To think that these types of headlines are a shit way to announce a death?

[malificent7]

"Xxxx" dead at 21.
Or " xxxxx" dead at 87.

Such an unceremonious way of announcing someone's death and seems to be favoured by most newspapers on the front page.

I had no idea that Geoffrey Palmer was 93

Actually I agree with you that it's a bit crap in the headline, but it's a detail of life that people do want to know when marking a death

I think it would be better to have the headline as, for example, 'Geoffrey Palmer dies at 93' rather than 'Geoffrey Palmer dead at 93'. It think the newspapers like to go for the shock factor. Dead comes across as a sudden event and dies comes across as a natural event (which death is).

No I think it's fine, it accurately describes what had happened. I can't stand language like 'passed', 'passed away', 'fell asleep' etc.

YANBU- dies not dead. Dies implies a natural death to me, dead something sudden.

'Dies' makes me think someone has recorded it to be watched live. 'Dead' is blunt, 'has died' seems better.

I think our culture needs to get used to 'dead" etc. Everyone knows death happens to everyone. Getting comfortable with that would be better for everyone.