Spartacus is dead. RIP Andy Whitfield

I was very surprised to find out that Andy Whitfield, the original star of Spartacus: Blood and Sand, died of non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in his home country of Australia yesterday. He was 39, survived by his wife and two children. He found out in 2010 that he had lymphocyte cancer and began immediate treatment in New Zealand. He was given a high likelihood of recovery. In June 2010, Andy was declared “cancer-free” by his physicians and planned to return to the role. In September Whitfield’s cancer recurred aggressively, and under the advice of his doctors he immediately began treatment again.

For me, a 42 year old of average health, maybe a little more around the waist than I should… ok.. Maybe a lot more, this was major downer. If you’ve ever seen Spartacus, you know this man was in top physical conditioning. (I’m really looking differently at the YMCA work out tonight now.) He had money, a happy family, he was working, and he was stricken.

Say what you want about the series, it was done very well, and definitely captured the imagination in a very sexy and action filled way. The problem I had with the series was, when it started, I didn’t have Stars, and then had to play catch-up online. Then when I started Stars, it seemed to take forever for the next episode to come out.

For the most part, you really hated the bad guys, and really rooted for the good ones, and when the bad ones bit the dust, you (well at least I did) had a sense of happiness that karma finally caught up to them. The second season was going to be a prequel to the first, so Whitfield really had a small part, and the series won’t be too adversely affected.

I was actually looking forward to seeing him in some movies, maybe Gladiator types, or Van Damme types, but it shall never be. Instead, we see someone struck down in the prime, and that should give us all a moment to reflect on our own lives. We may be struggling every day to get the body, job, fame, fortune, or life we want, but we should maybe take some time for us, and for our families.