Names and NewsGone Too Soon: Stars We Lost in 2008

GEORGE CARLIN

A counterculture icon famous for his raunchy routines – including the "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" – died at 71 from heart failure in a Santa Monica hospital on June 22. "The world is a big theater-in-the round as far as I'm concerned, and I'd love to watch it spin itself into oblivion," he told Playboy of his idea of the afterlife. "Tune in and watch the human adventure ... That's what I want heaven to be." While many fellow comics paid tribute to the trailblazer – "If there was ever a comedian who was a voice of their generation it was George Carlin," said Jay Leno – his daughter Kelly said, "I just know him as Dad. And what a dad he was."