Celebrities we really miss

[shereads]

I still can't work up any anguish over the loss of whatshisname from Three's Company, or Bob Hope. (Is he dead? I forget.) Not that I'm glad they're dead or anything, I just never felt they were part of my life.

I miss Christopher Reeve because the world needs heros, and if there are any left in the popular culture, I can't think of them right now. Yes, there are survivors. But Reeve did more than survive.

I miss Madeleine Kahn.

I miss Ray Charles.

I miss George Harrison, because he was the "normal Beatle."

Are there celebrities whose presence you particularly miss? Or whose deaths you know will hurt you? My world won't be the same without David Letterman or Hunter S. Thompson. I vote they live a long time.

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Isaac Asimov and Douglas Adams, both of them I found out about after the fact, but it still shook me.

and I know for a fact that on the day Ray Bradbury dies, I'll be simply unable to function.

 

[Guest]

Glenn Gould, Rudolf Nureyev, Maria Callas, Samuel Beckett

I don't "miss" them in a maudlin or even sentimental way (I only burst into tears for Nureyev). I just don't like that they aren't still alive.

Perdita

 

[Colleen Thomas]

John Wayne
Johnny Cash
Dan Blocker
Bob Hope
Jimmy Stewart
Bully IV
Gilda Radner
Princess Di

The list just goes on and on. Nothing really reminds me of my own mortality than when someone I grew up with passes. Even those who weren't favorites of mine at the time still remind me that my life is a finite thing.

Each of those listed, hit me at just the right time in my life to make a huge impression.

I don't have any favorites today really, but I know I will feel it everytime one of those I remember from y childhood passes.

-Colly

 

[rgraham666]

Me? Harry Truman, Clarence Darrow, Edmund Burke, Thomas Jefferson, Socrates.

All level headed, restrained people who we could really use these days.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

Still I get all weepy when I think about Jimmy Stewart being gone. When I was a little girl, I watched his movies like most kids watch cartoons. I think I was about seven when I saw him on some talk show and he was an old man then. I was shocked that he wasn't the dashing younger man from his movies. Jimmy died when I was in my early twenties and I wept over it. My friends thought I was crazy, but to me, he was the genuine article of a man. Yes, I watch 'It's A Wonderful Life' and cry my eyes out every year.

 

[Just-Legal]

Most people won't think of him as a celebrity, if they know of him at all, but he was an actor in one of my all time favourite shows, and dammit, he was too young to die.

Peace to you, Richard Biggs

 

[cloudy]

Gilda Radner
John Belushi
Phil Hartman

I think all of them brought something precious into our lives - laughter. The world is poorer without them.

 

[Guest]

john belushi ~saturday night live
linda lovelace ~ porn star
carl sagan ~ star gazer extrodinaire
robert palmer ~ singer 'simply irresistible'


just a few i can think of off the top of my head.. id really have liked the opportunity to know Plato ... but yannow..

 

[cheerful_deviant]

Will Lee, (Mr. Hooper on Sesame Street) and Fred Rogers (of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood).

The passing of someone who I watched as a child always seems to affect me more.

 

[carsonshepherd]

Mr Rogers, definitely.

George Harrison. I tear up every time I hear "My Sweet Lord" especially the line where he says, "And it won't take long my Lord."

And Johnny Cash. A great American poet and voice for the people.

 

[millennium_bard]

Red Skelton

Victor Borge

Jim Henson

Karen Carpenter

 

[cheerful_deviant]

How could I forget in my first post,

John Denver

I grew up listening to him, my mother had several albums.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Red Skelton

Victor Borge

Jim Henson

Karen Carpenter

Freddy the freeloader, rest in peace.

*HUGS*

 

[R. Richard]

Miltiades: Greek general at Marathon
Gaius Claudius Nero: Roman Consul at The Battle Of Metuarus River
The Scipios: Roman generals, father and son
Charles Martel: Defeated the Saracens at Tours
Brian Boru: Defeated the People of Thor at Clontarf
To Ma: Bhuddist monk who, in legend, is the father of Kung-Fu.
Temujin (Genghis Khan)
Chief Joseph: Leader of the Nez Perce
Chaka: King of the AmaZulu

 

[Boota]

Bill Hicks. With all the political fuckery that has been going on he would have had so much to say. And he would have said it better than anyone.

 

[shereads]

Re: Re: Celebrities we really miss

Isaac Asimov and Douglas Adams, both of them I found out about after the fact, but it still shook me.

Adams may be less famous than Asimov, but he leaves us this immortal description of a UFO: "It hovered in exactly the way that a brick will not."[/QUOTE]

 

[BlackShanglan]

Thanks for reminding me that I live in a world without Madeline Kahn, Jimmy Stewart, or Samuel Beckett. I knew all of these on some level - with the possible exception of Madeline Kahn, who I don't see how I could miss, but whose loss gut-shot me as totally as if I had - but oh, what is the bloody point in anything

At least Swift, Wilde, and Twain have always been dead for me. It's hard enough to lose them anyway. I can still remember the point in Yeats's letters when I read that Hugh Lane had gone down with the Titanic. I knew intellectually, of course, that he must have been dead for years ... but I'd just read the man's letter, and suddenly he was gone.

Shanglan

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

For what it's worth, there are just a few celebrity deaths that have gotten to me. Some have already been mentioned: Ray Charles, Bob Hope, Fred Rogers.

The deaths of two other singers depressed me because they were so good, died too damn young, and I never got to meet them: Otis Redding and Jim Croce.

There's one other, and my reaction to his death surprised me. Maybe you have to be a southerner or of a certain age or a sports fan or all of those. Cookie, Colly, some of the other southern writers on this board may understand. But when Bear Bryant, the legendary University of Alabama football coach died, it tore me up.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[cloudy]

For what it's worth, there are just a few celebrity deaths that have gotten to me. Some have already been mentioned: Ray Charles, Bob Hope, Fred Rogers.

The deaths of two other singers depressed me because they were so good, died too damn young, and I never got to meet them: Otis Redding and Jim Croce.

There's one other, and my reaction to his death surprised me. Maybe you have to be a southerner or of a certain age or a sports fan or all of those. Cookie, Colly, some of the other southern writers on this board may understand. But when Bear Bryant, the legendary University of Alabama football coach died, it tore me up.

Rumple Foreskin

I've never been an Alabama fan - I went to the University of Tennessee, and my father graduated from Auburn, but you didn't have to be an Alabama fan to appreciate his skill and the man behind the football coach. Everyone loved him, even those that didn't love Alabama.

 

[Belegon]

Today was rough for me, not just because of C. Reeve, who I respected greatly, but because of Ken Caminiti, who I had thought was finally showing signs of winning his personal battle.

I still remember the day John Lennon was gone. It still feels wrong.

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Re: Re: Re: Celebrities we really miss

Adams may be less famous than Asimov, but he leaves us this immortal description of a UFO: "It hovered in exactly the way that a brick will not."

[/QUOTE]

Adams was the only writer I bought the essays of. He made purity out of humour, was a strong friend to environmentalism, and a humorous voice for agnosticism and atheism. He's also 50% of the reason I can never be a Christian. Too much belief that a good man like him is burning in Hell.

Overall, Adams was one of the heaviest influences on me as a writer and my current style owes much if not all to him.

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Today was rough for me, not just because of C. Reeve, who I respected greatly, but because of Ken Caminiti, who I had thought was finally showing signs of winning his personal battle.

I still remember the day John Lennon was gone. It still feels wrong.

Shit, him too? Damn this day is just getting darker and darker.

 

[Liar]

Re: Re: Re: Celebrities we really miss

Adams may be less famous than Asimov,

Are you sure? Less renowned perhaps. But everyone and their mother have read the HH guide.

#L

 

[doormouse]

Freddie Mercury.

That guy was oozing sex appeal.

*sigh*