures and television series. Miss Hungary [1936]. Serial divorcee. Married nine times. Pionereed the concept of being famous for being famous. Stroke after chronic illness.
Andrei Karlov, 63, Ankara, December 19. Russian ambassador to Turkey. Killed by single gun shot from own security detail while opening a photographic art exhibition. Assassinated.
Chad Robinson, 36, Sydney, November 26. Australian journeyman rugby league player. Played 160 games for Easts and Parramatta in the NRL. Remains found December 22. Suicide.
Richard Adams, 96, Whitchurch, Hampshire, December 24. British novelist. Author of Watership Down [1972], selling one million+ copies in the UK alone. Old age.
George Michael, 53, Goring-on-Thames, England, December 25. British singer/songwriter, disco and pop superstar. Lead singer of UK pop duo Wham! before successful solo career. Sold 80+ million albums world wide. Eight Grammy Awards. Gay rights activist, Greek-Cypriot nationalist, philanthropist, notorious self-confessed masturbator. Cardiac arrest.
Oliver Prinz von Anhalt, 45, Los Angeles, December 25. American socialite. Adopted son of Zsa Zsa Gabor. Motorcycle crash.
Carrie Fisher, 60, Los Angeles, December 27. American Hollywood actress. Best known for her role as Princess Leia in the Star Wars franchise. Daughter of actress Debbie Reynolds and 1950's pop star Ed Fisher. Self-confessed "cracked" drug addict. Complications of cardiac arrest.
Debbie Reynolds, 84, Los Angeles, December 28. American Hollywood actress and singer, Las Vegas hotel proprietor.1950's motion picture superstar. Mother of Carrie Fisher. Stroke.
Sutter, 13, Sacremento, California, December 30. Welsh corgi. First Dog of California. Kept by incumbent and longest-serving Governor of California, Jerry Brown. World class exponent of taking the political tummy-rub. Old age.


PHHEEW!


{originally published 3-1-17)