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Earliest memory of a celebrity death that shocked you?


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Old 01-12-2016, 13:28
Billy Hicks
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Although I remember Diana's death, being eight years old and coming from a house where the Royals were given absolutely no attention whatsoever meant that I was never really shocked by it. It was just someone I'd vaguely heard about who'd died, and the next few days of mass grieving seemed very odd to me at the time. Similarly Jill Dando - looking back extremely sad and tragic, but I wasn't actually "shocked" as a ten year old.

Having a quick look back, an early one that genuinely stunned me was Desmond Llewelyn (Q in James Bond) who was killed in a car crash just before Christmas one year. In my teens there was Bob Monkhouse, Richard Whiteley, Steve Irwin, Jeremy Beadle, and Mark Speight, all of whom I'd grown up watching as a kid.

The major deaths from Michael Jackson onwards (Winehouse, Houston, Williams, Bowie etc) go without saying.
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Old 02-12-2016, 12:29
julie2009
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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.
I was shocked by her death too when I was a kid. I was a fan of hers. She was beautiful and every time I hear the Thompson Twins singing We are Detectives for some strange reason it always reminds me of her death.

John Lennon too back in December 1980, I remember hearing it on the news and on TV. It was just after he had released Starting Over and I loved that song
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Old 03-12-2016, 21:03
wuffles
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Elvis Presley when I was seven. I was in hospital with a broken leg at the time and can remember a few of the nurses in floods of tears.
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Old 03-12-2016, 21:15
snowy ghost
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President Kennedy......my mum and dad were devastated
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Old 03-12-2016, 22:51
Camis
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I remember hearing about Elvis dying - I was in the car with my family on the way to a holiday when the news came on the radio, but it didn't mean that much to me at the time.

John Lennon - remember hearing the news before going to school one morning.

Princess Diana - I was up in the night feeding my daughter - the news said she had been in a crash, then she was badly injured...it took a while before her death was confirmed. (I seem to have heard about a few celebrity deaths while feeding babies during the night - Princess Diana, Maurice Gibb, the Kennedy family...)
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Old 05-12-2016, 13:54
ElCantoDelLoco
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I think it must have been Elvis Presley.
Elvis Presley when I was nine years old.
Yeah, when I think back, it was as if I'd known him for countless years despite being at Primary school. Even though media was much more limited back then, it totally dominated like Diana's demise did 20 years later.

Bing Crosby went that year too! Remember that well!!
Mine too - I was 12 and we were in a caravan on the Gower in which it rained all week and I can remember being really shocked when they announced it then Radio 1 playing all Elvis songs in the Golden Hour
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.
I must have watched Alas Smith and Jones a few years later, when he was already dead, and I had a hyuge crush on him, and was really upset when my sister told me he was dead, but she said he shot himself in the head playing Russian Roulette
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Old 05-12-2016, 14:06
soulboy77
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Princess Di was the only one that shocked. Pop stars and actors dying early due to drink and drug excesses are not that a surprise nor is anyone of old age.
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Old 05-12-2016, 16:56
Scaramouche
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Marc Bolan for me. I was ony 8 years old but my older brother had been a huge fan and had given me all his T Rex singles when he started buying albums. I still have them and play them often. He'd been on children's TV with his show performing with Bowie and Elton John amongst others, he'd been a massive star here and was making something of a comeback at the time. Such a young, sudden death and a tremendous loss to the fans.
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Old 05-12-2016, 17:02
dodrade
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Princess Di was the only one that shocked. Pop stars and actors dying early due to drink and drug excesses are not that a surprise nor is anyone of old age.
When I turned on the TV that morning Jeffrey Archer was being interviewed and I initially assumed Thatcher had died.
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Old 05-12-2016, 17:29
tigerowl
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My earliest memory of a celeb death is Tommy Cooper. It was such a strange thing. I have just watched the video of it now on Youtube and am glad I was a bit too young at the time to really understand how awful that was. So very sad.

The first one that shocked me the most though, was Mel of Mel & Kim. It was mostly because she was so young, but really it was just that they were so normal - just girls like us living their dreams and it all just got taken away.
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Old 05-12-2016, 17:44
tinkerbell987
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Princess Diana I was watching the US Open & heard about the crash. think I watch the news all day on Sunday, just changing channels constantly. I was very upset & cried buckets to this day I don't know why it affected me to such an extent. no celebrity death has had that effect on my against though.

Amy Winehouse I was out with friends at the O2 & my friend saw it on twitter or maybe it was breaking news of something. was very shocked.

Michael Hutchene I saw it on sky as breaking news. that was pretty shocking.
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Old 05-12-2016, 18:39
FM Lover
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John Lennon.

I was 14 and really starting to get into music, his single Just Like Starting Over was in the charts and one that I had recorded from the Top 40 desperately trying to press stop before Tony Blackburn back announced the song and its chart position.

I remember hearing that Radio 1's Andy Peebles was flying to New York to interview John & Yoko about the new album and I was excited to hearing about it on Radio 1 when Andy returned.

I just remember waking up that morning and hearing the news - genuinely gob smacked

Although I remember clearly when I heard the news about Elvis and exactly where I was in August 1977 his death didn't hit me as much as John's did but then at 11 years old in 1977 I really shouldn't have expected it to.
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Old 05-12-2016, 18:49
Millie Muppet
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River Phoenix.

He was supposed to be such a clean-cut lad. I couldn't square that with the news that he'd apparently died of an overdose in the Viper Rooms.
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Old 05-12-2016, 20:03
barbeler
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John Lennon – the fact that somebody shot him made it even worse.

How on earth has this thread got this far without a mention of that Billy Joe Royal chappie?
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Old 05-12-2016, 22:48
Loon
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Kurt Cobain probably the first one

Then Diana, Dermot Morgan and Dimebag Darrell. Something about the letter D. More the suddenness and the horrible way in which the latter died. I still remember where i was when i got that message. How shocked we all were.
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Old 05-12-2016, 23:14
Pink Knight
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Kurt Cobain probably the first one

Then Diana, Dermot Morgan and Dimebag Darrell. Something about the letter D. More the suddenness and the horrible way in which the latter died. I still remember where i was when i got that message. How shocked we all were.
Dimebag Darrell another along with John Lennon killed on December 8th. 1980 and 2004.
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Old 06-12-2016, 05:12
RoseAnne
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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.
Me too. Pete was my first celeb crush. I thought he was the most handsome man I'd ever seen and I still do actually! His smile reduced me to mush. Even now I can't watch his replacement on Alias Smith and Jones without welling up.
Eric Morecambe felt like he was part of the family. He and Ernie were such massive stars and a part of Christmas, it was a big deal when he went.
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Old 08-12-2016, 22:02
Snikpoh
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Pete Duel - 31 December 1971.
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Old 08-12-2016, 22:37
Makson
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Diana was the first one I remember as it just seemed huge news.
The celeb deaths that affected me the most were Aaliyah and Left-Eye though as I was fans of both
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Old 09-12-2016, 10:11
Peter_Gazzard
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John Candy even though I was 18,and I knew he had a weight problem.I had just started to become a fan of his films
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Old 09-12-2016, 11:00
pfgpowell
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I was at boarding school on November 22, 1963, we first-years were on our way 'home' in the evening to the house we lived in a mile away, when we were told to gather in our changing room. Then a prefect came in a solemnly announced that JFK had been shot dead. It was a shock - for a 13-year-old such things - the US President being shot - didn't happen. For me it was unprecedented and I'll remember that moment for ever.

As for Di's death, I heard it on the news as I got up to go to work (on a Sunday, I'm in that kind of industry) and as it happens work was just a few hundred yards from Kensington Palace and I was amazed at the crowds of people walking the same way as me with bouquets of flowers to put at the gates.

Mind, I still think it is the 'soap opera' mentality in operation, just as folk tweet they are 'devastated' when some singer like Bowie dies. No, dears, 'devastation' is having your four-year-old killed by a drunk driver or living in Aleppo and losing your whole family in a bombing raid. That's devastation.
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Old 09-12-2016, 20:30
Nosedive
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Pete Duel - 31 December 1971.
Yep. I have to say it's the same here. I was about 6 or 7. Then a couple of years later it was actor James Beck who played Walker in Dad's Army.
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Old 10-12-2016, 17:03
dodrade
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Probably Jill Dando, especially as it remains inexplicable to this day.
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Old 10-12-2016, 17:16
kellylennon18
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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.
Freddie for me too. I walked home from my friends crying after hearing the news. Watched the programme last week about him and was in tears. Such a huge personality and talent, wish he'd been around longer.
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Old 10-12-2016, 18:51
Deb Arkle
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John Lennon – the fact that somebody shot him made it even worse.

How on earth has this thread got this far without a mention of that Billy Joe Royal chappie?
That made me LOL. "God bless you & him always!"
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