# Death as a Career Move **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 1, 2025, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988 "2025-03-01T19:19:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/1 "2025-03-01T19:19:08Z")
The passing of Gene Hackman has become a somewhat impressive addition to his CV (CM?). He will be added to the list of entertainers who have died well. - Director Alan J Pakula: struck in the head by a metal bar throw up by another car on the Long Island Expressway - Oliver Reed: fell off a barstool in Valletta Malta while in the process of drinking himself to death (after a long stint of sobriety) - John Denver: crashed his own kit airplane - Dick Shawn: died on stage, the audience and crew thinking it was a pratfall - Brandon Lee: accidental suicide, shooting himself in the head with a blank round - Karl Wallenda, died either while performing a high wire act or as a result of the fall - Bob Crane: bludgeoned to death by an unknown person, probably having to do with his sexual exploits - Jane Mansfield: crashed into the back of a semi, resulting in the addition of the “Mansfield Bar” being added to semi trailers - James Dean: because, of course I am sure I am missing a lot. Phil Hartman, Albert Salmi, Kurt Cobain, Layne Staley, numerous ODs. Normal plane crashes do not really count, IMO, and that thing with Sharon Tate is maybe just too icky. Which famous person do you think belongs on the list of best deaths, and who belongs at the top? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/2 "2025-03-01T19:26:31Z")
Keith Relf, the lead singer of the Yardbirds, was electrocuted to death while playing an ungrounded electric guitar. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/3 "2025-03-01T19:28:42Z")
Interesting topic. David Carradine. Strangled himself doing autoerotic asphyxiation. Michael Hutchence died doing the same thing. The most interesting death was a guy who wasn’t a celebrity but who was probably going to be one (at least in silicon valley). Daniel Lewin was an ex-Israeli commando who went on to work in IT. He was the cofounder of Akamai Technologies and CTO. The company is currently valued at 12 billion. The guy would be a billionaire for cofounding a company worth that much. > **[Daniel Lewin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Lewin)** > > Daniel Mark Lewin (Hebrew: דניאל "דני" מארק לוין; May 14, 1970 – September 11, 2001) was an American and Israeli mathematician and entrepreneur who co-founded Akamai Technologies. A passenger on board American Airlines Flight 11, it is believed that Lewin was stabbed to death by Satam al-Suqami, one of the hijackers of that flight, and was the first victim of the September 11 attacks. > Lewin was born May 14, 1970, in Denver, Colorado, and moved to Israel with his parents at age 14, where he remai... He died on 9/11 because he was on american airlines flight 11. Supposedly when the hijackers took over his commando instincts kicked in and he tried to fight the terrorists. he got his throat slit in the process. Had he not died on 9/11, he’d probably be a big name and multi billionaire on silicon valley now. One of those guys who jumped from company to company. I just hope he wouldn’t have been an evil person like Musk or Thiel. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/4 "2025-03-01T19:38:51Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Brandon Lee: accidental suicide, shooting himself in the head with a blank round I think you’re thinking of Jon-Erik Hexum; Lee’s tragic death was somewhat different. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/5 "2025-03-01T19:44:13Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Brandon Lee: accidental suicide, shooting himself in the head with a blank round Brandon Lee did not shoot himself in the head. [He was shot in the torso during a scene by another actor firing a revolver that had a crimped blank firing round](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Lee#Death) but unaware that there was a bullet previously lodged in the barrel (from a ‘dummy’ round with a live primer and bullet but no powder charge). You are almost certainly thinking of [Jon-Erik Hexum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon-Erik_Hexum), who did shoot himself in the head at contact distance with a blank round; the muzzle plume and/or the wad penetrated his skull, dislodging and embedding a portion of the skull into the brain and rendering him brain-dead. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/6 "2025-03-01T19:56:35Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > > [@eschereal](#): > > > > Brandon Lee: accidental suicide, shooting himself in the head with a blank round > > Brandon Lee did not shoot himself in the head. [He was shot in the torso during a scene by another actor firing a revolver that had a crimped blank firing round](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Lee#Death) but unaware that there was a bullet previously lodged in the barrel (from a ‘dummy’ round with a live primer and bullet but no powder charge). The one who pulled the trigger was prolific “that guy” character actor Michael Massee. He almost quit acting because of that. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/7 "2025-03-01T20:15:04Z")
Don’t forget Hotblack Desiato who was spending a year dead for tax reasons in the Hitchiker books… ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/8 "2025-03-01T20:15:59Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Dick Shawn: died on stage, the audience and crew thinking it was a pratfall Same thing happened to Tommy Cooper during one of his comedic magic acts. (The audience apparently thought he was pretending to swoon at the sight of his “beautiful assistant.”) ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/9 "2025-03-01T20:23:51Z")
There is a lengthy list > **[List of entertainers who died during a performance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_entertainers_who_died_during_a_performance)** > > Through history, many entertainers have died while performing live or while recording a performance. The following list excludes deaths involving stunt persons, as they are listed separately. which would be a little overwhelming for this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/10 "2025-03-01T20:39:29Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > David Carradine. Strangled himself doing autoerotic asphyxiation. Michael Hutchence died doing the same thing. Just clarifying that they did not do so together. Hutchence’s death,and autoerotic asphyxiation generally, has been referred to as ‘a tragic wanking accident’. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/11 "2025-03-01T20:44:34Z")
Death has a certain mystique to it. I worked with a guy who was a regular poundcake dunker, and he told me he always tried to get as close as he possibly could to overdosing without actually overdosing. I imagine auto-erotic asphyxiation is like that: you try to _almost_ die. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/12 "2025-03-01T20:47:45Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I worked with a guy who was a regular poundcake dunker, ??? I’m almost afraid to Google this one. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/13 "2025-03-01T20:49:53Z")
Heroin. It was the term used repeatedly in _Naked Lunch_. ---
**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 1, 2025, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/14 "2025-03-01T20:53:39Z")
Steve Cochran, from his IMDB biography: “In 1965, Steve hired an assortment of ladies for an “all-girl crew” to accompany him on a boating trip to check out locations for an upcoming film he was to produce and star in entitled “Captain O’Flynn.” Leaving Acapulco on June 3rd, the boat encountered extremely stormy weather, and Steve’s health, which was not good in the first place (he took ill while filming Mozambique and failed to see a doctor), quickly took a turn for the worst. He died of an acute lung infection and was dead for nearly a week when his drifting schooner and the girls (one of whom was several years under-age) were rescued from the ocean near Guatemala on June 21st. A fitting if not troubling end for the one-time he-man Hollywood star.“ ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/15 "2025-03-01T20:54:14Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > Hutchence’s death,and autoerotic asphyxiation generally, has been referred to as ‘a tragic wanking accident’. Hutchence did, indeed, hang himself. But, as far as I can tell, the only person who claimed it was autoerotic asphyxiation was his then-girlfriend, Paula Yates. It seems more likely that he did so out of depression, and after a phone argument with Bob Geldof, over whether Hutchence would be allowed to see his daughter; it does not appear that the authorities ever believed it was autoerotic asphyxiation. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/16 "2025-03-01T21:00:08Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Heroin. It was the term used repeatedly in _Naked Lunch_. Thanks. I know to take the Urban Dictionary with a box or so of salt, but wasn’t sure about any other reliable source on that one. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/17 "2025-03-01T21:00:31Z")
Sonny Bono – skied into a tree. Sam Cooke …in 1964 at the age of 33. Sam Cooke was fatally shot by the manager of the Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles after running into the hotel’s front office stark naked, drunk out of his mind and screaming that his clothes had been stolen. - [10 Bizarre Celebrity Deaths | HowStuffWorks](https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/10-bizarre-celebrity-deaths.htm) Albert Dekker On May 5, 1968, Dekker was found dead in his Hollywood home by his fiancée, fashion model and future _[Love Boat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Love_Boat)_ creator [Jeraldine Saunders](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeraldine_Saunders). He had hanged himself in his bathroom while dressed in women’s lingerie. His body was covered in explicit words and drawings in red lipstick.[[9]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Dekker#cite_note-9) Money and camera equipment were missing, but there was no sign of forced entry. Police, calling it “quite an unusual case”,[[10]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Dekker#cite_note-10) originally said it was suicide but the deputy coroner found no evidence of foul play nor any indication that he planned to take his life and ruled his death accidental, the result of [autoerotic asphyxiation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoerotic_asphyxiation). - [Albert Dekker - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Dekker) William Holden – Fell while drunk, cut his head open and bled to death. Steve Irwin – Stung in the heart by a stingray. ---
**Author:** ![Flightless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Flightless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flightless)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/18 "2025-03-01T21:04:00Z")
Isn’t Abe Vigoda famous for dying when he wasn’t dead? There’s a whole thread about it. Number 1 thread on “latest” a few minutes ago. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/19 "2025-03-01T21:04:34Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > > [@eschereal](#): > > > > Dick Shawn: died on stage, the audience and crew thinking it was a pratfall > > Same thing happened to Tommy Cooper during one of his comedic magic acts. (The audience apparently thought he was pretending to swoon at the sight of his “beautiful assistant.”) The difference with Tommy Cooper was that the performance was being broadcast live. Literally millions of people watched him die on TV. There used to be video of it on YouTube - I just had a quick look and it appears that it’s been taken down. For the best, I feel. j > **[Tommy Cooper | Death](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Cooper#Death)** > > On 15 April 1984, Cooper collapsed from a heart attack in front of 12 million viewers, midway through his act on the London Weekend Television variety show Live from Her Majesty's, transmitted live from Her Majesty's Theatre in Westminster, London. An assistant had helped him put on a cloak for his sketch, while Jimmy Tarbuck, the host, was hiding behind the stage curtains waiting to pass him different props that he would then appear to pull from inside his gown. His last words seemed As Cooper l... ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/20 "2025-03-01T21:11:48Z")
I suppose the list should include Julian Sands, who went out hiking in the mountains and was finally located in a ravine a month or two later. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988.md?page=2)