Hat doffing

Ledger a tiré son chapeau, the headline in Bleu Matin read read under a photo of the dead actor in cowboy hat. Ah ha… another way the francophone press writes around the fact people have died. My housemate explained to doff’s one hat is far more polite and poetic way of saying kicked the bucket. Although I continue to collect poetic ways of explaining peoples’ death, the winner is still is “Arthur Miller has joined his Marilyn."
At what point will I know enough idiomatic French? Probably never and that's okay, because discovery is fun.