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Earliest memory of a celebrity death that shocked you?


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Old 18-11-2016, 19:41
sheila blige
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Crikey, you've made me realise that when I was watching early repeats of that show, I had no idea one of the actors was dead!!
Cheers for that! I now feel so much younger! Not!
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Old 18-11-2016, 19:52
Verence
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Eric Morecambe when I was 13, I was on a school trip to Holland at the time and one of the teachers had got hold of an English paper and Eric's death was on the front page
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Old 18-11-2016, 19:54
Babe Rainbow
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The first one I can remember being shocked about, off the top of my head, was Princess Grace of Monaco, after a car crash.

They said on the news that she just had a broken arm or something similar but the next morning she was dead.

But I am really surprised that I can't remember, at all, the deaths of Elvis, John Lennon and Marc Bolan. They must all have been huge news stories but I have no memory of them at all.
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Old 18-11-2016, 19:56
lewisH
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Richard Beckinsale

Diana too, both totally out of he blue
Richard Beckinsdale too. I remember being in registration class and the teacher had a newspaper on her desk. His death was on the front page. We were all in shock. He was so young.
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Old 18-11-2016, 19:59
kat's mum
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John Lennon for me as the most shocking, I was and still am a huge Beatles fan after seeing all the films at Christmas 1979. I remember going into school and everyone talking about it.
However the most upsetting was George Harrison as he was my favourite and it was the same year my marriage ended so a truly dreadful year for me!
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Old 18-11-2016, 20:02
TootlesTheTaxi
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Diana Dors when I was 7 and then Eric Morecambe's a few weeks later on my best friend's birthday.
1984 was quite a year for deaths.
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Old 18-11-2016, 20:03
Walter Neff
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Richard Beckinsdale too. I remember being in registration class and the teacher had a newspaper on her desk. His death was on the front page. We were all in shock. He was so young.
That was a terrible shock, hard to believe that he would have been 70 years old next year. Even harder to believe that his daughter Kate is 12 years older than Richard when he died.
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Old 18-11-2016, 20:15
Babe Rainbow
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Diana Dors when I was 7 and then Eric Morecambe's a few weeks later on my best friend's birthday.
1984 was quite a year for deaths.

I do remember being hugely shocked when her husband committed suicide just a few months after her death. So sad for their son who was just a teenager at the time. Terribly tragic.
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Old 18-11-2016, 21:04
Cryolemon
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Diana Princess of Wales. Followed by the wrestler Owen Hart.

I suspect they have nothing else in common.
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Old 18-11-2016, 21:28
paulsh1
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I do remember being hugely shocked when her husband committed suicide just a few months after her death. So sad for their son who was just a teenager at the time. Terribly tragic.
Indeed and there was also some strange story that Diana Dors had left her son's inheritance hidden away in a coded message and only her husband knew how to decipher it for him.Unfortunately her husband killed himself before revealing the secret.

I thought it was an urban myth,but after a quick search apparently not

Diana Princess of Wales. Followed by the wrestler Owen Hart.

I suspect they have nothing else in common.
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Old 18-11-2016, 21:30
Walter Neff
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Diana Dors when I was 7 and then Eric Morecambe's a few weeks later on my best friend's birthday.
1984 was quite a year for deaths.
Diana Dors died the day before my 47th birthday, and I remember reading the newspaper the next day with tears filling my eyes. The only star who I have ever shed a tear over, it just seemed so sad.
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Old 18-11-2016, 21:39
Roesia
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Roald Dahl.

I was in primary school at the time and ADORED his books. I still remember talking about his death with a teacher in the playground soon after it happened. It was a big deal.
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Old 18-11-2016, 21:45
Balthus
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Karen Carpenter for me. I remember being stunned when her death was announced -- it was so unexpected. Really affected me for a while.
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Old 18-11-2016, 21:47
Vodka_Drinka
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Freddie Mercury is the first big celebrity death I can remember. There was a huge media frenzy around his health in the time leading up to it, he eventually admitted he had AIDS and died the next day.

Also remember Ayrton Senna the racing driver being killed during a race. He was a huge star, and I can only liken it to one of today's big sports stars being killed very suddenly.
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Old 18-11-2016, 22:07
Westy2
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Cheers for that! I now feel so much younger! Not!
To this day, when the show is repeated, my sister will never watch the episodes after his passing!
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Old 18-11-2016, 23:43
mr muggles
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Dusty Springfield - That was my own personal loss. Though I wasn't born during her heyday, i became a huge fan of her work, and still am. She'd managed to turn her life around after years of battling alcoholism then gone - too soon.

John Lennon - I wasn't ever a Beatle fan, but I remember coming home for lunch from school (I lived near my school) & my Mother opening the door in floods of tears saying "John Lennons dead!" It was more the shock of seeing my Mother distressed about a pop star! She was a teen during the Beatles years so it was awful for her.

Strangely, Richard Beckinsdale was another 'big' one. i knew him vaguely from Rising Damp, but it was more the collective grief of the nation that you felt.

Hattie Jacques, Diana Dors & Pat Phoenix were others of note.
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Old 19-11-2016, 07:38
donna255
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The first celebrity death that I remember getting upset about was Freddie Mercury. I was 13 at the time. It came out of blue as he only announced that he had HIV the day before his death so I never had time to digest that info before he passed.

I still can't watch the These Are The Days Of Our Lives video all the way through as that was one of if not the last video he ever made. He looked so gaunt and pale and when he says/sings "I still love you" down the camera at the end it was like he knew he was saying goodbye.

I was washing my hair to go to work that Monday. The radio news came on and I heard the name Freddie and just burst into tears, I just knew he must have died. I still cannot watch Days Of Our Lives as at the end when he says "I still love you." I start to fill up.

Elvis I was strange but true on the loo. My mum shouted up the stairs ..... is dead! I had to ask who. A friend is still a massive fan and has been to Graceland a number of times, goes to a fan club and they did week away events each year. For years she was convinced he was not really dead and would come back on his 70th birthday. She does realize now he is dead.

I was shocked over Lennon, but admit not really a fan. Think it was the suddenness of it all.

Diana really shocked kept thinking they had made a mistake. Everyone was talking to each other and phoning people.
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Old 19-11-2016, 08:30
Croctacus
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Another one here for Pete Duel. I was 8 and he was my first celebrity crush so I found it quite upsetting when he killed himself.

Alias Smith and Jones was never the same with Roger Davis.

Elvis too was a shocker 7 years later. I remember waking up and my mum calling for me to get up for school and then she called up that Elvis had died but it seemed like I knew before she told me.
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Old 19-11-2016, 08:56
Mark F
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Maybe not a celeb as such but Ayrton Senna in 1994 in the San Marino Grand Prix.

Remember it made the headline news on the BBC that night (and this was before News channels etc)
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Old 19-11-2016, 09:02
Eddie Badger
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I was a real space buff when I was a kid and was really shocked at the deaths of the Apollo 1 astronauts, Grissom, White and Chafee in a launch pad fire.

As an adult the death of Keith Moon shocked me. Part of me realised he would probably never reach a ripe old age with his lifestyle but it was still a shock.
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Old 19-11-2016, 09:31
benjamini
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Jim Reeves. I had no idea who he was but I was fascinated by the reaction his death in a plane crash had on my wee friends. The phenomemena of grief for a stranger still fascinates me!
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Old 19-11-2016, 09:41
ritchie2yk
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other than Diana which was obviously shocking I was really shocked by the murder of jill Dando, I was only a teen but remember her being on TV and lot and couldn't quite get my head round it
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Old 19-11-2016, 10:51
boddism
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Just wondering who your earliest memory of a celebrity death that genuinely shocked/saddened you?

Mine was Sid James in 1976 when I was around 10.

Everyone I knew at school was shocked because we all loved Sid from the Carry on films and Bless This House.
Lennon. As a child is was disconcerting as the adult word just disintegrated for about 48hrs. The shock was palpable.
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Old 19-11-2016, 10:55
boddism
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Mine was Princess Di. I had been out clubbing and was staying at a mates house. There was a few of us there and we was all a little worse for wear shall we say. Think the news broke very early Sunday morning/Saturday night and we all sat there in a state of shock. I thought I'd dreamt the whole thing.
Ditto. I was just rolling in at 3am when the news came on & said she was injured. I went to bed, but I knew she'd die.
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Old 19-11-2016, 11:07
tiv
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While not a 'celebrity' in the modern, degraded usage of the the term, it would have to be JFK. Heard about the assassination on the car radio while driving home from evening classes. Nothing else has come close.
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