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.
Since 2002? Nobody (well, maybe Paul Newman and Steve Jobs).
Before 2002? Too many to mention.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
[
](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ffhNWxh41I)
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.
MCA. Futurama made me believe the Beastie Boys would live forever. While I certainly miss Johnny Cash, he had a full ass life. Adam Yauch was only 47 but still seemed like a kid.
Probably best known to the masses as the lead singer on The Letter (recorded, amazingly enough, when he was 16), but to hipsters, he was the voice of Big Star:
Thirteen - Big Star
In the Street - Big Star
Anyhow, he was living and playing in Athens, GA when I was a student there, so I felt some connection to the guy, and some sadness when he died.
I’m thinking pretty much the same thing…not many really affect me, but Patrice did. Partly because he was on the show so much I felt like I knew him a lot more than just a random actor or singer. The other (bigger) part is the day they came on and Jim Norton told the story about going to the hospital to see him for the last time, followed by all the big name comics that came on/called in to give their personal stories…made it feel so much more personal. I teared up quite a few times during those shows. (Also teared up at the end of Norton’s latest special that ended with a shot of Patrice’s hat)
With that being said, have to also mention Dimebag Darrel whose death was just utterly shocking.
Doug Hopkins from the Gin Blossoms. Suicided just as the band was breaking big, having been fired for alcoholism. Most of their best songs were written by him, and most of his best songs have substance abuse referenced in them.
Captain Beefheart. It wasn’t unexpected–he had been sick for years–but he was a real hero to me and it was a sad loss.
He died in 1993, Van Winkle. 
The weird thing about Leslie Nielsen’s death was that just a day or two before he passed away, TAC TV (a Canadian thing, I guess) aired a brief bio of him that looked like an obituary (it was actually just a 60-second filler item). My daughter turned and asked me “Is he dead, then?” I said “Not so far as I know.” That was probably on a Sunday, while we were watching “Perry Mason”; by Tuesday or Wednesday, Leslie was gone!
It felt so strange! Like, e.g., Neil Armstrong, James Doohan, Bob Denver, George Carlin, and (pre-2002) Steve Allen, DeForest Kelley, and Gene Roddenberry, it seemed he was someone who would be around forever.
I cried (a little) when Jerry Orbach died.
I was sad when Brittany Murphy died, too.
Well then, from 2002 on, I guess I’m good! (I can’t believe it has been that long…)
“and if you don’t expect too much from me, you might not be let down…”
Thanks, Spoke.
Bo Schembechler