I do now. I didn’t when I watched it.
Well, fuck. I didn’t know.
Oddly, despite the fact that Carlin was one of the people I admired most on this planet, I wasn’t particularly saddened when he died. Not that I was happy that he was dead, but he seemed to have such a realistic attitude toward death – apparent a great deal in his last performances – it just came as, I don’t know how to say it without sounding schmaltzy or obvious, but it was just such a natural thing that I took it in stride. Much as I presume he would have wanted us to.
Tim Russert was the biggest shock. He was alive and working and then he was dead.
Normally I’ll think, “We’ll that’s sad,” or “Well, at least he/she lived a long life” and then go about my business, since it’s not as if I knew the celebrities personally or anything. However, I did get choked up when Jeff Healey died early last year from cancer. He was one of my favorite performers to see live. Not only was he a talented guitar player, but he had a great sense of humor, was close to his family and really seemed to have it together.
The great jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard. He hadn’t been at his peak for some years–the trumpet is hard on the lips–but he sure could play back in the day. Non jazz listeners may remember his great solo on Billy Joel’s Zanzibar, from 1978’s 52nd Street.
This was the one that really shook me up. I knew he had a lung disorder but it didn’t seem like it was severe enough to cause him to die so young.
I think the losses of Sydney Pollack and Michael Crichton assuredly robbed us of work that will forever remain undone, along with Heath Ledger and Tim Russert, who couldn’t have gone at worse times for either. Not that there’s a good time to die, but they were both poised to have the year of their careers. It’s just such a pitiful waste, especially Ledger.
I also would have absolutely loved to hear George Carlin’s take on Sarah Palin. He would’ve succeeded where many others failed, satirically destroying her without being misogynistic in the bargain.
Brad Renfro was, to me, tragic, though hardly surprising. I’d been keeping tabs on him ever since he held his own against Susan Sarandon and Tommy lee Jones in The Client (and, you know, was super duper cute). Then he sort of… drifted. I know from friends of friends that he loathed press junkets and any sort of heart throb status, which is admirable but not exactly conducive to a mainstream acting career. But then neither’s a heroin addiction.
Actually, TCM did a great video: TCM Remembers 2008 (You Tube link). It doesn’t include some of the non-film related people, but it’s extremely well done.
Don S. Davis (General Hammond of Stargate fame)
It’s not the big stars, but the little ones whose deaths make an impression on me. A few days ago I was watching “CQ” when I noticed John Phillip Law in it. “Alexei” from “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming!”
Did a board search on “Pygar” (from “Barbarella”) and found that his death had been noted.
I still can’t believe he was an LA kid. Always seemed so foreign.
ETA: I see he made the TCM clip.
I agree. Although for me, Heath Ledger was just as shocking.
You don’t know his name. You don’t forget his face or voice.
RIP Louie Guss.
Jo Stafford was a huge loss. Funny how she was the biggest selling female singer of the first half of the 1900s (1900-1950) yet few people remember her today.
And her voice, there wasn’t any kind of music she couldn’t sing. Jazz, Blues, Pop, Rock and even Comedy she did them all excellent, not well but EXCELLENT.