Happy last-Dirt-Bag-of-the-year!!! Let’s talk about death. There’s no rhyme or reason—or significance, really—to grouping people together based on the year in which they died. It’s pretty arbitrary, if you think about it. Tony Scott‘s suicide doesn’t have anything to do with Michael Clarke Duncan‘s heart disease. But we do it anyway—for instance, I will forever associate Michael Jackson‘s death with the hardcore stealing of Farrah Fawcett‘s thunder. And anyway, in these melancholy final hours of 2012, it’s sobering and weirdly fortifying to take a look at the way our culture grows and dies. Also it’s totally fun to think about all of these people having a kegger in heaven.
Here’s just a sampling:
January – Etta James Dies at 73
February – Whitney Houston Dead at 48
February – Monkees Singer Davy Jones Dead at 66
April – Painter Thomas Kinkade Dead At 54
April – 60 Minutes Reporter Mike Wallace Dead At 93
April – Dick Clark Dies at 82
May – Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch Dies at 47
May – Donna Summer Dies at 63
May – Robin Gibb Dies at 62
June – Author Ray Bradbury Dies at 91
June – Nora Ephron Dead at 71
July – Television Icon Andy Griffith Dead at 86
July – Oscar Winning Actor Ernest Borgnine Dead at 95
July – The Jeffersons‘ Sherman Hemsley Dead at 74
August – Oscar-Winning Composer Marvin Hamlisch Dead at 68
August – Director Tony Scott Dead at 68
August – Legendary Comedian Phyllis Diller Dead at 95
August – Neil Armstrong: First Man On The Moon Dead
September – Michael Clarke Duncan Dead at 54
November – Dallas Actor Larry Hagman Dead at 81
December – Jenni Rivera Confirmed Dead After Plane Crash
December – Norah Jones‘ Father, Sitarist Ravi Shankar, Dead at 92
December – The Odd Couple Actor Jack Klugman Dead at 90
December – Charles Durning Dead At 89
There are plenty more. Anyone you were particularly devastated to lose in 2012? Emote/commiserate in the comments. <3 [JustJared]