[Closed] Celebrity premature death

86 is premature? Great

86 is premature? Great

Er, average age is 69 of that list.

that or too many [s]mince pies[/s] drugs and hookers

The common link is obviosuly death, I do believe that death is normally fatal.
Stay away from death kids, it'll kill you.

Apparently, becoming a celebrity, doesn't make you immortal. Who knew, eh!

The common link is obviosuly death, I do believe that death is normally fatal.

The common link in that set is high profile celebrity, unfortunately there isn't a larger set that the one above to get us to the magic number of 30. The average life expectancy still seems pretty low. The common link between all deaths is 81 in the UK, 83 in Japan and 78 in the USA.

I wonder when the real story of celebrity (premature) death is going to get written?

What do you mean [i]real[/i] story?

We haven't been told the truth - there's been more celebrity deaths that we don't know about?

What do you mean real story?

That celebrity isn't quite what it's cracked up to be. We plaster that news with messages that reinforce celebrity and celebrity lifestyle and yet all these celebrities end up dying so young. Hardly a recruitment poster for the human race is it.

Seriously, is anyone really thinking that George Michael, Prince, Carrie Fisher, David Bowie etc died of old age? We have imbeclilles like Trump getting elected to POTAS at 70 and yet someone like George Michael, who by all accounts was both an angel and a tourtured soul shuffling off at 53 as a result of life style factors. Why can't the idiots like Trump be the ones to over indulge in poor choices?

geetee1972 - Member

Er, average age is 69 of that list.

Not a bad number that.....

Not a bad number that.....

Do you really think that Marco Pantani and George

What do you mean real story?

the government is bumping them off early before they can squirrel away their riches into offshore trust funds.

Without including Richard Adams at 96 and Liz Smith at 95 though.

I excluded the outliers and the ones that most people haven't heard of.

And now carrie fisher has died at 60

Rock and Roll is definitely hazardous to your health

An academic study published recently confirms that rock and pop musicians are more likely to die prematurely than the general population, and finds that solo artists are twice as likely to die young as members of bands.
Researchers from Liverpool John Moores University and Britain’s Health Department studied 1,489 rock, pop, punk, R&B, rap, electronica and New Age stars who became famous between 1956 and 2006 — from Elvis Presley to the Arctic Monkeys.
They found that 137 of the stars, or 9.2 percent, had died, representing “higher levels of mortality than demographically matched individuals in the general population.”
The researchers dismissed the “fanciful but unsubstantiated” popular myth that rock stars tend to die at age 27 — as Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse all did. The average age of death was 45.2 years for North American stars and 39.6 for European ones.

Yet you included Gest.....

but still the average life expectancy for your high profile celebrity falls pretty short of the average for the whole population.

How about all the other high profile ones still alive? How do they factor into your life expectancy calculation?

I excluded the outliers and the ones that most people haven't heard of.

Makes you think!

Apparently amphetamines are known to cause long term heart problems* so that may account for some of those who may have dabbled in the past, and smoking and drinking are rumoured to be bad for longevity, but I doubt that the sample above proves anything.

*Source - MrsMC, who is spending too much time supporting families with parents who have abused one thing or the other recently. And she is NEVER wrong.

I excluded the outliers and the ones that most people haven't heard of.

You havent included the old still alive celebs though I notice so ermmmm...well

Think I'll stick to Blues and Jazz

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So how do you explain the Rolling Stones? 😉

This is a thread worthy of the Daily Mash

geetee1972 - Member

Hardly a recruitment poster for the human race is it.

Oh I don't know.......if you're a hamster you'd be lucky to live to be 3 years old.

Think I'll stick to Blues and Jazz

It's no surprise that the young deaths are at the newer genre of music end of the graph. I don't suppose there are many 90 year old rap artists on the go. Come back in 50 years or so and it will even out somewhat.

Am I the only one that thinks that uponthedowns chart is a bit odd, lacking something?

I though George Michael and Prince were fabulous human beings but they've harldy died of old age have they.

I wonder what could possibly be the reason.

Yes the data is confounded with the age of the genre which explains the low average for Rap but Rock and Roll and Pop has been around since the 50's so I reckon up to that point age of the genre may not be that much of a factor.

This is why I keep coming back to this place 😆

An X axis for the US male and female life expectancy lines?

You really need to do the same calculation for non famous people who died in 2016 to base line your findings and because you have far to much time on your hands.

[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b076prgl ]more or less[/url]

Am I the only one that thinks that uponthedowns chart is a bit odd, lacking something?

It does not states whether or not it assumes Tupac is dead?

An X axis for the US male and female life expectancy lines?

Genius . Take a bunch of celebrity deaths , exclude those who were really old when they died and what you are left with is a group who died before the their time if you average their ages at time of death .

That graph has chosen to use a plan view of Chas from Chas'n'Dave as it's background 🙂

So how do you explain the Rolling Stones?

The exceptions that [i]prove[/i] the rule.

Genius . Take a bunch of celebrity deaths , exclude those who were really old when they died and what you are left with is a group who died before the their time if you average their ages at time of death

When did this happen?

Can't honestly see any correlation to celebz n death.

Humans are a fickle blob.

Good point made in that More or Less programme.

Celebrity, pop culture and TV only kicked off in the 50s and 60s, before that it was only really film stars that got famous. So baby boomers who became famous in the 60s and 70s are now starting to check out as per normal life expectancy

Is it possible that type selection bias is that there was a huge expansion of popular culture in the 60s and 70s (ergo the stars of this email were born in the 1940s-50s). No one can name the stars of the 50s - they've mostly fallen away into insignificance, or maybe died so long after their fame that their death isn't newsworthy.

If you accept the above, then the idea that most celebrity deaths are premature is because [i]most celebrities[/i] are from an era where we haven't reached their full life expectancy yet.

Cocaine is a heart killer, particularly in young lives with normal coronary arteries.

Strong correlation with celebrities and cocaine?

When did this happen?

2016 , do try to keep up 🙂

Maybe spending your life on the piss and taking hard drugs kills you earlier than those of us who can`t afford it ?

Yes, I'd take a wild guess and say some recent ones have been caused by drug abuse.

I think Lemmy proved that Speed is your drug of choice chaps. He just cheated the old peoples home, yet lived his life to 11 on the Marshall amp.

A lot of substance abuse and cancer on that list. Not my much in the way of unexpected early death

they were invited to join the illumnati and declined so they had to be ended or they were already part of illumnati and decided to leave so had to be ended.

Average life expectancy assumes average lifestyle. Celebs aren't average. So live the rock lifestyle and you may not make your three score and ten. That 69 years average is still 14 years longer than you can expect in the east end of Glasgow.

MEN born in Glasgow's deprived east end will die nine years before men born in India.And male children born a 15-minute drive away in affluent Lenzie can expect to live 28 years longer.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/men-in-glasgows-east-end-have-life-988632

bruce forsyth once aid he attributed his longevity to not doing a mountain of cocaine in his yoof, he says for the next 5 days though he will be sleeping with one eye open

How many celebrities haven't died in 2016?

On one hand my inner pedant wants to pick this crackpot conspiracy theory thread apart, on the other hand, I realise that it's a virtual certainty that facts and/or common sense will not convince the OP or his disciples of anything other than an illuminati cover up.

The cranks are in full effect tonight.

[i]How many celebrities haven't died in 2016?[/i]

This is a good point - you need to survey every singlle celebrity that didn't die in 2016, work out the average age and see if it correlates. Ali died of Parkinson's Syndrome, Bowie of cancer, so you also need to work out what diseases celebs still alive haven't got.

everytime a celeb dies Bruce Forsyth absorbs their life force.
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I predict Cliff Richards to 'pop his clogs' within the Happy Valleys old peoples normal life expectancy retirement retreat, probably in about 19 years. I've now cursed him, haven't I?.

The Rolling Stones prove that tax evasion and living life on idyllic desert islands and taking lot of wives decades your junior is the key to a long life and an effective antidote to drink and drug abuse. How many celebs lost their fortunes and were exposed to all that additional stress from being broke.

Rather than a some sort of conspiracy, some people die young as they get cancer that is very hard to treat and some die young as they cane it and it catches up with them.

Prince 57 Heroin addict who died of an overdose
David Bowie 69 - Smoked like a trooper spent a large chunk of the 70s on cocaine, died of a cancer that has a poor prognosis.
Carrie Fisher 60 - Addicted to Cocaine and prescription medicines
Alan Rickman 69 - Died of a Cancer with a poor prognosis
George Michael 53 - Heroin and Crack Cocaine
Rick Parfit 68 - Snorted more Cocaine than Columbia could produce
Pete Burns 52 - who knows
Caroline Aherene 52 - Alcohol, drugs and smoked like someone from the east end of glasgow died of lung cancer
Victoria Wood 62 - cancer
David Gest 62 - again serious addiction issues
A. A. Gill 69

These below are all died around the average age

Terr Wogan 77 played golf
Paul Daniels 77 probably played golf
Ronnie Corbet 85 played golf
Muhamed Ali 77 athlete coverted to Islam probably never drank or smoked
Leonard Cohen 82 Buddhist
Robert Vaughn 83
Andrew Sachs 86

My mum always told me I should take up golf.

Currently watching expendable s 2 make of that what you will

Worldwide, the average life expectancy at birth was 71.0 years (68 years and 6 months for males and 73 years and 6 months for females) over the period 2010–2013 according to United Nations World Population Prospects 2012 Revision, or 70.7 years (68.2 years for males and 73.2 years for females) for 2009 according to The ...

How many celebrities haven't died in 2016?

Can someone tell me what is a "timely death"?

Because on the news it's always untimely...

Any notice that Chuck Norris is clearly bucking the trend here, thus meaning those often derided 'Chuck Norris facts' must be correct?

Rather than a some sort of conspiracy, some people die young as they get cancer that is very hard to treat and some die young as they cane it and it catches up with them.

I wasn't suggesting a conspiracy obviously. I was suggesting precisely what Stainypants then listed (I sort of thought that was obvious but thanks for making it clearer).

My point is that the press writes a lot about all the good things associated with celebrity and we as a society are very keen on promoting celebrity as something that is great, good and to be aspired to. We don't go a whole lot on pointing out the pitfalls or the consequences of the pressures associated with it or that celebrity and substance abuse is almost certainly more strongly correlated than in the population in general (if only because celebrity gives you money and access to substance abuse).

I think we owe it to our children to very pointedly comment on the reasons that someone might end up dying young.

Muhamed Ali 77 athlete coverted to Islam probably never drank or smoked

Funny you don't mention he spent a lot of his younger days getting smacked about the head by big blokes.

That certainly didn't help his health issues.

Leonard Cohen 82 Buddhist

Again, his posted religion doesn't detract from trying every drug that has ever been invented.

Obviously the 'curse of 2016' is selling a lot of papers, clicks and viewership so it’s becoming a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy – lots of people who really should know better are claiming it’s somehow super natural that someone in their 70s,80s or even 90s has died.

Average life expectancy in the UK now is 81, but it’s an average:

Leonard Cohen 82
Robert Vaughn 83
Andrew Sachs 86
Ronnie Corbet 85

All lived longer than the average.

Terry Wogan 77
Paul Daniels 77
Muhamed Ali 77

All reached 95% of live expectancy.

On to the others on the list, this is where I get a bit crass, if you’re easily offended, look away now.

David Bowie 69 would have made headline news when he passed away, at any time, he was one of those timeless stars.

Prince 57, his fame always ebbed and flowed after his initial super stardom died down, but it happened to be on the up-swing again when he passed and it was untimely so he made big news.

George Michael 53, untimely yes, but hadn’t been super famous for a while aside from crashing into shops, hadn’t released anything for 12 years. I personally think that had he died away from the ‘cruse of 2016’ and at a less quiet time of year news wise, it wouldn’t have been such a big story.

Carrie Fisher 60, if it hadn’t been for Disney buying Star Wars and all the attention that came with that, I suspect it wouldn’t have made the front page. She would have never been forgotten about, but if this had happened 2 years ago, it would have been a sad 1 day story.

As for the rest of the list – it’s always sad when someone dies (well usually) and in their own way they all earned a place in a lot of people’s hearts, but it’s a sad fact of life that people die – we all sort of expect to live a long healthy life and then one days, pass away in our sleep, probably in our 90s, but that doesn’t happen for most people, most people die before they reach 81. What you see below is ‘normal’. Cancer and Heart Disease kills lots of people in their 40s, 50s and 60s and money and fame do little to change that, lifestyle does - some ‘lived the life’ if you looking for causation – then consider Cocaine which is about the best type of drug to take if you want heart disease became very popular in the 1980s when a lot of people who are dying today were in their 20s, smoking was far more widespread and far from being frowned upon as was the celebrated hard drinking rock and roll lifestyle.

Rick Parfit 68
Pete Burns 52
Caroline Aherne 52
Victoria Wood 62
David Gest 62
Alan Rickman 69
A. A. Gill 69

Surely it's a generational thing: Carrie Fisher is going to mean a lot more to many people who are middle-aged now (arguably the demographic most news is aimed at these days) than, say, Ronnie Corbett or Andrew Sachs. Don't underestimate the impression Star Wars made on a huge portion of the population.

For many born in the seventies, Star Wars was, and still is, a massive landmark, and those people are now 40-50, which is not far off the age Carrie Fisher died at (making it especially poignant). I think the generation thing also applies to many of those who have died this year (David Bowie, Prince, George Michael), many of whom were also important for the Star Wars generation.

Also, don't forget that dying early (which 60ish is these days) always makes more news than dying later in life: My Gran has just passed on, she was 96 and was on poor health. If she'd died when she was 80, or earlier, people would have been far more upset than they were. That's not to say we aren't all upset, but you tend to become more pragmatic, with regard to death, as age increases and health deteriorates.

As GT says, there are also lessons that can be learned from premature death.

Sounds horrible but I wonder how many of the OPs list smoked alot?

As an aside, it makes me laugh and despair at the number of social media posts vitriolically blaming a period of time for these deaths, rather than Cancer, Parkinson's, addiction, heart disease, etc. You know, the things that [i]actually[/i] killed them.

Alphonse Mouzon - 68. RIP

You know, the things that actually killed them.

Thing is, everybody dies of something. Frequently it's a shock because they showed no previous heart disease for example so people look as to why it happened. The answer is the first part of this paragraph; everybody dies of something and sometimes it has little or no relation to how they lived their lives. Some smokers live to old age, some die young, it's not a guaranteed causal relationship to their smoking and their death. Obviously if you've had a couple of serious stints on class A drugs and a handful of ODs, its far more likely your ticker is going to give out but it's still not a guarantee.

Deep down I think people don't like to think that death can just come knocking for reasons unknown. It scares the shit out of people so they like to find a causal relationship between lifestyle and death to allow them to "avoid" the outcome. As we know that doesn't happen.

I see we can add Debbie Reynolds to the list (Carrie Fisher's previously famous mother),

A day after her daughter.

without having read most of the other replies

At least a few of those guys would have been caining it for much of their lives. And lots of the rest lived till a ripe old age..

A much better question is...how is keith richards still alive?

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Keef's daughter has been laughing about a meme going around about how her dad is outliving everyone.
I think it predates Johnny Depp, but I've always liked the quote attributed to him that after Armageddon, all that would be left is Keith Richards and cockroaches!
Jazz and Country artists had a habit (ha!) of dying fairly young back in the 50's-60's, mainly through drink and drugs, like Hank Williams, as well as pop stars, although Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens died in a plane crash, and Eddie Cochran was killed in a car crash not far from where I live.
I think it's just that 2016 has just been an almost unrelenting list of artists and actors who a great many people have grown up with, and who have become part of people's lives, passing in a pretty short space of time.

Brian Jones and Ian Stewart bring down the average for the Stones however long Keef lives to carry on smoking.

27 is the magic number for premature rock and roll death, over 60 means you were taking it too easy!

So hang on, are you saying that maybe celebrity [i]isn't[/i] the answer to all life's problems and a replacement for the God we no longer believe in?

Never thought of that before. My mind is blown.

😯