# People more famous because they died **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 19, 2000, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875 "2000-11-19T20:34:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875/1 "2000-11-19T20:34:42Z")
How many people are probably more famous today because they died. For example I doubt Marilyn Monroe or James Dean would be nearly the icons they are had they lived. That is their deaths contributed to their being famous. I am thinking JFK is on the borderline. ---
**Author:** ![Sue\_Duhnym](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@Sue\_Duhnym](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sue_Duhnym)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875/2 "2000-11-19T20:40:25Z")
How about The Big Bopper? (He died in the plane crash with Ritchie Valens) Maybe Jayne Mansfield? ---
**Author:** ![Sue\_Duhnym](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@Sue\_Duhnym](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sue_Duhnym)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875/3 "2000-11-19T20:41:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sue Duhnym \* > \*\*How about The Big Bopper? (He died in the plane crash with Ritchie Valens) > > \*\* Actually, Ritchie Valens is a pretty good one. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875/4 "2000-11-19T20:44:48Z")
I think this question defies a definite answer and is more of an opinion/polling type thing. I’ll move it over to IMHO for you. ---
**Author:** ![Torgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875/5 "2000-11-19T20:46:14Z")
Jesus Christ never would have gotten his little operation off the ground if he hadn’t been nailed to that tree. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875/6 "2000-11-19T20:48:47Z")
Kurt Cobain. He’d be just another washed-up rock star today, had he not blown his own head off. Elizabeth Short, a.k.a. the Black Dahlia. John F. Kennedy. Had he not been assassinated, history would remember him only as one of the mediocre presidents. ---
**Author:** ![tsarina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@tsarina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tsarina)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875/7 "2000-11-19T20:49:08Z")
I immediately thought of Lei Feng, a Chinese soldier who, after he died, was made into a hero for “selfless Chinese youth”. He had a diary or a book of letters or something that was published (or probably just made up) that was distributed to damn near every kid in the country for years. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875/8 "2000-11-19T21:01:04Z")
Along those lines, Anne Frank. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875/9 "2000-11-19T21:14:22Z")
Jim Morrison … that is, if he’s REALLY dead. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875/10 "2000-11-19T21:15:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Enderw23 \* > \*\*Along those lines, Anne Frank. \*\* Well, for that matter, any of many famous murder victims. Kitty Genovese, Leon Klinghoffer, Yankel Rosenbaum, Harvey Milk, and many others. If not for their murders, they would have lived happy obscure lives. In addition, there are those whose fate has become unknown. They too are famous only because of their presumed deaths. Amelia Earheart, Joseph Force Crater, Jimmy Hoffa, Etan Patz. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Welfy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e56c9b/32.png) [@Welfy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Welfy)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875/11 "2000-11-19T21:34:53Z")
Princess Diana Elvis ---
**Author:** ![DocDaneeka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c68b51/32.png) [@DocDaneeka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocDaneeka)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875/12 "2000-11-19T22:10:23Z")
Me. Just not yet. ---
**Author:** ![Orshee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Orshee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orshee)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875/13 "2000-11-19T22:16:21Z")
I’m with Welfy on Elvis. I read Careless Love, the second half of Elvis’ biography (first half was Last Train to Memphis), and it sounds like he would have just faded away if he hadn’t died so young. ---
**Author:** ![malden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@malden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malden)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875/14 "2000-11-19T22:26:26Z")
**Nicole Brown Simpson** and **Ron Goldman** **Anyone** who earns a “Darwin Award” **William Henry Harrison** (a little-known U.S. President-- the only thing most people know about him is that he served as president for one month, then died.) **Stephen** , and other early Christian martyrs ---
**Author:** ![malden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@malden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malden)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875/15 "2000-11-19T22:33:00Z")
**Orshee** wrote: > [@](#): > > [Elvis] would have just faded away if he hadn’t died so young. Elvis died at the age of 42. Just imagine if he had died in, say, 1962 instead of 1977! Maybe he would be famous in more of a James Dean kind of way than in, well, an Elvis kind of way. It’s hard to picture Elvis today, at age 65. ---
**Author:** ![Welfy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e56c9b/32.png) [@Welfy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Welfy)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875/16 "2000-11-19T23:30:57Z")
Buddy Holly. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875/17 "2000-11-19T23:45:32Z")
How about Otis Redding? I personally think the guy was incredible (unlike, say, the vastly overrated Jim Morrison or Janis Joplin), but he was mostly known mainly to the “soul/r&b” audience until he died, at which point “Dock of the Bay” became a (pop) chart hit. ---
**Author:** ![Orshee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Orshee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orshee)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875/18 "2000-11-19T23:48:48Z")
How about John Lennon? And I think nobody would remember Sid Vicious if he hadn’t died. ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875/19 "2000-11-19T23:50:04Z")
disagree on Elvis, the musicians I’d pick are Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison. They’d have a place, but smaller one if they hadn’t died young. Hendrix would’ve been bigger. ---
**Author:** ![Torgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875/20 "2000-11-19T23:55:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Orshee \* > \*\*How about John Lennon? > > And I think nobody would remember Sid Vicious if he hadn’t died. \*\* JOHN LENNON? I’m sure both secured their fame long before their untimely deaths. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-more-famous-because-they-died/41875.md?page=2)