Kind of surprised at the amount of comments in here. Bowie, Rickman and others had loads of comments. I guess #KJSoWhite.

Jordan was the Ali of basketball. Maybe Ali and Ruth were comparable in terms of dominating and transcending the sport, the difference being Ruth's celebrity did not extend far beyond the US, and Ali was globally known and beloved. Nobody else is close.

Pele and Maradona also reached that level.

Kimbo Slice just died as well

So in terms of big celebrity deaths, we have Alan Rickman, David Bowie, Terry Wogan, Ronnie Corbett, Muhammed Ali, Prince, and Garry Shandling, and to a lesser degree; Tony Burton, George Kennedy, David Gest, and Maurice White. Others have died but they are not notable.

And there will be more celebrity deaths before 2016 ends, so it's going to get worse.

Uh no. In the 1975-1977 his q rating or penetration rating globally, not exactly sure what it was called, was something like 91%. Only one in ten were unaware of who he was worldwide. It was not until the 1990s when Jordan got something like 93-95%, that it was eclipsed. I don't know if soccer's lack of popularity in the US was the reason Maradona and Pele never reached those heights. Even when Pele came to the Cosmos I doubt more than 1/4 or 1/5 Americans had any idea who he was. I doubt more than 1/10 could identify Maradona outside of a World Cup year like 82 or 86. There was no ESPN in the 1970s, and SportCenter didn't really take off until the late 1980s.

I didn't even know the US had a soccer league or NASL's existence until I came to the East Coast in 1978. In my extended family of about 50, I doubt anyone else knew of Pele unless there was a recent story about him coming to the Cosmos or retiring.