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Earliest memory of a celebrity death that shocked you?


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Old 24-11-2016, 23:34
LuckyPierre
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I also remember my mum shaking me awake one Sunday and saying 'You'll never guess who's died'. Me: 'my uncle Jimmy?'. 'No, Princess Diana.'
I'd been out on the pop on the Saturday night so woke up on the Sunday morning a little on the delicate side. Without even so much as a good morning my dad, in his inimitable way (not long on the niceties, is pater) simply said: "Diana's dead." No Princess Diana, just Diana.

I spent the next five minutes racking my addled brain, trying to think if I knew anybody called Diana.
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Old 24-11-2016, 23:47
Pink Knight
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Probably John Lennon, as he was killed on my 12th birthday.
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Old 25-11-2016, 15:57
Patti-Ann
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I remember being surprised at Harry H Corbett dying as I always expected the old man (Wilfred Bramble/Albert) to go first

(He did, a few years later)
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Old 25-11-2016, 16:07
Mark39London
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I remember being surprised at Harry H Corbett dying as I always expected the old man (Wilfred Bramble/Albert) to go first

(He did, a few years later)
Yes, I remember Bramble being interviewed about it on Nationwide. I never knew he (Bramble) was gay until after his death, although given his era, I'm not surprised that he kept it quiet.
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Old 25-11-2016, 17:13
ricardoylucia
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In reply to the OP's question - my earliest memory would be the late King George VI and his daughter became Queen...I was 8...
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Old 25-11-2016, 17:44
PDS1985
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Raul Julia in 1994.
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Old 25-11-2016, 17:56
IvanIV
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Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, his eyebrows short circuited, apparently.
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Old 25-11-2016, 22:37
foxyfruit
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Elvis Presley for sure.....still upsets me!
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Old 25-11-2016, 23:01
Belligerence
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Tommy Cooper was before my time but it's the one my parents always refer to when talking about 'shocking' deaths.

I don't think we'll see another Diana, such an outpouring of grief.
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Old 27-11-2016, 13:49
TheTrader78
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Diana Princess of Wales. Followed by the wrestler Owen Hart.

I suspect they have nothing else in common.
Owen was known as the King of Harts back in 94....so they had similar nicknames.

Ironically these are the two out of three who I would have said....Diana dying happened just over two weeks before my 19th even though I weren't a fan of hers as such, it was the first time I felt mortality....thinking if someone like her can die then so can I.....I do remember that Sunday morning turning on tv being shocked!
1997 was a year of quite a few surprising celebrity deaths.

Owen was quite the shock as I watched the event he died at (Over the edge) live on tv in May 99.

Senna in 94 was a shock too as it happened on live television....remember my mum walking into my room just as it happened and her saying 'he's dead' straight away before any confirmation.

There were celebrity deaths before this I was aware of but didn't register any shock with me at the time.

And there's been many since, especially in recent years that have totally shocked but I think as years pass it will become more commonplace unfortunately.
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Old 29-11-2016, 12:58
-Batman-
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Anna Nicole Smith
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Old 29-11-2016, 14:37
Mandark
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President Kennedy.......my memory is that aged 11 and 10 me and brother were 'Home Alone' whilst Mum and Dad were at the pub and we told them the news when they got home
What did you say to each other at that age when you first heard the news?
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Old 29-11-2016, 15:01
Vicks-Louise
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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)
Ayrton Senna for me too, I was 4! My nan had died a month before and my dad was a huge F1 fan (Ratzenberger died in qualifying the day before, I remember my dad telling me that too but I didn't physically see it) but I remember that crash with Ayrton Senna pretty vividly, I'd imagine at the time death stood out for me a lot then after my nan dying so I've always assumed that's why I remember it so clearly even though I was only young
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Old 29-11-2016, 19:36
humdrummer
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Freddie Mercury.
He seemed so...alive. It was such a shock. I really, really liked him and he left such a hole in the world when he left.

I think he died the day before but, I didn't know until the next day which was a Monday. I was on my way to the youth club later that day when one of the older 'cool' girls stopped and offered me a lift up there. She was playing a Queen album and talking about his passing and I remeber trying really hard not to cry in front of her.
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Old 29-11-2016, 21:36
HenryGarten
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31 July 1964

A plane crashed through the trees and in that fatal aircrash was a singer named Reeves.

Jim Reeves
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Old 29-11-2016, 21:37
HenryGarten
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An actor called Pete Duelle who was in a TV show Alias Smith and Jones, I watched as a child. Very early 70s and I think I was 11? He killed himself over the christmas period. I remember crying and being so upset.

The next person I cried over was Eric Morecambe, he was such a part of my childhood.
He always seemed so happy.
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Old 29-11-2016, 22:08
mazzy50
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Richard Beckinsale for me.
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Old 30-11-2016, 10:54
gashead
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Dozens of celebs have died in my lifetime, but the earliest death I can recall that actually shocked me (aside from Princess Diana) is Amy Winehouse in 2011. I think with all others before then, maybe I didn't know them or weren't into them enough to be especially upset, or maybe they weren't un-expected due to age or illness, but with Amy Winehouse, here was a singer I was very into and had seen in the flesh a couple of times. It was a death that seemed both completely avoidable, yet somehow inevitable.
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Old 30-11-2016, 12:45
munkyfellover
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Even with all his problems I was mortified and really shocked when I heard about Michael Hutchence, I was such a big INXS fan.
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Old 30-11-2016, 12:50
BigNipper
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Also was going to say Diana and Owen Hart. I was a big fan of Owens.
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Old 30-11-2016, 18:21
RyJa
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Probably John Lennon - I remember watching the news reports and both my mum and dad being shocked. Mum was a massive Beatles fan so she was particularly upset.
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Old 30-11-2016, 20:56
supermeguk
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Yootha Joyce. I'd just discovered G&M the previous autumn. Others had died before her but she's the one which upset me.
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Old 30-11-2016, 21:23
GiraffeGirl
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Diana was probably the first one I really remember, as most other deaths I'd been aware of until then were of old people. I was 10 when she died. The sheer scale of that was also astonishing and probably contributes to why people felt so shocked.

Heath Ledger is one I still find myself surprised by at times, cause I'm still angry and gutted that he didn't make any more films.

Michael Jackson (who I didn't even like!) I got obsessed by because he died the night before I finished teacher training and I suddenly had oodles of free time to google conspiracy theories!
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Old 01-12-2016, 03:37
milliejo
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I have no memory of Elvis Presley dying...I would have been five,
I didn't know who John Lennon was until the day he died, I was eight and our record player and all the records where in my Grandmothers attack so I never saw them.

The earliest deaths that I remember are Peter Sellars, which was the same year as John Lennon but I do remember it. And somehow knew him from Pink Panther films...I remember the cartoon version of Inspector Clouseau.
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Old 01-12-2016, 07:43
HenryGarten
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Elvis Presley will soon be longer dead than he was alive.
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