Have you ever cried over a celebrity or complete strangers death, why?

Johnny Gaudreau. Hockey player. Johnny Hockey was one of my favorites that wasn't on my favorite team. He was a small guy, who proved everyone wrong. He was a good dude from all the clips and interviews I've seen over the years.

I saw the comment that broke it on reddit, some random guy in the Phillies GDT. Said "Johnny Gaudreau is dead". Spent the night following the rumors until it was confirmed by a retired league ref.

He and his brother, Matt, were in town for their sisters wedding, staying at their dad's house. They were cycling and a drunk driver killed them both, only stopped because the bikes were still under the truck. His wife was pregnant at the time too.

I cycle, I've got brothers and it just hit me so hard. I was fucked up about it for a week at least.

Anthony Bourdain hit hard. I always thought of him as having the best job on earth. He got to see the best of the world and show it to everyone.

It just goes to show we all wrestle with our demons. Don’t ever be afraid to reach out for help.

I'd say the closest I've come was Robin Williams. Patrick Stewart would probably be even moreso.

Sir Terry Pratchett. Actually, probably counts as multiple because the opening to The Shepherds Crown makes me bawl like a child, and it's pretty much a step-by-step guide for mourning.

Discworld has been my comfort series for a long time. I have read most of the books more times than I can count. Spent months tearing through multiple a day.

Of course, his condition was known amongst the fans, we had all known it was going to be sooner than later, but it felt like a long chapter of my life was closed. I had looked forward to every release, cherished them. The man's work had been beside me through some of the hardest times, always bringing a smile back to my face.

Robin Williams. A surprising death, not a surprising break down. He was so much of my childhood, and always there for a laugh. Life got worse for everyone when he passed.

Grant Imahara. A surprising death, and for me, a surprising response. I still to this day get choked up about Grant. Even though he was on the Mythbusters B team, and was largely not on my radar after, hearing of his death really struck me. I still don't rightly understand why. Perhaps it's just because he was such a genuine and smart guy. Really dunno.

bowie didn’t hit me when it happened, but years later blackstar made me weep

David Bowie. I still miss him a lot. I usually don't even really know the names and faces of bands I like, and I wasn't even a big knower of his music, but when I heard he died I cried non stop for a day and a night. He was really something else, this crazy force, changing the whole discourse in music and stardom multiple times in his life. What an awe inspiring character. I wonder who could ever take his place, really.

A man only dies when he is forgotten.

Technoblade never dies.

Without knowing a celebrity personally, you can still resonate deeply with what their art or identity stand for. I shed a tear when David Bowie died because his fearlessness and experimentation was like a beacon to weirdos like me that told us we would be ok if we left the shores of conformity. Plus, he was the funky funky groovy man, man.

Anthony Bourdain hit me pretty hard. I was a huge fan starting with Kitchen Confidential and ate up basically everything he produced. But more than just his content, which was great, his worldview and philosophy really spoke to me. It was cynical and angry, without being aimless or shallow. He seemed to be doing something different from everyone else and writing his own rules in a way which had no parallels anywhere in mainstream media.

When Chomsky dies its going to fuck me up HARD. I'm already mentally preparing for it, but that dude has been such an amazing human, he's responded to so many emails, signed so many of my books, and lectured on things in such a way that I've learned a lot

Chester Bennington of Linkin Park low-key destroyed me. I didn't even hear about it when it happened due to a big storm taking out my power for a week. It wasn't until 4 or 5 days after the news hit everyone else when I finally found out.

You can say whatever you want about Linkin Park, but Chester was fucking talented and its still so upsetting to me to think about it.

And then last year, they made Chester die again when they brought on a Scientologist to be the new lead singer. Now Linkin Park as a whole is dead to me.

I mourned, legitimately mourned Terry Pratchett’s death. I don’t even have a parasocial relationship with him in the sense you get with streamers and YouTubers and whatnot. He was just a man who brought wonderful ideas into the world, who focused my understanding of life and so much more, and to hear of his end hurt me bitterly.

My entire high school mourned Mr Rogers' passing. 4,000 people and the hallways were almost quiet.

Yes. At the memorial for Steve Jobs on Apple's campus. People were speaking in moving ways about their relationships with him. It made it more personal. I can't imagine crying over someone I didn't know without context like that.

For me it was when Steve Irwin died.

Almost cried about Dame Maggie Smith. She just seemed like such a stellar person, I really feel like she added value to our society

Not cried, but Trevor Moore's death shook me as that was the first time someone I enjoyed the work of died while I was still expecting to see more work from them in the future.

Several.

Because their art changed my life.

And I cry for the compassion aroused about how death came to some strangers.

Yes. Empathy and compassion are present.

Charles Bradley. He lived on the streets for most of his life. When he became famous he died very shortly after :(

I cried when they canceled The Venture Brothers.

My best friends and I watched every new episode when they aired while we were in college. After I graduated we all pretty much drifted apart, but when Publick and Hammer would actually get around to putting out another season it felt like I was back in that dorm lobby on that smelly couch, watching this show on a huge rear protection TV, with a group of people that were closer to me than anyone ever before or since.

When they canceled the show it felt like there was this unicorn at the zoo, and then one day the zookeeper just went out into the enclosure, blew its brains out, shrugged, and announced "Too expensive to feed!" I was devastated.

Did not cry exactly but... if you are like me and you like Babylon 5, do not check up on the cast.

Never cried, but Rik Mayall hit hard, and Lemmy always seemed immortal so it was a shock when he went.

Omayra Sánchez. Brave in the face of a needless death.

Fred Rogers (of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood). For my generation, he helped to shape our views on kindness and compassion for humankind. He fought for public access funding in the United States. He helped break color barriers on television. He helped us enjoy jazz.

I have not encountered another media personality who was so genuinely invested in making sure that kids had the tools they needed to deal with the emotional parts of existence. I'm tearing up again thinking about how much he did for us.

Stephen Hawking. His books gave me a sense of wonder in high school. Those books are a huge part of what inspired my path in life. When I read he had died, I felt a peice of me leave the earth. I cried for humanity, I felt that we all got a bit dumber, as a whole.

Jim Henson - I was 19 when he died, and it felt like a central focus of my childhood was suddenly taken away.

I'm not usually impacted by celebrities but I was hit surprisingly hard by the death of John Bain aka TotalBiscuit on YouTube. Why? He just kind of seemed like a regular, fairly young gamer and decent dude who just wanted to let people know whether a game might be worth buying... and then suddenly surprise, cancer. A shit ton of treatment and four years later, gone. It just felt like a reminder that life is random and unfair.

Adam Yauch from the Beastie Boys was one, and David Lynch very recently was another. Both hit really hard :-(

I've cried over historical figures and the tragedy I found in their story but never a modern person

Not to the point of crying, but I've got really shaken by the deaths of strangers and public figures before. In general, any death moves me, it's a very natural and human reaction. Unfortunately, some farther ones or those that happen often enough to get me numb don't strike me as much.

An example of a fairly recent death that shook me and large amount of people too, was the death of Rick May, an immensely talented actor, drama teacher and more, that voiced the character "Soldier" in Team Fortress 2. His iconic and charismatic performance for that role is just indescribable, and a significant part of what made the character, and by extension the game, so good. His loss was so big that Valve added an in-game memorial statue, so that players could pay their respects. The fan community really grieved together. He passed away due to Covid-19 complications in 2020 at 79 years of age.

Nah, but a couple surprised me with how much they saddened me because I'd always thought it was kind of stupid to get genuinely upset about the deaths of celebrities you don't know. Sometimes your cognitive opinions take a backseat without your permission and you just feel actually mournful about someone who has so little direct connection and who's worldly contributions are almost always in the entertainment space. For me that was David Bowie and Trevor Moore. Both of these surprised me because it's not like I was a hardcore David Bowie fan so it didn't feel like that death should have hit me particularly hard and Trevor, I still can't figure out why that'd upset me so much. I mean I loved his sketch comedy but I'd largely forgotten about him at the time, I think it might have something to do with him being so young as well as all the laughs he'd given us.

I was particularly upset by Ray Stevenson’s passing

Fairly early on in the COVID days, it got Adam Schlesinger. To this day, it's the one celebrity death that felt personal to me.

For those who don't recognize the name, Adam was one half of the songwriting duo in Fountains of Wayne. Who you know best, of course, for "Stacy's Mom." God, their songwriting was sublime though. And then Adam did "That Thing You Do", Ivy, Tinted Windows, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and a ton of other stuff.

Maybe it's partly the collective trauma of the pandemic, but his death still hurts.

Celebrities, no. Pets, definitely.

I still get choked up over Kevin Conroy (THE Batman voice from like 1990-2022 when he died, and even a few things after), but I don't think I actually cried about it.

Same with Chance Perdomo who was Ambrose from Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and Andre from Gen V. He just had a presence and charisma to him that I really liked. Also Anton Yelchin.

Mac Miller for me. We were the same age and his music resonated with me a lot. I understood the drugs, depression, etc.

For a while, I had thought "I could have been successful like him, if i had applied myself". Not music, but other ways. It had felt like he was everything I could have been.

But then his he died and I realized that I had gotten out of that world (drugs and partying). And that I was the successful one. I had a house, a job I love, a wonderful wife, etc.

I'm not rich. I'm not always happy. I regularly think about my addictions. But Im clean. I'm sober. I'm intelligent. I have a good life.

If I didn't figure out how to step away from that life, Im sure I would have OD'd. Mac's death hit me hard, because I went from "that could have been me" to "that could have been me"

I was pretty fuckin sad when Judy Tenuta passed.

You're very accustomed to your world and don't want any discontinuity. Change is depressing because it reveals the impermanence of everything where rather pretend like it isn't. Thats my reason :)

Maybe not full-on "cry" but I have gotten teary-eyed more than a few times over the decades when a favorite (and unarguably world-class) musician dies. Eddie Van Halen, Neil Peart and Jeff Beck come to mind right off the bat

When I was about 17 was looking at several full pages of names of people who died in 9/11 when looking at a news paper and started crying

I cry sometimes when I see what is happening to the people and babies of the world

I cried when those women in Sudan were at a hospital and rebels showed up to rape and murder them then trapped them inside the clinic and burned it down

The world is a sad place with so much need for mourning

Some, here and there. Not really heavy sobbing or anything, because there's no real connection.

I think the two heaviest were Kurt Vonnegut and Kris Kristofferson. Both have been influential on me as a person and a writer.

But the suddenness of Robin Williams and Chester Bennington made both hard in a different way.

When David Lama, Hans Jörg Auer and Johnathan Rosskelly died in an Avalanche. They were the absolute best of the best in mountaineering, they had everything going for them and then suddenly it was over. I remember how it swept me off my feet and the shockwave it sent through the mountaineering community.

Adam Schlesinger, a likely preventable death in this selfish fucking country. He gave so many beautiful things to the world while he was here.

Gord Downey of the Tragically Hip.

His music was songs of more than one generation of Canadians. I caught the last few songs of the live streamed final concert. I almost missed it because I was on graveyard shift and slept through an alarm.

I caught my favorite song "Ahead by a Century" and since he passed, I haven't been able to listen to that song again. When it comes on the radio I either turn it off or leave the room. It is too sad to hear. It has been harder in the last two years because my sister died of the same brain cancer as him. She played music with a few Canadian bands but never met them.

When I was about 16 I had to make a conscious decision to not allow myself to feel as much towards the terrible things happening in the world. I would get so deep into feeling that it would wreck me for days sometimes. One day I just chose not to care, as if they were made up stories that I didn’t need to pay attention to. It worked but It changed my personality for years until I realized how to balance it, sort of. It still happens sometimes.