I’m coming up on thirty-nine years old. I will have outlived Lou Gehrig in a few more months. I’ve already hung on to this mortal coil longer than Princess Di and Mozart did.
Does anybody else think about the famous people they’ve outlived?
I’d bet there is a website dedicated to this.
I remember thinking when I turned 28 that I had outlived Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Kurt Cobain. Other than that, I only notice when I hear someone died at such-and-such age, and think “Hey, that’s younger than I am!”
When I turned 24, I realized that I had lived longer than River Phoenix. It was a weird sensation since I had such a crush on him when I was younger. I even imagined us married with children. I would have been a 19 year old widow with perfect looking River babies if my lustful imaginings would have been realized. (well, and also if they really took after him instead of me, but oh well, I guess we will never know.)
“It is a sobering thought that when Mozart was my age… he had been dead five years.”
– Tom Lehrer, many, many years ago
Yeah, I think about it all the time, usually in a "Look at how much they accomplished, and they all died when they were younger than you. Usually when I’m in a downbeat mood.
Of course, you can always think – “Look at all I’ve accomplished, and X didn’t, even though he (died younger than me/is a LOT older than me).” But that’s a downer of a different kind.
Me, too.
When I turned 34, I realized I had lived longer than Jesus. And look at everything HE accomplished.
Where is that Web site? I actually used to have a list, that’s how f*cked-up I am.
I’m older than JFK, Lon Chaney, Huey Long, Carmen Miranda—and I’m the same age as Anna Held when she died.
Some days, I’m older than God.
According to most estimates, I’m older than King Tutankhamun. That guy rules an entire kingdom before puberty, and I have yet to even own my own house! Yeesh!
Carl Hiaasen’s book Basket Case has as a main character a reporter who now writes obituaries, and is constantly obsessing about what famous people have died younger than him.
I like the joke where the father scolds his kid that when he was your age, Abe Lincoln did his homework by candlelight.
The kid answers back that at his age Lincoln was President.
(Doesn’t mention the dead part.)
Those were the ones I was going to mention. I’m 27, the age they all were when they died. It’s so weird for me to think about passing them by. They’ll be forever 27, but my year is slipping away quickly and before I know it I’ll be looking at pictures of them thinking about how young they look and how at one time I was that young, too.
It kind of hit me that I was getting up there when I realized I had outlived John Lennon.
I occasionally consider the fact that I have now outlived all the Brontes, even Charlotte. And in two more years, I will have lived longer than Jane Austen did!
My grandfather, one of the youngest in his family, is older than all his siblings were when they died. I think it bothers him quite a bit. He’s never explicit but I do believe he’s ready to shuffle off this mortal coil.