I didn't know Tim Russert on a personal level. I rarely even saw him in his own element as host of NBC's Meet the Press. However, when he suddenly died last Friday, it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was the fact that he was a huge presence on television, particularly during this year's Presidential election. It made Russert feel like he was a part of the family.
So it has been with many television personalities that have left this earth before their time. It's the intimacy of the industry and the fact that this person has come into our homes night after night, week after week, that the unexpected death of these personalities hits us much harder than, say, movie stars. Unfortunately, there have been a number of these surprising deaths over the last few decades. Here are 12 such deaths that affected millions of television viewers.
John Belushi -- If the former Saturday Night Live star had died during this era of instantaneous information Belushi's death would probably not have been as much as a surprise as it was back in 1982. However, because the private lives of Hollywood stars were semi-private back then, Belushi's death due to a drug overdose hit every fan of SNL, as well as his movies, quite hard. It was only after the death that the public realized how hard John was abusing himself.
John Candy -- So many of those listed in this post had so much more left to do in their careers before their deaths. Former SCTV star John Candy was certainly one of them. Turning his success from the classic sketch show into a successful movie career, Candy was still going strong and was even branching out into some more dramatic roles in such films as Only the Lonely and JFK. The transformation to a more diverse actor ended in 1994 when he died of a sudden heart attack.
Johnny Carson -- Here is a perfect example of a major TV personality whose death was taken very personally by millions of viewers. That's because Johnny walked into our living rooms five nights a week for thirty years as host of NBC's The Tonight Show. The practical self-exile of Carson after he retired from the show in 1992 made his death even more poignant since fans never really had a chance to say a proper good-bye.
Chris Farley -- Unfortunately, the death of Saturday Night Live cast member Chris Farley was predicted by many who saw his downward spiral. With his constant weight issues, as well as drug and alcohol problems, there were many who thought his time on this planet would be short-lived. It's too bad they were right. Farley died of a drug overdose in 1997 at the age of 33 -- the same age of Farley's idol John Belushi.
Phil Hartman - Of the 12 deaths mentioned, four of these hit me the hardest. The first of these was the demise of Phil Hartman. I was in my car on the way to lunch when I heard about his death. It left a burning pit in my stomach and for days I wondered if the story was true or not -- especially the part about his murder at the hands of his wife. What made it so much more devastating was that Phil was in the middle of a successful television run with his role on NewsRadio and his many voice-acting gigs on The Simpsons. That, and according to all reports, he was an incredibly nice guy.
Jim Henson -- The untimely demise of Muppeteer Jim Henson has had the most lasting affect on me. I even remember where I was when I heard the news. I was home from college for the summer and a special report popped up about something that the first President Bush was going to talk about. Before that, though, the anchor mentioned the death of Sammy Davis Jr. and Jim Henson. Being brought up during the Sesame Street - Muppet Show generation it was like one of the people sitting in my living room had just passed away. I still feel a pang of sadness whenever I realize the potential that was lost that day.
Peter Jennings -- Sometimes the personalities that you think are indestructible are the ones that are really the most vulnerable. Peter Jennings was one of those personalities. When the World News Tonight anchor announced he had lung cancer back in April of 2005 viewers were confident that he would recover from this setback. But it wasn't to be, as he succumbed to the disease only four months later. Jennings' death, like that of Tim Russert this past week, was a hit to broadcast journalism that the networks may never recover from.
Michael Landon -- Here is another television personality who graced our screens for several decades then, just like that, left us due to pancreatic cancer. It was hard to tell that he was sick during his last appearance on The Tonight Show in May of 1991, one month after he was diagnosed. But, less than two months later, the former Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie and Highway to Heaven star passed away at the age of 54.
Freddie Prinze -- So many unexpected deaths have been connected, one way or another, to drugs. Freddie Prinze is no exception. A instant television star, thanks to the NBC sitcom Chico and the Man, Prinze's life ended extremely abruptly at the age of 22 when he shot himself in the head after an overdose of quaaludes.
John Ritter -- I heard about John Ritter's death on my way to the airport and it hit me just as hard as Jim Henson's or Phil Hartman's death did. That was due to his constant presence on television thanks to Three's Company, which ran on several cable stations several times a day. Sadly, he died of sudden heart failure on September 11, 2003 while he was filming the second season of his new ABC comedy 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Daughter.
John Spencer -- Here is the last personality whose death hit me quite personally. Again, it was due to Spencer being a weekly television presence thanks to the popularity of The West Wing. Ironically, Spencer's character on West Wing had survived a massive heart attack with little damage. Unfortunately, no such success for Spencer as he died in 2005 at the age of 59.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
6-17-2008 @ 12:38PM
lucyfan62 said...
The death that hit me hardest was Lucille Ball. She was in the hospital at the time, but she was expected to be released shortly before she unexpectedly died. I'll never forget that day as I was working at a mall record store and had no way to get any information, but luckily my shift ended in time for me to get home to see the tribute on CBS that evening. People closest to her blame her health issues at that time on the failure of her last sitcom LIFE WITH LUCY. She never got over the cancellation or how ABC handled the show.
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6-17-2008 @ 1:04PM
Claire said...
I cried when I heard about the death of Fred Rogers. I had grown up watching Mr. Roger's Neighborhood and he was such a wonderful man. We all knew it was coming at some point, given his age; but there are some people, especially childhood icons, that you expect to live forever.
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6-17-2008 @ 1:23PM
kerry said...
I have a Get Fuzzy cartoon mourning Mr. Rogers on my office wall. I can't find an image of it, but it shows Rob (the human) take off his sport coat, put on a cardigan and say "Speedy delivery, Fred." Satchel (the dog) looks pensive and says "there goes the neighborhood." I still find it really, really touching.
6-17-2008 @ 1:23PM
kerry said...
The death of Phil Hartman still affects me, even now that it's 10 years later. I was more sad about losing him than any other public person, because it affected my life more directly. I watch older episodes of the Simpsons and find myself really mourning the loss of his characters, and of his voice. Then I watch Futurama and get sad about what could have been. It seems silly to care about losing someone I never knew, but I think the suddenness and total senselessness of his death have a lot to do with why I care.
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6-17-2008 @ 1:33PM
MERVE-THE-PERVE said...
Redd Foxx was unexpected for me. It was ironic he died from a heart attack. Phil Hartman's death was just shocking. I couldn't believe it when I heard it. John Ritter's death hit me hard. I grew up on TC when I was young.
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6-17-2008 @ 1:35PM
Rico said...
Your title doesn't really match the story. How could you list Micheal Landon or Peter Jennings as 'unexpected'? Both were fully expected.
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6-17-2008 @ 1:46PM
MacKinney` said...
I remember that Jim Henson's death moved me to tears, because it deprived us of his amazing imagination. But I had a similar reaction back in 1966 when I heard that Walt Disney had passed away. After all, for those of us who grew up in the fifties, Uncle Walt was the charming, reassuring, and endlessly inventive man who appeared on our tv sets nearly every Sunday night and brought us amazing stories and inventions and won us with his boundless enthusiasm for everything around us, whether it was the wild animals of his documentary features or the "imagineers" of his theme parks. He loved it all, and it showed!
An example? I remember watching in fascination as Uncle Walt explained how filming each frame of a cartoon using multiple planes with bits of each scene painted on them gave incredible depth to an otherwise two-dimensional cartoon image. It was pretty technical stuff for a kid to absorb, but I remember that show perfectly, as it ended with "The Old Mill" - one of the first animated shorts to utilize this revolutionary technique.
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6-17-2008 @ 1:50PM
Amanda said...
I agree with several on your list but wanted to add one more... Jerry Orbach. I guess after spending several years watching Law & Order (not to mention several days at a clip watching the marathons) I had just come to expect that he would always be there. Granted he had just left the show shortly before and was doing guest spots on Trial By Jury, but it still hit me very hard. I was at my desk at work & I heard it on the radio & started to cry, my boss even asked me if I wanted to go home.
Losing anyone is difficult, but when you actually feel loss without actually knowing them is a true testament to their character.
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6-17-2008 @ 2:51PM
deebopalula said...
Amanda - I know how you feel. I felt the same way when I heard Stevie Ray Vaughn had died in a plane crash.
I passed Jerry Orbach on the streets of NYC several times. I never said anything to him, just a quick nod of the head, as he wasn't one of those showy celebs with entourages who thrive upon attention. Just the opposite - a hard working actor who seemed to covet his privacy.
6-17-2008 @ 2:23PM
patrick said...
seems like it's a little too early to cash in on russert's death with another top 10 or top 12 list.
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6-17-2008 @ 2:27PM
Kellie said...
How could you forget Steve Erwin?
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6-17-2008 @ 2:39PM
deebopalula said...
Before I clicked into the list, I immediately thought of Steve Irwin, Chris Farley and Phil Hartman. To me, Phil's death was the most tragic - for so many reasons. His story also has all the makings of a movie of the week except for one critical detail -- who could ever play him?
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6-17-2008 @ 3:08PM
Dave said...
How about Nicholas Colasanto? (Coach on Cheers)
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6-17-2008 @ 3:39PM
WhizGidget said...
Jim Henson - that's the one that still affects me too. And I remembered that Sammy Davis Jr passed away that same day.
I remember hearing it when I opened the Oakland Tribune on my college campus after getting a piece of coffee cake on my way to one of my last classes of my freshman year - a writing class taught by author Chester Aaron.
I walked into the classroom stunned, looked over at a friend who also had the paper, similarly stunned, and we burst out crying. It was a hard, hard day for me...
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6-17-2008 @ 3:40PM
Mike Doran said...
I was 11 and my brother was 12 when we first heard of the death of Ernie Kovacs in a car crash in January of '62. Our dad would let us stay up late to watch his shows, and we knew he had another one coming up ia week or two (that one aired as scheduled without commercials). Kovacs was 42, which to us at the time was old -- our parents were only a few years younger. Now, I'm coming up on 58 and boy, how things have changed -- I look at Ernie's old shows on tape, and all I can see is how he was hamstrung by starvation budgets that make the shows look cheap by today's standards. Imagine what he could have done with real money. Oh well...
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6-17-2008 @ 3:43PM
I miss my stars! said...
I realize this is a stretch to include with TV celebrities, but I do recall watching his concert programs on TV back in the 70s. Elvis has to be the #1 unexpected death that had the biggest reaction. I was only 10 when he died, but the way people reacted was like their closest family member passed away. My best friend's mother cried for days. It was a very odd time. John Lennon's tragic murder is the only other event who has come close to that kind of reaction in my lifetime.
Personally, Jim Henson has to be the person that I felt the biggest loss of without ever knowing. He was a wonderfully creative man who died way too early.
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6-17-2008 @ 5:07PM
Alicia said...
Jim Henson. *shaking head in disbelief*
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6-17-2008 @ 5:45PM
kevjohn said...
John Belushi was the worst for me. I would have been only 10 at the time; probably too young to have been allowed to see his best film work, and I knew little or nothing about his drug use. But I knew he was a first class talent, and too young to die. After that, nothing has surprised or shocked me in the least. And seeing that no-talent schmuck Jim get by on the last name and a slight resemblance to his superstar older brother keeps the hurt fresh.
Freddie Prinze's death occured before that, but Belushi was a much brighter star.
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6-17-2008 @ 6:43PM
Xyz said...
Will Lee AKA Mr Hooper from Sesame Street...
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6-17-2008 @ 7:10PM
Morjana Coffman said...
I remember when Dan Blocker (Hoss) of Bonanza died suddenly in May of '72 of a pulmonary embolism.
Mr. Blocker died at the end of the 13th season, and the 14th season premiere of Bonanza was about the loss of Hoss. I remember Ben in Hoss' bedroom, looking at a photo of Hoss, and not only was Ben (Lorne Greene) crying, but was so I. (And I think everyone in my home was crying as well.)
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