Shuffled off this Mortal Coil

 

A few years ago, archaeologists unearthed the remains of England’s King Richard III, under a parking lot in Leicester. He was known to history infamously as Shakespeare’s evil hunchback king, usurper of the English throne and suspected murderer of his nephews, ages 12 (Edward V)  and 9 (Richard) in the Tower of London.  I was surprised to note that Richard was only 32 years old when killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. It got us thinking about the ages of famous people when they went kaput as well as who else went kaput at the same age.  You may be surprised. For example, at opposite ends of the humanitarian scale, age 56 are: Abraham Lincoln and Adolf Hitler. 

 

As we work our way up from 15 year-old Anne Frank and 17 year-old singer (La Bamba) Richie Valens through comedians Bob Hope and George Burns, 100, what is occasionally surprising is some folks you thought were old - were not.  Some people you thought were young - were not.  Generally, we look at age though the lens of our own stage of life and then age becomes relative, a matter of perspective, since if you’re 25 then 55 (Julius Caesar) - is old but if you’re 65 then 55 (Bill Haley of Bill Haley and His Comets) -  is young. 

 

You’ll note that through suicides, accidents, murders, and disease quite a few familiar names weren’t really old at all when they checked out. Many were surprisingly young. The Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc was 19 when she was flambeed at the stake.  Stuart Sutcliffe, original bassist for the Beatles; outlaw, Billy the Kid; singers Buddy Holly, and Aaliyah were all 21, Holly died  in the same plane crash as Valens and the Big Bopper, age 25. Twenty-five seemed old to me when I was age 12.  24 saw Actor James Dean, runner Steve Prefontane, and rapper Notorious B.I.G  shuffle off.  Presidential assassin, John Wilkes Booth was 26 as was singer Otis Redding.  In music there is the “27 club” of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones, Kurt Kobain, Jim Morrison, Amy Winehouse, Grateful Deader, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, and Blues originator Robert Johnson. Hank Williams was 29. Gone at 31 were Roman Emperor Commodus, John Dillinger, Rudolf Valentino, Cesare Borgia, and painter Georges Seurat.   32?  Singers Karen Carpenter, Cass Elliot, actor, Bruce Lee and Who drummer Keith Moon. Comedian John Belushi was 33, as was singer Sam Cooke. Andy Kaufman, guitarist, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – all gone at 34.  Diana Spencer (Princess Di) and Marilyn Monroe were 36, as was Bob Marley. 37 saw the demise of Scottish poet, Robert Burns; artist Vincent van Gogh;, teacher/astronaut, Christa McAuliffe; decapitated French Queen, Marie Antoinette; George Armstrong Custer and his nemesis, Crazy Horse. (Note: Sitting Bull was 59). It was the final chapter at 38 for writer, Charlotte Bronte; baseball player, Roberto Clemente; composer, George Gershwin, and Presidential offspring, John F. Kennedy, Jr.    Bet you didn’t know that Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata were 39, as was Marie Antoinette’s husband,  King Louis XVI of France.  Also at 39 were, mathematician Blaise Pascal, Egyptian Queen Cleopatra and Confederate General, Stonewall Jackson. 

How about writers Jack London and Edgar Allen Poe, along with Beatle, John Lennon at 40?  Leaving the building at 42 were Elvis Presley, comedienne, Gilda Radner, and African King, Shaka Zulu. Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, artist Jackson Pollock, singer Marvin Gaye and jazz/blues immortal, Billie Holiday departed at 44.  At 45 – Vlad the Impaler, aka, Dracula, but then he may be undead.   What did writer George Orwell, President John F. Kennedy, existentialist writer Albert Camus, writer and wit, Oscar Wilde, and wrestler Andre the Giant have in common?  All passed away at age 46.  JFK’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald was 24.  One year older at 47 were Attila the Hun and Judy Garland….writer Jack Kerouac too.  No more rubbing people out for gangster Al Capone, who died at 48. 

50?  It was stage left for swashbuckling actor Errol Flynn, actor Steve McQueen and Rod Serling of Twilight Zone fame, also Davy Crockett bit the dust at the Alamo at 50. Napoleon was “only”51 as was French playwright, Moliere, French writer Marcel Proust and Beach Boy, Carl Wilson.  William Shakespeare was reformatted at 52.  So were actress/Princess Grace Kelly and singer Roy Orbison. 53 saw an eclectic group bidding adieu; President James K. Polk, Grateful Deader, Jerry Garcia, “I think, therefore I am” philosopher Rene Descartes, singer John Denver, poet Emily Dickenson, Muppet founder Jim Henson, and baseball’s Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson. Osama bin Laden went in search of heavenly virgins when he was 54.   The voyage ended for Christopher Columbus and Will Rogers along with Julius Caesar, singer Bill Haley, and poet Emily Dickinson, who perished at 55. With the afore mentioned Abraham Lincoln and Adolf Hitler at 56, was serial bridegroom, King Henry VIII,  (his wives? – Catherine of Aragaon,41, Anne Boleyn -36, Jane Seymour- 26, Anne of Cleves -42, Catherine Howard -22, and Catherine Parr – 36) also  singers Rick James and Warren Zevon. 

Permanently out of print at 57 were actor Humphrey Bogart, dancer, Gregory Hines, and People Get Ready….Curtis Mayfield.  Going off line at 58 were artist, Andy Warhol, Irish author, James Joyce, and Beatle, George Harrison. Writer Virginia Woolf and actor, Clark Gable fell off the perch at 59. 

 No more orders from General George Patton when he was 60, nor politics and exploration from Theodore Roosevelt, also 60.  Cashing in their chips at 61 were writer, Ernest Hemingway and poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  St. Paul was probably 62 as was the philosopher, Aristotle.  Stamped, Return to Sender when 63 were  Ulysses S. Grant and his archrival, Robert E. Lee, in addition to  Franklin Delano Roosevelt, actress, Audrey Hepburn, Mickey Mantle, artist, Rembrandt van Rijn, and basketball star, Wilt Chamberlain.  “When I’m 64”? singer, Wilson Pickett, political philosopher, Karl Marx and President Lyndon B. Johnson. Room temperature at 65 were Genghis Khan, comedian, Richard Pryor, Alice in Wonderland’s author Lewis Carroll, Walt Disney,  and composer Johann Sebastian Bach, who is currently decomposing. It was the last race for Olympian, Jesse Owens, comedian, W. C. Fields, and Nobel Prize winner, Marie Curie, who checked out at 66.  Gone at 67 were George Washington (seemed older than 67, n’est pas?),  actress, Ingrid Bergman, and Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci. It was game over for singer/dancer Josephine Baker, poet Ogden Nash and author/illustrator, Shel Silverstein at 68.

Desi Arnaz, writer, Aldous Huxley, and physicist, Richard Feynman perished at 69. 

Leaving for more than a three hour tour were Gilligan (Bob Denver), Buffalo Bill Cody and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus went at 70.  Socrates was 71ish. Hello Pilgrim, goodbye to John Wayne,  and prolific author,  Isaac Asimov -72. At 73 providing last name first name continuity were Ray Charles and Charles Darwin. Laying down their burden at 74 were, Fred "Mister" Rogers, humorist, Mark Twain and existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre and rarely will you see Jean Paul Sartre and Fred Rogers in the same sentence. Philosopher Plato was 75ish and composer/orchestra leader, Duke Ellington took the “A Train” at 75.  Albert Einstein checked out at 76 and fellow physicist Neils Bohr was 77 along with Lucille Ball, astronomer Galileo Galilei, and cartoonist, Charles M. Schulz. It was game over at 78 for Andrew Jackson, writer, Simone de Beauvoir, entertainer, Dean Martin, Coretta Scott-King, and Mahatma Gandhi. What did entertainer, Johnny Carson and philosopher (Critique of Pure Reason) Immanuel Kant have in common?  Did you say gone at 79?  

Stella!!!!!actor, Marlon Brando was 80.  Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien, Richard Nixon and actress, Betty Davis, became bereft of life at 81. Succumbing at 82 were, comedian, Rodney Dangerfield, astronaut, Neil Armstrong, writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,  and  Frank Sinatra. 83 and it was finis for Thomas Jefferson, writer, Samuel Beckett (who gave up waiting for Godot) , Sigmund Freud, writer, Voltaire, western lawman, Wyatt Earp and astronomer, William Herschel tended towards a state of chemical equilibrium. It was lights out for Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II), Isaac Newton, artist, Henri Matisse and rider, Paul Revere at 84. Freudian disciple, Carl Jung left the couch at 85.  86 was the end of the line for comedian, Groucho Marx and eugenicist/birth control advocate, Margaret Sanger.  Futurist, Buckminster Fuller, inventor, Rube Goldberg, and writer, Theodore "Dr. Seuss" Geisel had negative patient care outcome at 87.  The curtain came down for comedians Charlie Chaplin and Mae West, and philosopher, George Santayana (“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”). The great sculptor and artist Michelangelo was 90, as were, John Adams, Winston Churchill and Florence Nightingale. Time to wash the dishes and put away the pots and pans for chef, Julia Child, artist, Pablo Picasso, and philosopher, Thomas Hobbes at 91. The bus stopped for Rosa Parks when she was 92.  The Gipper, Ronald Reagan, rode off into the sunset at 93, as did Harriet Tubman on the underground railroad.  Actresses (and the lists get shorter now) Katharine Hepburn and Fay Wray (King Kong had here in the palm of his hand) were 96. Gertrude Ederle, (first to swim the English Channel, astronomer, Caroline Herschel, and philosopher/mathematician Bertrand Russell

used their one-way tickets when they were 97. Ninety-eight year old artist Georgia O'Keeffe painted her last flower. Achieving the century mark were George Burns and Bob Hope.  But wait! There’s more. 101 were composer Irving Berlin and artist Grandma Moses. If you remember the Ed Sullivan Show,(and THERE’S an age thing)  Senior Wences (‘s’alright? S’alright….shut de door”) was ventriloquizing until 103.  So there you have it.  A selective list to keep age in perspective and win the occasional dinner debate.  Remember, as Satchel Paige or Jack Benny or…… but actually said by an anonymous government researcher in 1968,  famously said, “Age is a question of mind over matter.  If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter”. 

Our title and opening quote…..”shuffled off this mortal coil” is from the “To be or not to be” soliloquy in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

……….Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,…. Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 1, Hamlet,

The word coil is an antiquated word, commonly used centuries before Shakespeare, and spelt ‘coyle.’ It was a noun and referred to a mess – a mixture of messy things like noise, confusion, uncertainty, bustle, sort of like using mass transit. We don’t use the word coil like that anymore but most of Shakespeare’s audience would have understood it in that way. And so, in keeping with our essay theme, how old was Hamlet when he went kaput?  Hamlet was 30 just like the Roman emperor Nero, poet Sylvia Plath, Emily Bronte, singers, Jim Croce, Patsy Cline and Andy Gibb, Wyatt’s brother Morgan Earp, John Harvard, and King James V of Scotland.