# Famous people who were killed by animals? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 4, 2015, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-were-killed-by-animals/726967 "2015-08-04T13:10:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2015, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-were-killed-by-animals/726967/41 "2015-08-04T19:10:42Z")
If indirect deaths don’t count, then we’ve lost a monkey story. According to **kayaker’s** quote, the deputy mayor of Delhi died due to the fall from his balcony. Although that fall was a more direct result of an animal attack than King William’s fall was. The mole was just going about its business. > [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > . . . Nah, it was just a broken nose. And the bird wasn’t exactly responsible; he was riding a roller coaster. . . . . What was a bird doing riding a roller coaster? From wikipedia entry for Bird Strike: > [@](#): > > The first recorded bird strike fatality was reported in 1912 when aero-pioneer Cal Rodgers collided with a gull which became jammed in his aircraft control cables. He crashed at Long Beach, California, was pinned under the wreckage, and drowned. and > [@](#): > > NASA astronaut Theodore Freeman was killed in 1964 when a goose shattered the plexiglass cockpit canopy of his Northrop T-38 Talon. Shards were ingested by the engines, leading to a fatal crash. The Bird Strike entry notes the possibility of death by Insect Strike, but lists no know examples. If anyone can find a case then wiki is waiting. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2015, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-were-killed-by-animals/726967/42 "2015-08-04T19:15:56Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > These are both great. Cites? (Particularly the last one.) For Henry I: [www.royal.gov.uk](http://www.royal.gov.uk/historyofthemonarchy/kingsandqueensofengland/thenormans/henryibeauclerc.aspx) > [@](#): > > Henry had a legitimate daughter Matilda (widow of Emperor Henry V, subsequently married to the Count of Anjou). However, it was his nephew Stephen (reigned 1135-54), son of William the Conqueror’s daughter Adela, who succeeded Henry after his death, allegedly caused by eating too many lampreys (fish) in 1135, as the barons mostly opposed the idea of a female ruler. For Chrysippus the source is Diogenes Laertius in his _Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers_ who gives two different accounts of his death, the other being that he died after drinking ‘undiluted wine’. See Wikipedia. ---
**Author:** ![buckgully](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb9ed0/32.png) [@buckgully](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buckgully)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2015, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-were-killed-by-animals/726967/43 "2015-08-04T19:32:53Z")
The real Grizzly Adams died from having a bear punch a hole in his skull, which he survived, but it never really healed very well. Mostly because he kept boxing with grizzly bears. Eventually a monkey bit the wound and he died from meningitis. I’m fairly certain that they never covered that bit in the 70’s TV show. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2015, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-were-killed-by-animals/726967/44 "2015-08-04T20:36:59Z")
> [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](#): > > Slayer Guitarist Jeff Hanneman Dead at 49 > > He was bitten by a spider. > [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > This was the initial story, but subsequent stories suggest this likely wasn’t true. The spider part, not the death part. That part was undeniably true. Hanneman supposedly contracted necrotizing fasciitis from the bite which laid him up for a while, but neither that nor the bite killed him. His death was caused by cirrhosis. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2015, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-were-killed-by-animals/726967/45 "2015-08-04T20:46:21Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Hanneman supposedly contracted necrotizing fasciitis from the bite which laid him up for a while, but neither that nor the bite killed him. His death was caused by cirrhosis. Also, it probably was never a spider bite [in the first place](http://www.livescience.com/37974-he-surprising-cause-of-most-spider-bites.html). Every time my kids have any unidentified spot on their skin, my wife blames a spider, and I point out that this is probably not true. Then we argue about it. One of us should consider backing down by now. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2015, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-were-killed-by-animals/726967/46 "2015-08-04T20:48:42Z")
> [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](#): > > Slayer Guitarist Jeff Hanneman Dead at 49 > > He was bitten by a spider. I heard that while he had been dealing with an infection from a spider bite, his death was actually due to complications from alcoholism. ---
**Author:** ![Teach-me-not](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a4c791/32.png) [@Teach-me-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teach-me-not)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-were-killed-by-animals/726967/47 "2015-08-05T02:57:35Z")
The great Tamil poet [Subramania Bharati](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subramania_Bharati) was struck by a temple elephant at the Parthasarathy Temple in Madras. He used to feed the elephant regularly. He survived, but his health soon deteriorated and he died a few months afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-were-killed-by-animals/726967/48 "2015-08-05T04:22:16Z")
Several early catholic saints & martyrs were killed by wild animals in Roman Coliseums. They ought to count, unless you say they weren’t ‘famous’ until after their martyrdom. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-were-killed-by-animals/726967/49 "2015-08-05T04:42:43Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > His death was caused by cirrhosis. Possibly Wild Turkey bore some responsibility. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2015, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-were-killed-by-animals/726967/50 "2015-08-05T13:33:29Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Several early catholic saints & martyrs were killed by wild animals in Roman Coliseums. > They ought to count, unless you say they weren’t ‘famous’ until after their martyrdom. Good point. At the opposite end are all the only relatively famous, or for all I know infamous, so they count, criminals executed in India by being crushed by elephant. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-were-killed-by-animals/726967.md?page=2)