NCS
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There’s been a lot hand-wringing about 2016 killing off so a lot of our beloved celebrities: Bowie. Ali. Prince. Carrie. Yes, it was unhealthy. But was it actually the deadliest year for well-known individuals? There’s no scientific strategy to measure this, however we took a crack at it anyway.
We began by taking a look at the deaths of Oscar nominees in performing classes– perhaps the largest measure of film stardom – going again to 2006. By this yardstick, 2016 was a fairly common year. We misplaced Debbie Reynolds and Gene Wilder and a couple of others, however the dying toll was nothing like 2014, when 10 Oscar nominees – together with Lauren Bacall, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robin Williams – died. (In equity, this year’s rely excludes Carrie Fisher, who was by no means nominated for an Oscar.)
For this class, we checked out deaths of Grammy winners in the performing classes solely (no technical awards). And sure, 2016 actually was a brutal year for our musical heroes. We stated goodbye to 13 Grammy winners, together with such giants as Leonard Cohen, Glenn Frey and Maurice White. It wasn’t as grim as 2006, when 15 Grammy honorees died, together with Lou Rawls, Freddy Fender and Billy Preston. But departed-star wattage this year – OMG, Prince! – was a lot greater.
For this, we counted Emmy winners and nominees in the largest performing classes – drama and comedy sequence solely – over the final 11 years. We misplaced eight of those Emmy winners in 2016, together with everybody’s favourite neurotic talk-show host, Garry Shandling. When it involves TV-star deaths that solely ties 2014 as the deadliest year of the previous decade. That merciless year, we stated farewell to Sid Caesar, James Garner and – no, not Alice! – “The Brady Bunch’s” Ann B. Davis.
Sports Illustrated has been naming its Sportsman or Sportswoman of the Year – a worthy yardstick of sports activities excellence and fame – since 1954. In 2016, we misplaced three of them – boxer Muhammad Ali, golfer Arnold Palmer and hoops coach Pat Summitt. No different year in the final decade has seen the dying of multiple.
Some celebrities, akin to TV’s Florence Henderson, achieved enormous fame with out successful an Emmy, Oscar or Grammy. So we additionally took a take a look at stars on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. Stroll down Hollywood Boulevard and you’ll see numerous just lately departed names immortalized in the sidewalk – 15 of them from this year, together with Zsa Zsa Gabor, who was well-known for … being well-known. But 2016 is barely the third-deadliest year for Walk of Fame recipients, behind 2012 and 2006. In 2006 alone, we misplaced 18 stars, amongst them comic Red Buttons, talk-show host Mike Douglas and Don Knotts, higher often known as bumbling Barney Fife on “The Andy Griffith Show.”
Yep, 2016 was certainly one Grim Reaper of a year. We misplaced no less than 34 celebrities by our admittedly unscientific rely, which consider such Oscar- and Grammy-winning celebs akin to Debbie Reynolds who seem in a number of classes. But it’s not fairly the worst ever. (In 2009, Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett died on the SAME DAY!)
When it involves sheer numbers, this year is edged out by 2006, when some 36 celebs died – together with “City Slickers’” Jack Palance and James Brown, the Hardest-Working man in Show Business, who for all we all know should still be taking part in gigs in heaven. So the subsequent time somebody complains about 2016 killing all our heroes, inform them it could possibly be worse. It has been worse.