Celebrity Death: A History
- Elexus Jionde
- Jan 20
- 25 min read
Transcribed is an Intelexual Media series that transcribes past Intelexual Media videos with poor audio. Check out the full series here. This post was originally a video essay written in 2020.
For my birthday this year, two of my dearest friends visited me from out of town. I had a great time drinking, turning up at the strip club, and celebrating my life. The party began the day before my actual birthday, so on the morning I actually turned 26, we went out for breakfast. The restaurant was full of life and conversation.
Sometime shortly after my platter of French toast was delivered, the news broke that Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and six other passengers, and the pilot, had just died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. The restaurant’s tone changed instantly. It seemed like everyone in the diner was overcome with emotion. Food went cold as people scrolled their social media feeds, made calls, sent texts, and asked each other “Can you believe it?” I’m not a Kobe or basketball fan, but the event saddened me all the same. The recent high-profile death of Glee actress Naya Rivera made me revisit the sense of loss and grief I felt back in January for someone I’ve never known and not a fan of. What is there to be said about death and celebrity culture? People flooded social media timelines with tributes to Kobe, admitted to breaking down in tears, and flocked to the Staples arena to pay homage. These reactions of grief, among others we’ll talk about, are nothing new.
This history of celebrity death begins in 1926, when a silent movie star by the name of Rudolph Valentino, known for his 'exotic' looks and smoldering screen presence, died two weeks after his most favorable reviews yet at the height of his fame. He suffered from a little-known disease that became known as “Valentino’s Syndrome.” Two women attempted suicide outside of his hospital before he was announced dead. In response to his untimely death, a woman in London drank poison while holding his picture and a woman was found dead on a bed covered with his photos. 100,00 people, many of whom who had never heard Rudolph’s voice, let alone met the man, gathered outside of the NYC funeral home his body was kept in, and police had to be called in after a riot ensued. For years after Rudolph Valentino’s death, people speculated over his alleged lovers, a cursed ring, supposed homosexual affairs, and most notably, a woman dressed in black would appear at his crypt every year and deposit a single red rose.
Clearly, the grief that happens in response to celebrity deaths are old hat… but why? In a world where millions of less fortunate people die, many of them in traumatic and unforeseen events like Kobe Bryant in January, Naya Rivera in July, or at the hand of little-understood illnesses like Rudolph Valentino’s, why does celebrity death captivate people— and why does it matter? In this episode of celebritea, I’ll be discussing why so many people mourn celebrities, the positive and negative effects of celebrity death on society, and how celebrity deaths, like everything else in the celebrity production machine, are profitable.
High Profile Celeb Deaths
Not only is death inevitable, but it is the great equalizer. That’s nothing to cry or get angry about, it’s just facts. Death comes for us no matter the state of our lives- happy or sad, wealthy or poor, healthy or not healthy, good person or bad, and in the case of this episode of Celebritea, whether you are an average person or a famous superstar. As discussed in A Short History of Celebrity and the Anatomy of Stan Culture, much of a celebrity’s success is predicated on being special and still in some way relatable. When a celebrity is rich, fabulous, carefree, and/or talented, and you aren’t, they bank on you still relating to them in some way.
This is why people gobble up celebrity diets, celebrity memoirs and interviews, celebrity endorsement products, celebrity lifestyle choices— such things provide an illusion of intimacy with a famous, sparkling celebrity. So when larger-than-life celebrities do the most mortal and inevitable thing—die— for some fans the experience can be gut-wrenching. But also, according to some observers, when celebs die and their humanity is affirmed via it’s mortality, this is when a fan feels closest to their fave. But even people who aren’t necessarily a fan of a celebrity still react or find themselves grieving. Some publicly grieve because its good for social media points and retweets, but other times grief is based on a few other factors we’ll get into.
Stars! They’re just like us! They eat, they go through breakups, they gain weight, they die!
On a more selfish level, when a young celebrity dies suddenly, it can remind us of our own untapped potential and unfinished bucket lists, causing us to ponder and speculate about what will be our final moments. In the days and weeks after rapper Pop Smoke was gunned down earlier this year before he even released a debut album, people lamented over the temporary reality of life, and mourned Pop Smoke’s inability to see his own eventual posthumous success. In mourning Pop Smoke, Lisa Left Eye Lopes, Aaliyah, Selena, and others taken too soon, we can grapple with own fears about jealous enemies doing us in, random car or helicopter accidents taking our lives, or some other situation beyond our control.
When a celebrity who is more disliked in the mainstream than they are actually popular, like XXXTentacion, some of us take part in public discourse about the death instead of grieving by alluding to western notions of karma, i.e., he threatened to stick a grill fork up the girlfriend he regularly abused so he deserved it. But these projections of our fears and moral compasses are just one aspect. Many people feel bad when a celebrity dies, regardless of their behavior in life, because of a natural inclination to empathize with the celebrity and even moreso, their family. For example, the widows and children of well-loved celebs like Kobe Bryant and Nipsey Hussle are often shown extensive care and affection, with people voicing their desires to hug them, take care of them, or flood them with comforting messages.
First, lets talk about five of the most culturally potent celebrity deaths that occurred after the precedent set by the death of Rudolph Valentino.
Two days after Marilyn Monroe’s body was found surrounded by prescription pill bottles, Hollywood writer Bob Thomas’s obituary was headlined as “Marilyn Monroe Finds End of Rope: A Natural Tragedy.” He wrote, “It looked inevitable in retrospect that her 36-year life would end so tragically,” echoing popular belief that Marilyn, then one of the most recognizable movie stars in the world, had killed herself and it wasn’t surprising. Though there was certainly sympathy, which I found best fictionalized in season 2 episode 9 of Mad Men, when the office femme fatale Joan Colloway, entangled in an affair with her married boss, mourns Marilyn along with her female co-workers.
Writers and commentators delved into Marilyn’s traumatic childhood and tumultuous time in the industry, seeking to further legitimize her death as a suicide. In her last interview, given days before her death, Marilyn was quoted as saying celebrity was “only a temporary and partial happiness”, and that as for her career, “it might be kind of a relief to be finished.” The interviewer, Life Journalist Richard Merryman, claimed later, “I didn’t like the atmosphere in that house. There was something creepy, something sick about it.”. More recently, people have pointed the blame at iatrogenic addiction, shedding some doubt on whether Marilyn intentionally committed suicide.
Many of America’s mid-20th-century drug addicts, including Marilyn, were hooked on barbiturates prescribed to them by doctors. Hollywood stars were primed for drug addiction, as they were given these “miracle drugs” for anxiety and depression, and given amphetamines for weight loss and energy. The medical community knew that prescription drugs were addictive even in the 50s, but people like Marilyn were still overprescribed. A drug-related suicide seemed to be the accepted theory for most of the 60s, but conspiracy theories would begin. Just like her larger-than-life career, Marilyn’s death sparked rumors. People insisted, as they would for years to come, that her death was a murder, in a conspiracy involving JFK and Bobby Kennedy, and in other theories involved Jimmy Hoffa and the mob.
In a handwritten essay by Marilyn’s ex-husband Arthur Miller, he placed the blame elsewhere. “Instead of jetting [from New York] to the funeral to get my picture taken I decided to stay home and let the public mourners finish the mockery. Not that everyone there will be false, but enough. Most of them there destroyed her, ladies and gentlemen.” Though the funeral was actually quite small and excluded many people from Hollywood, his implication is understood. Hundreds of people gathered around the building of the funeral service. The mourners Miller claimed to have destroyed Marilyn were the Hollywood people, fans, paparazzi, and journalists who hounded her for the duration of her career. Even in death she was still hounded, with newspapers and magazines dedicating extensive coverage, along with new rumors and speculation, in the months and years to come. Marilyn’s career, along with her mysterious death, insured her longevity. She is the eighth highest paid dead celebrity in the world, with her estate earning 14 million a year.
News of Elvis Pressley’s death, caused by drug overdose yet never confirmed to be an intentional suicide, spreads across the world like wildfire. The reporter for Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper recalled his managing editor saying, “You will never cover a bigger story in your life. You might cover something more important, but you will never cover a bigger story.” That reporter, Larry Buser, would say 30 years later that “he’s always been right.” When The King fell, thousands of fans traveled to Memphis and caused traffic jams and roadblocks, and the national guard had to be called in. Over 30,000 people passed Elvis’s casket and paid their respect in Graceland, including JFK’s daughter Caroline Kennedy. One attendee recalled “People passing out, people having to be put on stretchers, ambulances and EMT workers trying to get up the street through the crowd to where people had passed out and carrying em out.”
After the funeral, there was an overnight vigil of 2,000 outside of Graceland. Even when a drunk driver plowed into the crowd and killed two teenage girls and injured a third, the mourners stayed. One woman was quoted as saying she quit her job in New Jersey to drive down to Memphis and join the vigil. Elvis had been a national star for 21 years at the time of his death, even if the final years of his life were marred by controversy, bad performances, weight criticism, and drug use. His celebrity was so potent that President Jimmy Carter noted the singer’s death the day after he died— and people weren’t satisfied. Callers tangled up the white house phone lines, demanding Carter to mandate a national day of mourning.
Some people, refusing to accept Elvis’s death despite the thousands who viewed his corpse, insisted that “The King” was not dead, and Elvis sightings have existed ever since, and is a recurring trope in pop culture. Others passed along the humbling legend that “The King” died while on a toilet. In the years that followed his death, six of Elvis’s posthumous songs became top-ten country hits, and an entire memorabilia and merchandise empire has sprung forth. Elvis is the second-highest-paid dead celebrity in the world, with his estate earning $40 million. The city of Memphis itself also enjoys the tourism dollars from Graceland, and even hosts an annual Elvis week in August that celebrates Elvis’s life and music reunions, concerts, and a 5K run.
A few years after Elvis in 1980, John Lennon, world-famous as a former member of The Beatles and a symbol of the anti-war movement and counterculture, was shot and killed by a disillusioned fan named Mark David Chapman. Lennon’s wife Yoko Ono requested the hospital not report his death to the media until she informed the couple’s son. A news producer for a local ABC affiliate happened to be getting treated for a motorcycle accident when he saw Lennon wheeled in, and it didn’t take long before the president of ABC news was encouraging the hosts of Monday Night Football to break the news while the Patriots and Dolphins duked it out in the 4th quarter.
More than his fame, the key things that sensationalized Lennon’s death were that he was murdered by a former fan, and that his lifestyle was not the wild and dangerous life usually associated with rockers. As singer Steven Van Zandt noted in 1980, “He beat the rock-‘n’-roll life. Beat the drugs, beat the fame, beat the damage. He was the only guy who beat it all.” To Lennon’s peers and fans, it was this, along with his reputation for endorsing peace, that made his death seem all the more cruel. The things he represented didn’t jibe with his death. Much focus was turned to Mark David Chapman’s motive, and even his obsession with The Catcher in The Rye (which he began reading after he murdered Lennon and waited for the cops to arrive). Lennon’s records sold out, and radio stations played him and the Beatles nonstop for at least a week. Thousands of fans flocked to the area around Lennon’s apartment to leave flowers, offerings, and signs. Candlelight vigils occurred in cities including Los Angeles, DC, and London. Musicians, including former Beatles members, stumbled over themselves to release statements and show the public that they were grieving. At least two suicides, one by a teen girl in Florida and a 30-year-old man in Utah, were directly attributed to Lennon’s untimely passing.
In 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, worldwide famous with a following even in America due to her iconic fashion strolls, charm, philanthropy, and especially her openness about her problems within the royal family and the infidelity she faced from Prince Charles, was killed along with her lover in a car crash in Paris. At the time of her death, she was considered to be the most photographed woman in the world, and she was unsurprisingly being chased by a horde of paparazzi before the crash. Diana’s entered the spotlight in 1981 because of her very public marriage to Prince Charles, but her fame skyrocketed during their very publicly detailed marriage troubles, separation, and eventual divorce. The public came to see her as a “down-to-earth” member of the upper class, fawning over her fashionable clothes and lifestyle.
But many also adored her philanthropy, exhibited by landmine activism, how she helped destigmatize HIV/AIDS, and her numerous visits with the poor and diseased, offering aid where she could. She also held a dress auction for charity in 1997. She was also fascinating to people because of her very public dating life with the wealthy Egyptian film producer Dodi Fayed. So of course her death was front-page news across the world, and in the new age of 24-hour news programming, the coverage was literally nonstop. This media coverage no doubt magnified feelings of grief. The worldwide outpouring of grief was unprecedented for any celebrity, let alone a British royal. (Diana Mourners Selection) Within an hour of her death being announced on the radio, thousands arrived to Buckingham Palace with flowers. People left more than a million bouquets of flowers, along with teddy bears and other gifts, outside of Kensington Palace, Diana’s home.
There were several other makeshift memorials across the world which were later replaced by permanent ones. The memorial at Kensington however, was the largest and stayed in place for weeks. Three tourists were even given minor jail time for attempting to swipe memorial mementos. The jail sentences were reduced to fines, but one of the tourists, an Italian man, was punched in the face when he left court. People even visited her family home, and police had to ask crowds to leave and stop bringing flowers because they were causing a traffic hazard. The public was even invited to sign books of condolences at St James Palace, and the line to do so was over 6-7 hours long. Diana’s death even impacted the economy momentarily, with her death being attributed to a 1% drop in retail sales.
According to Sharon Marcus, “Sociologists studying responses to Princess Diana’s death learned that many people turn to celebrity biography to glean solutions to common personal problems, such as eating disorders and unfaithful partners.” The number of people who have been cheated on or suffered from an eating disorder could only have added to the reason the Princess of Wales had so many mourners. Grief for Diana increased hatred for the paparazzi. California passed a law in 1998 prohibiting paparazzi on private property as a result of Princess Diana’s death. Two of the British tabloids that harassed Diana the most in life, the Sun and the Mirror, saw falling sales for a while. Eight days after her death, the Daily Mail pledged to do away with paparazzi pics… and if you look on their website today, you’ll see how seriously they took that commitment.
The once-controversial yet popular princess went from being hounded by the press to nearly universally being portrayed positively by it. Her tragic death served as a vehicle for people to criticize the British monarchy and the royal family, whom Princess Di herself had spoken about negatively throughout her time in the spotlight. In the days leading up to the funeral, people criticized the Queen for not appearing to be aggrieved, and also showed frustration with Prince Charles. The Queen’s demeanor has long fueled conspiracy theories that she had Diana killed for daring to speak on the royal family’s private affairs. Meanwhile, Diana’s children Prince William and Harry would become almost militantly protected from paparazzi and criticism, demonstrating how often the public has a desire to channel the loss of a celeb into concern for their family.
The day before Diana’s funeral, her sons made an unscheduled visit to the memorial at Kensington Palace, where crying strangers grabbed at them and shouted words that were supposed to be comforting. It was reported later that William and Harry were bewildered by the crowds, “wondering why so many people who never knew her could be so upset.” One writer said it was Princess Di’s role as a mother that garnered so much empathy, writing, “You didn’t have to be a monarchist or Hello!-addict or a media-driven hysteric to be moved by the wreath of roses spelling out “Mummy” across her coffin, followed by her two young boys on foot.”
On the day of the funeral on September 6th, over a million people lined the three and a half mile route watching Diana’s body being brought to Westminster Abbey. An estimated 2.5 billion people across the globe watched the service, which was attended in person by celebs and world figures including Hilary Clinton, Tom Cruise, and Nicole Kidman. Stuffy upperclass commentators questioned why Elton John sung Candle in The Wind, soon to be a worldwide hit and the most popular single of all time, during the service. Diana’s younger brother, Charles Spencer, criticized the press, and to a lesser degree, the Royal family, for their treatment of Diana, drawing huge bursts of applause and cheers from those watching the service outside. One of the most tragic outcomes of Dianas’s death was the increase of suicides among women aged 25-44 in the months that followed. The suicide rate in England and Wales rose by 17%, and rates of deliberate self-harm rose by 44.3%.
The last high-profile celebrity death of note is Michael Jackson. He died in the internet age, right at the dawn of Twitter’s popularity. His death is noteworthy because despite being a black man, his status of the greatest entertainer of all time meant that he was known internationally, like the four white celebrities I’ve mentioned, regardless the persistence of racism. Michael Jackson was a feature of tons of people’s childhoods— whether they watched him dance and sing along with his brothers in the 1970s or go solo, break records, and change the direction of music videos in the 1980s. Though his legacy was forever tainted by sexual abuse allegations in the 90s and early 2000’s, he still had hits, I, myself, a child of the 90s, particularly remember him for You Rock My World and Butterflies. For members of the public not interested in his music, media gossip about his erratic behavior, plastic surgery, and financial woes kept him relevant in the mainstream throughout the 2000s.
So when he died in June 2009, TV and radio stations began nonstop music video and song marathons, TV specials were cobbled together hastily, and over 5,000 tweets a minute about Michael occurred after the news broke, which is impressive when you consider that Twitter’s audience was only 58 million, compared to today’s 330 million users. His albums and songs shot to the top of the charts and sold out in stores and online. Fans across the world gathered outside of various locations associated with Michael, and in Japan where Michael was highly revered, a top government spokesperson publicly expressed grief, along with other Japanese politicians. Much of the chatter from media outlets surrounded Michael’s cause of death, and because drugs were involved, the commentary wasn’t always kind. The allegations of sexual abuse, like what followed Kobe’s death in 2020, quickly found their way to the top of the news pile, along with feature stories on his children and speculation on a battle over his estate. Every media outlet wanted to cash in on his death by providing information and speculation. In America, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune, “More than 20 million people appeared to watch television in the United States specifically to find out about Jackson’s death in the hours after the story broke last Thursday, according to Nielsen Media Research.”
In Hollywood, celebs like Chris Tucker, Elizabeth Taylor, and others who had worked with him throughout his long career publicly affirmed their love and support for him. The Global Language Monitor found that within 72 hours of his death, Michael was the ninth discussed topic in global media, and number two on the internet and social media, only being beaten out by Obama’s election. Speaking of Obama, he did not issue a public statement mourning Michael’s death, with one white house correspondent noting, "He was a world-renowned superstar, but there are parts of his life that hardly merit words of tribute from an American President.” This was probably a calculated move by the Obama administration, as an official statement might have been seen by those who believe the child abuse rumors to be true, as a pardon or dismissal of the alleged behavior. That is a vast change from the 70s, when Jimmy Carter spoke on Elvis Pressley, the same man who met his future wife Priscilla, when she was 14 year old and he was 24. Some speculated that the freshly elected black president didn’t show adequate grief for Michael’s passing. Obama was even asked about this on AP News. Meanwhile, Obama did issue statements for Ruby Dee in 2014 for Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek fame in 2015, and ordered flags outside of the white house flown at half-staff for Whitney Houston.
The sheer amount of Michael Jackson coverage disgruntled some, with a Pew Research Center survey estimating that 2 out of 3 Americans believed the news coverage to be excessive. A memorial service at the Staples Center was organized by Michael’s concert promoter, who gave away 17,000 free tickets to the event through a lottery entered by millions. LA spent 1.4 million dollars placing police around the Staples Center to ward off crowds, the most expensive security strategy since the 1984 Olympics. The city even had to set up a webpage for donations to help cover the expenses. At least 31 million Americans watched the star-studded memorial service, impressive because many viewers were at work on that historic afternoon. For a while, it was the most-watched online streaming event in history. Despite people’s annoyances at the media coverage, the enduring popularity of Michael is evident by his status as the highest earning dead celebrity, with his estate raking in an estimated 400 million a year.
The Positive Effects of Celebrity Death
As is the recurring theme with the Celebritea series, even if you do not personally like a celebrity, or any celebrities at all, your world is still impacted in some way by them. And when it comes to the high-profile deaths we’ve discussed, that is even more true. Psychologist Deborah Carr has described three positive effects of celebrity deaths.
First, the death of popular or well-known figures leads to empathy for not only the dead celebrity, but people afflicted in similar ways. This can lead to real social, political, or even medical changes. For example, Rudolph Valentino’s rare stomach ulcer condition, attracted more study, leading to more accurate diagnoses. Or on a much more historic scale, take Rick Hudson, one of the most popular heartthrobs of the Hollywood Golden Age.
Rock was popular through the 60s and made a successful move into television in the 70s. He was known for his deep voice and manly demeanor, so it was quite a shock when he announced in July 1985 that he was dying of AIDS. Though it was known in Hollywood that Rock was gay, the public was not aware, making his condition all the more shocking. He had been diagnosed in 1984, just three weeks after he appeared at a White House State Dinner with Ronald Reagan, notable because Reagan was a homophobe whose deliberate mishandling of the HIV/AIDS crisis led to unnecessary death and exacerbated the stigma of gay people and those with HIV/AIDS. Rock Hudson’s death four months after his announcement changed the course of AIDS history and is also a key moment in LGBT history.
There were many feature stories on Rock’s sexuality, and the tone was mostly sympathetic. AIDS benefit galas, once barely attended, attracted more Hollywood big wigs. People magazine reported that shortly after the news dropped, “more than $1.8 million in private contributions (more than double the amount collected in 1984) has been raised to support AIDS research and to care for AIDS victims.” Congress also reacted in the days after Hudson’s death, setting aside $221 million to develop a cure for AIDS. Reagan, who had never made a public statement about HIV or committed federal funds to researching it despite the mounting deaths before Rock Hudson, would finally make his first major speech on the epidemic in 1987.
Another way we can look at public empathy, celebrities, and disease awareness is our constantly evolving attitude towards drug addiction and other mental health issues. Marilyn Monroe’s death garnered sympathy, but many people believed the circumstances of her tragic fate were inevitable due to her own moral failings, not because of mental health issues compounded by the problem of iatrogenic addiction. A few commentators connected Monroe’s demise to her ongoing depression and pondered how it could have been prevented, but not most. The 70s through 90s saw the drug overdose deaths of celebs like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, John Belushi, and River Phoenix.
When superstars like Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Prince, or celebs like Amy Winehouse and Anna Nicole Smith died of drug overdoses, a larger amount of Americans, especially those in the grips of an opioid crisis, recognized addictions strong pull even for those who appear to have all the trappings of happiness, like money, expensive clothes, cars, and fans, and therefore recognize the need for addiction to be destigmatized and prevented among us normies. If you look at how the media has discussed celeb overdoses and suicide in the years since Marilyn Monroe, you’ll notice that public empathy has grown alongside a desire to better understand addiction as a disease (not a moral failing) and suicide as preventable through mental health services.
Speaking of suicide, there's the 90s pop cultural icon and musician Kurt Cobain, who committed suicide in 1994. His ending, as well as the media coverage that followed, may have been his fans’ first introduction to language around suicide, and being a good friend to those in need of mental aid. The Clinton Whitehouse deliberated over making an official statement on Cobain, with those for it insisting that Clinton needed to publicly recognize Cobain’s importance to young people, and those against it saying that such a move might cause copycat suicides. This was a legitimate fear, as in the month after Marilyn Monroe was forever linked to suicide, the national suicide rate rose by 10%. However, a psychologist looked at data in Seattle from before and after Cobain’s death and found that there was a drop off in suicide attempts and completions, and “a marked and dramatic increase in calls to the crisis center.”
The year before Kurt’s demise, the medical community issued new guidelines for covering suicide in the media, supplying news outlets with suicide prevention resources to make available with relevant news reports. This had never been implemented before. So when Cobain’s death was reported, his fans had resources for their grief and tools to learn about what leads to suicide. High-profile celebrity suicides that followed, from Robin Williams to Anthony Bourdain to Lee Thompson Young, are discussed with nuance as people analyze their work, final appearances, and speech for the signs of what went wrong.
The second positive of celebrity deaths is that because celebrities are often intertwined with our memories and nostalgia, you know, the good old days when you watched Kobe ball out as a middle schooler or guest star on Moesha and then shouted his name the next day at school when you tried to throw a paper ball into a trash basket. These powerful feelings of nostalgia are even more linked to music, as scientists have proven. Neuroimaging has shown that music gives us hits of dopamine, and experts point out that hearing a song repeatedly during memorable moments or formative eras of our life boosts the nostalgia. So when singers and rappers die, and we go to listen to our favorite songs by them, reminded of good times or even trauma. According to Carr this can trigger us to reflect on our lives and assess what we’ve achieved, sacrificed, and lost. This, in the long run, can be inspirational.
Think about LA-based rapper and entrepreneur Nipsey Hussle, who was murdered in broad daylight in March 2019. Not only did his premature death inspire thousands if not millions of people to give his music a listen, but it also inspired his already existing fans to embody his values of hustling, achieving goals, and going harder. After his passing, my timeline was filled with declarations of “doing it for Nipsey” and promising that “The Marathon Continues”, an ode to his mixtapes and lyrics. Don’t believe me? Have you ever wondered about those checkered flags you see in social media bios or attached to usernames? Those are people memorializing Nipsey, and likely using him as a motivation to achieve their own dreams.
The last positive of celebrity death is that collective mourning makes people feel connected to their community or generation, deepening relationships and making us feel apart of something larger than ourselves. After the sustained beef and violence between West Coast rappers and East Coast rappers that culminated in the still unsolved murders of Tupac and Biggie, those in the black community who grew up or came of age while watching the events unfold, feel a connection to the other people who experienced it too. When black Americans watched two of the biggest rappers of the 90s be sent off in style and love by their families and other black celebrities, it gave them a bit of comfort to know they were not experiencing the trauma alone. This is no different than the mourners of Princess Diana, who can look at modern-day feature stories and say smugly, “I remember when that happened!” Similarly, fans of Glee, many of whom were young and watched the series show love to outcasts like queers and fat people, often a reflection of themselves, belonged to a community who were brought together by the deaths of Naya Rivera and Cory Monteith.
The Negative Effects of Celebrity Death
So of course, celebrity death is not all sweet like roses. Speaking of roses, remember how I said a woman would appear at Rudolph Valentino’s gravesite in a black outfit with a single rose? That was apparently a PR stunt put on by a press agent for Valentino’s estate. This leads me to the first negative of celebrity death, which is the fact that it is a cog in the production of celebrity that is driven by stan worship. In plain english, that means the shit is highly profitable. It’s quite a reliable revenue, actually. Celebrating celebrity achievements after they die means TV specials with highly sought-after ad space, special magazine issues, reissuing new versions of old content or merchandise for an often increased profit, and licensing the celebrity’s image for continued use and therefore continued admiration. Rudolph Valentino’s estate reissued films and published books that sold well thanks to the lady in black stunt that kept his name in papers.
For many dead celebs from Marilyn to Elvis to Michael Jackson, there is money to be made from editorials and books on alleged conspiracies. The press from such writings keeps the dead celebrity relevant and interesting. Kobe Bryant, who in life made billions for his team, the NBA, and companies he endorsed products or services for, will no doubt be memorialized and discussed yearly at least until someone ever surpasses his records or achieves his level of fame. Not just because nostalgic fans will want such things or because he is basketball history, but because his image and talent is still profitable even in death. So while death is the great equalizer that we all have to experience, those with the proper status, wealth, and press necessary get to live a little bit longer in the public heart.
Money is also made by breaking the news of the celebrity's death first. Many newspapers and blogs keep updated obituaries prepared so they can be the first to break news, or at least get a major chunk of ad revenue when people go searching for everything they can about the story. TMZ has come under fire for breaking news about Michael Jackson, Kobe Bryant, and others, before the victims families are notified. They literally are trafficking grief and tragedy for money.
The second negative of celebrity death is the rush to canonize the deceased or write hagiographies about their supposed perfection and lack of flaws. Suddenly, these once heavily flawed people become saints. Some people seem to believe that celebs are purified of their bad behavior or problematic tendencies in death, and simply cannot handle how the public tries to make sense of a celebrity’s legacy. When people pointed out Nipsey Hussle’s homophobia— he lumped gay men into the same derogatory category of those who are hyperviolent and deadbeats, implying that black gay representation is in line with a plot to manipulate the presentation of black men— and added this to his otherwise mostly positive legacy, many fans were angry and considered such discussions to be akin to slander.
“Why are you criticizing a dead man?”
“Yall talk all this shit when a man dies and can’t defend himself”… etc
But discussing the lasting effect of a celebrity’s legacy isn’t slander, and discussing a celeb’s failings honestly can set the tone for what’s future members of society who want to be remembered well when they die. Of course, nobody is perfect, but what we choose to ignore or focus on demonstrates what we deem acceptable and unacceptable. Some celebrities are so big and fundamental to American culture and politics that whether or not you liked them, they still had an effect on your life, or at least caused you to stop and think about their death, if even for just a moment. Their legacies must be discussed honestly.
When Hugh Hefner, iconic and historic magazine publisher and notorious symbol of sexual hedonism, died, those who wanted to dwell on all of his positive activities were at odds with those who brought up the rape culture and controversy that followed him throughout his life. You know, Bill Cosby, the quaaludes, the recurring sexual harassment and assault at his clubs and in his vicinity. Though people laid out the indisputable takes on Hefner’s life— he changed American sexuality forever, he made many women feel ok about being sexy and nude, he launched a popular magazine, etc— many did not seek to complicate his legacy with the negativity. But if just a handful of people checked out the critique of his legacy and decided to no longer see him simply as a hero, the critics did their job and provided a valuable public service. Humans are complex, even the famous ones who die publicly.
The third negative of celebrity death is the conspiracy theories and urban legends that float around, because for some reason, people believe celebs are immune to death’s randomness. A popular legend is that of the 27 Club, in which scores of people wishing to rationalize things blame a curse on the deaths of stars like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse. The death of Nipsey Hussle, brought on by a jealous associate, spurred conspiracy theories because the rapper was allegedly working on a documentary about a fraudulent holistic healer named Dr. Sebi. Conspiracy theorists also said Tupac and Elvis weren’t really dead. Then there are the usual whisperings that celebrity deaths are “feeding the beast”, a version of the Illuminati conspiracy, and actually aren’t random but deliberate. In 2016, when it seemed like tons of high-profile celebrities died, people wondered what “the beast” was gearing up for. All of these conspiracies are a reflection of people's own fear of death’s randomness, paired with their worship of celebrities as more special than regular non-famous folk.
The fourth negative is how people are expected to respond to celebrity death. Some people are nagged into grieving for celebrities, told to “read the room” if they’re still publicly happy or comedic when a big enough celebrity dies. Others are on the offensive, rolling out grief-filled posts to demonstrate that they’re mounting correctly, or a part of the cultural moment, like so many before them. Others are made fun of for mourning celebrities who lack status or who represent ultimate taboos— think of the jokes cracked about people who grieve D-List reality tv cast members or porn stars. It’s funny because nobody would call you a simp or follower for extending condolences to non-famous people who die. Another negative is of course the people who tragically end their own lives or attempt to self-harm when faced with a celebrity death.
The last negative? The death of celebrities overshadows other world events and tragedies. Though nobody can ever know about the death of every person, or about every mass tragedy that occurs, its obvious that most people do not show the same amount of support and care to the familial survivors of non-famous people. Every day, stories of ordinary dead people go unshared, and they won’t have yearly memorials in their honor, or affirmations by the public that they existed. Extensive media coverage of celeb deaths takes away available fucks to give to regular people. Not just individual deaths, but real, sustained tragedies like the famine crisis in Yemen, or events that deserve more attention, like the introduction of new legislation.
Conclusion
More ways to become a celebrity means more celebs dying. Remember that the next time you pass along the old joke that “celebrities die in threes”. We all die, often times randomly— and this includes the celebrities. As I’ve demonstrated in past episodes of Celebritea, our modern world is increasingly shaped by celebrities and the markets erected to exploit their fans, whether we like it or not. As stan culture grows more feverish in the social media age, it’ll be interesting to see how celebrity death continues to function not just in gossip conversations but as a shaper of society, culture, and politics.
Sources
Celebrity: A History of Fame (Susan J. Douglass and Andrea McDonnell)
3 Reasons Why We Mourn Celebrity Deaths (Deborah Carr)
Celebrity Deaths (Daniel Harris)
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