The deaths of Douglas Adams and John Peel both brought a lump to my throat, but I still can’t remember what I was doing when I learned about them. Probably having breakfast and listening to the news on the radio.
I did cry when Mitch Benn did his “Minute’s Noise for John” tribute to John Peel on The Now Show that week. Hairy singing bastard.
I doubt anyone outside the NY area ever heard of Scott Muni but his recent death actually hit me hard. He was the long standing DJ on WNEW FM in NYC and one of the people that defined “FM radio”.
John Lennon actually used to drop in on him on-air in the 70’s.
During a Rolling Stones press conference in the late 80’s Mick actually called out to the media horde a Hi, Scott.
He was the voice of rock for the 60’s through the 90’s in the NYC area.
His annual concerts at the beach at Asbury Park were legendary.
He started before I was born and so was always there, it felt almost like losing a relative.
Jim
The earliest celebrity death I can specifically remember is Harry Truman’s in 1972.
John Lennon (It cannot be 25 years). I believe we were watching Monday Night Football & Howard Cosell made the announcement. My former (then boyfriend) husband made me call NCB studios long distance to confirm.
Elvis - I was babysitting & heard it on the nightly news.
Princess Diana - watching TV when they broke in with news report. I remember thinking - “must be a slow news day - the Princess got a hangnail in a fender-bender”. Yikes - I felt really bad a few hours later.
VCNJ~
I’ve experienced quite a few shocks similar to what’s been mentioned already, but the one that really struck me was Mark Sandman of the band Morphine. My friends and I were huge fans of the band, and his death was sudden and shocking.
What was strangest to me was that it took me a long time to get over it. I couldn’t believe I was so upset over a musician I didn’t know personally and who wasn’t universally acknowledged (like, say Elvis or Johnny Cash), but the sad feelings really lingered with me for a long time. I felt like I had lost a friend.
They were great in concert, too.
I stayed up half the night after Diana’s car crash. Which is rather strange, since I never really liked her much before then.
I don’t remember hearing it, but I recall telling my neighbors that Elvis died. They were quite shocked. I was 10 years old or less.
Phil Hartman - I was at work and loaded cnn.com, as I frequently do when not overly busy.
Sammy Davis Jr & Jim Henson - Saw it the morning paper. Davis of course was no surprise, but Henson was shock.
Princess Diana - I was in a bar when I saw the news report on TV that she was in a car accident. Not sure when I heard she was dead.
Many old time movie stars - When Eve made a thread about them…
All this, and no John Bonham? Tisk, tisk. I had just gotten tickets to a Detroit Zeppelin show when I heard he died. I guess at the time I was more upset that I wouldn’t get to see Led Zeppelin than anything else.
Princess Diana - we were getting ready to go to England in just a couple of days. My first thought was to be sad–my second thought was worrying about whether it was going to mess up our trip. We ended up standing on the street watching her funeral procession go by with about 2 million Britons.
Elvis - I was a big Elvis fan in my early teens, so I was pretty upset when he died.
Kurt Cobain - more shocked than saddened.
John Lennon - same. I was about 16 at the time, and had just come home from my library job when I heard.
Douglas Adams - that one really depressed me. He was too young, and I love his books.
Jim Henson - same (except replace books with Muppets)
Johnny Carson - I grew up watching his show, even as a young kid.
James Doohan - I met him (nice guy), so his death was a sad one for me.
DeForest Kelley - another Star Trek icon down.
I’m sure there are many more–I tend to notice when celebrities die, for some reason, even if I’m not fans. But those are some of the big ones.
Ahh…I suspect I have an evil twin out there or something.
Mine are identical on these, the only difference being that I remember Princess Di so well because I was trying to covince a couple girls at the bar who came in late that, yes, Di was dead.
Strangely, it still didn’t help me score.
-Joe
Forgot Cobain - my sister called me and said “Did you hear about Kurt Cobain?” I said something like “Yeah, he was in a coma, but that was like 2 months ago, right?” and then of course she broke the news. I was quite surprised, since I didn’t yet know the coma thing was an unsuccessful suicide attempt.
Gene Roddenberry. My best friend and I, longtime Trekkers, called each other.
As for Di, never had much use for her and her death was the day after my grandmother’s. The contrast was so stark I ignored all the coverage.
Elvis was the first celebrity death I remember hearing about.
The first one that shocked me, was John Paul I.
John Lennon was just sad, so pointless.
Then Challenger, I can remember exactly where I was when I heard about that, and who told me. And my gut feeling that I knew what caused it, too: launching outside design temperature envelopes.
I remember Robert Heinlein, because he died on my 20th birthday.
How did we get this far in and not mention Stanley Kubrick?? I remember waiting patiently for eyes wide shut, only for my dad to stroll in one sunday and ask “Do you know a film director called Cue-ball? Cue-bricks? Something like that?” I knew immiediatley that he was dead; there’s no other reason my dad would know his name.
Also, eerily, Princess Diana. I slept late that Sundaty morning, till noon or so. I walked groggily up the hall, and my mum asked me “Do you know who died last night?” “Princess Diana?” i asked. Stunned silence all round. It wasnt a guess, I just… knew. Maybe the tv was on loud while i was asleep, or something.
For my generation, the Challenger is what JFK was to my parents – my whole life, I’ll remember sleeping in because a broken water pipe closed school, flipping on the TV and watching them replay that shot of the explosion over and over again. Of course, I’ll always remember Columbia, too.
As for individual celebrities, well, there’s Princess Di. It was my brithday, and after we got home from my girlfriend (now wife) taking me out to dinner, I flipped on the TV to see the coverage.
Phil Hartman I remember – I was in Florence, Italy, having just dropped my wife, father, and sister at their hotel. I was walking along the Arno back to my own hotel on the other side of the old city when I saw the headline on a newspaper in a newsstand window.
–Cliffy
Challenger was horrendous. We were at sea, about 200 miles out of San Diego when the news was given. I was on the USS Ranger. It is the only time in my adult life that I punched someone. One of my fellow electricians cracked a joke about 7-up and without thinking I decked him. I was really upset by the shuttle going down; only 9/11 exceeded that for me.
I agree with both you and Cliffy. When I heard the news, I so wanted it to be an attempt at sick humor. I even accused the person who told me about it that he was joking. Alas, no.
What made it worse is that I think some of the teachers at my school knew Christa McAuliffe. Not well, but having met her at regional conferences.
Oh yes. I still have a hard time knowing that Johnny Cash isn’t in the world anymore.
I was in band class when we got the news about the plane crash in Clear Lake that took Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, The Big Bopper (and the pilot). That’s the first celebrity death I remember. Before that, it seemed like celebrities got old before they died, so it was natural and expected. But I’ll bet my mom was shocked when Carole Lombard’s plane crashed.
Princess Di. I woke up early because my house was very noisy for the morning - my gran had come round to talk about it, and people were pretty flustered. I don’t think I made that much of it at the time ( I was only 11) but for some reason, I can still remember that morning to this day very clearly. I guess everyone else’s emotions were running off me.
God, how did I forget John Peel? Now there was someone I missed. I was walking into university listening to the radio and feeling confused they were playing Teenage Kicks…then they announced it. There was definetly a lot of tension in that lecture.