I’ve had feelings of “oh, how sad” when a celeb dies, especially if they’re young, but haven’t really felt personally affected. The Dale Ernhardt stuff mystified me, not only because I couldn’t imagine being affected that much by someone I didn’t actually know but because it was rather an assumed risk, how could they all be so shocked and all that.
However, I thought about it for a while and realized that if Jon Stewart were to unexpectedly pop off I’d be very heartsick. I just adore that man and it’d be horrific if he went too early.
Willie Nelson’s death is going to be very rough on me, as was Johnny Cash’s. Losing Frank Black (aka Black Francis) or Kim Deal would be rough as well (though one hopes both are a ways off), and for some reason the two Johns from They Might Be Giants leap to mind.
Vonnegut’s passing will be sad, but honestly I’ve been fairly resigned to it for a while, and I get the impression he’s made his peace and is ready. He seems to be carrying a kind of good-humored, cantankerous dignity into his late years and it suits him.
Past deaths that have hit me hardest were probably Joe Strummer, Hunter Thompson, and Thor Heyerdahl.
Of course when Alice Cooper packs it up, I’ll drop like a rock.
The ones that did shock me were the biggies - Elvis, Di, John Wayne, John Lennon. I kicked a wall over James Cagney. Katherine Hepburn hurt and I lost a lot with the passing of the Friendly Giant (Bob Homme) and Capt. Kangeroo. Oh, and Trudeau. Heck, he became prime Minister when I was seven and mostly remained so until my adulthood.
I think the Queen will be the biggest one to go. I’ll be pretty upset too. At forty-six, she’s the only monarch I’ve known.
The trifecta: Steven Spielberg, George Lucas & Harrison Ford. Mainly because I grew up watching most of the movies that they directed/produced/appeared in.
I was depressed for a week when Audrey Hepburn died. She’s still my favourite actress.
Authors:
**Terry Pratchett
George McDonald Fraser**
Music:
Michael Jackson. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I know…but he’s my generation’s Elvis.
Unless he/they become bitter hard right cranks I would have to say Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert would sadden me in a way that would affect me for the rest of my days.
Has it really. Been. THREE. Whole. Pages… and no one. Has. Yet. to mention. William. Shatner?
C’mon… he’s an entertainment — cult(ural) icon of enormous magnitude. I just want to know who they’ll get to sing Freebird at his funeral. (But please… no renditions of Bilbo Baggins.
As for Those That Have Passed… I can’t say that any celebrity’s death will ever be as devastating as the Loss of Jerry.
It wouldn’t be such a big deal right now, but some day it might be a very big deal when Bill Gates passes.
Right now he’s only the richest man in the world.
But his recent decision to retire and run his charity organization – his enormous, wealthy, ambitious charity organization – and take on some of the tougheest problems in the world – drew the attention (and funding) of Warren Buffett, a mman with a keen eye for successful organizations.
No one has seriously attempted to take on the issues in Africa that Bill and Melinda Gates (now back by Buffett) are addressing. They’re reaching, not playing it safe. It’s almost like someone asked them “what are you going to do with all this money?” and they actually took the question seriously.
It might all be simply an ego exercise. Or the enormous quagmire that is the Third World might drag down the whole effort.
But it might not fail, or not fail entirely.
And there might come a time when we remember the two richest men in the world putting their wealth to some better use than establishing dynasties. It is an outside possibility, but real good might be accomplished in ways never before dared.
What if that happens? What if Gates (and company) really do turn out to help millions of people in a real, concrete way – people they never knew personally, people outside their social and national in-groups – just to do the right thing?
What if there was a rich man who didn’t think like a rich man?
I think that would be a hell of a guy to lose. I think we might even notice.
Walter Cronkite. He was the news for me growning up, and I remember him announcing Kennedy was dead (I was home sick from 2nd grade) and the excitement in him at the moon landing. He was someone you knew you could trust.
I have to add **Stephen Hawking **to my list. I was a kid when Einstein died, and I still remember how it felt to have that huge intelligence gone from the world. Hawking will affect me the same way, but even more tragically since his body will deteriorate long before his mind.
Steve Irwin’s death is having a huge effect on me. Probably from the suddenness of it. It’s not surprising he died like he did, but nature was his passion. He was so vital and gung-ho, and still relatively young at 44. That’s what is making his death so shocking. Steve Irwin was head and shoulders over Crocodile Dundee as a character, only Dundee was the Claytons, and Steve-O was fair dinkum…
today I am saddened by the untimely death of Steve Irwin the Crockodile Hunter …sudden and sad to see such an in ya face larger than life aussie character meet such an untimely end…killed by a fish…poor steve. condolences to his wife and young kiddies. RIP.
I’m pretty freaked out by Steve Irwin’s death as well… especially tragic to me is that he was filming a bit for his 8 year old daughter’s new show. God I just want to cry.
