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Comment by dhosek | Hacker News Reader

He’s been pretty quiet in the news for a while so he sort of fell into the category of those famous people who when they died, half your response is a bit of surprise that they were still alive (which is neither a good nor bad thing, just a thing¹).

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1. I once had an idea for a party game which involved people trying to guess whether a formerly prominent person was alive or dead.

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The MTV show Remote Control had a round called "Dead or Canadian", which has morphed into pub quizzes as "Dead or Canadian, Both or Neither?", which is shockingly tricky at times.

The Dead or Canadian category on its own was surprisingly tricky. Remote Control was fun TV.

I had a similar idea, Who's Still Alive / Who Died First with pairs of people. (Who died first: Johnny Carson or Ed McMahon? John Glenn or Neil Armstrong?)

I guess it would need an internet connection to work but sounds fun.

I made a list that I kept on my phone of potential names (Provided below with the answers removed—I made the list three years ago so I know at least one of the living then are alive no more).

Actors: Gary Burghoff Alan Alda Wayne Rogers Jamie Farr Loretta Switt Harry Morgan Mike Farrell David Ogden Stiers McLean Stevenson Lary Linville Cast of Gilligan’s Island Crocodile Dundee

Musicians: Pete Best Stuart Sutcliffe Frankie Avalon Annette Funicello

Politics: Henry Kissinger Geraldine Ferraro Jane Byrne Michael Bilandic Eugene Sawyer Eddie Vrdolyak

I'd be a bit surprised if anybody who knew who Stuart Sutcliffe is didn't know he was dead. He's not particularly well-known outside of people who have read about the history of the Beatles, and the fact that he died while they were still in their heyday is probably the only thing that people who know about him would be remember.

It’s putting him with Pete Best that makes it tricky so that people have to remember which one is the one who died early. George (Harrison and Martin), Paul, John and Ringo are all gimmes.

Appreciate going deep on MAS*H

I might have to steal that idea!

I'd play that game

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