Objectively, it\u2019s a silly thing to mourn the passing of a celebrity. I don\u2019t know these people. We\u2019re not friends. We\u2019ve never had a beer together. They\u2019re just light and sound on a screen. Yet, celebrities keep dying and I keep taking it personally.<\/p>\n
Consider Robin Williams. I was taken aback when he died. That was Mork! Mork died! Some of my first memories in life involved Robin Williams as Mork. A little earlier, in 2012, Sherman Hemsley died. He\u2019s no Mork, but he is George Jefferson, and George Jefferson and I hung out every day after school until my parents rolled in from work. There was Roger Ebert, Leonard Nimoy, Harold Ramis and more. Big names, small names, but names I knew and admired.<\/p>\n
And then this week happens. Like a series of gut punches, we lose David Bowie, Alan Rickman, and Grizzly freakin\u2019 Adams.<\/p>\n
Saturday, I spent two hours playing nothing but Bowie on KRNN. By the time I ended on \u201cLife on Mars\u201d and \u201cHeroes\u201d I was emotionally spent. The man\u2019s vocal variety was astounding. His lyricism is unmatched. He told stories…hell, Bowie painted worlds with his music. Hardly anyone does that anymore; at least not while making hits. Bowie represents something rare – a time when art could be popular and matter.<\/p>\n
I am old enough to have heard Bowie\u2019s originals on the radio. I am old enough to remember my dad complain about \u201cFame\u201d because a bunkmate in his Shemya work camp played nothing else for weeks on end. I am old enough to remember people\u2019s confusion when Bowie went pop with \u201cLet\u2019s Dance.\u201d And I am old enough to be too old for that kids\u2019 movie, \u201cLabyrinth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps the problem is these deaths remind me I\u2019m old. At least, I am old enough to see my childhood idols die.<\/p>\n
But Bowie wasn\u2019t the only one.<\/p>\n
I was a junior at East Anchorage High School when \u201cDie Hard\u201d came out. Perhaps for some it\u2019s hard to remember just how unique and good a movie \u201cDie Hard\u201d really was. I don\u2019t mean good for an action movie. I mean good for any movie.<\/p>\n
\u201cDie Hard\u201d was smart. It was just self-aware enough to let you in on the jokes, but still wrenching in its action. It showcased a hero who wasn\u2019t a muscle-bound Stallone or Schwarzenegger but a scarred and scared Bruce Willis. His portrayal of a flawed \u201chero\u201d who feared, fretted, and bled was pretty groundbreaking.<\/p>\n
But even more groundbreaking was Hans Gruber, The Best Villain Ever, as portrayed by Alan Rickman.<\/p>\n
For many of you, Rickman is Professor Snape. That\u2019s a very good role to remember him by. But for me, though, on account of being old, Rickman will forever be Gruber.<\/p>\n
The story goes, after a successful run on Broadway in \u201cLes Liaisons Dangereuses,\u201d Rickman arrived in Hollywood. He was there for two days when his agent presented him with the script for \u201cDie Hard.\u201d Rickman was 42, unknown, and cheap. Working within the vacuum of no expectations, he constructed the best villain ever.<\/p>\n
Rickman\u2019s Gruber was one of those \u201coft imitated, never matched\u201d performances. For one, Rickman can act. Before Hans Gruber, villains in movies, even Bond\u2019s Blofeld, were mostly acting chops afterthoughts. (Try to watch Telly Savalas smoke an upside down cigarette as Blofeld in \u201cOn Her Majesty\u2019s Secret Service\u201d without cracking up). Rickman made the villain fun for real actors. After \u201cDie Hard\u201d you see the likes of John Lithgow in \u201cCliffhanger,\u201d Dennis Hopper in \u201cSpeed,\u201d and one of the greatest, John Malkovich, in \u201cIn the Line of Fire.\u201d None of their villains could match Rickman\u2019s Hans Gruber; Rickman had set the bar too high.<\/p>\n
Rickman went on to great success in Hollywood. He was a fine actor. If you\u2019re looking for a weeper to remember him by, watch 1990\u2019s \u201cTruly Madly Deeply\u201d where he haunts his wife through an undying love. He had nuanced roles in \u201cSense and Sensibility\u201d and \u201cBob Roberts.\u201d And of course, those Harry Potter films\u2026<\/p>\n
Like I said, it\u2019s been a rough week, and there\u2019s one more.<\/p>\n
Dan Haggerty, who you know as Grizzly Adams, also died this week. Normally, that wouldn\u2019t even have registered except my sensitivities are already a little heightened. Truth is, 7-year-old Clint loved \u201cGrizzly Adams.\u201d I connected to that show based on a love of animals and nature. (This was during my \u201cI\u2019m going to be a veterinarian\u201d stage). Plus, the show led to one of my dad\u2019s greatest observations. Imagine how much improved \u201cGrizzly Adams\u201d would have been if they used a canned laugh track every time the bear \u201ctalked.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, in one week, two greats and a niche sentimental favorite are gone.<\/p>\n
Still, this sadness at the loss of celebrities is silly. Good lord, the times we\u2019re in now are serious. Our state is broke. We are having a weird, possibly dangerous, run-up to a national election. There are millions displaced by war and environmental catastrophe. Relative to these issues I realize, painfully realize, that I (and most of us) have nothing to be sad about.<\/p>\n
Yet, in my defense, you only truly know what you experience, and these three were each part of my childhood experience. So in a sense, these deaths are important because they\u2019re puzzle pieces filling in the larger picture. Little boy Clint was going to be a veterinarian. Little boy Clint knew better than to play one song over and over until its magic was gone. Perhaps teenage Clint was to be a filmmaker. I guess that\u2019s why the passing of these people hit home. It\u2019s not the death of the celebrity that\u2019s sad, but the loss of the person looking back at you from the mirror they held up during their pop culture reign.<\/p>\n
I am neither veterinarian nor filmmaker. I am still a huge Bowie fan. The deaths this week demand an assessment of redirected potential, choices made, paths taken, and a current life \u2013 a great and blessed life – never imagined by that chubby kid laughing at dad making fun of Bowie\u2019s \u201cFame\u201d while a grizzly bear growled on TV.<\/p>\n
Silly it may be, but rest in peace Bowie, Rickman, and Haggerty. You were important to me at least.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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