A billion people already got to it, but Douglas Adams. That really got to me. Also, he was younger than my dad. That really scared me (and still does.)
And probably no one has heard of her, so I’m not sure she’s a celebrity, but Kate Ross, writer of a few excellent historical mysteries, died too young (I believe from cancer.) I’d just read the books and had been identifying a lot with the protaganist when I found out, and knowing that the life that wrote the character was gone forever was very shocking and sad. They were really good books and she only got up to four.
I was too young to really be aware of when Cobain died (that dates me, huh?) but it makes me sad now that I’m older that he died so young. I really wish I could have seen Nirvana live.
Most of the people named didn’t affect me in any way.
DeForest Kelly bummed me out, because that means that The Undiscovered Country really is the last original crew Star Trek movie.
Musicians: Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jam Master Jay. Both of them still had a lot of music left to make, and they both were at or near the top of their genres.
**John Lennon ** I really didn’t know who he was when he was murdered, but at 13, not too long after my own father had died, for some reason his death just sucker punched me. (And Lennon has always reminded me of one of my brothers.)
**Raul Julia ** So Great an Actor. Too Young To Die.
**Chris Farley ** So damn funny.
**Belushi ** So damn funny.
**Mel Blanc ** that silent tribute to Mel after he passed of all the characters that he gave voices too standing there, heads down cast, before an empty microphone, it tears me up every time.
**Phil Hartman ** Just a genius and apparently very professional.
Well, mine have already been named.
I felt sucker punched when Linda McCartney died. I don’t know why her death got to me like that, but I think it was because I knew how much she and Paul loved each other.
George Harrison–I lived in denial for about 2 months. Couldn’t listen to his music, couldn’t talk about it. Now I can, but it’s still hard. I mean, as silly as it sounds, I thought the world was just a better place because, hey, someone like George Harrison existed.
Phil Hartman–Too sad for words.
I wasn’t devastated, but watching Pedro Zamora die on the Real World was very sad. I know he wasn’t a major celebrity, but I thought he was the coolest guy when I was younger. For him to be dead at 22 (I think) just seemed so unfair.
I agree with Gonzoron about most of the people listed above: they had good runs. Their passing is noteable, but not utterly tragic.
Linus Pauling’s death was very memorable to me, but he was 90+. It was something you prepare for.
Phil Hartman, John Candy, Jim Henson and Princess Di were the ones listed above that really stuck with me.
As a TV loving child of the 80’s, add Brandon Tartikoff to the list.
One that was particularly difficult for me was the baseball player Daryl Kile. I was a moderate fan of his, but he died the day my son was born, so there was some kind of weird circle of life thing in my head.
I remember Ricky Nelson’s death vividly. I was just getting into Ozzy and Harriet on the Disney Channel when he died. Years later, I became close friends with a fellow who’s grandparents owned and lived on the property on which Nelson’s plane crashed.
For some reason I could never get too worked up over Farley or Cobain’s death. They both threw away their lives when they both had SO much to live for. It is sad, and it hurts in a way, but it also makes me angry.
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I was thinking about the death of Jimmy Stewart the other day and I remember how when he died it was one of those “Groucho Marx in the world” moments as discussed above. People just couldn’t believe that one of the most beloved people of all time was gone. I was a punk teenager, and even I knew it was significant.
Who, currently alive, will you be stunned when they die, even if it is at an old age?
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Richard Jordan. (Francis from “Logan’s Run” and a million other bad guys.) I didn’t follow his career all that faithfully, but I always enjoyed seeing him in movies and TV. He didn’t always play bad guys, either. I started noticing his absence, and wondered what had become of him. Turned out he’d died of brain cancer when he was starting to film “The Fugitive” (playing, of course, the bad guy). Another actor had to step in and replace him.
I didn’t really think much of him until recently, when I saw “Gettysburg” (1993 TNT movie) and I found out it was his last role. He was really excellent. He played Brigadier General Lewis A. Armistead and his character was so noble and food and damn—what a good last role. He died, I believe, before the show aired. It really bummed me out to see him doing such an excellent job and knowing that he must have known while shooting that movie he wasn’t going to make it much longer.
I was shocked when John F. Kennedy Jr. died. It was over a weekend, and I was hoping for a miracle. But after a couple of days when luggage started washing ashore, you know you’re out of luck. He seemed like such a sweet guy, who made fun of his image and didn’t take himself too seriously. With the possible exception of Maria Shriver, the rest of the Kennedy clan don’t impress me too much.
Charles Schulz - I mean, I WAS Charlie Brown growing up. Who isn’t at least to some degree? Schulz gave us characters that had the fears and anxieties of children, but the wisdom of adults. I grew up reading Peanuts and watching the Charlie Brown specials on t.v. They helped me grow up. Schulz wasn’t always the funniest comic strip writer, but he was one of the most insightful. I still can’t watch A Charlie Brown Christmas without tearing up.
J.T. Walsh really got to me for some reason. I was a big fan of his work since House of Games, and it came out of nowhere. Plus, I happened to be at a point where I was really thinking about death when it happened.
But nothing will hurt as much as Jerry. I had just seen him in Vegas that year after not having seen them in a few years. Hopefully he’s a headlight on a northbound train.
Stevie Ray Vaughan:
Such a tragic loss of life that had nothing to do with drugs or alcohol. He had just MADE it through all that nonsense and then BAM…he’s gone. He had just completed his long awaited album with his brother. I’m sure it was a lifelong dream and then he was snuffed right before it was released. I cried and cried. It’s still hard to take.
Princess Diana:
Terrible tragedy and with two young sons to boot. That was just awful. I could care less what the papers are publishing now…she was a class act. I had a hard time watching the funeral procession.
John Belushi:
He was so special and yet he threw it all away. You knew it was coming but it was so unreal when it happened.
Graham Chapman:
The heart of Monty Python. I was stunned when I heard he had died back in 89’. I always loved his characters just a bit more than the others. He was so surreal and yet he carried them with such conviction. He is missed.
The truth is that for almost all of those listed so far, I’m just grateful that they lived as long as they did. The would would be a much sadder, duller, and less enlightened place without their contributions.
I remember that and can accept that they’re gone.
Only once has that thought not comforted me… when Miss Heather O’Rourke passed.
Freddie Prinze. We heard the news at work, and several of us were right around his age. It hit everyone hard. He was quite popular and respected. To hear about a possible suicide was too much. It was a downer day.
Karen Carpenter. Sad, sad, sad. So misunderstood. Fortunately, she has received the credit due her over the past several years. It bugs me when people say she starved herself to death. For the record, she suffered from a disorder, and died of a heart attack.
Cass Elliot. Very similar to Carpenter. What a voice, and what a beautiful person. And no, she did not choke to death on a ham sandwich.
Devine. I saw him around San Francisco many times, not dressed as “Devine”, and he was so unassuming. And his death happened the day before he was going to tape an episode as Peg’s mother on “Married With Children.” Talk about inspired casting.
John Lennon. Just put the head phones on, and played all his music for hours.
And an extra sad sigh for Gilda Radner and George Harrison.
I was in the 8th grade when Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. died. That was a very terrible and sad time.
And Rock Hudson. During the summer of 1985 several friends of mine died of AIDS. In those days they couldn’t keep people alive for very long, and they were still trying to figure out how it was caused and spread. When he died, it just sort of sunk in. Life was never going to be the same for me.
I was in high school when Otis Redding was killed. It broke me up so much I skipped school to go down to Macon and attend the funeral.
Duane Allman’s death four years later got to me as well, and ironically that funeral was also in Macon. But I couldn’t get away to go to that one.
And of course, John Lennon was a blow, but George Harrison’s death really hit home because he got sick and died, whereas the others were killed. Made me think long and hard about mortality.
