h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If you had the power to grant your favorite writers/entertainers/etc. a longer lifespan than Fate saw fit to grace them with, who would you choose?

Here are the people I would choose:

The First World War spelled an end to the careers of poet Rupert Brooke and composer George Butterworth.

Brain cancer took George Gershwin from us.

Singers Patsy Cline and Buddy Holly died in a plane crash. John Denver died in another plane crash.

Nathanael West died in a traffic accident before he could write sequels to "Day of the Locust" and "Miss Lonelyhearts." TV star Ernie Kovacs drove his Corvair into oblivion.

From the sixties on, suicides and drug overdoses took more famous celebrities from us than I care to think about. Although I could take or leave some of them, I thought that the early death of River Phoenix was very unfortunate. Likewise Marilyn Monroe.








(1) age at death: 28
(2) age at death: 31
(3) age at deathP: 39

[Please disregard the footnotes at the bottom of post 1. I was trying to list the ages at death of the first three people I named. ]

It is hard to say. Nick Drake for instance, died at the age of 26 after releasing 3 lovely albums which were not massively popular in his lifetime. Possibly his death drove his success.

Had he not died young, he may well have taken on a different path and his work have become so-so and he may have faded away into semi-obscurity trotting out songs from his youth on the folk circuit.

The sequel to The Day of the Locust may well have been a damp squib. Marilyn may have ended up with a role in soap operas.

PP.

Famous air crash victims (musicians) - A16303727

Thanks for the link.

Will Rogers also died in an airplane crash. Carol Lombard died later in a crash. What they had in common was that each was one of the highest-paid Hollywood stars at the time of death.

Not that a lot of people care any more, but there was a breakout of plague in the 1630s that carried away some talented people. Later in the century, Pachelbel lost his whole family and had to start a new one. Tuberculosis was the bane of a lot of creative people in the 1800s -- the Brontes, John Keats, etc. Complications from Syphilis did Schubert in.

That's why I limited my scope to the 20th Century. Otherwise the list would be quite extended.

There are no doubt many people who could possibly have made their mark if they hadn't died beforehand. At whatever age. But they just hadn't started to become known at the time of their death. We shall never know.

And again, as Pink Paisley says - many from whom we expected great things may have just faded from view or turned to drugs and drink and gone rapidly downhill - ironically as a result of their talent and success.

On the optimistic side, there are a lot of influential and talented people who came through the drug-addled period of the late 20th century and who are still producing work that pleases us.

But, to answer the question: who would have been great if they hadn't been taken from us so young? James Dean may have gone on to make more epic movies, if he had managed to find a niche once he was too old for the teen rebel roles.

Marc Bolan is someone I could have followed for many more years.

And, of course, Alan Turing could, possibly, single-handedly have saved the reputation of Britain had he been able to continue his work. Or should we stick solely to entertainment?

John Smith, leader of the (UK) Labour Party after Neil Kinnock and before Tony Blair. Died in 1994, I think.

We'll never know for sure, but I wonder how different things would have been if he'd lived to fight (and presumably win) the 1997 election.

I'm not convinced Smith would have won the 1997 election. Blair had the energy and charisma to win over the floating voters. Smith, for all his support across the party, was still Old Labour in the voters' eyes. But we'll never know, of course.

Maybe that's an item for the 'One-time Machine' thread. Bring back some modern medicine for John Smith.

"should we stick solely to entertainment?' [TC]

I tried to avoid limiting it to entertainment, but I'm not as familiar with leading figures outside that area. I didn't focus on professional athletes because, once they've gone much beyond age 35 they can't be expected to do much besides open restaurants or become coaches. Yes, a great coach is valuable, but I don't know if there's a way to tell if a former great player will be an equally great coach.

We haven't talked much about great writers. Sylvia Plath was an extremely promising poet, and she died in her early 30s. I think the wold could have expected great things from her had she lived longer.

Someone you've never heard of.


BUT ALSO:

Monty Oum

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Alan Rickman

Douglas Adams

Raul Julia

Heath Ledger

Malcolm X

Iain Banks.

That['s a great list, Mr. X.

Eva Cassidy

Sandy Denning

Hank Williams

Jim Morrison

Stuart Sutcliffe

Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungeon (or possibly not?)

Brian Jones

Just realised. All Musicians!!!

MMF



Ps. Does John Lennon count?

Might as well.

Should've said earlier: John F. Kennedy.

Marshall McLuhan

In another and happier world he might have gone on to become a regular columnist at Omni.

If JFK hadn't died would Apollo have gone to completion? It was because it was his "vision", and the nation was in collective shock for the rest of the decade, that Apollo kept getting funded. By any reasonable yardstick it was a massive white elephant (and I *like* space exploration).

If I had to pick one person who died in the 20th century to live longer I'd pick my uncle. Forty is no age to die suddenly and unexpectedly.

If I had to pick someone I'm *not* related to... Hendrix, probably. Massively influential in his limited time, it would be interesting to see where he went and what he made of new technology.

I think you meant Sandy Denny rather than Sandy Denning, MMF, but then who am I to judge?

I'm not sure Brian Jones was a significant musical influence at the time he lost his life - he'd really been sidelined creatively, hadn't he?

Hendrix with a Moog!

"If JFK hadn't died would Apollo have gone to completion?"

That's a good question. There's certainly no argument that his death is what drove the moon landing program. But I don't think it's so cut-and-dried that he couldn't have gotten the public support he needed anyway. Extreme popularity, extreme persuasiveness, congressional support, and American rivalry with the Soviet Union were all in his favor.

Personally I think the Apollo Program would've gotten along just fine with JFK dead OR alive. And since I hold him to be a better President in every single way over Lyndon Johnson, I'd rather he would've lived.

"Hendrix with a Moog!"

Hendrix with a Fairlight. Hendrix with a loopstation. Hendrix with a Chapman Stick.