Sorry to break it to you, but Arthur C. Clarke died a couple years ago.
Terry Pratchett would probably be top of my list.
Carol Burnett and Betty White for sure will have me bawling. Leonard Nimoy. Christopher Reeve’s death really, really saddened me.
My boyfriend complains bitterly when I have an All Things Bowie Weekend. You’re invited to the next one. It just involves lots of Bowie music, terrifying the animals and neighbors with loud singalongs, and a sad tendency toward really bad dancing!
There really are a lot - call me crazy but I do get upset when celebrities die, especially musicians that I love. I was a wreck last year when Michael Jackson died.
The ones that would come anywhere close to Michael’s death for me:
Madonna, Kate Bush, Prince, Bjork, Kylie Minogue, Jerry Seinfeld, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, Yoko Ono, Britney Spears, Darren Hayes, Kate Winslet.
I don’t expect many of those to be dying anytime soon but hypothetically those would be the ones to upset me the most.
It might be hard to understand but I’d also be quite sad if Linday Lohan were to die. I thought she was a good actress (and even made a handful of good pop songs) and Mean Girls is one of my favourite films. Everyone seems to see her as a Paris Hilton no-talent type but in my opinion she was a potential talent who went waaaay off track.
I have a really strong emotional connection to music, especially from my childhood. So for me it would be Michael Stipe and Morrissey. If either died I’d probably drink a few beers, put on some early R.E.M. or Smiths then cry like a baby.
Also, probably Conan O’Brien. He pretty much shaped my sense of humor during junior high and high school. I went to sleep watching his show just about every weeknight.
I cried when Spock died so I will almost certainly cry when Mr. Nimoy dies.
And all of the musicians who are still cranking out music after all of these years.
Here’s to you all.
<Cheers>
Ernest Borgnine
Barbara Hale
Cher
Carol Burnett
Doris Day
Sam Waterston
Betty White and Rue McClanahan
Phyllis Diller
Larry Storch and Ken Berry (loved F-Troop as a kid)
David Cassidy and Bobby Sherman
Frederik Pohl. He’s probably the last of the original generation of science fiction authors.
Tom Baker - He was the love of my imaginary life for many years.
Carol Burnett and Tim Conway also. Maybe even Vicki Lawrence and Lyle Wagonner too.
Oh, and Jean Stapleton. I never got over the death of Edith.
George W. Bush and/or Rush Limbaugh. Merely for the sheer assholery that will prevail on the SDMB.
Regards,
Shodan
There aren’t many celebs I have serious emotional attachments to any more.
Among the few are the athletes I loved as a kid. So, it hurt when I learned of the death of Bobby Murcer. And it will hurt when I hear of the deaths of…
Ron Guidry
Harmon Killlebrew
Tony Oliva
Ken Dryden
Guy Lafleur
Daryle Lamonica
Fred Biletnikoff
Among others.
If my wife and I outlive her, we’d just both be wrecked. I hope she lives to be a great-grandmother.
Since the thread has already drifted, the celebrity death that impacted me the most was Kirsty MacColl. It was so awful. Her career was getting renewed attention, she was in a loving relationship and on vacation doing something she loved, scuba diving. The being hit by a boat piloted by a rich drunken idiot who managed to get a flunky to take the rap. And she died saving her children.
John Cleese
Neil Young
Clint Eastwood
Robert Duvall
Zappa and Cobain really bothered me. I was very surprised that I shed tears for George Harrison - I love the Beatles, but didn’t expect that reaction from myself.
Now, I’ll be very broken up when Tom Waits dies, although he may just wither into a walking husk. Nolan Ryan was my favorite baseball player as a kid - his death will bother me. Anyone on the Howard Stern show, particularly because they’re all relatively young - in their 50s at the oldest.
Joe
This really ain’t in the spirit of this Cafe Society thread. Please don’t threadshit.
Thanks,
twickster, Cafe Society moderator
I’ll just mention ones that I don’t think have been mentioned yet…
Vincent Price & Peter Cushing both saddened me but didn’t really bother me. I’d expected VP since he was so frail in Edward Scissorhands. Cushing had been long retired & I knew he was reunited with his beloved Helen… that said,
I will be totally depressed when Christopher Lee goes, and he has been dropping hints about his mortality in the past few years. He is the last of a breed that goes back to Karloff, Lugosi & the Chaneys.
I’ll also be very bothered when Ray Bradbury & Ray Harryhausen reunite with their friend Forrest J Ackerman.
Finally, Indiana TV legend 1962-80s Bob Carter aka “Nightmare Theatre host Sammy Terry”.
Actually the reminds me. I will be very sad when Peer O’Toole dies. I remember watchin Ratatouille and thinking “Holy crap! Anton Ego was a role just designed for Vincent Price… But damn no one else could put it off like Peter O’Toole!” There is just this cazy life that he can breathe into roles like that.
I don’t think it will hit me as hard as Christopher Reeve’s death did, but Peter O’Toole will definitley give me the 
face for several days.
I remember discussing this kind of topic with friends back in the late eighties - the three I named then were Benny Hill, Johnny Carson and Robert Heinlein. They’re all long gone now.
One of my other biggest just happened - Robert B Parker.
Among those still kicking - Ray Bradbury would be one, for sure. Hank Aaron, Willie Mays (although both were a bit before my time). Steven Sondheim. Patrick Stewart and Steve Martin have already been mentioned.
The wierd thing is that when I watched this movie I thought it was Frank Langella doing the voice.
Paul McCartney
Ringo Starr
Ian Anderson
Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart)
It will be a real tragedy when Sonny Rollins passes on–he’s pretty much the last of the front-line jazz masters of the pre-fusion era.