Man Bowls Perfect Game, Immediately Dies

You’re going to die. Worse still, you will not recover from this. It’s fatal, it’s forever, and there’s nothing you can do about it other than hope you go out in an interesting and quick fashion. Like Oliver Reed, for example, the English actor who ticked off several impressive check marks on the Hall Scale of Enviable, Awesome Deaths with his departure in 1999:↵↵⇥Reed died of a sudden heart attack during a break from filming Gladiator in Valletta, Malta on 2 May 1999. He was 61 years old and was reported to be heavily intoxicated at the time of his death. Racking up an $866 alcohol bill, Reed had reportedly drunk three bottles of Captain Morgan’s rum, eight bottles of beer and numerous doubles of Famous Grouse whisky. He also beat five much younger Royal Navy sailors at arm wrestling at a bar called “The Pub.”↵↵Reed went out right: besting young men in feats of strength and dying with a massive, unpaid bar tab in an exotic locale. Add to the pantheon another name: Don Doane, a Michigan bowler who died of a heart attack immediately after bowling a perfect game. Doane belonged to the same bowling team at the same bowling alley for 45 years, and on October 16th hit his first and only 300 game ... and then dropped dead of a heart attack as he was being congratulated by teammates and friends.↵↵We give an Oliver Reed salute to you, Don Doane, and toast your glorious exit. Our standing bowling average of 126 quakes in the shadow of your legacy.↵

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