GONE TOO SOON

Not to be obsessed with death, but a recent post on COOLBIRTH had a link to a list I didn’t check out but had to do with artists who died too young, and though I doubt it was alphabetical, it inspired me last night on being woken up several times by various noises, including my little boy’s gerbil, McFly (though I hate to see anything caged or confined, I gave in on this one) trying to drag his tiny wooden house around and banging it on the glass walls of his cage.

I removed the wooden house and in trying to get back to sleep I came up with my own alphabetical “died too soon” list, with the demarcation of “before 30” that makes for most “died too young” legends since they occur before the aging process seems to have begun. But I couldn’t fill in all the letters and just kept thinking of more names for letters I already had, including Selena for “S” but thought to look up her last name this morning, and scored a “Q.”

Finally I gave up on the missing letters on the first list, and tried a second one of those who passed away in their thirties, because those also seem memorably way “too soon.” I couldn’t come up with some letters on that one too and kept thinking of multiple names for letters already counted with my usual compulsiveness.

Some of them I knew about the age they died because I’d written about them at some point in my life (like a screenplay I was hired to write during my Hollywood years for “The Otis Redding Story” etc.), and some because I actually knew the artists themselves, and the rest because I read about them enough to somehow remember they died too soon.

But I stalled on the letters I couldn’t come up with and so, in keeping with my favorite number and list ordering device besides the alphabet—three—I decided to do a third list of artists who died in their forties, still too soon. Though as I’ve said before, anything under a hundred seems too young to me these days. (This morning I also checked to see if I had the ages correct on ones I wasn’t sure of, but had most of them correct and corrected the ones that needed it.)

Maybe you can fill in the blanks.

1. GONE BEFORE THIRTY:

ACE, JOHNNY, and DUANE ALLMAN
BEIDERBECKE, BIX, CLIFFORD BROWN and JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT
COBAIN, KURT
DEAN, JAMES, RALPH DICKEY, and CANDY DARLING
E?
FARINA, RICHARD
GAUDIER-BRZESKA, HENRI
HOLLY, BUDDY, JIMI HENDRIX and JEAN HARLOW
I?
JOHNSON, ROBERT, BRIAN JONES and JANIS JOPLIN
KEATS, JOHN
LAFARO, SCOTT, FRANKIE LYMAN, D. A. LEVY, and HEATH LEDGER
MORRISON, JIM
NOVALIS
O?
PARSON, GRAM and RIVER PHOENIX
QUINTANILLA-PEREZ, SELENA
REDDING, OTIS
SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE, EGON SCHIELE, STUART SUTCLIFFE, and TUPAC SHAKUR
T?
U?
VALENS, RITCHIE and SID VICIOUS
WILLIAMS, HANK
X?
Y?
Z?

2. GONE IN THEIR THIRTIES:

APPOLLINAIRE, GUILLAUME
BYRON, LORD and JOHN BELUSHI
CRANE, HART, PATSY CLINE, SAM COOKE, and JACKIE CURTIS
DOLPHY, ERIC and BOBBY DARIN
E?
FASSBINDER, RAINER WERNER and CHRIS FARLEY
GOGH, VINCENT VAN, GEORGE GERSHWIN, JOHN GARFIELD and CHE GUEVARA (his diaries are “art”)
HILL, JOE, LORRAINE HANSBERRY, EVA HESSE and KEITH HARING
I?
J?
KING, MARTIN LUTHER JR.
LORCA, FREDERICO GARCIA, CAROLE LOMBARD, and BRUCE LEE
MOZART, WOLFGANG AMADEUS, VLADMIR MAYAKOVSKY, MARILYN MONROE, KEITH MOON, SAL MINEO, and BOB MARLEY
NEMIROVSKY, IRENE
O’CONNOR, FLANNERY and PHIL OCHS
PARKER, CHARLIE and SYLVIA PLATH
Q?
RIMBAUD, ARTHUR. and JIMMIE RODGERS
SYNGE, JOHN MILLINGTON
THOMAS, DYLAN, JOHN KENNEDY TOOLE and JOHNNY THUNDERS
U?
VALENTINO, RUDOLPH and GENE VINCENT
WALLER, FATS, BRANDON DE WILDE, DINAH WASHINGTON and DENNIS WILSON
X, MALCOLM
Y?
Z?

3. GONE IN THEIR FORTIES:

ARBUS, DIANE
BEHAN, BRENDAN, LENNY BRUCE, TED BERRIGAN, DAVID BLUE and JOAN BARIBEAULT
CLIFT, MONTGOMERY, NAT KING COLE, JOHN COLTRANE, NEAL CASSADY, and ED COX
DANDRIDGE, DOROTHY, BRAD DAVIS, and TIM DLUGOS
E?
FITZGERALD, F. SCOTT
GORKY, ARSHILE and MARVIN GAYE
HART, LORENZ, JUDY HOLLIDAY, and BILLIE HOLIDAY
I?
JOPLIN, SCOTT, ELMORE JAMES, and PAUL JABARA
KAHLO, FRIDA, JOHN F. KENNEDY, ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JACK KEROUAC and IRENE KRAL
LENNON, JOHN and LEE LALLY
MILLER, GLEN, FREDDIE MERCURY and COOKIE MEULLER
NELSON, RICKY
O’HARA, FRANK
POE, EDGAR ALLEN, JACKSON POLLACK, and ELVIS PRESELY
Q?
RADNER, GILDA and HOWARD ROLLINS
SMITH, BESSIE, ANNE SEXTON, and RAY SHARKEY
THOREAU, HENRY DAVID and ART TATUM
U?
VERMEER and CESAR VALLEJO
WILDE, OSCAR, JACKIE WILSON, LEW WELCH and NATALIE WOOD
X?
YOUNG, LESTER
Z ?