Yep, when I heard this news yesterday it did hit me in a sort of way. I stopped to remember watching him in "Ghost" while I was living in Japan. It had come out in theaters there and my girlfriend (now wife) had seen it with her girlfriends before and the first opportunity she got, she got me to bring her to it again. We had just started dating so I was in the mode of "best behavior at all cost" at that time. I had brought one of my male Japanese friends with her and I to watch it. So the entire theater was packed with sobbing Japanese girls ESPECIALLY during the penny part. After the movie, she confronted me asking why I didn't cry during that part of the movie. I didn't want to raise any red flags so I simply said that I wanted to, but I was embarrassed because my Japanese male friend would have seen me cry. She studied my facial expression for a moment and then bought into it no questions asked.
So yep, I can't believe he passed away. He was somehow part of my past in that sense because of the memories I have of my wife and I going to see that movie in Japan so long ago it seems.