Celebrity deaths

When someone is famous they almost seem unreal to most of us. Since there people we only see on magazine covers or in movies we don’t think twice about them going to the store, picking up their kids, or going to a movie like you and me. It seems even more unreal with a celebrity passes away. In the last decade more than a dozen celebrities have died due to some sort of illness, accident, or drug related problem. Among these recent deaths are…

Brittany Murphy (Dec 20, 09)- died from cardiac arrest
Anna Nicole Smith (Feb 8, 2007)- died from drug intoxication
David Carradine (Jun 4, 09)- died from autoerotic fatality
John Ritter (Sep 11, 03)- died from aortic dissection from with a congenital heart defect
Dale Earnhardt (2001)- died from in a driving accident
Tim Russert (Jun 13, 08)- died from a heart attack
George Carlin (Jun 22, 08)- died from a heart attack
Christopher Reeve (Oct 10, 04)- died from complications with paralysis
Dudley Moore (Mar 27, 02)- died from Pneumonia
Steve Irwin (Sep 4, 06)- died from a swimming accident with Sting Rays
Billy Mays (Jun 28, 09)- died from heart disease and cocaine use

Yet out of all these deaths two hit my generation that hardest. Those were the deaths the two incredibly talented entertainers Michael Jackson and Heath Ledger. Jackson passed away from heart failure, while Ledger passed away from a drug overdose. Both of these men died without warning before the release of their greatest works. Jackson died for the start of his final tour, while Ledger died before the release of his block buster release “The Dark Night.”
In an interview with Jackie O’Brian (20) on Michael Jackson’s death she had this to say. “I was truly unprepared to hear the news. No one wants to hear that someone they admired or grew up listening to with your parents has passed away. Even though you didn’t know them personally it still makes an impact of your life. His music was amazing and I’m going to miss his work and his crazy antics very much.” Even through all the court cases, entertaining music videos, and rumors of “Never Land Ranch” we loved watching is life. I believe we will all miss the entertainer the most though. He brought us so much joy through his music. When asked about Heath Ledger, Zach Shultz (18) had this to say. “I really didn’t know what to think when I heard Heath Ledger had passes away. I think my sister cried. I remember thinking about his upcoming movie, all the ones he’d done, and his family. We forget they actually have lives to you know? Some people say that his character in the Dark Night, the Joker, sort of took him over. They say he got lost in his characters darkness. If this is true I feel bad that no one was there to help him out of it. He was a great actor.”
Sometimes it seems that in death, we remember why we loved people so much. We forget all the bad things that happened, all the problems they had, and we focus on the person they were. It’s a shame we don’t do that while there alive.