Has the news of famous persons death ever made you cry even though you never met them, or a stranger that you knew about but never met? Why did it make you cry?
Robin Williams. A surprising death, not a surprising break down. He was so much of my childhood, and always there for a laugh. Life got worse for everyone when he passed.
Grant Imahara. A surprising death, and for me, a surprising response. I still to this day get choked up about Grant. Even though he was on the Mythbusters B team, and was largely not on my radar after, hearing of his death really struck me. I still don’t rightly understand why. Perhaps it’s just because he was such a genuine and smart guy. Really dunno.
Sir Terry Pratchett. Actually, probably counts as multiple because the opening to The Shepherds Crown makes me bawl like a child, and it’s pretty much a step-by-step guide for mourning.
Discworld has been my comfort series for a long time. I have read most of the books more times than I can count. Spent months tearing through multiple a day.
Of course, his condition was known amongst the fans, we had all known it was going to be sooner than later, but it felt like a long chapter of my life was closed. I had looked forward to every release, cherished them. The man’s work had been beside me through some of the hardest times, always bringing a smile back to my face.
Yeah this one for me, too. It felt like humans lost one of the people who understood them best and still kept caring about them in spite of it all. It took me a long time to face Discworld again and I had to put down Shepherds Crown for a bit at that one part.
A fine answer indeed. My brother loved Discworld and used to share some stories with me.
Er Robin Williams, Chester Bennington. I think suicide always harder.
So this is where the question started, was working and a song by Tim Bergling (Avicii) came on and it was one of his less famous tracks. It reminded me of the day I heard that he passed. I wasn’t the hugest fan, but I remembered seeing him play at Tomorrowland. Something about his presence was different and it intrigued me to find out more information about who he was. He was a true artist and got a lot of hate towards the end of his life as he tried to experiment with where electronic music could go. Behind the scenes he was so deeply entrenched in music. Kind of like Bob Dylan in a way. I actually wish he chose a different style of music to play, or joined a band because he was a genius, who was never really given his flowers because electronic producers rarely are. But it killed him. I cried.
David Bowie. I still miss him a lot. I usually don’t even really know the names and faces of bands I like, and I wasn’t even a big knower of his music, but when I heard he died I cried non stop for a day and a night. He was really something else, this crazy force, changing the whole discourse in music and stardom multiple times in his life. What an awe inspiring character. I wonder who could ever take his place, really.
When Chomsky dies its going to fuck me up HARD. I’m already mentally preparing for it, but that dude has been such an amazing human, he’s responded to so many emails, signed so many of my books, and lectured on things in such a way that I’ve learned a lot
Almost cried about Dame Maggie Smith. She just seemed like such a stellar person, I really feel like she added value to our society
Adding value seems to a rare trait these days
A man only dies when he is forgotten.
Technoblade never dies.
A bloke at work wears a Technoblade shirt all the time, he lives on
Chester Bennington of Linkin Park low-key destroyed me. I didn’t even hear about it when it happened due to a big storm taking out my power for a week. It wasn’t until 4 or 5 days after the news hit everyone else when I finally found out.
You can say whatever you want about Linkin Park, but Chester was fucking talented and its still so upsetting to me to think about it.
And then last year, they made Chester die again when they brought on a Scientologist to be the new lead singer. Now Linkin Park as a whole is dead to me.
I really like their new singer and album. And Up From the Bottom was on repeat for a good month.
I’d say the closest I’ve come was Robin Williams. Patrick Stewart would probably be even moreso.
I would have a breakdown the day Patrick Stewart died.
Yeah, he feels almost like a second father to me. I think if I ever met him, I’d just want to hug him.
He seems like a great guy indeed
Robin Williams is the only one I remember hitting me really hard. Sometimes it still gets me if I’m in the right (wrong) mood when I remember.
Robin Williams, David Bowie and Chester beddingfield. Seem to be the most common answer. Williams was a special guy, you could just tell. Probably made the people close to him feel something really loved.
Not cried, but Trevor Moore’s death shook me as that was the first time someone I enjoyed the work of died while I was still expecting to see more work from them in the future.
The loss of what was to come.
I don’t really care when celebrities die. I find it very cunty when people say how much they miss them and they don’t do more they like. There are people who actuallyiss them as a person and it’s not actually about you you self centered attention cunt.
When Trevor Moore died i was actually sad because there just will be no more of his work.
Never cried, but Rik Mayall hit hard, and Lemmy always seemed immortal so it was a shock when he went.
Exactly the same my friend
I don’t know who those people are, I will have to google them. And I will. What a compliment to someone to have a stranger mourn your passing.
Anthony Bourdain hit me pretty hard. I was a huge fan starting with Kitchen Confidential and ate up basically everything he produced. But more than just his content, which was great, his worldview and philosophy really spoke to me. It was cynical and angry, without being aimless or shallow. He seemed to be doing something different from everyone else and writing his own rules in a way which had no parallels anywhere in mainstream media.
Stephen Hawking. His books gave me a sense of wonder in high school. Those books are a huge part of what inspired my path in life. When I read he had died, I felt a peice of me leave the earth. I cried for humanity, I felt that we all got a bit dumber, as a whole.
I’m not usually impacted by celebrities but I was hit surprisingly hard by the death of John Bain aka TotalBiscuit on YouTube. Why? He just kind of seemed like a regular, fairly young gamer and decent dude who just wanted to let people know whether a game might be worth buying… and then suddenly surprise, cancer. A shit ton of treatment and four years later, gone. It just felt like a reminder that life is random and unfair.
It really shook me. I started watching his videos and streams when I was 14. Gaming content as we know it was just getting started, and I’m pretty sure he started streaming on justin.tv before it became twitch. It felt like I was part of some new and exciting world, right on the cutting edge.
8 years later, I was 22 and he was dead at 34. There had been a couple kids in my grade that died growing up, but I had never truly been confronted by human mortality and how unfair it could be. It would only be a slight exaggeration to say I listened to him talk every day for over a third of my life. I knew it was coming eventually, but when I saw the news I was truly devastated.
Parasocial relationships are crazy. I was so young (and therefore broke) that I never got to meet him, but his death hit me harder than not only that of a couple pets, but also my great grandmother. In a way it makes sense, I literally “spent more time” with him than almost anyone else in the world. That may still be true even today. I don’t regret a minute.
I was particularly upset by Ray Stevenson’s passing
Just enjoyed him as an actor?
I really did. He brought so much genuine heart to his performances. Baylan Skoll is my favorite Jedi.
