40 People Who Passed Before They Reached Their Potential

Buddy Holly. Of course, he already wrote some fantastic songs, but man would it be a treat to see his songwriting in the '60s!

Could end up being the same or he could have grown. But it's those what-ifs!

Phillip Seymour Hoffman. He was an incredibly gifted actor and I would be genuinely excited when a film with him came out to see what he would do. There should have been a lot more anticipatory moments like that.

Amadeus Mozart.

While he wasn't terribly young, I'd say his true potential life was cut in half. Imagine what music will never be or where it could have gone had he lived a longer life.

Bruce Lee.

Whimsycottt: Bruce Lee brought Hong Kong Cinema to the West. He is the guy who popularized martial arts movies and made being Chinese (and East Asians) more accepted when most Asians in Hollywood at the time were either nerds or Fu Manchus. The feminization of Asian Men by Hollywood still exists, but we can at least point to Bruce Lee as the turning point where Asian men can be more than that. This man singlehandedly bridged the gap between the East and West with his movies, and inspired an entire genre of films.

He also helped modernized/paved the way for MMA, and his style of fighting (Jeet Kune Do) was based more on practicality rather than flashines, and being open to different types of styles instead of sticking to a single, rigid one.

I'm forever grateful for him, and I think its a damn shame that we lost him so young.

Maryam Mirzakhani died at 40 of cancer. She was Iranian. In 2014 Mirzakhani won the Fields Medal, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for Mathematics, which is awarded by the International Congress of Mathematicians.

“The award recognized her sophisticated and original contributions to the fields of geometry and dynamical systems, particularly in understanding the symmetry of curved surfaces such as spheres.”

Jeff Buckley comes to mind. Only one incredible studio album completed. It's changed many lives.

Prince. He is/was larger than life, despite his stature. He was a musical genius, and frankly after he left us s**t got weird.

Kurt Cobain! I can't believe this isn't higher. Imagine if he lived another 30 years, how much beautiful music he could have made.

Cliff Burton - the bassist of Metallica. He taught all the other bandmates musical theory, harmonies and all that stuff, because he was the only one that was actually musically trained in school.

He died in a bus accident when they were on tour. He and Kirk (still the lead guitarist in the band) were choosing who would sleep on top of the bunk bed, it was supposed to be Kirk, but Cliff insisted that he'd sleep on top. When the accident happened, he was thrown out, the bus lost traction and it landed right on top of him.

The sad part is it would've been either him or Kirk

River Phoenix.

Listened to an interview Wil Wheaton did where he talked about Stand By Me and how everyone on the set knew River was going to be a huge star.

Amy Winehouse is up there.

High-strungHousewife: Her material may not have been to your liking but her contralto voice was widely regarded as exceptional.

"She had a strong control of her voice, with a clear and precise pitch and a wide range [3 octaves] that allowed her to tackle both high and low notes with ease."

Vince Guaraldi

Do you ever listen to the Charlie Brown Christmas and wonder why you don't hear more amazing music by Vince Guaraldi? He died of a heart attack at the young age of 47.

Stevie Ray Vaughan.

He really got his s**t together and seemed to really be in a good place career wise and in his personal life.

Jonathon Larson. He died in 1996 at the age of 35 just before his musical, Rent, came out. It's a shame that he worked so hard for his opportunity and he couldn't see what an impact he had.

Biggest thing is? His death could have easily been prevented. He was misdiagnosed at two separate occasions leading up to his death.

Dostoevsky. Really wish we could have got the rest of Alyosha’s story

Brittany Murphy. I guess you could argue she didn't have the MOST potential out of all of these, but she was the first one I thought of.

Elliott Smith, dead 20 years now, was a brilliant musician.

Louis Braille. Alexander the Great died precisely when he should have; Mozart's later career probably wouldn't have been so promising; but Louis Braille had the makings of a true innovator.

Christina Grimmie. Incredibly talented vocalist, gunned down after a concert by a presumably obsessed fan. I still think that her wanting to remain independent instead of joining a particular record label may have had something to do with it, but her assailant wiped his computers, so we’ll never know for sure

Amy Winehouse would have probably be on par with or surpassed Adele at some point.

She moved to the tropics to get sober, but the record labels weren’t digging the experimental reggae-inspired stuff she was recording. As with many people who relapse, her body couldn’t take the dosage required to get her high again.

Part of me thinks if she’s made it one more year she would have been fine. I also think her being 27 played a huge role since she got to join the legendary “club”. She definitely had genius-level talent with music. I feel like Lady Gaga and her would have put out an amazing album together. Amy is probably the only celebrity death where I was very very sad.