# Who is the most famous person killed by covid-19 so far? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [March 22, 2020, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987 "2020-03-22T00:02:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![PlentyFairy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PlentyFairy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlentyFairy)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987/121 "2020-04-17T01:45:44Z")
John Prine died April 7 from complications related to coronavirus. The Grammy-winning folk and country singer-songwriter was 73. He had been hospitalized March 26 and placed on a ventilator two days later. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987/122 "2020-04-17T02:10:52Z")
You don’t say! ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987/123 "2020-04-17T02:23:49Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > So this is an “Is he or isn’t he?” situation: > > [Nicaragua’s president Daniel Ortega hasn’t been seen in a month](https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/13/world/nicaragua-president-ortega-intl/index.html) Apparently, [he got better](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nicaragua-ortega/nicaraguan-president-reappears-after-more-than-a-month-out-of-public-eye-idUSKCN21Y071) ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987/124 "2020-04-17T06:15:00Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > That’s ok. It’s not _Conway’s_ game of life if it uses a Von Neumann neighborhood, but I agree that it’s a fitting tribute. It does use a Moore neighborhood; the top center cell does die out in the first iteration step. See the link posted above by Peter Morris: [https://bitstorm.org/gameoflife/](https://bitstorm.org/gameoflife/) ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987/125 "2020-04-17T08:21:27Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > You don’t say! LOL ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987/126 "2020-04-17T10:27:26Z")
The sister of a claimant King of Spain, [Maria Teresa of Bourbon-Parma the “Red Princess”,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Mar%C3%ADa_Teresa_of_Bourbon-Parma) died of Covid-19 on 26 March. She was a professor, a socialist activist, and — although I’d never heard of her — quite famous in some circles. For me, John Conway is, by far, the most famous of all mentioned. I’d never met him, but have a friend who was nearby when he invented Life, and especially when he invented the surreal numbers for game theory. My friend vividly remembers Conway’s eyes “wild with the excitement of this discovery.” The term “surreal numbers” was coined by Donald Knuth in a book of the same name, in which he shows huge respect for this great mathematician by naming him with the Tetragrammaton as " J. H. W. H. Conway"! > [@](#): > > In the beginning, everything was void, and J. H. W. H. Conway began to create numbers. Conway said, “Let there be two rules which bring forth all numbers large and small. This shall be the first rule: Every number corresponds to two sets of previously created numbers, such that no member of the left set is greater than or equal to any member of the right set. And the second rule shall be this: One number is less than or equal to another number if and only if no member of the first number’s left set is greater than or equal to the second number, and no member of the second number’s right set is less than or equal to the first number.” And Conway examined these two rules he had made, and behold! They were very good. And the first number was created from the void left set and the void right set. Conway called this number “zero,” and said that it shall be a sign to separate positive numbers from negative numbers … ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987/127 "2020-04-17T11:29:45Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Sorry, it’s in the link’s name if you hover over it, no need to click. It’s the founder of Adorama Cameras. > [@Sherrerd](#): > > Just to note that this doesn’t occur for all. (Could be the browser or the forum-style, but to see what a link says I have to paste to a word-processor–hover doesn’t work, here, for me.) > [@puzzlegal](#): > > oh, sorry, i didn’t realize. It works on all the browsers i use. > > Because it’s extra work? I’d have had to meticulously select the name from the link, and then paste it. And reading it in the name of the link is easy for me, and I didn’t realize it wasn’t easy for everyone. And also, I honestly doubt anyone would recognize the name, so it didn’t seem very interesting. > > I wasn’t intending to be puzzling or obscure. Honestly, I thought the first post, with the conveniently named link, had all the info anyone would want unless they actually wanted to read the linked obit. > [@RioRico](#): > > Did you try device browsers too? Mouseover on my Win10 laptop revealed the article title with name and subject, but I can’t mouseover on my Android tablet or phone. I skip unknown links - it’s only prudent. There be monsters… Not to beat a dead horse, but note that there is no “hovering” on smartphones and tablets I wouldn’t be surprised if that constitutes at least half of the board’s readers. I don’t click on blind links. I would be in favor of a rule that the point of a post should be in the post and clicking a link shouldn’t be needed to understand it. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987/128 "2020-04-17T12:39:28Z")
There is no “hovering” on Android, but if you long-press it tells you the URL and asks if you want to open it. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987/129 "2020-04-17T14:59:35Z")
Yeah, I really didn’t expect anyone to click on the link, I only included a live link as a source. I just expected people to read the name of the link, which was of the form “source, name of person who died, here’s who he was”. Anyway, I apologize for not realizing first that the site software was going to obscure the name of the link, and second that it’s harder than I realized for others to read that obscured name. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987/130 "2020-04-17T15:01:39Z")
Hmm, maybe I should try one of the few buttons in this edit window… [https://www.dpreview.com/news/1140248282/mendel-mendlowits-founder-of-adorama-has-passed-away](https://www.dpreview.com/news/1140248282/mendel-mendlowits-founder-of-adorama-has-passed-away) Is that better? eta: nope, it still shortens the name so you can’t just read it out. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987/131 "2020-04-17T15:05:49Z")
Just type the relevant information in your post, would be my suggestion. This is a message board after all. Not a list of links ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987/132 "2020-04-17T15:41:45Z")
Isn’t there a tag to show the full link without shortening? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987/133 "2020-04-17T22:16:25Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Just type the relevant information in your post, would be my suggestion. This is a message board after all. Not a list of links I’m not a great typist. And I’m particularly bad at remembering weird names. SO much easier to cut and paste existing text (like the link, which conveniently had the full name, who he was, and that he died of covid all spelled out.) And I was on my phone, which is bad for typing (but which does let me preview the name of a link.) Anyway, I apologize to those who had trouble reading my post. It wasn’t my intention. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987/134 "2020-04-17T22:28:40Z")
As a fellow cut’n’paste person, my suggestion is copy/paste the address and the headline. I personally like to clean it up and ue the proper tags but you’d be fine just pasting those two bits together. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2020, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987/135 "2020-04-19T15:58:40Z")
Yes, that’s what I do on other sites I chat on. I didn’t do it here because this site is much fussier about copyright than anyplace else I post. So I was trying to respect that. Anyway, here’s another death that hits home. (Although he was 91 and no cause of death is mentioned, so maybe it’s something else. But he lived in NJ, so covid is likely.) Mort Drucker, Master of the Mad Caricature, Is Dead at 91 [https://nyti.ms/2ViYpIn](https://nyti.ms/2ViYpIn) > [@](#): > > Mort Drucker, Master of the Mad Caricature, Is Dead at 91 > His illustrations of celebrities for Mad magazine’s movie and television satires inspired countless cartoonists. Actors, politicians and others knew they had made it when he drew them. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2020, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987/136 "2020-04-19T19:51:24Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Yes, that’s what I do on other sites I chat on. I didn’t do it here because this site is much fussier about copyright than anyplace else I post. So I was trying to respect that. No one here is going to get upset with copying headlines. That’s definitely not a copyright violation. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2020, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987/137 "2020-04-19T22:10:45Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Anyway, here’s another death that hits home. (Although he was 91 and no cause of death is mentioned, so maybe it’s something else. But he lived in NJ, so covid is likely.) > > Mort Drucker, Master of the Mad Caricature, Is Dead at 91 [https://nyti.ms/2ViYpIn](https://nyti.ms/2ViYpIn) Drucker lived in Woodbury NY, not NJ, but COVID is prevalent there too and also it’s 30 minutes from NYC. According to the local paper, Newsday: Woodbury Total Cases: 143 Cases per 100K people: 1,662 > **[Tracking the Coronavirus on Long Island](https://projects.newsday.com/long-island/tracking-the-coronavirus-on-long-island/)** > > See how coronavirus has spread in your community and in communities across Long Island, New York City and New York State. It looks like he’s not being counted as a COVID death: According to NBC, “his daughter did not give a specific cause of death and said that he was not tested for the coronavirus. He died at his home in Woodbury, New York” According to this article, [News - Heavy.com](https://heavy.com/news/2020/04/mort-drucker-death/) "CNN’s Jake Tapper tweeted that it was not coronavirus. “A friend of Mort Drucker’s, cartoonist John Reiner, emails me: ‘I’m sorry to say that Mort passed away last night. I saw him last Friday-he was having trouble breathing – Was not the Coronavirus as he was quarantined for weeks with no other outside contact…” On the other hand “having trouble breathing” sounds like coronavirus and there have been cases of self-quarantined people somehow catching it. So basically his cause of death is still undetermined. ---
**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:** [April 23, 2020, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987/138 "2020-04-23T19:09:20Z")
Donald Reed Herring, 86, oldest brother of Elizabeth Warren. [Elizabeth Warren’s oldest brother dies of covid-19](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/elizabeth-warrens-oldest-brother-dies-of-covid-19/2020/04/23/6406b676-8579-11ea-878a-86477a724bdb_story.html), _Washington Post_, April 23, 2020. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987/139 "2020-04-23T19:11:20Z")
Rapper Fred the Godson > **[Rapper Fred the Godson Dead at 35 from COVID-19 Complications](https://www.tmz.com/2020/04/23/rapper-fred-the-godson-dies-covid-19-complications-35-coronavirus/)** > > Rapper Fred the Godson has died from coronavirus complications. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987/140 "2020-04-24T04:18:18Z")
I happened to see the movie _Music and Lyrics_ earlier this week, and as the closing credits rolled I made sure to pay attention to the actual songwriter of the original music in the film, as I thought they did a good job of presenting songs that could plausibly be pop hits (both in the '80s and in 2007, the “present day” of the setting). Then I saw it was Adam Schlesinger. :eek: I was sort of glad I didn’t know that while watching, as it would have added a melancholy tinge not appropriate to the movie’s lighthearted tone. But I’m also glad I found out. Very well done, RIP. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-person-killed-by-covid-19-so-far/849987.md?page=8)