# This is a crappy list of "bizarre" celebrity deaths - we can do better! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 6, 2013, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795 "2013-07-06T16:49:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/61 "2013-07-07T04:09:21Z")
Then there’s Rasputin, who was (possibly) given cyanide, shot (several times), clubbed, had his penis cut off, and was then thrown in the river. Cause of death was drowning. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/62 "2013-07-07T05:05:15Z")
Lupe Velez planned an elaborate, glamorous suicide to spite a lover who’d spurned her, taking a bunch of Seconals, writing a suicide note and lying in state, naked, with a dozen roses on her hand and a trimmed-and-sculpted pubic patch (shape of a valentine heart). She had eaten some spicy chili con queso right before, and it mixed badly with the Seconal; she bolted up and ran to the bathroom to throw up. She slipped on vomit, took a header face first into the toilet, and died there instead on her glamorous boudoir bed. Source: _Sleazy Hollywood Scandals_, Art Spiegelman, ed. Didn’t William Holden crack his head on the edge of a saloon bar? ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/63 "2013-07-07T05:10:04Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Then there’s Rasputin, who was (possibly) given cyanide, shot (several times), clubbed, had his penis cut off, and was then thrown in the river.Cause of death was drowning. Rasputin was certainly (in)famous, but his death was 97 years ago. Is that a celebrity death per the OP? ---
**Author:** ![3trew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/13edae/32.png) [@3trew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3trew)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/64 "2013-07-07T05:28:16Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > Rasputin was certainly (in)famous, but his death was 97 years ago. Is that a celebrity death per the OP? Dude copped it 97 years ago and he can be cited by one name, with no supporting details, in full expectation that we’ll know who he is. I’d say that counts. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/65 "2013-07-07T05:44:25Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > And speaking of the Rockefellers, Michael Rockefeller - youngest son of Nelson - disappeared while on an anthropological expedition in Papua, Indonesia, never to be heard or seen again. There is some speculation that he was [eaten by cannibals](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Rockefeller#Speculation). See post #25. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/66 "2013-07-07T06:12:08Z")
Bramwell Bronte, brother of the famous writing sisters, died of tuberculosis. The bizarre part was that he died _[standing up](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branwell_Bront%C3%AB#Death)_, just to prove it could be done. Silent film star Ramon Novarro was [tortured and murdered](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramon_Novarro#Death) by two male prostitutes he’d hired. Some accounts say he was choked to death on a sex toy. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/67 "2013-07-07T07:36:24Z")
[Yoshiyuku Takada](http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=10167), fell to his death after his rope broke during a performance art piece five stories up the side of a building in Seattle. [Alexander I, King of the Hellenes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_of_Greece#Death), attacked by a monkey while walking his dog. [Christine Chubbock](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Chubbuck#Lead-up), a news anchor who shot herself on live TV. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/68 "2013-07-07T08:44:14Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > One of the most famous stunt drivers in Hollywood, whose name eludes both me and Google at the moment, was killed when his stunt car rolled over, at low speed, as he turned to return to the stunt location after a successful run. > [@Accidental\_Martyr](#): > > Tony Scott’s suicide was pretty bizarre. > [Tony Scott’s Suicide Still A Mystery, Says LA County Coroner](http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2012/10/tony-scott-toxicology-test-suicide/) Somewhat related to both of those is Art Scholl. He was an aerobatic pilot and aerial cameraman who died in a crash while filming a scene for _Top Gun_. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/69 "2013-07-07T09:38:32Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > Harry Houdini-[punched in stomach](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Houdini#Death) which ruptured his inflamed appendix. Modern medical opinion says this is impossible. [From Snopes](http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/houdini.asp) _Most modern medical experts assert that appendicitis caused by blunt trauma is impossible and/or unknown in medical history, and while the blows to Houdini’s stomach may indeed have hastened the magician’s death, that result came about in a way different than commonly believed. Houdini was likely already suffering from appendicitis at the time Whitehead punched him, and he may have written off his subsequent discomfort merely as residual pain caused by those blows, thereby delaying his seeking medical treatment until it was too late. Had the dressing room incident not occurred, Houdini might have realized the pain was actually a symptom of a serious medical condition and not delayed so long in consulting doctors._ ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/70 "2013-07-07T09:47:31Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > Lupe Velez planned an elaborate, glamorous suicide to spite a lover who’d spurned her, taking a bunch of Seconals, writing a suicide note and lying in state, naked, with a dozen roses on her hand and a trimmed-and-sculpted pubic patch (shape of a valentine heart). She had eaten some spicy chili con queso right before, and it mixed badly with the Seconal; she bolted up and ran to the bathroom to throw up. She slipped on vomit, took a header face first into the toilet, and died there instead on her glamorous boudoir bed. Source: _Sleazy Hollywood Scandals_, Art Spiegelman, ed. Actually, not. Lupe Velez did not die with her head in the toilet. A police photo taken of her body as it was discovered came to light last May. She was found laying on the floor (not on her bed, as she apparently had planned), but very composed. Two-click rule because, after all, it is the photo of a dead person – Link after the spoiler. [You can see the photo here.](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-schroeder/mexican-spitfire-mystery-_b_3332978.html) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/71 "2013-07-07T18:52:50Z")
Nobody’s mentioned [Marie Provost](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3dTc4kyIOU) yet? ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/72 "2013-07-07T19:13:45Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Stuntman Brady Michaels died not performing a stund, but from stunt preparation. He fell about 15 feet off a ladder while checking out an upcoming stunt to make sure everything was in order. Was it? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/73 "2013-07-07T19:16:14Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > French president Felix Faure died while in the middle of some sex act with a much younger woman. There are many rumors as to what it might be, though a blowjob seems the most common explanation. The woman involved had a positive thing for being involved in bizzare deaths: > **[Marguerite Steinheil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marguerite_Steinheil)** > > Marguerite Jeanne "Meg" Japy Steinheil, Baroness Abinger (16 April 1869 – 17 July 1954) was a French woman known for her many love affairs with important men. She was present at the death of President Félix Faure, who was rumoured to have died after having a seizure while allegedly having sex with her. She was later tried for the murders of her husband and mother, but was acquitted. > Steinheil was born Marguerite Jeanne Japy in Beaucourt, in the Territoire de Belfort, to a rich, industrial fami... > [@](#): > > Legend has it that she was performing oral sex on him when he suddenly died, and that his stiff hands were tangled in her hair. > [@](#): > > On 31 May 1908, Marguerite’s stepmother and husband were found dead in their residence in the Impasse Ronsin, off the Rue de Vaugirard. Both had died of suffocation, the latter by strangling and the former by choking on her false teeth. Marguerite was found gagged and bound to a bed. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/74 "2013-07-07T20:17:44Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > He was dead when found. I think they just worded that sloppily. > > But you mean David Carradine, no? Or is the whole Carradine clan traipsing over here to engage in auto-erotic asphyxiation? :eek: Yes, David. Of course. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![from\_a\_to\_z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5fc32e/32.png) [@from\_a\_to\_z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/from_a_to_z)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2013, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/75 "2013-07-07T22:36:52Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > Lupe Velez…Source: _Sleazy Hollywood Scandals_, Art Spiegelman, ed. That’s an advance copy of _SHS_? My internet search skills find only The Straight Dope, this thread, with a mention of it. And I also have less than a nodding acquaintance of contemporary culture, so I hesitantly mention that this could be over my head. > [@JoseB](#): > > You can see the photo here. I believe those several HuffPost commenters who claim that the photo is a fake. Whether or not facts should ever get in the way of such a tale, **Bricker** of the Science Advisory Board reported on December 11, 2007, [here](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2275/did-lupe-v-lez-really-drown-in-the-toilet), with follow-up comments [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=447006). ---
**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:** [July 7, 2013, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/76 "2013-07-07T23:22:18Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > The bizarre part was that he died _[standing up](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branwell_Bront%C3%AB#Death)_, just to prove it could be done. Benito Mussolini did it. ---
**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:** [July 7, 2013, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/77 "2013-07-07T23:24:02Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > Is that a celebrity death per the OP? I figure if you’re famous enough to have a wikipedia article, you’re a celebrity. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/78 "2013-07-08T01:30:34Z")
Charley Straight is even less of a celebrity today than Rasputin, having been a piano playing bandleader in 1920s Chicago. By 1940 he was working for the city sewer department. He was killed coming out of a manhole when a car ran over his head. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/79 "2013-07-08T02:49:23Z")
Professional baseball player [Lon Koenecke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Koenecke) was killed by a pilot while fighting over the controls over an airplane in flight. ---
**Author:** ![Rollo\_Tomasi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/58956e/32.png) [@Rollo\_Tomasi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rollo_Tomasi)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/80 "2013-07-08T03:04:24Z")
**To Kill a Mockingbird** and **All the President’s Men** director [Alan J. Pakula](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_J._Pakula) died when a driver in front of him struck a metal pipe that was laying on the road. It went through Pakula’s windshield, hit him in the head, and caused him to swerve and crash into a fence. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795.md?page=5)