Johnny Carson because I grew up watching him and because he reminds me of my deceased dad.
Stevie Ray Vaughn because I had just seen him, the first night he played at Alpine Valley.
For me, it would be a tie between JFK and Asimov. Kennedy’s death was, of course, an immense shock to everyone, and the group reaction in my dorm was like a disturbance in The Force.
Isaac Asimov was someone with whom I enjoyed several years of playful correspondence, and I lost a friend when he died. I have since lost other friends to AIDS, but Isaac was the first. God, I miss that man.
Princess Di and JFK Jr. because both were senseless accidents. Both I found out about within minutes of the news hitting the airwaves
Phil Hartman because I liked him so darned much and it was such a shock that his wife shot him.
John Lennon came to mind first. I was in grade ten or so and very, very much into music. The idea that someone killed a *Beatle *changed my world.
Princess Diana, secondly. I never, ever expected her to die so young and so pointlessly. I adored following her life (and clothes–oh, the gorgeous clothes) even though as a person, I probably wouldn’t have liked her much at all.
I did want to see what JFK Jr. would have made of his life.
Dorothy Parker. This sounds odd, I know, but as a teenager I was a huge fan … but I thought she was already dead. When I read about her death, and realized that she had been alive for all of my lifetime up to that point, I was shocked.
Next: John Lennon. This hit me hard and I don’t know why. Cried for hours.
JFK was pretty shocking, too, but didn’t really have the emotional impact of the other two.
Phil Hartman and Joe Strummer.
Terry Kath.
“He did what? Oh, man. That’s just fucked up.” :smack:
Phil Hartman was easily the first name to spring to my mind.
Some of the other people being mentioned here (like Asimov, Carson, Schulz, Henson) left a bigger hole, but they were (with the partial exception of Henson) old enough that their deaths didn’t exactly shock me.
Joe Strummer, for sure.
Frank Zappa, because I never knew he was sick.
Keith Miller. Because men like that don’t die.
Jim Henson, Douglas Adams, and the Challenger thing.
(Note: I’m 20, so I wasn’t around to be shocked by many of your choices, and I only had the vaguest idea of who Princess Diana was.)
I’ll go with John Spencer (Leo on The West Wing). Also Matthew McGrory, who played the giant in Big Fish.
Princess Di. Also somewhat shocked/surprised that Mother Teresa died the same week.
I don’t know why, but the first name I thought of was Hunter S. Thompson.
Most certainly Jim Henson.
Seconded. This is the first celebrity I remember. I was about eight or nine. Also, Tupac, Cobain and Steve Irwin. Although as someone said, you couldn’t be 100% shocked about Tupac and Irwin.
As far as actually shocking, as in unexpected, I’ll have to go along with Douglas Adams. I can’t say Isaac Asimov’s death shocked me; when he announced, some time previously, that he wouldn’t be able to do his monthly science columns in Fantasy & Science Fiction anymore, I knew he must be in very grave shape.
A completely obscure one, I suppose, but perhaps the death of a more-or-less public figure that most truly shocked me: There was a guy with the improbable name of Dr. Tom Rainbow, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who studied neurobiology or something along those lines, and who also wrote a number of non-fiction “Viewpoint” columns in the mid-'80’s for Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. These were all about trying to examine various favorite science fiction themes (like telepathy, or giving yourself superpowers) from a hard-science point of view, with lots of science-fiction-fan jokes and references to Mad Scientists. I loved those columns; it was always the highlight of the issue if they were running another Tom Rainbow “Viewpoint” column. He seemed like a really bright guy who probably really loved his job (and had a very geeky sense of humor, as is common with bright guys who really love their jobs in the hard sciences). Whatever understanding I may have of how MRI scanners work still fundamentally comes from one of his columns (on, IIRC, “Mind Transfers”).
He was killed in some stupid accident when he was only about 30; I remember being totally shocked at reading the “In Memoriam” column in Asimov’s. Even at the tender age of 14 I knew that was way too young to die. I had figured on being amused and educated by him for many years to come.
John Ritter and Steve Irwin for sure. I was really young but I remember exactly where I was when I heard about Princess Di. The most recent (and most upsetting) though would have to be John Inman. I cried when I read about it, even though he was 71 and you kind of expect people that age to be ready to go. I grew up watching British Comedy night on PBS. Are You Being Served was always one of my favorite shows. The fact that he will never say, “I’m free!” again makes me feel kind of empty inside. He was one of the funniest men on the planet and I will mourn his loss for a very long time. It feels like I have lost a fantastically hilarious gay grandfather. I hope he died knowing how important he was to so many people.
Hunter Thompson
Benny Hill
JFK
Lennon
John Beluchi
Molly Ivans
I was shocked by John Lennon’s murder but I was devastated by Jim Henson’s untimely death. I cried for days and mourn him still. John Ritter was a shock but I always said Steve Irwin would come to that kind of an end. Princess Di, also. When I saw it on the news, I wasn’t surprised.
The 9/11 attack was an unbelieveable shock, all those people, those planes, the towers gone. It was unreal on an unreal scale. We didn’t understand what we were seeing as we were seeing it.
Cyn
On behalf of my dad, who was about 19 when Duane died, I’ll second that one.
For me, it’d probably be Douglas Adams. That just came out of nowhere. Kurt Cobain dying was a shock, but I was about to turn 12 at the time, so I didn’t really understand anything about death. It was very sad, but it also seemed like it was an outgrowth of his music rather than what it really was, which was a symptom of depression.