Celebrity whose death and subsequent loss you felt most

Am I alone in that I have just have never really been touched by a celebrity death? If I don't know someone it really just doesn't bother me. Even if I love them, Johnny Cash, Elliot Smith, Heath Ledger, loved em. But them dying was not really that crazy to me, I don't know them. Just another death. Is that bad? It sounds bad...

Had Landry died I think I would have been pretty sad. I feel like I know him is probably why. I mean I have seen the guy and everything. It would be that much more real.

 

John Lennon
Frank Zappa
Jim Morrison
John Belushi
Keith Moon
Phil Hartman
John Wayne

 

Me too. But I also felt like I knew everyone I listed.

 

I also think mid-90s Barkley could have risen to that occasion, if he'd stayed sober post-retirement, or didn't need the Nike contract. (MJ's line, paraphrased: Republicans wear sneakers, too.) Not to be. A few years back, when profiles were mentioning that he was reading Communist Manifesto in the locker room and sporting anti-war t-shirts, I thought Steve Nash had a shot to grasp a sliver of Ali's legacy, too. Didn't happen there, either, though I understand Nash gives plenty of support to charities privately.

It's already happened with Holyfield. This tv ad is shown locally:

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He's slurring his words in the final cut of the advertisement. Think what must have been left on the editing bay floor.

I saw Spalding Gray perform live once, in a backwater university town. No one seemed to get him. Every time I take a ferry I think of Gray.

With Warren Zevon, at least there was a period of illness leading up to his death, enough for a final album; his passing didn't seem so much of a shock. To me, his death seemed kind of triumphant, too, due to the subject matter of a lot of his songs ("Sleep When I'm Dead," "I was in the house when the house burned down," etc.). I saw a biography of his written by an (ex?-)wife in a bookstore recently. His line on the back: "I got to be Jim Morrison a lot longer than he did."

 

In my (conscious) lifetime:
Kurt Cobain - music died with him....for a time, at least.

Princess Diana - and I really have no idea why. One of my earliest memories was her marriage to Prince Charles. And I have a lot of friends and family in the UK, so it has always felt a bit like home.

Layne Staley - proof that the music didn't die with Cobain and that new bands could come out, be popular, and kick ass.

Stevie Ray Vaughn - I was about 14 when he died. This was the first one that hit me hard. I had several chances to see him, but I was too young and my mom wouldn't let me go alone....and I was the only person I knew at the time to friggin' LOVE his music.

John Entwhistle - Love The Who. I was bummed for quite some time.

Others that I was too young to be aware of or otherwise unaware of them, somehow:
Elvis - I wasn't even two years old when he died.

John Bonham - He died in 1980....I wasn't yet 5 and I wouldn't be into Zeppelin yet for a few more years.

John Lennon - also died in 1980 around the same time as Lennon. Were I older and more cognizant of them and their music, I don't know as I would have ever recovered.

Freddie Mercury - I didn't get into Queen until later in life.

Keith Moon - I wasn't yet 3.

 

John Ritter

 

Aaliyah

 

Not really a celebrity, but I really felt horrible when Anna Nicole Smith's son died.

There is nothing like having to bury your child.

His death reminded me of the miscarriage my girl and I went through.

 

I guess Ziggy has me on ignore.

 

Alice in Chains actually formed the same year as Nirvana. They were around for a LONG time before Cobain died.

 

and their debut album was released a year before Nevermind if I remember correctly..

 

One that I remember was Marvin Gaye's shooting. The thing about it was that the R&B station I listened to in Milwaukee played all his stuff for the next month almost non stop. I remember thinking how sad it was because of all the great music he made. And he made A LOT!! I didn't realise until then how much he had done and how great most of it was.

Jeff Buckley is another becuase Grace had just been released and I really liked that album.

 

They were contemporaries, sure. I was referring more to Alice in Chains had several more good years left in them before Staley died.

 

Gotta be Steve Irwin... the Crocodile Hunter.

The guy was just an amazing human being; his enthusiasm knew no bounds. Out of the millions of times the guy cheated death while dealing with poisonous snakes or gigantic predatory animals... the fact that the guy got taken out by a stingray, of all things, is STILL just totally surreal to me.


George Carlin isn't too far behind, though. Malik Sealy's death was pretty tragic as well.

 

Walter Payton. I cried about it, and I wasn't even born when he was dominating the NFL. I was just amazed that someone of his fame couldn't get a new liver, and would die young.

 

John Lennon
Lowell George
Muddy Waters
Stevie Ray Vaughan

 

Celebrity deaths don't really affect me much. I've seen too many from people who were actually close to me.

I will say though, that when I heard about Eddie Griffin, it brought me down a little bit just because I know that dude had problems and he never beat his demons. That was a tragedy.

Bernie Mac sucked because I didn't really see it coming and that dude is one of the few modern comics I really liked.

I also agree that if Landry had been killed it probably would've bothered me. Dude seems like a good guy.

George Carlin was another that was sad to see go, but he was up there in age. I could also see him making fun of all the mourners if he were around. Bernie Mac may have done the same.

 

Steve Irwin for me too. I was saddened by a number of the deaths mentioned in this thread (especially the more recent ones), but that one hit me pretty hard.

 

I was in high school when JFK was shot. The realization that something like that could happen in this country left me numb! That was followed by Robert and MLK. After MLK, nothing man does to man fazes me anymore!