# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/21 "2025-03-01T21:28:39Z")
> **[Jimi Heselden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimi_Heselden)** > > James William "Jimi" Heselden OBE (27 March 1948 – 26 September 2010) was an English entrepreneur. A former coal miner, he became wealthy by manufacturing the Hesco bastion barrier system. In 2009, he bought Segway Inc. He died in 2010 from injuries sustained falling from a cliff while riding his own Segway PT. > James William Heselden was born in the Halton Moor district of Leeds on 27 March 1948. He attended school in Osmondthorpe, leaving at the age of 15 to work as a labourer and then at co... ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/22 "2025-03-01T21:32:18Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Heroin. It was the term used repeatedly in _Naked Lunch_. Thank you for explaining but did you _really_ expect others would understand without it? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/23 "2025-03-01T21:37:59Z")
> [@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.”) There was also [Albert Brooks’ father](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkyakarkus), who died during a roast. ---
**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, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/24 "2025-03-01T21:39:38Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > > [@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. I am not a doctor and I don’t play one on TV. I have seen theories that some present and former drug addicts will use hypoxic euphoria to mimic a high they can’t get anymore because they are clean or to enhance the high of the drugs they are using but aren’t as effective due to overuse. I’ve heard that in connection to Hutchence, Chester Bennington, Chris Cornell and Anthony Bourdain. It’s a theory. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/25 "2025-03-01T22:06:52Z")
Gene Hackman’s death was widely suspected (before many facts were actually known) to be from carbon monoxide poisoning. Here’s an _actual_ CO death: Helmut Köllen, singer and bass player for the 70s German prog rock band Triumvirat, was listening to a demo tape in his car in his garage with the engine running and the garage door closed, and next thing you know he’s a member of the 27 Club. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/26 "2025-03-01T22:43:11Z")
Vic Morrow who died trying to protect two children from a helicopter rotor. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/27 "2025-03-01T23:09:24Z")
Redd Foxx suffered a heart attack and collapsed while rehearsing a scene. The cast and crew thought he was doing a pratfall until he didn’t get up. J.I. Rodale, an advocate for organic foods had a heart attack and died on camera during the taping of the _Dick Cavett Show._ Obviously the show was never aired, which didn’t stop hundreds of people from claiming they saw it. ---
**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:** [March 1, 2025, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/28 "2025-03-01T23:41:18Z")
We have had a several thousand post thread on this one: Halyna Hutchins shot by Alec Baldwin on the set for the Rust movie. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/29 "2025-03-01T23:59:05Z")
[Chung Ling Soo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chung_Ling_Soo) was an early-20th-century magician who was famous for a bullet-catch trick. He died on stage when the trick gun he used in the act malfunctioned and caused his assistant to fire a bullet into Soo’s chest. (The details of the malfunction are kind of interesting.) He gets extra points for the post-mortem discovery that he was not actually Chinese, as he had been pretending to be for 20 years, but was an American named William Robinson. He based his “Chinese magician” persona on the actual Chinese magician Ching Ling Foo, from whom he copied parts of his act. ---
**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:** [March 2, 2025, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/30 "2025-03-02T00:39:33Z")
Speaking of magicians Edna Spratt was an assistant actually sawn in half by a magician: > **[Norfolk magician jailed after accidentally sawing assistant in half](https://www.suffolkgazette.com/magician-saw-assistant-in-half-jailed/)** > > Magician Super Shazam Spuckler was jailed for ten years today after accidentally sawing his beautiful assistant in half on stage. And he even watched a Youtube video before doing it! ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2025, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/31 "2025-03-02T00:42:17Z")
Tennis star Vitus Gerulitis died from carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty pool heater. One of the drummers of Spinal Tap died from choking on another person’s vomit. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2025, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/32 "2025-03-02T00:49:35Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Speaking of magicians Edna Spratt was an assistant actually sawn in half by a magician: From the linked news story: > An ambulance was sent to the scene, but Edna was found to be dead on arrival at the hospital, **mainly because she was in two pieces**. Now, _that’s_ how you report a death as a news writer. (Emphasis mine.) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2025, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/33 "2025-03-02T01:50:27Z")
I’m skeptical of this story of the magician sawing his assistant in half. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2025, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/34 "2025-03-02T01:53:53Z")
It did occur to me that maybe it was supposed to be a humor piece (why else would someone write what I quoted?), but I wasn’t finding enough funny in it to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2025, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/35 "2025-03-02T01:58:30Z")
One bit that makes me suspicious is that this supposedly happened only a couple of years ago and I expect that it would have been widely reported. And yet the only Google News search result for “Super Shazam Spuckler” is the Suffolk Gazette. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2025, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/36 "2025-03-02T02:13:48Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Speaking of magicians Edna Spratt was an assistant actually sawn in half by a magician: It’s fake. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2025, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/37 "2025-03-02T02:41:33Z")
Because of the negligence involved (trust me, there’s a LONG back story) Morrow and those two children were actually murdered MHO. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2025, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/38 "2025-03-02T02:45:12Z")
The first time I saw “This Is Spinal Tap”, it was in a theater with a couple hundred other people who didn’t know that scene was in the movie; the reviewer only said he died “in a manner too revolting to relate.” We just about blasted the roof off the theater. AITA for thinking of that when I heard about Pope Francis’ complication yesterday? ---
**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 2, 2025, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/39 "2025-03-02T03:03:13Z")
I just remembered Brandon De Wilde, who was on his way to see his wife in the hospital when he lost control of his pickup+camper and ran into a truck. Not sure if they took him to the same hospital that she was in. ---
**Author:** ![Tokushizu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@Tokushizu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tokushizu)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2025, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988/40 "2025-03-02T03:16:29Z")
Jazz saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. (biggest hit “Just The Two Of Us” with Bill Withers) died on December 17, 1999, five days after his 56th birthday. Washington collapsed while waiting in the green room after performing four songs for The Saturday Early Show at CBS Studios in New York City. He was taken to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital where he was pronounced dead at about 7:30 pm. His doctors determined that he had suffered a massive heart attack. (paraphrased from the link below) [Grover Washington Jr. - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Washington_Jr). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-as-a-career-move/1014988.md?page=3)