Celebrity deaths you clearly remember

Cafe Society
81

Having been born in 1967, I’ve vague memories of seeing or hearing coverage of the deaths, all in 1977, of Crosby, Elvis and Chaplin. Though in the last case, I may be slightly misremembering the coverage of the theft of the body a few months later.

Lennon is my first completely clear memory of a celebrity death, though for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with any immediate personal significance. Quite the opposite. The story broke overnight here in the UK and so I was woken for school by my Dad announcing that he’d been killed. This was unusual and memorable, but my immediate, and quite genuine reaction as a 13 year old, was “Who?”.

Princess Diana was different, even thought I don’t claim that her death had any significance whatsoever. In the UK, the aftermath of the crash played out in the early hours of a Sunday morning and so most people didn’t hear until waking up. But I’d been out clubbing with friends and we’d then all retreated to someone’s flat to drink and chat. At that point we heard about the crash and then had the TV on in the background with the coverage from Paris. I bailed for home at about 3am, with the host drunkenly explaining to me as I left that a mutual friend was secretly madly in love with me. Walking the ten minutes home through a light drizzle, I tried to absorb this revelation. On getting in, I switched on the telly for a last check on what was going on. They’d switched from “severly injured” to “possibly dead” and I settled down for the long haul of the emergency rolling news coverage that was to dominate most of the next few days. I was thus one of the few people in the country who actually saw the BBC do the full royal death announcement protocol sometime towards 0330.
All in all, a weird night.

82

I remember Princess Diana dying. I still wonder what the big fuss was about. Yeah, it’s sad, but not enough to warrent the incredible amount of media coverage it got.

I was reminded of the line from EVITA:

“As soon as the smoke from the funeral clears,
We’re all gonna see, and how, she did nothing for years!”

83

Rocker Bobby Fuller…Suicide? He was Murdered!

84

The first one I remember was Walt Disney (I was about 5). RFK not long afterwards made a big impression, mostly because my name is really similar to his. Lennon, when I was in college, was the biggest punch in the gut. And the first hero of mine whose death I learned about online–Michael O’Donoghue.

85

Charles Schulz. It was late at night, and I was checking CNN.com before going to bed. Saw headline that Tom Landry had died. Went into the bedroom to tell Mr. Rilch. “That’s a shame…Don’t wake me up again, please.”

Went back to the computer, backpaged to CNN, thought, “No, I didn’t really see that; my brain must have crossed the headline about Landry dying with the headline about the last Peanuts strip.” Looked again. :eek: “Sweetie?..I know I said I wouldn’t wake you up again, but Schulz died.” Then I called a friend who is also a huge Peanuts fan. “Did you hear?” "Yes, I heard.

That, I think, was one of the only two times I’ve had protracted grief for a celebrity. The other, of course, was Warren Zevon. Oddly, I don’t remember exactly where I was when I heard he’d died, but I remember how I found out he had cancer. My mom sent me an email, and it was like the floor fell out from under me. Mr. Rilch was rather ticked at her, because he’d wanted to be the one to break it to me.

Because he hadn’t broken it very gently when River Phoenix died! We hadn’t been going out for very long, so he didn’t know Phoenix was one of my favorite actors. I was at his parents’ house, and came out of the powder room to hear him say, over his shoulder, “Hey, Rilch, River Phoenix died!”

“WHAT?! What did he die of?! Wh—You’re kidding, right?..Oh my goddddddd…” We went out that night, as planned (it was Halloween) and then I went home and watched Dogfight.

I called Mr. Rilch on his cell to tell him about DeForest Kelley, because he was on set, and I didn’t want him to find out from another crew member who might have made a smartass remark.

I found out about Douglas Adams from this board. It was an overcast, drizzly day, and I remember thinking, how appropriate.

We were on vacation when Walter Payton died. Turned on a hotel TV to see a humungous funeral, and heard his name mentioned. “Oh, he’s a minister now; he must be officiating…OMG, it’s his funeral! :eek:”

Many of these involve phone calls. John Candy: “Mom? I just heard something on the news that I simply cannot believe—” “Believe it; he’s dead.” Roger Zelazny: “Who’s that sci-fi author you like so much – Zelany, no, Zelazny?” “He died.” “How’d you know?” “I didn’t. Just figured, why else would you be asking?” Kurt Cobain: “Hey, Rilch, sit down before you listen to this (message): Kurt Cobain offed himself.” Also, I thought my mom was a bit tacky when she called my sister after John Lennon died and, during the course of the conversation, asked, “So how much do you think your Beatles albums are worth now?”

Aaliyah was an odd one, not because I particularly cared about her, but because Mr. Rilch and Boss have a friend who worked on the video she was returning from the shoot of. “C” is an expert schmooser, and they thought there was a strong possibility he could have charmed his way onto her plane. Called his cell once an hour until he finally answered, saying he was in Miami, and “What’s up, man – somebody die?”

Heard about Robert Preston from the morning news before I left for school. My mom and I turned to each other and said, spontaneously and in unison, “Awwwwwwwwww…”

86

I don’t think anyone mentiond Roy Orbison…

You will never hear another voice like that… ever. He’s my childhood hero (I was nine when he died).

87

Jon-Erik Hexum. I was just a teenager (and he was “soooooo fine!”)–I remember how deeply it affected me even now. I thought it was so sad that he was just kidding around and suddenly his life was over. I kept wondering how much he was aware of–was there a moment when he thought, “What the hell?” Was there any pain? Did he even for a split-second realize what he had done? I was sad about it for a long time.

Princess Diana. I sat up for hours watching the news that night to find out what happened. When the announcement came that she was dead, I went numb. Then they started showing film footage of her through the years–it was a shot of her and her sons joyously embracing upon her return from some trip that brought the tears.

The Columbia Astronauts. My oldest daughter had had to spend a night in the hospital (nothing serious, thankfully), and the next morning I saw the reports filtering in–how they’d lost contact with the shuttle, and finally, how they were finding evidence that the shuttle had gone down with no survivors. Made me and my daughter very sad.

88

I was driving home when I heard on the radio that Freddy Mercury died. Queen has always been one of my very favorite bands so I was pretty upset.

Another favorite band was INXS - I don’t remember what exactly I was doing when I heard Michael Hutchence had died, but I will always remember that we had tickets to see them three weeks before he passed away and the show was cancelled. :frowning:

89

Almost forgot to add, the Challenger explosion. I was sitting in 6th grade homeroom and we were watching the launch on TV when it happened.

90

I don’t remember exactly what I was doing during the celebrity deaths so far mentioned, except for one. John Belushi.

I was on my back to college, a 300 mile drive, and I picked up a hitchhiker. He was wanting to go to Delaware, but I could only get him as far up as Raleigh. In appreciation for me picking him up, he kept getting me to pull over so he could buy us beer. At one stop, we heard the news.

We drove on, drinking beer, and reminiscing about Belushi. I don’t remember the guy’s name, just that he was a construction worker, but for a few hours two complete strangers poured their hearts out to each other about the utter coolness of John Belushi.

91

I don’t think any other celebrity death had the enormous impact of Marilyn Monroe’s, especially since we were told it had been a suicide. Everyone had that horrible *oh-my-god-NO! *feeling. She was just so full of life, and many would say at the peak of her career. Plus the public knew nothing about all the personal problems she had.

And of course the following year was JFK’s assassination. As horrible as that was, I think people took Marilyn’s death more personally.