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.

I am not sure I'd describe it as sad but with someone like MP it's more a case of.... I saw these people when I was growing up and assumed they had it all and life was good. As we've aged, and more of their story has been revealed, it has turned out they really didn't. If they then die young I think 'well they never really got anything, did they? No chance now for them to beat their demons and go on the live a happy ending'.

Matthew Perrry, star of the biggest tv show at the time. Multi millionaire. Died alone in a hot tub.

It's the ending to his story that makes me sad - for him. Because it closes down the chance of happier times.

They usually don’t. If it was someone I was a big fan of for a long time then maybe there would be an aww moment but there are very few celebrities I feel that strongly about. Maybe when Paul McCartney goes.

Because you feel like you know them and part of your life as you know it has changed.

I think sometimes certain films/music/TV are important at key times of your life and when someone involved with those vehicles dies, it can be a bit of a shock, especially if you are a similiar age.

I wasn't really a Friends fan, so MP's death is sad, but my feelings don't go beyond acknowledging that. The death that hit me was Haydyn Gwynne, Drop the Dead Donkey was a programme that DH and I loved, I confess to a bit of a girl crush too. It was a shock,_ she went from fit and healthy to passing in such a short amount of time.

The celebrities I like, Paul O'Grady for instance, it's knowing their body of work is complete but I wouldn't say I am saddened as such.

Big ones like Princess Di unexpected, you just think OMG.

Yes this:

“I am not sure I'd describe it as sad but with someone like MP it's more a case of.... I saw these people when I was growing up and assumed they had it all and life was good. As we've aged, and more of their story has been revealed, it has turned out they really didn't. If they then die young I think 'well they never really got anything, did they? No chance now for them to beat their demons and go on the live a happy ending'.

Matthew Perrry, star of the biggest tv show at the time. Multi millionaire. Died alone in a hot tub.”

For the most part, they dont bother me in the slightest.

I didn't know the person, I have t lost anything as their works remain and it's their works I know them by.

The only one that has ever even remotely.saddened me is Rik Mayall.
The whole world seems just a little bit more shit without him in it and I miss him popping up in shows and such. I grew up with Rik Mayall on the telly.

I think it was because Friends was such a big thing whilst growing up; it defined a generation. It was endlessly discussed at school and catch phrases entered everyday usage.

Everyone loved Chandler, his humour and vulnerability, and MP’s death is a reminder of the passing of our youth, carefree times and of our own mortality.

Often we watch their shows, listen to their music and watch their films and they can almost feel like part of our extended family. The characters they play can feel like people we know or that have gotten us through hard times or made us have realisations about things.

I also think celebrities can seem immortal sometimes (as they're immortalised on screen) so when they die it can seem more shocking.

I do agree with this. His sudden very random Instagram posts and the cranberries reference definitely read like a cry for help. It's such a shame.

@SisterMichaelsHabit I felt the same about Terry Pratchett. Not sad in the same way that his family and friends felt, but mourning the loss of all those other stories that would never appear. Never again getting the excitement and joy of The Next Book.

(Though, I have saved one, still unread, for a time when I really need it.)

Any death is sad. But when it’s very much before their time like Matthew perry, or sinead O’Connor I find it more so. It’s not really because they’re a celebrity, anyone dying before their time is sad.

other celebrities who have died i old age I’ve kind of thought it a shame they’re gone, but we’re all mortal beings and have to go some time, it’s the natural order of things.

Me too, I am from the area and the sport is connected to my family. I just keep coming back to it, the players and those present must be struggling.

It’s very normal to feel sad or wistful. Death is often sad. Not the same as the death of someone you know and care about, though.

Not me. I don't know them. Why should I care? I don't 'get' all this pseudo mourning for a stranger

Some people are able to feel sadness/empathy for things outside of their own lives.
Do you ever feel sad if a character in a book or film/tv series dies?

I cried for weeks over Bowie. It was so much more than a celebrity dying, he was my teenage years, my angst, my inability to fit in. He embodied everything that made sense to me, the music, the fashion, the whole essence of the man and his legacy. It was the death of someone I held very dear but also the nostalgia of discovering someone who made me feel alive and hopeful and understood. He was so much more than just a singer. He was everything and I genuinely loved him.

I'm sad when a celebrity who has used their fame/fortune for good causes, i.e. charitable work or raising awareness for animal welfare etc., as their death will be a loss to the good causes they supported.

Not remotely bothered about the ones who've let fame and fortune destroy themselves through drink, drugs, etc.

Maybe you should educate yourself about some of the things Matthew Perry has done, as well what addiction actually is.

Nostalgia/ similar generation

He was only 54 and he was so brilliant in Friends.

I think most people feel empathy/sadness when someone dies at a young age but for me I have been affected by celebrity deaths that have been a huge part of my childhood/life.

For me these have included River Phoenix, Luke Perry, Patrick Swayze and Matthew Perry. I havent been I'm some huge mourning period of anything but it most definitely has affected me. I also have always felt incredibly sad about Freddie Mercury dying, I was 11 and remember my dad being really upset, as an adult I have always felt how unfair it was given the treatment available now, I do remember thinking how devastated the band must have been and that really upset me at the time.

You only have to look at the phonelines that were set up when Take That split up, those teenage girls were not upset for show, they wouldn't have been on social media etc then either. They were genuine feelings to those people.

I’m not remotely bothered by celebrity deaths as I don’t know them and have no relationship with them.

They don’t sadden me any more than any other person I don’t know dying.

How crass and inappropriate to mention the Holocaust as a comparator in this context.

Honestly, stop and think a moment before you post!