Why do celebrity deaths sadden you?

[Iturnedmyfaceaway]

For me there are two kinds of reaction. There are “lives well-lived” -people like David Bowie who just seemed to have figured life out and improved it for the rest of us. The sort of person you would want to be.

and then there are the intensely frustrating ones like Matthew Perry where I think “what’s the point of striving for love and money and admiration when this is what it does to people?” It seems to make the striving for those things a bit pointless.

Reports are that Matthew Perry drowned and didn’t take his own life. They think it was a heart attack l. No demons as far as I’ve read

It saddens me because I will miss seeing/hearing them again. In some cases a movie/song may have been part of something important for me so there is a connection to an event in my life.

I don't think I would be devestated or go into public mourning, I don't know these people personally, for me these outpours of fans somethings goes over the top for me.

If a person dies young (accident, illness) then it's also a case of unfairness, similar to any person I know who died young. It's the loss of things which could have happened/things they could have done but never have now the chance which is sad.

Different reasons. But mostly because I really loved their work and will be sad they are not in the world anymore.

There are the tragic, gone-too-soon ones - Amy Winehouse, George Michael, Prince - all of whom I loved as artists and found their deaths so sad and shocking.

George & Prince were also part of my younger life and are so closely associated with my growing up, so there is that feeling of connection and loss. Matthew Perry is in this category for me, too.

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I only feel really sad if it is someone who I particularly loved and had a huge influence on my life - favourite musicians.

With Perry, I just thought how sad for him. He was so beautiful, so talented, so wealthy but scarred by childhood neglect and shitty medical care that led to drug dependency - those two negatives were enough to undo the vast positives.

I was a huge “Friends” fan but today I feel so sad about the fact that the man who gave us all so many laughs and was a consistent part of our lives for many years never found peace and happiness in his own life. I feel he was short changed in life while he brought so much joy to others. RIP Matthew Perry

Older celebrities who’ve lived a long and good life, they don’t sadden me. Kurt Cobain, however, his death saddened me as it was so shocking in how it happened. Either a year or so before or after it one of DB’s close friends and a friend of mine died in the same way, and I was devastated as it was so similar to Kurt’s.

I should be sad about Matthew Perry but I never really liked the show (watched it as we all did as young adults) nor the characters or actors. So it hasn’t affected me. It’s sad because of his life, which sounds like a real struggle though, living with addictions and beating them is never easy.

I was very sad when Sue Townsend died, because I had grown up with her books and characters. And Paul O'Grady.
I never liked Friends so Matthew Perry didn't mean anything to me, but it's sad he's died so young.

Neither of you are exactly raising the tone of the discussion.

Some people in the public eye resonate with individuals they don't know or ever meet, and come to mean something on an emotional level. I never met Sinead O'Connor but her music, bravery in the face of massive criticism and her evident mental health struggles really struck a chord with me, and following her death I felt truly sad to the point of tears. I have rarely felt this way about a celebrity but I recognise that it happens and others feelings of loss are real. I also felt very sad at the deaths of Paul O'Grady and Steve Irwin, both really positive and entertaining people who cared about animals and died too young. I suppose caring that someone who meant something to us, has gone is part of being human.

A lot of the time it’s we feel we “know” the person —- they’ve been in our homes on TV, or we’ve enjoyed their films, they’ve provided a feel good experience we can look back on.
And there’s also the “ if it can happen to them it can happen to anyone” especially if they’re young or youngish. Princess Diana encompassed both theories—- we felt we knew her and if a beautiful, wealthy young woman who had security, the best car etc.. could die in a crash it could happen to me or my family. It scares and upsets us on different levels.

I think the death of celebrities can hit you for all sorts of reasons even if you only knew their work.

I found the death of Robin Williams very very hard.
I've had lifelong psychiatric issues. I was lucky in that I didn't self-medicate whereas he had wide access to both drugs & booze which led to addiction problems. He'd sorted himself out, got clean, was very lucky.
Then the Parkinson's/Lewy Body Dementia. The knowledge that he was going to lose his quick-fire brain.
I'd seen my mother deal with her Alzheimer's diagnosis - the initial denial, her terror as the realisation of her future life sunk in.
So I related greatly with his death. There wasn't going to be a happy ending for him so he took control whilst he still could.

Matthew Perry makes me sad - all that money & it couldn't help him.
I remember watching Friends in my early 20s when it came out, a colleague had the Rachel haircut, I even had a box set!
Now it's on Netflix. If I can't find anything I fancy, I watch Friends as I know it'll make me laugh.
My 80yr old father loves it. This is the first time he's ever seen Friends so he's watching it with fresh eyes - literally as we have the subtitles on.
So yes, a lot of it is nostalgia back to days gone by plus it's still relevant to me through my father's discovery of it.

Celebrity deaths effect me if they are particularly young, died in a tragic way or if they were someone I admired or worked on/in something I loved. Although you don’t ‘know’ them, they are in your life through your tv or radio etc. It’s just a human reaction I think. I was shocked to hear about Matthew Perry’s death because he was relatively young and I loved Friends. However, David Bowie I didn’t have any reaction to really, apart from recognising a pop icon was gone. But that’s because I didn’t like his music so he wasn’t someone on my radar really.

I was and still feel sad about Amy Winehouse dying so young. She was such a talent and I'm sad that there will be no more music from her.

Her music is very special to me and my siblings. She touched our lives.

Isn't that what musicians set out to do?

How can anyone tell someone else they can't feel the same way over an actor, or a sports star, or anyone they don't know personally, but has touched them.

People are allowed to feel how they want, and for some miserable twat to come along and dismiss their feelings, is nothing but being nasty just for the sake of it. There's really no need for it.

Just keep your gob shut ffs.

I feel sad about the death of Matthew Perry as he had a big impact on my life despite me never meeting him. I also feel sad for his family and friends to have lost a loved one.

It amounts to the same thing and I didn't call you one I just said I wasn't one

@Iturnedmyfaceaway It's only your personal opinion that David Bowie "improved life for the rest of us". He certainly didn't for me. "Friends" improved life for me and Matthew Perry's character, Chandler Bing, was a big part of that. I remember watching the first episode as it aired, I also married at a similar time to Chandler and Monica and also adopted at the same time as them. Yes, I know he was only playing a character but his and the other Friends characters meant a lot to me and I still find comfort and great enjoyment from watching Friends now, even thought I have watched it over and over again. So, for me and a lot of other people Matthew Perry falls into your first "category", he "improved life for us".

Amy Winehouse, I didn’t expect it to upset me so much, but it did. I think all the press hounding of her got to her but you sort of felt she’d be ok or not. Another one I didn’t think would upset me but did was Peaches Geldof. Too young and again hounded by the press.

Deaths of famous people sadden me, especially if they or their work had a big impact on my life. I'm thinking especially of George Michael who I adored as a teen.

Their death marks the end of their creativity and talent. We can still enjoy George Michael's music but there will be no new singles or albums or concerts.

As @MeinKraft wrote, often it's more about ourselves than about the person who died. Their death is a reminder that time is passing and we can't turn back the clock. I'll never again be that 12/13 year old bopping away to 'Wake Me Up Before You Go Go' and 'Freedom' at the school disco. Or dreamily writing Tayto Michael on the back of my school copies. His death made me sad for the loss of that teenager (me).

Where the person died before their time (applies to both George Michael and Matthew Perry), there will be regret that they were taken so early. Fame seems to have been a double edged sword in both cases and they both battled their own demons. So there's a sadness that their fame, success and wealth didn't bring them happiness. Or came at a huge cost. And perhaps a tiny bit of guilt - did I (inadvertently) contribute to that unhappiness simply by being a fan?

Finally, it's a reminder of our own mortality. At the risk of sounding morbid, if death can come for these legends of entertainment, then it will surely come for us.

It's a very different sadness to the grief that their families and friends will feel because they knew them as a person and they will miss that person. I never married spoke to George Michael, never shared a joke with him, never went for coffee or lunch or a drink with him, never hugged him, never went on holiday with him. He didn't even know that I existed. A celebrity's friends and family will know them in a way that their fans never could and their grief will be immense.

Paul O Grady.
I loved how he was so passionate about helping dogs and the awareness he did for the Dogs Trust.

This thread (or rather the first post in this thread) is in poor taste because he only did yesterday and you’re speculating on something you know nothing about, OP.

Yep. Very strange posts indeed and a few clues as to what he was planning.

Incredibly sad.

They don't really. I was more saddened by the ice hockey player who died yesterday at only 29. At least Matt Perry lived bit more of a life.

I would agree with this - I felt horribly sick reading about the young ice hockey player. MP was a decades long drug user/alcoholic who played roulette with his health over it all. His heart was probably like that of an 80 year old. I feel sad but also that it was inevitable given how awful he's looked over the last decade.

The trouble with celebrity these days is that young-ish death gives people a Saint-like status and all of their flaws are quickly brushed under the nearest carpet. You just have to look at the death of Caroline Flack to see that.

I read this story, absolutely horrific

Oh and I was also quite sad at reading it, even though I had no idea who he was before, because he was young and it's such a shocking tragedy.

But I'm also sad for Matthew Perry too, because I did know of him and his work.

It's perfectly ok to feel sadness for them both. It's not a competition to feel more sorry for one than the other.