Celebrities Who Have Died In 2017: Audioslave Lead Singer And Fox News Founder Add To Ever Growing List
It was a sad night as two celebrity deaths are now being added to the 2017 list that is starting to grow at an alarming rate. After finishing his final performance ever with a song about death, Soundgarden and Audioslave lead singer Chris Cornell unexpectedly and suddenly died. As news began breaking about his passing, numerous media outlets also reported the death of Fox News founder Roger Ailes which has the list of celebrities who have died in 2017 even longer.
As reported by the New York Times, Cornell was one of the architects of grunge music, and he died in Detroit on Wednesday night at the age of 52. A statement from his representative said that his death was both “sudden and unexpected.” The singer’s family is working with a medical examiner to “determine the cause” of his death.
CNN pointed out that the last song he sang in his final performance ever was a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “In My Time of Dying.”
RIP Chris Cornell
Incredibly Talented
Incredibly Young
Incredibly Missed. pic.twitter.com/pKNI4tKiXz— Jimmy Page (@JimmyPage) May 18, 2017
CNBC is also reporting that media giant Roger Ailes, the founder of Fox News, died at the age of 77. It was just last summer that Ailes resigned from his positions as CEO and chairman of Fox News and Fox Business Network after having a sexual harassment lawsuit brought against him.
The lawsuit was brought by Gretchen Carlson, the former Fox News Channel Host who said her firing came after she refused to have sex with Ailes. Since her lawsuit was made public, a number of other women have come forward to say the CEO sexually harassed them as well.
It has actually been a pretty rough week for fans of celebrities as veteran actor Powers Booth died at the age of 68 on Sunday. The man most well known for his roles in Deadwood and Tombstone died of natural causes in his home, according to AL.com.
It’s with great sadness that I mourn the passing of my friend Powers Boothe. A dear friend, great actor, devoted father & husband.
— Beau Bridges (@MrBeauBridges) May 14, 2017
Here is a list of the notable names of celebrities who have been taken from the world in 2017.
- Chris Cornell – musician
- Roger Ailes – Fox News
- Powers Booth – actor
- Erin Moran – actress
- Michael Parks – actor
- William Peter Blatty – author
- Bill Paxton – actor
- Michael Mantenuto – actor
- Richard Machowicz – actor/Navy seal
- Paul Goble – author
- Mary Tyler Moore – actress
- Francine York – actress
- Cuba Gooding Sr. – musician
- Geoffrey Bayldon – actor
- Jonathan Demme – actor
- Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka – wrestler
- Al Jarreau – singer
- Christopher “Big Black” Boykin – reality star
- John Cygan – actor
- Miguel Ferrer – actor
- Allan Holdsworth – guitarist
- Don Rickles – actor
- Eugene Cernan – astronaut
- “The Outlaw” Ron Bass – wrestler
- Gordon Kaye – actor
- Dick Gautier – actor
- Ivan Koloff – wrestler
- Eddie Kamae – singer
- Richard Hatch – actor
- George “The Animal” Steele – wrestler
- Frank Pellegrino – actor
- Sir John Hurt – actor
- Charlie Murphy – comedian
- Norma McCorvey – “Jane Roe”
- Chuck Berry – musician
- John Warren Geils Jr. – musician
- Dick Gautier – actor
- Yordano Ventura – baseball
- David Rockefeller – billionaire
- Nicole Bass – wrestler/radio personality
- Buddy Greco – singer
- Matt “Rosey” Anoa’i – wrestler
- Chuck Barris – TV host
- Peter Sarstedt – singer
- Chavo Guerrero Sr. – wrestler
The wrestling fans of the world have been hit in a big way in 2017 as a number of deaths piled up quickly in the first four-and-a-half months of the year. The losses of Rosey, “Chavo Classic,” Ivan Koloff, George “The Animal” Steele, and Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka are hard to take, but them happening in such a short amount of time makes them even harder.
Some say that it is strange for fans to get upset over the deaths of celebrities, but it is only natural. Whether on TV, in the movies, on the stage, or on the field, these celebrities are well known, and many people have grown up watching them perfect what they do best.
Chris Cornell’s death is not only tragic but quite mysterious in a way that it happened so suddenly and has his family at a complete loss. Roger Ailes was only 77-years-old, but there is little doubt that the lawsuit and bad press in the last year of his life brought extra stress to him. The list of celebrities who have died in 2017 is beginning to get longer, and we are still only halfway through the year, but fans can only hope that the sadness stops or at least slows down.
[Featured Image by Cooper Neill/Getty Images]
