OldBoy

i think Heath Ledger, but the PSH one is tragic as well. though, i did love Phoenix, this is hard...

meaning in terms of whose talent, i guess, who will be saddened by the most from their loss...

Fist of Doom

Abe Vigoda

dom56

Bruce Lee

inri222

mrhan

Bruce Lee should be added to the poll. I voted James Dean.

Shannon Nutt

Why can't we vote for more than one?

As great as Hoffman was, I voted for John Candy - I probably miss him the most of the actors listed.

OldBoy

i guess i wanted a clear winner?

Dan

That would be too logical.

Ash Ketchum

Ditto on Bruce Lee.

Add Marilyn Monroe.

And because I knew him (in high school): Freddie Prinze.

mrhan

Add Brandon Lee, too.

davidh777

A poll that stretches over several decades is bound to have omissions, and it could get outdated even before I finish this sentence.

TomOpus

Unless you wanted a celebrity dead, wouldn't the answer be "All of them?"

RoyalTea

Most of the people on this list died of drugs, car crashes or heart attacks.

Based on that, I'm voting for Phil Hartman, the only murder victim on the list.

uberjoe

So does not voting for someone mean I think they died at the exact right time? Or maybe that they hung on too long?

The Cow

Maxflier

Going with Paul Walker as he was one of my favorite actors and no drug-related death is too soon in my book.

cleaver

My tragic celebrity death power rankings go
Jimi Hendrix
Bruce Lee
Sean Taylor/Heath Ledger/PSH
Len Bias

davidh777

Why'd you have to do it, torchbearer for a new generation of Celtics?

astrochimp

That was exactly my thinking.

Charlie Goose

None of them. They died when they were supposed to, as we all will.

Count Dooku

I would have voted for Phil Hartman, but I picked River Phoenix because of how his death impacted the Indiana Jones franchise.

BrewCrew

Voted other, scanning the list they all were fairly young. Maybe I don't understand the question.

JumpCutz

There is a pretty wide variance in talent for some of those poll choices.

DJariya

Paul Walker - The way he died was both stupid and tragic. Being part of an ensemble cast on F&F and not having to carry a movie helped his career IMO.

By far Bruce Lee. Dying in his early 30's when he was about to become a major international superstar coming off Enter the Dragon was horribly tragic. If he lived to this day, I don't know if he would still be working, but I'm sure he would have had a terrific career as an international and U.S. action star.

Paff

What about the opposite effect that Bruce Lee's death had on the martial arts film world? As in, so many attempts to find the "next Bruce Lee" that we inadvertently got a lot of new actors with new styles. I don't think it's a stretch to say that had Lee not died, we'd never have Jackie Chan, who I believe has made far better movies than Lee did. Oh, and I'm not trying to say it's a good thing that Lee died, it was quite a tragedy and we were deprived of many great films as a result.