# Celebrity Suicides **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 16, 2007, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143 "2007-03-16T03:34:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143/41 "2007-03-16T15:32:49Z")
Queens borough President [Donald Manes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Manes) committed suicide by plunging an eight inch knife into his chest after being put on hold while talking with his psychiatrist! ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143/42 "2007-03-16T16:00:10Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] Queens borough President [Donald Manes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Manes) committed suicide by plunging an eight inch knife into his chest after being put on hold while talking with his psychiatrist! [/QUOTE] Oh, I am so going to hell for laughing at this… ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143/43 "2007-03-16T16:01:41Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] Oh, I am so going to hell for laughing at this… [/QUOTE] I’m right behind you. Wonder if the knife had any “special significance”… ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143/44 "2007-03-16T16:14:01Z")
My favorite suicide of all time is punk rocker Darby Crash of The Germs. The Germs was fairly successful in the early punk scene but broke up in the late 70’s. As his fame was fading, he committed suicide with an intentional heroin overdose figuring death would make him and his music legendary like Jimi Hendrix. He would never know how tragically wrong he was. He died on December 7th, 1980…the day before John Lennon was assassinated. It would be an understatement to say that his death was overshadowed by other news and didn’t get any attention. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143/45 "2007-03-16T16:26:02Z")
[QUOTE=Lisa-go-Blind] [Spalding Gray](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spalding_Gray) [/QUOTE] This one…well…damn…I heard the news on the Dope…a theater poster of Gray hung on the wall next to my computer when I read what happened (or what they believed happened at the time). He was probably one of my biggest influences as a writer and a performer. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143/46 "2007-03-16T16:37:07Z")
[QUOTE=wolf\_meister] **Tommy Boyce** (of the songwritng / performing team Boyce and Hart) [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0101670/](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0101670/) [/QUOTE] Damn, I didn’t even know he was dead. **Pete Ham** and **Tom Evans** of Badfinger both hung themselves. So did **Phil Ochs**. ---
**Author:** ![Encinitas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Encinitas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Encinitas)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143/47 "2007-03-16T16:55:46Z")
**Stuart Adamson** of Big Country hanged himself. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143/48 "2007-03-16T17:03:46Z")
As long as authors count, Vachel Lindsay swallowed Lysol, and Hart Crane jumped off a ship. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143/49 "2007-03-16T17:05:52Z")
[QUOTE=Encinitas] **Stuart Adamson** of Big Country hanged himself. [/QUOTE] Yeah, that one for me too. Poor Stuart wasn’t a very happy man. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143/50 "2007-03-16T17:07:56Z")
Another unhappy Scots musician was [Billy McKenzie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Mackenzie) of The Associates. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143/51 "2007-03-16T17:08:24Z")
[the Singing Nun](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_078.html) and her lesbian lover! :eek: :eek: :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Hildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@Johnny\_Hildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Hildo)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143/52 "2007-03-16T17:21:27Z")
Actress [Elizabeth Hartman](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0366946/) threw herself out a window after a long battle with depression. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143/53 "2007-03-16T17:23:29Z")
This thread could be retitled **Supposed Celebrities That You Have Never Heard Of** ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143/54 "2007-03-16T18:02:50Z")
Science fiction writer [H Beam Piper](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._Beam_Piper) shot himself after thinking he was penniless and a failure. His agent had died and he didn’t know he had made several sales. ---
**Author:** ![Smitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Smitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smitty)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143/55 "2007-03-16T18:13:06Z")
[Rob Pilatus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Pilatus) of Milli Vanilli. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143/56 "2007-03-16T18:17:31Z")
If we’re counting massive overdoses, Alan Ladd died from alcohol and sedatives in 1964. Causing my mom to exclaim, “Alan Ladd is dead?!” when she heard about it…in 2000. :o ---
**Author:** ![if6was9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143/57 "2007-03-16T18:25:55Z")
**Bud Dwyer** , although he was certainly more famous for his suicide than anything he did in politics. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143/58 "2007-03-16T18:27:39Z")
[QUOTE=Slithy Tove] > [@](#): > > Originally Posted by pinkfreud > Auntie Pam, I’m pretty sure that Brandon de Wilde died in a car crash. I don’t think it was a suicide. I had a big crush on him when I was a teenager. He was like James Dean without the sneer. He was camping and his trailer rolled over on top of him. [/QUOTE] May I ask where you heard this? IMDB says he died in a [car crash](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001121/bio), too. Unless they’re characterizing getting run over by one’s trailer as a car accident. _shrug_ ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143/59 "2007-03-16T18:33:03Z")
[QUOTE=gallows fodder] May I ask where you heard this? IMDB says he died in a [car crash](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001121/bio), too. Unless they’re characterizing getting run over by one’s trailer as a car accident. _shrug_ [/QUOTE] I remember reading it years ago as a reply to an innacurate cite of him being another Hollywood drug-ovedose, but I can find nothing to support that so I retract it. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143/60 "2007-03-16T18:52:34Z")
[Capucine](http://imdb.com/name/nm0001010/), probably best remembered as Madame Clouseau in the original _Pink Panther_, but also in _Walk on the Wild Side_ and _What’s New Pussycat?_ and a ton of French films. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-suicides/396143.md?page=4)