Isao Inokuma, 1959 and 1963 All-Japan champion, 1964 Olympic gold medallist, and 1965 World Open judo champion.
His construction company was failing, and he slashed himself to death with a knife.
Three years ago tomorrow, in fact.
Regards,
Shodan
Jonathan Brandis, actor (“SeaQuest”)
Marshall Applegate, the leader of that freaky castrated death cult that thought they’d ride a comet to heaven
Phyllis Hyman, singer and actresss
Ed Flanders, actor (“St. Elsewhere”)
Margaux Hemingway, actress
Dennis Crosby & Lindsay Crosby, both actors and sons of Bing Crosby
Abbie Hoffman, political activist
Mary Jane Gumm, singer/actress, sister of Judy Garland
Donny Hathaway, singer
Brynn Hartman, actress - after murdering husband Phil Hartman
Brian Keith, actor (“Family Affair”)
Jerzy Kozinski, author
Hugh O’Connor, actor (“The Heat of the Night”) and son of Carroll O’Connor
David Rappaport, actor (“L.A. Law”) noted “little person”
Dorothy Dandridge, actress/singer
Salvador Allende, president of Chile
Edwin H. Armstrong, the man who developed FM radio
Dana Plato, actress (“Diff’rent Strokes”)
Cheyenne Brando, scandal-embroiled daughter of Marlon
Tommy Boyce, composer (“The Monkees”)
Ray Combs, TV host (“Family Feud”)
Frida Kahlo, artist (suspected overdose)
Richard Farnsworth, actor (“The Straight Story”)
The Singing Nun drank poison along with a woman who was suspected of being her lesbian lover. :eek: Cecil did a column on it. I’ll try to dig it up.
Dan White, the man who killed Harvey Milks & George Moscone (and got a lighter sentence thanks to the “twinkie defense”) locked himself in his garage with the car running.
Marilyn Monroe most likely died of a deliberate overdose. She was found with her hand on the phone, possibly in an effort to call for help after changing her mind.
Phil Graham, monumentally-influential publisher of the “Washington Post” and husband of Katherine Graham shot himself.
Cecil’s column on the Singing Nun:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_078.html
For the jazz fans: J.J. Johnson, one of the greatest trombonists.
Auntie Em - took an overdose of sleeping pills then put her head inside a plastic bag. But that’s OK, because she was Christian woman and refused to tell Elmira Gulch what she really thought.
I don’t see why there was any need to mention them. They weren’t celebrities who committed suicide, they were suicides who achieved celebrity, and even then “notority” better fits the description.
Let us not forget Herve Villachez of Fantasy Island. Shot himself (Poorly) in the chest on videotape.
Violeta Parra, Chilean folk singer–got depressed and shot herself in February 1967.
Guy Debord, “revolutionary” and author of Society of the Spectacle --shot himself in November 1994 due to a nerve disorder caused by alcoholism.
David Blood, bassist for the Dead Milkmen. Killed himself last March or February; I don’t know how.
Pegeen Vail, Peggy Guggenheim’s daughter–took sleeping pills; March 1967.
Famous suicide - an otherwise obscure person famous only for committing suicide. There was the guy - I don’t think he was ever identified - who commit suicide in a hotel room, leaving the note “I walk a lonely road” which inspired the song Heartbreak Hotel, otherwise a completely obscure story.
If we’re going to count that one, there’s also 16-year-old Jeremy Wade Delle, who shot himself in front of his Richardson, TX high school English class in 1991. The Dallas suburbs were home to a rash of teen suicides in the 1980s and drew national attention, but Jeremy’s was the first in a few years. A newspaper story about his death inspired Eddie Vedder to write Pearl Jam’s hit “Jeremy”.