Okay, this is a purely subjective question, but a lot of postings suggest 2003 is the year with the highest celebrity mortality rate.
I think 1977 and 1997 are on an equal par. Rather than make 3 huge lists, please do your own research, make your own judgments and post what you think.
I’ll go with 2003. It sure does seem like there’s been a lot of them this year.
According to AMG, which lists people in the music biz, I counted 129 deaths for 1997 and 99 deaths for 1977. Unfortunately, no results returned when I tried 2003. 
how do you measure? By sheer number, or relative fame, talent, general beloved-ness of the deceased?
The emmy memorial reel was pretty amazing this year, I’ll say that. Quite a roster of talents.
I think you have to think in terms of generation.
Granted, some die young - but most die in groups.
My guess is that 2053 will be a bad year…what with Brad Pitt and his ex-wife Jennifer both dying, along with Eminem, Justin Timberlake and Dick Clark.
Talk about addition by subtraction…
Ah, so you figure that by 2053, someone will have found that Dorian Gray portrait of Dick Clark and destroyed it then? 
On a more serious note, it may be a bit premature to judge 2003, as there are still three months left to it. Unfortunately.
I don’t recall 1997 as having an unusually high number of celebrity deaths but I do recall 1977–maybe it was that they were BIG celebrities? My vote is for 1977, for the time being.
Well 1977 was a bad year (I vote for that year myself).
Anyway, for 1997, among others were:
Princess Diana
Mother Teresa
Robert Mitchum
Jimmy Stewart
Jacques Cousteau
Red Skelton
And here’s a link for celebrity deaths in 1997 (it’s on the IMDB but is fairly inclusive) http://us.imdb.com/DiedInYear?1997
And you can also go to:
http://us.imdb.com/DiedInYear?2003
http://us.imdb.com/DiedInYear?1977
I vote that we revive this thread in January 2004 with an official count (according to IMDB) and then we’ll have the matter settled.
OR, we can each go to all 3 lists and count the names that we recognize, thus forming our own subjective counts and worst year.