Has the death of a person of notoriety ever affected you more than you thought it would? Who was it and why did their death mean to you?

None of them have ever had an effect on me more than just ‘awww, that sucks’, but when MJ died, I said ‘awwwwwwwwwwww, that really sucks : (’. Though I think when Richard Dawkins goes, I may shed a tear or two lol.

When I heard that Patrick Swayze died, I had a mini freak out. I was in the car with my friend and we were driving to pick up some pizza. The radio was on quietly in the background because we were talking. Suddenly, my ears pricked up to a man on the radio saying Patrick Swayze had lost his battle with cancer and I screamed, ”OHMYGODPATRICKSWAYZEISDEAD!” I wouldn’t say it had a bad effect on me, but I did have a moment of silence the next night when I turned on the TV and Dirty Dancing was on.

I think you mean fame, not notoriety.

notoriety: disrepute, ill-repute, shame, infamy

You wouldn’t be able to find this with our search function, but I did ask it before.

I was going to say “no”, and that the death of people that I don’t know really has never bothered me all that much. Then I remembered SRV. I was serving in Naples at the time and refused to believe it. I kept thinking, ‘No, there must be some mistake.” I watch footage of him or listen to his music and it still feels so good and I think that the world is less without him.

River Phoenix I think kind of caught me off guard. I was so looking forward to seeing him blossom in his career. He was only 23 and seemed to have so much going for him but he wasted his life away on drugs. I know its common in hollywood but I thought he was the next great actor comming out of hollywood and it was just such a waste. I couldn’t help feel poorly for his family. It just made me wonder what kind of future was in store for my children. No parent ever sees that kind of thing coming.

Tim Russert. He was the one journalist that I felt I could count on to tell the truth. Drinking coffee, watching Meet The Press with Tim, and reading the Sunday paper was a Sunday ritual that I truly miss.

OMG, I didn’t know! I recommend his A People’s History of the United States to all and sundry.

Two people: John Lennon and Kurt Cobain. And Kurt Cobain was the surprise, mainly because I wasn’t a rabid Nirvana fan. More than casual, but less than rabid. And the more I’ve learned about him, the sorrier I feel for him and the angrier I feel towards people who didn’t give two shits about him as long as he was making money. I feel sad that he wasn’t strong enough to cope.

With John, I was just shocked. I have loved The Beatles for almost as long as I can remember, and I really admired John, though I had the idea even at 11 that at times, he really as kind of a prick. It’s the art. And that he was cut down in such a brutal way by a fucking coward. As I’ve grown older and have lived through my own struggles at not being a selfish bastard, I understand more of his struggle and can commiserate. He was really growing up when he was murdered and sometimes I wonder what sort of art we would have gotten from him had he lived.

Tim Russert got me as well. I remember hearing that he went to school in Cleveland and a lot of people around me were also upset.

The one that really shocked me though was Steve Irwin’s. After a while of watching him be more or less invincible, it kind of blew my mind that a stingray could have caused his death. But more shocking was how greatly it affected me, really. I wasn’t even a huge fan or anything. I still have no idea why I reacted as severely as I did. I still have no idea what he (apparently) must have meant to me. I guess I learned that people can be important to you without your even realizing it, which felt pretty weird at the time.

@absalom Steve Irwin’s death really affected me too. My kids and I watched Crocodile Hunter together, and their kids’ show Croc Diaries. I wasn’t obsessed with him or anything, but I thought he had the coolest job in the world and, unlike most TV personalities, seemed madly in love what he did and genuinely thrilled with his own life. That is so rare. Also, at the time of his death my daughter and oldest son were about the same ages as his kids. I don’t cry often, but I got all choked up more than once when the news reported his death. It seemed flat-out wrong that he’d be killed by a stingray, and thinking of his family just got to me. :(

Now, sometimes we watch his daughter’s show “Bindi the Jungle Girl.” I still get a little weepy when they show scenes filmed before Irwin’s death.