Ever since Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a car accident in August 1997 at 36, I found it embarrassing to mourn the life of someone I didn’t know but only through news stories and the tabloids. Yet, the day of her funeral the following weekend in September, I called in sick. All the result of my being subjected to all the media and tabloid outlets reporting on her early untimely demise. I couldn’t function emotionally.
I felt the same way when attorney, journalist and magazine publisher John F. Kennedy Jr. died, along with his wife, Carolyn Bessette, and her sister Lauren Bessette in a plane crash in 1999. Both Princess Diana and JFK Jr. were lives unfinished. I still saw the 38-year-old JFK Jr. as the three-year-old son who saluted his father’s flag draped casket at President John F. Kennedy’s state funeral in November 1963. Even as I write this blog, I get teary eyed thinking about hearing the tragic losses of both JFK Jr. and Diana over twenty years ago.
Although I wasn’t a devoted fan of actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner, 54, best known as Theo Huxtable from “The Cosby Show” (1984-1992), heavy metal pioneer and Black Sabbath founder Ozzy Osbourne, 76, and professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, 71, who died last week I understood the emotional tributes devoted fans and other prominent figures in the entertainment industry expressed on social media.
I grew up with those entertainers in the early 1980s as did most everyone my age. They were a part of my generation. Their passings like so many others we’ve known half our lives leave a gaping hole. Like as though it’s ok if we leave this earth as we’re not larger-than-life figures whose works touched millions. Icons like Jamal Warner, Ozzy and Hulk Hogan, like countless notable figures whether it’s in entertainment, journalism, music, news, politics and sports are not supposed to die!
It’s bad enough when a revered icon like Diana and JFK Jr. go before their time when they had their lives still ahead of them. It’s another when a notable reviewer, news anchor and songwriter leave devoted followers with the promise they will return doing what they did best following medical treatment. Like as though they already knew the end was coming but didn’t want to leave fans without hope.
That’s how I felt when Chicago Tribune movie critic Gene Siskel announced his taking a leave of absence from “Siskel & Ebert” on Feb. 3, 1999, the film reviewing program albeit in different forms he had been cohosting with Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert since the mid-1970s. Siskel was diagnosed with a brain tumor and underwent treatment the year before. Even Ebert didn’t know how terminal his partner’s diagnosis was until Siskel died Feb. 20 that month at 53.
“I’m in a hurry to get well because I don’t want Roger to get more screen time than I,” Siskel said. I was counting on him to be back at the balcony later that year just in time to hear his thoughts on “Star Wars – Episode I: The Phantom Menace” (1999) in May. I didn’t care if he gave it thumbs up or thumbs down. I just wanted to hear his opinion.
I took ABC news anchorman Peter Jennings at his word that on his “good” days the “James Bond 007 of news” would be back on “World News Tonight” when he delivered what was his final newscast April 5, 2005, and would begin treatment for lung cancer. Jennings died on Aug. 7, 2005, ten days after his 67th birthday on July 29.
I thought Canadian songwriter, singer, poet and novelist Leonard Cohen was just suffering from writer’s block when the 82-year-old legend told the New Yorker he wouldn’t be able to finish his vault of unfinished songs and poems. He was even more uncertain he’d be able to do a follow-up to his 14th studio album, “You Want It Darker” released in October 2016, barely a month before the artist’s death of leukemia.
I felt the same way when attorney, journalist and magazine publisher John F. Kennedy Jr. died, along with his wife, Carolyn Bessette, and her sister Lauren Bessette in a plane crash in 1999. Both Princess Diana and JFK Jr. were lives unfinished. I still saw the 38-year-old JFK Jr. as the three-year-old son who saluted his father’s flag draped casket at President John F. Kennedy’s state funeral in November 1963. Even as I write this blog, I get teary eyed thinking about hearing the tragic losses of both JFK Jr. and Diana over twenty years ago.
Although I wasn’t a devoted fan of actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner, 54, best known as Theo Huxtable from “The Cosby Show” (1984-1992), heavy metal pioneer and Black Sabbath founder Ozzy Osbourne, 76, and professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, 71, who died last week I understood the emotional tributes devoted fans and other prominent figures in the entertainment industry expressed on social media.
I grew up with those entertainers in the early 1980s as did most everyone my age. They were a part of my generation. Their passings like so many others we’ve known half our lives leave a gaping hole. Like as though it’s ok if we leave this earth as we’re not larger-than-life figures whose works touched millions. Icons like Jamal Warner, Ozzy and Hulk Hogan, like countless notable figures whether it’s in entertainment, journalism, music, news, politics and sports are not supposed to die!
It’s bad enough when a revered icon like Diana and JFK Jr. go before their time when they had their lives still ahead of them. It’s another when a notable reviewer, news anchor and songwriter leave devoted followers with the promise they will return doing what they did best following medical treatment. Like as though they already knew the end was coming but didn’t want to leave fans without hope.
That’s how I felt when Chicago Tribune movie critic Gene Siskel announced his taking a leave of absence from “Siskel & Ebert” on Feb. 3, 1999, the film reviewing program albeit in different forms he had been cohosting with Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert since the mid-1970s. Siskel was diagnosed with a brain tumor and underwent treatment the year before. Even Ebert didn’t know how terminal his partner’s diagnosis was until Siskel died Feb. 20 that month at 53.
“I’m in a hurry to get well because I don’t want Roger to get more screen time than I,” Siskel said. I was counting on him to be back at the balcony later that year just in time to hear his thoughts on “Star Wars – Episode I: The Phantom Menace” (1999) in May. I didn’t care if he gave it thumbs up or thumbs down. I just wanted to hear his opinion.
I took ABC news anchorman Peter Jennings at his word that on his “good” days the “James Bond 007 of news” would be back on “World News Tonight” when he delivered what was his final newscast April 5, 2005, and would begin treatment for lung cancer. Jennings died on Aug. 7, 2005, ten days after his 67th birthday on July 29.
I thought Canadian songwriter, singer, poet and novelist Leonard Cohen was just suffering from writer’s block when the 82-year-old legend told the New Yorker he wouldn’t be able to finish his vault of unfinished songs and poems. He was even more uncertain he’d be able to do a follow-up to his 14th studio album, “You Want It Darker” released in October 2016, barely a month before the artist’s death of leukemia.
"I am ready to die," Cohen said. "I hope it's not too uncomfortable. That's about it for me."
It goes without saying that every time we learn the news some noteworthy personality has passed, fans flock to YouTube in hopes of listening to their music videos, watch clips from their shows and interviews or check the streaming services to see if their movies and television shows are available. I did that when Jamal Warner died at 54 from accidental drowning while on vacation with family in Costa Rica watching early clips of “The Cosby Show” on YouTube.
I watched the often-hilarious commercials Ozzy Osbourne did over the past twenty years that documented his mumbling ordering at Starbucks, telling a taxi driver where to go and complaining to a waiter about his dinner. None of them could understand him. It’s almost as if he was playing, if not parodying himself. Finally, his only way of communication in those clever ads was texting on his Samsung cellphone.
I found Osbourne’s appearance on Conan O’Brien Oct. 18, 2001, who was brought in to cheer up the Late-Night staff following the 9/11 attacks echoed what’s been missing from late night television for decades and why “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” was canceled. Late Night forgot how to be funny.
And finally Hulk Hogan. Most remember his days with the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling. I remember him more for his first big screen appearance in “Rocky III” (1982) as wrestler Thunderlips who fights Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) in a charity match.
It goes without saying that every time we learn the news some noteworthy personality has passed, fans flock to YouTube in hopes of listening to their music videos, watch clips from their shows and interviews or check the streaming services to see if their movies and television shows are available. I did that when Jamal Warner died at 54 from accidental drowning while on vacation with family in Costa Rica watching early clips of “The Cosby Show” on YouTube.
I watched the often-hilarious commercials Ozzy Osbourne did over the past twenty years that documented his mumbling ordering at Starbucks, telling a taxi driver where to go and complaining to a waiter about his dinner. None of them could understand him. It’s almost as if he was playing, if not parodying himself. Finally, his only way of communication in those clever ads was texting on his Samsung cellphone.
I found Osbourne’s appearance on Conan O’Brien Oct. 18, 2001, who was brought in to cheer up the Late-Night staff following the 9/11 attacks echoed what’s been missing from late night television for decades and why “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” was canceled. Late Night forgot how to be funny.
And finally Hulk Hogan. Most remember his days with the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling. I remember him more for his first big screen appearance in “Rocky III” (1982) as wrestler Thunderlips who fights Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) in a charity match.
All these images and memories are frozen in time.
Sadly, there is no end. We’re not reaching that age. We ARE at the age now where life stops giving us things and starts taking them away. In the coming days, weeks, months and years and the rest of our lives we’ll hear of a number of household names who’ve gone to meet their maker. Death and mourning is a part of life. We’re all mortal no matter what your status is. At least we got plenty of memories of such celebrities to fondly look back on appreciating the God given talents they gave us.
©7/25/25
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