Celebrities Tragedies

Christopher Reeve.

A big athletic classically handsome father who loved life and was paralyzed, and later killed, by a freak accident.

Kathleen Turner.

At the height of her career she was diagnosed with an uncurable disease that left her bedridden for years.

Gertrude Lawrence

Blackmailed by her pert lady-accountant.

Rebecca Schaeffer

The death of Bruce Jenner. He was a hottie in his day.

Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and nephew were murdered by her sister's boyfriend or husband.

Charles Lindbergh

Virile man of the skies undone by an evil German thief.

Laurence Olivier

A gorgeous young man who loved not wisely but too well.

Patricia Neal. Eldest daughter died, son hit by a taxi suffering traumatic brain injury, multiple strokes, husband left her for a close family friend. Tragic.

Well.....

It's a little too fresh to talk about,

Without being paid.

Read my memoir, 'How to Get a Head in Show Business.'

Gilbert and Sullivan

Both geniuses in their own department but familiarity bred contempt.

Capucine

Picked up in a cafe lounge to be a Replica-Audrey-Hepburn and ended up in suicide.

Whitney Houston.

Bobby Brown ruined her life

Fran Drescher was raped during a home invasion while her husband was bound and gagged.

Gabrielle Union raped as a teenager while working at a Payless Shoe store and closing alone.

Kelsey Grammer's father was murdered, sister raped and murdered, two young half-brothers drowned while one was trying to save the other.

Oh, and did you hear, Henry Mountbatten-Windsor's mother died when he was just a few weeks shy of thirteen. He doesn't speak of it much.

David Niven's first wife fell down a flight of concrete stairs

Heath Ledger

Lady Pamela Hicks

Raised in the pomp and ceremony of the British Raj but fated to confront her dotage bearing the face of her father.

First thought reading the thread title was Corey Haim.

Raped by an older man at just 11 years old, then serially raped for years and years by a train of predators (to whom his so-called friend and creative partner handed him over), all in exchange for shitty movie parts and A-List drugs. He developed serious heart problems and organ failure in his twenties due to heavy drug use and disordered eating, and was an admitted cutter just to cope with the shame and trauma of his CSA.

Poor guy ended up dying in his late 30s, as a carer for his cancer-ridden mother (who survived him), forced by poverty into turning tricks, selling hair/teeth, and doing degrading reality TV spots just to eat and make rent on some box-sized roach apartment. Then, to add insult to fatal injury, after his death his aforementioned fake friend & partner sold out his tragic lurid life story to make bank off it through tell-all books and documentaries, making Haim look like some kind of manipulative willing party slut rather than the abused confused kid he was.

Just so sad. He had genuine acting talent, and seemed like a lovely earnest charming personality up to the end of his life, too.

Carole Lombard’s death broke my heart when I first read about it.

John Lennon was the first celebrity (to me) who died a violent death.

Natalie Wood

James Dean for the loss of his potential.

[quote] Carole Lombard’s death broke my heart when I first read about it

And soon after I read about it Leslie Howard's plan crashed too.

On-set deaths of actors: Vic Morrow, Brandon Lee and Jon-Erik Hexum

Here’s a freaky one: Jason Miller of The Exorcist. His son (not Jason) was doing the whole buried in the sand with his head sticking up thing people do at the beach when a motorcyclist drove OVER HIS HEAD.

Of course, I can’t find a link but I read several sources years ago.

My father killed my mother paparazzi killed my mother and my family killed my mother and now I'm married to my wife (SLAP) my mother (SLAP) I'm married to my wife AND my mother!!!!!

Aaron Carter. Tragic.

Patsy Cline

Buddy Holly

Ritchie Valens

The Big Bopper

[quote]an uncurable disease

Oh, dear!

Dead or Alive singer, Pete Burns

Jack Cassidy died in a tragic fire in his Hollywood area apartment... :-/

R28 Pete Burns was so insightful and intelligent in a reasonable discussion. Sorely missed.

Roy Orbison.

He and his wife were returning home on thei4 motorcycles. He drove up to the house and waited for her. When she didn’t show up he went up to the road and found she’d been hit and killed by a truck.

Then he was on tour and his house caught fire and burned to the ground with two of his sons in it.

Julius Caesar

A sensible, capable man but he insisted on going into the Senate on the Ides of March

R32 nah fuck him. The Julian Calendar is unbelievably stupid and I hate it.

Linda Darnell. A forgotten beauty.

Ahem.

^Link

Christopher Marlowe

R37 Kit at least was witty and sexy whilst being a tragic meow meow. And we got some cracking plays out of it.

My son

Lupe Velez

Annie

Any excuse for a hit, huh, Eric at R39?

Didn't Elvis die on the toilet?

Oh, don't ask, OP.

[quote]Didn't Elvis die on the toilet?

Yeah. He was looking for his career.

Gene Tierney:

In the spring of 1943, Gene finished filming “Heaven Can Wait” in Hollywood. She was expecting her first child and, gratefully, not yet showing signs of pregnancy. She had kept that a secret for fear of being replaced in the film. She longed to be with husband Oleg in Kansas, where he was stationed in the army.

Before leaving Los Angeles and starting her maternity leave, Gene decided to make one last appearance at the Hollywood Canteen. So, that night, Gene showed her support of American troops by signing autographs, mingling with the crowd, and shaking hands. The troops were homesick and sad; a little stardust lightened their load.

A few days after that visit, Gene woke up with red spots covering her arms and face. She had the German measles, or rubella. In 1943, there was no vaccine to prevent contracting the measles. That would not be available for 22 more years. Obstetricians advised patients to avoid crowds in their first four months of pregnancy, to avoid contracting the measles. At the time, it was believed that measles was a harmless childhood disease.

.......

After a week of doctor-ordered rest, Gene rested, got better, then packed her bags for Fort Riley, Kansas, to join Oleg. The next several months were devoted to making her Junction City home ready for the baby and being a couple.

By the fall, Gene was living in Washington, D.C., while Oleg was awaiting orders in Virginia. On the morning of October 15, 1943, Gene gave birth to a premature baby girl, weighing only two and a half pounds. Oleg flew to Washington and joined his wife at Columbia Hospital. They named their baby “Daria.”

Doctors informed them that Daria was not in good shape. She was premature and going blind. She had cataracts in both eyes. After reviewing Gene’s medical chart, the doctors concluded that Gene’s measles were responsible for the baby’s defects.

....

Daria continued to have health problems and delayed development. She had no inner ear fluid and became deaf. It was clear that she suffered from mental retardation. Gene and Oleg hoped against hope that a doctor somewhere could cure Daria. But, after consulting one specialist after another (much of it paid for by Howard Hughes), they had to face the fact that Daria was permanently disabled and needed more care than they were capable of giving her at home.

When Daria was about two years old, Gene got an unexpected jolt. She was at a tennis function. A fan approached her.

“Ms. Tierney, do you remember me?” asked the woman.

Gene had no memory of having met the stranger. She shook her head and replied, “No. Should I?”

The woman told Gene that she was in the women’s branch of the Marines and had met Gene at the Hollywood Canteen.

Gene never would forget what the woman said next:

“By the way, Ms. Tierney, did you happen to catch the German measles after that night I saw you at the Canteen?”

The woman revealed that she had had the measles herself at the time but had broken quarantine just to see Gene at the Canteen.

Gene was dumbstruck. That woman had given her the measles. She was the sole cause of Daria’s disabilities. Gene said nothing. She just turned and walked away.

Madonna's face.

Mame.

R46, I thought of Gene Tierney as soon as I saw the thread title. That story is haunting and maddening.

Prince’s only child, Amir, was born with a rare birth defect and lived only 7 days.

Lou Costello (of Abbott & Costello) was rehearsing for a radio program when he found out that his 12 month old son had drowned in a pool after somehow getting out of his playpen.

The Lana Turner/daughter murder case. Whichever of them stabbed the mobster boyfriend to death, it surely was a traumatic incident and something they had to live with for the rest of their lives.

Mamna Cass Elliott, That’s what happens when a nice a Jewish girl tries to eat a ham sandwich.

R14: her family played their part too. Bobby Brown obviously didn’t help her but I think a homophobic, jealous mother, a father who saw her as a bank account rather than a daughter and brothers who also leeched off her and got her into drugs meant she was screwed before she even met Bobby.

This was just sad and unnecessary. Martha Raye was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom when she was no longer mentally aware to recognize what was going on. I mean, why have her appear? Why FILM it? This could've been done in her absence, or in a more private way without the cameras. I blame her grifter husband for this spectacle.

Gene Tierney was the first person I thought of too. They even used that tragedy in one of Agatha Christie’s movies with Elizabeth Taylor, I forget the name of it.

Brandon Lee and Jon-Erik Hexum, two hot actors who died in tragic gun accidents on set.

All the talents in the entertainment field lost to AIDS.

That little girl from Poltergiest. Dominick Dunne’s daughter and Rebecca Schaeffer, murder victims.

Chadwick Boseman dying so young; the first black Marvel superhero. Can’t help but think of the kids who looked up to that character; very sad.

I’m old and remember being shocked when when my mother told me the TV Superman was dead (George Reeves, either suicide or murder depending on what you believe.)

Little Buffy Davis, Anissa Jones.

River Phoenix

Karen Carpenter - anorexia

Model Gia Carangi - heroin

Michael K. Williams (The Wire) - drug overdose

Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette from "True Blood") - heart failure

Sharon Tate; she allegedly begged for her killers to spare her unborn baby’s life (she was EIGHT month’s pregnant.) They stabbed her to death anyway. Hard to top that one.

Oh, maybe one almost as bad—-the last thing Princess Diana seeing as she died was papparazzi taking photos of her in the crashed car—-and then they tried to sell the photos.

Monsters, all of them

The Kim Kardashian/Kanye West marriage

Judith Barsi and her mother. I loved Land Before Time and All Dogs Go to Heaven and hearing what happened to her was heart breaking.

ME! NO ONE AKSED ME HOW I WAS!

Ricky Nelson plane crash

Sharon Tate & Friends

Jack & Bobby Kennedy Assassinations

Jayne Mansfield

Patrick Duffy’s parents were murdered in the bar that they owned and operated.

Patricia Neal; her first born child dies of measles,, her only son while still an infant being hit by a car permanently brain damaged. She suffered a series of strokes that left unable to walk and talk. It took years for her to slowly recover. Her horrible husband Roald Dahl began an affair with a woman named Felicity Crosland, who Neal considered a dear family friend. Neal confronted them about the affair and they cooled it off for a while but eventually started the affair up again. Dahl, the very entitled Dahl, admitted the affair was ongoing and basically told Neal if she didn't like it she could lump it. The marriage finally ended after 30 something years. Patricia Neal's life was a Greek tragedy.

Has anyone heard about Harry Windsor's suffering and losses? If you really want to be hit in the feels, you ought to do a bit of research on him.

THREAD CLOSED!

John F. Kennedy Jr.

Nichols Brown Simpson and Ron

Anna Nicole Smith

I think that after her son died, she lost the will to live. It was inevitable that she wouldn't be around for very long after that.

Gianni Versace….🥲

George Sanders

He made us laugh whether the film was comedy or a drama.

[quote] Her horrible husband Roald Dahl began an affair with a woman named Felicity Crosland,

I don’t understand this because he was a toady, ugly looking man. Who would want to get in bed with him?

Director Alan J. Pakula.

He was driving on the Long Island expressway when a truck ahead of him dropped some rebar. A car behind the truck ran over it it flew up and came crashing through his windshield.

I remember hearing on Howard Stern that the rebar never hit him but the trauma of it caused him to have a heart attack and swerve off the road, receiving injuries that killed him

Phil Hartman

OP: do you mean "Celebrities Tragedies" as in "multiple" celebrities who have tragedies or so you mean "Celebrity's Tragedies" as in individual celebrities who have tragedies?

Molly Shannon was in a car accident when she was a child. Her inebriated dad was driving and she lost her mom, little sister, and a cousin.

Steven Colbert was just ten years old when he lost lost his father and two brothers in an Eastern Airlines plane accident.

R18 Way worse things befell Pamela Hicks.

Her Father Lord Louis Mountbatten and nephew were killed in a IRA bomb attack.

She also managed to marry the gayest guy ever born, David Hicks made Beverly Leslie in Will & Grace look butch. If Pamela hadn't looked like a dock worker in drag they wouldn't have had children.

[quote] He was driving on the Long Island expressway when a truck ahead of him dropped some rebar. A car behind the truck ran over it it flew up and came crashing through his windshield.

I'm always paranoid about trucks carrying stuff that you can see (vs. paneled trucks that have stuff contained on the inside). It's up to the truck's driver or whoever to make sure all their cargo is tied down. I always change lanes. Even if I see a car with sports equipment tied to the roof, I get out from behind, if possible.

Kurt Cobain - we know his story

Susan St. James (Kate & Allie) lost a teenaged son in a plane crash. Her husband and other son survived

Katey Segal (Married with Children) had an 8 month old fetus die while still in her womb

Beyoncé. She did not win Album of the Year this year, despite winning more Grammys than anyone in history.

When I think of how this poor woman has suffered!

On the afternoon of July 16, 1981, Chapin was driving on the Long Island Expressway en route to perform at a free benefit concert at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, New York, that evening. At 12:27 PM, Chapin was fatally injured in a fiery traffic collision with a semi-trailer truck outside Jericho, New York. Passers-by managed to help the unconscious Chapin out of his engulfed 1975 Volkswagen Rabbit and he was immediately taken by helicopter to the nearby Nassau County Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 1:05 PM due to internal bleeding. Chapin's widow Sandy won a $12 million decision in a negligence lawsuit against Supermarkets General, the owners of the truck involved.

^Harry Chapin

Brenda Dickson being fired from "The Young and the Restless."

Heath Ledger - dead from drugs

Philip Seymour Hoffman - dead from drugs

Jimi Hendrix - dead from drugs

Judy Garland - dead from drugs

Marilyn Monroe - dead from drugs

Sonny Bono

Died in a skiing accident

Dennis Cole - son murdered

Ramon Novarro - murdered by hustlers who just wanted his money

Susan Peters

R54, the Agatha Christie story was “The Mirror Crack’d.”. I didn’t realize that that actually happened to Gene Tierney. Murder was too good for that rubella-carrying frau.

Celebrities’ Tragedies

Pamela Hicks has always come across as a great lez. Perhaps it was a lavender marriage, not uncommon in her class. Both her parents were bisexual, Mountbatten (Mountbottom) famously so.

G is just tragic

My daughter thought she was a celebrity. Her tragedy was self- induced.

Dear God, I didn’t know many of these stories; these poor people.

I always mourned Hexum. Dude checked every box.

He was so paternal on voyagers!

The role was written for a middle aged guy but producers grabbed Hexum after he walked in the door

The death of Vic Morrow and two children on the set of The Twilight Zone Movie

R46, What happened to the other daughter of Gene Tierney and Oleg Cassini was also tragic, due to a nasty stepmother.

Sal Mineo

Anton Yelchin, the Russian-born actor who played Chekov in the more recent Star Trek movies, killed when his parked SUV malfunctioned and crushed him against a concrete wall outside his home.

Golden Age Hollywood Oscar winner Claire Trevor lost her son (and only child) in the collision/crash of PSA 182 in San Diego.

So many others have already been mentioned; James Dean, George Reeves, Karen Carpenter, Cass Elliott. I'll add:

Jeffrey Hunter- Gorgeous, talented man, but sadly had a drinking problem. Literally fell down a flight of stairs to his death. The closet does kill.

Grace Lee Whitney ("Janice Rand" in Star Trek)- Raped by a Desilu studio executive at a party celebrating the series' second season renewal. He left her lying on the floor between sets, walking away after he got what he wanted. Mere days later, she was told by Gene Roddenberry her character was being dropped. She and Roddenberry were close, personal friends and he had used her in photos as an example for the uniforms when he was pitching the show. He wouldn't have hurt her like that if he hadn't been forced to do so. She developed a drinking problem, plus drug and sex addictions in addition to mental issues from the trauma. A promising career went down the drain, but as she worked to turn her life around, Roddenberry and others worked her character back into the Star Trek movies and other series. She and her daughter started a support group for survivors of rape and drug addiction.

Finally, Jim Henson- Dead at 53 from a rare form of bacterial pneumonia. If he had just sought medical attention as little as one day earlier, he would have lived. The infection spread from his lungs to his other organs and blood, going fully septic. He didn't go to a doctor or hospital simply because, "he didn't want to bother anybody".

Poor Grace - I’d never heard that story before.

I'll also add The Three Stooges- From being one of Columbia Pictures' biggest draws to Moe fetching sandwiches. They were never paid what they were worth. Curly had a stroke on set while filming "Half-wits Holiday" after suffering several mini-strokes. Larry had a gambling problem, wasting most of his money. He and his family lived in the infamous Roosevelt Hotel. He too had a stroke while filming the pilot for a Stooges TV series in the late 1960s, early 1970s. Shemp died of a heart attack after taking over for Curly. Moe, who had been witness to all of this, also died of a stroke shortly after Larry.

Dana Plato

Dead by suicide at only age 34. The day after appearing on Howard Stern where callers said all sorts of nasty things which clearly affected her. Then 11 years later almost to the day, her only son committed suicide, too.

John Lennon...not even abig Beatles fan but that was just so depressing. It's like all the greatness and beauty of the rock era and the hippie Peace and Love eraof the 60's/70's died on the spot.

The great, respected actor John Cazale barely survived filming "The Deer Hunter" before succumbing to lung cancer at 42. His longtime girlfriend Meryl Streep cared for him until the very end. The real tragedy is her loss.

Not on par with these murders, but I think the loss of Julie Andrews' voice is one of the great celebrity tragedies of all time.

Sam Smith. Tragic beyond words.

Venus and Serena Williams older half-sister Yetunde was shot in the head in a drive-by shooting in Compton, parked in front of a crack house.

Her dum-dum boyfriend, who was with her at the time, didn't realize she'd been shot, and drove to her house instead of straight to a hospital.

Of course, she died.

R32 the most heartbreaking part of Caesar's assassination is that he had thought Brutus was arranging a no loads refused public cumdump event for him

“On July 1, 1996, Margaux Hemingway was found dead in her studio apartment in Santa Monica. Though her body was found reportedly badly decomposed, the official autopsy and California death records list July 1 as her date of death. She had taken an overdose of phenobarbital, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's toxicology report one month later, although her family had difficulty accepting the fact of her suicide.”

I second Phil Hartman to the upteenth power. One of the most beloved gifted comedians, murdered by a maniacal cocaine infused jealous wife who then kills herself...leaving 2 orphans who have to live with the fact that their mother killed their father. I hate that murdering bitch so much, I hope she's burning in hell.

Did Howard ever address that, r102? I don’t think he did.

R110, and yet Andy Dick, who enabled her addiction, is still alive.

Madonna’s face.

Anne He he. Bitch may have been crazy, but she knew how to make a dramatic exit.

Meg Ryan's plastic surgery.

Dorothy Dandridge. Sexually abused by her mother’s lesbian partner, became frigid as a result. Marriage to a Nicholas brother who spent time away from her with other women. Delaying her labor to look for her husband to go with her to the hospital for childbirth. As a result of postponing the birth, her daughter was born with severe mental disabilities. Her husband blamed her and left for Europe. The mistress of Otto Preminger, who mistreated her. Hollywood refusing to give her roles worthy of her talent despite being nominated for an Oscar for her role in CARMEN JONES.

Marriage to a white man who not only abused her, but took her to the cleaners during their acrimonious divorce. She declared herself bankrupt. She could no longer afford the fancy care facility she had her daughter in; she was transferred to a state facility. Then dying at the relatively young age of 41 from an overdose of antidepressants.

Grace Kelly - car accident

R31 Roy was the first person who came to mind for me too.

R111 I looked that up and I found this comment Sounds like he didn't but I didn't know any of this stuff about Dana's fiance.

"I'd be the first one to call out Howard on his bullshit. Howard was indeed an asshole with Dana Plato. She was upset about the appearance. She called Joni Richardson, her one-time mother-in-law and close friend. Dana told her she wasn't happy about the interview.

That being said, there is so much more to Dana's last moments.

I wrote a longer post about it here (link), but even that post barely scratches the surface.

Long story short, Dana was being milked and used towards the end of her life by a flash in the pan fiancé and a promoter.

Dana was dying in her Winnebago. She was struggling to breathe. Her fiancé's first instincts were to whip out a camera and start taking pictures of her. He didn't call 911. Instead, he called the promoter while she took her last gasps of air.

Later down the road, The National Enquirer received the CD called "Dana Plato's Last Breath," which the promoter was now selling along with picture book. The National Enquirer also says they received the last photos taken of Plato.

The promoter had recorded the conversation with the Fiancé while Plato was dying in the background. He would end up selling this audio cd.

The fiancé had lied to police about how he found Plato. He would also tell a different story to the family. He's a fucking scum bag who did nothing while she died except try to find a way to make money off her death."

Barbara Stanwyck was raped by her brother in law. She got pregnant and had a botched abortion that left her infertile.

When she was four, her mother was pregnant when she was thrown from a trolley by a drunk. She died several days later from septicemia. Her father abandoned her and her siblings to go work on the Panama Canal, where he died a few years later from yellow fever.

Everything but the bloodhounds snapping’ at her rear.

Wow, r119. That’s a really sad tale.

Isadora Duncan

G not winning an Oscar.

Suzanne Somers.

She had quite a career ahead of her until her husband Alan Hamel convinced her she was worth much more than Hollywood thought she was worth and derailed her career. I'm sure she regrets the day she listened to him back in 1980-81.

Nico Minardos

He went to the synagogues begging to get out of B Movies but he was told 'Too late, we already have Sal Mineo and one Cute Ethnic is enough'.

R112 Andy Dick is NOT responsible for Hartman's death. Many people have drug addiction relapses without murdering their spouse. I would say most people, actually. What else is Andy Dick to blame for? Did he cause 9/11 too? Grow up.

Aaliyah gets my vote. I was such a fan and around 18 when she died. It was a such a shock. I’m not sure I believe the whole “she would have been as big as Beyoncé” because she was going down a more left-field route, a bit rocky and a bit darker. But I would love to have seen what she would have done a few albums done the line. Her voice is like caramel, and against Timbalands hard beats it was a match made in heaven.

Amy Winehouse Princess Diana Aliyah Prince

Natasha Richardson

R120 didnt know all of that about Barbara...truly awful. Good thing is she seemed to have lived a long full and (I imagine) happy life afterwards.

[quote]^Harry Chapin

What a relief! I thought you meant Lauren Chapin!

Some of you are basically just naming dead celebrities, so that's basically all of them.

Guess what: [italic]every single celebrity[/italic] who is living right now will one day be dead too. What a tragedy!

Paul Walker, because I was in love with him, and no man that beautiful should die a death like his.

[quote]The death of Vic Morrow and two children on the set of The Twilight Zone Movie

Daddy only left me $100.

Bo Derek (See Suzanne Somers above)

The suicide of Carroll O'Connor's adopted son Hugh.

Amateurs.

The Borgnine/Merman marriage

Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes

[quote]where he died a few years later from yellow fever.

Wait. That's a thing?

[quote] I remember hearing on Howard Stern that the rebar never hit [Director Alan J. Pakula] but the trauma of it caused him to have a heart attack and swerve off the road, receiving injuries that killed him

But your own link says:

[quote]Police (you know, the people who were there and are experts at investigating traffic deaths) said the director died after a metal pipe -- seven feet long, four inches in diameter -- crashed through his windshield [bold]and struck him in the head[/bold] as he was driving on the Long Island Expressway.

R126, reading comprehension really isn't your thing is it?

He never said Dick was responsible for Hartman's death. He said Dick enabled her addiction.

[quote]and yet Andy Dick, who enabled her addiction,

The hollywood herpes tree.

Keri Russell's infamous haircut.

No one mentioned the epitome of celebrity tragedy - Judy Garland ?

Heather O’Rourke Dominique Dunne

R142 the implication is that by enabling her addiction, he shares responsibility for her death. I'm kind of surprised I have to explain that to another adult.

*hartman's death

[quote]If you really want to be hit in the feels

Oh, FFS.

R130, In her final years, Barbara Stanwyck endured a serious house fire, a home invasion where she was pistol whipped and robbed . . . and “The Colbys”.

And after the father abandoned the family, Barbara and her brother Byron were in and out of foster homes and sometimes living with their adult siblings.

She only did the Colby’s to rebuild her house from the fire.

Naomi Judd blowing her brains out. Her daughter Ashley Judd finding her.

Teresa Saldana

Susan Peters

R150 - she also endured death in her later years.

R154, She survived her attack.

Suzan Ball, Lucy’s cousin.

Gig Young

"On September 27, 1978, Young, age 64, married his fifth wife, a 31-year-old German magazine editor named Kim Schmidt.[38] He met Schmidt in Hong Kong while working on Game of Death.[39]

On October 19, 1978, three weeks after his marriage to Schmidt, the couple were found dead in their apartment at The Osborne in Manhattan.[40] Police surmised that Young shot his wife and then himself. Young was found face down on the floor of his bedroom, a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson pistol in his hand. His wife was found face down beside him. Young had apparently shot himself in the mouth and the bullet exited the back of his head. His wife was shot in the back of the head. No suicide note was found.[41]"

I was molested.

Celebrity?

Why, as you surely know, I was Miss West Virginia in 1977!

But "tragedy" is so strong. Perhaps "mishap."

I always got Gig Young mixed up with Richard Long.

I wonder if Richard Long went by “Dick.”

Samantha Morton - abandoned by her parents, spent her childhood in foster care, raped as a child by staff of care home, mental and drug issues, blacklisted by Harvey Weinstein.

Natalie Wood - raped by Kirk Douglas and then murdered by Robert Wagner and/or Christopher Walken.

Lisa Marie Presley - losing her dad as a kid, being raised by Priscila, marrying creeps, addiction, her son's suicide that led to health issues and later her own death.

River Phoenix - abused by the Children of God cult with his parents' permission, losing his virginity to an adult woman when he was 14 in front of his parents (aka he was raped!), used by his parents as a meal ticket since he was a little kid and was exploited so badly until he couldn't handle it anymore and took to drugs that ended up killing him (the last one thanks to John Frusciante who gave him a lethal dose of speedball without telling River what it actually was). After he died, some scumbag reporter broke into the funeral home and took photos of River in his coffin and sold them.

R145 Judy Garland was mentioned up at R83.

Gene Tierney. She was at the Hollywood Canteen, a club designed to be a haven for brave soldiers in WWII; celebrities frequently went there so the soldiers could meet and be entertained by their Holllywood stars stars. A zealous fan of Tierney's accosted her at the Canteen one night and hugged her. Tierney was pregnant at the time. Her daughter was born deaf and mentally disabled. The condition was thought to be caused by a rubella infection. Later in her life, the same crazy fan met Tierney again. She told her that the night they met at the Hollywood canteen she had been quarantined on the base because she had measles but she managed to sneak out and go the the Canteen because she couldn't pass up a chance to meet her "favorite star!" Tierney said that after that "I didn't care whether ever again I was anyone's favorite actress." Tierney also suffered from lifetime mental illness problems. She had a lot to bear.

[quote] Tierney also suffered from lifetime mental illness problems.

Lifetime?

Even before the night of the measles attack?

R166, Gene Tierney’s mental issues began before the birth of her afflicted daughter.

R167, Gene had suffered from bouts of manic depression long before she married and had children.

“Gail Russell moved to a small house where she lived alone. She would periodically try to stop drinking then start again. On one occasion she was hospitalized. On August 26, 1961, Russell was found dead in her apartment in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, at the age of 36. She was found by two neighbors who were concerned they had not seen her for several days. An empty vodka bottle was by her side, and the house was full of empty bottles.

She died from liver damage attributed to "acute and chronic alcoholism" with aspiration of stomach contents as an additional cause. She was also found to have been suffering from malnutrition at the time of her death.“

G. - all those Oscar nominations and gold dresses and still no little gold non-binary statue.

R165 And then 'The Mirror Crack'd' from side to side.

M…three Oscars but those unfortunate looking daughters…

R170, Redundancy is so unnecessary.

G

170+ comments, and no Dana Plato! Quintessential cursed child star tragedy. Raised by crap mother, drugs, alcohol, mental illness, ripped off by crooked accountant, did soft core, taken advantage of during her struggles on the Howard Stern Show, dead at 34, son later also committed suicide. Poor Dana didn’t have a chance.

R175, You might want to check out R102 and R119.

R176

Thanks. My fault. I obviously scrolled by those. Glad DL isn’t off its game.

R99, do you have any proof of Hunter’s bisexuality? This is the first time I’ve heard of this.

Erin Moran.

Teresa Saldana

R7 Lindbergh also had three side lovers and had seven children in total with the three women (two of whom were sisters) - as well as the six he had with his wife.

Glad someone mentioned Gail Russell. I recently became aware of her after watching a short doc about her career that played after a copy of THE UNINVITED on YouTube. She’d been so interesting to watch in the film! Then I learned about her lonely struggles and later days. Very sad story.

R182, Gail Russell was the inspiration for Jane Fonda’s character in “The Morning After”.

Jane said in interviews at the time that she read everything she could find on Gail Russell to prepare for the film.

Having to kiss Clark Gable with his rotten-meat breath in "Gone with the Wind" started all of my troubles.

Like having one's fact forced into a swine-butcher's offal bucket.

R77 I had to drive that god awful LIE daily … that road was a horror…we didn’t call it eh Distressway for nothing

R184 . . .

FUN FACT

Vivien Leigh used to spray perfume in her mouth to maintain fresh breath.

Maybe not a specific tragedy but Marilyn Monroe was undone by a bunch of awful Psychiatrists who did her more harm than good, exploited her and kept her hooked on pills.

Dustin Diamond. Have we forgotten about Screech ???

Michael Jordan's father was kidnapped and murdered.

Demi Lovato had to walk by a display of diet cookies in a yogurt shop, and it triggered they.

And, to add to the tragedy, when them justifiably complained about it on social media, instead of compassion, they was met with derision and universal condemnation.

It was a terrible, terrible tragedy. I don't think them has fully recovered.

Who was with her?

[quote]I had to drive that god awful LIE daily

Had to? As in past tense?

Color me jealous.

R110: I still curse this cunts name. The link below is just one example of what a jealous, desperate bitch she was.

Gorgeous Jeffrey Hunter

On the afternoon of May 26, 1969, Hunter suffered an intracranial hemorrhage while walking down a three-stair set of steps at his home in Van Nuys, California. He fell, knocked over a planter, and struck his head on the banister, fracturing his skull. He was found unconscious by Frank Bellow, an actor and a friend of Hunter's, who came for a visit, and taken to Valley Presbyterian Hospital, where he underwent brain surgery. He died at about 9:30 the following morning at the age of 42.

R194- How sad, I didn't know he died that young or that he was an alcoholic.

Whitney Houston - ruining her voice with drugs and then her unfortunate drowning Paul Walker Luke Perry

I didn’t know Whitney died or took drugs.

Not very many people here seem familiar with Aristotle, Shakespeare, Corneille and O'Neill or their concept of "tragedy."

"Bad luck" isn't tragedy. Tragedy requires a demise set in motion through the hubris of the character, and ending in a terrible realization from it that provides catharsis to its witnesses.

In this way John Barrymore is a tragic figure, but Jayne Mansfield isn't.

But since we have so many people who are "stunned" at how "tragically, criminally underrated" Matt Dillon's butt is in "Rumble Fish," maybe the clarification is beside the point. Of course we use the word with less formality in everyday conversation, but the OP's inability to post "Celebrities'" tells us she is not starting with any kind of language knowledge.

R193, to add to the tragedy, Phil Hartman bought the gun that his wife used to murder him. He bought them matching guns because she was worried about security (cocaine paranoia?)

[quote] Fran Drescher was raped during a home invasion while her husband was bound and gagged.

I never heard about this. That's horrible.

I might have missed this. But, was Kelly McGillis' rape mentioned already?

Kirsty MacColl. She was the woman in Fairytale of New York. She was vacationing in Mexico with her family and a speedboat ran into a swimming area. She pushed her son out of its way, but she herself got hit by the boat.

Regarding Barbara Stanwyck

[quote]...Her father abandoned her and her siblings to go work on the Panama Canal, where he died a few years later from yellow fever.

While it's true he went to work on the Canal, Stanwyck's father did not die in Panama. He was returning to New York from Panama aboard the SS Advance which left from Cristobal in the Canal Zone . He died at sea on June 5, 1919. Listed on the manifest was his United States address which matched exactly the address in the US 1920 census record of his children. Rubie (Barbara) was 13. Also living there were her brother Malcolm and her sister Maude.

I neglected to add that Stanwyck's father's record in Panama notes that he was "Found dead in bed on S.S.Advance. Buried at sea.".

The fact that he had the correct Brooklyn address of his family at home on the ship's manifest (which was a different address from the address where the family lived when he left which is recorded on his Panama record) indicates that he must have had some contact with his family after he arrived in Panama.

R199 - TRAGEDY!

[quote]River Phoenix - abused by the Children of God cult with his parents' permission, losing his virginity to an adult woman when he was 14 in front of his parents (aka he was raped!), used by his parents as a meal ticket since he was a little kid and was exploited so badly until he couldn't handle it anymore and took to drugs that ended up killing him (the last one thanks to John Frusciante who gave him a lethal dose of speedball without telling River what it actually was). After he died, some scumbag reporter broke into the funeral home and took photos of River in his coffin and sold them.

Incidentally, I have always thought that 19-year-old Joaquin being present when his older brother overdosed and then having to make the 9-1-1 call to try to save his life was so tragic.

I can't imagine that happening to my brother, especially at such a young age. If you have listened to the recording, Joaquin sounds so distraught, you just want to reach out and hug him somehow.

Nevertheless, he remains polite and courteous, minding his Ps and Qs despite the dispatcher inexplicably losing patience with him a few times.

After River died, Joaquin, who had not acted since PARENTHOOD (1989), became the new family breadwinner and relaunched his career with TO DIE FOR (1995).

I think this is a rare case of the younger sibling equaling -- or perhaps eclipsing -- the superstar older brother. I'm thinking of the younger brothers of Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson, and Sylvester Stallone who all attempted acting careers to no avail.

Not even the younger Baldwin brothers ever overshadowed Alec, though Billy and even Stephen at some point were getting major motion picture deals.

For r198 (Wikipedia entry):

[quote] In April 1957, her breasts were the focus of a publicity stunt intended to deflect media attention from Sophia Loren during a dinner party in the Italian star's honor. Photographs of them were published around the world. The best-known photo showed Loren's gaze falling on the actress's cleavage (she was seated between Loren and her dinner companion, Clifton Webb) when Mansfield leaned over the table, allowing her breasts to spill over her low neckline exposing one nipple.[290] The Jayne Mansfield-Sophia Loren photograph was a UPI sensation, appearing in newspapers and magazines with the word censored hiding the actress's exposed nipple.[291]

At the same time, the world's media were quick to condemn Mansfield's stunts. One editorial columnist wrote: "We are amused when Miss Mansfield strains to pull in her stomach to fill out her bikini better; but we get angry when career-seeking women, shady ladies, and certain starlets and actresses ... use every opportunity to display their anatomy unasked."[42] By the late 1950s, Mansfield began to generate a great deal of negative publicity because of repeated exposure of her breasts in carefully staged public "wardrobe accidents".[292][293] Richard Blackwell, her wardrobe designer (who also designed for Jane Russell, Dorothy Lamour, Peggy Lee and Nancy Reagan), dropped her from his client list because of this.[294] In April 1967, the Los Angeles Times wrote: "She confuses publicity and notoriety with stardom and celebrity and the result is very distasteful to the public."[295]

If that’s not tragedy as a result of hubris, then what is?

Sorry about the second paragraph…

R206, don't try using Wikipedia to demonstrate your lack of capacity to understand the terms you're misusing.

She had no realization at her point of doom and rather than "catharsis" her death engendered pity for her children and decades of jokes based on the false tale that she had been decapitated. The damage to her head did not result in such a thing. You also don't know what "hubris" is. Her fatal flaw was not getting big tits and acting a fool. It was A TRAFFIC ACCIDENT.

Rather than play a game you can't win, since you're rather thick, how about posting about poor Brittany Murphy or someone's puppy who died of Parvo? That's more your speed, and there's nothing wrong with it. After all, my point was how many people here don't have a concept of the concept, so you're among your peers.

[quote] Katey Segal (Married with Children) had an 8 month old fetus die while still in her womb

Also, the story of her father Boris' death was quite awful.

From Wikipedia

[quote] Sagal was killed in an accident during production of the miniseries World War III, when he was partially decapitated by walking into the tail rotor blades of a helicopter in the parking lot of the Timberline Lodge in Oregon.[3] An investigation revealed that he turned the wrong way after exiting the helicopter. He died five hours later in a Portland hospital.[8]

The entire O'Neal family (except, apparently, Patrick).

Ryan, Joanne Moore, Tatum, Griffin, Farrah Fawcett, Redmond.

An entire family torn apart by Hollywood excess and severe drug addiction.

And ass cancer.

And you can add Gio Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola's son killed by Griffin in a horrific, reckless boating incident, to the list.

God, what a shitshow.

Donatella Versace's face!

Bill Cosby lost his son Ennis in 1997. Ennis was changing a flat tire when he was shot in the head during robbery attempt.

Marvin Gaye - shot by his father while breaking up a fight his parents were having

Otis Redding - killed in a plane crash

The Day the Music Died!

Anna Nicole

Anna Nicole's son

Brittany Murphy

Brad Renfro

Johnathan Brandis

Naya Rivera

Cory Monteith

Mark Saling

Amy Winehouse

Meryl nursing a dying John Cazale is pretty sad, the guy was only 42 and apparently a great chap

Joan Rivers

Paul Michael Glaser with the AIDs tragedies in his family. Great credit to him for using it for good to try and help others.

Annette Funicello's MS was sad.

Michael Zaslow from Guiding Light had ALS and died young.

Alexander the Great - malaria or typhoid fever, some say poisoned, age 32.

Antinous - drowned in the Nile, possibly murdered, age 18/19.

Kit Marlowe - murdered, age 29.

George Gordon Lord Byron - recurring bouts of fever, leading to relapses of malaria, age 36.

Oscar Wilde - imprisonment, and early death from meningitis, age 46.

Exactly how old are you, r219?

[quote] Michael Zaslow from Guiding Light had ALS and died young.

He had two adopted daughters. One of his adopted daughters died six years after him in 2004. Two years later, his wife died. I felt bad for the remaining daughter. She lost both parents and her sister in a period of 8 years.

Child actors Bobby Buntrock (TV's "Hazel") and Brandon deWilde ("Member of the Wedding," "Shane," "Hud') both died in freak car accidents at ages 21 and 30, respectively.

r198, I can just picture you sneering contemptuously while you typed that in your fuchsia caftan and matching marabou-trimmed mules.

Dack Rambo wasn't a huge star. But, he had pretty tragic life. He and his twin brother Dirk were actors on The New Loretta Young Show. Dirk died in a car accident age 25. Dack acted mostly in primetime and daytime soaps. He died at 52 of AIDS and he came out as bisexual several years before his death.

Natalie Wood. In the middle of a quiet, peaceful night at sea with her beloved husband and ther devoted friends, she was awaken by the sound of a dinghy banging against the hull, went out on the deck to fasten it tighter, lost her balance, and fell to her death without a sound...tragic, stupid accident. Nobody heard a thing.

Shelia Florance may be known to some on her for playing Lizzie Birdsworth in Prisoner Cell Block H.

Her baby was blown out of her arms and killed during an air raid in England. Shortly afterwards her husband was killed in the Normandy landings.

In the 1950s her 18 year old daughter fell from the roof of a 9-storey bank where she worked. Shelia was led to believe it was suicide and blamed herself for not knowing her daughter was troubled, but after she herself died new evidence emerged suggesting her daughter had likely been murdered.

Samantha Smith, child political activist who was becoming a series TV star died with her father flying back from a set in Maine. She was also being stalked by the person who would eventually murder Rebecca Schaeffer, who he switched to after Samantha died.

R208, do people call you a pedantic cunt?

Let me be the first.

My brother just died at 57! I lost half my money and custody of my son! I win!

Florence Ballard

[quote] I can just picture you sneering contemptuously while you typed that in your fuchsia caftan and matching marabou-trimmed mules.

...while wearing these glasses.

R231- 😂

Beyonce's illiteracy.

R233's racism

Robert "Alexis" Arquette.

Man transitions into a woman with great fanfare both before and after.

Trans woman Alexis realizes he has a terminal illness, realizes his really bad choices and transitions back to being a man.

Alexis Arquette passes away as Robert. Without his original parts.

This tragedy is seldom discussed.

R235 = the anti-trans troll.

R181 I read the Berg biography of Lindburgh and thought he was a misunderstood hero. ooops But given what we've since learned he was a total jerk.

R237, There’s the theory that he was behind the kidnapping and murder of his son because the boy had health problems and did not meet Lindbergh’s standards of physical perfection.

R238 I highly doubt it. Just sounds like mudslinging.

R227 I remember Samantha! She wrote a letter to Gorbachev, I believe. Poor thing.

Correction: Yuri Andropov.

R240 no that was me , bitch.

R242 yeah and he thought you were a first grader!

Thinking of the Golden Girls, I always think it's tragic when people get dementia when older, forgetting their rich lives. For this thread - Estelle Getty and Peter Falk. He was found once wandering the streets in his pajamas and his daughter got a law passed after he died to prevent children being denied visitation to parents with dementia, as she had.

R243, Sad . . .

The number of people who are actually transgender is a small fraction of those who claim to be.

The people who deserve our help and support are swept along in a tidal wave of crazy dysmorphics and attention whores.

That's the tragedy I was pointing out. The "anti trans troll" slam has become meaningless and does not apply in the Alexis Arquette case.

I concur R245 the real people needing help should be the priority

John Barrymore was an alcoholic. His sister and brother were also alcoholics. I don't see the tragedy, he had the disease of alcoholism and/or was an addictive personality, like so many others. Yes he was a brilliant talent but he was not responsible for that, he was born with it and didn't choose it.

[quote]his daughter got a law passed after he died to prevent children being denied visitation to parents with dementia, as she had.

Why was she denied visitation? I've never heard of it if a parent has dementia.

R248 I understand his second wife (as conservator) didn't keep the family updated on his medical condition, permit them to come visit or give them info on the death or funeral. That's what Falk's daughter alleged from memory. That's certainly what "Falk's law" aims to rectify

Keanu Reeves was the first person I thought of. Abandoned by his father as a child, grew up poor, beloved sister sying young of cancer, daughter dying in the womb shortly before her birth, child's mother dying not long after.

R221 Do you know how his daughter died?

R163 In an interview Phoenix claimed he lost his virginity at the age "three of four," not 14. At the time, his management tried to play it off as a "joke."

Edward Furlong is another.

Dalida

R248, Fake Prince Freddie prevented Francesca Hilton from visiting her mother Zsa Zsa.

That gorgeous French actor Gaspard killed while skiing. And Natasha Richardson too.

Not so much Sonny Bono as he wouldn't get off Blanche's lanai.

R256, Speaking of skiing deaths . . .

What about that promising little girl actress whose family was like immigrants from Eastern Europe and she supported the family, but the father/ husband was abusive and murdered them when the mother tried to get them to escape and then he committed suicide and then some animation director took her voice recording and made her a dead dog in his movie?

Speaking of death by cannibalism…

Kobe Bryant and his daughter -- The helicopter crash

Michelle Thomas -- Was diagnosed with cancer and initially refused treatment because she was afraid it would ruin her chances of conceiving children. By the time she got treatment, it was too late and she died childless anyway. She was only 30.

Michael Cuccione -- Was diagnosed with cancer twice as a child but the treatment wreaked havoc on his lungs and they were never the same after. He died of respiratory failure at age 16.

Christina Grimmie -- Murdered by an obsessive stalker while at a meet and greet with fans after a concert

Jossara Jinaro -- died from Cancer of Unknown Primary, a rare diagnosis in which the primary tumor site cannot be identified, at age 48.

Has socialite Dorothy Hale been mentioned yet?

Cameron Boyce -- Dead of epilepsy at age 20

SOPHIE -- tried to take a picture of the full moon and fell off a roof while doing it

The Glee curse -- Mark Salling (committed suicide to avoid consequences of child pornography), Corey Monteith (overdosed at 31), Naya Rivera (drowned in front of her son whose life she just saved)

Romy Schneider - her son impaled himself in a freak accident

Neville, who died of ennui.

Thanks for the post, R9, I am glad she appeared so early in this thread.

[quote][R221] Do you know how his daughter died?

There were different rumors regarding Helena Hufford Zaslow's death. I used read message boards and soap blogs. One story was that she died of a drug overdose and another was a drug related car crash.

I GOT ALL YOU BITCHES BEAT

Yeah, I think River Phoenix was sexually assaulted before age 14. Whoever's interested should look up the "Children of God" cult.

Jean Seberg, driven into madness and suicide by the FBI, who spread hateful rumors about her and ruined her career due to Seberg's support of Civil Rights.

Anissa Jones, the little girl on Family Affair, who grew up in an abusive household, managed to separate from her parents and live on her own, only to soon die of a massive drug overdose at only 18.

Rose McGowan also grew up in Children of God, and it may account for some of her issues today. That and Weinstein, of course.

Casey Kasem's 2nd wife, Jean Kasem (played the wife of Carla's ex-husband Nick on Cheers), wouldn't allow Kasem's children from his first marriage to see Kasem. Kasem died of sepsis / bed sores. Jean then buried him, inexplicably, in Norway.

Reba’s band dying in a plane crash

R271 I listened to the podcast Bitter Blood: Kasem vs Kasem a couple of years ago. It was well produced, but it difficult to listen to because of how his older kids weren't allowed to see him.

Kathie Lee Gifford

First, the sweat shop scandal involving her clothing line.

Then, husband Frank was entrapped in a NYC hotel room by an airline stewardess in cahoots with a tabloid.

When cahoots enters the picture you know you’re in trouble!

Frank Gifford was also having an affair with Johnny Carson's wife. Johnny Carson paid someone to break into the apartment where Frank & Mrs. Carson would meet. Apparently, it was a tryst pad. Anyway, Frank claimed to not even remember Carson's wife. Frank didn't really deny 100%, it was more of a "I forgot."

R276, That occurred back in the early 1970s.

Guitar playing genius Stevie Ray Vaughn - crashed in a helicopter during foggy weather

Joan Collins' novels

Actor James Stacy, from the 60's-70's: He lost an arm and leg during a motorcycle accident that killed his girlfriend. Luckily, he recovered enough to continue acting after this.

R280 or unluckily, if you were the 11-year-old girl he was convicted of molesting in 1995...

(He also jumped off a cliff in a failed suicide attempt, and died of anaphylactic shock from an antibiotic. So much for happy endings...)

R274 Those are scandals, not tragedies.

[quote]Guitar playing genius Stevie Ray Vaughn - crashed in a helicopter during foggy weather

I did it better.

John Denver

Naya Rivera was very sad. It happened on my bday and the year of the pandemic to boot. It was sall too sad and tragic

Lisa Robin Kelley

Chyna

Twitch

Rita Coolidge's older sister, Priscilla (who was once married to Booker T. Jones, of Booker T. and the MG's fame) was murdered by her husband (not Booker T), who then turned the gun on himself. This happened about 10 years ago.

Rita and Priscilla were very close, and it devastated her.

To make matters worse, the husband's entire family hated him and refused to take custody of his body or have anything to do with making the arrangements, so that responsibility fell on Rita. She had to make the arrangements for the cremation of her sister's murderer, and the disposal of his ashes. She didn't want to do it, but it's something she felt her sister would have wanted her to do.

[quote] Naya Rivera was very sad. It happened on my bday and the year of the pandemic to boot.

"to boot"? It somehow made it more of a tragedy for Naya Rivera because her accidental death happened on your birthday?? Please explain that to us.

R290, that's not what I meant.

What I mea f is I was already depressed due to the pandemic, it was a milestone bday. I was depressed days leading to that day, the day of and Naya's death made it even sadder

Brian Kelly injured in a motorcycle accident which resulted in John Phillip Law getting the role of Robin Stone in The Love Machine.

In 1970, Brian was involved in a serious motorcycle accident, which left his right arm and leg paralyzed. He subsequently won a legal settlement ($750,000), but the severe impairment cost him his on-camera career. Undaunted, he used his settlement money to produce films, serving as executive producer of the popular Harrison Ford starrer Blade Runner (1982) and associate producer of Cities of the Wild (1996). He first married gorgeous, aspiring blonde actress Laura Devon in 1962. Both met while living in Detroit and married while climbing up the Hollywood ladder. The union ended four years later. He then married Valerie Ann Romero in 1972, with whom he had a daughter Hallie in 1975 and a son Devin in 1980. Brian died of pneumonia in Voorhees, New Jersey, just a few days before his 74th birthday in 2005. -

R292, His nephew is Broadway’s Brian d’Arcy James.

r291, how are you doing now? (Not being snarky, I genuinely care.)

Herve Villechaize

His organs were too big for his small body which caused him intense pain. He couldn't take it anymore so he went outside and shot himself in the head, recording the whole thing (the police confiscated the tape) because he wanted his longtime girlfriend to hear from him that he loved her and it wasn't her fault.

R294, I'm doing fine, thank you

[quote] Michelle Thomas -- Was diagnosed with cancer and initially refused treatment because she was afraid it would ruin her chances of conceiving children. By the time she got treatment, it was too late and she died childless anyway. She was only 30.

Her death was shocking because a lot of people didn't know about the cancer. I remember Entertainment Tonight ran a segment on it and I was surprised she was 30. I would have thought she was 22 or 23 at the time of her death. A couple of years ago, Jaleel White did some interview where he talked about how she was very kind to him. He was very sad while talking about her.

You rang.

Ramon Novarro's murder. The murder itself was bad enough, what made is worse is that the killers got overly light sentences (probably because some people thought Novarro "deserved it" ) and went on to commit rapes after getting out of prison

Bump

Princess Grace and Princess Stephanie car crash.

Speaking of car crashes, no one's mentioned Montgomery Clift.

If Mike Todd had lived, would Liz have had a completely different life?

Valerie Harper. She spent years at death's door dying of cancer.

R304, Some people just don’t want to let go.

R305 So true. Not naming names but so true.

I think Shannen Doherty is going to be another Valerie Harper. It will be several years before she dies from stage 4 cancer.

It’s always hard for actors to leave the stage behind, they cling to it as if it was life.

The film version of Mame

Whitney Houston and her daughter.

Another thing about River Phoenix. His manager did not want to pay for his funeral. So his assistant paid for it.

Why would the manager's assistant pay for the funeral? The Phoenix family had money.

Patton Oswalt's writer wife Michelle, dying from cardiac arrest due to prescription Fentanyl and other prescription drugs.

R313 Or, was it MURDER!

I'm a big Mo so I don't even have kids, but the Beverly Sills story hurts. She had 2 bio kids, both handicapped.

Her son was so severely handicapped he could not hear, speak, or walk. He had palsy as well. Plus he had next to zero comprehension.

That's a lifetime of heartache. And Miss Sills kept her kids at home.

Overdoses, plane crashes, fires, etc pale in comparison IMO.

Goddess Mamele

R315, Her daughter was born deaf, but had led a full and productive life before dying in 2016.

Not sure who the three sisters listed in the obituary are, unless her father was married prior to his marriage to Beverly.

(R312) do you really think they wanted to give up what little money they had? River was the breadwinner, that means there income was going to stop. River was not that wealthy. He was doing independent movies. And drugs are not cheap.

R318 They had enough money to pay for a funeral u dumb cunt.

River Phoenix's real name was River Bottom.

My ass is a hog

Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher's skiing accident. It's been nearly 10 years.

Larry Flynt, founder of Hustler magazine: Larry was shot and paralyzed by a white supremacist enraged that a picture featuring a black/white couple was in the skin mag. Side note... the shooter was later executed due to being responsible for the murder of an interracial couple.

Selena

R324. Es Titties???

Sharon Tate

Ishtar

[quote} Marriage to a white man who not only abused her, but took her to the cleaners during their acrimonious divorce.

Oh no! A white man!

Actor Jon Blake. A car accident while driving home after the last day of filming The Lighthorsemen left him severely disabled. Died at 52.

Not really a tragedy but Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds dying within a day of each other.

Andy Warhol in hospital. When a nurse went in to check on him rigor mortis had already begun. (What was the name of that hospital again?)

New York Hospital.

WARHOL ESTATE SETTLES FOR $8 MILLION

Dec 25, 1991 — The estate of pop artist Andy Warhol received $8 million to settle its medical malpractice and wrongful death suit against New York Hospital ...

r330 why wouldn't that qualify as a tragedy?

R334, It’s not. One was an addict who had lapsed and the other was very ill.

Mine. My head was sliced off in my car accident and landed on the tusks of the roadside boar that seeded the porker who furnished Mama Cass’s final ham sandwich! 😕

I think dying within days of one another is sad r335. Drug addiction is always tragic to me because a life is wasted on substances.

R337, Carrie’s autopsy showed that she was back on drugs and her heart gave out on an airplane.

Debbie had suffered two strokes and was in poor health. According to son Todd Fisher, she wanted to die after witnessing Carrie’s death and basically willed herself to do so.

Carrie likely doubled up on her drugs to get her through the long flight. She knew she could not take the chance of getting them through airport security.

So it is a tragedy because it was so unnecessary. Poor Billie Lourd who lost her mother and grandmother at the same time. And to Todd, losing his sister and mother at the same time.

Paris, Prince, Blanket - for being "fathered" by Michael Jackson.

[quote]The Glee curse -- Mark Salling (committed suicide to avoid consequences of child pornography), Corey Monteith (overdosed at 31), Naya Rivera (drowned in front of her son whose life she just saved0

Their characters (Puck, Finn, Santana) were major characters and original glee club members, so it's not like they were minor/side characters.

I think that's what makes it more bizarre to me.

[quote]River was the breadwinner, that means there income was going to stop.

Their spare, Joaquin, was on deck. Though he had quit at age 15 after PARENTHOOD (he never cared for acting as a child) he was forced back into it at age 21 (two years after River's death) and luckily for the family it paid off beyond their wildest dreams.

Joaquin's return to acting was in Gus Van Sant's "To Die For" co-starring Nicole Kidman, Matt Dillon, and Casey Affleck, with music by Danny Elfman.

Not too shabby.

Margaux Hemingway's rotting corpse was a fucking tragedy.

One can demand there not be an autopsy?

“On January 23, 2003, Nell Carter, aged 54, collapsed and died at her home in Beverly Hills; her son Joshua discovered her body that night. Per a provision in Carter's will, no autopsy was performed. Using blood tests, X-rays, and a cursory physical examination, the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office ruled that Carter's death was the likely result of "probable arteriosclerotic heart disease, with diabetes a contributing condition".

Carter was survived by her partner Ann Kaser, who inherited her property and custody of her two sons. She is buried at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.”

[quote]One can demand there not be an autopsy?

Absolutely.

Some Jewish people will refuse to permit autopsies on their loved ones.

Patty Duke dying at 69 years old 💔 Just think if she was still alive, how much further she could have went with her mental health advocacy and all the different acting roles that she could have played.

[quote]how much further she could have went

Oh, dear!

Desi Jr

R346 California is one of the states that permits a religious objection to an autopsy. A religious objection is not likely to stop a legally mandatory autopsy, however, it may prevent one that a coroner wants to pursue on a discretionary basis. California law established a "Certificate of Religious Belief" that a person can complete during his or her lifetime to set forth an objection to an autopsy after death.

That document was probably the provision attached to Nell Carter's will. Also, if the family objects to one post-mortem, they can also submit a "Request for No Autopsy" to the county coroner for the same reason.

I'm reading that Nell Carter was a devout convert to Judaism, and Judaism is mentioned elsewhere as a religion that has objected to autopsies.

Nell Carter was family?

R352 Article on Carter in the GLBTQ Encyclopedia archive.

The kid from the movie " The Client" Brittany Murphy, Whitney Housto , Cory Haim, Gordon Downie

Tatum O’Neil’s life of living hell.

Julie Andrews choice of hairstyles.

Wrestler Bill Goldberg's maternal grandfather, Marcel Kasner, owned a jewelry store in Oklahoma City. He was robbed and beaten and died four days later in 1975, when Bill was eight.

Sharon Tate et al.

James Dean's car crash,

Clark Gable's wife, Carole Lombard, in a plane crash.

Gaspard Ulliel's death.

Brian Keith from Family Affair - such a daddy! From Wikipedia - "On June 24, 1997, at the age of 75, Keith died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Malibu, California. He suffered from emphysema and lung cancer during the latter part of his life, despite having quit smoking ten years earlier. He reportedly also struggled with financial problems and suffered from depression throughout his final days. Keith's death occurred two months after the death of his daughter Daisy, who also died by suicide."

Travoltas son Jett passing...I always wondered if the kid was a burden to the family...it just seemed like his death was strange

R351 That document was probably the provision attached to Nell Carter's will. Also, if the family objects to one post-mortem, they can also submit a "Request for No Autopsy" to the county coroner for the same reason.”

She was Jewish, I dont think we are allowed to be autopsied but as a Jew who never paid attention to Judaism growing up, I could be wrong

Aaliyah

Left Eye

Prince

MJ

Whitney - I cried like a baby

Florence Lawrence, the first movie star, committing suicide in 1938 by eating "ant paste".

Max Linder, one of the earliest movie stars (in both France and the US), convinced his young wife to kill herself in 1925 and then killed himself.