What Was The First Celebrity Death That Affected You? — Page 4

The first one that I really remember is Jim Hensen, but the first I cried over was Phil Hartman.

Jesus.

hm ... probably Karen Carpenter.

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The first celebrity death that I can remember truly affecting me was Seregi Grinkov. I was VERY into figure skating after the 1994 Olympics in Lillihammer and I felt especially devoted to Gordeeva and Grinkov. I even had a picture in my room that I had drawn of them skating their long program. I remember crying and crying when I heard about his death and cutting out articles from newspapers and magazines. As a 9 year old kid, it's very strange to think of a celebrity as being mortal. Especially since his death was so sudden.

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Judy Garland . . . but I didn't know she was dead, or let alone "old" until about 1973! She died in 1969 and I was still too young to 'get it'.

That I remember . . . well. Freddy Prinze and Elvis Presley.

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Jeff Buckley

I think the first one that I felt somewhat affected by was Janis Joplin. After that, the next one I remember feeling sad about was Jackie Kennedy Onassis.

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I remember when Princess Diana died. I was 10. I wasn't too affected about it, but I remember it and how much it affected my parents (my dad's British and my mom's Irish American).

The first celebrity death that really affected me was John Ritter's. I was addicted to 8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter and then I was watching the news one morning for some old reason. cause I never turned the tv on before high school in the morning, but I did. and it was on the news, and I couldn't believe. I still can;t sometime. It was tough.

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I was 6 for Marilyn, 7 for JFK, 12 for Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. Judy Garland died 3 months after my bar mitzvah.

But I still feel that somehow I could have prevented John Lennon's death--or gotten killed myself.

I was rehearsing a reading of a new play that evening, in the apartment of the playwright who lived on 73rd Street between Central Park West and Columbus. The rehearsal started at 7 and finished a little after 10. I stayed and chatted with the playwright for a few minutes. Rather than walk directly down 73rd toward Amsterdam toward the subway, I decided to walk around Central Park West so I could walk around The Dakota, which I had loved since Rosemary's Baby. I like to walk by it and see if I could see Leonard Bernstein, or Lauren Bacall, or John and Yoko.

The building itself is beautiful and eerie, but that night there seemed to be something especially creepy about the darkness and the shadows and the Gothic stonework. I remember distinctly feeling that EVERYONE in the vicinity of the building that night seemed creepy--and because I was just standing there looking at it, I probably seemed creepy too.

Of course, there was one person also standing there who genuinely WAS creepy, and he had a gun. I don't remember seeing Mark David Chapman specifically, but he must have seen me, because he was staking out the perimeter of the building.

I left about 10:30, walked to the subway and got down to my apartment on St. Mark's Place a little after 11. I turned on the television before I went to bed and saw that Lennon was shot at 10:50. He and Yoko got out of the car outside the gates of the Dakota--that how Chapman was able to shoot him. If they had taken the car all the way in, they would have been safe.

What would have happened if I had stayed there a few more minutes? Maybe I would have seen the creepy guy pull out his gun. Maybe I would have screamed out, "Jesus Christ, he's got a gun!" Maybe Chapman would have wheeled around and shot me. Or maybe I would have witnessed it and done nothing and felt guilty for the rest of my life.

I sort of do anyway.

The play was never produced. A few years later the playwright died, of the Plague.

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Luther Vandross. My mom loves his music so much - I have so many memories of traveling late at night with "A House is Not a Home" blasting. We went to all his concerts together. I cried when I learned it, and immediately called my mom to make sure she was alright.

I've never gotten over Richard Speck's untimely death.

Lucille Ball. When I was 4, I wanted to send a letter to invite Lucy to my birthday party. My mother wrote the letter to Lucy as I dictated it to her. I was heartbroken when she didn't show up...I grew up watching all the Lucy shows- I preferred "I Love Lucy" over Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, etc. The only version I ever saw of "Mame" was with Lucy; I never knew another one existed when I was a child. She was my childhood hero...

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