Celebrity deaths since 2002 that upset you most?

[Mahaloth]

Eve had this thread almost exactly 10 years ago.

What celebrity deaths in the last decade have upset you the most?

For me?

Colin Mcrae - Partly because he caused the accident and also because his son died with him in the crash.

Heath Ledger - Just a huge shock and his performance as Joker elevated his recent death to huge levels.

Andy Hallett - An infection to the heart because of a dental procedure. So tragic.

Richard Biggs - Stephen Franklin from Babylon 5 and his death was sudden and uncaused by himself. He died very close to the time the actor who portrayed his father on the show died, actually.

[diggerwam]

Johnny cash. Amy winehouse.

[Mahaloth]

Originally Posted by diggerwam

Johnny cash. Amy winehouse.

Why, you don't mind sharing?

[Tapioca Dextrin]

Is "None" an option? I only get upset when people I know die. I don't know any celebrities.

[Zjestika]

I felt sad when Brittany Murphy died, not because I really liked her or her body of work, but because it just seemed so sad and alone, and I'd had an acquaintance who had recently died under similarly lonely circumstances.

And it wasn't a sadness like I was going to miss her, but a sadness for whatever fear she might have felt, and because she was so young.

[spifflog]

Concur with Tapioca Dextrin.

I don't know any of these people. Why whould they upset me? People that I don't know die every minute of the day. I just can't be in mourning for the rest of my life.

[Zjestika]

Originally Posted by spifflog

Concur with Tapioca Dextrin.

I don't know any of these people. Why whould they upset me? People that I don't know die every minute of the day. I just can't be in mourning for the rest of my life.

Some people are more sensitive than others. I've been known to cry at a sad movie or when I hear some songs. I don't think feeling some sadness when hearing about the death of someone you don't know is any different than that, and there's nothing wrong with it. It's empathy.

[Infovore]

Eric Woolfson (the other half of the Alan Parsons Project)
Steve Jobs

[Leaffan]

George Carlin. I miss that guy.

[Procrustus]

None to a large degree, but to some degree:

Christopher Hitchens

Ted Kennedy

[Mahaloth]

Originally Posted by Tapioca Dextrin

Is "None" an option? I only get upset when people I know die. I don't know any celebrities.

Yes, but usually that answer is given by not replying at all in a thread about celebrity deaths that upset you.

[Loach]

I would say none because nothing is coming to me right now but some posts might jog my memory. I do feel some degree of sadness depending on the circumstances. The last one I remember being upset* about is Stevie Ray Vaughn but that was long before 2002.

*I don't know if it was the OP's intention but I take "upset" to be a much stronger reaction than saddened.

[PSXer]

Billy Mays

he was at the height of his career and popualirty and had that cool reality show and evertyhing was going great for him


then those reports came out after his death trying to slander his good image too ):

[DiosaBellissima]

Michael Jackson. I grew up loving all things MJ and, as I grew older, I came to admire his world view. . . even if it was naive. I'm not saying the guy had the most practical approach to life, but there's something admirable about his message.

I can already hear the next question: well, what do you think his message was? I think that above all else, he wanted to put more love, beauty, and kindness into the world. Now again, I'm not going to defend his every action-- alleged or otherwise-- but I think that in a very real sense, his message resonates with me for whatever reason. Heck, I even got "love" tattooed on me in his handwriting, just because it's so meaningful to me.

[jools]

Originally Posted by Leaffan

George Carlin. I miss that guy.

That... No more new humor from him, that saddened me!

[LavenderBlue]

Originally Posted by Procrustus

None to a large degree, but to some degree:

Christopher Hitchens

I read his last, short book on his illness over the weekend and remembered how much I admired the guy even when I did not agree with him. He was one of the world's truly unafraid people.

[Bob Ducca]

Whether you know the person or not, it can still be sad to lose someone if you're a fan of their work because even if you're not losing a person you know - you're still losing something. I'm a huge Amy Winehouse fan, and her death did not surprise me given her history and troubles, but it did sadden me a great deal because we lost the opportunity to hear more from her.

Others that bummed me out:

Mitch Hedberg
Jack Lemmon
Michael Jackson
Greg Giraldo
Patrice O'Neal
George Carlin
Heath Ledger
Andrew Koenig
David Mills (did a lot of work w/ David Simon)
Tim Russert
Whitney Houston
Jay Bennett (former member of Wilco)

I could probably list a hundred more if I thought about it long enough.

[Starving Artist]

Steve Jobs was the biggie for me. I've admired that guy tremendously for decades. I felt a profound sense of sadness and loss when he died. Still do to a considerable degree. On a more practical level, there's no telling what we're going to miss out on in our lives because that guy died. As Robert Iger, the CEO of Disney said upon Jobs' passing: "Despite all he accomplished, it felt like he was just getting started."

Then comes Christopher Hitchens and Heath Ledger. Both deaths made me sad and angry.

Michael Jackson's death came more as a shock than anything else. Can't really say I was affected emotionally because he'd become such a nutcase and had taken advantage of so many people by the time he died that I was pretty much out of patience with him. Still, it's sad what became of him; he truly was a genius. And of course it was terrible for his children. A financial windfall for all his family though.

Loved Carlin in the early seventies. Could recite his album routines from memory and was occasionally asked to perform them at parties. Was out of patience with him by the time he died, too.

Since someone already brought up Stevie Ray Vaughn I'll mention him too, even though he died in 1990. And while we're in that vein I'll mention Robert Palmer too.

[FordTaurusSHO94]

Randy Savage

[Ferret Herder]

Mr. Rogers. I posted in a recent thread (the one about Kevin Clash) that reading certain articles or watching certain videos about him can still make me cry. He was by all accounts I've seen a genuinely good human being who cared deeply about children, and adults too.

[Loach]

Originally Posted by Bob Ducca

Whether you know the person or not, it can still be sad to lose someone if you're a fan of their work because even if you're not losing a person you know - you're still losing something. I'm a huge Amy Winehouse fan, and her death did not surprise me given her history and troubles, but it did sadden me a great deal because we lost the opportunity to hear more from her.

Others that bummed me out:


Patrice O'Neal

Again as I said I take upset to be much stronger than saddened. I fell sad whenever I hear about the death of someone I enjoy. But it rarely upsets me. But you did remind me of this. I'm a big fan of the Opie and Anthony show on XM. Patrice was on so often it felt like I lost a friend. So young and just about to hit it big. Just about the most consistently funny guy I knew. He would just be sitting in on the show and be able to be hilarious about any subject that came up. This weekend on the channel they are commemorating the 1 year anniversary with all his best appearances.

[Annie-Xmas]

John Ritter. So totally unexpected.

Clarence Clemmons. I met him once and he seemed like such a nice guy.

[Zjestika]

Oh, yeah, Mitch Hedburg. He is one of my favorite comedians.

David Foster Wallace, I loved his essays.

[Feyrat]

Originally Posted by Leaffan

George Carlin. I miss that guy.

This is what I came to post.

I don't know, most celebrity deaths it's meh, or it's sad (Pete Postelwaite! ) because I enjoyed their work and won't get anymore.

But George Carlin... I dunno. It was like losing a favorite uncle or something. I still find myself wondering what George would think of this or that, or wishing he was still around to give commentary on things.

I miss the guy.

[Bayard]

Originally Posted by Ferret Herder

Mr. Rogers. I posted in a recent thread (the one about Kevin Clash) that reading certain articles or watching certain videos about him can still make me cry. He was by all accounts I've seen a genuinely good human being who cared deeply about children, and adults too.

Me too. I don't look back on my childhood and remember Mister Rogers being a real big part of it. I have a couple of nice memories attached to his show, but I don't remember making it a point to watch the show every day or anything. But I remember sitting at my desk at work in 2003 crying when I heard he had died.

[Battle Pope]

Leslie Nielsen - Even though some of his latter works was less than great, Airplane!, The Naked Gun and Forbidden Planet have all brought a lot of joy over the years.

Neil Armstrong

It misses the cut-off by a year, but I still want to walk into a bookshop and buy the latest by Douglas Adams

[mcgato]

A quick wiki check shows that Joe Strummer just makes the cut. I was sold on the Clash within 15 seconds of hearing the beginning of London Calling. He just seemed too young to be passing on, and it seemed to come out of nowhere. I wasn't really upset, just sad that he was gone.

[Dr. Rieux]

Steve Gerber, comic book writer and creator of Howard the Duck--a big influence on me in my teen years.
Johnny Carson--a favorite my mom turned me on to when I was a kid.

[KneadToKnow]

Richard Pryor.

[Brad the Impaler]

Dimebag Darryl, not only was Pantera one of my favorite bands, but the way he went, shot onstage at a club. Never saw it coming in a million years.

[PapSett]

Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. I had watched him for years and felt like he had shared his life with his fans. He was fun to watch and passionate about animals.

Heath Ledger. One of my favorite actors. He had so much talent and so much left to give. Just very, very sad.

George Carlin. Once in a lifetime comediene.

[Smapti]

John Entwistle, George Carlin, Mitch Hedburg, and Ronnie James Dio are the ones who pop into my head.

[Dr. Girlfriend]

Mr. Rogers and Whitney Houston. Loved Mr. Rogers as a kid and Whitney Houston as a teen, both big parts of my younger years.

[pohjonen]

Anne Bancroft. The first movie that ever struck a powerful chord with me was the Miracle Worker. No one could steal a movie even in a five minute part the way she could (as in Malice). I'm sad there will be no more Anne Bancroft performances, ever.

[Sattua]

Steve Irwin, also. He was so alive and full of energy, and provided a great real-life role model for kids. I guess a part of me admired him like a little kid would... I assumed he was immortal. And it was such a stupid way to die.

[sco3tt]

I'm another of those callous people who is never fazed by celebrity deaths. Their passing usually only makes me think of missed points in the death pool.

For this reason I was shocked at my own reaction to Mitch Hedberg's death. I felt really sad and pissed off when I heard the news on the radio, and couldn't figure out why it affected me so strongly. It made me concerned that my heart might grow three sizes that day.

I've never felt that way about another celebrity before or since, but that one really put me in a weird funk for a week or so. It wasn't just a matter of his death coming too soon, or the fact that the drugs he joked about eventually did him in, or that the world was robbed of his humor. Those same things could be said about thousands of other people to whom I never gave a second post-mortem thought, but Mitch's death touched a nerve in me that I didn't even know I had, and to this day still don't understand.

It always impresses me to see his name come up so often in these memorial threads... comedians are a dime a dozen, but his death seems to have resonated similarly with a lot of people.

[orderfire]

Robert Palmer. I've been a giant fan all the way back to the Island and Compass Point days - love him still (in spite of Addicted to Love and Power Station). I was surprised at how the news hit me, though. I cried in the bathroom at work for a long time that day.

Mr Rogers, too.

For some reason, lately I've been thinking about the eventual celebrity deaths that are going to devastate me when the time comes. David Bowie, Stevie Wonder are up there. Donald Fagan too.

[GuanoLad]

None have really upset me, not like when Jim Henson died. But I was seriously saddened by Heath Ledger's, Steve Irwin's, and Paul Hester's deaths. Very Australia-centric of me, I notice.

On a lesser-localised-celebrity death note, radio personality Richard Marsland's death was completely unexpected too.

[the_diego]

Paul Newman
Paul Scofield
David Carradine
Jack Wild
Darren Macgavin
Elizabeth the Queen Mother
Thor Heyedahl
Joseph Bonanno
James Coburn
Dolly the sheep
Idi Amin
Yasser Arafat
Charles Bronson
Red Adair
Marlon Brando
Pat Morita
James Doohan
Bob Denver
Frank Gorshin
Pope John Paul II
********
I HAVEN'T EVEN REACHED 2006! These are all my favorites, childhood heroes and villains.

Jack Lemon and Ray Walston don't make the list as they died in 2001.

[Max the Immortal]

Neil Armstrong.

[sparky!]

For some reason, Layne Staley really upset me (and I wasn't really a Alice in Chains fan). I think it was the loneliness of it.

More recently: Paul Newman and Neil Armstrong.

[panache45]

Since 2002? Nobody (well, maybe Paul Newman and Steve Jobs).

Before 2002? Too many to mention.

[Face Intentionally Left Blank]

Originally Posted by Ferret Herder

Mr. Rogers. I posted in a recent thread (the one about Kevin Clash) that reading certain articles or watching certain videos about him can still make me cry. He was by all accounts I've seen a genuinely good human being who cared deeply about children, and adults too.

I wasn't terribly sad. I had the feeling that his was a full life, well-lived. It was kind of like a piece of my childhood dying, but it had died long ago anyway so it didn't hit me that bad. Even so, I was very aware of his passing, and didn't just shrug it off. It stayed with me, but I wasn't sad.

Originally Posted by Zjestika

I felt sad when Brittany Murphy died, not because I really liked her or her body of work, but because it just seemed so sad and alone, and I'd had an acquaintance who had recently died under similarly lonely circumstances.

And it wasn't a sadness like I was going to miss her, but a sadness for whatever fear she might have felt, and because she was so young.

So young, and just taking off in popularity. She went blonde and got the lead in rom-coms, instead of playing the troubled/crazy girl. She was better as the troubled/crazy girl, though. The other roles were cotton-candy; too sweet and nothing really there.

Mitch Hedberg and Gregg Giraldo seemed like such a waste. Two of my favorite stand-ups.

Steve Irwin was a damn shame, because he seemed like he had such joy and enthusiasm for his work. On the other hand, you could totally see him having a death by misadventure, so it was sad, but not surprising.

[coffinjumper]

Liz Sladen. It just came so suddenly. One minute I'm looking forward to S5 of Sarah Jane, and the next I was hearing she died without ever having heard any indication she was sick. Hell I had recently been commenting to my friends how great she looked for her age. I expected the Brigadier to go soon, but her so close? It was a shock. And I think the closeness of the two really was part of why it got to me so much.

[Odesio]

Originally Posted by DiosaBellissima

Michael Jackson. I grew up loving all things MJ and, as I grew older, I came to admire his world view. . . even if it was naive. I'm not saying the guy had the most practical approach to life, but there's something admirable about his message.

I was a child of the 80s and grew up when Michael Jackson ruled the airwaves. I remember lying in a hospital bed in 1984 with the Sony Walkman my parents bought me and listening to Jackson's Thriller cassette tape. I absolutely loved "Thriller" and can scarcely imagine my childhood without Jackson. He remained relevant up until I was in my mid-teens when he moved from being celebrity weird to just being weird and almost a self-parody. He was still an immensely talented man though. I still remember the 25th Anniversary celebration of Motown!

So, yeah, I understand why you'd be upset. For me it was just tough that a piece of my childhood was dead.

[buddha_david]

David Wayne - lead singer of Metal Church
Denis "Piggy" D'Amour - lead guitarist of VoiVod
Dimebag Darrell
George Carlin
John Ritter
Laura Branigan ("Solitaire" was my favorite song growing up!)
Nancy Marchand (aka Livia Soprano)
Neil Armstrong
the crew of Columbia's final flight
Pat Morita ("wax on, wax off!")
Paul Baloff - original lead singer of Exodus
Quorthon - lead singer of Bathory
Rick Wright - Pink Floyd keyboardist
Ronnie James Dio
Steve Jobs
Walter Cronkite (for some reason)

honorable mention:
Chuck Schuldiner, lead singer of Death - died Dec. 2001 but I'm listing him anyway.

[GuanoLad]

Originally Posted by coffinjumper

One minute I'm looking forward to S5 of Sarah Jane, and the next I was hearing she died without ever having heard any indication she was sick.

Nobody knew. I was listening to an interview with Russell T Davies, where he said they were on the hiatus after filming three stories of the series when Lis called him to say she was sick, which was the first he knew of it, and only a few weeks later she died.

ANd now you've reminded me, I have to add Lis Sladen to my list, too.

[toast pakora]

I was saddened by Tim Russert's death. I loved watching Meet the Press during the lead up to the 2008 elections. Really missed him and his whiteboard on election night.

[Steophan]

There's several already mentioned, including Johnny Cash, Heath Ledger, Joe Strummer, Clarence Clemons, and Ronnie James Dio, that affected me, but I'll mention some others I've not seen yet.

Pete Steele, singer and bassist of the goth metal band Type O Negative shocked and upset me, mainly because it came out of nowhere.

This might be stretching the definition of celebrity slightly, but the death of Mike Alexander, the guitarist of metal band Evile hit me hard. For a couple of reasons, I was actually slightly acquainted with him, and friends of mine knew him well, and also because he was almost exactly my age. I was supposed to be seeing the band a couple of weeks after that, supporting Amon Amarth, but obviously they didn't play. The headliners dedicated their song "Fate of Norns", which is a father's lament for his dead son, to him, and being in a room with several hundred hairy bearded metalheads crying was a moving experience, to say the least.

The one that's affected me most this year was Barney McKenna, banjo player and founding member of The Dubliners. Probably the best musician I've ever seen in concert, and a truly great performer and entertainer. A terrible, but oddly enjoyable, singer, too. He was the last surviving original member, and the group will be disbanding at the end of the year, after finishing their 50th anniversary tour in his memory. The end of an era.

[Half Man Half Wit]

I'm not usually much affected by celebrity deaths, but Johnny Cash's death made me sad for a while. In Nick Cave's words:

Take this deafening thunder down
Take this bread and take this wine
Your passing is not what we mourn
But the world you left behind
Well, do not breathe, nor make a sound
And behold your mighty work
That towers over the uncaring ground
Of a lesser, darker world

He truly was the real thing.

Also, Hunter S. Thompson's death affected me, though he went out the way you'd always expected him to. I remember having a few shots of whiskey on him afterwards.

David Foster Wallace saddens me in retrospect: I've only gotten into his writing after his passing, and the thought that it's all limited, some day it'll bottom out and there will be no more, is pretty depressing.