Celebrity deaths and the importance of the timing

I remember like 3-4 years ago people were really tired of Stuart Scott and his stylings/schtick. "Booyeah" had become kind of a snarky anti-meme almost like Berman's "byackbyackbyackbyackbyack" had become.

Now he's to be a legend. I realize this post might be controversial, but it's interesting to me how much the timing of a celebrity's death can influence his/her legacy. If Marilyn Monroe had lived she may have become a relative joke like Liz Taylor had become. Jim Morrison seems that way too - if he had lived to 60 his shitty poetry would have ruined his legacy.

Say that Bono had died in a plane crash right after U2 had re-intented themselves in the early 1990's and were for a year or two the coolest rock band in the world. He'd have been remembered as fondly as Bob Marley or John Lennon. Instead he lived, and is now a punchline to many jokes, is generally reviled and viewed as "insufferable".

Anybody else find this interesting? "Timing is everything" is very true when it comes to celebrities and their legacies IMO.