# Celebrity deaths 2011 - lets Discuss one last time. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 29, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689 "2011-12-29T01:23:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689/1 "2011-12-29T01:23:39Z")
Which celebrity death touched you the most in 2011? Is there something about their career you really connected with? Or maybe somebody that had been around & working most of your entire life? I’ll start with Elizabeth Taylor. My parents were big fans of hers and I can recall vividly watching her movies with my family when I was very young. If there ever was Hollywood Royalty then Elizabeth Taylor was it. Back when being a star really meant something. You had to have a long line of major hit movies to be called a star. She was flat out one classy lady. Sadly Elizabeth was suffering health problems and rarely performed since I’ve been an adult. But, I still love watching her movies. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689/2 "2011-12-29T04:52:10Z")
The Macho Man is the only one that stands out right now. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689/3 "2011-12-29T04:58:34Z")
Here’s a very complete list of 145 celebrities or political figures that died in 2011. > **[2011 Notable Deaths](https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/sns-2011-deaths-pictures-photogallery.html)** > > Click here to see notable deaths from 2010 It should help refresh our memories. Several people on the list took me by surprise because I hadn’t heard about their deaths. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689/4 "2011-12-29T10:11:28Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Here’s a very complete list of 145 celebrities or political figures that died in 2011. > [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-2011-deaths-pictures,0,4884570.photogallery](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-2011-deaths-pictures,0,4884570.photogallery) > > It should help refresh our memories. > > Several people on the list took me by surprise because I hadn’t heard about their deaths. 145-click slideshow? There’s GOTTA be a better, faster way to see that info. > **[Lists of deaths by year](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_in_2011)** > > This is a list of lists of deaths of notable people, organized by year. New deaths articles are added to their respective month (e.g., Deaths in July 2025) and then linked below. > Deaths in years earlier than this can usually be found in the main articles of the years. Or for a more celebrity/USA-centric list: > **[Celebrity Deaths: 2011 Famous Deaths List](https://www.ranker.com/list/celebrity-deaths-2011/famous-celebrity-deaths-list?limit=25&format=BLOG)** > > The official celebrity deaths in 2011 watch list. Check out the Celebrity Deaths of 2012 as well as the more recent celeb deaths in 2013. What famous celebrities died in 2011? These famous deaths in 2011 are actors, musicians, singers, and... (click on the “25” to see 25 listings at once. None of that 5 at a time nonsense! ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689/5 "2011-12-29T10:28:05Z")
Hey, Charles Napier died! He was one of the hippies in that one Star Trek: TOS episode, “The Way to Eden”, and the Driver of the Winnebago, in “The Blues Brothers.” He was the general in the Deep Space Nine episode, “Little Green Men”, when they came to Earth in the 50’s. Spent most of his career being a hard-ass military type, but I saw him on an episode of, I think, “Dinner & a Movie”(or something very like it), and he seemed like a warm, funny guy. Heh, he was in Roger Ebert’s infamous, “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” too. Guy was in a whole lot of memorable movies and TV shows. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689/6 "2011-12-29T11:27:28Z")
I tend to watch the AMC We Remember - I find it interesting to see who has died in the year, sometimes you get some surprising entries. One of those “I didn’t even realize they were still alive” things when it comes to actors from the early part of the 20th century. I am saddened to see how crappy American Movie Classics has gotten. I can remember when they didn’t have commercials, and showed movies from the 30s and 40s with occasional forrays into the 50s. I don’t consider anything from the 70s and 80s worth showing on a ‘classic movie’ type channel. I want to see the old Studio System movies. If I had a cable channel, I would format it to be like an old nicolodeon, a cartoon, a short or two, the main movie and maybe a B movie afterwards, or a featurette [short subject but longer than a newsreel] But then again, I am old enough to remember when HBO was only on in the evenings, and the movie had a 2 hour block, when the movie ended, there was nothing until the next movie was scheduled to come on after the original movies 2 hour block [ie 8pm, 10pm, midnight] ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689/7 "2011-12-29T16:01:47Z")
Several names on that list surprised me. Cliff Robertson, Jane Russell, and Jackie Cooper were obits I missed this year. I’ll always associate Cliff Robertson with playing JFK in PT 109. That old movie still plays occasionally on the classic channels. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689/8 "2011-12-29T16:04:28Z")
In another thread, I linked to TCM’s great montage: [- YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaJs6RQPyFs) ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689/9 "2011-12-29T16:06:06Z")
Good (albeit morbid) way to keep track of notable deaths is in the death pool. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689/10 "2011-12-29T22:44:38Z")
Though they were not really celebrities, 2011 saw a related pair of notable deaths: Frank Buckles, the last US veteran of World War I (he had been an ambulance driver), and Claude Choules, the last male British veteran of that war and its last surviving combat veteran of any nation. The only surviving veteran now is Florence Green of the Women’s RAF, aged 110. By the time I was born, World War II veterans were middle-aged and World War I veterans were old men. Now we have lost the Great War vets and we are losing the Second World War veterans slowly but steadily. I hope we have the sense to take care of the stories they leave behind them ☹ ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689/11 "2011-12-29T23:02:40Z")
> [@flodnak](#): > > By the time I was born, World War II veterans were middle-aged and World War I veterans were old men. Now we have lost the Great War vets and we are losing the Second World War veterans slowly but steadily. I hope we have the sense to take care of the stories they leave behind them ☹ [Dick Winters](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Winters) died this year. I only knew of him from HBO’s _Band of Brothers_, which is a good example of taking care of their stories, I think. I’ll miss Liz Taylor the most. It feels odd that she’s not in the world anymore. I feel the same way about Johnny Cash. Both of them were part of my life for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689/12 "2011-12-31T03:18:28Z")
Well, I wonder if we’ll get through tonight and tomorrow without losing another celebrity? ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689/13 "2011-12-31T03:22:20Z")
I grew up watching _M_A_S_H\*, so Harry Morgan’s death probably affected me the most. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689/14 "2011-12-31T03:50:43Z")
Amy Winehouse’s death was the biggest for me. I adore her music and was hoping for a new album. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689/15 "2012-01-01T03:20:06Z")
> [@FordTaurusSHO94](#): > > The Macho Man is the only one that stands out right now. Seconded. Hogan vs Andre might’ve headlined WM3, but the greatest match on the card, by far, was Savage vs Steamboat. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689/16 "2012-01-01T08:47:42Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Seconded. > > Hogan vs Andre might’ve headlined WM3, but the greatest match on the card, by far, was Savage vs Steamboat. I came in just after that era to see people like Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, and Undertaker start to take over. Macho Man was an announcer and then jumped to WCW so I lumped him in with Hogan and Warrior. Once he had pretty much disappeared, I started watching some of his old matches and regret that I never thought more of him back in the day. He was entertaining in the ring and out. I don’t watch wrestling on a regular basis anymore, but I’d tune in for sure if I heard Macho Man was going to return to Raw or a PPV, even just for an interview. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689/17 "2012-01-01T12:02:45Z")
An obscure one, [Felicia Tang Lee](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felicia_Tang#cite_note-11). She was an attractive Asian-American soft-core actress. I remember her from a few years ago but hadn’t heard much about her lately. Not too surprising as she was passing the age of nude modeling. I found out a few months back that she had indeed retired after her 30th birthday in 2008. But she didn’t have a long and happy retirement as she died in 2009. Her boyfriend was charged with murdering her but he was acquitted in 2011 (it was the trial reports where I heard about her death). The jury apparently accepted the defense’s claim that Lee had beat herself to death. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689/18 "2012-01-01T12:30:11Z")
Steve Jobs. I admired him for years, and the spouse used to work at Apple. He was one of the two famous people I ever cried about when I heard they died. (The other was Eric Woolfson of the Alan Parsons Project.) ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689/19 "2012-01-01T13:53:37Z")
**Christopher Hitchens** , though that was hardly unexpected. Apart from all the religious and political writing, he was a fabulous book reviewer. I just read his last book of essays, and his writings on Dickens, Twain, Orwell, etc., were great–I have books by Michael Frayn and Kingsley Amis on my library list now, at his recommendation. **Barbara Kent,** 100-some years old, one of the last of the silent-movie players (she was never a “star,” despite what the obits said). She acted with Garbo, Gilbert, Swanson . . . Another last link gone to the silents. Poor **Yvette Vickers**. Such a charming actress, dead a year in her home before she was found. ---
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2012, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689/20 "2012-01-01T14:43:21Z")
Another vote for Randy Savage. I was deeply into wrestling in the late 80’s/early 90’2 when he was at his height of popularity, and it felt like a bit of my past went with him. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-deaths-2011-lets-discuss-one-last-time/607689.md?page=2)