# Artists who died too young **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 4, 2007, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497 "2007-03-04T02:10:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Phantom\_Dennis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/51bf81/32.png) [@Phantom\_Dennis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phantom_Dennis)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497/1 "2007-03-04T02:10:47Z")
Not the most obvious example, but I feel bad that [George Orwell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell) was only 46 when he died of tuberculosis, not long after publishing **Nineteen Eighty-Four**. What else would he have written? What artist, writer, musician, poet, actor or other creative mind do you feel died before his or her time? ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497/2 "2007-03-04T02:30:34Z")
George Gershwin, dead of a brain tumor at 38. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![want2know](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@want2know](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/want2know)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497/3 "2007-03-04T02:35:46Z")
I can only “Imagine” what **John Lennon** would have accomplished. ---
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497/4 "2007-03-04T02:40:02Z")
Kurdt Kabang ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497/5 "2007-03-04T02:56:38Z")
Sandy Denny ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497/6 "2007-03-04T03:02:33Z")
Flannery O’Connor. ---
**Author:** ![kung\_fu\_lola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f4b2a3/32.png) [@kung\_fu\_lola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kung_fu_lola)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497/7 "2007-03-04T03:03:36Z")
Jim Henson. I just went and looked up [“A Boy And His Frog”](http://www.tomsmithonline.com/freestuff/oddio/BoyFrog.mp3) again and now I am crying. ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497/8 "2007-03-04T03:03:40Z")
Buncha jazz musicians. Offhand I’d include John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Charlie Christian, Eric Dolphy, Clifford Brown, Scott LaFaro, Woody Shaw, Emily Remler, and Booker Little…all under 45. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497/9 "2007-03-04T03:09:35Z")
[Brian Jones](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_jones) of the Rolling Stones died at 27. ---
**Author:** ![Webner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/0ea827/32.png) [@Webner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Webner)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497/10 "2007-03-04T03:12:38Z")
Jim Morrison of the Doors died at the age of 31, I believe. He had just released L.A. Woman, one of the Doors’ best albums, and obviously had some more creative juice left in him. John Lennon, on the other hand, had done hardly anything in the decade before he died. I doubt he would have done much more had he lived longer. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497/11 "2007-03-04T03:12:59Z")
Jane Austen was 41 or 42 when she died. ---
**Author:** ![Crawlspace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Crawlspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crawlspace)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497/12 "2007-03-04T04:04:02Z")
F Scott Fitzgerald comes to mind. I’d love to see what he would have done with the end of WWII and the rise of the US as a super-power. Then again, I don’t image **A Confederacy of Dunces** would have ever been looked at if it weren’t for John Kennedy Toole’s lifestory. You have to take the good with the bad I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Emeria](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3be4f8/32.png) [@Emeria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emeria)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497/13 "2007-03-04T04:28:30Z")
I’d go with Chopin (1810-1849), who died of TB, and even more so Schubert (1797-1828), who probably died of syphilis. Not to mention Mozart (1756-1791). These are just a few examples among many. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497/14 "2007-03-04T04:32:40Z")
Albert Camus (obviously). ---
**Author:** ![initech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/439d5e/32.png) [@initech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/initech)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497/15 "2007-03-04T04:35:38Z")
[QUOTE=Webner] John Lennon, on the other hand, had done hardly anything in the decade before he died. I doubt he would have done much more had he lived longer. [/QUOTE] Lennon had just released Double Fantasy when he was killed. The implication that he was “done” isn’t accurate. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497/16 "2007-03-04T04:48:11Z")
Vincent Van Gogh Keith Haring Freddie Mercury I’ve always wondered if Margaret Mitchell had anything else brewing. Not an artist, but an author – Stephen Jay Gould died way too soon. ---
**Author:** ![2pelo\_honey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/ecb155/32.png) [@2pelo\_honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2pelo_honey)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497/17 "2007-03-04T04:49:14Z")
[QUOTE=initech] Lennon had just released Double Fantasy when he was killed. The implication that he was “done” isn’t accurate. [/QUOTE] Thanks for bringing that up…I was starting to twitch a bit. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497/18 "2007-03-04T04:52:55Z")
The only thing wrong with Jim Morrison’s death was that it happened ten years too late. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497/19 "2007-03-04T04:55:00Z")
Painters, pre-drugs and rock and roll: Masaccio only made it to 27 or so; who knows what he would have accomplished, since he did so much in so little time. I think Giorgione only made to 32 or 33 but was very influential. Strange that then Titian makes it like 90 or something in his wake. Carel Fabritius, who was so cool but only made it to 32 or so before he got blown up in the big Delft explosion in the 1650s. Egon Schiele was 28-- the 1918 flu. ---
**Author:** ![Oregon\_sunshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/50afbb/32.png) [@Oregon\_sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oregon_sunshine)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2007, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497/20 "2007-03-04T04:55:27Z")
What **E. Thorp** said. Plus Lee Morgan (shot to death at age 34). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-died-too-young/394497.md?page=2)