Dammit. He apparently committed suicide.
In the 1970s, as a kid who was perpetually uncool*, THIS MAN represented the coolness that I could never possibly achieve. Hell, he even made disco seem cool. On Saturday morning TV, it was never too difficult to decide whether to watch him and the Soul Train dancers or. . . Dick Clark and American Bandstand. I mean, no disrespect to Dick. He’s got his own thing going, there. And hey, he had the Bangles on in the summer of 1983, back when they were still sort of cute and mod. But Don Cornelius could have breathed on Bandstand and blown the whole thing away.
Damn.
*Note: I am not implying that this has changed.
