I admit that when I see an obit on this forum. MOST of the time it's regarding someone I've never heard or never cared about and I want to ask, 'why are you posting this nonsense?'

But sometimes, I'm really affected by the news and I have to realize that the death of any celebrity is going to affect SOMEONE deeply. Glad I've never actually lashed out.

Aside from Jobs... he's a special case - what celebrity deaths have affected you most?

For me, the most ever was probably Frank Zappa - my musical hero for many years. Robin Williams had a strong affect too because it was initially reported as suicide due to depression (was actually due to psychosis brought on my disease). I've suffered from depression, but never while laughing at him. David Bowie was a huge surprise - never a big fan, but I had A LOT of respect for him.

Roberto Clemente died when I was a kid - I was a big fan.

But generally, not that many. I see LOTS of posts about deceased TV actors - for some reason, I just don't imagine personal relationships with actors - they don't 'touch' me like other popular people might. Not like musicians. But everyone's different...

I thought both Michael Jackson and Prince's deaths were pretty shocking. Both were (relatively) young, and sort of came out of nowhere since neither was known (to me at least) as a big druggie.

I mean, Keith f-in Richards is still alive. How did he manage that all these ill-spent years?

My father's. Not much of a 'celeb', except during the record 1993 flooding in St. Louis, when he was in huge demand for TV news interviews from local news all the way to the BBC. He was so tired after two days of 'talking head' interviews, Mom unplugged the phone and put him to bed. Dad kind of enjoyed his rock star status as "the expert' to talk about how the US Army Corps of Engineers totally screwed up flood controls, and the local cities screwed up by allowing flood plain development. He said that even his Dean congratulated him on the recognition (of course the University was named in the name panel below his image).

Princess Diane...

Thurman Munson, when I was a kid.

Prince, as I'd grown up with his music (first album I owned) but had never seen him in concert. I watch the '83 live clip of P&tR doing Purple Rain every fortnight or so because that performance is so damn good.

Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King.

John Lennon and Otis Redding.

Stevie Ray Vaughn

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MacResource User Map: [www.zeemaps.com]#

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ztirffritz
Stevie Ray Vaughn

yeah, that was a while ago, but it hurt. I saw him live for the first time just a few months earlier and he was so happy to be alive and clean and sober. And he was amazing that night.

Ditto RFK and King.

Musicians would include John Lennon and George Harrison. I hope Mark Chapman dies behind bars. He gets no compassion from me. It's still hard to accept that they are gone.

Several people in the world of classical music. And there are some who are now elderly and no longer performing. The knowledge and experience and talent that vanish when those minds are gone distresses me greatly.

Huell Howser
Johnny Cash

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ztirffritz
Stevie Ray Vaughn

I'm sure that would have bothered me, but I'm ashamed to say that I did not know of him until after his death. The guitarist that did bother me the most was Johnny Winter, I was following his band wherever the driving distance was reasonable, and spoke to him and his band mates several times. There was just something about his live performances that I found compelling, pre recorded music was OK, but I was craving listening live, they really kicked it up several notches.

Dave

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Welcome to Dave's BBQ!

Many have eaten here....

Few have died

JFK. I was 14. My mother cried and so many images of people crying on TV.

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Shirley Temple. As long as the biggest celebrity of the '30's was alive, I was sure to have many years left on this planet.

Robin Williams was tough.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

Is it bad/wrong to say none?

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

Chuck Norris.

Eventually.

I remember certain celebrity deaths, but I don't know they affected me other than to become reference points in my memory of that time in my life. Those "where were you when you heard..." points. Elvis and John Lennon come to mind from my childhood.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/2017 08:47PM by Acer.

Recently David Bowie, I considered him a genius, watching him develop his different styles as he matured

Long Term JFK. In may ways it was the end of Camelot for our nation. After watching the PBS Vietnam series it really brought back when my awareness of the war and distrust of Politicians began. For me it was 1966 to 67 when I was in middle school. My belief is that era is key in where we are today as a nation.

Trying to not be political

Good golly, just about everyone listed above affected me some way or another with their death. Most of those folks were popular as I was growing up, and a few of them were heroes to me.

I will say that for one, Bruce Lee's passing shook me up. I was a HUGE martial arts fan, and Lee was right there at the top of his game. I never suspected he would die so young.

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Mr. Lahey: A lot of people, don’t know how to drink. They drink against the grain of the liquor. And when you drink against the grain of the liquor? You lose.

Randy: What the @#$%& are you talking about?

Me personally? Stevie Ray was tough, as were Prince and MJ, primarily because they were all giants in their fields and still had so much to contribute.

As a nation? JFK, Jr. I firmly believe he was this country's last, best chance to get things moving in the right direction again.

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It is what it is.

John Lennon, Steve McQueen, Joe Strummer, Joey Dunlop (motorcycle racer), George Harrison, Robin Williams, Nicky Hayden (another motorcycle racer), Tom Petty...all died before their time. I loved Paul Newman, but he had a great long run and his death wasn't as upsetting as the ones I've listed above.

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I'm touched or affected in some way about several, but the one that hit me hardest was Princess Dianna.

Not British. Not a huge fan of the royals. Never really followed her too closely.

But when the news of her accident and then death came, it really hit me.
She was so young, vivacious, dignified, caring...

She just seemed to have so much and to represent so much...
And then snuffed out in an instant, in a somewhat unseemly way, with disgusting tabloid coverage.

Other's should have affected me more, but that hit me in a different way and changed my perception about the fragility of life.

My dad. He was a teacher and 500+ came to say goodbye. Small town.

Tinkerbell...but all the boys and girls in their nighties and the papooses all clapped and we brought her back.
[etc.usf.edu]

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Buck
My dad. He was a teacher and 500+ came to say goodbye. Small town.

Teachers are special people, for they build the future. My Dad was a college professor. Both memorial masses were standing room only. It was humbling.

Kurt Cobain. I was in College, napping in a hallway when someone walked by, muttering and crying. I think I joined her.

John Lennon. I was just a child, but then next day, I heard "A Day In The Life" and my brother told me I looked hypnotized! The late movie that weekend was "Yellow Submarine" I didn't stop listening the the KISS, Judas Priest, etc that my older brothers liked, but it never held a candle to the Beatles. I begged my parents for Beatles cassettes for a while!

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San Antonio, TX (in the old city)


"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
“Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." - Eli Weisel

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." - Theodore Roosevelt (1918)

"I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it." - Billy Graham 1981

"Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise" - Barry Goldwater

David Bowie
(Just personally affected me more than the others.)
JFK
(I was young but still remember it, so it must have been something.)
John Lennon
(It was just wrong)

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Staunton, Virginia

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jdc
Is it bad/wrong to say none?

No "affect" beyond disappointment when they're untimely.

John Lennon. I was 9 and a big Beatles fan, and John was my favorite. We were watching WKRP and Connie Chung interrupted with the breaking news.

Princess Diana, my wife and I were going to a friend’s house for a barbecue and heard the shocking news on the radio on the drive over. When we showed up, everybody was devastated, lots of crying.

David Bowie’s death hit me hard. And really, I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal to everybody else, that it would just be a minor thing, forgotten in a day or two. Instead it seemed like the whole world was devastated. It’s like we lost an elder statesman that never got his proper due. I remember, the next Sunday, on Breakfast with the Beatles, Chris Carter made it all David Bowie, and that was a long tough morning.

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jdc
Is it bad/wrong to say none?

No; that would be my answer too. Princess Diana was a real tragedy but, I have ZERO sympathy for any of the knuckleheads who OD / DWI / or are just plain stupid (aka Darwin Award candidates).

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testcase

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jdc
Is it bad/wrong to say none?

No; that would be my answer too. Princess Diana was a real tragedy but, I have ZERO sympathy for any of the knuckleheads who OD / DWI / or are just plain stupid (aka Darwin Award candidates).

She was a PASSENGER in the vehicle that delivered her to her death. What's your point?

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It is what it is.

I'm going to step out of the weeds as a long time lurker to answer this one because curiously enough I was thinking about this same idea just recently:

Robert Arneson (I was lucky enough to have him as a teacher at UCD for several semesters, and the thought of his death still makes me sad to this day.)
Kurt Cobain (I still remember the first time I saw Nirvana when they opened for Tad in SF, and it was the closest thing to a religious experience I have ever experienced.)
Micheal Hutchenson (The movie Dogs in Space is still relevant to me all these years later)
Joe Strummer (Oh man, Joe Strummer...)
David Bowie. (I kinda thought he'd always be there. I mean he sang with Bing Crosby for God's sake!)

Huh, just typing this out makes me so sad...

outcast

In the bigger scheme of things, none.

But in the spirit of the thread, (along with others also previously named:

John Lennon. I was just a kid but saw what he meant to so many that it was hard not to take notice
Kurt Cobain
Adam Yauch
Malik Taylor aka Phife Dawg



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/2017 01:30AM by Bo.

In addition to many of the other celebrity deaths mentioned above*, I'd add Steve Irwin to my list. He put so much enthusiasm on camera, and my kids adored watching him. Another more recent passing that touched me was Carrie Fisher. For some reason JFK and MLK are in a different category for me, sort of beyond "regular" celebrity.

*especially Robin Williams, John Lennon, George Harrison, Bruce Lee, and Tom Petty.

Jerry Garcia - I remember where I was when I heard, trying to get Netscape stock on their IPO day. Love or hate the Grateful Dead, he was a very influential musician. The various iterations of "the Dead" have tried but been unable to replace him. The latest, Dead & Company is the best, I think, but that is a conversation for a different thread.

David Bowie and Tom Petty for all the reasons above.

My wife was at Prince's final show in Atlanta. I was at Col Bruce Hampton's 70th B-day show in Atlanta where he collapsed on the stage (everyone assumed it was the Col. being the Col.) and died later. Those were both hard.

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N-OS X-tasy!

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testcase

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jdc
Is it bad/wrong to say none?

No; that would be my answer too. Princess Diana was a real tragedy but, I have ZERO sympathy for any of the knuckleheads who OD / DWI / or are just plain stupid (aka Darwin Award candidates).

She was a PASSENGER in the vehicle that delivered her to her death. What's your point?

+1 with the OD/DWI

I don't worship celebrities, so, meh.


Within 2 years of graduating high school I lost two buddies to Nam, one to brain cancer and another to riding a bike on Comm Ave. Their loss certainly made me more cautious and appreciative of every breathing moment. Flirting with the grim reaper never made sense to me.

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BOYCOTT YOPLAIT [www.noyoplait.com]
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For those of us wondering if anybody would post a Summer's Eve-y comment...wonder no more!

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/2017 10:02AM by Yoyodyne ArtWorks.

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N-OS X-tasy!
Me personally? Stevie Ray was tough, as were Prince and MJ, primarily because they were all giants in their fields and still had so much to contribute.

As a nation? JFK, Jr. I firmly believe he was this country's last, best chance to get things moving in the right direction again.

Then they doubled down and took out his brother too. Imagine RFK and MLK working together?

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vision63

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N-OS X-tasy!
Me personally? Stevie Ray was tough, as were Prince and MJ, primarily because they were all giants in their fields and still had so much to contribute.

As a nation? JFK, Jr. I firmly believe he was this country's last, best chance to get things moving in the right direction again.

Then they doubled down and took out his brother too. Imagine RFK and MLK working together?

I wrote JFK, Jr., not Sr. I hadn't been born yet when JFK was assassinated.

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It is what it is.

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N-OS X-tasy!

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testcase

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jdc
Is it bad/wrong to say none?

No; that would be my answer too. Princess Diana was a real tragedy but, I have ZERO sympathy for any of the knuckleheads who OD / DWI / or are just plain stupid (aka Darwin Award candidates).

She was a PASSENGER in the vehicle that delivered her to her death. What's your point?

The fact that Princess Di was a passenger doesn't make her death less of a tragedy and loss. Yes, had she been seat belted in, she might have survived the crash. While she was alive, Princess Di made a big difference in the lives of many when she really had NO responsibility to do so. Paparazzi should be held STRICTLY responsible when their harassment is the cause of death or injury.

Easy to argue that their harrassment caused her death. No idea why 2nd or 3rd degree manslaughter wasn't brought to bear.

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N-OS X-tasy!

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vision63

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N-OS X-tasy!
Me personally? Stevie Ray was tough, as were Prince and MJ, primarily because they were all giants in their fields and still had so much to contribute.

As a nation? JFK, Jr. I firmly believe he was this country's last, best chance to get things moving in the right direction again.

Then they doubled down and took out his brother too. Imagine RFK and MLK working together?

I wrote JFK, Jr., not Sr. I hadn't been born yet when JFK was assassinated.

That was pretty shocking.

Joe Strummer. He was just too young, and such a life force, and part of my youth (and probably the best concert I have ever attended).

Jim Carroll. He was a poet hero of mine, and I had been waiting for him to produce that next great work. It probably would never have happened, but I still held out hope.

Robin Williams, because it was just so profoundly sad, and because I had been watching his last film where he plays that annoyed, depressive character, most likely at the exact point he was killing himself...

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Hurts like a bastid...

Jim Henson

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Yes , Jim Henson!

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Hurts like a bastid...