Tragic figures of recent times and primes you wish never ended

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I was talking about this with my brother and thought I would bring it to the OOT. I hope this is more than another Tyson thread and that is not my intention.

Question 1. Who was the biggest fall from grace and which is a more tragic figure. Mike Tyson or Michael Jackson? Both were considered the greatest at one point only to be undone by their own internal demons.

Question 2. There are certain people whether athletes or performers who I wish could maintained their prime indefinently. For example there are such large differences between the Jackson/Tyson prime and post prime that is causes people to try and hold onto something that isn't there. I don't think this happens will all great figures, for example, Jordon who while playing through declining skills maintained his greatness through out his career. Other figures cause this clinging to their prime affect?

[dr. klopek]

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Question 1. Who was the biggest fall from grace and which is a more tragic figure. Mike Tyson or Michael Jackson? Both were considered the greatest at one point only to be undone by their own internal demons.

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This is clearly Jackson.

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Question 1. Who was the biggest fall from grace and which is a more tragic figure. Mike Tyson or Michael Jackson? Both were considered the greatest at one point only to be undone by their own internal demons.

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This is clearly Jackson.

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Why do you say that? I think it is Tyson.

[dr. klopek]

He fell from higher to lower.

[Blarg]

Well, Sinatra's moral trajectory wasn't one to be admired.

Don't laugh too much, but I think when Peewee crashed and burned, we lost a hell of a lot. He was a brilliant talent.

The "recent" tag is making me come up dry, because I'm thinking back to names of people who died longer ago, of which there are so many. "Tragic" is really a tough one to live up to, also. Many people have had hard falls or slow slides that dragged them down, but whether their descents could be fairly described as tragic is kind of tricky.

Maybe I'll be able to remember some more names that fit "recent" and "tragic" later. Somehow Milli Vanilli, even though one of that duo committed suicide very likely at least partly engendered by his rapid ruin, and Vanilla Ice are the kind of guys I'm coming up with, and they don't quite fit.

[Vince Young]

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Question 1. Who was the biggest fall from grace and which is a more tragic figure. Mike Tyson or Michael Jackson? Both were considered the greatest at one point only to be undone by their own internal demons.

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Tyson

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Question 2. There are certain people whether athletes or performers who I wish could maintained their prime indefinently. For example there are such large differences between the Jackson/Tyson prime and post prime that is causes people to try and hold onto something that isn't there. I don't think this happens will all great figures, for example, Jordon who while playing through declining skills maintained his greatness through out his career. Other figures cause this clinging to their prime affect?

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Eminem

[Cry Me A River]

Right now, it's OJ.

If Michael is convicted, then it's Micheal.

Tyson has taken a huge fall, financially, however for celebs that's not all that uncommon (ie: Willie Nelson, about 500 child stars). Boxers are, generally, (Ali is a huge exception) not all that well respected by society anyway and are expected to be a little nuts.

Martha Stewart bears consideration - Her business empire was based on propriety. I don't know if a Reality Show can bring that back...

I'd suggest Dana Plato except she never reached anywhere near the heights of any of the previously mentioned.

[Blarg]

Martha Stewart was a very good one, as far as image goes. She's still incredibly rich.

I'm not sure if Gary Coleman qualifies as recent(heck, he's still only ten years old, right?), but he fell a long, long way down, and there's some tragedy in there. It wasn't even his fault, since his parents spent all the money before he even got to it.

MacCauley Culkin went from a guy with all the promise in the world to just a freak by most anybody's definition. Then he got some girl pregnant and got married to her -- and didn't that go on the rocks almost immediately, leaving him with nothing but 18 years of debt and even more confusion? Meanwhile, he furthers his career by making a mediocre film about a fairly unlikeable, cross-dressing gay outcast, further cementing his image as a guy who will never get a standard movie role again. Not quite tragic, but I'm not quite sure how much worse it could get.

[cpitt398]

ya, but he bangs Jackie from the 70's show. So at least he's got that going for him.

[Jack of Arcades]

Yeah, but he was awesome in Saved.