First Celebrity Death You Remember

[Spade_Cooley 9,519]

I think I discussed this on the forums before. I can remember kids TV (maybe Going Live?) talking about how Roald Dahl had died the week he passed, but the first death I can remember hearing about when it happened was when they interrupted TV broadcasts to tell us that Rajiv Gandhi had been assassinated. 

[YoungWillz 21,037]

4 hours ago, Ulitzer95 said:

There was me thinking you would have vivid memories of Queen Victoria dying?

You are part of a forum where it's acknowledged the oldest person alive was born after that event.

 

Retard. As are those who enjoyed your post.

[Toast 16,137]

Fuck me, it's like a kindergarten here.  Thank gods for @theoldlady 

 

3 hours ago, theoldlady said:

American President, John F. Kennedy, in 1963. I was in the 3rd grade. 

 

I can beat this with Marilyn Monroe.  I had no idea who she was but my mother made a bit of a fuss about it.

 

8 hours ago, Sir Creep said:

Not sure what deaths you’re after, just dead famous people who impacted us personally, or first person that led us to deadpooling.

 

"First Celebrity Death You Remember" - the clue is in the title. 

 

1 hour ago, YoungWillz said:

You are part of a forum where it's acknowledged the oldest person alive was born after that event.

Retard. As are those who enjoyed your post.

 

It was obviously a joke I've made a point of laughing at it now.

[Death Impends 7,964]

I knew Charles Schulz was a recent death - I had a big book on famous names that had a DOD for him - but don't believe I knew his death as it happened. First where I was definitely aware of the death itself was Rosa Parks.

 

I do remember having this annual children's almanac, had a section on the presidents. I always checked Gerald Ford's info to see if he died, since at the time he was the earliest living. Punchline? I didn't entertain the possibility of a more recent president dying before him, so I fully missed out on Reagan's info being updated with a death date!

[YoungWillz 21,037]

9 minutes ago, Toast said:

It was obviously a joke I've made a point of laughing at it now.

Enjoy your retard kindergarten with the others who play in their own faeces.

[Perhaps 1,423]

I have fragments of memory of John Paul II dying, I would've been 8 years old. Steve Irwin is probably the one that sticks out most.

 

Although not a celebrity death, I was 6 when the murders of schoolgirls Holly and Jessica happened in Soham in 2002. It gave me delightful nightmares of being kidnapped/snatched away in public at the time. That would be my first memory of any public death story.

[Captain Hemlock 742]

I’m an old timer. How about Jack Benny in 1974?

[Commtech Sio Bibble 2,030]

I have a vivid memory of the differing reactions my parents had when Maggie Thatcher died, and my mum playing ding dong the witch is dead much to the confusion of  10 year old me. 

 

This thread has also made my realise how young I am in comparison to a lot of the other members.

[Salmon Mousse 473]

This thread is making me realize just how poor my memory is.  Perhaps I just didn't pay any attention to the news as a child.  First I can remember,  of the top of my head, is Frank Sinatra in 1998, when I was 13.  Oddly, I actually do remember a lot of the O.J. trial, which was several years earlier.

[TQR 14,387]

44 minutes ago, Commtech Sio Bibble said:

I have a vivid memory of the differing reactions my parents had when Maggie Thatcher died, and my mum playing ding dong the witch is dead much to the confusion of  10 year old me. 

 

This thread has also made my realise how young I am in comparison to a lot of the other members.

10?! Kin ell. I thought I was among the youngest here. This post suggests I might need to reconsider that.

[msc 18,439]

1 minute ago, TQR said:

10?! Kin ell. I thought I was among the youngest here. This post suggests I might need to reconsider that.

 

6 when Dumbledead dored? Joey, Rad, Clorox, Dead Cow (mia?), Morbid Kid de Gaulle, all younger than you at least. 

 

Welcome to getting old. 

[Book 3,556]

I've been thinking about this all day and I really can't say for sure which celebrity death I can remember first. I always think of Grace Kelly, I was only 7 when she died. The pictures of this beautiful woman on TV, so young, so tragic, the daughter in the car, that was all impressive... but I'm not really sure, as I said...

Romy Schneider died 4 months earlier, I must have been aware of that, but I don't remember.

[lilham 752]

John Candy probably? My parents watched his movies over and over again, and the concept of movies coming out posthumously struck me as eerie. I was 9.

[Old Applejack 16]

Probably John Lennon, although a slight possibility it was Peter Sellers. Not that I'd have had a clue who either really was, but there were Lennon songs everywhere in the following weeks and months, so I soon became aware.

[TheDumbReaper 50]

Fred Rogers when I was 9 years old really upset me.

[ThereWillBeDeaths7 722]

2 hours ago, msc said:

 

6 when Dumbledead dored? Joey, Rad, Clorox, Dead Cow (mia?), Morbid Kid de Gaulle, all younger than you at least. 

 

Welcome to getting old. 

And you can add me to that list, sorry @TQR 

 

Like some of the other youngsters here, I think Michael Jackson was the earliest celebrity death I can actively remember, followed by Miep Gies. I only started paying more attention to famous people who passed away around mid-2015 and probably stumbled upon this forum for the first time about a year later.

[Salmon Mousse 473]

1 hour ago, lilham said:

John Candy probably? My parents watched his movies over and over again, and the concept of movies coming out posthumously struck me as eerie. I was 9.

 

You know what, I'm going to have to change my answer to this.  Remember hearing it on the radio while being driven home from school.

[Ulitzer95 12,586]

5 hours ago, YoungWillz said:

Enjoy your retard kindergarten with the others who play in their own faeces.

Never known you not to take a joke Willz. Don’t like to see you upset so sorry if I offended you. 

[Handrejka 1,903]

James Hayter, not that I knew his name. I just remember my mum telling me that the man who voiced the Mr Kipling adverts had died. (March 83)

 

The first I remember seeing on the news was Violet Carson's who I initially thought was my great gran as she looked just like the pictures I had seen of her. (December 83)

 

The first where I knew the name and what they were famous for was John Comer. (Feb 84)

 

First obit I remember reading was Doreen Sloane's (April 90)

 

I was born in the latter half of 1976 for context.

 

I am aware these names will mean nothing to non UK people. 

[Windsor 2,233]

Princess Diana. When I had just turned 10. 
 

I can also remember feeling sorry for John Major being thrown out his house. 

[JQW 281]

17 hours ago, YoungWillz said:

Having had a trawl, I think I can categorically confirm the earliest death I remember with absolute clarity was Ross McWhirter. 

 

Same here - he was a regular on children's TV at the time, and I can remember seeing that year's Record Breakers Christmas special go out with him in it, as it had been recorded a few months prior to his death.

 

I do remember someone telling me that the man who did the voice of Popeye had recently died when watching a Popeye cartoon on TV when very young, but I had no idea who that was at the time. Apparently he was named Harry Foster Welch.

[chel 376]

Brezhnev's funeral (1982). There were only two channels on our television set. It was broadcast on both.

 

The funeral of Yuri Gagarin's mother (1984). The first time, a woman's portrait was carried in front of the funeral procession.

 

Then I remember a report on Indira Gandhi (1984). Her ashes were being poured through the open door of, I think, a helicopter and the mountains in the background. 

 

Ustinov's funeral (1984). Instead of a coffin on a gun carriage, a rectangular box. It is bricked up in the Kremlin wall.

 

Also, after the railway catastrophe at Asha (1989), funeral processions for several days in a row. Policemen stop traffic to let the hearse through, while drivers in other cars honk their horns. There was a girl in my school, 2-3 classes older, she survived, only scalds.

[Laideath 2]

First Celeb death that comes to mind from my childhood was Roald Dahl, followed closely by Freddie Mercury in deaths that affected me

[ImNotHades 207]

First celebritiy death that I remember was of first Croatian president Franjo Tuđman in 1999 cause it was the first one covered by local media to the point that you can not miss it. But it's MJ for me, too. I think I have some memory of Pavarotti but mostly cause my music teacher held a vigil for a week in every music class...

[Undead In Ohio 156]

The first one I remember as a 10-year old is Samantha Smith dying in a plane crash in 1985. Beyond that I also remember seeing reports of Rick Nelson's plane crash later that year even though I am quite sure that I did not know who he was at the time.