# celebrities who died young **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 26, 2015, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-died-young/738591 "2015-11-26T00:20:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2015, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-died-young/738591/21 "2015-11-27T20:06:54Z")
Irving Thalberg, film producer > **[Irving Thalberg - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0856921/bio/)** > > Irving Thalberg. Producer: The Tower of Lies. Irving Grant Thalberg was born in New York City, to Henrietta (Haymann) and William Thalberg, who were of German Jewish descent. He had a bad heart, having contracted rheumatic fever as a teenager and was... ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2015, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-died-young/738591/22 "2015-11-27T20:11:12Z")
Carole Lombard died at age 33 in a plane crash. > **[Carole Lombard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carole_Lombard)** > > Carole Lombard (born Jane Alice Peters; October 6, 1908 – January 16, 1942) was an American actress, particularly noted for her energetic, often off-beat roles in screwball comedies. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Lombard 23rd on its list of the greatest female stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema. > Lombard was born into a wealthy family in Fort Wayne, Indiana, but was raised in Los Angeles by her single mother. At 12, she was recruited by director Allan Dwan and made her screen deb... Selena was murdered at age 23. > **[Selena](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selena)** > > Selena Quintanilla Pérez (Spanish pronunciation: \[seˈlena kintaˈniʝa ˈpeɾes\]; April 16, 1971 – March 31, 1995), known mononymously as Selena, was an American Tejano singer. Called the "Queen of Tejano Music", her contributions to music and fashion made her one of the most celebrated Mexican-American entertainers of the late 20th century. In 2020, Billboard magazine put her in third place on their list of "Greatest Latino Artists of All Time", based on both Latin albums and Latin songs chart.... ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2015, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-died-young/738591/23 "2015-11-27T20:34:47Z")
Relocated to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2015, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-died-young/738591/24 "2015-11-27T22:00:39Z")
Clifford Brown - 25 ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2015, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-died-young/738591/25 "2015-11-27T22:10:36Z")
Seriously? No one’s mentioned Buddy Holly? To me, he’s the prime example of these “what if” questions. He was 22 when he died, and had already shaped the music world and influenced legends (the Beatles and Bob Dylan both cite him as one of their biggest idols). And he died right before Everything Changed. Sure, maybe he would’ve gradually faded away like other rockabilly stars. Or maybe . . . ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2015, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-died-young/738591/26 "2015-11-28T09:56:32Z")
There were a lot of jazz musicians who died young. Bix Beiderbecke was only 28 when his alcoholism caught up with him. Charlie Parker died at the age of 34. Eddie Lang was 30 when he died during a tonsillectomy. Charlie Christian was only 25 when tuberculosis claimed him. Chick Webb died at 30, Clifford Brown at 25, Bunny Berigan at 33, Chu Berry at 33. There are plenty of other examples. Some of these people would probably have continued to make significant contributions to music had they lived longer. Charlie Parker was so inventive that it’s hard to believe he would have become stagnant. Charlie Christian was an early innovator on electric guitar, and I think he would have kept going. It’s hard to say what Bix would have done if he’d lived longer. He was intensely interested in the classical impressionist composers (like Debussy), and you can hear elements of it in some of his music. It’s possible that he would have created some form of jazz of that type, or that he would have abandoned jazz for something else. On the other hand, Eddie Lang might not have been able to adapt to the new directions that jazz was taking at the time of his death. He played acoustic guitar in a style suited to traditional jazz and dance bands. I suspect the swing era wouldn’t have been kind to him. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2015, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-died-young/738591/27 "2015-11-28T10:37:51Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Janis Joplin (who died at 27 like Hendrix) … Haven’t there been quite a few celebrities dying at that age? It’s even become a meme. And let’s not forget Philip Seymour Hoffman, dead at 46. Cory Monteith of _Glee_ was 31. And Adolf Hitler was only 56 when he died, although his death was never proven. (Well, he _was_ a celebrity among certain circles. Still seems to be too.) ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2015, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-died-young/738591/28 "2015-11-28T12:37:15Z")
**Hank Williams** died when he was 29. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2015, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-died-young/738591/29 "2015-11-28T14:39:56Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > James Dean was a handsome, sensitve, young actor at the same time a lot of handsome, sensitive, young actors were coming along. He might have become another Brando, but the odds are he would have ended up more along the lines of another Sal Mineo or Anthony Perkins. …y’know, two out of three of those means he would have starred in movies where he was strangled by an ape, with a 1-in-3 chance of being in a movie where he was gutted by a robot and then electrocuted. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-died-young/738591.md?page=1)