I have returned to add Madeleine L’Engle. I don’t know how I overlooked her the first time, except maybe that I was expectingher to die soon so it was no shock when she did. I still felt like crying.
I hope you don’t think I’m judging anyone for being sad at his death. I actually find it quite touching. I was curious about the ages, because for me (I was 16 when he died), I was still a kid when he died, basically, and didn’t really look into the…background of the kids shows I loved. I would have guessed that folks that were strongly affected by him would be older, and less likely to think of Kermit as Kermit, and more likely to think of Kermit as Henson. I don’t know. I can’t even remember anymore what my point is.
I can’t click that link while I’m working, but I’m pretty sure it’s the one I’ve seen. It made me cry. But that was years after the fact. I can appreciate it a bit more now in context.
Mine is weird, because next to some of the people mentioned in here - Jackson, Lennon, even Ledger - mine didn’t really make much of an impact.
But for me it was Brittany Murphy.
Yeah, I know. I know.
But… she was born two months to the day after I was. I guess she did some stuff before Clueless, but no one knew who she was until that movie was released. Alicia Silverstone was the big deal at the time. But Brittany Murphy was hotter and much more talented. The beginning of her career and the beginning of my adult life were linked, I guess, in a way.
Yeah, I don’t know. I guess it’s stupid. But I just identified with her. And when she died, I just remembered how cool she was and how her life seemed so much more full of possibility than mine did when she and I were both 18, and I wondered what kind of bad shit she saw while I was living my life, and… I don’t know.
It depressed me. Judge me if you want.
Will Lee was my mine.
I won’t judge you. I too was saddened by her death. I thought she had a lot of potential.
I’m going to second John Lennon, Jim Henson, and Roy Orbison. I’ll also add George Harrison. I felt bad for such a talented, great man’s passing. I’ll also shed a tear when Paul, and yes, even Ringo depart, as I know all good things must pass.
I felt sad about Abe Vigoda, too. What? Oh, he’s not? Sorry. 
Jim Henson. And for Nzinga, I’m about to turn 30. I adored the muppets, and I knew who he was. I cried, hard, and I still get misty eyes when I think about it. Oh, and recently I watched Big Bird singing It’s Not Easy Being Green at his funeral, and I cried again. So sad.
Also, Mr. Rogers. PBS was apparently a big deal to me. I loved Mr. Rogers, and (my mother tells me) as a child I used to talk back to him when he was on TV, and thought he was actually speaking to me. I don’t remember doing that, but I have always felt a deep connection to him.
I was also sad about Steve Irwin, because I watched his show, and I knew how close he was to his wife and kids, and it broke my heart knowing they’d lost him. Plus he just seemed like such a nice, cool guy.
There are others I was saddened by (Billy Mays, Phil Hartman, Princess Di…) but those are the ones where I felt it, you know,* personally*.
edited to add: Christa McAuliffe- oh yes. I was in kindergarten and we watched the launch live. I do not remember this (I think I have blocked it out) but I had to leave school that day, because I became absolutely inconsolable. Actually, that was probably the one that affected me the most, although I don’t really remember it.
Bunches over the years starting with Marilyn Monroe when I was a little kid. Old enough to know she was the prettiest lady in the world though.
A couple that stand out especially at the time were Stevie Ray Vaughan, I was at work listening to the radio when they broke the story and thought maybe Clapton was on board too, and Chris Farley, another shocker I heard on the radio. I remember telling a co-worker “Man, did you here? Stevie Ray Vaughan is dead!” Co-worker - “Who’s that?” Farley was an “AW FUCK!” moment. Loved that guy. Knew he had some issues and had been pulling for him.
John Belushi, his death angered me as he had so much in his life. I am still angry with him.
Len Bias, same reason. Threw it all away.
Phil Hartman, so sudden. So unfair.
I was so broken up about Jim Henson. I’m now 55, and I’d been in love with Kermit the Frog for decades.
Roger Zelazny. Didn’t see that one coming.
Not sure if he really counts as a celebrity the way people are discussing here, but I was living in Lebanon when Rafic Hariri was killed; that was both sad and rage-inducing, and the aftermath sure affected my life like no other death in my lifetime.
Isaac Asimov, by far.
I can’t even describe the effect his writing had on my life, but it was huge. Not his science fiction, although I enjoyed that, but his science fact and other nonfiction works. I devoured his nonfiction from when I was a small boy until I was in my late 20s, when he died.
John Lennon and George Harrison
Bernie Mac
Princess Diana
Steve Goodman
John Denver - I’m not a huge fan, but it seemed unreal when it happened.
Primo Levi
I think it’s the mostly unexpected deaths that affect me. To take two examples of two celebrities dying on the same day:
Sammy Davis Jr was expected; Jim Henson was not.
Johnny Cash was expected; John Ritter was not.
If tomorrow I heard that Zsa Zsa Gabor and Jim Parsons had died, the latter would abviously hit me harder.
Elvis.People of today have no idea how big he was. They have been told it, but it is on a scale they could not believe.
On Jim Henson - I’m 43. Sesame Street started when I was two. I vividly remember watching it. The Muppet Show was part of my childhood. But by the time Henson died, I was old enough to understand who he was and what he’d given me.
Benazir Bhutto (Not really a ‘celebrity’ but since others have mentioned Princess Di, I thought I’d chance it.)
Julia Child and a few others that have already been mentioned.
And I’ll be a wreck when we lose David Attenborough.
Steve Irwin. I spent half of the night puking after I found out. (Although some of that was nerves- it was only my second week of college and I’d had food I didn’t like for dinner but I couldn’t not eat because it would offend a friend.)
Heath Ledger. Even more so when my mom decided to tell me in detail about how she nearly died of similar respiratory/stress/lack-of-sleep at that age.
Phil Hartman- I was 10 years old, Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure were my favorite Simpsons characters, my big brother was playing one of the ice levels in Mario 64, and I spent the entire time praying that there was someone else named Phil Hartman who was important enough for the radio to tell me about his death and my brother didn’t notice and it was one of the most stressful situations I’ve ever been in.
::blanches:: me too.
Natural history writer Stephen Jay Gould. I enjoyed his books so immensely and admired the mind behind it, and now the books would stop, damnit
When I was an emo teenager, my friend and me were both huge fans of the band The Cure. For some reason we thought for a day that he had died. We were devastated, and not even in an “emo’s love to be devastated” -way.
Brandon Lee. I was a young martial artist and was so happy that he was doing movies and was becoming a credible action hero.
It really felt like he was going to be a superstar. Funny that it’s so long ago, it still upsets me. I went to his grave in Seattle, where he and his dad are side by side, and it hit me as hard as any grave I’ve been to.
It’s a little weird how celebrities trigger the loved one wiring in the brain.