The New York Times-20080127-When Icons Die Young
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When Icons Die Young
Full Text (801 words)A YOUNG man lying in bed seems at peace. You might recognize him, or not, as he is not in a familiar role. He is supposed to wake up but he never does, causing a surge of public sadness.
Heath Ledger passed away only Tuesday, but his transformation is already under way, from acclaimed actor to most-searched Internet term, from film star to cultural touchstone.
The blogosphere went into overdrive. In two days his memorial page on Facebook had over 30,000 members. The entertainment Web site TMZ generated over 74 pages of user comments. Hundreds of eulogies for the 28-year-old Australian appeared on The Sydney Morning Herald's site.
What accounts for this need to pay public tribute? Successive generations have felt that impulse -- the need to make sense of untimely death, and even justify it, by celebrating the dead young person in an outsize way, or, every so often, to attend the funeral of someone they don't know.
When the actor Rudolph Valentino lay in state in 1926 at the age of 31, more than 50,000 fans showed up. In 1955, Baby Boomers grieved the passing of the 24-year-old James Dean, who received two posthumous Academy Award nominations on his way to the pantheon.
In 1994, Generation X-ers, too, lost a 20-something artistic legend, with the death of Kurt Cobain. Mr. Cobain proved an unfortunate role model to some younger followers, inspiring a few copycat suicides and fueling speculation that there could be a wave of such imitations. This phenomenon, known as the Werther Effect, takes its name from Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther. The popular novel featured a hero who like Mr. Cobain, stirred fans both to dress like him and die like him.
When Marilyn Monroe died of a drug overdose three decades earlier, the overall suicide rate in the United States briefly rose by 12 percent. Fortunately, perhaps due to all the therapy and anti-depressants available in the 1990s, Mr. Cobain never had quite the Werther Effect that Werther had.
Star suicides shock us, raising the question of whether celebrities, underneath all their glamorous trappings, are just as miserable and depressed as everyone else. The suicides of the abject rarely, but occasionally, attract attention, too.
In 1770, the starving poet Thomas Chatterton killed himself at 17. His talents were not recognized until later, when the Romantic poets began romanticizing his literary brilliance and tragic death. Two of those who praised Chatterton met tragic early ends themselves -- Keats by tuberculosis at 25, Shelley by drowning at 29.
As of now, the death of Mr. Ledger seems unintentional. No matter: the unintended death of someone with so much to live for captivates the public, too. Consider the mania surrounding Tutankhamen more than 3,000 years after he died at age 18.
In generational terms, the death of a contemporary most frightens the young. When one notable lifetime ends, that generation begins to end, too. The death of someone cut down in the prime of life brings home our own mortality. Maybe our rendering them immortal is our way of not facing that inevitability.
Yet, ultimately, the sudden loss of a young luminary offers a powerful message, not only about death but about life choices. There is the dilemma of Achilles, the Greek hero who learns from his mother that he has two options: go home and live a long life or die at war and earn everlasting fame.
He chooses fame, and upon his early death is mourned by mortals and gods alike. When a 20-something superstar expires, one cannot help but wonder how many celebrities make Achilles' bargain with fame. In a way it is comforting, perhaps even life affirming, for the majority of human beings, nonsuperstars, to think they have chosen the other course.
Then there are the hard-core fans. One big fan of Achilles was Alexander the Great, who pretty much conquered the known world by the age of 25. He died at 32.
Mr. Ledger was originally offered the role of Alexander played by Colin Farrell in the biopic. Instead he will be remembered for being a leading man who is all things to all people from Casanova himself to Ennis del Mar in Brokeback Mountain to a literal knight in shining armor. In a way he will even be remembered for his courage, in a day and age when playing a gay role requires courage. And today he seems poised to conquer at least some of the known world in another way.
[Illustration]PHOTOS: FROM THE HEART: Public reaction to the death of the actor Heath Ledger last week recalled the anguish over the passing of James Dean in 1955. The poet Thomas Chatterton, who killed himself at 17, was romanticized in the 19th century. (PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS JACKSON/GETTY IMAGES)(PHOTOGRAPH BY LEGENDS ARCHIVE/REUTERS)(PHOTOGRAPH BY BETTMAN/CORBIS)