Latest News

• 28th October 2025

  Scales weighs in

  

  Renowned British actor Prunella Scales has passed at the age of 93, providing DeathList 2025 with its tenth success. Scales’ acting career began in the 1950s, taking on a wide variety of TV and film roles during the 50s and 60s. In 1973, she was cast, alongside John Cleese, as the sharp-tongued Sybil Fawlty in the classic TV comedy, Fawlty Towers, a role for which she would become famous. Scales remained busy as an actor well into her 80s, but in the later years of her life she suffered from dementia. Scales was making her ninth appearance on the DeathList, this year at number 26.
  9 appearances: 2025 (26), 2024 (38), 2023 (26), 2022 (32), 2021 (20), 2020 (28), 2019 (44), 2018 (19), 2016 (22)
  

  10th Death

  Age: 93, Sybil Fawlty, Cause of death: TBA

• 3rd October 2025

  Routledge kicks the bouquet

  

  British actor Patricia Routledge has passed at the age of 96 scoring DeathList 2025’s ninth success. Routledge’s acting career started in theatre in the 1950s, where she began to make a name for herself from shows in London’s West End and in the 1960s on Broadway, going on to win prestigious awards for her performances in musicals. In 1990, Routledge landed a TV role, which elevated her fame. In BBC’s Keeping Up Appearances, she portrayed Hyacinth Bucket, a comically snobbish woman who always sought a higher social standing and insisted her surname was pronounced “Bouquet”. She would also go on to star in another major TV show, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. Routledge was honoured with a damehood in 2017 and with a second appearance on DeathList in 2025, selected at number 25.
  2 appearances: 2025 (25), 2024 (18)
  

  9th Death

  Age: 96, Actor, Cause of death: TBC

• 4th September 2025

  Hasta La Vista, Fashionista

  

  Legendary designer, Giorgio Armani, has passed at the age of 91 for DeathList 2025’s eighth success of the year. Armani initially studied medicine and also served in the Italian army before he moved into the fashion industry as a window dresser and designer for Nino Cerruti. In 1975 he launched his eponymous brand which would become hugely successful. He focused on menswear at first, then expanded into womenswear and, in due course, accessories and fragrances. His success elevated him to becoming a global household name associated with high-end fashion. Armani was making his debut on DeathList, this year securing 45th place.
  1 appearance: 2025 (45)
  

  8th Death

  Age: 91, Fashion Designer, Cause of death: TBC

• 8th August 2025

  Lovell Splashes Down

  

  Astronaut Jim Lovell has passed away at the age of 97 for DeathList 2025’s 7th success. After a career in the US Navy, Lovell joined NASA in 1962. He first went into space on two Gemini missions in the mid-1960s and was part of the crew of Apollo 8, which orbited the Moon in 1968. However, his most famous mission was as commander of Apollo 13, where, after a near-catastrophic oxygen tank explosion, he heroically guided his crew safely back to Earth, after uttering the infamous phrase, “Houston, we have had a problem”. Lovell was making his debut appearance on DeathList, selected at number 34.
  1 appearance: 2025 (34)
  

  7th Death

  Age: 97, Apollo 13 Astronaut, Cause of death: TBA

• 25th July 2025

  Laine to rest

  

  British jazz singer, Dame Cleo Laine, has passed away at the age of 97, providing DeathList 2025 with its sixth success. Laine’s career started in the 1950s, when, after auditioning, she joined John Dankworth’s band. She would go on the marry Dankworth in 1958 and would continue to work with him until his death in 2010. She had major success in her own right, including winning the Grammy for Best Female Jazz Vocal Performance in 1986. Laine was making her fifth appearance on DeathList, this year at number 11.
  5 appearances: 2025 (11), 2024 (7), 2023 (24), 2022 (27), 2019 (38)
  

  6th Death

  Age: 98, Jazz Singer, Cause of death: TBA

• 30th June 2025

  And Finally...

  

  British newscaster and journalist, Sandy Gall, has issued his last headline, passing away at the age of 97. Gall started his journalistic career with Reuters in 1956, then going on to join British TV news organisation, ITN, in 1963 as their foreign correspondent, covering events such as the JFK assassination and the Vietnam War, and, at times, reporting from dangerous locations. In 1970, he started on the show which would make him most famous, News at Ten, where he appeared regularly as a newsreader for the next 21 years. He continued as a TV journalist for many more years and also authored a number of books. Gall was making his 5th appearance on DeathList, this year selected at number 14.
  6 appearances: 2025 (14), 2024 (8), 2023 (16), 2022 (21), 2017 (35), 2016 (31)
  

  5th Death

  Age: 98, TV News Reporter, Cause of death: TBC

• 11th June 2025

  Wilson no longer getting around

  

  Brian Wilson, co-founder of The Beach Boys, has passed at the age of 82, providing DeathList 2025 with its fourth hit. Wilson founded The Beach Boys with two of his brothers in 1961. The band had major commercial success through that decade with hits such as Good Vibrations, God Only Knows, I Get Around and the iconic Pet Sounds album. Over time, Wilson became acknowledged as an influential musical genius but also fought battles with drugs, alcohol and mental health issues for decades. Wilson was making his second appearance on DeathList this year, some 36 years after his first. He was selected at number 46.
  2 appearances: 2025 (46), 1989 (18)
  

  4th Death

  Age: 83, Beach Boy, Cause of death: TBC

• 26th February 2025

  The Trench Connection

  

  Legendary actor, Gene Hackman, has passed away in somewhat mysterious circumstances at 95. Hackman’s acting career started in the early 1960s, appearing in his most famous role in The French Connection in 1971, for which he won the Best Actor Oscar. Further notable roles were in 1992’s Unforgiven (for which he won a second Oscar), The Royal Tenenbaums and the Superman movies of 1978 and 1980, where he played Lex Luthor. He retired from acting in 2004 and wrote some novels but developed Alzheimer’s disease in his later years. He, his wife and one of his dogs were all found dead by authorities at his home. After investigation, it was concluded his wife had passed away from natural causes some days before he died of heart failure, probably hindered by his Alzheimer’s. Hackman was making his second appearance on DeathList, this year at number 28.
  2 appearances: 2025 (28), 2024 (23)
  

  3rd Death

  Age: 95, Actor, Cause of death: Heart failure

• 15th January 2025

  Linda No Longer

  

  Linda Nolan, member of the Irish singing group with four of her sisters, The Nolans aka The Nolan Sisters, has passed on at age 65 after a long battle with cancer. The Nolans came to fame primarily in the UK and Ireland in the 1970s and continued to be popular in the 1980s. Their biggest hit was 1979’s “I'm in the Mood for Dancing". The group split up in 2005 but reformed several times with various of the sisters involved, although one of the sisters, Bernie Nolan, died of cancer in 2013 (another DeathList success). Linda Nolan was making her fifth appearance on DeathList, this year at number 9, so achieving one final top ten hit.
  5 appearances: 2025 (9), 2024 (29), 2023 (47), 2021 (34), 2018 (9)
  

  2nd Death

  Age: 66, Nolan Sister, Cause of death: Cancer/pneumonia

• 7th January 2025

  Le Pen Signs Off

  

  French far-right politician, Jean-Marie Le Pen has passed at the age of 96 to provide DeathList 2025 with an early first success. Le Pen started his political career in the 1950s and founded France's far-right National Front party in 1972. He was ultimately expelled from that party in 2015 as a result of his Holocaust denial statements. He was also convicted on many occasions of racist and hate speech crimes. In his later years, he had a major falling out with his slightly more moderate politician daughter, Marine Le Pen, who had become president of his former party. Le Pen was making his sixth appearance on DeathList, peaking this year at number 15.
  6 appearances: 2025 (15), 2024 (24), 2023 (22), 2022 (24), 2021 (39), 2020 (46)
  

  1st Death

  Age: 97, French Neo-Nazi, Cause of death: TBA