BCAlum2000

C'mon, what's up with all these celebrities and their near death experiences? They need to stop teasing us with this. doctor: celebrity might not make it through the night. Celebrity survives. Doctor is surprised. Everybody relieved. Emilio, Kelsey Grammar, Amy Winehouse, and Elizabeth Taylor have all teased us with being hospitalized. Doctors thought that several of them wouldn't survive and make it through the night. But alas, they're alive and on the mend. Celebrity deaths are starting to dry up. Hell, even in 2007, celebs were dying at a much faster rate (granted, many were not super famous celebrities, but they were major and have contributed in some unique way).

For comparisons sake (I have the day off today and am really bored): Major celebrity deaths (2007) January: Darrent Williams, Yvonne de Carlo, Carlo Ponti, Darlene Conley, Art Buchwald, Sidney Shelton, and Molly Ivins February: Barbara McNair, Frankie Laine, Anna Nicole Smith, Ian Richardson, Billy Thorpe March: Thomas Eagleton, John Inman, Bradley Delp, Richard Jeni, Betty Hutton, Gareth Hunt April: Eddie Robinson, Bob Clark, Barry Nelson, Roscoe Lee Browne, Kurt Vonnegut, Don Ho, Boris Yeltsin, Jack Valenti, Tom Poston, Gordon Scott May: Wally Schirra, Jerry Falwell, Yolanda King, Charles Nelson Reilly June: Craig L. Thomas, Kurt Waldheim, Chris Benoit, Liz Claiborne, Joel Siegel July: Beverly Sills, Lady Bird Johnson, Richard Franklin, Tammi Faye Messner, László Kovács, Ulrich Mühe, Mike Reid, Tom Snyder, Michelangelo Antonioni, Ingmar Bergman, Bill Walsh It does seem like celebrities were dying at a much faster rate in 2007 so we shall see.

Great list. I pretty much agree with you. However, i would say that Charlton Heston was a lot more well known internationally than Tim Russert (and even Heath Ledger for that matter). Tim Russert's death was huge in America; his death received much more media coverage in the US than even Heath Ledger! I think the major reason why Tim Russert's death was significant was that in addition to him being fairly young and dying suddenly, Russert was a very prominent news figure this year. His face was ubiquitous when it came to media coverage of the primary elections. Every time you watched media coverage of the primary elections in the US, Tim Russert was always at the forefront of the reportings. If Tim Russert died last year or 2006, I don't think his death would receive as much media coverage. I also think that you can make the argument that George Carlin is so far the most signifcant death for 2008. He's probably the king of modern stand up comedy. He's been a profound influence on generations of stand up comedians and entertainers in general. He was immensely popular across all age groups (many people in their teens right now are big George Carlin fans). In terms of celebrity deaths, 2008 has been wildly inconsistent. July 2008 has been rather slim in terms of celebrity deaths (the only celebrities that I have heard of who died were Jesse Helms, Tony Snow, Estelle Getty, and Randy Pausch. And Pausch arguably became a celebrity only because of his illness, sadly. If Pausch never had pancreatic cancer, he would've been just another anonymous college professor. So really, only three major celebrities died in the past month. Yet in June this year, we lost a ton of celebrities (Yves Saint Laurent, Bo Diddley, Mel Ferrer, Jim McKay, Tim Russert, Stan Winston, Cyd Charrisse, George Carlin, and Don S. Davis). Major celebrity deaths (2008) January: Maila Nurmi (Vampira), Edmund Hillary, Brad Renfro, Heath Ledger, Bobby Fischer, Suzanne Pleshette, Suharto February: Roy Scheider, Tom Landos March: Jeff Healey, Gary Gygax, Anthony Minghella, Arthur C. Clarke, Paul Scofield, Richard Widmark April: Charlton Heston May: John Phillip Law, Sydney Pollack, Dick Martin, Harvey Korman June: Yves Saint Laurent, Bo Diddley, Mel Ferrer, Jim McKay, Tim Russert, Stan Winston, Cyd Charrisse, George Carlin, Don S. Davis July: Jesse Helms, Tony Snow, Estelle Getty, Randy Pausch As you can see, it's been wildly inconsistent with some really slow months (February and April) and some months where 2 major celebrities died almost a week. However, i expect either August or September to be big in terms of celebrity deaths. Right now, Elizabeth Taylor is hospitalized and reportedly in bad shape (although her publicist claims otherwise) and Paul Newman was spotted in a wheelchair (I saw the photo of him and it doesn't look good). i dunno why, but I have a hunch that we will have quite a few major celebrity deaths in the upcoming months.

Damn it. As much as I heard Winehouse being hospitalized (yet again), I had a bad suspicion that she was hospitalized for something extremely minor. Remember earlier this year Britney Spears was hospitalized. Rumors were circulating that she was teetering at the edge of death. She rebounded. Winehouse? Who knows? This marks the third celebrity today who teased us with his/her brush with death. Novak, Grammar, and Winehouse.

They say they die in threes... Jesse Helms Tony Snow Bob Novak???? Unfortunately, I have a bad hunch that this is yet one of those "near death" things celebrities like to tease us about. A couple months ago, we all thought (including Kennedy himself) that Ted Kennedy would bite the dust. Now, it looks like he's doing great and could be back in the Senate ASAP. With our luck, Bob Novak would probably survive this brain tumor thing and come out stronger than ever....

I CALLED IT! I KNEW IT ALL ALONG! That stupid SOB deliberately faked his own death!!! I had this intuitution all along that Fossett wasn't dead at all. I don't know why all these websites are including Steve Fossett in the obituaries. Until they actually find and properly identify his body, Fossett is NOT DEAD. What's up with all these celebrities teasing us with their near death experiences this year? Fossett, Waris Dirie, and Orlando Brown were all missing and the latter two were found alive (if either one of them were found dead, that would make pretty significant news, especially Brown b/c he's a well known teen idol in the States). Kelsey Grammar had a heart attack but lived (though sadly, the same can't be said for Tim Russert or Don S. Davis). Margaret Thatcher and Prince Phillip were both hospitalized, at first thought to be serious, but they only teased up and it turned out to be very minor. Grammy-winning singer Emilio was in a serious bus accident and everybody who knew him thought he was close to death and would only have days to live. Now, he's recovering rather nicely. Patrick Swayze was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He appears to be on the mend (of course, Tony Snow, Luciano Pavoratti, and Randy Pausch were all diagnosed with cancer and were thought to be on the mend before their cancer struck again so you never know). Why are these celebrities teasing us with either going missing or having near death experiences!!!! Aaargh!!

Dead, allegedly. http://cbs4.com/watercooler/randy.pausch.death.2.779807.html This doesn't bode well for Patrick Swayze. Pausch was very optimistic about his cancer prognosis at one point.

Randy Pausch, computer science professor whose "Last Lecture" speech made him famous, has succumb to pancreatic cancer. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08207/899511-100.stm

Haven't been a lot of celebrities dying lately (other than Estelle Getty). The Grim Reaper is just tired, that's all...a lot of famous people died from late May to June so Death is just taking a break, i guess. Maybe Margaret Thatcher will die soon. Or fidel *ahem* Castro *cough cough*.

McCready reportedly attempted suicide after miscarraige. http://www.accesshollywood.com/article/104...er-miscarriage/ She's really a sad story. Such a beautiful person could fall so fast.

Yes - Widmark wasn't entered by DL on the DDP, that's why. I can hardly give DL credit for people they DIDN'T pick, now, can I? Ironically, a few of the DL dead this year weren't picked as the DDP team - the 19 (19, of course, because DL inexpiciably picked Frankie Laine & then submitted it, without noticing in time) chosen were; Ronnie Biggs Fidel Castro Arthur C Clarke Fats Domino Kirk Douglas W. Mark Felt Michael Foot Zsa Zsa Gabor Charlton Heston Albert Hofmann Claude Lévi-Strauss Herbert Lom Karl Malden Oscar Niemeyer Chapman Pincher Sydney Pollack Yitzhak Shamir Alexander Solzhenitsyn Eli Wallach Poor Fats, we hardly knew ya. RIP Fats Domino. Bo Diddley misses ya.

And an AP link for those of us who distrust Wiki. FYI, catch 'Stop, or My Mom Will Shoot' for an idea of her genius. D'oh - forgot she was a pick...someone move this, please? My mom was a big fan of The Golden Girls (the TV series Estelle Getty starred in). I vaguely remembered the show when I watched it alongside my mom during the 80s. I was probably 3 years old though and had no damn clue what the show was about. but my mom loved the show. Estelle Getty was ill for quite some time. dunno why I neglected to include her on my list. Anyway, a big RIP to her.

This dude died three weeks ago! Ugh, I think death is losing his/her touch here. Been checking the obituaries and we're having a major dry spell in terms of famous people dying. C'mon Castro, Winehouse, somebody famous! It's getting boring around here. Reading and watching the election coverage is boring me to death. it's gotten to the point that obituaries are now covering deaths of ANIMALS. I guess death is tired b/c a lot of famous people did die from late May to June.

This is tough to call... On one hand, I'm very happy for Swayze. On the other hand, i hope he doesn't get his hopes up too high. As much as I'm rooting for Swayze to do well (unlike some brutal dictator who's retired in Cuba), I'm also not very optimistic about his outlook either. Tony Snow, who recently died of cancer, was thought to have been doing great and responded well to treatment. Then his disease completely ravaged and degenerated him. Actor Robert Urich was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. He fought the cancer for 5 years and people thought too that he was a miracle b/c it appears he was on the mend. but then the cancer came back and got a lot worse and Urich eventually lost a hard fought 5-year battle with cancer. Luciano Pavoratti battled pancreatic cancer for over a year. he showed major signs of improvement before he completely relapsed.

Very tragic news to report... A baby panda which was adopted by zookeeper's cat ... has died. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080718/ap_on_...at_adopts_panda This made the front page in today's Yahoo! headlines. Must be a really slow time for celebrity deaths. Guess it's granted b/c we lost a whole bunch of celebrities from late May to June so things were bound to slow down a bit...

F that! Fidel Castro deserves a horrible death and I pray that he will be dead and rotting in hell with Jesse Helms, Saddam Hussein, and Jerry Falwell.

Jo Stafford, American jazz singer, dead at age 90. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries...o-Stafford.html

Unfortunately, this might not be good for us deathlisters. Why? 1.) Maybe Winehouse will try to turn her life around after having her father collapse. 2.) Blake's about to be outta jail soon. Unfortunately, she might not have as much suicidal thoughts as we hoped. But you never know....

Tony Snow, the former White House press secretary during the Bush administration has succumb to cancer. http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/12/obit.snow/index.html I wonder who's the third Republican who's gonna die??? Maybe that idiot Karl Rove...Rove isn't as bad as Helms. but he's not very likable.

Sorry BC but I think you're way off base on Fossett. He's dead. This guy, however, is not http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jsOFaOt...qp-QKQD91BD3NO4 I don't consider him dead until they find his body and properly ID it. Even if he's legally dead, until I hear that they recovered his remains, he ain't officially dead in my book and he does not deserve any tributes.

Colin Cooper, the lead singer of the hit UK band Climax Blues Band has died of cancer at the age of 68. http://www.thisisthesentinel.co.uk/display...;pNodeId=158324 Not familar with the singer's name, but I have actually listened to some of the band's songs. They're a great group--a blast from the past.

Does this 82 year old snort cocaine? Nope, but apparently he was a chain smoker according to my friend. But lets face it, having seen the latest pictures of Winehouse she looks worse that most 82 year olds. Quite frankly she looks like a hard worked prostitute coming up for retirement. She looks far worse than Ted Kennedy, that's for sure. Hey! We've come full circle; I got us back on topic! lol

Does this 82 year old snort cocaine? Nope, but apparently he was a chain smoker according to my friend.

Well good for Ted Kennedy. Yeah, I had him pegged as probably not making it by 2009 ... but then, Tim Russert suddenly died. This reminded me of January 2008 when Britney Spears was hospitalized amid rumors of a suicide attempt. A lot of people were saying that she was probably gonna die very soon. Then suddenly, Heath Ledger died while Britney Spears at least to be in some sort of rebound. Life's strange. The people you expect to die survive for a remarkably long time while the people you least expect to die suddenly drop dead. Obviously, that adage applies to celebrities. Anyway, I was talking with my friend about Amy Winehouse and whether she would die soon. She told me that even if Amy Winehouse has emphysema, that doesn't mean she can't still live. She mentions she knew a 60-year-old who was diagnosed with emphysema and he's still living at 82 years old (and still active too).

Congratulations guys on another successful entry into the deathlist pool of 2008. Jesse Helms was definitely a legend in the US Senate and American politics. Although I strongly disgree with his political views, I do not deny the influence he's had in American politics. Anyway, Helms was one of those "he's gonna die soon" guys so it wasn't a big shock to me that he would die sooner or later (and it appears that many expected him to die sooner).