The Other Worlds Shrine

Your place for discussion about RPGs, gaming, music, movies, anime, computers, sports, and any other stuff we care to talk about... 

  • An abnormal amount of celebrity deaths lately?

  • Somehow, we still tolerate each other. Eventually this will be the only forum left.
Somehow, we still tolerate each other. Eventually this will be the only forum left.
 #169649  by Julius Seeker
 Tue Dec 27, 2016 11:09 am
A lot of people have taken notice of this in 2016, but it actually goes back into 2015: Leonard Nimoy, Christopher Lee, Scott Weiland, James Horner, Omar Sharif, Lemmy, Wes Craven, Sam Simon, Rowdy Roddy Piper, and Grace Lee Whitney; and about 5 dozen more. 2016 added David Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen, Muhammed Ali, Anton Yelchin, Alan Rickman, and now Zsa Zsa Gabor, and George Michael.

Grace Lee Whitney and Leonard Nimoy were 2 of the 4 principal Star Trek TOS actors during season 1, and Anton Yelchin made three Star Trek actors dead in a very short period of time.

But perhaps it is not all that irregular a number of deaths, it's rather that people called it out more this year.

Looking at a list, 2014 seems like it took even more celebrities: Richard Attenborough, Harold Ramis, Joan Rivers, Robin Williams, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Lauren Bacall, Peaches Geldoff, Shirley Temple, Mickey Rooney, Bob Hoskins, Maya Angelou, Tommy Ramone, James Garner, Pete Seeger, Richard Kiel, David Brenner, and the Ultimate Warrior.

And nothing beats the late afternoon of November 22nd 1963 where in a period of an hour: C.S. Lewis, Aldous Huxley, and John F Kennedy all died.
 #169652  by ManaMan
 Tue Dec 27, 2016 3:33 pm
It's really bizarre but I bet it's probably not that big of an anomaly. Probably just a couple of really unexpected deaths close together paying attention (Prince & David Bowie?). Now it seems that every death is part of this Giant-Celebrity-Wave-Of-Death.
 #169655  by Shrinweck
 Tue Dec 27, 2016 5:29 pm
Starting in the latter half of the 20th century there was a huge surge in the amount of people that were celebrities (more music, more movies, TV getting popular etc.). Unfortunately this is when we're going to start seeing more and more of them pass away, starting with people who grew to fame in the 50s-70s but unfortunately a lot of the 80s stars who lead unhealthy lifestyles.

With the amount of people with renown having gone up, by the time we're 60-80 it's going to probably be nonstop/daily news, though.
 #169661  by Shrinweck
 Sun Jan 01, 2017 1:25 am
I bet Fisher would be able to come up with something ridiculously hilarious about her mother passing away and sharing the limelight with her. Because in the cold hard light of day it's just about one of the most depressing ways to die.