Famous people whose deaths affected you

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Ross

Ross

Staff member
Dale Earnhardt, Sr.

Perhaps the greatest NASCAR racer of all time, if not the most iconic. Aside from being a great driver, Dale Earnhardt was also a great father, husband, and all-around genuinely good guy.

At every track he went to, Dale raced to win... sometimes creating a little collateral damage to his opponents on the racecourse... hence his nickname, "The Intimidator." His determination to win knew no bounds, and even got him in hot water more than a few times, but he always patched things up and continued to focus on winning.

Perhaps the greatest reason why his death hurt me was because my Dad and I used to watch him all the time and cheer for him. My Dad and Dale also share many of the same personality traits, and they even look similar, so I had a kind of personal connection to Dale as well.

Perhaps the saddest part of Dale's life was the tragic way it was taken from him... on the last turn of the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500 (Daytona 500 being the biggest and first race of the year for you non-NASCAR people). Dale Sr. was sitting in 3rd, in the middle of a 3-wide race to the finish. Ahead of him were teammate Michael Waltrip and son Dale Earnhardt, Jr. In an uncharacteristically unselfish act, Dale Sr.'s car visibly slowed down in an attempt to keep the competition from making a run on his teammates in front of him. One of the cars he was blocking struck his back bumper, which turned his car and sent him into the outer wall at 150 mph, killing him virtually on contact with a fatal neck injury. He was about two months shy of his 50th birthday.

I just watched the clip on youtube, and now I have tears in my eyes.
 
Enresshou

Enresshou

Steve Irwin: Argue with his methods, his actions, or whatever you want, but the man did a lot for conservation and simply radiated a love of nature and empathy for it. He was a good man and father, and the best way I can put it is something I read on Fark the day he died: "Steve Irwin was like that kid we all knew back in elementary school; the one who loved waking up early, who would skip and run to school, who always had a song in his heart, who always raised his hand and knew the answer. We loved him, deep down, and--though we may have hated him at times--we never, ever wanted him to die."

Mitch Hedberg: Loved his jokes and his outlook on life. The title of his first CD, "Strategic Grill Locations," comes from a joke that was never on any of his CD's: 'See, I'm a dreamer, man, and when I was a cook, I'd cook hot dogs. The manager told me to put them in the corner, so if there was a rush I'd have all this space. That's how I knew he wasn't a dreamer, 'cause the day I give up my dreams is the day I have strategic grill locations. A dreamer has a philosophy: the entire grill is hot.'

More than anybody else, he made me laugh, he made me look at the world in a slightly wackier way, and there was nobody else like him.

John Steinbeck: I taught myself to read when I was about three years old, and my dad got me into Of Mice and Men when I was nine or so. After that, I snapped up Steinbeck's books like nothing else, but I had no idea Salinas and Monterey and Big Sur and Carmel were all real places. One day, when I was about ten, my parents took me to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and I was happily surprised to see they had a bunch of his books in the gift shop. I asked my dad about it when we got outside, and he said, "You know we're standing on Cannery Row, right?"

What I felt at that moment was what I'd imagine a 'normal' kid would feel if you suddenly told them the lamp post they were standing under was actually in Narnia.
 
blotsfan

blotsfan

Mav;252305][quote=ThatNickGuy said:
Eddie Guerreo
If you know his real life stuff, Eddie fought hell with a stick and won. He became a hardcore drunk, drug user, you name it. And he defeated his inner demons, he got clean, he won his family's love and trust back, he was doing well in the wrestling business again, then he just suddenly died. No drugs in his system, no alcohol. Just the years of abuse from the drinking and drugs took they're toll on his heart and it just gave out on him.. That made me sad, cause it takes a big person to overcome such obstacles in life, succeed then basically have it bite them in the ass.
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Sorry to burst your bubble. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/more/03/19/wrestlers/index.html

Anyways, George Carlin really screwed me up. Simply a phenomenal comedian.
Also, I might get some crap for this, but I was in a bit of a funk when Billy Mays died. Granted, when I found out about the coke, that was lessened.

And to all you people that said Jim Henson, watch this and not cry.
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
Hail Zappa! He was dead before I got into him, though, so it didn't really affect me, AmE. Still, he was one of the greats.
 
B

BErt

Shegokigo said:
Loved Mitch, but his death didn't "affect my life". He still remains one of my favorite all time comics though.
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Pretty much this. I think what was sad for me was, stand-up comedians seem to be "in" again, and Mitch just missed it...he could have been a lot bigger, and it's all just...gone.
 
H

Hansagan

Put me down as one more for Jim Henson.....such a loss, and even more tragic because it was so avoidable.

Carl Sagan. I grew up on Cosmos, and read his books voraciously in my school library. He helped to develop my interest in astronomy and science in general, and it was a real shock when he died, because I didn't even know he was ill.

The Crew of the Challenger. Not really celebrities, but still a huge shock in my young life.

And finally, Freddie Mercury. A sad loss, but a real class act, right to the end.
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
BErt;252449][quote=Shegokigo said:
Loved Mitch, but his death didn't "affect my life". He still remains one of my favorite all time comics though.
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Pretty much this. I think what was sad for me was, stand-up comedians seem to be "in" again, and Mitch just missed it...he could have been a lot bigger, and it's all just...gone.[/QUOTE]

I thought it was a hoax death for a week, like Mikey from LIFE cereal or Steve from Blue's Clues.
 
P

Philosopher B.

Mav said:
Andy Hallette (spelling?)

Krevlorneswath of the Deathwok Clan, The Host, or simply Lorne. Andy had the most beautiful voice I've ever heard. Fuck it if it's gay to say, this man could sing like an angel of heaven (no pun intended). I mean really, I could listen to him sing a freakin dictionary, he had a set of pipes on him. He battled heart disease and lost..at such a young age.. He is missed.
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This. I actually saw like a year before he died, someone had written on his wiki page that he died in a car crash, which made me really sad, only to find out that he was alive, only for him to really die not that long after.

There are several others I could mention, like Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau (such awesome acting talents that were in some of my fav movies), but probably the thing that distressed me the most relating to famous people was not a death at all, but hearing that Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's ... and after seeing my grandmother suffer from it for 17 years before succumbing completely.

On Douglas Adams, though it depresses me that Adams is no longer among the land of the living, I actually started reading his stuff when I was about fifteen, which was after he died, though it was sad to know whatever I read was absolutely all I would get.
 
CrimsonSoul

CrimsonSoul

Shegokigo said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selena

As a 14yr old girl, who grew up on Tejano music, her death was a huge hit to me. At the time I wasn't exactly fully aware of my sexual orientation or anything to that sort but I was extremely enamoured with Selena. Her voice, her music, her body, her smile. Everything about her was angelic to me. It was even harder as I had met her in person multiple times (she began her career in my area) and attended a few of her concerts. When I heard the news, I had just gotten out of school for the day and I was crushed beyond belief. I couldn't bear the tribute music on the radio, even to this day I have trouble listening to her music.

She was at the cusp of being one of the first major international music stars, before Shakira or any of the other Latin/American cross-over artists. She could have been so much more.... :tear:
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She grew up in the city I currently live in :) and about 30 minutes from where I grew up
 
fade

fade

Staff member
I'll have to be the "jerk" then. I really am trying hard to think of one. I wish there was someone I admired so greatly from a distance that his/her death had some effect on me, but none come to mind.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

Most of the ones that came to mind immediately have already been mentioned (Henson, Asimov, Carlin to name a few). I remember a friend of mine once remarking that Asimov's death was a tragedy because it was the death of the only guy who knew everything (or at least came really close).

Aside from these, the only other "What? Oh no!" name that immediately comes to mind is David Eddings, who earlier this Summer. I think The Belgariad was my first (non-Tolkien) epic fantasy.

--Patrick
 
Necronic

Necronic

Staff member
Phil Hartman. His death is a tragedy that still gets me to this day. I can't imagine what the face of comedy would be like today if he were still here.
 
C

Chazwozel

Necronic said:
Phil Hartman. His death is a tragedy that still gets me to this day. I can't imagine what the face of comedy would be like today if he were still here.
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I'm reminded of that everytime I see Troy McClure or Lionel Hutz on the Simpsons. He was one of the greats.
 
T

TwoBit

I felt sad when Arthur C. Clarke died. It meant that the last of the Big Three of Science Fiction had gone the way of the dodo.

Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and now Arthur C. Clarke are all gone. Sci-Fi will never be the same.
 
ZenMonkey

ZenMonkey

Necronic said:
Phil Hartman. His death is a tragedy that still gets me to this day. I can't imagine what the face of comedy would be like today if he were still here.
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This one should have been in my first post too. Again, don't know why it does but it gets to me too, like on a gut level. By all accounts he was a prince of a guy, besides being a comedic genius, and didn't deserve that horror inflicted on him. Watching NewsRadio, besides still making me laugh out loud, also makes me sad, and I can never get through the episode where Bill dies without losing it along with the cast.
 
phil

phil

Necronic said:
Phil Hartman. His death is a tragedy that still gets me to this day. I can't imagine what the face of comedy would be like today if he were still here.
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yes sir.

I was a bit too young to really follow him as a personality at the time, but if anything the simpsons was just not the same for me.

More and more as I think about it the more it gets to me. Just the fact that he was murdered. Who would ever want to silence that kind of comedic voice? it blows my mind.

---------- Post added at 11:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:15 AM ----------

also, I keep thinking about what I'm going to do when Stan Lee dies. I mean, it's right aroud the corner. He seems like such a genuinely swell guy. I hope he goes peacefully.
 
IronBrig4

IronBrig4

Definitely Steve Irwin. I usually can't care less when a celebrity dies but I always saw Steve as so much more than a talking head. I felt like a buddy of mine had died.
 
K

KarateKidMcFly

When I was in high school, my dad told me to read a book called Shogun, by James Clavell. Immediately, I fell in love with the book; that copy he gave me I've unfortunately thrown away, because it was in tatters. I sought out every book of his, and eventually sought out first editions of most of them. Then, after reading everything, I decided to look him up online, and see if there was any information on him working on any new books... and I found out he'd been dead since 1994. Blew the wind right out of my sails -_-
 
J

JCM

KarateKidMcFly said:
When I was in high school, my dad told me to read a book called Shogun, by James Clavell. Immediately, I fell in love with the book; that copy he gave me I've unfortunately thrown away, because it was in tatters. I sought out every book of his, and eventually sought out first editions of most of them. Then, after reading everything, I decided to look him up online, and see if there was any information on him working on any new books... and I found out he'd been dead since 1994. Blew the wind right out of my sails -_-
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Damn... that was the first book I read in English. :(
 
Kovac

Kovac

Roald Dahl



His was one of the few deaths that I actually teared up over and I was only eight years old at the time.
I didn't know the man beyond his books, but knowing that he wouldn't be creating any more of his wonderful tales was enough to upset me.

Our class performed a memorial service in his honour and while I don't remember much about it, I do have strong memories of sadness over it.

 
S

Silvanesti

Amorous Eyes;255233][quote=ZenMonkey;255193][quote=KarateKidMcFly said:
Try this one; it's from Jim Henson's memorial service. \"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrZyMptC2eQ\"
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The cat is staring at me like I'm nuts -- I completely lost it at "Thank you, Kermit."

:waah:[/QUOTE]

Yeah that last part is very touching.

On a brighter note, from that same memorial service:

[/QUOTE]


Nope. Not watching that, i can't believe i got seriously depressed watching big bird.


and on an unrelated note:

Its kinda weird, but i got to admit, the recent death that affected me recently was billy mays. But I had started watching pitchmen a lot right before it happened and he seemed like such a nice, normal guy. Just really sucked that he left a family and kids behind.
 
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