It's not enough that we idolize people who can act - even if it is really really well. We have to hold them in some sort of reverence - for that? He's not freaking madame curie.
Don't get me wrong. The passage of Harold Ramis/Philip Seymour Hoffman is lame. Whenever someone passes off this mortal coil too soon, it's awful. I feel for those that knew him. I do - BECAUSE THEY ACTUALLY knew him. I did not. And so I hear that and go "aw."
But dare I say it --- People die every day. Some of whom I actually know.
Is our desire to be a part of a shared consciousness so great that we are willing to play out our emotions when someone we never met but saw in a movie once dies? If this is the future, woe be to that. How much greater should our horror be when someone we actually know dies?
And what of the other list of important people who died today?
A soldier in Afghanistan
A Pregnant lady who was hit by a car
An uncle we have fond memories for
Why do we revere Ramos and the like - who did neat things and had a horrible disease, or died because they snorted too much, shot up with too much, were so misunderstood, passed away too soon but were famous, or semi-famous, or about to be famous? Is their tragedy so much greater than any of a thousand more who deserve our sympathy but get nothing?
And to this I say "harumph."
Too soon?