Karen Carpenter. The most talented female vocalist of the 20th century, died much, much too young.
Leonard Nimoy.
I don’t know why as I’m not a great fan of his or of Star Trek but for some reason his death really impacted me
Jim Henson, definitely. I ugly-cried just watching a snippet of his funeral on the evening news.
I felt bad when author Shel Silverstein died. I told my young daughter why I was so sad, and she said, ‘oh, no more poems!’ and we both had a short cry together.
I’ll feel bad when Martha Stewart goes. I know she is disliked, if not hated, by so many, but she brought such beauty into the world, so many good ideas .
For me it’s Prince. I never really paid much attention to him. Being a child of the 80’s/90’s, he was always just that weird guy with the high pitched voice and the strange fashion choices. I’ve seen Tom Petty 9 times and David Bowie once. Most people that know me would assume one of those two, probably Bowie would have hit me the hardest but for some odd reason Prince’s death took a toll on me.
My guess is that after he died, there was suddenly documentaries on him, news stories about him, an XM station dedicated to him (his music, as well as music he wrote and bands he created or spun off from work he’d done). I think the issue for me was that I had no idea how enormously talented he was, how far reaching his influence was and I feel like I really missed out on a lot of amazing music because I wrote him off as just some oddball. Until the concert for George Harrison, I didn’t even know he played the guitar, much less that he was an incredibly talented guitarist.
In the months after his death, the XM station that was dedicated to him was the only thing I had playing in my car. I wish I had paid more attention to him when he was around.
I suppose that’s why it hit me harder than Petty or Bowie, both of whom I listened to, a lot.
As for a living celebrity, that’s hard to say, but Roger Waters (or David Gilmour) would hit me pretty hard. Like so many other people, Pink Floyd was part of the soundtrack of my teenage years.
I’ve never been big into Warren Zevon, but I like his music and he’s always been on my radar. For some strange reason, the person that did my engagement photos had Zevon’s felt it was a good idea to play The Wind (aka “I’m about to die, here’s one last album”) while he was shooting. This was before he died, btw. I wasn’t paying too much attention to it until Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door came on and I realized what it was. Who plays that during a photoshoot where you’re supposed to be all happy and smiling?
Thurman Munson August 2, 1979, Captain of the NY Yankees, died tragically in a plane crash. my favorite player.
John Lennon December 8, 1980, gunned down by a crazy man. I was stunned and depressed for the following week. My brother was part of the Strawberry Fields candle vigil in Central Park.
Robert Heinlein May 8, 1988, the Dean of Science Fiction. I wore a black arm band for the following week.
Jim Henson May 16, 1990, he was gone so quick. He was sick and he was gone. He was awesome. I’m not sure why Henson hit so hard, but I was 3 when Sesame Street went on so I really grew up with Henson & Kermit.
Leonard Nimoy February 27, 2015, the only recent one. I guess Mr. Spock was my childhood idol and I’ve always loved his work. As you can see Nimoy was the only recent one.
I don’t think I have the same attachment to any celebrity now that I did to these 5.
Dead celebrities:
- Alan Rickman - I was stunned by this one. He wasn’t even that old, and I had no idea he was sick.
- Gene Wilder - Willy Wonka was my six-year-old self’s first love, and I’ve had a soft spot for him ever since.
- Leonard Nimoy - I’ve been a Star Trek fan since the Seventies, and Spock was always my favorite.
- Steve Jobs - I’m not even sure why he affected me as much as he did, but yeah. I know he was a dick, but I still admired what he did with Apple. I was actually angry when he died, because he had the rare curable form of pancreatic cancer, and if he’d gotten treatment instead of going for the woowoo hippie solution, he’d still be around.
- Robin Williams - Another one that came completely out of the blue for me.
Living celebrities:
- David Tennant - I would be gutted. I’ve loved his work since I first discovered him.
- Alan Parsons - I’ve met him several times. He is a lovely, talented man and a true gentleman.
- Robert Downey Jr. - I love his work and he seems to be a genuinely good guy.
- Any of the members of **Rush **- Again, been a fan since I was in high school.
- Stephen King - one of my favorite authors.
- Alice Cooper - I don’t think he’ll ever die, but I’ll cry when he does.
Jim Henson and Kurt Cobain. Both had enormous influence on my life, in different ways, and they both would have gone on to do a lot more great things.
I was reading the latest Henson biography and I couldn’t even finish it, when it got towards when I knew he would die. I couldn’t deal.
Living celebs? Hmm…**Eddie Vedder **maybe. Tom Hamilton, the radio voice of the Cleveland Indians. I’ve listened to him every day, every summer, since 1990 (oddly enough, since Jim Henson died).
Tom Hamilton would probably affect me the most, as we’ve “spent the most time together” (even though I’ve spent a lot of time with the Muppets) and I’ve met him a couple times.
Two lower key celebrities that were a part of my childhood. Their deaths didn’t stop me in my tracks, but I did tear up, and miss the good times I had with them.
Frank Wiziarde, aka Whizzo the Clown. If you lived in NE Kansas, or in KCMO, in the 60’s and 70’s you know the guy. I was even a kid on the show once.
Bob Keeshan. If you didn’t live in a time to know his show, I’m sorry for you. Dancing Bear, Mr. Moose, Bunny Rabbit, Bebe the English sheepdog, I miss you all.
My lists are too long to edit down. I just realized, all of my musical heroes are now in their 70s. Some of them (like 50% of the Beatles and 75% of Led Zeppelin) still sound great, but man, their days are numbered.
Same with literature (Hmm, wonder what Stephen Fry’s last checkup was like?)…
I’m going to need to learn to deal with grief in the net few years.
The one that hit me the hardest was John Ritter. Way too young, too talented, and he seemed like such a good, genuinely nice guy.
The one that will affect me the most is probably Billy Joel. I’ve been a huge fan of his all my life, and much like Counting Crows and Ben Folds, his music has been the soundtrack of my life, and his songs have got me through a lot when life decides to give me a kick in the dick.
Adam West and David Bowie both caught me by surprise; I had just never thought of them as being in “about to die” territory. The bigger surprise to me was how much more emotionally vested in Bowie I was than in Adam West.
I guess my Holy Trinity of role models (their public personas, not their actual ones) was Hugh Hefner, Stan Lee and William Shatner. Were I a gambling man, I would not have picked Shatner to be the last man standing.
Ah, I see.
In my defense, it sure didn’t read like that:
Anyhoo, anyone who is a fan of Prine and Zevon is all right in my book.
mmm
In recent years, Allen Toussaint and Dr. John. Huge blows to the New Orleans music scene.
I, personally, hit him right square in the head with a ping pong ball.
When Tom Petty died, not that long after Prince and David Bowie, my daughter asked me why all the people I listen to keep dying. I (in my mid-30’s) had to explain to her that it’s because I listen to classic rock because that’s what my dad always had on in the car. The musicians my dad listened to are 30+ years older than me and starting to die off. I tried to explain that if, when she gets older, she listens to the music I play in the car from my high school era (ie Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails etc), the same thing will happen to her when she’s about my age and they’re all in their 70’s.
- John Lennon, in a landslide. Still remember my dad trying to break it to me when waking me up for school.
Honorable Mentions: Thurman Munson, Jerry Garcia (not that it was in any way surprising, but it still sucked), Terry Prachett (even though it was in slow motion), Frank Zappa.
- Margo Timmins, of Cowboy Junkies.
Honorable Mentions: Beck, Warren Haynes, Robyn Hitchcock, Paul McCartney.
- Definitely Margo. Never knew Lennon, and I was just a kid.
I forgot to mention Mister Rogers in my list of those who’ve passed on.
Bobby Kennedy. I was fifteen. My dad was one of his delegates to the convention.
John Lennon, although I had lost interest in his music long before.
Molly Ivins. Damn I still miss Molly Ivins.
Alan Rickman was a sad day.
I can’t think of anyone I feel comparably about who is alive at the moment.
- Stevie Ray Vaughan devastated me. I honestly cried. He was a wonderful musician that spoke to me and his death was so unexpected. Especially since he was sober.
- Keith Richards will destroy me. I love that guy and I’ve never known a world without the Rolling Stones and let’s face it, he IS the Rolling Stones.
- As bad as I felt about SRV…Keith will hit me WAY harder.
At the risk of repeating some:
- Robin Williams, Alan Rickman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, David Bowie, Anthony Bourdain, Leonard Cohen, Christopher Hitchens, Tim Russert, Joan Rivers.
- I don’t want to float negative vibes into the universe.
- Anthony Bourdain’s death was the toughest to come to terms with.
No longer with us
[ul]
[li]Princess Diana[/li][li]Robin Williams[/li][li]Kurt Cobain[/li][li]Prince[/li][li]Ken Stabler[/li][li]Moses Malone[/li][li]Ric Ocasek[/li][/ul]
Still kickin’
[ul]
[li]Bruce Springsteen[/li][li]Paul McCartney[/li][/ul]