Steve Irwin. His enthusiasm was genuine and infectious, and I, as a lifelong wildlife enthusiast, loved watching his shows. The death was so flukish, so cruel.
I watched the memorial on live TV, and man, the tears just poured. Poured. Granted, I was postpartum hormonal, but still. Seeing his wife’s agonized expression while holding their young son, and then listening to Bindi read her letter about how her dad was the best dad just stabbed at the heart…gah. Still pains me.
No other celebrities impacted me like that, but I will say that I was saddened hearing about the deaths of Brittney Murphy, Johnny Cash, Michael Jackson, and Whitney Houston.
Warren Zevon-One of the greatest and most underrated songwriters of all time (and the inspiration for my screen name.) Probably affected me more than any other celebrity death.
Joe Strummer
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Douglas Adams
Dan Wheldon. I’m a huge IndyCar fan, and when the accident happened in Vegas last year, I was glued to the TV for the three or so hours while everyone just…waited. When they showed Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan coming out of the conference center, and then cut to the press conference, I just knew it was The End for him.
So, so, so sad. Cried that day and cried the following week when they broadcast a memorial for him. Still makes me sad every time I think of it…
Probably the one that effected me the most, besides HST.
It’s hard to say. I tend not to get upset often, I’m a pretty laid back person. There have certainly been some people who have passed who left the world a bit darker for the loss of their light. There have been people whose passing was surrounded by tragedy, either self-inflicted or imposed on them. Promising young lives have been destroyed by war, famine, and revolution. All of these things upset me to a certain degree.
I think the ones that came closest to meeting the criteria from the OP were the ones I felt I needed to share the news when I heard it. It’s a pretty short list to cover a decade.
Sally Ride
Neil Armstrong
Bea Arthur
Bobby Fisher
Dan Fogelberg
The crew of Columbia
I read just last night that actress Deborah Raffin (Aunt Julie of my favorite drama 7th Heaven) lost her year long battle with Lukemia on November 21st which was the day before Thanksgiving.
God bless you and her family always!!!
Holly
P.S. I lost a wonderful cousin in my family to all sorts of cancer on that very same day last year, may she and Deborah both be with the Lord now.
I think the reason people get sad at the passing of a famous person (other than basic human empathy) is 1) we’ll never again be graced with whatever it is they have to offer (music, commentary, humor, acting, etc) or 2) they remind us of a special time in our lives, and their passing reminds us that those times are past.
Heath Ledger - he’d just had several roles that moved him from gorgeous boy with talent to young man with range.
Johnny Cash - a new audience reached. But I must say he survived longer than I thought he would after his wife’s death… June Carter Cash also makes the list.
Both shuttle accidents though only one fit’s the time range. I never watched launches or landings after the Challenger explosion, just too traumatic.
Tim Russert - I started paying more attention to politics because he explained things so well… now I’m lost again.
Natasha Richardson - so sudden. Makes you realize that a concussion is more than just a bump to the head.
Hector Comacho - Wrong place, wrong time. A big personality in or out of the ring.
David Carradine - One of several celebrity suicides in the last decade but likely the best known.
Paul Newman - It’s not like I expected him to make any more movies but I will miss those blue eyes.
Nina Simone - Had only discovered her voice shortly before she died.
Michael Clark Duncan - A great presence and awesome voice.
It’s the young or sudden deaths that catch me most of guard, I guess it does the same for anyone. They are more shock than anything then sadness. The older folks you expect to die, that’s they way things are suppose to work. But there is still sadness at their passing
Heath Ledger, Brittany Murphy, and Bea Arthur. The first two were talented and about my age. And Bea Arthur…I know I’m not the only thirty-something who watched The Golden Girls back in the 80s.
Funny, when I saw the title of this thread, he was the one who jumped into mind. Very surprised to see him in the OP… B5 is getting pretty obscure in the larger scheme. I have at least some resonance with most of the names in this thread - Carlin, Adams, Armstrong, Ride standing out - but if there are any deaths that really bothered me, it has been the Babylon 5 cast… because it meant any chance of further material diminished to the point where even JMS threw in the towel.
Richard Biggs, 2004
Andreas Katsulas, 2006 (also a favorite from Max Headroom)
Tim Choate (“Zathras”), 2004
Jeff Conaway, 2011
Michael O’Hare, 2012
and, not B5-related, but a Max Headroom regular and a terribly sad suicide…
Not John Lennon? I know it’s out of this thread’s scope, but John Lennon? I didn’t cry or anything, but there is not another celebrity death that even comes within a mile of how I felt about John Lennon’s demise. I’m pretty sure I went through the whole 5 stages of grief in a day or two. I was absolutely floored. I was numb.
