By James Halliday
It seems like a celebrity is dying each week this year: from comedian and former James Gillespie’s High School pupil Ronnie Corbett to Professor Snape actor Alan Rickman; musical legends Prince and David Bowie. The list goes on. The question is “why are more celebrities dying this year?”
First, are more celebrities dying? Is 2016 unusual? Looking at specially written obituaries on the BBC, the numbers have been rising in recent years. Looking at the numbers for Jan-March each year, there were 5 BBC obituaries in 2012. This rose to 8 in 2013, 11 in 2014 and 12 in 2015. However this year there were 24 – more than the last two years combined! Highly unusual.
So, what could be causing this? There was an explosion in the number of celebrities in the 1950s and 1960s with the emergence of TV and rock and roll music. The young celebrities then are getting old and reaching the age where they are likely to start dying. So while 2016 might be unusual, the only way is up for celebrity deaths.
The Spark 