Celebrities whose deaths have made you cry

[Giant Robot]

Feeling a little down tonight and started to listen to Warren Zevon, and reminded how much his death saddened me. So for a little company, let's see who else has cried at some celebrities passing.

For me, I can remember:
1) Freddie Mercury
2) Jim Henson
3) Warren Zevon

[Aristus]

1. Mine:

1. John Chancellor. (Yes, really!)
2. Paul Newman.

[Giant Robot]

8. No judgments here

I am glad you were moved by his (John Chancellor) passing for whatever reason.

[Aristus]

14. He was a hero to me. One of the last of the great non-corporate newsanchor/journalists.

I became a news-hound by the age of seven because of him. I remember when NBC Nightly News's kettle drum intro would sound, I would race excitedly to the TV and watch the day's events with my Dad. He gave the news a dignity and solemnity that doesn't exist anymore with the Fox News crapfest and its imitators...

[DainBramaged]

79. John Chancellor was a giant in the news industry, I miss his voice and demeanor (I can hear it now)

Hubert Humphrey's death made me upset, but Paul Newman's made me cry like a baby. HE was the first to realize that the children needed a place to be kids, no matter what their physical condition.

[Left Is Write]

2. Quite a few.

Recently, though - Paul Newman and Bea Arthur.

[RiffRandell]

3. Mine

JFK JR

Kurt Cobain

Princess Diana

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

4. John Lennon

no contest. No other celebrity death affected me as much.

on edit, must add Johnny Cash, that was a hard one as well.

[leftyclimber]

7. I cried for Lennon.

I still cry every time I hear "Imagine." Because I can't reconcile someone expressing such a beautiful sentiment and someone else gunning him down.

Now I'm sad again. :(

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

12. I was just old enough to drive

and i went down to the Seattle Center where a vigil spontaneously formed, it was really really sad.

I remember my older (so not politically active) brother wrote a letter to the government venting about the stupidity of barring him from entering the country due to his anti-war activities. That he wrote a letter amazed me. It was probably the only letter he ever wrote to anyone.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

5. JFK Jr.

[Giant Robot]

9. How can you NOT cry at that picture?

[Tuesday Afternoon]

13. I can't NOT cry at that picture and I cried like a baby the day his

plane went down. like.a.baby.

[lost-in-nj]

6. Freddy

and Princess Diana
I had so many hopes for her

she had a voice in so many things


I miss the rest
these two i miss the most



lost

[BeachBaby]

10. Mine - in no particular order:

Princess Diana
JFK Jr.
John Lennon
Pelle Lindbergh (Philadelphia Flyers - car wreck in 1984)
Terri Schiavo (although, I can't really say she was a celebrity)

[NightWatcher]

11. Jerry Garcia's was tough. Kurt Cobain's a surprise

got through Garcia's with an allnight drum circle in the park

[MrSlayer]

15. No one really.

I've felt bad about certain people, Lennon, Dimebag, Chuck Shuldiner, Bon Scott, Paul Baloff. But none have ever made me cry.

[Giant Robot]

16. I feel a little silly by doing it

I don't really know these people, they are not friends or family, but I feel connected in some and diminished by their loss. Eh, I've always tended to be a little depressive.

[jobycom]

39. You do know them. Don't let people tell you you don't.

Several psych studies have shown that your emotions can't tell the difference between someone you know in person and someone you know through a medium like television, or even writing. In other words, when you become attached to a fictional character, your body in no way reacts differently than to a real person. Evolution hasn't had time to develop a different set of emotions for people you know on TV, in other words. People who watch sitcoms regularly react to the characters exactly as the react to their friends--or enemies, as the case may be. That's why some people have trouble drawing a distinction between a dastardly character and the actor portraying them.

So when a celebrity you know and have bonded with dies, your emotions are affected exactly the same as if this were someone you knew in real life. Not reacting to the deaths of celebrities you like argues for poor emotional adjustment, and an emotional detachment that's not healthy for most people. The same people usually react much the same way to people they know 'in the flesh.'

In short, how you respond to celebrities is a clear indication of how you respond to the people you know, which is a disturbing fact, given how some people love to hate celebrities.

[BeachBaby]

18. Bon Scott's death got to me. Stevie Ray Vaughn's, too.

[leftyclimber]

19. Stevie Ray was a rough one for me.

We'd just loaded him in and out for a concert two weeks before he died. We all kind of walked around not saying anything and giving each other looks for a while when we got the news.

Nice guy.

[Giant Robot]

22. That was a hard one for me but not in the same way

I did not have any close connection to him, but was a fan.

I remember the morning well that the news broke. The alarm went off to get me up for work, and the radio station person said"...and we have no information if Eric Clapton was on board as well when it crashed killing SRV." My thought was, "Oh fuck both of them gone...." One loss was bad enough.

I am sorry you had to experience that, but I am glad you got to know him in more ways than I did.

[davsand]

73. I saw him play the night he died.

Drove back from Alpine to Urbana and slept a few hours so I could go to work. Woke up to hear about the chopper crash. I also heard it early enough that they thought Clapton might have been on that chopper as well.

I cried then and I still get a little misty when I listen to some of his music today.

I took consolation in one thing, however, and that was the fact that the show that night was excellent. That closing jam was something that legends are made of, and I was there to experience it. For that I will always be grateful.


Laura

[malta blue]

75. I was there too.

Woke up the next morning back on campus to hear the news. I didn't believe it until I actually saw the teevee.

[davsand]

77. We kept those ticket stubs, and when he moved to Florida he took them with him.

Of all the odd shit to carry off when you split, he picked up my ticket stub from that Stevie Ray concert. He took other stuff too, but that one still makes me shake my head.

:shrug:



Laura

[SacredCow]

93. Agreed wholeheartedly on SRV....

I saw him live twice in my life- once drunk out of his mind (Ummmm... NOT his greatest show), and once after he got sober (and zOMG!!!!! Just unbelievable).

[SoxFan]

17. Reggie Lewis

[Skittles]

20. Heath Ledger was one

very senseless

[dana_b]

28. such a shock

I didn't cry but I was stunned. waaaaaayyy too young.

[gblady]

30. I felt devastated....

Heath was my favorite actor.
Such a talented man.

[latebloomer]

21. Lennon, definitely

Johnny Carson
Frank Sinatra
Paul Newman
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Marilyn Monroe

[hyphenate]

23. John Ritter for one

Paul Newman's death was very sobering;
Bernie Mac;
Christopher Stone (back in 1995);

I'm sure there are others, but it's late and I have a headache.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

24. I don't usually cry but the death of the following people has made me very emotional

1. Christopher and Dana Reeve (both within a year of each other)
2. John Spencer (Leo McGarry on "The West Wing")
3. Princess Diana
4. Jim Henson
5. Johnny Cash
6. Tammy Wynette (I don't usually do country but I loved her)
7. Elizabeth Montgomery
8. Laura Branigan (yes, I know we had a big flame war on this topic on here but I mean this in all seriousness)
9 Andrew Olle (Australian TV presenter)

And some others who don't come to mind immediately

On Edit: John Ritter and JFK Jr. should be on that list as well

[Giant Robot]

26. I am not trying to stir up anything

But I did not realize Laura Branigan was dead! I had such a crush on her back in the day.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

70. Yes, sadly, she died in August 2004

In her late 40s:cry:

[Mojambo]

25. Can't think of any.

But then I don't really know any celebrities on an emotional level that would lead me to cry over their death.

[dana_b]

27. John Lennon, Freddie Mercury and John Entwistle.

When Pete Townshend goes, I'm gonna need therapy.

[carlyhippy]

29. John Lennon, Dennis Wilson, Robert Palmer, George Harrison

Michael Hutchence
Princess Diana

[quakerboy]

31. None

Although i guess its in how you define celebrity. In public figures, there have been none in my lifetime, though there are some that have made me tear up in retrospect. Both Kennedy's, MLK, and Malcolm X, for example.

[HEyHEY]

32. John Candy, Greg Moore

[blonndee]

33. Johnny Cash, Mr. Rogers,

Kurt Cobain, Heath Ledger.

[Flaxbee]

34. I'll add Douglas Adams, though not sure if he counts as a

celebrity.

So much laughter from that man's writing. Died way too young.

Also, Lennon's death made me sad, though I was too young to really know what the hell was going on when he died. Paul Newman, JFK Jr., Princess Diana.

More, I'm sure. I was sad when Rock Hudson died, because he had been really brave and so many people gave him so much shit.

[LostInAnomie]

35. Closest I've ever came was Dimebag Darrell.

I had a lot of memories attached to Pantera.

[OmahaBlueDog]

36. I rarely cry at the actual time of death, but when they show the "In Memoriam" at the Oscars..

I bawl...

Surprisingly, I didn't cry when John Lennon died. I was very emotional when John Bonham died, though.

Alec Guinness and Walter Matthau both pased in 2000, so the 2001 Oscar memorial segment brought me to tears...and when Richard Pryor died, I shed some tears.

[abq e streeter]

37. I've shed a little tear or two over several, but Joe Strummer was the only one

where I actually, to my considerable surprise, flat out cried. I was on a website the night he'd died( maybe his own website ; I don't remember) where fans were posting tributes, and the home page (?) was just a picture of a candle burning with the words Joe Strummer 1952-2002 above it, and I just snapped and started crying. He was on the very short list of my true rock and roll heroes and the world is so much poorer for his not being here anymore.

[Justyce]

38. John Denver, Stevie Ray,

Chris Farley, Heath Ledger, and I'm sure others.

[jobycom]

40. Conway Twitty and Diana were the worst. Bernie Mac, John Denver, Steve Irwin.

I grew up on Conway, and both he and Diana died so unexpectedly that the shock made me cry. Both of those left me in grief for a few days.

It's always the unexpected ones that hurt worst. Paul Newman had been sick for years, Katherine Hepburn was very old... people like that make me sad, but not cry. Usually shock brings the tears.

[leeroysphitz]

41. I'm not really one to get upset when a celebrity that I have never met dies but when HST went I did

get a little down.

[Mendocino]

45. Who is HST?

[abq e streeter]

46. I was also confused , but now assuming Hunter Thompson (?)

[LostinVA]

42. Karen Carpenter

[Giant Robot]

43. Gary Gygax

One of the people responsible for Dungeons and Dragons. Yes I am that much of a nerd.

I remember after his death I read on a board somewhere someone wrote this:

"He had six kids? I thought he had millions."

I was one of his kids.

When Stan Lee dies I don't know what I will do with myself for a few days.

[Mendocino]

44. Sir Edmund Hillary

Henry Fonda, Ronnie Lane, Madeline Kahn, Colin Fletcher, Jack Lemmon, Ansel Adams

[PaddyBlueEyes]

47. John Belushi and Chris Farley...

[Bennyboy]

48. Jerry Garcia, Frank Zappa, Miles Davis, Bill Graham, Ken Kesey,

John Lennon, George Harrison, Warren Zevon, Mark Vann (leftover Salmon), Muddy Waters, Rick Danko, Michael Houser (Widespread Panic), Paul Newman,Jimi....To name a few....

[hellbound-liberal]

49. Fred Rogers and Johnny Carson are the first that come to mind

I grew up with both of them in my life and felt a personal loss when they left.

[Maine-ah]

50. John Lennon and George Harrison.

I was six when Lennon died. I was a huge fan then, probably because my parents were. I remember it clearly though.

[Tikki]

51. I miss John Ritter's smile.

Tikki

[bigwillq]

52. Tupac, Heath Ledger

Aayliah, Left Eye

[Initech]

53. George Carlin

[Mr. Ected]

54. Ben Orr of The Cars

Died in 2000 of pancreatic cancer.

Very underrated singer/bassist, IMHO.

[gbate]

94. This was one of mine. He made The Cars, IMO.

[av8rdave]

55. A bunch

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Molly Ivins

Ann Richards

Kurt Vonnegut

Fred Rogers

Jim Henson

Probably lots more that I'm not thinking of off the top of my head

[Vidar]

56. Paul Newman, Belushi, Anwar Sadat & others I've forgotten

[RoyGBiv]

57. Never cried ...

It's not personal enough for that.

But the deaths of HST and Kurt Vonnegut hit me pretty hard. Douglas Adams's death shocked me. The news that Terry Pratchett probably has Alzheimer's is likewise depressing.

And I got pretty nostalgic when Don Knotts died.

[Zavulon]

71. Same here, but came close when

Foghat's Lonesome Dave Peverett died. I grew up singing along with him, learned to play guitar because of him.

No other celebrity's death really evoked anything but shock from me. I didn't want any of them dead, but since didn't know them shock and surprise trumped sadness every time.

[swimboy]

58. Elizabeth Montgomery

I truly thought she was immortal.

[blue neen]

59. Bobby Kennedy.

I'll never forget it.

[tigereye]

60. Joe Strummer, Zevon (loved that guy), and Phil Hartmann

[Rabrrrrrr]

61. Zappa. Almost cry for Vonnegut, Sagan, Asimov, Richard Wright, Carson, Stockhausen, Roddenberry

I'm just not big on the "crying for famous people" schtick; Zappa's death was a tough one, though. Wright was kind of tough just because it truly was the nail in the coffin of a Floyd reunion tour.

And anyone who didn't feel the void when Sagan died doesn't deserve to be a human being.

[BlueJazz]

62. Getz...Desmond

[BuelahWitch]

63. The only ones I can remember

Bea Arthur
Shari Lewis
Mr.(Fred) Rogers

Henson's shocked me, but I didn't cry until Kermit came back in a Muppet special and I knew Henson was not doing his voice.

[laylah]

64. Mine...

Johnny Cash
Waylon Jennings
John Lennon

I am sure there are more as I am a "cryer"...but these were the first to pop into my brain.

edited to add John Denver, George Harrison, Paul Newman, Sam Kennison.

[Pool Hall Ace]

65. Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy

I was only in Kindegarten, but their deaths affected me deeply.

As far as actors go, Shell Kepler (Nurse Amy Vining from General Hospital).

[blue_roses_lib]

66. For me it was

Kurt Cobain~~ struck me really hard. The fact I was in my teens and going through some depression made that one rough. Besides that, Princess Diana, JFK Jr, Heath Ledger, Phil Hartmann (sp)... anyone too young is sad to me :cry:

[Mike 03]

67. Great question.

Bob Fosse
Kurt Cobain (devastating beyond words)
Richard Feynman (a celebrity scientist, I guess you could say)
many writers, too many to mention

Most of all: Stanley Kubrick

[Mad_Dem_X]

68. Heath Ledger.

I nearly had a nervous breakdown over it, no joke.

[Rising Phoenix]

91. same here

no shame

[EvolveOrConvolve]

69. Pedro Zamora

Watching him on that crappy MTV reality show, he almost single-handedly changed the way I viewed gays and lesbians, and started my metamorphosis into a liberal person of conscience.

[AllenVanAllen]

72. Jim Henson

and Carl Sagan :(

[malta blue]

74. John Lennon

Jerry Garcia
JFK, Jr.

[sohndrsmith]

76. Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Luciano Pavarotti, John Lennon...n/t

[DainBramaged]

78. Paul Newman

[Xipe Totec]

80. Here's my list. Obscure, I know...

1).- Victor Jara
2).- Violeta Parra
3).- Atahualpa Yupanqui

[abq e streeter]

104. Victor Jara should not be ( but I know, he is) obscure ( and I did know of the other 2 people)

Every American should be educated as to who he was and what happened to him. "please remember Victor Jara, in the Santiago Stadium......those Washington bullets again". Deaths like his don't cause me to cry , but instead to get so angry I can't see straight. Progressives such as ourselves here on DU especially should know about him...I'm profoundly low tech, but if you can post a link , maybe a few more people would learn the story of his torture and murder at the hands of U.S. sponsored terrorists........On edit; the quote was from the song Washington Bullets , by The Clash, from their album Sandinista ( 1981 if I'm not mistaken)

[Xipe Totec]

106. Víctor Jara

Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez (September 28, 1932 – September 15, 1973) was a Chilean teacher, theatre director, poet, singer-songwriter, and political activist. A distinguished theatre director, he devoted himself to the development of Chilean theatre, directing a broad array of works from locally produced Chilean plays, to the classics of the world stage, to the experimental work of Ann Jellicoe.

Simultaneously he developed in the field of music and played a pivotal role among neo-folkloric artists who established the Nueva Canción Chilena (New Chilean Song) movement which led to a revolution in the popular music of his country under the Salvador Allende government.

Shortly after the U.S.-backed September 11, 1973 Chilean coup he was arrested, tortured and ultimately shot to death by machine gun fire—his body was later thrown out into the street of a shanty town in Santiago. The contrast between the themes of his songs, on love, peace and social justice and the brutal way in which he was murdered transformed Jara into a symbol of struggle for human rights and justice across Latin America.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Jara


Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval (14 October 1917 – 5 February 1967) was a notable Chilean folklorist and visual artist. She set the basis for "New Song," La Nueva Canción chilena, a renewal and a reinvention of Chilean folk music which would absorb and extend its influence far beyond Chile.

Violeta Parra was a member of the prolific Parra family. Her brother is the notable modern poet, better known as the "anti-poet", Nicanor Parra. Her son, Ángel Parra, and her daughter, Isabel Parra, were also important figures in the development of the Nueva Canción Chilena. Their children have also mostly maintained the family's artistic traditions.

Violeta Parra committed suicide with a gunshot to her head in 1967, because of her depression over the breakup of her relationship with Gilbert Favre.

Her most renowned song, Gracias a la Vida (Thanks to Life), was popularized throughout Latin America by Mercedes Sosa and later in the US by Joan Baez. It remains one of the most covered Latin American songs in history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violeta_Parra



Atahualpa Yupanqui (31 January 1908 - 23 May 1992) was an Argentine singer, songwriter, guitarist, and writer. He is considered the most important Argentine folk musician of the 20th century.

Yupanqui was born as Héctor Roberto Chavero Aramburo in Pergamino (Buenos Aires Province), in the Argentine pampas, about 200 kilometers away from Buenos Aires. His family moved to Tucumán when he was ten. In a bow to two legendary Incan kings, he adopted the stage name Atahualpa Yupanqui, which became famous the world over.

In his early years, Yupanqui travelled extensively through the northwest of Argentina and the Altiplano studying the indigenous culture. He also became radicalized and joined the Communist Party of Argentina. In 1931, he took part in the failed uprising of the Kennedy brothers in order to press the government de facto of Uriburu and to give air to the democratic radical project anti facist in support to Hipólito Yrigoyen and was forced to seek refuge in Uruguay. He returned to Argentina in 1934.

In February of 1968, Yupanqui was named Gentleman of the Arts and the Letters of France by the Ministry of Culture of that country, by the work realised throughout 18 years to act and to offer its Literature to the Gallic country. Some of his songs are included in the programs of Institutes and Schools where Castilian Literature is taught.

In 1989, an important cultural center of France, the University of Nanterre, asked Yupanqui to write the lyrics of a Cantata to commemorate the Bicentennial of the French Revolution. The piece, entitled “The Sacred Word” (Parole Sacree), was released before high French authorities. It was not a recollection of historical facts but rather a tribute to all the oppressed towns that freed themselves. Yupanqui died in Nimes, France in 1992 at the age of 84; his remains were cremated and dispersed on his beloved Colorado Hill on 8th June, 1992.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atahualpa_Yupanqui

[KamaAina]

81. John Lennon. Jerry Garcia.

:cry:

edit: punctuation

[Tikki]

82. Joey Ramone.....

(Jeffry Hyman 1951~2001)




Tikki

[Giant Robot]

86. oh no!

I forgot about the Ramones! :(

There is only one Ramone left with us isn't there?

[Tikki]

102. Still with us are...

Tommy (Erdelyi) Ramone (original drummer)
Marky (Marc Bell)Ramone (long time drummer)
C J (Cristopher Ward) Ramone (bassist after Dee Dee)

There were two Richies (drummer and bassist) who either recorded
or toured on a limited engagement and of course, Clem from Blondie
helped out when needed.

RIP...Dee Dee (Doug Colvin) Ramone..(bassist)..Johnny (Cummings) Ramone
(guitar)..and Joey (Jeffry Hyman,forever in my heart) Ramone...(Vocals)....

The RAMONES toured and recorded for 22 years..

Tikki

[ashling]

83. Paul Newman

[EndersDame]

84. Deforest Kelley, James Doohan, Mr.Rogers

I really hope Leonard Nimoy has a long vulcan life

[Rhythm]

85. Brandon Lee

I had a close acquaintence working on the film adaptation of "The Crow", and he was the one who called me when the accident happened, because i was supposed to visit the set later in the week.

I damn near collapsed in my den. I put on some Joy Division, and cried my eyes out for hours... hurting for his family, and for my friend Jim (the writer/illustrator of the comic book) who had been so excited that it was being made into a film at all.

I still tear up when i think about the interview he did just a few days before he died. A statement he made then is engraved on his grave marker, and that makes me tear up too, even now:

Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless."

I am a big old sap... but it still hurts.

[Giant Robot]

87. Don't worry about being a sap

I don't.

I was very saddened about his death too. He seemed so excited for this movie, and for life. It wasn't right is all I can say.

I'm a fan of Jim's work and a big comic book nerd, so I was looking forward to the movie and still love it to this day, although it does leave me feeling a little sad too.

Although I am a little envious of your friendship with him, and that there was an opportunity for you to visit the set, I will be honest, even though things turned out quite tragically.

[Rhythm]

105. My life is a series of serendipitous happenings...

Becoming friends with Jim and Scott all happened because of my almost-1/2-sleeve Crow tattoo!

It's incredibly tough for me even now to watch the film. I choke up here and there, especially the scene with Brandon and Ernie Hudson in the apartment. That whole 'nothing in trivial' thing gets me every time.

[tekisui]

88. The ones who get me are the ones who know they are dying,

and produce a work during that time. Warren Zevon's last album gets me. George Harrison's last album gets me.

There is a book called "Not Fade Away: A Short Life Well Lived" written by Peter Barton. It is a really moving account of a man coming to terms with his death.

[Rising Phoenix]

89. Heath Ledger, Kurt Cobain

[Bertha Venation]

90. Lucille Ball. n/t

[LynneSin]

92. John Bonham and Freddie Mercury

Top 2 right there!

[QueenOfCalifornia]

95. PHIL HARTMAN

His death was such a tragedy. He was very talented and brightened up each TV screen where he appeared.

Katherine Hepburn - She was one of the greatest actresses from the golden era

Paul Newman - I loved him in so many things and I admired his philanthropic endeavors

Freddie Mercury - He should have lived forever. Period.

Princess Diana - She was an elegant and lovely lady. A kind and gentle spirit. A loving mother.


and many more...
Bea Arthur
Johnny Carson
Bernie Mac...

to name a few

[Symarip]

96. Desmond Dekker (I spent some time with him)

Joe Strummer
Phyllis Dillon

[distantearlywarning]

97. John Denver. n/t

[BarenakedLady]

98. Katharine Hepburn

But I saw that one coming, of course. Not these:

Heath Ledger
Kurt Cobain
River Pheonix
JFK Jr.
Princess Di
Phil Hartman

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

99. Ayrton Senna

:cry:

[Iggo]

100. Audrey Hepburn.

She just seemed so nice...

[devilgrrl]

101. Frank Zappa, Joey Ramone, George Carlin

Carlin's was the worst of the three.

:cry:

[JonLP24]

103. Left Eye was the only one that made me cry

I didn't cry when it happened, it was when I watched her personal made documentary. It gives me chills typing about it right now.

Shortly before her death she was in a car that killed a young boy with the last name Lopez as well. Lisa offered to pay for funeral expenses or whatever else the mother may need. She was given his shoes(I think). It was the night before she said to her camera she felt that an evil spirit was haunted her trying to do her harm. Next day the camera actually filmed the rollover accident shortly before it happened. I went into tears afterwards.

There are other celebrity deaths that sadden me but one that made me cry was hers, hands down.