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<\/a><\/p>\n1. Roberto Clemente (December 31, 1972 \u2013 age 38)<\/h2>\n
Roberto Clemente was one of the greatest baseball players of the 1960s. He won four batting titles, an MVP, and 12 straight Gold Gloves. His best years were behind him by the time I started seriously following baseball, but he still hit .312 in his final season. He\u2019s often considered to have had the best outfield arm in the history of baseball.<\/p>\n
Clemente was known for charity work in Latin America. When an earthquake hit Nicaragua in December 1972, he arranged to fly supplies there from his home in Puerto Rico. He was on one of the flights \u2013 it crashed into the ocean immediately after takeoff. His body was never recovered.<\/p>\n
When I started thinking about this list, Roberto Clemente\u2019s name was the first that came to mind. 48 years later, I remember the shock on reading that someone I admired was suddenly dead. And I also remember thinking how unfair it was that Pittsburgh was going to have to find a new right fielder. This may have been the first time I realized that death doesn\u2019t just create an emotional loss, it can create a tangible loss as well.<\/p>\n
After his death, Major League Baseball established the Roberto Clemente Award, given each year to the player who \u201cbest exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual\u2019s contribution to his team.\u201d<\/p>\n
2. Elvis Presley (August 16, 1977 \u2013 age 42)<\/h2>\n
I was never an Elvis fan. Some of his songs were \u2013 and still are \u2013 catchy, but for me he was always the previous generation\u2019s music. He\u2019s on this list for two reasons.<\/p>\n
The first is that I remember exactly where I was when I heard about his death. My parents had taken me and my younger brother to Atlanta to spend the day at Six Flags \u2013 that was a big deal. And we even stayed in a hotel instead of driving two hours home the same night. We checked into the hotel, someone turned on the TV, and there was the news that Elvis had died. That memory has stayed with me over the years, even though my reaction was something along the lines of \u201cthat\u2019s too bad \u2013 now what are we going to do for dinner?\u201d<\/p>\n
But mainly, this was the first time I saw (or at least, noticed) a massive public demonstration of grief. Shrines and memorials were everywhere, and Graceland was packed. Here\u2019s a story Variety<\/em> did in 2017<\/a> on the 40th<\/sup> anniversary \u2013 it tells it better than I can.<\/p>\n And it was also a public demonstration of denial \u2013 some people refused to believe he was dead. \u201cElvis sightings\u201d continued for over 20 years.<\/p>\n Elvis\u2019 death taught me that whatever I may think of celebrities, they\u2019re extremely important to some people.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a 20 year gap between Elvis and Princess Diana. That\u2019s also the gap between my early teens and my mid-30s, a time when I was intensely focused on my own life. When I searched for celebrities who died in that period, I found lots of names I recognized but none that had an impact on me.<\/p>\n The engagement of Charles and Diana struck me as a perfect example of the anachronism of the monarchy. He was 33 \u2013 she was 19. For the \u201chonor\u201d of marrying the future King of England, she was expected to give up her life to \u201cproduce an heir and a spare.\u201d I was six months younger than Diana and a freshman in college \u2013 I couldn\u2019t imagine making that kind of choice. I wondered how freely her choice was made.<\/p>\n After their divorce in 1996, Diana finally seemed to be living for herself. She retained a royal title and significant royal funds \u2013 she used some of them to support charity work and some to enjoy life. Barely a year later, she died in a car crash while trying to escape the paparazzi.<\/p>\n Even though I don\u2019t fear death, I don\u2019t want to die having never really lived. I put things off in my 20s and early 30s to build a better life for my future. While I have benefitted from that strategy, Diana\u2019s death was a stark reminder that \u201cthe future\u201d is never guaranteed. Do what you want to do while you can do it, because you may not be able to in later years.<\/p>\n I was introduced to Leonard Cohen\u2019s music in the early 1990s. I liked the lyrics and I liked his voice, but I didn\u2019t explore it beyond one album. But when \u201cHallelujah\u201d in the 2009 Watchmen<\/em> movie moved me to tears, I went looking for more. I bought his Live in London<\/em> album and played it non-stop for about six months. I never go too long without listening to something on it.<\/p>\n Cohen had a long career and made a lot of money. Most of it disappeared due to mismanagement (and likely, fraud) on the part of his business manager. So he went back out on tour in 2008 at the age of 74. He would produce three more albums before his death, and a fourth was released posthumously.<\/p>\n Cohen was religiously curious and practiced Zen Buddhism<\/a>. But he was always and unapologetically Jewish, something that comes through clearly in the 2016 song \u201cYou Want It Darker<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n He knew he didn\u2019t have a lot of time left. His strong and smooth singing voice (\u201cI was born with the gift of a golden voice\u201d \u2013 from \u201cTower of Song\u201d in 1988) had been reduced to not much more than spoken word. But he finished the album \u2013 it was released less than three weeks before his death.<\/p>\n Days before he died, Leonard Cohen sang \u201cI\u2019m ready, my Lord.\u201d I hope that when my time comes, I will have finished my work and I can express the same sentiment in my own way.<\/p>\n3. Princess Diana (August 31, 1997 \u2013 age 36)<\/h2>\n
<\/a>4. Leonard Cohen (November 7, 2016 \u2013 age 82)<\/h2>\n