Celebrity deaths: Why are we so affected by their passing?

I was about to start Grade 11 when news hit that Princess Diana died. On Sunday, August 31, 1997 newsstands everywhere announced the passing of ‘The People’s Princess’ as she was affectionately dubbed. A quiet hush seemed to blanket the globe as people worldwide grieved the unexpected loss.

The world of celebrity is a quirky one. We don’t know celebrities on a personal level but we feel something when they pass away. This year has been particularly heavy in the amount of celebrities who have died: Kobe Bryant, Kirk Douglas, Kenny Rogers, Jerry Stiller, Irrfan Khan, Betty Wright, Nick Cordero, Naya Rivera, Kelly Preston, American statesman and civil rights leader John Lewis, Olivia de Havilland, Andre Harrell, Chadwick Boseman, former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Alex Trebek, Sean Connery, Eddie Van Halen, Little Richard, Regis Philbin - the names go on. 

Whether you’re a fan or not, the passing of a celebrity is often surprising. School of Creative Industries professor Cheryl Thompson explains that while we don’t have a direct relationship with celebrities, we do cultivate a ‘second order intimacy’ as it’s called to their existence.

“Whenever there's a celebrity, you know a lot about these people, but you don't really know who they are as people. There's a certain closeness because they bring you in. They have interviews, they might be on social media so you really feel like you know them,” said Thompson, who teaches a course on celebrity as a form of mass media, CRI680: Celebrity. “Because we form these parasocial relationships, they're second order levels of intimacy. And then, if it doesn't get checked there could be a kind of worshipping that happens when these people die, it feels like you've lost a dear family member.”

Thompson recalls the death of Princess Diana as the best example of people realizing how this one person meant so much to the public.

Community, connection and culture

Thompson has observed that over the last 40 years, people’s sense of community has changed. Over time, closeness with neighbours and connection to one’s immediate community has shifted to a focus beyond our locales. The Internet and social media have played a large part in that shift. 

“I think a lot of that too is the shift toward what is called the vertical integration of our media industries. So we have had less and less access to actual local media content, and more and more access to global media content - the streaming services, 24 hour news,” Thompson said. “I remember when I was a little kid, you could turn on the free cable and watch channel 10 and there would be some random person on the TV, that maybe could even live on your street, and was just talking about things in the literal community. We don't have that anymore; that has completely shifted. We don't tend to look to the local community for our celebrities, instead we're looking to the global celebrity industries.”

The fan effect

Paul Moore, sociology professor in the Faculty of Arts, acknowledges that a personal connection to famous people is often forged in youth. And obituaries remind us of their legacy, as Moore says, ‘condensing their life in a story,’ sparking memories of why we became fans in the first place.

“A lot of our pop culture and sports fandom starts in adolescence and follows us all the way into our adulthood,” Moore said. “So when a star dies, we’re often losing a little piece of our youth, a little piece of ourselves, with nostalgia that can deeply tap into our sense of mortality. It’s shaded by confronting how much we have aged ourselves and facing how that part of our lives has come to an end.”

Moore acknowledges as well that social media has created a closeness with famous people, where celebrities can directly engage with followers, further cultivating a sense of community. That curated sense of intimacy is nothing new in Hollywood.

“If you go back to the ’10s and ’20s, many early Hollywood fan magazine stories take you into movie stars’ homes - learning a recipe that they cook, seeing them with their children. There's a whole field of film history about celebrity home movies, none of which are real home movies - they’re all studio publicity,” Moore said. “Sharing celebrities’ home lives, sharing a celebrity’s private life - that's nothing new. Although the pace of constantly taking selfies and the platform of posting on your own mobile phone is new, going behind the scenes has long been a part of how celebrities and fans connect with each other.”

Everyone experiences grief differently

Interestingly, while some people feel loss after a celebrity dies, grief can sometimes be a connector for individuals. 

“I haven't felt grief emotionally, but I have taken the news as a moment to reach out to an old friend from childhood, to send a message about our shared fandom from our teenage years,” Moore said. “In that way, a celebrity’s passing can help us connect not just with millions of strangers who were also fans, but also reconnect with specific friends you have shared experiences with.”

Thompson shares that as a fan of Oprah Winfrey, that will be one death she won’t be prepared for.

“I mean I don't think anyone's ready but there are certain celebrities where I'm like, ‘please just live forever.’ They've just played too much of a role in my life and my developmental years,” Thompson said. “I think people are often like you said, they're shocked to see how emotional they are when this happens because they don't even know the person but the truth is you do know them. You know what they've given you. 

“And I think it might be important to understand that while we trivialize celebrities, they have given us something and in exchange, we follow them, we support their work. That's why a singer goes on stage and they're like ‘thank you so much, I wouldn’t be here without you.’ You think they're being really fake but it's actually true. They're just acknowledging a statement of fact.”