Famous stiffs

Quite sad to hear about James Brown dying on Christmas Day (I had to explain to my dad who James Brown actually was - he's a great dad, but he's not the hippest on popular music). It came just a short time after Joseph Barbera, the remaining half of the groundbreaking and incredibly influential Hanna-Barbera animation studio and probably one of the last of the original crew to work on the classic (and Oscar winning) MGM Tom and Jerry cartoons, passed away (I posted an article on him over on the FPI blog). As we all know famous people usually die off in threes, which means another famous personage is probably knocking on heaven's door. I was wondering who it was likely to be then I realised that it was probably Saddam - can you believe they turned down the poor man's appeal? What a travesty of justice, poor wee Saddam, don't you feel sorry for him? Er, no.. And yes, perhaps I should count poor old Gerry Ford as the famous third to die back to back with the others, but I just can't bring myself to put him in a group with James Brown and Joseph Barbera.