# Death from drug use/overdose really late in life--who am I thinking of? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 5, 2011, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-drug-use-overdose-really-late-in-life-who-am-i-thinking-of/584453 "2011-06-05T22:50:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Bith\_Shuffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@The\_Bith\_Shuffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Bith_Shuffle)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-drug-use-overdose-really-late-in-life-who-am-i-thinking-of/584453/1 "2011-06-05T22:50:00Z")
I remember reading on Wikipedia about a famous figure who died of a drug overdose, or at least of drug use, when he was really old. I’m pretty sure he was at least eighty but it could have been over ninety. I don’t remember who it was, but I can’t imagine too many people have died this way. Any help? Edit: the guy might not have been _really_ famous. I just mean he was famous enough to have a Wikipedia page. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-drug-use-overdose-really-late-in-life-who-am-i-thinking-of/584453/2 "2011-06-05T23:48:03Z")
Are you thinking of [William S. Burroughs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Burroughs)? ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-drug-use-overdose-really-late-in-life-who-am-i-thinking-of/584453/3 "2011-06-06T04:57:14Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > Are you thinking of [William S. Burroughs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Burroughs)? The wiki you linked to says he died of a heart attack > [@](#): > > Burroughs had one child in 1947, William Seward Burroughs III, with his second wife Joan Vollmer, who died in 1951 in Mexico City after Burroughs accidentally shot her in the head while drunk, an event that deeply permeated all of his writings. Burroughs died at his home in Lawrence, Kansas after suffering a heart attack in 1997. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-drug-use-overdose-really-late-in-life-who-am-i-thinking-of/584453/4 "2011-06-06T05:03:49Z")
A lot of people die from drug overdoses in old age. It’s a common means of suicide. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-drug-use-overdose-really-late-in-life-who-am-i-thinking-of/584453/5 "2011-06-06T05:05:35Z")
I can’t think of anyone who was an active, ongoing hardcore drug user who made it past their 70’s. IIRC there are some age 60ish musicians that OD’d, but I can’t recall anyone much past that age who passed away in their 70’s or later of an overdose. This might jog your memory [Famous Drug-related Deaths & Celebrity Drug Overdoses](http://www.ranker.com/list/famous-drug-related-deaths-and-celebrity-drug-overdoses/notable-famous-deaths?format=GRID&sortby=rank&sortdir=asc) ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-drug-use-overdose-really-late-in-life-who-am-i-thinking-of/584453/6 "2011-06-06T05:29:38Z")
Clara Blandick, who’s most famous as Dorothy’s Aunt Em in the Wizard of Oz, committed suicide by an overdose of sleeping pills at 81, or are you not counting deliberate overdoses? ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-drug-use-overdose-really-late-in-life-who-am-i-thinking-of/584453/7 "2011-06-06T05:42:18Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Clara Blandick, who’s most famous as Dorothy’s Aunt Em in the Wizard of Oz, committed suicide by an overdose of sleeping pills at 81, or are you not counting deliberate overdoses? Deliberately ODing on meds is probably one of the more common ways old, sick people choose to die. I thought he was talking ODs as result of chronic drug abuse. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-drug-use-overdose-really-late-in-life-who-am-i-thinking-of/584453/8 "2011-06-06T06:37:46Z")
Is Keith Richards dead yet? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-drug-use-overdose-really-late-in-life-who-am-i-thinking-of/584453/9 "2011-06-06T06:58:09Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > Is Keith Richards dead yet? On the positive side, if Keith Richards ever overdoses, nobody else will after him. Because if Richards consumed enough drugs to overdose, there wouldn’t be any drugs left for anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-drug-use-overdose-really-late-in-life-who-am-i-thinking-of/584453/10 "2011-06-06T07:22:11Z")
IIRC, Timothy Leary was terminally ill and planning to final-exit himself, online, no less, but he died involuntarily (for lack of a better term) before the scheduled time. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-drug-use-overdose-really-late-in-life-who-am-i-thinking-of/584453/11 "2011-06-06T13:47:05Z")
> [@astro](#): > > The wiki you linked to says he died of a heart attack Burroughs was on a methadone maintenance program the last years of his life. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-drug-use-overdose-really-late-in-life-who-am-i-thinking-of/584453/12 "2011-06-06T15:18:30Z")
The oldest person I can think of offhand who died from recreational drug use was John Entwistle of the Who (he was 67, I believe). ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-drug-use-overdose-really-late-in-life-who-am-i-thinking-of/584453/13 "2011-06-06T15:43:56Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > The oldest person I can think of offhand who died from recreational drug use was John Entwistle of the Who (he was 67, I believe). I thought he died of a heart-attack in Vegas, in the hours after the Who’s performance there… Cocaine was found in his system, but was it at high enough levels to have been determined to have caused his death? ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-drug-use-overdose-really-late-in-life-who-am-i-thinking-of/584453/14 "2011-06-07T01:01:20Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > Burroughs was on a methadone maintenance program the last years of his life. Yep, and the OP said ‘use / overdose’. I’ve gotta believe (IANAMD) that heavy, long term drug use is not a prescription for cardiac fitness…