Celebrity Deaths in Groups of 3?

NBC News Radio National Correspondent Rory O'Neill joins us to discuss the pattern of celebrity deaths that seem to come in groups of 3. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is West Michigan's Morning News. That's Brett Kati It.
Steve Schmidti is on location this morning. More about that
on the way. But as we get the news of
the death of Hulk Hogan, Royo on Neil NBC News
Radio National correspondent joins us on the liveline one and
Steve and it brings full circle this celebrity death in

(00:21):
threes thing. People always text me, hey, do you hear
about Haul Cogan? I wonder who number two is going
to be. This is kind of a real thing though.
We have to talk about another celebrity death today.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Well, right, Chuck Manjoni the famous jazz Flugel hornessed I guess,
but yeah, so that he seems to be number four
here or I hope not, but maybe the start of
a second set of three. But obviously the week started
with Malcolm Jamal Warner from The Cosby Show, and then
Ozzy Osbourne, then the news of Hulk Hogan's death yesterday.

(00:52):
But it is there's a thing here. These deaths do
tend to happen in threes. I'm not just making it.
I think the worst year was back in two thousand
and nine. Michael Jackson Farah, Fawcett, and Ed McMahon all
died within like two days of each other. Wow, Jackson
and Fawcett the same day.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Really, I don't remember it being the same day, but
it's happened in other years as well.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
It has. Oh guys, you can go. October twenty twenty three,
Matthew Perry, Bert Young, and Richard Rowntree all within a
matter of days. Tony Gwynn, Casey Casem and Ruby d
in June of twenty fifteen. Let's go back to twenty
sixteen China, another wrestler, Doris Roberts from Everybody Loves Raymond

(01:38):
and More and Prince all died within a matter of
days of one another.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
And Roy what's crazy is? I go back and I
kind of channel my parents here because this would have
been when they were eighteen years old that they always
talked about when we watched the movie and everything about it. Really,
the original one was in nineteen fifty nine when Buddy Holly,
Richie Allen's and the Big Bopper all died in that
airplane the day the music died.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Right, That is right, and that does seem to have
started another big one. December of twenty sixteen, Alan Thick,
George Michael and Carrie Fisher. No, and then Reynolds died
and Debbie Reynolds died a couple days after Carrie. Wow.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
So I guess we have to look at Chuck MANGIONI
now and wonder are we starting a brand new list?
And not to be a cavalier about this, I mean,
obviously we have respect and we pay homage to those people.
And lots of being said about Hall Cooke. I guess
I didn't realize he was six seven. I knew he

(02:37):
was a big dude, but six seven is a big dude.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
I don't think he was six to seven.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Well, there's something about the program, right, I was listed
as five to ten.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
But what's funny is if you remember then when he
made that cameo appearance in the Rocky movie. Though it's Thunderlips,
the wrestler that he battled, which I love the nickname.
I mean, he just absolutely not that Sylvester Stallone is
very tall. Necessarily people don't know that he did. He
just dwarfed him.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
I mean, well, I'm six, I'm six foot six, and
I've met and interviewed the whole many times or at
least been in gaggles at different events. Yeah, maybe I
I thought it was a little bit shorter. Maybe the
bandanna gives him an extra two inches.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
We should get in honor of him, would bandanas? It's
about time.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Rory O'Neil, NBC News Radio National Correspondent, Thank you.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Thanks, guys, have a good weekend.