June 2008: A Month of Iconic Loss
Ben Barna
June 23, 2008
George Carlin, stand-up comedy icon, died of heart failure in Los Angeles last night, furthering an odd phenomenon I’ve been noticing in June of 2008—the death of icons. The month began with fashion divinity Yves Saint Laurent dying of brain cancer on June 1st. The next day, Bo Diddley, a key figure in the American blues and rock n’ roll movements, died of heart failure. The fashion and music worlds are suddenly left without two of their greats.
On June 13th, broadcast journalism lost one of its best-loved sons in “Meet The Press” anchor Tim Russert, who died suddenly in the studio of heart attack. Tom Brokaw has since been announced as his replacement through the election. Two days after Russert passed, Academy Award-winning special effects guru Stan Winston died of multiple myeloma, a type of cancer. And now Carlin’s death makes it five iconic figures, in fashion, music, television, film, and comedy that have left us this month. Weird, right?
Posted by Janina Fuller on Tue Jun 24, 2008 at 03.50 pm
Once you start noticing this phenomenon, you find it’s not so unusual that Great Ones seem to die in clusters, so to speak. In January we lost Sir Edmund Hillary, Brad Renfro, Bobby Fischer, Suzanne Pleshette, and Heath Ledger. In February it as Roy Scheider, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Buddy Miles, and William F. Buckley Jr. And on it goes. And this month, don’t forget, the world also said good-bye to Paul Sills of Second City, sports broadcasters Charlie Jones and Jim McKay and actress-dancer Cyd Charisse. Makes me more attentive to the people who are important to me, whether I know them personally or not!