Pop culture icons not dead before their time

[Tyr]

Our civilization seems to have a thing about people who die in their prime...They never grow old and wither away, they remain eternally at their peak. There are loads of such people to think about it.
Here are some obvious ones which I can come up with with the minimum of thought. WI they did not die when they did and instead lived on. Any others?

Marilyn Monroe
James Dene
Jimmie Hendrix
Ian Curtis
Freddie Mercury
Kurt Cobain
Robert Johnson
Bruce Lee

Some thoughts on some for me-

Freddie Mercury- Didn't exactly die 'in his prime' but Queen were still top of their game. Their career had dipped in the early 80s but following live aid they'd risen again and had become a institution.
The trouble with Queen and how they would have developed had they continued is so much of their later stuff was made whilst Mercury was ill and he knew it hence the somber tone.
Yet...nonetheless. They were getting on and I think they would have headed in somewhat of a mellow direction anyway.
How long would they have lasted though...a case could be made they'd be gone before the 2000s...maybe even on schedule for Mercury's death. Freddie was already getting into his solo stuff and John Deacon has really dropped out of the fame game, refusing to get involved with the reunion. There were apparently quite a few internal conflicts with the band too in the late 80s which were only resolved when they all banded together around the ill Freddie.

Ian Curtis- Joy Division were already heading in the New Order direction. The band have confirmed this and to listen to the progression of JD's music you can really hear more and more synths coming in and a move away from their punk routes.
Would this have been so drastic though? I think not. With Summer just having to concentrate on the guitar and not needing to bother with vocals there could be less of a tendancy for dance loops. And with Curtis still there...they could really go down a much darker route. Would they ever be as popular?
Well...they were rising anyway. Curtis famously killed himself just before the band were due to leave for their first US tour.
But...with a darker sound they could very much remain a indie band rather than making somewhat of a mainstream cross over in the way they did.

Bruce Lee- Sure, those stories about Chinese masters having him killed so he wouldn't reveal some mystic secret are cool but...come on. Even though we have to stay realistic this could still be interesting. His US film career was only just getting going, the popularity of kung fu was rising and with Lee at its head...
Perhaps it would get to be so that kids up and down the country regularly get sent off for kung fu lessons instead of karate?- I would have loved to do this when I was younger but karate is just all there is. Its the generic norm.
True. Its easier to teach so there's more teachers. But...hmm...the potential...
Filmwise...Game of Death probally wouldn't be so popular to mainstream audiences. It was a preaching work. All about Lee's philosophy. Kung fu fans would lap it up and it would get good box office returns on account of Enter the Dragon but I doubt it would be so acclaimed. Subsequent films? Would Lee realise a cool mainstream approach is the way to sell kung fu? Or would he carve out his niche as a kung fu man first, a film actor second...
One potential nasty knock on effect of this POD is no Jackie Chan. IOTL he got his big break in Bruceploitation movies. Would there be such a call for Bruce Lee rip offs in this world? I doubt it....Would Chan still get a break? Maybe. Talent sometimes shines through. But its also possible he just remains a stunt man...

 

[Westbrook]

Heath Ledger-Very prime of his career. He'd had done a brilliant job as the Joker of course, and been nominated for an Oscar for Brokeback Mountain. I think that if he had lived he would have indisputably been the best actor of his time, and he had mentioned that he had wanted to go into directing as well. He could have been the next Redford or Eastwood easily. Though I'm not sure if he counts as a "pop" star.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Hendrix living into the 1970s would have been cool. He had whole albums planned that we have only seen bits and pieces of.

 

[Macragge1]

Ian Curtis- Joy Division were already heading in the New Order direction. The band have confirmed this and to listen to the progression of JD's music you can really hear more and more synths coming in and a move away from their punk routes.
Would this have been so drastic though? I think not. With Summer just having to concentrate on the guitar and not needing to bother with vocals there could be less of a tendancy for dance loops. And with Curtis still there...they could really go down a much darker route. Would they ever be as popular?
Well...they were rising anyway. Curtis famously killed himself just before the band were due to leave for their first US tour.
But...with a darker sound they could very much remain a indie band rather than making somewhat of a mainstream cross over in the way they did.

You're absolutely right about the music getting more post-punk; one needs only listen to something like Isolation or Komakino to hear the more stripped-down, synthy sound. Hell, Love Will Tear Us Apart was a pop song - it certainly has a lot more in common (synth chorus, vocal hooks) with 80's chart hits by Depeche Mode or Soft Cell or whoever than it does with the Sex Pistols or the Buzzcocks. This suggests that Curtis was going in a pop direction, but would the song have succeeded without all the buzz around it after his death (personally, I think it would have). Ceremony's pretty much a pop song too, when i think about it.

A large part of the 'dance-ifying' of New Order was in part due to, and I'm half remembering this, is that after Ian's death they'd see troubled young men in overcoats hanging around the Factory or whatever and just wanted to get them dancing. I think with a surviving Ian, there'd certainly be a move towards synths and syndrums, but it would be in a different (and definitely darker) direction than club dancefloors.

It would be easy to say that Joy Division's third album would just basically be Movement, but I can see a lot being different. For a start, the band had just lost a close friend and, on top of this, the guitarist was now a reluctant lyricist and singer. Combined with this, Martin Hannet decided at this point that he fucking hated Barney and so the album's production is ugly and wrong. With Ian around (although more or less a non-instrumentalist, he was in charge of quality control, basically), I reckon a few riffs would be there, but if the band were firing on all cylinders following a successful US tour and increasing acclaim, we'd see a much tighter, better album - ironically, it'd probably be less dark with Curtis. There's something horrible about listening to Sumner trying to be his dead friend.

This is all quite aside from Ian's health problems of course. Given that all his stress caused terrible seizures, and that his seizures caused terrible stress it is easy to see how he got himself into a vicious cycle. Combine this with his disintegrating marriage and the fact that each gig had the potential to put him into a deadly fit, and you start to wonder that if he didn't kill himself at some point, the seizures would. I did read about him telling Barney that he wanted to pack it all in and open a bookshop in Portsmouth, but he was probably being facetious.

 

[I. Will Rockwell]

Nat Cole-Had he not developed Lung Cancer in late-1964, Nat "King" Cole would've continued to tour in support of L-O-V-E and would've hosted another episode of "The Hollywood Palace." He most likely would've made a guest appearance on "Dean Martin's Variety Hour." Sadly because he lived a hard life (as they all did) if not the big casino, it would've been a stroke, or a heart attack. Or he gets cancer, DOES survive and continues to do the Variety Shows.

He would've also had issues with his daughter Natalie going down the same path of entertaining (He made it clear that he didn't want this). He would've made a guest hosting gig on the Muppet Show in the late seventies, before going into semi-retirement in 1979. Eventually, he would've passed on in late 1989-1990.

Stevie Ray Vaughn-Had he not gotten into that helicopter that day in 1990, he would've seen his popularity decline in the 1990's, but would've been a great studio guitarist with a handful of great critically albums. Maybe make a cameo in Blues Brothers 2000, but that wouldn't save the film. In 2004, he would've made an appearance at the Grammy's with John Mayer coming out and doing a duet.

He would be an elder statesman of Rock n' Roll at this point receiving honors and performing at festivals across the nation.

Layne Staley (Alice in Chains)-Had be gotten clean, he would have reunited and gone back on the road after Jerry Cantrell's solo project ended. In fact the last album with William DuVall sounded a lot like Layne that it was as if he didn't die at all. So, if he lived, it would be something like "Black Gives Way to Blue."

That's it for now...

 

[JMT]

John Bonham, anyone?

 

[Emperor Norton I]

Hendrix living into the 1970s would have been cool. He had whole albums planned that we have only seen bits and pieces of.

You'll get an album titled either "Black Gold", "First Rays of the New Rising Sun", "Strate Ahead" or "People, Hell and Angels". That album was to be released next in the Hendrix catalog, as a double or even triple LP, but was never made.
Instead, we got decades of posthumous releases that were done with recordings that were dubbed over by session musicians, which in recent decades were ignored by the Hendrix family, wiped from the Hendrix musical canon and replaced in that canon with albums looked after closely by the Hendrix estate like (the posthumous version of) "First Rays of the New Rising Sun" and "Valleys of Neptune".

 

[thekingsguard]

Brandon Lee - easily could have been a huge action star, one with good acting chops and pathos to boot.

 

[Paul V McNutt]

I think like many young female sex symbols, Marilyn Monroe's career fades as she gets older. I heard that James Dean wanted to direct

 

[sonicnerd23]

John Bonham, anyone?

Had he not died, he probably would have straightened up and gone to rehab. The band would delay their upcoming U.S. tour in support of In Through the Out Door until next year so that Bonzo can spend some time with the family he has been constantly separated from or risk him falling back into alcoholism.

80's Zeppelin would definitely be an interesting proposition, though. Even with Bonzo off the alcohol, Jimmy Page was still hooked on heroin. In OTL, he kicked it sometime in the early 80's after Zeppelin's breakup. With Zeppelin's continuation, who knows how long it might take Page to kick it with the constant stresses of touring and songwriting. Hell, he may be the one to die in the alternate TL. No doubt, they would still be popular as ever, maybe even experience a resurgence in popularity with the growing popularity of metal in worldwide. As to the sort of material they'd put out in the 80's... Well, look at Whitesnake. Granted, I'm sure they wouldn't go down the whole Tawny Kitaen route, but with 80's production, their music would sound a whole lot more polished than, say, Led Zeppelin II. They'd probably be the type of band to abhor MTV, as they actively opposed putting out singles while still together.

Really, though, I can't see Zeppelin lasting past the early 1990's. Page and Plant have always been people that know when it is a good time to stop something. The constant stress of touring, plus their age would definitely lend to this decision. They were never the Rolling Stones type to keep it going until they drop dead from exhaustion. Post-breakup would probably follow OTL, with the exception of Bonham's future, which most likely involves spending a lot of time with his kids with the occasional studio session or live appearence.

 

[Emperor Norton I]

Had he not died, he probably would have straightened up and gone to rehab. The band would delay their upcoming U.S. tour in support of In Through the Out Door until next year so that Bonzo can spend some time with the family he has been constantly separated from or risk him falling back into alcoholism.

80's Zeppelin would definitely be an interesting proposition, though. Even with Bonzo off the alcohol, Jimmy Page was still hooked on heroin. In OTL, he kicked it sometime in the early 80's after Zeppelin's breakup. With Zeppelin's continuation, who knows how long it might take Page to kick it with the constant stresses of touring and songwriting. Hell, he may be the one to die in the alternate TL. No doubt, they would still be popular as ever, maybe even experience a resurgence in popularity with the growing popularity of metal in worldwide. As to the sort of material they'd put out in the 80's... Well, look at Whitesnake. Granted, I'm sure they wouldn't go down the whole Tawny Kitaen route, but with 80's production, their music would sound a whole lot more polished than, say, Led Zeppelin II. They'd probably be the type of band to abhor MTV, as they actively opposed putting out singles while still together.

Really, though, I can't see Zeppelin lasting past the early 1990's. Page and Plant have always been people that know when it is a good time to stop something. The constant stress of touring, plus their age would definitely lend to this decision. They were never the Rolling Stones type to keep it going until they drop dead from exhaustion. Post-breakup would probably follow OTL, with the exception of Bonham's future, which most likely involves spending a lot of time with his kids with the occasional studio session or live appearence.

This may be a prospect. Look at it. LOOK AT IT!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9-026ZCKR8

 

[Scruffy the Janitor]

If only John Belushi or Chris Farley had cleaned up, lot of wasted potential.

 

[merlin]

Eddie Cochrane - died in a car crash while on a successful UK tour. He had the talent to make it big. Though his death came too early in his career to know if that woul've happened.

Buddy Holly - in some ways similar to Eddie in 'music' but had a longer career before his plane crash. So his continuing success more likely.

Eva Cassidy - who knows how great this singer could have been, with a voice that stops you in your tracks - spell bound!

Otis Redding - the King of Soul Music, whether he would have stayed a recording artist or for example into producing others, as 'Soul' lost out when 'rap' came along. Yet, B B King -carried on!!

 

[Color-Copycat]

I'd liked to have seen Glen Miller continue his band after the war.

 

[DanMcCollum]

In my timeline "The Prodigal Sons" I'm playing with the notion of Hank Williams Sr., surviving his heart attack, coming to grips with his growing paralysis, and becoming a Civil RIghts icon inthe 1960s. Considering his life and music, it really seems like the natural progression.

 

[patb01]

Watching Spartacus Blood and Sand this evening I thought of Andy Whitfield, what if he beat his cancer or didn't get cancer at all. I could see him finishing out season 3, then making several good action films and possibly being the next action go to guy, maybe even a slot in Expendables 3.

 

[Geordie]

Watching Spartacus Blood and Sand this evening I thought of Andy Whitfield, what if he beat his cancer or didn't get cancer at all. I could see him finishing out season 3, then making several good action films and possibly being the next action go to guy, maybe even a slot in Expendables 3.

That sounds pretty realistic. Never got on half as well with the Other Darrin when he arrived in 'Vengeance'.

Anybody got any thoughts on where Marc Bolan would go, had he not been in that mini? I really wanted the future scenes in the last episode of Life on Mars to have some sort of poster in the background showing that Sam's warning had saved him...

 

[arrowiv]

Of course, there is always Elvis!
How would Elvis have fared post-1977 had he gone into rehab and fire Colonel Parker once and for all and straighten out his life and finances?