Rock god Jim Morrison wouldabeen hitting retirement age today at 65, and comedian Sam Kinison wouldabeen 55 today, if both hadn’t died young.
Kinison was born on this day in 1953. He died in a car crash in 1992, age 38. Morrison was born in 1943 — two years and a day after Pearl Harbor — and he died even younger, at age 27, after a heart attack brought on by drugs and hard living. (Not everyone agrees with that diagnosis.)
Morrison’s death was considered shocking, the end of an era, etc., at the time, but now it mostly seems like a long time ago. “Riders on the Storm” — supposedly the last song recorded by The Doors — still has its creepy power, though.
Side note on Kinison: He shares an exact birthday with actress Kim Basinger, who does turn 55 today. She was born in Athens, Georgia, the very same day he was born in Yakima, Washington.
She’s aged a little better.