Another Jim Henson. Anytime I hear “The Rainbow Connection”, I tear up.
Kurt Cobain’s death was a profound experience for me. I had just weaseled my way into taking an extended vacation that summer to follow Nirvana on tour.
Dennis Danell from Social Distortion. SD was the first band I ever saw live, and the circumstances of his death were just so sad. (A brain aneurysm popped while he was moving into a new house with his wife and two kids, aged 3 years and 6 months.)
I’m like gonzoron–when Jim Henson died, so did Kermit, to me. And many others. It was awful. His death still tears me up.
Phil Hartman I am still upset about. Whenever I hear his voice on an old Simpsons I get mad all over again. So freaking senseless–his own coked-up wife.
Bart Giamatti might not be a celebrity to many, but he was a great guy and really interesting. His speeches and his writing made me excited about being in higher education. I was pretty stunned when I heard he died.
If my husband were on here, he’d say John Lennon, and also John Bonham. Zeppelin was over once he kicked.
Paul Wellstone. Why did one of the few true progressives in the US Congress have to go so early?
And Stephen Jay Gould.
Eve: When did Richard Amsel die? I always loved his work, and noticed its absence. I guess I knew he died, but when? How?
I also miss the artwork of illustrator Bob Peak. Man, he and Amsel were my favorites.
As far as deaths go, I was quite young, but the death of Pete Duel (“Alias Smith and Jones”) was a big shock. I remember my older sisters looking in the LA Times and seeing the announcement, and we all couldn’t believe it. He comitted suicide. And screwed up a really good western TV show.
Jon-Erik Hexum. I wasn’t all that much of a fan of his when he was alive, but dammit, it was so DUMB how he died, and he was so young. (Still in his 20s.) He was on the set of a show and was goofing around with the guns. Thinking that since they had blanks they were “play” guns, he put one to his head and shot it, thinking that no harm would come to him. The blast from the blank was enough to eventually kill him (after a few agonizing days in the hospital). One of my friends worked on a show of his (“Voyagers!”) and I suppose I felt a connection to him because she talked about working with him. She said he was “Sweet, but dumb” and I guess that about sums it up.
River Phoenix. It just irritated me no end that this extremely accompished young man who had a penchant for unusual and “arty” film projects would blow his life in such a senseless way as a damned drug overdose. The idiot. He was so damned good, too. Ever see “Dogfight”? Good movie.
Judy Holliday and Carole Lombard. Both way before my time, but they died too young, and had so much promise. It’s not fair. Same goes for Marilyn Monroe and James Dean.
Brandon Lee, Bruce Lee’s son. Another idiotic accident (not his fault) with a gun on a movie set. Like Mrs. Lee (Bruce’s widow, Brandon’s mom) didn’t have enough tragedy in her life, she loses both her son and her husband at such young and tragic ages. Not that I was ever big fans of Brandon or Bruce, but dammit, it’s just not right.
Ditto on Douglass Adams and Phil Hartman.
George Harrison. It’s been a year and I still get misty-eyed whenever I think of it (partly, I’ll admit, because of other personal stuff that happened to be going on at the time).
Oh, speaking of Jim Henson…
Mel Blanc.
Both Joey and Dee Dee Ramone cacking within the space of 14 months was quite a blow to this aging punk. A Ramones reunion begins to look unlikely…
Check out the official Thursday Night Movie Club Celebrity Death Page at http://tnmc.homestead.com/toast.html
Richard Amsel died (of AIDS) in 1985, age 38. I’d been collecting his magazine covers since the early Seventies, and went to the Christie’s auction of his original work after he died . . .
John Lennon still hurts…
Janis Joplin was a big shock - I had a chance to see her in concert a month before she died. I decided to go to some stupid party instead and said, “I’ll see here the next time she tours here.”
Lucille Ball…yes, she was old and her recent show had tanked, but it was sort of a passing of an age of television innocence, not only a comedic icon.
and finally…don’t laugh…
Judy Garland.
Not that I was old enough to really care all that much back then, but her death indirectly started the Stonewall Riots, which started Gay Pride which has made the world a lot better place for a lot of people because of it. Plus she was such a huge talent. I still put down the remote whenever I’m channel surfing and run across one of her old musicals on tv.
Joey Ramone
Dr. Suess
Chris Farley. Dagger/Heart. You kind of knew it was in the cards when it happened but I still hate it to this day. I loved the guy’s silly brand of physical humor. Here’s to you, Chris!
Joey Ramone
Frank Zappa
John Lennon
Hearing about Douglas Adams bummed me out for about a week. I went back and reread all five books in the Hitchhiker Trilogy.
Also, Stephen Jay Gould’s death got to me.
Two of my heroes.
Yes, that was the big one for me also. I was upset for days. What a loss the music world suffered the day he died.
He truly had the voice of an angel.
You are very lucky to have met him, lissener. 
Gilda Radner and Jim Henson’s deaths death hit me hard as well.
JFK
Karen Carpenter
Alec Guinness
Princess Di
Richard Harris
Princess Diana I don’t know why…maybe because we were about the same age and both had kids. Just when she was finally putting her life together. Her death put me in a funk for days.
Elvis Presley - I was ~9 and I felt so angry at his death…on the toilet, when he was at his worst. What a waste of a human being. I half wished he would have died before he became a caricature of himself.
Andy Gibb - He was Puff the Magic Dragon and I was Jackie Paper. I adored him, lived for him, kissed his (poster) lips every night…and 2 years later I grew up and never thought of him again. Until he died. Reading about the last few years of his life made me feel guilty for being part of the machine that takes these young men and women, chews them up, and then spits them out like yesterday’s trash. So sad.
Kurt Cobain
Douglas Adams
George Harrison
All mentioned before, but there you go.
Mel Blanc was the first celebrity death that struck me. To me it seemed that Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, et. al., went with him. Nobody today can replicate the voices that Mel could do.
Chris Farley. The man was a comic idol to me. He was the main reason I watched SNL during his run on the show.
John Candy Another comic genius that made the world a funnier place when he was with us.
John Bonham was a crushing blow as I grew up listening to Zep.
Kurt Cobain’s death was such a waste and occurred at the pinnacle of his productivity.
I was a big fan of William Holden.
You knew John Wayne’s was coming or it would have been really tough.
Yeah, that’s antoher one. His death didn’t hit me when I heard about it, because I barely knew who Bruce was, much less Brandon. But after seeing The Crow, it upset me. Whether you like that movie or not, he owned it. Such charisma, such potential. And “reviving” him via special effects to finish the movie that he was so committed to was such a creepy reflection of the movie’s plot.
And dittos for John Candy and Phil Hartman too.
I think with me, it’s like lissener said, the lost potential really makes me upset. I mean, I loved the work of Alec Guiness, and DeForest Kelley, and Lucille Ball, and Gene Roddenberry, and George Burns… But they had rich, full lives, and left behind full bodies of work.
I’m sad for the people that died, but I’m sad for anyone that died. I’m more emotionally impacted by the great things they left undone. I haven’t yet been able to bring myself to read The Salmon of Doubt because no matter how good it is, I’ll be saddened that he didn’t get to finish it as he wanted to. (I felt the same way at the end of the Dune series, even though Herbert died before I even read the first book.)