Had he lived, would he have become the icon he did? Super morbid to think about it... but maybe not. Lauded? Well-awarded? Most likely yes.

Iconic? From my bleacher seats I posit that this status is most often reserved for the dead-too-soon and the infamous. (Most often. Obviously you've got Beyonce-status folks who achieve this during the course of a long, lucrative career 😅)