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2016 Was Like the Deathiest Year Ever

December 27, 2016 by V the K

Of all the people of fame who died this year, I think Alan Rickman and Gene Wilder were the biggest bummers for me. Yours?

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Filed Under: Random Thoughts

Comments

  1. Miguel says

    December 27, 2016 at 3:46 pm - December 27, 2016

    Yes on Gene Wilder. Greg Lake of ELP, Jerry Doyle of Babylon 5.

  2. Craig Smith says

    December 27, 2016 at 3:51 pm - December 27, 2016

    Not unexpected, but John Glenn.

  3. Craig Smith says

    December 27, 2016 at 3:56 pm - December 27, 2016

    Also, after false report after false report after false report, Abe Vigoda.

  4. JPKalishek says

    December 27, 2016 at 3:56 pm - December 27, 2016

    Emmerson and Lake (joined one time drummer Cozy Powell who died in ’98)
    Bowie.
    Jerry Doyle (A bald guy with a hot wife. gives me hope(~_^)
    Wilder
    Those just off the top of my head.

  5. Craig Smith says

    December 27, 2016 at 3:58 pm - December 27, 2016

    And Carrie Fisher and Richard Adams (author of Watership Down) need to be added to the list.

  6. Sean L says

    December 27, 2016 at 4:30 pm - December 27, 2016

    Fisher upset me the most, if only because I saw Rogue One on Friday. People who have seen it will know what I’m talking about. And of all the celebrities who died this year, she had the biggest impact on my childhood. She will always be Princess Leia to me, the original badass sci-fi girl.

    Rickman was a blow. He’s been Professor Snape to a generation of kids.

    Bowie saddened me, because I really admired him as a musician and had hoped he would last long enough for me to see him in concert.

    And Gene Wilder because, well, Willy Wonka.

    All that said, if the anthropomorphic personification of death is anything like Death from Sandman, she probably had great conversations with all four of them. Especially Fisher and Rickman.

  7. Cyril says

    December 27, 2016 at 4:36 pm - December 27, 2016

    Here, I’ve been missing Marvin Minsky from early on this year.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky

    RIP, Marvin.

  8. Peter Hughes says

    December 27, 2016 at 4:57 pm - December 27, 2016

    For me, the times I were the saddest was when the deaths of Florence Henderson and Nancy Reagan were announced. Definitely agree with V on Rickman and Wilder.

    Bowie and Prince were also shockers.

    Can’t wait to see the last of 2016, that’s for damn sure!

    Regards,
    Peter H.

  9. Ilíon says

    December 27, 2016 at 5:58 pm - December 27, 2016

    “Can’t wait to see the last of 2016, that’s for damn sure!”

    Lookig forward to the End of the Obama Er[ror]!

  10. Tom says

    December 27, 2016 at 6:16 pm - December 27, 2016

    Carrie Fisher. It was a shock. I knew she had problems with substance abuse in the past, but I didn’t know there was anything wrong with her health before the news of her heart attack last week.

    Colonel/Senator Glenn, Nancy Reagan, and Florence Henderson were saddening, but not unexpected.

    Consciously or subconsciously, I somehow halfway expect rock stars to die young, or relatively young, so Prince, David Bowie, and George Michael did not come as a big surprise.

    But now, I want to put Patty Smyth, Stevie Nicks, Tori Amos, Terri Nunn, Susanna Hoffs, and Chrissie Hynde in a safe house until next week.

  11. windbag says

    December 27, 2016 at 6:45 pm - December 27, 2016

    Antonin Scalia and Keith Emerson are the two biggest, and I can’t believe their names could appear in the same sentence.

  12. Craig Smith says

    December 27, 2016 at 7:44 pm - December 27, 2016

    Yeah, Scalia….they should still investigate his death. That was VERY suspicious.

  13. Sean L says

    December 27, 2016 at 7:49 pm - December 27, 2016

    @ Tom: I wasn’t really upset when Nancy passed. If anything, I was happy for her, since she would be with Ronald again.

  14. Papa Giorgio says

    December 27, 2016 at 8:17 pm - December 27, 2016

    My personal one was Glenn Foden. — http://religiopoliticaltalk.com/glenn-foden-rip-you-will-be-missed-by-many/

  15. Cyril says

    December 27, 2016 at 9:33 pm - December 27, 2016

    Once again, Venezuela and its 21st Century Socialism has found the ultimate answer against death itself : don’t even be born, or only conceived to begin with!

    #HechoEnSocialismo

    Venezuelan women resorting to sterilization in record numbers

    “In another indicator of Venezuela’s deep financial and humanitarian crisis, women in the socialist country are opting for sterilization in record numbers.

    Traditional contraceptives like condoms or birth control pills have virtually vanished from store shelves, pushing them toward the hard-to-reverse surgery.

    According to a study conducted by PLAFAM, a non-governmental organization focused on Planned Parenthood and sexual health issues, today nearly 23 percent more women are being sterilized in Venezuela compared to four years ago

    […]”

    http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/12/27/venezuelan-women-resorting-to-sterilization-in-record-numbers.html

  16. The Poetry Man says

    December 27, 2016 at 10:44 pm - December 27, 2016

    Glenn Frey 🙁

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7-gsxH-M9g

  17. The Poetry Man says

    December 27, 2016 at 10:55 pm - December 27, 2016

    My apologies to fellow Glenn Frey fans.
    I posted the Youtube link without listening to the video first.
    The poster dubbed his own voice singing the song over the video.
    I went back to listen to the video and it was to late,I had already posted it on GP.
    🙁

  18. Evans Tibetsy says

    December 27, 2016 at 11:17 pm - December 27, 2016

    Humans have a shelf life. Most of these people are old and had illnesses they kept private. A number of them died from addictions. One died when his SUV rolled down and crushed him.

    Most of these people have movies, TV shows and CD’s that will live on forever.

    Life happens

  19. Ted B. (Charging Rhino) says

    December 27, 2016 at 11:55 pm - December 27, 2016

    “Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin never died. They simply became music.”

  20. The Gentle Grizzly says

    December 28, 2016 at 1:52 am - December 28, 2016

    Dan Havgerty.

  21. The Gentle Grizzly says

    December 28, 2016 at 1:57 am - December 28, 2016

    Haggerty1. Curse no edit feature and curse smart phones.

  22. davinci38 says

    December 28, 2016 at 8:00 am - December 28, 2016

    I would go with Prince.

  23. davinci38 says

    December 28, 2016 at 8:02 am - December 28, 2016

    I would have to add Scalia and Bowie too.

  24. Julie the Jarhead says

    December 28, 2016 at 8:53 am - December 28, 2016

    Charmian Carr and Florence Henderson. 🙁

  25. TheQuietMan says

    December 28, 2016 at 9:54 am - December 28, 2016

    Of public people, I think the deaths of Justice Scalia, Nancy Reagan, and John Glenn (for his astronaut days, not his politics days) made the biggest impression. Fidel Castro didn’t have the impact the others did on me, I think because he was out of official power for so long, although his death was significant.

  26. SharpRight says

    December 28, 2016 at 6:24 pm - December 28, 2016

    Compound that list with all of the murdered men & women in law enforcement.

  27. Pamela says

    December 29, 2016 at 11:39 am - December 29, 2016

    Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Prince, Maurice White, Paul Kantner, Glen Frey,
    Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fischer, Greg Lake, Gene Wilder, and Florence Henderson

  28. RSG says

    January 1, 2017 at 6:21 am - January 1, 2017

    2016 truly has been the deathiest. In compiling my list of notables, I was stunned to find out how many names who are no longer among the living when collected in aggregate.

    As with others, I gasped when hearing of the departures of Antonin Scalia, Gene Wilder, and, most recently, Florence Henderson.

    Here are the other deaths in 2016 that captured my attention.

    Names To Faces I Grew Up With:

    Larry Drake; notable for playing lovable developmentally-challgenged ‘Benny’ on LA Law, though more enduring as a often frequent movie villain over the years.
    Joe Garagiola; known to me as one of the the crew on NBC’s Today, and apparently some guy who played a little baseball before his career in morning television (something I only learned as an adult).
    Ken Howard; notable for many roles, but for me one of those faces who always seemed to be around whenever the TV was turned on.
    Earl Hamner; who gave us The Waltons, loosely based on his childhood life.
    Ronnie Claire Edwards; another alum of The Waltons, as the wife of shopkeeper ‘Ike’.
    James Noble; the lovable and often goofy governor as well as occasional foil to the title character in Benson.
    Robert Vaughn; notable for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and later The A-Team.
    Patty Duke; known to many for her childhood acting career, but to me as a frequent star of TV in the 70s & 80s, as well as the one-time wife to John Astin (the original Gomez Addams) and mother to their son, Sean.
    Doris Roberts; known to most as one of America’s Favorite Mothers on teevee, but mostly to me as one of those performers who was known for more a character than an actress in her roles.
    William Schallert; who was TV father to the above-named Patty Duke on her eponymously named show, TV father to the TV Nancy Drew, and often the TV heir to Ward Cleaver in his many roles.
    Ann M. Guilbert; alumna of The Dick Van Dyke show, but better known to later audiences as the scene-stealing grandmother to Fran Fine in The Nanny.
    Garry Marshall; whose early producing and directing career was almost overshadowed by his later acting career (Murphy Brown, others).
    Jack Riley; character and voice actor most familiar to children of the 70s as the deadpan misanthropic Mr Carlin on The Bob Newhart Show.
    Arnold Palmer; most remembered by myself as one of the original sports pitchpersons, and later as a soft drink (the latter a favorite of a friend of mine).
    Ron Glass; known to 70s TV audiences as Detective Ron Harris in Barney Miller, and later to 21st Century audiences as Derrial Book in Firefly.
    Bernard Fox; Dr Bombay in Bewitched, Colonel Crittendon in Hogan’s Heroes, plus roles in Titanic, The Mummy and many other TV & film parts.
    Alan Thicke; talk show host, songwriter, TV dad to still-obnoxious (IRL) Mike Seaver.
    Miss Cleo [Youree Dell Harris]; possibly the person most responsible for the rise of both service-related infomercials and pay-per-call telephone services.
    William Christopher; actor who was mainstream America’s closest connection to Catholicism in the 1970s while playing a mild-mannered priest in 1950s war-torn Korea on teevee.

    Lastly for the this sublist, but certainly not least: Debbie Reynolds, and daughter Carrie Fisher.

    Names To (Mostly) Voices I Grew Up With:

    Morley Safer; as a 60 Minutes original one whose talents let the story tell itself, rather than inserting himself into the story.
    Eric Engberg; CBS News reporter in various roles, later in life a Bill O’Reilly feudee.
    Craig Windham; one of the many mellow sonorous voices of NPR as a newsreader & duty reporter, though his off-air life was more interesting as a choir member of the National Cathedral and a professional counselor dealing with troubled adolescents.
    Pete Burns; musical artist behind Dead Or Alive, mainstay of 80s dance music.
    George S. Irving; stage & screen actor known as the narrator in the animated series Underdog, also a onetime co-star of Debbie Reynolds.
    Janet Waldo; last surviving main cast member of The Jetsons (as “Daughter, Judy!”), as well as the voice of Fred Flintstone’s MIL and numerous other cartoon voices. (Also distant relative to Ralph Waldo Emerson.)

    General Arts & Letters:

    Elie Wiesel; who put a definitive human face to what could be called the Holocaust mania of the late 70s and early 80s.
    Sir Peter Shaffer; playwright & screenwriter who gave us Equus and Amadeus.
    Alvin Toffler; author whom then newly-elected Speaker Of The House Newt Gingrich was infatuated with and whose books I either bought one or more copies of or checked out of the library numerous times, never having finished any.
    Florence King; writer whom I’m embarrassed to say I only became acquainted with after reading her memoriam in National Review. Oh, Florence, forgive me for being out-to-lunch in the awareness department prior to your demise. I promise to make it up by reading all of your published work prior to my demise.
    Anton Yelchin; notable for his role as Pavel Chekov in the Star Trek film reboot, as well as a young actor whose death was not due to drugs or alcohol.
    The previously noted Alan Rickman; a better personification of Severus Snape there could not be.
    Kenny Baker; the person who gave movement to R2-D2 in all the original Star Wars films and created a career for himself outside the world of circuses and freak shows in numerous other TV and film productions.
    Fyvvush Finkel; longtime character actor noted for being in character often as a bow-tied attorney, judge, or teacher and one-time star of Yiddish theatre.
    Edward Albee; playwright [Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, et al]
    Kevin Meaney; comedian, actor and mainstay talk show comic guest in the 80s & 90s, popularized catchprase “That’s not right!”
    Gwen Ifill; one-time NBC News domestic correspondent, later PBS public affair program host. Occasionally open partisan.

    From The “Yes, We Knew You Weren’t Long For This World But Disappointed To See You Go Now” Department:

    The previously mentioned Abe Vigoda; who should get a Mark Twain award for being one of the longest continually rumored-to-be-demised persons in modern history.
    Nancy Reagan; who often kept her interest in the causes she believed in long after contemporaries had retreated into retirement and a perpetual defender and protector of her beloved Ronnie.
    Harper Lee; the female JD Salinger and childhood friend of Truman Capote who lived off her fame as a one-hit wonder of authors until her dying years repurposed (some would say ‘exploited’) her into a follow-up author. Fortunately her talent was recognized by then-President Bush with a Presidential Medal Of Freedom while she was still ambulatory and in control of her senses.
    Zsa Zsa Gabor; long-ailing surviving member of the Gabor Sisters, often known as famous for being famous, reformed cop abuser.

    World Of Business, Industry & Government:

    Janet Reno; former US Attorney General, inspiration for SNL’s “Janet Reno’s Dance Party”, rumored life partner of Donna Shalala.
    Andy Grove; Hungarian immigrant who became the third employee, first COO and later CEO of Intel Corporation, also TIME Man Of The Year in 1997.
    Forrest Mars, Jr; confectionery heir and in later years, to me the person responsible for saving one of my grandmother’s favorite historical sites.
    Rose Mofford; who went from office secretary for the State Of Arizona to the office of Arizona Secretary Of State and later Governor when nutcase corrupt car dealer Evan Meacham was forced to resign the position she succeeded him in.
    Melvin Laird; Secretary Of Defense under President Richard Nixon.
    Denton Cooley; cardiac surgeon who completed the world’s first total artificial heart transplant.
    Jim Delligatti; McDonald’s franchisee who created the Big Mac (which gave way to an advertising jingle long out of use but still remembered today).
    Grant Tinker; former NBC CEO, television producer (MTM Productions), and a former Mr Mary Tyler Moore.
    Louis Harris; founder of the Harris Poll.
    Harry Heimlich; physician-inventor of the like-named Heimlich Maneuver, who first administered his own technique only in the later years of his retirement home residence.
    Gertrude Kerbis; the woman who designed O’Hare International Airport.

    And an occupation, if not name, V the K will appreciate: Ralph Ketner; co-founder of “Nom Kitteh” [that would be Food Lion to the rest of us], age 95.

    The Infamous And Infamously Famous:

    Lou Pearlman; corpulent promoter, boy-band impresario, fraudster and Federal prisoner who silently screamed “lover of young men” in his appearances in Making The Band. (Also first cousin to Art Garfunkel.)
    Phyllis Schlafly; lawyer, activist, perpetual scold.
    Alexis Arquette; once gay-ish and later transsexual former sibling-in-law of Courtney Cox and grandchild of Hollywood Squares’ Charley Weaver.
    Greta Zimmer Friedman; dental assistant notably captured in V-J Day In Times Square photo.

    Lastly (and fittingly so), John McLaughlin; one-time Catholic priest better known as commentator and syndicated TV roundtable discussion host, ripe for imitation of mannerisms and catchprases, particularly the one for which he ended each of his long-running shows: “Bye, Bye!”

    2016, you really took your toll.

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