# Who have been the greatest losses to the arts (not deceased)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 22, 2020, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262 "2020-09-22T21:38:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262/21 "2020-09-23T10:11:23Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Also Gene Hackman is retired from acting and he’s 90. On the other hand Michael Caine is 87 and said as long as he gets offers to act he will work. He said actors should not retire . Jack Nicholson - three-time Oscar winner, cultural icon and one of the most respected actors alive - simply dropped off the map 10 years ago. I have no idea why. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262/22 "2020-09-23T10:37:13Z")
The opera world has lost two giants - Placido Domingo and James Levine - due to the “Me Too” movement. Though they were let go for very legitimate reasons, their absence is palpable. And along the same lines as Audrey Hepburn - how about Grace Kelly, who retired from acting at 26 to become a real-live princess. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262/23 "2020-09-23T12:26:46Z")
Garrison Keilor retired and then was accused of groping women so I guess he won’t make a comeback. Seal has not done anything lately except appear on the Masked Singer Can’t recall her name but an actress quit to become a nun maybe 50 years ago. She did some movies with Elvis ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262/24 "2020-09-23T12:36:06Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > For purposes of this thread, do the surviving member(s) of a group count if the others in the group are dead? Well they were all alive after they broke up for longer than they had been famous as the Beatles, so for that period of time they fit the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262/25 "2020-09-23T13:50:00Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Audrey Hepburn largely retired from acting in 1967, at age 38, having won one Oscar, and another four nominations…she walked away from acting at the height of her career > [@panache45](#): > > …And along the same lines as Audrey Hepburn - how about Grace Kelly, who retired from acting at 26 to become a real-live princess. Yeah, I think the ones who walk away at their peak are a special sub-category. When I wrote the OP, the other person I had in mind was Cat Stevens, who was one of the bigger things in music when he turned his back on it all in the 1970’s. OK, so a couple of decades later he has to some degree returned as Yusuf Islam, and actually seems to have been reasonably busy at it - which may disqualify him from this thread. j ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262/26 "2020-09-23T13:56:32Z")
But ended due to injury, iirc. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262/27 "2020-09-23T13:57:41Z")
Are comedians artists? This thread makes me think of Dave Chappelle who walked away at his height. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262/28 "2020-09-23T14:33:28Z")
In reference to Jack Nicholson: There have been rumors that he has been ill—I have heard Parkinson’s, Alzeheimer’s, some other type of dementia–but nothing has been said or confirmed by Nicholson himself or someone representing him. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262/29 "2020-09-23T14:33:44Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Tom Lehrer (parody folk singer). > Gary Larson (cartoonist). > Bill Watterson (cartoonist). Watterson was the first one I thought of. I’ve always been torn about his retirement - I would have loved to have C&H run for many more years, but I think he did the right thing by going out on top and not running the strip long past the point where he had anything new or interesting to say. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262/30 "2020-09-23T14:40:06Z")
If this were 70 years ago, I"d have said Sibelius and EM Forster, but they both felt they’d had little or nothing new to say since the 1920s, so maybe it isn’t such a loss when a creative decides they’re just not that creative any more. Always leave them wanting more… ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262/31 "2020-09-23T14:45:07Z")
Steve Martin, part of nearly anybody’s Mt. Rushmore of comedy, has largely phased out his comedy career in favor of his musical career. I love his albums with the Steep Canyon Rangers. His collaborations with Edie Brickell are defining the term “diminishing returns,” though (I thought their “Bright Star” soundtrack was kind of unlistenable). He can do what he wants, but comedy is what he does better than just about anybody. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262/32 "2020-09-23T14:46:25Z")
Flavor Flav, actually an incredibly talented musician (self-taught pianist who can play 12 instruments) and the creative force behind Public Enemy. The reality show parody he’s now become is the result of years of drug abuse and personal issues. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262/33 "2020-09-23T15:06:06Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > due to the “Me Too” movement Speaking of that, what about Bill Cosby? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262/34 "2020-09-23T15:28:40Z")
Jason Becker. Jason Becker was a gifted teenage guitarist, a shredder with impeccable chops who could also compose and arrange music. He released two albums with his high school friend Marty Friedman (most known for his 10 year stint as the lead guitarist for Megadeth) as Cacophony, released a solo album and then played for David Lee Roth on his 2nd album, _A Little Ain’t Enough_, which was recorded in 1990. He gave clinics, made instructional videos tapes and performed live many times, all while still a teenager. [Here he is at 19 or 20 years old, performing Niccolò Paganini _Caprice No. 5_, a piece originally written for violin that Mr. Becker transcribed and arranged for guitar.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzf9-ruSl2s) [And here’s a couple of minutes of him performing solo on stage in Japan.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QOFPADkTlw) However, while recording DLR’s album, Mr. Becker was diagnosed as having ALS. He was unable to tour to support the DLR album: he simply was unable to play the guitar parts he himself had written and recorded. By 1996 he had lost the ability to speak, communicating with a system his father developed that uses eye movements to spell out words. He continued to compose with the aid of a computer and some systems that friends and others created for him and has actually released some albums which include older archived material as well as a handful of new compositions. Mr. Becker is revered in guitar circles and in heavy metal lore. He is well-thought of by his old bandmates and friends and they have several times lent a hand to help him pay his medical expenses and to make sure that he and his mother (his father passed away some years ago now) have a place to live, etc. Mr. Becker is also, following the death of physicist Stephen Hawking, the longest surviving ALS patient in history, having lived almost 30 years with the disease now. But the world lost nearly all of the creative output that this brilliant young man would have had as ALS robbed him of his abilities at just 20 years old. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262/35 "2020-09-23T16:14:44Z")
Berke Breathed quit working after Bloom County at age 32. Then he did Outland and Opus and quit after both of those. He started up Bloom County online in 2015 and he said Trump inspired him to return to Bloom County. He’s 63 now. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262/36 "2020-09-23T16:44:36Z")
Al Franken was lost in the Me Too movement as well (I’m thinking more of his books as art, versus SNL’s Stuart) ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262/37 "2020-09-23T20:14:00Z")
A good entry, but I think he was lost to politics long before Me Too caught up to him. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262/38 "2020-09-23T21:35:23Z")
Are politicians artists? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262/39 "2020-09-23T21:51:18Z")
Sure, BS. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2020, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262/40 "2020-09-23T21:58:32Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > If this were 70 years ago, I"d have said Sibelius and EM Forster, but they both felt they’d had little or nothing new to say since the 1920s, so maybe it isn’t such a loss when a creative decides they’re just not that creative any more. > > Always leave them wanting more… If you really want to time travel… how about Rossini? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-have-been-the-greatest-losses-to-the-arts-not-deceased/921262.md?page=3)