# How surprising overall is 2016's celebrity deaths? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 27, 2016, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-surprising-overall-is-2016s-celebrity-deaths/775732 "2016-12-27T22:08:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-surprising-overall-is-2016s-celebrity-deaths/775732/21 "2016-12-29T01:28:01Z")
[Here’s your chance](http://time.com/money/4618862/protect-betty-white-2016-gofundme/?xid=site_SI) to help keep another revered celebrity off the 2016 list. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-surprising-overall-is-2016s-celebrity-deaths/775732/22 "2016-12-29T04:26:17Z")
from the wiki on Alan Rickman: > [@](#): > > His death has been compared to that of David Bowie, a fellow English cultural figure who passed away at the same age as Rickman four days earlier, also due to an existing cancer that had been kept private and both before the year was 2 weeks old, it set a tone, man. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-surprising-overall-is-2016s-celebrity-deaths/775732/23 "2016-12-29T04:57:13Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > Some deaths are not surprising (Zsa Zsa, Castro, Abe Vigoda), but some are a shock (Carrie Fisher, George Michael, Prince) > > Brian And some just make you sad because of the circumstance. Yeah, Debbie Reynolds was 84 so her death can’t really be much of a surprise but coming the day after her daughter’s sudden and unexpected death is very much a downer. And it adds to the sense that 2016 really has it out for famous people. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-surprising-overall-is-2016s-celebrity-deaths/775732/24 "2016-12-29T05:05:42Z")
I don’t think 2016 was especially bad for celebrity deaths. For comparison, consider 2009. I’m looking at the list and picking out names that I expect will resonate with late Baby Boomers and Gen-X types like myself: Ricardo Montalban Patrick McGoohan Bea Arthur Dom Deluise David Carradine Ed McMahon Farrah Fawcett Michael Jackson Karl Malden Walter Cronkite John Hughes Ted Kennedy Patrick Swayze Is that a worse list than 2016? Who knows. ---
**Author:** ![Sodalite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@Sodalite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sodalite)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-surprising-overall-is-2016s-celebrity-deaths/775732/25 "2016-12-29T05:28:24Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > I think I said this in another thread, but you can’t live decades of your life doing hard drugs and expect to live a long life. > > We’re getting to the time now that the hard-partying late-70s, 80s and 90s stars are reaching the point where their bodies just can’t take it anymore. So you’re saying The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, and Black Sabbath’s deal with El Diablo is finally about to expire? Seriously, we’ve been joking about Keith Richards being either a zombie or permanently preserved by alcohol for thirty years already. Everybody has been expecting his death because his life just seems unnatural. ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-surprising-overall-is-2016s-celebrity-deaths/775732/26 "2017-01-04T16:56:02Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > In America, Prince goes by just one name. Muhammad Ali was Ali’s default name. After you said that you might just refer to Ali, but that’s true of every celebrity. If you said Wilder or Rickman died, most people would go “Who?” until you added Gene and Alan. Same for Fisher and Shandling. Wogan wouldn’t be recognized at all even if you said Terry Wogan or Sir Terry Wogan or gave his full Wikipedia biography.\* Bowie did use David on his records so that’s the only one on that list I can give you. > > \*I’m talking public, 99% name recognition, fame. Somebody here must know who he was but he wouldn’t make even the most complete list of one name famous people in \*People \*[the magazine]. I can’t think of another _famous_ Wilder or Rickman, or Ali if you pronounce his name ‘Aaah-lee’ rather than ‘Alley’. Shandling is as well known in the UK as Wogan in the US, and none of them are probably well-known in North Korea. Wogan was absolutely huge in the UK, but maybe not as infamous as some big stars. I guess he didn’t attract international fame but was a household name and probably as popular as the Queen. If you said “Nolte, the famous actor, has started production on a new film” most people will know who you mean. If you said “Prince…” some might think you were talking about royalty, unless you added “the singer”. > [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](#): > > I’m sure it’s true for Great Britain, but Wogan is not well known in the US. I had to Google him. > > I think one of the things that makes 2016 stand out is the way people have also been dropping in niche fields, not just the big names everyone knows. For example, I follow horse racing, and the recent death of Garrett Gomez was just as shocking to racing fans as, say, Carrie Fisher to the world at large. (He was retired and only 44.) I’d guess that a lot of lesser known deaths fall into this category, and it just feels like they are piling up. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-surprising-overall-is-2016s-celebrity-deaths/775732/27 "2017-01-04T17:01:46Z")
When this question comes up, I think of what Homer Simpson told Bart to comfort him: People die all the time, just like that. Why, you could wake up dead tomorrow. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-surprising-overall-is-2016s-celebrity-deaths/775732/28 "2017-01-04T17:11:17Z")
I didn’t see this name anywhere else but she should be mentioned. Joan Marie Johnson, one of the three members of [The Dixie Cups](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dixie_Cups), died on October 3 at the age of 72. They did a few fine songs - “Chapel of Love,” “People Say” - and reintroduced “Iko Iko,” songs I’ll listen to anytime. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-surprising-overall-is-2016s-celebrity-deaths/775732/29 "2017-01-04T18:20:08Z")
> [@JustinC](#): > > I can’t think of another _famous_ Wilder… Laura Ingalls? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-surprising-overall-is-2016s-celebrity-deaths/775732/30 "2017-01-04T19:24:20Z")
Gary Shandling’s death was not a surprise to any real fan of his. He’d been sick for a while and his last interview with Seinfeld on “Comedians in cars…” spent a lot of time on both his illness and mortality. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-surprising-overall-is-2016s-celebrity-deaths/775732/31 "2017-01-05T14:52:19Z")
Having four celebrities die the last week in the year (and two of them related) leads to selective perception. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-surprising-overall-is-2016s-celebrity-deaths/775732.md?page=1)