Tony Iommi will be the big one for me. I’ve listened to Sabbath my whole life. I’ve seen them twice in concert. After what they’ve been through, in terms of substance abuse and other rock-star “isms”, Tony has become so classy and elegant and his stage presence is just so unique - no cool rock-poses or anything like that. And in interviews he just seems like such a nice guy.
Now he’s been dealing with lymphoma the last few years. I fear it won’t be too long.
I understand. I’m a huge Cubs fan and Harry Caray’s death hit me hard.
In the spirit of the OP, Betty White. I have fond memories of watching The Golden Girls with my dad and I know I’ll be sad when she passes. And Lake Placid is a great movie…
Letterman. Letterman, Letterman, Letterman! I suspect that his death will affect me nearly as much as, if not more than, the deaths of Charles M. Schulz, Johnny Cash, and James Gandolfini did.
Others: Prince, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks.
Steve Martin
David Letterman
George Lucas
John Williams
Anyone from Star Trek TOS (even Shatner, although I can’t stand the guy)
Peter Thomas (voice artist, narrator of Forensic Files and a zillion other things)
Most of my personal heroes and role models are long gone … but when these folks are gone, it will really mean that the world I’ve lived in my whole life is irrevocably disappearing.
Alice will absolutely devastate me. But anyone else? I’m not sure. I learned after Robin Williams died that I won’t always see it coming the ones that will affect me most, because his left me reeling for a good, long bit. However, one of the first actors that I just adored was Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman. I’m sure they’ll both be very difficult to let go.
I’ll take it hard when Robert Vaughn and David McCallum pass away. I’ve been an U.N.C.L.E. fan since I was too young to comprehend the show. (I didn’t get that it was funny!)
I was extremely sad when Redmond A. Simonsen passed away. He was a graphic designer for SPI, a publisher of wargames. He was also a game designer and a writer, and a bit of a game-design philosopher. He was creative, witty, and had an excellent approach to graphic design. It may sound like a trivial thing, but he was the one who figured out, on game maps, that rivers should flow along the hex-sides, not through the middle of the hexes. That way, it was no longer ambiguous which side of the river a unit was!
OK, this one is going to sound weird, as I’m not a big fan, but Clint Eastwood will be one that bums me out.
See, when I was a little kid Eastwood was just starting out, in Wagon Train. Then he was in the spaghetti Westerns, then Dirty Harry, and tons of other stuff. I’ve grown up seeing him age, and if and when he goes he will take a lot of my childhood with him. I did like him in Bronco Billy, one of the only comedies I remember him doing.
The last few “celebrity” deaths that really hit me hard were newsmen – Ed Bradley and Peter Jennings. When Tom Brokaw goes that will probably hit me hard too. (Unfortunately most of the current crop of news anchors I wouldn’t miss at all.)
Musically, it’s really going to suck when Richard Thompson is gone.
For me, as well. Every once in a while I think about what it will be like to have Charles on the money and on the stamps. I haven’t had a change of monarch in my lifetime. It will be interesting.
And if Bruce Springsteen goes before I do, well, it will be so sad.
