What Was The First Celebrity Death That Affected You? — Page 2

For me it was Heather O'Rourke, the little girl from Poltergeist. I was the same age as her(12) and also I had been very sick too. This completely freaked me out. It was the first time I faced the real idea of death. I still have all the articles about her that I saved when she died. It still makes me very sad.

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I wasn't alive when he died, but I remember being pretty upset when I found that Ray Bolger was dead.

I was also pretty sad when Jerry Orbach died as well.

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The only one to affect me, thus far, was the death of Karen Carpenter. The first one that I remember being a big deal, was Marilyn Monroe's death.

I think it was Aaliyah for me, too. Katharine Hepburn made me pretty bummed, as well.

Updated On: 7/15/07 at 09:19 PM

Elvis

Karen Carpenter

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Mitch Hedberg, one of my favorite comedians.

and then i was pretty sad when ray charles died.

I'm still to young to ever be really upset about a celebrity death, but James Brown's affected me a bit.

Absolutely Madeline Kahn. I'll never forget it. My father walked in after work and told me he'd heard it on the radio, and I just went numb. I was numb all evening and kept sobbing every time I had to speak. I still miss her.

I was also very upset to learn David Rappaport had killed himself. I became a fan of his after his death and when I looked him up, I found out he had committed suicide. Jeff Mylett from Godspell, as well. Those saddened me but not nearly as much as Madeline.

"so cowardly about his sexuality."

Namo - that's kind of a bizzare thing to read, and yet I get where you're coming from. We seem to float in that 'in-between' generation of being completely hidden and then being available to openness.

Here's the deal, sophomore year in high school I had three music pics in my locker. Freddie Mercury, Sid Vicious and David Bowie in his Ziggy Period.

I took a LOT of **** for the Freddie pic but not the Bowie. Lot of "he's GAY" and since I had read DOZENS of interviews with Freddie and he'd insisted that he wasn't while giving evasive answers like, "I'll lose half my audience if I say I am and the other half my audience if I say I'm not," I was put in that awkward, closeted teen position of saying "He is NOT" because that's what he said. I recognize that it was all about not being seen for my own true identity, but when he came out as gay and that he had AIDS a few days before he died I remembered feeling rage for the fact that I had done all that "He is NOT" just a few years before when "Yeah, so?" would have been such a better answer. Sure, I know it's fairly obvious from this vantage point today, I mean, his band was Queen for f's sake. But still.

I also have never forgiven or forgotten an interview Trent Reznor gave once where he said he didn't feel a think when John Lennon was murdered but that Freddie Mercury's death really got to him.

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Namo - that's exactly how I feel about Elton, only he's not dead.

Well, in a physical sense, anyway.

Mr. Hooper from "Sesame Street."

Though I did not become fans (or even hear of them in the first place) until after they had passed on, the fact that Frank Zappa NOR Bill Hicks are still around is pretty sad.

I'm sure Zappa would have over 1,000 albums by now and oh the things Hicks could have said about the current political climate...