Celebrity death that’s affected you the most ?
2mon 6d ago by lemmy.world/u/64bithero in asklemmy@lemmy.ml
For me it was Cheater Bennington. Linkin Park music helped me through some hard times and I know some of the more impactful lyrics came from him and what he experienced.
Knowing he couldn’t take it anymore definitely hit Me hard particularly as someone I looked up to from young age …
Who was yours ?
Robin Williams
Same. He was such a down to earth person. He was incredibly famous, but he didn’t think he was above anyone. He was a truly good person. RIP Robin
After hearing he had Lewey Body disease and it was very advanced. It was crippling to comprehend.
My adult kids got together with their friends to watch Aladdin that night.
Fuck. I've watched Dead Poets' Society for the first time maybe a month ago without having had the ending spoiled. Oof. The look on Robin Williams face in the end scene. That torment in his eyes may just have been real and not just acting.
Steve Irwin
Same. I'll never forget that day. :(
Dude, not the fucking thread for that
I don't know if he counts as a celebrity but, Aaron Swartz.
It’s actually Swartz, not schwartz
And I even pasted the wiki article. Thanks, I corrected it.
Thanks for not insulting my mother when you were wrong :)
Chadwick Boseman. I was 24 when he died. I'm mixed and a huge nerd. He was one of the first times I saw representation like that in a comic book hero in a movie or TV show. T'Challa was a king, and his death came out of nowhere
Terry Pratchett
His documentary on assisted dying is a brilliant watch.
Interesting, I'll keep in mind
Anthony Bourdain
He was so deeply human and drew out the things from others that made them most human. This despite his epic battles with himself.
David Bowie. I really mourned him, didn't expect to feel so strongly about someone I never met. Feel like the world got significantly duller and darker since he took off.
Took a lot of scrolling to see his name. And I couldn't have phrased it better.
Everything went to shit after Bowie died
Robin Williams, on my birthday. Great guy, a gamer, and knew his way around computers. It might not have hit as hard if it hadn't been my birthday.
Probably Chris Cornell. (I'm old)
It hit Chester hard too
Yeah, I know that they were close. 😢
Came to say this. Guess I'm old
I was at a Devin Townsend concert when the news broke. I remember it well
Phil Hartman
I remember the day. So sad. My husband still gets emotional when the topic comes up.
I wonder if Joe Rogan would be less of an idiot if Phil had lived? Probably not. At one taping of News Radio when Rogan did the warmup he said, "i just flew in from the million man march and boy is my hatred of white people tired." We should have known.
Taking the question literally, I'll say Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
She was on HELL of a legal mind but goddammit why didn’t she retire when Obama could have appointed her replacement. The fucking hubris.
Here's your hero, a lot more wrong than simple hubris
she was a horrible racist ghoul among many awful things
I don't doubt that, I haven't looked into it, but her life didn't affect me as strongly as her death.
Why would her death affect you if you don't know about her life?
That makes zero sense.
Because the timing of her death triggered the court to (eventually) go majority bonkers.
Mitch Hedberg
Sorry for the convenience.
This one was one of the 1st celebrity deaths to impact me. The worst part was he was not very well known at the time, so nobody knew who I was talking about when I said stuff like "I can't believe Mitch Hedberg died" which sucked. There was only a couple people I knew that even knew who he was.
Leonard Nimoy. Grew up with a lot of Star Trek. Both him and Keanu Reeves helped me understand that it's entirely fine to be introverted.
As I understood it, Nimoy's death was from lung problems that developed as a result of his smoking habit - even though he had quit smoking many years prior that. It was the catalyst I needed to finally say, "I can't wait anymore, time may already be up. I need to quit smoking now." And that was when I finally did quit smoking and make it stick.
Margaret Thatcher.
What a happy fucking day.
Had me in the first half....
Chris Cornell hit hard especially when you go back and listen to his lyrics.
Watching one of his later interviews was rough. Heroin is one hell of a monster.
It feels like he'd come back anytime soon and say "gotcha mfers"...
John "TotalBiscuit" Bain.
Hit at a rough time for me and at that point I had been following his content for many years.
Man the loss of TB has been extreme.
Gaming and technology seemed to orbit him when he was alive.
Have you found a successor yet?
I miss The Mailbox and WTF Is...? so much.
Different time of my life so I'm not sure anyone would fit that niche. I was listening to BluePlz live long before the variety content as well.
I like AngoryTom for the time he gives indi games and rpg content with Mystery Quest but it's not the same by any means
Freddy Mercury, for sure.
Aw shit, I forgot.
Oh yes! He was a massive formative influence on me, lost way too soon.
Anton Yelchin was so goddamn young and had an entire career ahead of him.
The few things he got to do were all spectacular. Fuck Chrysler for making the shitty vehicle that ended up killing him.
His star was just rising and the way he died was so fucking stupid and preventable.
No drugs or partying, just a piece of shit American car…
His and Chance Perdomo's deaths really got to me
Oh damn I completely forgot about this. I was pretty rattled about it at the time.
Such an unnecessary and unlucky way to die, too. He died way too young. Did the parents end up winning the lawsuit?
Akira Toriyama
Watching Dragon Ball reruns is legitimately hard for me some days since Toriyama's passing. His death hit me harder than any other I can recall. The global outpouring of grief and camaraderie was a sight to behold. It was comforting to know so many other people loved him and his work and were mourning together.
At the time, I had to take a break from work to lock myself in the bathroom and cry. And even thinking about it today breaks my heart. The saddest part is that he was still active, he was really excited working on Dragon Ball Daima, and then...
Rest in peace, Master. Your legacy is several generations long, you'll never be forgotten.
Sean Lock
The first time I've felt genuine shock at a celebrity death, RIP undisputed Carrot in a Box champion
Yeah, that was a gut punch. Fucking love that guy.
Andre Braugher
This is how I know he passed away?! Fuck me
Just researched B99 and he had so many great moments, and he was absolutely perfect in the role. I read this thread thinking on each name "yeah him, felt sad about them". Andre here though, yeah that hurts deep
My wife and I still quote his Captain Holt character from time to time
Put the gun and the yo-yo down.
You're just writing case over and over.
CASE!
my favorite is their mumps episode
Also the Florida episode.
I do live heavy weighty breasts
"Why is no one having a good time? I specifically requested it."
So many great lines, and his delivery was perfect.
Yeah. Homicide and Brooklyn 99 rule
Hearing about Rush Limbaugh's death made me smile pretty big.
Did you mean to respond to the original post, or were you happy he died?
That is what happens when I try to write a reply to an OP on my phone. Sorry!
No apologies homie. I was just confused.
Freddy Mercury for sure.
Chester Bennington and Kurt Cobain. Although I discovered their songs years after their death.
Anthony Bourdain
Norm Macdonald
Well, I read the title and the only thing popped up is Chester.
I always shrugged off celebrity deaths cuz it never affects me before. But that morning my then SO woke me up and I'm in dazed cuz teens me just full of angst lol and how he did it after just released One More Light is too much, I think I avoid listening to LP for a few years after that. It's also after Cornell did it not long before I think? AFAIK they're Godfathers to each other kids.
I think contrary to what generally believe LP lyrics all are Mike's. But understandable since Chester is the one actually sung it. don't think LP would be this big if they didn't have Chester, the band said so themselves (the label want to get rid of Chester at first but they pushed back).
I just wished Mike would just rename the band like Audioslaves did and leave LP as a legacy. Don't get me wrong Emily is badass.
While Mike was the larger contributor, Chester wrote some of the lyrics. Brad was and still is a contributor to the instrumentals as well.
Fred Rogers, it was like a grandfather died when he passed.
Kurt Cobain
David Lynch. His death hit me like a punch to the heart.
Also Adam Yauch (MCA).
Grant Imahara, first person I had a parasocial relationship who died. It was also such a sudden and tragic death.
Frank Zappa and Christopher Hitchens. Maybe not personally, but i really feel like there are some losses that the world doesn't realize.
Mac Miller was probably the worst one… I’m a little younger than him and watching his career from early on felt like watching an older brother develop and making it big. He made the soundtrack to most of my youth.
Same here!
He was still growing creatively too. Swimming was such an awesome new direction for him. Sad to think about what amazing music he was never able to make.
I dont know why, but Sean Lock, a U.K. stand-up comedian who was the backbone of a couple of U.K. panel shows. He never spoke about his illness, but lost a lot of weight and then suddenly gone. I still watch and laugh out loud from the many, many laugh out loud moments of his career.
You might want to edit Chester
why? he knows what he did. we'll never forget that show in '03
- Prince
- Lady Di
- Amy winehouse
- George Michael
Ozzy Ozbourne.
He was a huge Zionist piece of trash
A couple I haven't seen yet but both were impactful to me: Prince and David Bowie. Both deaths felt so close in time together and came by complete surprise.
Definetly Chester Bennington. Linking park inspired me to be a muscisian, Chester inspired me to become a singer. His passing was really hard on me. I really gave up on linking park after the minutes to midnight album, since I see it as the last album where they were honest to their roots and still not too experimental. But after many years I was talking to my wife, and we agree that next time they played in our country, we would see them nomatter what. I shit you not, the next day we saw on the news he was dead. It was almost like we knew it was about time to go watch a show since they wouldn't be around for long. Anyways, I have massive respect for Chester as a guy who delt with my own mental sickness and also have had thoughts of sucide and so on. Chester and linkin park helped me through a lot of tough times. I wish his family all the best.
Danya Naroditsky's suicide recently was very upsetting
Apparently it wasn't suicide according to wikipedia, we just assumed it based on the situation
I was not aware more information had come out on the exact cause of death, but looking at Wikipedia and the cited sources, it doesn't seem to exclude the possibility, though an accident is just as tragic given the context I feel
Not a celebrity, kind of like pedz@lemmy.ca, but Daniel Naroditsky.
I did not expect his death would affect me as much as it did. Fuck K.
Definitely a tragic one. RIP Danya
Alexei Navalny's death really made me sad. Thought the guy would make it and usher a new era.
the racist ultranationalist POS? LOL
Idk, mate. I think he was fighting for the right cause. Care to elaborate or just want to troll?
You're defending a guy and don't seem to know what he was all about?
Maybe that's not so smart.
Are you referring to his earlier nationalist and anti-immigration politics? That criticism is real, and I’m not pretending otherwise. But reducing him to ‘racist ultranationalist POS’ also erases that he became the most significant anti-corruption and anti-Putin opposition figure in Russia. If you want to criticize him, be specific about what part of his record you mean.
I'm not sure if it took you a night to come up with that whitewashing or if you really act in good faith and have simply absorbed our western propaganda about this 'democratic activist' and don't know any better?
I will go over the points:
"the most significant anti-corruption and anti-Putin opposition figure in Russia"
That is the image created here in the west.
Mislabeled a citizen activist/ anti- corruption journalist.
He was not a journalist, having a Livejournal/Wordpress, etc and posting on it doesn't make you a journalist.
In reality he was a rich businessman making money from the stock market.
That of course sounds less sympathetic.
while not on oligarch level himself, he certainly worked for them.
And like many of that type of people he was corrupt and consequently convicted.
And he was certainly not 'the most significant anti-Putin opposition figure'
The biggest opposition in Russia are the communists followed by the liberals.
Navalny was at best locally known in Moscow, his best result was losing the mayoral elections (27% to 50%+) there.
Outside of Moscow people barely knew of him, and if they did he was generally disliked.
This for his views.
"nationalist and anti-immigration politics" you call it.
That sounds so innocent compared to my "racist ultranationalist POS".
When you organize fascist marches, call muslims cockroaches and shooting them in videos the second definition is the accurate one.
All this is nicely swept under the carpet in our press mouthpieces.
What matters is the anti-Putin part and that he could be bought.
He was the chosen western puppet.
After all we're not going to support left-wing opposition are we?
They cleaned up his image, just as they did with the barbaric headchopper Jolani we supported as a proxy.
Cut his terrorist beard, gave hime a suit and even a new name.
And just like that he is acceptable and our democratic leaders can shake hands and do business with him.
Navalny got the same treatment.
Also his second in command was filmed meeting an MI6 agent where they talked about him getting money to organize protests and cause troubles.
This is how the western regime change system works.
And somehow our neutral and free democratic press never wrote he was all for invading ukraine, and a whole lot more BTW, as these extreme-right great empire types do.
Another inconvenient fact.
Can't really blame western people from supporting this awful guy when they only get to know what our regimes want.
And anti-Putin must be automatically good in the simplistic view of the public if they don't look any further.
Our governments know exactly what he was, but then again with the US already near fascist and the EU not far behind it's to be expected.
You’re loading in a lot of Kremlin-friendly conclusions that go well beyond the parts of the criticism that are actually fair.
Yes, some of the criticism is fair. Navalny did have a nasty nationalist/xenophobic streak, some of his older rhetoric was ugly, and his Crimea position deserved criticism. But that still does not make him “just a Western puppet,” and it does not change the basic fact that he was the most visible anti-Putin opposition figure in Russia. Not the only opposition, not universally loved, not some flawless democrat dropped from heaven. But anti-Putin in a real, consequential sense, and willing to pay for it with prison and ultimately his life.
You also seem to be slipping from “he had bad politics in important ways” into “therefore anything the Russian state said about him must be basically true.” That is where this starts reading less like principled criticism and more like reflexive pro-Russia filtering. The Kremlin spent years trying to turn every opponent into either a crook, a foreign puppet, or a fascist depending on what was most useful. Repeating that whole frame is not the same as being critical.
And no, I do not think Navalny was going to magically save Russia overnight. No one person was. But politics does not work like that anyway. Sometimes a deeply imperfect opposition figure is still a beginning, a breach in the wall, a stepping stone toward something better. In a system as closed and repressive as Putin’s, even that matters.
So yes: criticize his nationalism, criticize his rhetoric, criticize his blind spots on empire and Ukraine. All fair. But pretending he was just some irrelevant Moscow nobody inflated by the West is its own kind of mythmaking.
You're grossly minimizing his racist, fascist ultra-nationalist tendencies.
Just because the POS happened to be anti-Kremlin doesn't make him OK.
He was conspiring with MI6 on video, and he had another MI6 person with him on the plane to Germany.
There's plenty more showing he is in fact a western puppet.
He wouldn't be promoted and made a big deal here otherwise. Now that was myth making.
Also the reason why people, and you, wrongfully think he is "the most visible anti-Putin opposition figure in Russia".
I gave you facts about his insignificance in elections and the general view of the population on him.
I think you're doing a lot of projection here with your "reflexive pro-Russia filtering".
The western audience likes him because he is anti-Putin (like myself BTW) so he must be automatically good and the rest is simply Russian disinfo.
The facts are there that he was a racist extreme-right POS. To ignore that is called delusion in psychology.
In what way could this awful person be a stepping stone to something better?
But of course the west, being the fascist USSA and near fascist EU would never support a left-wing or truly democratic opposition would they?
They never have.
They have a documented history of supporting the most brutal fascists that overthrow the same left-wing or democratic countries and put in their puppets.
As we speak they are glazing the son of a torturing shah they put in place earlier in Iran or the headchopper Al Qaida terrorist who they put in a suit and changed his name.
Now he's a respectable puppet that gets welcomed with the red carpet treatment.
Machado, the extreme-right ghoul from Venezuela and Aung San Suu Kyi, another brural mass-murderer get the nobel prize from our 'rules based order' and free democratic west'.
Maybe you should see a pattern here and learn to see through the BS you're parroting.
Despite all the propaganda and censorship in the west shoved down my throat, I have learned, simply from facts, we're not the good guys.
You can call me pro-kremlin for that whatever you want, IDC.
Why did he came back to Russia from Berlin on January 17, 2021, after a five-month recovery from Novichok poisoning? Don't you find that kinda weird?
He seems to have believed that if he stayed abroad, he’d lose political and moral legitimacy. Returning meant accepting the danger... I guess he rolled a bad roll on his d20 and was all out of inspiration.
Dolores O'Riordan
Billy Mays.
His death hit me harder than Michael Jackson’s that same year
I remember I was driving when the news about MJ's sudden death broke over the radio. I was on my way to grab some lunch before meeting up with some friends to see a movie. I think we were gonna see the "Transformers" sequel.
I pulled into a fast food joint and they had the news on TV. I felt bad cause Farah Fawcett died the same day but her death was entirely relegated to the little news ticker at the bottom of the screen.
That same week
I happened to be out in the middle of nowhere on a backpacking trip when both of them died, and along the way we ran into a couple other groups who had started their treks more recently, and they dropped the news of those two deaths on us, so I think that was the first thing each of of us asked our families about when we got back to civilization and got a cell signal
We were also a little relieved that the H1N1 swine flu hadn't killed everyone while we were gone.
Joan Rivers, I really miss Her, she was a comedic genius
Douglas Adams.
That was the first time it really hit home to me how much it hurts to lose real talent from this world.
Yes! His early death was tragic.
We could have had several more Dirk Gently mysteries, and the Guide Trilogy could have been even more inaccurately counted, by now. RIP Adams.
John Peel. He was devoted to all music without prejudice or judgement, and was host on a BBC radio show for years and had on some of the greatest bands ever.
Tom Petty and Whitney Houston. Two of my favourite singers of the 1980s and 1990s.
Chester Bennington didn't hit me at all — at first. Linkin Park had been growing out of favour with me, especially with regards to some of the things the band (and I think Chester) were saying about fans who preferred Hybrid Theory or Meteora to the newer stuff. Then I heard what Chester went through in his youth and how the music was therapy for him. It gave context to what he/the others said, and then it hit me. I hate that he felt he wasn't enough to overcome his demons, but I hope that his music makes the next person stronger. Truly a loss for humanity and the arts. Good on Linkin Park for forging ahead, though I didn't care for the new record. (Nothing against the singer, I just didn't like the album.)
It's worth noting that my favourite band was hand-picked by Chester to tour with them, but then he died and that didn't happen. The band is ONE OK ROCK, originally from Japan (based out of Los Angeles for the last 10 years, though, and most of their songs are in English, or at least their music since the move). They did fine without Linkin Park, but I would have loved to see the two of them together (with Chester). Mike Shinoda either did a few live shows with ONE OK ROCK, or Takahiro Moriuchi did a few live shows with Linkin Park (or maybe just Mike Shinoda), shortly after Chester died. It's just some live stuff though, and poorly recorded. Taka would have made a better singer for Linkin Park as he could do most of Chester's style, but I wouldn't have liked the move as it would have ended my favourite band. So I'm glad we still have both, and maybe Linkin Park's next album will be better — I will certainly be here for it.
Chris Cornell, he always seemed like a classy and cool if somewhat aloof guy, extremely talented vocalist.
It’s extra unsettling when a 50+ year old commits suicide. This was someone who had a thriving career, loved by millions, had a family and kids. It just shows that you have to take care of your mental health. It’s not going to magically get better with age.
Not many will know him but: Alex Chilton.
It just didn't seem possible when he passed in 2010 at 60.
"Here's a revision / it's kinda minor Just a little town down in Indochina"
Anthony Bourdain.
Jimi Hendrix
Damn. Hard call. There's only been a few that have hit me because I don't really have a parasocial connection to anyone to any degree worth mentioning.
That being said, the three that made me actually cry were Vonnegut, Kris Kristofferson, and Chester Bennington.
Chester, I was listening to the one more light album when I found out, so it hit extra hard.
Vonnegut though, he more than any other writer made me think and want to create with words. He shaped how I view literature and think about writing. So his death hit harder than most.
Kristofferson, it's that I had known it was coming. He'd already been lost to a great degree, but I had been low key dreading the news because he's so damn iconic. He's the kind of poet I wish I could be. And his music was also damn good lol. Also, he's symbolic of an era of music that's disappeared, and as the last of the highwaymen have died, with only one left there's this hole in the world that isn't likely to be filled now that the entire music industry has fallen into disarray. It's much harder for that kind of poet bard to exist and have their music spread now. In any genre, btw; the same difficulties exist in folk, metal, rap, etc.
Anyway, those are the ones that made me cry as a grown-ass man. I suspect I'll shed another tear when Willie goes, and I know I'm gonna fall apart a little when Dolly does. Luckily, the next wave of writers and musicians that I'd likely cry over are a good twenty years younger (or more) than them, so I'll have a break after that. Likely be dead myself before most of the others would go.
Initially I was upset when I heard about John Peel passing away because I listened to him so much - possibly more his Home Truths show on Radio 4 than the Peel Sessions for which he was better known. Listening to him talk to regular people about their lives was a regular feature of my Saturday mornings.
Later I learned about his sexual abuse of teenagers and now don't care about him at all.
Neil, of course.
Bourdain and Chester. Irwin a close 3rd.
I don't see him on here, but Trevor Moore hit me super hard. I grew up watching WKUK, and was a big fan. He was only a couple years older than me, and what really resonated with me was that he had a son the same age as mine. It just got me thinking about my own mortality and what grief I would put my wife and son through if I'd passed away, and really put me in a dark place for a while. R.I.P. Trevor.
THIS. came here to post this. R.I.P to a real local sexpot
WKUK was making a comeback during COVID with lots of small videos and I really enjoyed them.
Yeah, and I was watching them starting to get back into them and the news hit. Super sad.
For some reason Heath Ledger. I loved the movie A Knights Tale as a kid. Watched it many times.
I think it was the first real celebrity death that I conciously experienced.
Same here. I loved A Knight's Tale and 10 Things I Hate About You so much and I watched it many times a as kid. My then sister in law told me about the news and I didn't believe her until I heard the news on the radio.
So. Of my two favorite artists one is just about to become an octogenarian and the other is a nonagenarian. So I feel like their deaths are something that can happen at any moment.
Jerry Garcia
David Bowie
Stalin
Terry Pratchett
Ryan Dunn.
Michael Jackson and Matthew Perry, because both died by overdosing on medication that was meant to help them.
They had sad and hard periods in their life, but they both wanted to be okay and to be happy! They did everything we are told to: reach out, ask for help, follow doctors orders.
...It feels so unfair, they feel like lives interrupted (as many many others). So them, even though I am not a fan.
imoutoid