What is the first celebrity death you remember?

[ClassicStripe]

My daughter has been asking lots of questions about today’s tragic news (a boy at school told her about it) and it made me think this is probably the first celebrity death she has taken note of and will probably be the first one she remembered. The first celebrity death I remember is Princess Diana. I was about the same age DD is now.

Freddie mercury. I was on the bus to school and radio one played seven fields of rye

Dustin Gee

River Phoenix here too. I was 13 so peak poster-on-the-wall time

Yes! I was trying to think who the first one I remember dying was, it was definitely Dustin Gee, used to love watching him and Les Dennis when I was a kid.

Freddie mercury, I was 12.
I do remember Tommy cooper dying on stage but had no idea he wasn’t messing about. Only put 2 and 2 together after

John Lennon. I was with my best friend, we were being driven to school by her dad. He was from Liverpool and I remember him crying as he was listening to John's music being played on the car radio. I don't think I had seen a grown up man cry before.

Tommy Cooper

Princess Diana. I was walking though Kensington gardens today and remembered laying flowers there for hear!

I remember that. We used to watch Alias Smith and Jones. Strangely, I watched a documentary on him recently on Youtube.

Helen Keller. Not quite sure why I remember her death in 1968 and not that of Martin Luther King Jr who died the same year.

Roald Dahl.

Tommy cooper - on stage -my parents thought was part of the act
Freddy Mercury - parents adored him but never really accepted at the time he was gay and that he had AIDs

Grace Kelly. For me.

Pete Duel.. had a huge crush on him too

I guess Mel was my first as well, followed by Rex Harrison and Roald Dahl

Elvis 1977 I was at Guide camp in Adelboden Switzerland

Freddie Mercury. I was about 10 and my mum was in absolute bits.

JFK.

My mum used to listen to Karen Carpenter's music a lot when I was little. Karen had an amazing voice and I have never heard another singer who sounds similar. For years, I believed that Karen died when I was about six, and I can remember seeing something about her death on TV and talking about it with my mum.

However, Karen actually died when I was only one, so I must have seen a later TV programme about her life, not a contemporary news report. I can clearly remember being shocked by her death and finding her illness difficult to understand. So whilst I can't have been aware of her death at the time, I think she was the first celebrity whose death made an impression on me.

Elvis, because my neighbour was a huge fan and played all his Elvis records at full blast all weekend every weekend d for months afterwards.

John Lennon and Sid Vicious too.

I remember the death of the newly elected Pope John Paul I.

Freddie Mercury

My DSis could have written this. Our parents didn't believe her either.

Elvis. I was 9 and we were staying at my grandma's house during school summer hols.

Actor Pete Duel, alias Smith and Jones
Lena Zavaroni