# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/101 "2013-07-08T18:16:41Z")
Actress Nanette Fabray wasn’t killed by an elephant but almost was- a pink elephant no less that tossed her several yards while she was filming the movie _Harper Valley PTA_. She was in the hospital for several weeks but made a full recovery and is still alive in her 90s. She issued a statement asking people not to blame the elephant- he was startled by an obnoxious intruder on the set. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/102 "2013-07-08T18:39:16Z")
Some murders are borderline, but Sal Mineo (stabbed to death in an alley) and Bob Crane (beaten to death with a golf club) both stand out as unusual. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/103 "2013-07-08T18:43:36Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Actress Nanette Fabray wasn’t killed by an elephant but almost was- a pink elephant no less that tossed her several yards while she was filming the movie _Harper Valley PTA_. She was in the hospital for several weeks but made a full recovery and is still alive in her 90s. She issued a statement asking people not to blame the elephant- he was startled by an obnoxious intruder on the set. Nanette Fabray is in her 90s? Does not compute :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/104 "2013-07-08T18:46:41Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Nanette Fabray is in her 90s? Does not compute :eek: Yep. You might be thinking of her niece, Shelley, who was on _Coach_ and is married to Mike Farrell; she’s in her late 60s. ---
**Author:** ![destineal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@destineal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/destineal)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/105 "2013-07-08T19:15:14Z")
Surprised this one wasn’t mentioned: Brad Delp, the singer of Boston, committed suicide by wheeling 2 charcoal grills into the bathroom, sealing the door and lighting them after being caught filming his fiancé’s sister with a hidden camera. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/106 "2013-07-08T19:38:37Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > So composed it’s obviously a magazine-destined reconstruction or reenactment. > > I posted the Lupe Velez story first, with a caveat; the evidence is plentiful that she was found in disarray in the bathroom, having vomited before she died. The glosses that she jammed her head in the toilet and drowned are just that - glosses from a couple of lurid 80s Hollywood-trash books. > > But I’ll bet one authentic Mexican wooden peso that that’s neither an authentic photo of Velez nor a good representation of how she was found. Having looked at the picture, it _could_ be real - however to me it looks like the body was moved and a pillow put under the head. [The skirt looks in a bit of disarray, as if the body had been moved somehow.] It could be that the studio fixer got there, saw that it wasn’t as bad as it could be, and while looking at the death scene flipped her over to make sure it was her, that she was really dead and hadn’t been murdered by having something done to the front of her body. Frequently people discovering bodies will cover them if they are naked, and ‘make them more comfortable’, though it begs thought that someone had found her while she was still alive and put the pillow under her head to make her more comfortable while she was dying. ---
**Author:** ![Strainger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strainger/32/244_2.png) [@Strainger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strainger)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/107 "2013-07-08T20:13:40Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > I think we should have some more posts about the Segway guy. Jimi Heseldon didn’t invent the Segway, you know. That was Dean Kamen. Heseldon just bought the company. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/108 "2013-07-08T20:13:51Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Some murders are borderline, but Sal Mineo (stabbed to death in an alley) and Bob Crane (beaten to death with a golf club) both stand out as unusual. Just remembered: Jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius was beaten by a club bouncer, and later died from his injuries. From Wikipedia: After sneaking onstage at a Carlos Santana concert on September 11, 1987, and being ejected from the premises, Pastorius made his way to the Midnight Bottle Club in Wilton Manors, Florida. After reportedly kicking in a glass door, having been refused entrance to the club, he was engaged in a violent confrontation with the club bouncer, Luc Havan. Pastorius was hospitalized for multiple facial fractures and injuries to his right eye and left arm. He fell into a coma and was put on life support. Initial encouraging signs that he would come out of the coma and recover faded. A massive brain hemorrhage a few days later led to brain death. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/109 "2013-07-08T20:15:44Z")
> [@Strainger](#): > > Jimi Heseldon didn’t invent the Segway, you know. That was Dean Kamen. Heseldon just bought the company. Kamen died when all the posts about this fell on him. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/110 "2013-07-08T20:24:38Z")
[Jack Daniel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Daniel), of Jack Daniel’s whiskey fame, kicked the safe in his office out of anger, which caused an infection in his toe, which led to blood poisoning which killed him. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/111 "2013-07-08T20:36:36Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Having looked at the picture, it _could_ be real - however to me it looks like the body was moved and a pillow put under the head. Maybe. But if this is supposed to be an official police photo, such rearrangement wouldn’t have been tolerated. Also, look at the face and feet - her face is not the slack face of death, or even sleep; her toes are pointed straight up, in hard round-backed shoes. That’s not a dead woman; that’s a woman posing dead on the floor. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/112 "2013-07-08T21:00:53Z")
The Three Stooges were originally backup performers for vaudevillian Ted Healy, who was also the star of their early films for Fox. Shortly after Columbia hired the Stooges, but not Healy, he was (OK, allegedly) killed in a fight outside the Trocadero Club by - get this - Wallace Beery and Albert “Cubby” Broccoli (the James Bond guy), and Broccoli’s cousin Pat DiCicco, who was Gloria Vanderbilt’s husband. The studios had enough pull to hide the matter - Beery made an impromptu trip to England right afterward, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/113 "2013-07-09T01:30:16Z")
Actor Jack Nance, best known for his role in David Lynch’s **Eraserhead** , died after allegedly being involved in a fight outside of a doughnut shop. [http://www.lynchnet.com/absent/nancepre.html](http://www.lynchnet.com/absent/nancepre.html) > **[Jack Nance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Nance)** > > Marvin John Nance (December 21, 1943 – December 30, 1996) was an American actor. A longtime collaborator of filmmaker David Lynch, Nance portrayed the lead in Lynch's directorial film debut Eraserhead (1977). He continued to work with Lynch throughout his career, including as a series regular on the ABC mystery drama Twin Peaks (1990–1991). > Nance was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Hoyt and Agnes Nance and was raised in Dallas, Texas. He graduated from South Oak Cliff High School and attended N... ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/114 "2013-07-09T02:31:32Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > The Three Stooges were originally backup performers for vaudevillian Ted Healy, who was also the star of their early films for Fox. Shortly after Columbia hired the Stooges, but not Healy, he was (OK, allegedly) killed in a fight outside the Trocadero Club by - get this - Wallace Beery and Albert “Cubby” Broccoli (the James Bond guy), and Broccoli’s cousin Pat DiCicco, who was Gloria Vanderbilt’s husband. The studios had enough pull to hide the matter - Beery made an impromptu trip to England right afterward, for instance. I saw a TV special on the Stooges once. I believe the “offical” story (arranged by the studios) was that Healy was killed in a fight with some anonymous hoodlums. Apparently, Moe Howard in particular was stunned to hear of Healy’s death, and was hit hard by it. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/115 "2013-07-09T03:39:50Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > … and a trimmed-and-sculpted pubic patch (shape of a valentine heart). Source: _Sleazy Hollywood Scandals_, Art Spiegelman, ed. The artist of that piece told me that that particular detail was an artistically licensed invention of his own. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/116 "2013-07-09T03:51:01Z")
And while working in the same comic shop where that conversation took place, I also became the first person in the world, outside of family and medical personnel, to learn of the death of cartoonist Vaughn Bode–by what was described to me as “a form of meditation,” but which sounds more like auto-erotic asphyxiation based upon later descriptions. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/117 "2013-07-09T03:54:46Z")
> [@from\_a\_to\_z](#): > > 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. _Sleazy Scandals of the Silver Screen_: [https://s2-us3.ixquick-proxy.com/do/show\_picture.pl?l=english&cat=pics&c=pf&q=Sleazy+Scandals+of+the+Silver+Screen&h=766&w=566&th=160&tw=118&fn=sleazyscandalsb.jpg&fs=129%20k&el=boss\_pics\_1&tu=http:%2F%2Fts3.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DH.4625917081027290%26pid%3D15.1%26H%3D160%26W%3D118&rl=NONE&u=http:%2F%2Fcomixjoint.com%2Fsleazyscandalsofthesilverscreen-1st.html&udata=17b4fafe09131741eb116b222ccfa5f6&rid=LFLNRNNOLTNT&oiu=http:%2F%2Fcomixjoint.com%2F6\_site\_graphics%2F\*Covers%2F2\_Underground%2Fsleazyscandalsb.jpg](https://s2-us3.ixquick-proxy.com/do/show_picture.pl?l=english&cat=pics&c=pf&q=Sleazy+Scandals+of+the+Silver+Screen&h=766&w=566&th=160&tw=118&fn=sleazyscandalsb.jpg&fs=129%20k&el=boss_pics_1&tu=http:%2F%2Fts3.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DH.4625917081027290%26pid%3D15.1%26H%3D160%26W%3D118&rl=NONE&u=http:%2F%2Fcomixjoint.com%2Fsleazyscandalsofthesilverscreen-1st.html&udata=17b4fafe09131741eb116b222ccfa5f6&rid=LFLNRNNOLTNT&oiu=http:%2F%2Fcomixjoint.com%2F6_site_graphics%2F*Covers%2F2_Underground%2Fsleazyscandalsb.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/118 "2013-07-09T03:58:50Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Nanette Fabray is in her 90s? Does not compute :eek: > [@Sampiro](#): > > Yep. You might be thinking of her niece, Shelley, who was on _Coach_ and is married to Mike Farrell; she’s in her late 60s. I do not like to ponder such things. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/119 "2013-07-09T04:15:22Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Kamen died when all the posts about this fell on him. Of course, there’s an irony involved here, in that Kamen is the grandson of EC Comics artist Jack Kamen, who drew story after story about miserable married people murdering their mates in a huge variety of bizarre ways, e.g.: [![](http://www.entrecomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/bb08.gif) ](http://www.entrecomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/bb08.gif) [http://2.bp.blogspot.com/\_Rf9S3GkkeyI/TSTD1dKSdQI/AAAAAAAAhtQ/iNlHscry8Mc/s400/jack+kamen+and+al+feldstein.+dead+right.+page.+008.jpg](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Rf9S3GkkeyI/TSTD1dKSdQI/AAAAAAAAhtQ/iNlHscry8Mc/s400/jack+kamen+and+al+feldstein.+dead+right.+page.+008.jpg) [![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bxh_KwQv7Ls/TrRAUFEpUcI/AAAAAAAAD0U/so2hwdbLapo/s400/jack+kamen+and+al+feldstein.+kickback.+page.+008.jpg) ](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bxh_KwQv7Ls/TrRAUFEpUcI/AAAAAAAAD0U/so2hwdbLapo/s400/jack+kamen+and+al+feldstein.+kickback.+page.+008.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2013, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795/120 "2013-07-09T04:16:40Z")
Just to head off some one from posting it later, Cass Elliot a.k.a. Mama Cass of the Mamas & the Papas did NOT [choke to death on a ham sandwich](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cass_Elliot#Death). She died of cardiac arrest. The most ironic part of this tragedy is that her fatal heart attack was likely caused by the extreme measures she took to lose weight - including literally starving herself. (Her obesity is most likely a large factor that contributed to the enduring urban legend.) During his public lectures, Author Samuel Clemons a.k.a. Mark Twain was often fond of stating that he was born while Haley’s Comet shone in the sky, and that he expected he would die “beneath” it as well. Sure enough, Twain had a fatal heart attack during the next appearance of the comet in 1910. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-a-crappy-list-of-bizarre-celebrity-deaths-we-can-do-better/662795.md?page=7)