The dying celebrity

Pop culture loses several big names in the month of June

     
 

here is
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fascinating to

young fans of

pop culture

than the dying
celebrity. Almost more interesting than their
careers themselves, whenever celebrities
die it leaves a wake of sadness and loss
throughout the industry that everyone feels
and can’t help but obsess over.

Everybody dies; it is the one sure thing
that everyone will do in their life time. But
with celebrities, I find it amusing to see the
way that they go. Brandon Lee, son of the
infamous martial arts legend Bruce Lee was
filming a scene for the movie The Crow in
North Carolina which involved him being

shot by a handgun. The gun was discharged,

but the blank in the chamber was faulty
and fired out of the gun and into Brandon’s
body. Brandon collapsed and then died
because of it. Oh well, it could have been
worse for him. He could have been David
Carradine!

Early in June, Kill Bill actor David
Carradine was found in Bangkok with a
noose tied around his neck and genitals
in an act of autoerotic asphyxiation. Man,
what that guy has to do to get off. You have
to wonder though, there’s probably a Thai
hooker out there somewhere with a lot of
guilt on her conscience.

As is usual for events of this nature, a

picture of Carradine leaked on to the cover
of a Thai newspaper and now the entire
world can click a button and within seconds
the image appears on their computer
screen. Just like the Saddam Hussein
hanging video, or those Americans who
were beheaded by Taliban supporters, these
things just get out for the world to see and
nobody can seem to look away. Yeah, I saw
the Carradine thing too—not pretty, and the
only thing that crossed my mind was, “I
wonder if Uma was into that?”

Whenever something like this happens
to pop culture, there’s a media flux and
major news networks jump to bring you
breaking news as quickly as possible.
Remember Anna Nicole Smith? She died
in early 2007, and for one week after her
passing, 51% of all stories coming out of
CNN were about this incident and how it
happened. I couldn’t believe the statistic
myself but tabloids and news networks love
to jump all over this stuff like pollinating
bees.

The other two celebrities that have
kicked the bucket in the month of June are

Farrah Fawcett and the King of Pop himself,

Michael Jackson. Farrah Fawcett was, to
say the least, on the minds of teenage boys
at night during the ‘70s as she made her
career out of being the gorgeous blonde
on Charlie's Angels. She was hot, had big
hair and was always the center of attention
amongst the Angels. She died on June 25"
in hospital due to cancer.

On December 7" 1980, legendary punk
singer Darby Crash sits in his apartment in
LA and injects a lethal amount of heroin
into his circulatory system, lies down, and
goes to sleep for good. The next day reports
of his death start spreading in the media
and everyone starts to learn of his work and
his death. Unfortunately, that only lasted
for a few hours, because all the attention
switched to New York when John Lennon
was shot. It’s hard to live in someone else’s
shadow but to die in it is something you'll
never live down, pun intended. The world
now is left scratching their heads and
pondering, “Who’s Darby Crash?”

Farrah Fawcett has always been a bit
of a spotlight hog though, so dying quietly
the same day as Michael Jackson isn’t the
worst thing in the world. He’s creepier,
made more money, allegedly touched more
children, and has a theme park and ranch to
himself. South Park is going to have a field
day.

So with that, the King of Pop died
at 50 years of age from a heart attack.
Jackson was preparing for 50 “sold out”
shows (yeah right) in London in an effort
to jumpstart his musical career. Since his
plastic surgery and the “Where did Michael
touch you?” trials, the media has focused
away from his music and more on what a
freak he appears to be.

However, his music will live on,
it has longevity, and I’m actually quite
saddened that at the end of his life he had

 

   

to go through so much pressure. Living
in seclusion, not having a childhood, and
being in front of the camera for 45 of your
50 years on the earth took its toll on Mr.
Jackson, and the poor guy was never normal
because of it.

I leave you now with this: In the early
hours of August 27" 1990, Eric Clapton’s
tour manager arranged for a helicopter to fly
him and his band to the next performance
venue. Clapton had to stay for a while
and offered up his seat to his good friend
Stevie Ray Vaughn with whom he was on
tour with. On that foggy night, the pilot
was unfamiliar with the terrain and crashed
into a 300 foot hill that he was unaware of
killing himself, Vaughn, and three members
of Clapton’s band.

That just goes to show that death
lingers everywhere. It’s impossible to
escape, and if it wasn’t Vaughn that died
that night, it would have been Clapton. The
media makes it seem like celebrities aren’t
supposed to die but they do anyways. After
all, they’re only human.

 

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