10. Dom DeLuise
I’ll always remember him from The Muppet Movie and All Dogs Go To Heaven – that, and growing up I always confused him with Paul Prudhomme.
9. Bea Arthur
The world lost at least 25% of its sass that day.
8. Patrick Swayze
His inclusion is more for Karyn, though his struggle with pancreatic cancer was quite admirable.
7. Soupy Sales
I’ll admit it – I’m a game show addict, and his appearances on the Match Game were some of the best. My parents remember his innovation in television comedy, and I’ll never look at a cream pie the same way ever again.
6. Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein
Let’s face it – the guy survives a near-fatal plane crash only to be killed by an overdose less than a year later. Admirable? Not so much, but his memory will live on.
5. James Owen “The Rev” Sullivan
Drummer for Avenged Sevenfold, The Rev passed away in late December – one of the last to make the cut. He was 28 years old…too young to die. (But then again, who isn’t?)
4. Edward Kennedy
The Liberal Lion. Without his efforts, perhaps the health care debate wouldn’t have reached the point it has. (I’m still keeping my fingers crossed.)
3. John Hughes
In my senior year of high school, I did a presentation about The Breakfast Club. The movie has become one of my ultimate favorites, and I’ll never forget what Hughes did for the genre – he made it slightly more realistic.
2. Les Paul
Music as we know it would not be the same without the innovations of Les Paul.
1. Billy Mays
Okay, I’m going to try and elaborate a little bit on this one, since Mr. Mays is a strange choice. Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve been fascinated by infomercials. I’ll stay up late or wake up early to catch a bit of the Showtime Rotisserie Grill, the Magic Bullet, hell, anything presented in long-form informercial form is something that will catch my attention. And then the world gave us Billy Mays, and everything was changed. He was able to compress the energy and urgency of a regular infomercial into a few sweet minutes. He got your attention, and he kept it. He wouldn’t advertise anything that didn’t work, which is why to this day my family still uses Oxi-Clean and Kaboom. He was taken from us far too early in life – June 28, 2009 – and the world will never be the same.
So to you, Mr. Mays, I raise a toast. It’s hot chocolate, but it’s heartfelt nonetheless. May you be pitching wherever you are now, and I hope that whoever you’re with has a lifetime supply of Mighty Putty and Hercules Hooks, because they’ll absolutely need them.
Mighty putty IS AWSOME and I can even use it on some doll modification and repairs. Also, its sad because he was a fellow Tampa-ian, and his Australian friend came to the airport where my father in law saw him in TEARS.
It’s just a damn good thing there were none of your relatives on that list, right?
Not too many people think of lists like this one. Luckily, outside of Patrick Swayze and Walter Cronkite, nobody I like died.