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.
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?
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.
See post #25.
Bramwell Bronte, brother of the famous writing sisters, died of tuberculosis. The bizarre part was that he died standing up, just to prove it could be done.
Silent film star Ramon Novarro was tortured and murdered by two male prostitutes he’d hired. Some accounts say he was choked to death on a sex toy.
Yoshiyuku Takada, 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, attacked by a monkey while walking his dog.
Christine Chubbock, a news anchor who shot herself on live TV.
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.
Modern medical opinion says this is impossible.
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.
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.
Nobody’s mentioned Marie Provost yet?
Was it?
Regards,
Shodan
The woman involved had a positive thing for being involved in bizzare deaths:
Yes, David. Of course. :smack:
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.
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, with follow-up comments here.
Benito Mussolini did it.
I figure if you’re famous enough to have a wikipedia article, you’re a celebrity.
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.
Professional baseball player Lon Koenecke was killed by a pilot while fighting over the controls over an airplane in flight.
To Kill a Mockingbird and All the President’s Men director 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.