Celebs we lost in 2021

A huge number of famous faces have passed away this year

Sonny Chiba (died August 19th, aged 82)

Celebs we lost in 2021 1

Sonny Chiba is one of the celebrities we’ve lost in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Japanese actor and martial artist became ill with COVID-19 in early August. He was initially treated at home but was hospitalized a few days later when he developed pneumonia. Chiba, who had not been vaccinated, ultimately died from complications of COVID-19 on August 19th. He was 82.

Chiba played the role of Hattori Hanzo in 2003’s Kill Bill: Vol 1 and its 2004’s sequel Kill Bill: Vol 2. He also appeared as Uncle Kamata in 2006’s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

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Interesting facts about BTS
  • The group name, “BTS” stands for the Korean expression Bangtan Sonyeondan which translates to “Bulletproof Boy Scouts”. Band member J-Hope said that they chose this name because it represents BTS’s desire “to block out stereotypes, criticisms, and expectations that aim on adolescents like bullets.” But that isn’t the only meaning behind the name. In 2017, BTS said, as part of their new brand identity, that their name would also stand for Beyond the Scene” which extended their name to mean “growing youth BTS who is going beyond the realities they are facing, and going forward.”
  • BTS was originally intended to be a hip-hop group, similar to YG Entertainment’s 1TYM. This was because Big Hit Entertainment CEO Bang Si-hyuk met with RM and was very impressed by his rapping talents. However, Bang Si-hyuk changed his mind and decided that today’s youth needed “a hero who can lend them a shoulder to lean on, even without speaking a single word.”
  • BTS has said that all of the following musicians have inspired their music; Post Malone, Eminem, Seo Taiji and Boys, Nas, Kanye West, Drake, Charlie Puth, Danger, and Queen.
  • The band’s first English-language single, “Dynamite”, was released on August 21st. Its video broke the YouTube record for the most viewed music video premiere, grabbing the attention of three million viewers, and it set a new record for the most viewed video on the first day of release. “Dynamite” is also the first music video on YouTube to surpass 100 million views in less than one day.
  • BTS has been often labeled as “easily the biggest and most successful name in K-pop in the world” that can “do things no other name in their genre can.” Time magazine has gone as far as calling them the “Princes of Pop.”