Only the good die young

By Corey Sparks

February 27, 2008 | I was walking through the store the other day and as I got to the checkout stand, I saw a magazine right there in the rack. Now normally I tend to just ignore everything I see on these tabloid magazines, but one caught my eye. It was a special report from People Magazine. It was a special magazine going through celebrity deaths over the years. I started to realize that we've lost a lot of great, famous people recently, and with the death of Heath Ledger, it has once again come back into the public's eye. I decided to break down the majority of deaths into two categories: musicians and comedians.

Musicians always seem to have a rough time staying alive. The incredible alure of drugs seems to be even more potent to those with incredible artistic talents along with increasing pressure and depression. Kurt Cobain killed himself with a shotgun to the head. Elvis Presley, after a long history of rampant drug use, died of a heart attack. Freddie Mercury from Queen, became infected with HIV and died from complications to it. John Lennon was gunned down by a fan on the streets. You kind of have to ask yourself if it's the amount of influence that these famous people had that brought about their early deaths. Most people looked up to these artists with respect and awe, but being in the publics eye can bring about a lot of crazy people. And these are the ones you want to avoid.

Comedians to me are one of the biggest surprises to see on a celebrity deaths list. They always surprise me, because they bring so much laughter and happiness to the general public that it always saddens me to hear of their early and untimely deaths. John Belushi was always known for his crazy and sometimes controversial antics in movies and on television. He was known as a chronic drug user and that's what killed him at the height of his career. Chris Farley was always known for his hilarious stunts on Saturday Night Live and for a collection of movies during the 1990s. His death came from a drug overdose and was brought about also by his addiction to alcohol and his obesity. Phil Hartman was another famous comedian from Saturday Night Live that seemed to have everything going for him. But his wife killed him and then herself one night. Neighbors later said the couple had been having "marital problems" that brought about the murder.

These people that I've listed are some of the most artistic and influential people that our generations have known. And unfortunately they've all been taken from us before their time should have been up. Certain sites on the Web, like Celebrity Death Toll keep a day by day update of who has died, when they died, and usually what was the cause of it too. They also have a large community that leaves comments on each death. Like recently when Gordon B. Hinckley and Christodoulos both died on the same day. The community kept putting in their multiple comments. Most of these comments weren't really factual, but it shows how everyday people respond to situations. I hope that one day we can keep most of our artistic people around and help them out. You never know how different our world could be if Chris Farley was still here and making us all laugh.

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