Old Yeller.
Yeah that was really sad for me. Randy California (probably one of the greatest guitarists of all time and whose band “Spirit” never achieved the fame and fortune that other rock bands did) losing his life by drowning was just another bad luck story from the rock band named Spirit. 
Sharon Tate’s murder was really shocking to me. I had just graduated from high school, a few weeks later, 2 Americans walked on the Moon for the first time. So, I was feeling rather optimistic until that story made the news.
She was young, very well-liked, her popularity was increasing, her career was seriously improving and then … a bunch of seriously disturbed “sickos” decided to bring all that to an end. :mad:
Bob Crane, stuffed in a trunk, still unsolved.
Marilyn Monroe.
Michael Jackson, done in by an unethical doctor.
Turns out this thread is about real life people but I just have to comment that I remember this scene making my six year old self hysterical. Were talkin’ inconsolable. I’ve never rewatched it since.
Jonathan Larson, the writer and composer of RENT. He had so much talent, and his death was so avoidable. He went to two hospitals complaining of chest pains. One took a chest X-ray, said he had food poisoning and made him vomit. The other said he had the flu and to take it easy.
You’re putting an off-Broadway musical together and you can take it easy?
It turns out he died in his apartment, alone, from an aortic aneurysm, which clearly showed up on the X-ray and was totally treatable.
I guess when it comes to some of the drug deaths, they can be grouped:
Speedball:
John Belushi
River Phoenix
Chris Farley
Cocktail of prescription drugs
Michael Jackson
Heath Ledger
(I’m sure I’ve missed another famous recent one)
I suppose you can always add “drowned in the bath through alcohol”
Jim Morrison?
Whitney Houston?
too soon dude, too soon.
Michael Hutchence’s death was a shock and made me sadder than a rational person should feel over the death of a complete stranger. Ditto Tom Petty. And, pretty much everyone that’s been named already. I’m one of those weirdos who gets really upset when my favorite celebrities pass :o
I cried when Jim Henson died. So unexpected, too young, and totally avoidable. And I was in love with Kermit.
Nothing about Debbie Reynolds? Dying from a stroke (and a broken heart) the day after her daughter died?
The unseemly and messy death of Sam Cooke. Link
He was an emerging superstar.
Natasha Richardson was on a ski trip with husband Liam Neeson (and kids?) when she hit her head. She felt it wasn’t serious and went home to lie down. She was wrong. She died of a subdural hematoma.
Rodney Dangerfield’s death hit me hard. He was such a funny, funny man.
George Gershwin. Died at 38 of a brain tumor.
Prince.
Charlie Christian died of tuberculosis at the age of 25. He pretty much invented modern jazz guitar, and is considered by jazz historians to be one of the inventors of be-bop. It’s amazing that he accomplished so much by this age, and it’s sad to think of what else he might have done had he not died so young.
Nancy Spungen dying as a 20-year-old, drug-addicted, ex-prostitute groupie of a stab wound in a flophouse hotel has to be in the running. I suppose it only counts, though, if Sid Vicious actually killed her.
Another tragic death of a former entertainer was Bryan Harvey of House of Freaks, who sadly is better known for his and his family’s death in a home invasion than he ever was for his music.
Lennon, of course. Still remember that morning, just two days before my birthday. Depressed my mood until well after Christmas.
And Marc Bolan. And Prince.
Probably only known to Spaniards of a certain age, but another one in a car crash: Nino Bravo.
Stan Rogers.
Damn smokers. :mad: