# I Didn't Know He/She Died (Celebrities)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 19, 2009, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117 "2009-11-19T03:35:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2009, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117/1 "2009-11-19T03:35:33Z")
I read the Looney Toons thread here and they mentioned Cass Daley who is one of my favourites, and I Googled her and came upon the website [Find-A-Grave](http://www.findagrave.com) and while looking I ran across a blip about [Teresa Graves](http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Graves&GSfn=Teresa&GSbyrel=in&GSdyrel=in&GSob=n&GRid=6877177&), whom I loved as a kid. “Get Christy Love,” was one of my favourites.
Anyway I didn’t realize she had died.
So I was wondering if there were any celebrities or other famous people that are dead, I mean, long since dead, and you had no idea till much later they were dead?
---
### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2009, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117/2 "2009-11-19T09:58:30Z")
It usually works the other way with me . . . I’m positive I heard that someone had died, but they’re still alive.
---
### Author:  [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2009, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117/3 "2009-11-19T10:08:28Z")
Michael Jackson’s dead?!?!?!!
---
### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2009, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117/4 "2009-11-19T10:20:01Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> It usually works the other way with me . . . I’m positive I heard that someone had died, but they’re still alive.
Like Abe Vigoda. 😃
---
### Author:  [@vislor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vislor)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117/5 "2009-11-19T16:34:37Z")
I never followed him but have to remember that Roy Scheider died. It was really under the radar, so to speak, for me.
On the flip side, for the longest time I thought Julie Andrews was dead and she’s not. So that was strange as well.
I think I have more of the second one than the first.
vislor
---
### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2009, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117/6 "2009-11-19T17:15:47Z")
A couple of years ago I saw a game show which asked which of the following celebs are still alive: I was sure it was Mclean Stevenson. Even when they told us I still went to google because I didn’t believe them.
---
### Author:  [@kitemaker\_chuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitemaker_chuck)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2009, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117/7 "2009-11-19T17:22:49Z")
There is a website that deals with this very question.
It’s called **Who’s Alive and Who’s Dead** , and it can be found at:
www.wa-wd.com/
---
### Author:  [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2009, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117/8 "2009-11-19T17:26:51Z")
Back in 1996 or 1997, a radio station here in Kansas City ran a contest to find the biggest Conway Twitty fan in the city. The contest ran for a week and the top prize was a pair of tickets to an upcoming Conway Twitty concert. The tickets were front-row, center, and also included backstage passes to meet Mr. Twitty.
People called in and had to tell stories about their devotion to Conway Twitty and why they deserved the tickets. Over the course of a week, the field was narrowed down to 3 contestants, who each recited the number of albums they had, how long they had been listening to Conway’s music, and how much they loved him.
On the last day of the contest, they had all 3 contestants on the phone, and the DJ said, “We have one more question for you … how come you folks claim to be the biggest Conway Twitty fans in Kansas City, but you don’t know that he died 3 years ago?”
I never laughed so hard in my life.
---
### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117/9 "2009-11-19T17:28:23Z")
Jerry Reed died last year when I was in the hospital for a prolonged stay. I wasn’t following the news regularly and his death wasn’t a major story so I missed it at the time. I heard about it a few months later when they were doing “celebrities we lost” features at the end of the year.
---
### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2009, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117/10 "2009-11-19T19:00:08Z")
> [@BobArrgh](#):
>
> “We have one more question for you … how come you folks claim to be the biggest Conway Twitty fans in Kansas City, but you don’t know that he died 3 years ago?”
Cold. Hilarious, but cold.
---
### Author:  [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2009, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117/11 "2009-11-19T19:34:14Z")
> [@Markxxx](#):
>
> I read the Looney Toons thread here and they mentioned Cass Daley who is one of my favourites, and I Googled her and came upon the website [Find-A-Grave](http://www.findagrave.com) and while looking I ran across a blip about [Teresa Graves](http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Graves&GSfn=Teresa&GSbyrel=in&GSdyrel=in&GSob=n&GRid=6877177&), whom I loved as a kid. “Get Christy Love,” was one of my favourites.
>
> Anyway I didn’t realize she had died.
>
> So I was wondering if there were any celebrities or other famous people that are dead, I mean, long since dead, and you had no idea till much later they were dead?
Yes, she died tragically in a house fire.
I was in 8th grade when “Get Christie Love” aired (1974-1975); I had a major crush on the lovely Ms. Graves!
---
### Author:  [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2009, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117/12 "2009-11-19T20:02:59Z")
I remember Graves from “Laugh in”.
---
### Author:  [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2009, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117/13 "2009-11-19T21:24:46Z")
> [@BobArrgh](#):
>
> Back in 1996 or 1997, a radio station here in Kansas City ran a contest to find the biggest Conway Twitty fan in the city. The contest ran for a week and the top prize was a pair of tickets to an upcoming Conway Twitty concert. The tickets were front-row, center, and also included backstage passes to meet Mr. Twitty.
>
> People called in and had to tell stories about their devotion to Conway Twitty and why they deserved the tickets. Over the course of a week, the field was narrowed down to 3 contestants, who each recited the number of albums they had, how long they had been listening to Conway’s music, and how much they loved him.
>
> On the last day of the contest, they had all 3 contestants on the phone, and the DJ said, “We have one more question for you … how come you folks claim to be the biggest Conway Twitty fans in Kansas City, but you don’t know that he died 3 years ago?”
>
> I never laughed so hard in my life.
Well, frankly, news didn’t get around at the time Twitty died like it does now, and there was no internet to speak of. Unless you happened to catch something like that during the one or maybe two days mention of it was made in the news you had little opportunity to find out about it.
---
### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117/14 "2009-11-19T21:28:19Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#):
>
> Well, frankly, news didn’t get around at the time Twitty died like it does now, and there was no internet to speak of. Unless you happened to catch something like that during the one or maybe two days mention of it was made in the news you had little opportunity to find out about it.
No internet to speak of? In 1996? How old are you?
---
### Author:  [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2009, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117/15 "2009-11-19T21:38:15Z")
Twitty died in June of 1993 and neither computers nor the internet were in very wide distribution at the time as a percentage of the population. IIRC, it wasn’t until the mid-nineties that Bill Gates finally decided the internet was becoming a big deal and turned his complany pretty much on a dime to get into the web browser business. He later somewhat ruefully admitted that he frankly didn’t see it coming. Only a very small minority of the country was online in '93.
---
### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2009, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117/16 "2009-11-19T21:42:39Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#):
>
> Twitty died in June of 1993 and neither computers nor the internet were in very wide distribution at the time as a percentage of the population. IIRC, it wasn’t until the mid-nineties that Bill Gates finally decided the internet was becoming a big deal and turned his complany pretty much on a dime to get into the web browser business. He later somewhat ruefully admitted that he frankly didn’t see it coming. Only a very small minority of the country was online in '93.
I’ll grant your argument not on the basis of the fact that he died in 1993, but on the basis of the fact in [_June_ of 1993](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_that_never_ended). 🙂
The point remains that these people were self-proclaimed uber-fans, not Joe Sixpacks.
---
### Author:  [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2009, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117/17 "2009-11-19T23:08:54Z")
_“Journalism consists of saying ‘Lord Jones Dead’ to people who didn’t know that Lord Jones was alive.”_
---
### Author:  [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2009, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117/18 "2009-11-20T00:16:14Z")
Um, well, I really enjoyed the music of Conway Twitty, got to see a great triple bill in Jonesboro, Arkansas, a couple of years before he died. Twitty, Merle Haggard, and George Jones, pretty much the ultimate country music concert at the time.
And, I remember, as a country music fan, when he died. It was a big deal, 'cause they had the radios and all that…😛 Nice story, BobArrgh.
---
### Author:  [@Surbey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surbey)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2009, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117/19 "2009-11-20T00:32:34Z")
> [@vislor](#):
>
> I never followed him but have to remember that Roy Scheider died. It was really under the radar, so to speak, for me.
> vislor
I actually didn’t know this. you just ruined my day.
---
### Author:  [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2009, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117/20 "2009-11-20T00:42:43Z")
> [@Surbey](#):
>
> I actually didn’t know this. you just ruined my day.
I don’t think Vislor KILLED him. . .
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-didnt-know-he-she-died-celebrities/518117.md?page=2)