Saturday Six – Most Devastating Upcoming Celebrity Deaths

Welcome to the Saturday Six, where each week I let you get to know me a bit better with the help of a list. Any idiot can do a Top 5 list, which is why I kicked it up a notch to a Top 6. This week’s topic: Upcoming Celebrity Deaths that will destroy me the most.

Death is unavoidable. But this past week a totally unexpected tragedy occurred with the untimely passing of Robin Williams. I don’t think there was a person alive who had anything but good things to say about him. Robin Williams was just the latest, but will not be the last. This last year also saw the departure of some other heavy hitters. Jim “Ultimate Warrior” Helwig giving what was ultimately his own eulogy on Monday Night Raw was extremely emotional. We will never get an true Ghostbusters 3 without Harold Ramis.

Being 33, I’m of the age that many of the people I looked up to as a child will soon be shuffling off the mortal coil. It’s inevitable. While, as Dr. McCoy says we all have to “turn death into a fighting chance for life”, that still won’t stop me from being devastated when we finally lose those celebrities below.

1. Stan Lee – He’s 91 years old, so this is probably the one most like likely to occur soon. Sure, he hasn’t been involved in the day to day at Marvel since the 80’s and has been pretty much costing off his name and general affability for a many years, covering the fact that he barely remembers half of his greatness, but the fact remains that he is a legend in the field. The day we finally lose him, comicdom will indeed by losing a true great one. And that will mean no more of his movie cameos, which will make me very sad indeed.

 

2. Bill Murray – How awesome is Bill Murray, seriously? He’s in all the greatest movies of the 80’s, and now all he does is show up randomly and party with people. He’s all around a great person, who I never want to leave us.

 

3. George Takei – I wasn’t a Trekkie yet when Roddenberry passed, so I didn’t feel that sting. I’m definitely gonna feel it when Shatner and Nimoy go, as they are the last two left from the original series who got top billing, but Takei gets the nod for this because of all the good work he’s done in the last few years. He’s become an icon not just in the geek world, but the gay community, the online world, and pretty much everywhere.

 

4. Frank Oz – After Jim Henson’s death, Frank is one of the last original Muppeteers left. He hasn’t really preformed in almost a decade, but that doesn’t matter. He’s the voice of Yoda, and while I’m a Trekkie now, I was big into Star Wars as a kid. He was also the voice of Grover, Bert, Cookie Monster, Animal, Fozzie, and Miss Piggy. If losing all that doesn’t move you, you are a heartless monster, and not the good kind like Cookie.

 

5. Mike Schmidt – I was never really into sports as a kid, mostly because being from Philadelphia our teams always suck. For a while in the late 80’s though, the Phillies were pretty decent, and I came to love Mike Schmidt. I had like over 100 different Mike Schmidt cards, including some rare Canadian ones. Whenever I think of the history of the Phillies, I always think of Mike Schmidt.

 

6. Ric Flair – It’s hard to pick just one great wrestler from my childhood, since most of them are already dead. John Cena currently has 15 World Title reigns, and that number will more than likely grow by a few more before he retires to supplant Ric Flair’s 16 times as World Champion to become the most decorated champ ever. When the possibility of Flair never regaining that distinction becomes finite, the world will have lost a true champion and wrestling icon.

 

JohnScott is the proud owner of a life size replica Captain Kirk Chair. He is a hoarder of Comic Books, Transformers, and Star Trek action figures. He attended Space Camp as an adult. He has taken vacations to the closing of the Star Trek Experience and the final night Shuttle launch. He has been known to yell at his television when the kids can't put together the damn statue in the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. When not writing for InsufficientScotty, he is a Software Engineer for a major healthcare communications company. You can Email or follow on Twitter @NotEnoughScotty or Facebook