The celebrity death that hit you the hardest

Prince - shocked

Christopher Reeve - sad

Lady Di.

cameron boyce hit hard because he was super young and had serious health issues but seemed like he had a bright future ahead of him career wise and it just came as an utter shock to hear that he died in his sleep

Guess.

I was a freshman in college when Gilda Radner died. That one hit me hard since I'd grown up watching her on SNL and she died so young.

Carrie Fisher was another hard one to accept.

Gilda Radner. I still get sad when I think about it.

of course

Prince and David Bowie, partly because we didn't know they were that sick, partly because of the timing.

Carrie Fisher wasn't the biggest surprise re her struggles with chemical dependencies, but the way she became ill and died was a surprise, and then for Debbie to follow was very dramatic.

And Madeline Kahn. Because I wish she was still around, and it breaks my heart that she isn't.

Abraham Lincoln.

Kurt Cobain. I remember too, Andy Rooney at the time did a bit about him on 60 Minutes, and the gist of it was, "meh". Kind of swore me off the prick for all time.

Of course, people do die by suicide every day, and their lives weren't worth any "more" than Cobain's, but he also did not address the hysterics that accompanied the deaths of Elvis, Joplin, Morrison, etc. Just because he didn't connect with Cobain made his assume it was no big deal.

Elvis Presley, John Lennon, George Harrison, Johnny Carson and Elizabeth Taylor.

R3 thank you for reminding me about Cameron Boyce. I was only slightly aware of him but I was so shocked because of his age and it reminded me that death can come for anyone at any moment.

Some deaths, while sad and devastating, are....well, necessary.

#JusticeForPatsy #BanPintSizedHarlots

Michael Jackson. All the controversy about him aside, I grew up watching him and to have him die so suddenly like that was pretty jarring.

Prince. Like many people, I was at work when that news alert hit my phone and I could not believe what I was reading. Totally ruined my day.

Elizabeth Montgomery, chiefly because I remember walking into my house after work, turning on the news, and there it was. I had always adored her.

Nipsey Hussle. I am still shook by the loss.

The beloved Doris Day. I grew up watching her TV show and knew about her great love for animals. I thought she would live forever or at least a few more years and when she suddenly died last year I was shocked. The world lost a beautiful ray of sparkling light.

Natalie Wood

I normally don't care about celebrity deaths. But Carrie Fisher's death hit me hard. I don't know why? I wasn't a fan and didn't know that much about her life. It was only after her death I found out what a mess she was and all her mental health struggles. Maybe the reason why her death hit me so hard had to do with her being a part of my childhood nerding to the max over Star Wars movies with my Dad who passed away in 2014.

Frank Zappa.

I don't know if I'd say the "hardest" by Anthony Bourdain's suicide was a huge shock. A couple of months before I heard him on NPR talking about his new book with recipes that his daughter & her friends liked & I was (pleasantly) surprised how mellow he sounded. He didn't seem at all like his usual acerbic self. In retrospect and even without knowing about his messy personal life, you only had to watch his shows (before & after sobriety) and tell that this was a guy with some serious mental health/mood disorder issues. But that the time it was shocking because Travel Writer seems like the best gig of all time.

Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds dying within a day of each other.

Warren Zevon

Prince OD'd several days before he died so I was a little surprised at how many were shocked by his death. For me, the shock had been when he OD'd on the plane. I didn't know he'd been struggling.

We had a huge thread on Bowie a couple years before he died and some egregious cunt kept saying Bowie was terminally ill, but was such a cunt about it no one believed them. I still think it may have been a troll who just happened to say something that was true.

Robin Williams

Princess Diana

JFK Jr.

George Harrison

Losing David Bowie, Prince and George Michael in 2016 really sucked. Carrie and Debbie died within a few days of Michael and really ended the year on a shitty note.

Patty Duke

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

John Lennon, River Phoenix, JFK Jr, George Carlin.

Laura Branigan. Favorite singer. Far too young. Really deserved a comeback hit.

I always hate it when two celebrities die back to back. I always feel sorry for the first one as the second one usually steals some of their 'moment'.

R29 Like Farrah and Michael Jackson dying on the same day. Farrah barely got mentioned.

John Lennon, River Phoenix, Princess Diana and JFK Jr. were all shocking.

But the 2016 death toll made me sadder. Bowie, Prince, Carrie Fisher (another Star Wars kid here, and she always seemed genuinely funny) and I'd put in a word for Alan Rickman and Vanity.

Abraham Lincoln

Carrie and Debbie. Carrie seemed to be making a comeback with the Star Wars movies and then for Debbie to die so soon after. Sad.

It didn’t hit me personally, but Luke Perry seemed totally out of the blue

Robin Williams, too.

Prince and Bowie. When David Bowie died, my eyes would start leaking tears for no reason for two weeks. It was bizarre, and I couldn't explain or control it. With Prince I was shocked and couldn't cry at all, I felt numb and spent two straight days listening to his music.

Natalie Wood - I was a kid at the time but it really did hit me hard.

Maybe Carrie Fisher was next. Honorable mentions go to Robin Williams and Prince.

Princess Diana - the whole world stopped when that happened and felt a collective guilt.

Whitney Houston - we were all pulling for her and seemed she may come back somehow after she dropped her husband. Her daughter's copycat death was too weird for words.

George Michael - he epitomized the tortured gay soul for me.

Oh no, my 2nd was Amy Winehouse. Jeez I nearly forgot, but I as numb for days. I cried. Listened to her music for months, watched all the youtube videos. I was really affected because I thought there was so much we hadn't got to hear from this talent. Others were a little past their prime but she had a lot more time.

[quote] Oh no, my 2nd was Amy Winehouse. Jeez I nearly forgot, but I as numb for days. I cried.

Can;t even breath(e)...

George Michael's death hit me hardest. Anthony Bourdain's shocked me.

A lot of these didn't shock me that much because if you followed news about them, you knew (or you could at least figure out) they had pretty heavy drug or alcohol problems: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Anna Nicole Smith, Heath Ledger, George Michael, Kurt Cobain, Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse.

A few surprised me because I thought the person was really past their drug problems (like Carrie Fisher) or they hid their addiction well enough I had not heard about it (Prince).

Likewise I was saddened nbut not surprised when some people with cancer or other serious illness died: Elizabeth Montgomery, Gilda Radner, Madeline Kahn, Farrah Fawcett. David Bowie hid his illness, so that was a shock.

Phil Hartman's murder is something that I will never get over. Popular comedy has really suffered by his absence.

None, really.

None made a big impression but or rattled me, but the deaths of a very few, non-Hollywood-style celebrities aroused some reflection in that their lives or work captured a particular time or theme. Most recently, Larry Kramer whom I knew a little, but his health had been frail at best for many years so it was not a surprise exactly. A couple of authors, their important work from decades prior; a couple of artists and academic figures. None of these were shocking, just a sort of marker of a time.

Obviously the most shocking have been when the death was a murder or horrible accident and came out of nowhere: Princess Grace, Princess Diana, Phil Hartman

Robin Williams

Britney Murphy

Chester Bennington

David Bowie. But also as an Aussie from Melbourne: Danny Frawley was an AFL footballer and TV personality. Very well known in his sphere. Suffered debilitating depression and suicided by driving at high speed into a tree. The news of it was awful and shocking.

John Lennon, absolutely. Cried (as quietly as I could) at home and at work for 3 days. And I didn't cry near that much when my father died.

Honorable (?) mentions: Patty Duke (went to grade school with her). Heath Ledger (such a waste of talent and beauty).

[quote] The beloved Doris Day.

Seriously? She was 97 years old!

Diana, Princess of Wales

JFK, Jr.: Anyone who says the Kennedys are cursed is just plain stupid. They're a bunch bored thrill seekers who do reckless things. I remember thinking when I read in the NY Tabloids that he was taking flying lessons and then bought a plane that it would not end pretty.

Kurt Cobain

John Lennon

Jon-Erik Hexum: such beauty

Michael Hutchence

Andy Gibb

Andy Whitfield

James Gandolfini

River Phoenix Kurt Cobain Princess Diana Amy Winehouse Patrick Swayze George Michael

Second Phil Hartman. He was like a hilarious uncle or dad.

What was sad was that he obsessed over that bitch wife of his. He could have had lots of beautiful women who would treated him well and had a happy family. But he had to have the model who thought she deserved to be an actress.

Trying again...

River Phoenix

Kurt Cobain

Princess Diana

Amy Winehouse

Patrick Swayze

George Michael

Amy, Carrie and Prince

[quote] What was sad was that he obsessed over that bitch wife of his. He could have had lots of beautiful women who would treated him well and had a happy family.

What makes me really sad is that Jan Hooks was in love with him, but she wasn't pretty enough for him.

Jon-Erik Hexum.

I was hooked on the show Voyagers!

A kid goes off time traveling with a surrogate father/big brother/favorite uncle/best buddy/protector?

I think I have two sets of the DVD and one on digital.

What a waste. What a loss. If alive today, he's either be a movie star or playing dads on CW shows and the only note from execs would be: "He's hotter than all the other guys on the whole network."

*he'd

R55 Jan is another one whose death made me sad.

Not unexpected entirely, but sad nonetheless.

Robin Williams and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

I'm rarely upset when celebs croak but the death of these two fabulous Jewesses left me pretty heartbroken: Ofra Haza and Ronit Elkabetz. The first one died because her sleazy husband gave her AIDS and the second one died only a few years after giving birth to twins.

Karen Carpenter

David Bowie because I had no idea he was so ill.

Anton Yelchin

R49 The title of the thread is "The celebrity death that hit you the hardest," not "The most shocking and unexpected celebrity deaths."

Yes, Doris Day was 97 years old, but she was one of the last remaining stars of the Hollywood golden age, and she had a huge legion of fans until the day she died, even though she essentially gave up acting 46 years before her death.

For me, when John Ritter died in 2003, it hit me pretty hard. I was in my mid-30s. Three's Company was something I and my friends watched growing up as kids in the 1970s. Jack Tripper was a character we all loved. He was only 54 years old when he died of an undiagnosed heart ailment. To have someone I remembered from my childhood being such a big star and presence suddenly gone was a really shocking and unexpected. It brought home my own mortality, as I was marching toward 40. I remember my brother and I talking about it as the first death of stars we knew who were still relatively young.

Karen Carpenter

Patty Duke

Aaliyah: died over the weekend. I didn’t go to school Monday. Karen Carpenter: I wasn’t yet born when Karen lived, my mom always played the carpenters in the car in my 90s childhood, one day she let it slip that Karen died years ago. I was devastated.

Carrie Fisher. I still miss her.

I can't believe it took 68 replies to get to the most obvious one.

Maybe it's nap time at the Franklin Pangborn Home for Eldergays

R69

Ha! Ha! Ha! I'll say!

Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes

Anton Yelchin

Christopher Reeve

Prince

George Michael

David Bowie

Marvin Gaye

Heath Ledger

Donny Hathaway

Phyllis Hyman

Nipsey Russell (a Hell's Kitchen neighbor)

Judy Garland

Heath Ledger

Robin Williams

Barbara Cook

Bonnie Pointer

Tom Petty

Anthony Bourdain. I'm still shocked in a way after all this time. I had DVRed his last show and still haven't been able to watch it. I wasn't even that avid a fan, didn't watch all his shows, but he seemed such a vibrant, life-loving person and a decent human being. Such a person pulling the plug, just like that, still seems inexplicable.

David Bowie, then Alan Rickman immediately after. That left me hollow and stunned. I binged on their stuff for about a year after. But Robin Williams, that ripped my guts out. To think he was suffering so much, I still can't quite process the pain of someone I loved so much, like a child, at a distance. He radiated empathy and pain. One more: Bernie Mac, His passing was so unexpected, he was just 50. He was inimitable, irreplaceable. They all were. Damn, what a sad thread.

R75 I didn't know much of his work either but he had profiled my home town and I had just watched it the month before he died.

Seems very sad.

Grumpy Cat

All the grunge/Rock/alt lead singers of the group's I grew up with as a teen.

Kurt Cobain (Nirvana) Layne Staley (Alice in Chains) Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots)

And more recently Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington

Meryl’s.

(Well, a girl can dream. Teehee.)

Karen Carpenter

Kurt Cobain

Scott Weiland

Rock Hudson. It shocked and scared me as a little gay boy. I couldn't believe that he was gay and had AIDS. Even as a kid I knew what a tragedy his death was.

Joan Rivers.

Anna Nicole Smith.

Donna Summer. She was my original Diva and the first concert I ever saw, and her death was sudden.

Bowie was upsetting but with him hiding from public view for the years prior I was somewhat expecting it.

Kirk Douglas. So young.

Tom Petty

You will “Mary!” me, but I’ve only now started to mourn him. My brain just wouldn’t process his being gone.

R87

MARY!

Marilyn Monroe. I was playing with a friend in his yard and his mother came out and told us. I felt sad because she seemed nice and had a great smile.

Prince, JFK Jr, Diana and Lisa Left Eye Lopes.

Laura Nyro, Prince, and Robin Williams.

R89 Same thing happened to me when Elvis died. I was playing in the front yard with my best friend when my mom came running outside and shouted, "Elvis Presley died!"

Totie Fields

JFK Jr, George Michael. Amy Winehouse was sad because you could see it coming a mile away. Brittany Murphy because the circumstances were so odd. Anna Nicole even more so...what a crazy time that was!

I was a teen when Kurt Cobain died, and it was all anyone could talk about for awhile, but in retrospect I was more upset about Layne Staley and Chris Cornell. I was a little sick of Nirvana by the time Courtney murdered him.

I remember when they reported that Anna Nicole had been found unresponsive in her bed and had been taken to the hospital. For a few hours, no one knew if she was alive or dead, and I remember thinking, "Come on, Anna Nicole! You can pull through!"

Nope.

R87 Tom Petty is dead? Wow, did not know.

David Bowie, Freddie Mercury and George Michael, in that order. Can't listen to them without thinking that they're no longer alive.

Marjorie Main (Ma Kettle) - I'm still rocked by her passing.

Also Joan Rivers - as referenced in [83] - she was a gift!

I'd say Amy Winehouse. It was almost inevitable that she'd be dead before her 30th birthday - she seemed determined to self-destruct - but I still remember being shocked when the Sky News notification popped up to say she had died. It was the first time I experienced the death of an artist I was a big fan of.

Mr. Peanut

Heath Ledger, no question.

David Bowie second.

Amy Winehouse shocked me too. Everyone was expecting it and it still felt surreal to see the video of her body being removed from her house. I also remember all the bad jokes on DListed and all the other celebrity blogs that were popular back then before and after her death.

I would suggest everyone watch the 2015 documentary "Amy". Made me so sad to hear from all her friends and family and how many manipulative people - including her own father - she had in her life who literally dragged her unconscious body on a plane to make them some money.

David Bowie MJ

Carrie Fisher; so unnecessary.

Joan Rivers; so unnecessary.

I was in Anguilla, staying at the Viceroy when Princess Margaret died. Everyone at the reflecting pool bar raised a glass and sang "God Save the Queen" . It was sad, but lovely.

Whitney and Joan Rivers.

M A R Y me all you want but when Madonna goes I really will lose it.

Yeah, she's lost her mind these days with her absurd social media posts and fake ass . . . but her music has been the soundtrack of my life.

In her prime there was no one like Madonna. Even now her challengers pale in comparison.

The beloved Mother Teresa. Although she was loved world-wide, she died just shortly after Princess Diana which overshadowed her death. But she had such humility that I don't think she would have really minded.

Friends who died not far apart.

R55 Your comment breaks my heart. I loved Jan Hooks.

Bourdain was a shock.

Embarrassed to say so given the stature of many of the people cited here, but my honest answer is Corey Haim.

At the time he passed I, coincidentally, was freshly graduated and sadly going through a horrific grief/meds induced depression (shyster Doc gave me medication that almost killed me, brother tried to kill himself, bad combo). Thanks to my dark night of the soul I had no friends and no job (ok, still don’t, but I couldn’t cope with it then) during an existential crisis, and there were times I couldn’t leave my house for a week or shower for a month. I dabbled with some self-harm and almost stopped eating at one point.

Then to hear that Haim was gone...it drove me to the point of total numbness emotionally. I still remember I was crying without tears for what felt like aeons but was probably days. I grew up a happy child watching many a movie starring him as a younger less troubled person, and I always had hope he’d pull through even knowing how deep he’d descended. It wasn’t a shock that he died young or in the way that he did, but it seemed like many people thought of Haim the way I did and couldn’t reconcile the bloated rotted middle-aged corpse with the bubbly boy who played little Lucas/Sam/Les/Dinger.

There was something essentially loveable and human about him even in his bleakest moments (of which we now know there were many). He’s virtually forgotten now, but due to his connection in my mind and heart with both my happiest memories and that awful time in my life I still think about Corey a lot to this day. For what little it’s worth to say in retrospect, I think he was more talented than given credit and could have gone on to bigger things had his demons not been so immense.

This is why I get so down when the Aaron Carter or Edward Furlong threads get bumped. There’s another one of these coming down the line, I’m betting.

Whitney Houston and Robin Williams, definitely.

Jon Benet Ramsey

Chris Cornell did it for me. I was choking up most of that day. I couldn't listen to his music for months afterward. And then Chester Bennington committing suicide on Chris' birthday a few months later just reopened my wound.

Joan Fontaine

Every fucking body.

John John and Lady Di

Elizabeth Taylor. I had to leave work early to cry

I will add John Candy. I was a big fan of SCTV, and I still laugh and cry watching Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Kurt Cobain

R120 Barely affect me.

R55. I wish you hadn’t told me that.

Princess Di. I never thought I cared about her, but I DID expect her to be around for the rest of my life and was shocked at how suddenly she was gone.

John Lennon was the worst...I was 15 and a huge Beatles fan. But Bowie, Robin Williams and Anthony Bourdain were shockers.

I have nevwr been more moved by a public figure's death than George Floyd's. His death will not be in vain. George Floyd changed the whole world.

Joan Rivers. I cried (MARY!) and spent all day watching old clips. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done it since March. Only thing that always cheers me up. She was the best ever.

R55, The Mike Meyer, Chris Farley, Jan Hooks, Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey era SNL was the best. I was shocked about Phil's murder at the time, but I didn't know about Jan's death until a few years after the fact. In fact I did a search many years ago to see what she was up to when I found out her fate. Sad. She and Phil would have made a lovely couple.

R124, How can be be considered a public figure when no one knew who he was two weeks ago?

R124, George was not a celebrity.

Kurk Cobain,

Lady Di,

Heath Ledger,

Michael Jackson,

Amy Winehouse,

David Bowie,

Prince,

George Michael

Sad: Lucy

Missed because they would have Had interesting things to say given future events: Joan Rivers and George Carlin

Shocked: John Lennon. I was in junior high and didn’t yet know how violent the world really was.

Kurt Cobain, Tom Petty, John Ritter, Patrick Swayze

I remember being devastated as a little kid when my mother told me that Endora from Bewitched was dead. I watched old reruns of that show everyday after school. I was so upset, I couldn't watch it for a month.

Lucy was hard because she was always there. She was like the Washington monument. You couldn't imagine the world without her.

Olivia(yes,) Angela and Mitzi will be difficult. You always want them to be there otherwise the world will become unmoored.

Sad was George Michael, to be so talented and live with so many demons inside is heartbreaking. Although I loved hearing the stories of his kindness and generosity after he died, it made me even more sad. Such a loss.

John John was a loss too, just to think of what he could have become.

When Lucy died it was if my childhood had died.

I'm still mourning Patty Duke.

Anthony Bourdain. I will never be convinced he wasn't murdered.

I remember the reaction to Queen Victoria's death - it was like an era was over. Hit me worse than Lincoln.

It had been Phil Hartman but when Stan Lee died I was completely blindsided. Not that he had died but by how much it hit me in the gut.

Donald Trump, the day he rode down the escalator to announce his candidacy for president, tripped and fell down the stairs along with Melania, ending his candidacy instead.

It was sad.

Freddie Mercury

It’s very interesting that several people have mentioned Nipsey Hussle (I still have no clue who,he was) but not one person has named Kobe Bryant.

Whitney Houston by far. And she dominated the news cycle for weeks.

Diana, Princess of Wales was by far the most shocking. More so than runner-up John-John Kennedy

Patty Duke

Joan Rivers

Farrah Fawcett

Another here for John Lennon.

It was just before finals of my sophomore year in college. I'd always been a huge fan of John's, and I was so happy he was starting to release good music again.

At 19, I was young enough that I thought all my heroes were immortal. True, many 60s rock icons had died, but they were already dead when I started listening to their music (Janis, Jim, Jimi, etc).

I remember madly scanning through radio stations that night trying to find one that would tell me it had all been a rumor. I remember being disgusted at the DJs who thought "Love Me Do" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" were appropriate soundtracks. And I remember finally breaking down and losing it when one DJ had the balls to play "Working Class Hero".

RIP

December 8, 1980

Chris Cornell suicide and Debbie Reynolds broken heart

I miss this big sweet guy.

Wes Craven. My favorite director of all time. RIP.

[post redacted because independent.co.uk thinks that links to their ridiculous rag are a bad thing. Somebody might want to tell them how the internet works. Or not. We don't really care. They do suck though. Our advice is that you should not click on the link and whatever you do, don't read their truly terrible articles.]

Baby Peggy

More from vintage news, and another shocking death.

TIt goes without saying that the two greatest losses that we will ever experience in our lifetimes are Princess Diana and JFK Jr.

I can't believe that I'm the first one to mention Jon Erik Hexum. I used to jerk-off to Cover Up and Making of a Male Model when I was a kid. I couldn't believe that someone that gorgeous would be allowed to die.

Bill Paxton. The sexiest vampire ever in Near Dark. Loved him in Aliens. Was so heartbreaking when he died.

Mary Tyler Moore

R156, please allow me to introduce you to r50 and r56.

When I read that John Updike had died I shocked myself by shedding a few tears.

I came to love his writing later in life and also had an affection for his old-timey public intellectualism. I was made even sadder learning from the comments in the Times that he responded to fan mail, as I'd always meant to write him and never had.

R10 That Andy Rooney clip you mention is in the documentary Pearl Jam Ten. I had never seen it before watching that and it made my blood boil.

R55 I thought that Hartman and Jan Hooks dated?

I was devastated when Kurt Vonnegut died.

R157 forgot about Paxton. It was sudden loss, he went too soon. He was excellent in many films, but of course iconic in NEAR DARK.

Kevin Costner was really broken up about Bill’s passing, as the two had become very close friends in their middle-age.

I know it sounds trite, but the Princess of Wales. I'm not much of a royalty whore, but she was arguable the most famous woman in the world, so it was a shock to hear the news bulletin flash on the TV saying she was dead.

I have to say that from childhood (because my mother was a fan of the Eeling comedies--especially Lavender Hill Mob), I had always found Alec Guinness a great and lovable actor (and of course as Smiley--didn't care that much about Obi-Wan as a character). So I was sad when I heard he died. He was pretty old though, so I wouldn't say it hit me that hard since it wasn't really a shock.

r165 here: Ealing not Eeling (as if anybody cares but me).

R160, such an unexpected but nice tribute to John Updike! I had a slight family connection to him, and once wrote him in a half professional/half personal capacity. He responded with a very nice letter that he clearly typed and mailed himself--which I keep locked with my passport and other important papers. He could turn a phrase like no one else I've ever read, and was a true gentleman to boot. I'm afraid he'll be largely cast aside as an irrelevant WASP male relic of the 20th century as the times change before our very eyes. The times should change, but that would still be very sad....

Aretha Franklin's death really hit me. She was such an icon!

Bill Clinton did a great eulogy at her funeral. Never understood why Michelle and Barack didn't show up for ReRe.

Probably because they were afraid someone there would refer to her as "ReRe."

The sudden deaths are most shocking. Here today gone tomorrow no matter one's fame, power or social status.

The biggest shocker would be Elvis Presley. Died at only age 42. The whole world was hit hard and he is still mourned and remembered fondly to this day. He was named the greatest singer of the 20th Century.

Without a doubt, John David Stutts.

Rodney Allen Rippy

the murder of jfk.....

Chris Farley? saw him at an airport once, drunk rude and super creepy to all....

R82, I was just out of college when Rock died (so I'm ancient now); it was transformative; suddenly, AIDS wasn't a gay disease at least not a nameless gay disease. Rock Hudson was not only gay, but he had AIDS and was dying.

Poor Rock. I was a kid watching McMillain and Wife and he looked great; but by Dynasty, he was so thin. The poor man.

Chris Rock died?

James Gandolfini.

Jim Croce, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, JFK Jr., Robin Williams

Allee Willis?. Only heard of her recently...and learned she wrote some of my favorites from very diverse groups. Go figure...you learn of someone's great talent and just then, their taken out of this world.

Bonnie Pointer died yesterday and it's so sad. The passing of any of the Pointer Sister is bad enough. Those girls could SANG! I think there's only one left....

Prince. But it was commonly known among die hard fans that he was pill popping for many years leading up to his death. Even as far back as the late 90's people noticed something was off with him at his shows.

Bea Arthur & Rue McClanahan

Whitney Houston's was sort of expected, but people were still sad judging from the public grief.

R180 There are two Pointer Sisters left- Anita and Ruth.

MJ

R167, I agree regarding Updike's probably legacy. I was in school/uni in the 80s and even then was never assigned him. A shame, isn't it? The whole Rabbit cycle is a beautiful portrait of American life at that time (and yes, from a white middle-class POV). Reading him gave me such insight into my father's generation. Not to mention the gorgeous writing.

Janet Jackson

Jesus of Nazareth

Phinas Boog. Cried for days.

For me it's Whitney Houston. I am not a huge fan. Found her voice overrated - all big notes but no feeling - but liked her personality that I saw in interviews like the infamous Diane Sawyer one. But the addiction was too controlling of her and it killed her. There is something so compelling about her narrative. She had it all and lost it all.

I was 20 when Princess Diana died, she'd been the most famous woman I could think of for as long as I could remember - not a week went by when you didn't see her in a magazine or on tv. Her death remains the most shocking.

Elvis

John Lennon - I was and still am a big admirer, and the way in which he died, and at the point in his life in which he died, was incredibly tragic.

David Bowie - I bowed out of my intense Bowie fandom around the early 90's, but from the mid 70's through the late 80's, he was just about the coolest and most brilliant human being on the planet to me.

Prince - Like with Bowie, I'd long passed the point where I was super interested in him as a current artist, but from "Dirty Mind" through "The Gold Experience", he was one of the very few artists whose new album I would always buy immediately, without hearing a note.

George Harrison - I loved John, but I REALLY loved George. Even though he hadn't released any music in a really long time, I just felt better knowing he was out there in the world.

Tony Gwynn, Junior Seau - two sports icons who meant the world to my home town of San Diego, who both died tragically young.

I cried for two weeks after Bowie died, and I’m not even his biggest fan. I couldn’t explain it. Bourdain was shocking and difficult because he was the one and only tolerable/relatable person on all of reality TV (though I always suspected he was a deeply depressed and repressed closet case).

I’ll absolutely lose my shit when Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop, Keith Richards, and Patti Smith go. Tom Waits is getting up there, too.

Madeline Kahn's death made me so sad.

She was hilarious. Whenever she was on screen, you knew you were gonna laugh your ass off.

Kirk Douglas. Too soon.

George Harrison

Phil Hartman

"Sean" from Corbin Fisher.... so beautiful. Died way too young of an OD.

r106 I am absolutely the same about Madonna. She's really lost the plot over the past decade or so, but I will be devastated when she goes, in a way no other celebrity death has ever affected me. I'm in my 40s, I grew up with Madonna (I was in first grade when her first album came out) and she is without question the #1 entertainer of my lifetime. As she has also been for a LOT of people of my generation. You hear people say a certain pop star provided "the soundtrack of my life," and that's what Madonna has been for so many people my age. I am really going to lose it when she goes. Hopefully it won't be for a long time.

I hope Madonna dies after me. She ruined music and I don't want to witness the hysteria of all the r199s of the world when she dies.

Phil Hartman was the first death that shocked me when I was growing up. John Ritter was several years later but just as shocking. Robin Williams, Michael Jackson, and David Bowie were awful and unexpected as well.

r200 Madonna made some of the best pop music of her era.

She's definitely a Gen X thing, most Boomers hated her.

Larry Kramer's death hit me harder than I thought it would. That was the end of a very important era in gay culture. What he did back in the 80s was as important as what's happening now with BLM.

R202 I'm a boomer and I was a huge fan of Madonna. She started hitting the charts when I was in college.

Only recently have I lost my interest in her, mainly because she's just batshit crazy now and is starting to look like Mae West in Myra Breckinridge.

Larry Kramer is the reason why so many of us are alive r203. I totally agree about his importance.

[italic]Of her era[/italic], r202. HUGE qualifier.

r206 they're all of their era. I've never cared much for the Beatles. They were before my time and their early stuff sounds tinny and very dated to me.

The death of Marcia Wallace upset me way more than I ever would have expected.

Kirsty MacColl's death still makes me incredibly sad and angry.

Justice for Kirsty!

It was simply a bad era for music, r207, and it was neither before nor after my time.

Believe it or not, the early Beatles records sound tinny and dated to me, too. But when they were new, there had simply never been anything like them before. Each one was a tuneful marvel in songwriting and performance. Now? I don't like much of the pre-Sgt. Pepper's stuff except what was on Beatles '65 and Beatles VI (now sold as Beatles for Sale and Help!).

I loved Doris Day but it was time for her. Most of the others died far to young and yes, they all touched me.

The ones whose drug use was known weren't very shocking to me, although it was sad. Michael Jackson, Carrie Fisher, Whitney Houston and George Michael.

I was shocked by Prince's death because I never knew he was into drugs.

Buddy Holly

Still miss him. Still have a thing for men wearing horn rimmed glasses.

Freddy Mercury.

Usually I'm pretty stoic to the passing of various celebs, but for some odd reason the 2012 death of Ernest Borgnine got under my skin. I was watching TCM, and they did one of those 'TCM Remembers' commercials, and it wrung the tears out of me.

My only regret about about Carrie's death(she didn't even have the talent of a homeroom school teacher) was that it killed her mother. Honestly was she fucking Lucas? And couldn't he do better?

Elizabeth Taylor

Lolo Ferrari

Carrie Fisher.

Andy Warhol, I studied Art History and grew up in Pennsylvania and carried around Edie as my bible. I really thought it was fate that I would meet him and experience all the beautiful people at the Factory. I had applied for an internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1986, but didn’t get it, though they remarked that I would still be eligible next year. So I replied early 1987 and was sure I would have my summer in NYC and meet him. He died in February right around my birthday and it was devastating, he was the first artist I really knew of who had died. I got my internship that summer, but it was bittersweet.

Two years earlier I had another upsetting experience. I also studied Interior Design and when Laura Ashley died, possibly from being murdered by being thrown down the stairs, I wore all black the next day to class almost expecting the building to be draped in black crepe and bunting. I was shocked that my classmates weren’t also in black and in deep mourning. I may have become hysterical and needed to be walked out of the classroom by another student to the water fountain in the hall to get a drink of water and calm down. I don’t know why I reacted that way, it wasn’t really like I was drawn to her stuff. It was just very emotional none the less.

A guy known in the hard rock world as "Lemmy"? Only because I'd just seen the Netflix doc on him. Lordy, how I wish I could drink Jack Daniels all day, play video games and chain smoke the whole time. Grab a hot meal from the Rainbow Room, people say hello and call it a night. Perhaps if I were a superhero I'd do just that and live for centuries experiencing history completely wasted. Forget the whole thing of saving lives!

Robert Kennedy

Andy Gibb

Robin Williams

😿 Lil Bub

I just found out last week that he died in December 2019.

ME TOO, r221. I even have the Lil Bub stuffed doll.

Olivia D'havilland.

^^^ Say WHAT BEOTCH!

You probably have seen them r222, the Lil Bub Show videos on YouTube. If not, you will love them. My favorites are Bub interviewing Michelle Obama and Whoopi Goldberg.

r219, Lemmy (Kilmeister from motorhead) hit me really hard too. he was like Leonard Nemoy- I never really thought about age and I was he fact they were actually human and could die.