British comedian Tommy Cooper died of a heart attack during a live TV broadcast.
I know Freddie Mercury’s death wasn’t quite in the “suddenly dropping dead” category, but it came as a shock at the time. IIRC, the news came out that he was ill and within about 24 hours he was dead.
Jonathan Larson, creater of the musical “Rent” dropped dead of an aorta aneurysm. He had been interviewed by the New York Times, a neighbor saw him come home around 1:00 am, and when his roommate came in at 3:30 he was dead under the kitchen table, his coat still on and a tea kettle on the stove.
Larson had been to two hospital emergency rooms that week complaining of chest pains so bad he couldn’t eat. One diagnosed food poisoning and the othr said he had the flu.
Arthur “Killer” Kane. Bass player for the New York Dolls.
After the Dolls broke up he wandered around in obscurity, found Mormonism and worked as a librarian in Utah (edit: maybe it was California where he worked the library, can’t remember). He re-joined the surving Dolls (Syl and Johansen) for a one off concert in London, and was actively planning on more Dolls shows, while still working in the library.
One day he went to the hospital complaing of “flu-like symptoms”. He was quickly diagnosed with leukemia and died two hours later.
College basketball star Hank Gathers collapsed and died during a basketball game in 1990.
Similarly Celtics player Reggie Lewis, although he had symptoms of heart problems before this so it wasn’t completely from out of the blue.
Odd this thread popped up. Four Weddings and a Funeral was on cable the other day and I idly watched about twenty or thirty minutes. It’s one of those odd films I sort of half-like and half-detest. But I was watching it and got idly curious about the character actress who played the vaguely punky-cute character Scarlett. So I looked her up.
Charlotte Coleman. Who sadly dropped dead of an asthma attack at age 33.
Olympic Gold Medal Figure Skater Sergi Grinkov at 28 years of age.
It seems an Olympic caliber athele should not have died of heart disease at such a young age.
Heather O’Rourke, the little blond kid from Poltergeist.
From an intestinal blockage at age 12.
Just an aside, but that movie was awesome and really showed what a douchebag Buster Poindexter could be.
Which he sort of half-admits himself at the end.
Very odd fellow, Kane. But the reformed band actually did sound surprisingly decent on stage.
You think so? I didn’t think he was so bad. He was even pretty tender toward Kane at spots.
But, what would one expect from Buster Poindexter? He did seem pretty aloof when he first met them for rehearsals.