# Most shocking or surprising celebrity death? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 28, 2020, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132 "2020-01-28T22:54:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132/21 "2020-01-29T01:02:56Z")
As wrestling fan I was shocked when Owen Hart died during a WWF pay-per-view event. (He fell from the rafters trying to rappel into the ring during his entrance.) The death itself didn’t actually air on TV but when announcer Jim Ross announced Owen’s death I was shocked. The WWF continued the show but you could tell the other wrestlers were kind of out of it. As for other wrestlers I was shocked when Brian Pillman and Eddie Guerrero died as well. As for other celebrities River Phoenix, Heath Ledger, and Like Perry’s all shocked me because they weren’t much older than me. And it was hard when Leonard Nimoy died because I always loved his work as Spock. And Stan Lee as well. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132/22 "2020-01-29T01:06:39Z")
Keith Richards story 🙂 [Keith Richards' Housekeeper Has Braced Herself For Finding Dead Body Every Morning Since 1976](https://entertainment.theonion.com/keith-richards-housekeeper-has-braced-herself-for-findi-1819573606) ---
**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:** [January 29, 2020, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132/23 "2020-01-29T01:09:35Z")
Rebecca Schaeffer I realize she’s probably been mostly forgotten by now but at the time of her death in 1989, she was a fairly well-known actress. She had starred on a successful TV series and had made a couple of movies. And then a stalker showed up at her front door and shot her. Her death was a shock because it was so unexpected and she was only 21 years old. ---
**Author:** ![Boycott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boycott/32/6741_2.png) [@Boycott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boycott)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132/24 "2020-01-29T01:14:09Z")
As a football fan Gary Speed committing suicide in 2011 was a severe shock. He was a pretty good player in the 1990s and 2000s Premiership era, had retired from playing the year before, got the job of Wales manager having been Wales captain as a player, was doing very well as manager … and appeared as a TV pundit just the day before. The people who were with him on that show spoke about how happy and he seemed. Nothing out of the ordinary. Normal. So that he was found dead the following morning having hung himself in his garage will always be haunting for his family and friends, but even for outsiders like myself since he was in the public eye for so long. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132/25 "2020-01-29T01:14:56Z")
When a celeb dies from an OD it does not surprise me. Sadly there are a lot of celebs who died in plane/chopper crashes too, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Rick Nelson, Jim Croce, some Skynyrd members, the list is not short. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132/26 "2020-01-29T01:16:10Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > John Lennon and Heather O’Rourke off the top of my head. There was another young child actress in some sort of murder/suicide thing (her father and the body was set on fire?) but the name escapes me. With most other famous people you almost expect some sort of drug/alcohol related death enough not to be surprised when they happen. Is the other young actress you are think of Judith Barsi? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith\_Barsi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Barsi) There is a real disturbing conspiracy theory around Heather O’Rourke’s death but I don’t want to repeat it here because I have no idea how credible it is. (It was circling around one of those “blind gossip” websites at one point.) ---
**Author:** ![Boycott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boycott/32/6741_2.png) [@Boycott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boycott)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132/27 "2020-01-29T01:24:48Z")
> [@Boycott](#): > > As a football fan Gary Speed committing suicide in 2011 was a severe shock. He was a pretty good player in the 1990s and 2000s Premiership era, had retired from playing the year before, got the job of Wales manager having been Wales captain as a player, was doing very well as manager … and appeared as a TV pundit just the day before. The people who were with him on that show spoke about how happy and he seemed. Nothing out of the ordinary. Normal. > > So that he was found dead the following morning having hung himself in his garage will always be haunting for his family and friends, but even for outsiders like myself since he was in the public eye for so long. The TV appearance in question. Hung himself less than 24 hours later. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132/28 "2020-01-29T01:30:54Z")
I’d say Anton Yelchin’s death was truly shocking and surprising, because he was so young and his career was really taking off, and it had nothing to do with drugs or suicide or any kind of risky behavior. It was just a bizarre freak accident. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132/29 "2020-01-29T01:36:27Z")
> [@Boycott](#): > > The TV appearance in question. > > Hung himself less than 24 hours later. This remind of the death of The Ultimate Warrior. He was inducted in the WWF Hall of Fame on Wrestlemania weekend in 2014 and appeared live on WWF’s show RAW that Monday. He flew home to Arizona after RAW and died of a heart attack getting out of his car the next day. His speech he gave on RAW that Monday almost seems like he knew he wasn’t going to live much longer. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR08M6EUd0g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR08M6EUd0g) ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132/30 "2020-01-29T01:41:17Z")
> [@Ryan\_Liam](#): > > [ul] > [li]Michael O’Hare [/li][li]Jerry Doyle [/li][li]Jeff Conaway[/li][li]Stephen Furst[/li][/ul] > All with in the last ten years. I can’t help watch B5 and think to myself a significant portion of the main cast is now dead. You forgot Richard Biggs(Dr. Franklin), the first to die and the healthiest looking of the bunch. He just died right out of nowhere. Andreas Katsulas is also dead. Anyway, Richard Biggs was probably the biggest shock, followed by Jerry Doyle. > [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > I’d say Anton Yelchin’s death was truly shocking and surprising, because he was so young and his career was really taking off, and it had nothing to do with drugs or suicide or any kind of risky behavior. It was just a bizarre freak accident. Another good one. Just a terrible, horrifying death. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132/31 "2020-01-29T01:41:32Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > When a celeb dies from an OD it does not surprise me. Sadly there are a lot of celebs who died in plane/chopper crashes too, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Rick Nelson, Jim Croce, some Skynyrd members, the list is not short. Aaliyah’s death, also in a plane crash, was quite a shock as well. It happened about 2 weeks before 9/11 - and speaking of which, the two best-known victims, as in “famous before it happened”, were actress Berry Berenson and political commentator and author Barbara Olson. Sarah Ferguson would have been a victim had it happened a couple hours later; she had an appointment with IIRC some potential investors in a company she was founding. She was in town but nowhere near the building when the attack happened. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132/32 "2020-01-29T01:51:11Z")
No mention of Osama Bin laden? He was technically a celebrity. That one came totally out of the blue. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132/33 "2020-01-29T01:51:42Z")
sometimes people who decide to kill themselves are happy right before they do it. I believe the idea is they are happy because they think they found a solution to their problems. A weird celeb death was Barry Cowsill who drowned in Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. His sister also lived in NO but she evacuated. They did not find his body until 3 months after the storm hit. ---
**Author:** ![Kimble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimble/32/19185_2.png) [@Kimble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimble)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132/34 "2020-01-29T02:00:35Z")
Hank Gathers. If I had been born a few years earlier, probably Len Bias. Both college basketball stars that died suddenly – Gathers after a dunk during the WCC tournament (heart problems), Bias the night after he went #2 overall in the NBA Draft (cocaine use). (My username isn’t a coincidence.) ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132/35 "2020-01-29T02:00:44Z")
John Lennon’s death was the last one that truly shocked me. And probably will continue to be, as I’m way too jaded to get shocked by such things anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Boycott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boycott/32/6741_2.png) [@Boycott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boycott)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132/36 "2020-01-29T02:04:57Z")
Another sporting related one is Bob Woolmer. The ex England test cricketer who became more reputable as a coach and commentator. His last coaching job was in charge of the Pakistan National Team at the 2007 World Cup held in the Caribbean which didn’t end well. Pakistan lost their opening two matches to the West Indies and Ireland (the latter a huge upset as Irish cricket was at that point in its adolescence). That meant they were eliminated from making it through the group stage before their last game of the group stage. Woolmer did not live to play that last game. He was found dead in his hotel room the day after Pakistan’s defeat to Ireland. And the Jamaican police did not come to a conclusive cause: > [@](#): > > Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer was found dead on 18 March 2007, one day after his team’s defeat to Ireland put them out of the running for the World Cup. Jamaican police performed an autopsy which was deemed inconclusive.[1] The following day police announced that the death was suspicious and ordered a full investigation.[2] Further investigation revealed the cause of death was “manual strangulation”,[21] and that the investigation would be handled as a murder.[22] After a lengthy investigation the Jamaican police rescinded the comments that he was murdered, and confirmed that he died from natural causes.[23] On November 2007, an open verdict was returned. > **[2007 Cricket World Cup | Death of Bob Woolmer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Cricket_World_Cup#Death_of_Bob_Woolmer)** > > Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer was found dead on 18 March 2007, one day after his team's defeat to Ireland put them out of the running for the World Cup. Jamaican police performed an autopsy which was deemed inconclusive. The following day police announced that the death was suspicious and ordered a full investigation. Further investigation revealed the cause of death was "manual strangulation", and that the investigation would be handled as a murder. After a lengthy investigation the J ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132/37 "2020-01-29T02:11:22Z")
I was absolutely _blindsided_ by Anthony Bourdain’s suicide. I had read all his books, watched all his shows, was a HUGE fan of his, and I knew he had struggled with drug addiction in the past, but he always struck me as having a well-adjusted and resilient personality: cool, calm, collected, and ready to take whatever life has to dish out. Never, ever ever would I have expected him to kill himself. Drug overdose, drunken car crash, maybe, but not deliberate suicide, not in a million years. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132/38 "2020-01-29T02:25:55Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Aaliyah’s death, also in a plane crash, was quite a shock as well. > > It happened about 2 weeks before 9/11 - and speaking of which, the two best-known victims, as in “famous before it happened”, were actress Berry Berenson and political commentator and author Barbara Olson. > > Sarah Ferguson would have been a victim had it happened a couple hours later; she had an appointment with IIRC some potential investors in a company she was founding. She was in town but nowhere near the building when the attack happened. Seth MacFarlane was late to the airport on 9/11 and would have been on one of the flights that crashed. Yikes. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132/39 "2020-01-29T03:12:49Z")
Deaths resulting from automobile or aircraft accidents aren’t shocking to me. Neither are deaths from natural causes like common infectious diseases, medical conditions, or cancer. Shocking deaths are suicides, drug overdoses, murders, or other misadventures or resulting from tragic decisions or very unlikely circumstances. A relatively you g age and otherwise no sign of illness also factors in. Anthony Bourdain’s suicide shocked me more than any other celebrity death I can recall in my lifetime. Also shocking was Philip Seymour Hoffman’s drug overdose. Spalding Grey, Prince, Robin Williams, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, the Challenger crew, Epstein, Yitzhak Rabin. … Had I been alive or old enough to appreciate the significance, John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Robert Kennedy, John Lennon, the Apollo 1 astronauts, Freddie Prinze, Elvis, Lord Mountbatten … ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2020, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132/40 "2020-01-29T03:19:09Z")
I’m old enough to remember when Marilyn Monroe died. That death was a HUGE shock. People just wend around saying “Oh my god, not her!” And more personally, when two friends of mine died in the WTC on 9/11. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-shocking-or-surprising-celebrity-death/847132.md?page=3)