Better to burn out than fade away?
Posted: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 7:00 AM by Kurt Schlosser
Filed Under:
Movies, Tributes, Celebrities
You'd have to be dead to not know that this is a big week for a particular movie star who is no longer with us. Heath Ledger's turn as the Joker in the new Batman film is being hyped and hailed as Oscar worthy, and for the first time since "No Country For Old Men" I'll probably make a trip to the theater.
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Warner Bros.
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For me, Ledger falls into the category of celebrities who died too soon and are actually worth missing. His death from an accidental overdose of prescription pills in January was a shocker and my sympathy for those who were actually close to him is coupled with my own selfish regret that I'll no longer see him on screen. I felt the same way when River Phoenix died in 1993 -- again very talented, very young and again from a drug overdose.
In 1994, I was deeply saddened when Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain took his own life. Something about having the architect of your life's current soundtrack suddenly disappear will put a crimp in your turntable. I imagine many people felt the same way about Elvis or Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin or John Lennon or Jim Morrison or ...
Is it the shocking death that makes the star burn brighter for us? Plenty of huge stars live into old age and die with less media fanfare than Ledger. Leaving one final critically acclaimed performance on celluloid doesn't appear to hurt one's legacy. Yet how do we explain Anna Nicole Smith or the inevitable next star who burns out without leaving a body of work one would deem worthy of the coverage their death generates?
As we appreciate the work of the Joker this week and watch the box office dollars roll in for "The Dark Knight," take a moment to remember an actor or musician who impacted your life and was then gone, too soon. Are you still affected by what this person left behind when you see or hear it? Do you appreciate it for what it was then and leave it at that, or do you wish he was still alive today as whatever brand of entertainer time had turned him into?
