# Weird Celebrity Deaths **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 25, 2016, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134 "2016-02-25T20:16:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/21 "2016-02-26T01:04:00Z")
Composer Jean-Baptiste Lully died of an infected wound incurred when he struck his own foot with the staff he was using to beat time during a performance. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/22 "2016-02-26T01:19:40Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Zip line? Parachute? Hang glider? Not sure what you’re asking, but he literally skied into a tree, hit his head and died. Happened not far from me at Heavenly Ski Resort. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/23 "2016-02-26T02:23:33Z")
Actress Brittany Murphy passed away in her home, the cause of death was pneumonia, and then it was reported that drug abuse was the underlying factor, along with anemia. Which I remember seemed very sad, that she suffered from addiction, because I really liked her. Then, her husband died six months later, in their home, of pneumonia, and apparently also anemia. And then that just seemed weird. Murphy’s parents have since claimed there was some deadly environmental issue with the house, like toxic mold. The parents seem … a little volatile, so it’s hard to figure out (from my periodic google searches on this). Every character in this story is a bit of an odd duck, so who knows what was really going on. ---
**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:** [February 26, 2016, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/24 "2016-02-26T02:32:02Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > There was also a Thailand Queen who drowned while people stood around not helping because they weren’t allowed to touch her. That was [Queen Sunandha Kumariratana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunandha_Kumariratana), wife of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V), who had been the little boy of _The King and I_ fame: **“The queen and her daughter drowned when the royal boat capsized while on the way to the Bang Pa-In Royal Palace (Summer palace). Despite the presence of many onlookers, they were forbidden on pain of death to touch the queen – not even to save her life. The grief-stricken Chulalongkorn later erected a memorial to her and his unborn child at the Bang Pa-In Palace.”** A pleasant place to visit, Bang Pa-in Palace is in Ayutthaya’s Bang Pa-in district in central Thailand. And speaking of Thailand, don’t forget David Carradine’s weird death by kinky auto-asphyxiation in the Nai Lert Park Hotel in Bangkok. But that wasn’t even the weirdest death there. That hotel used to be the Hilton. I recall about 20 years ago, a prostitute went missing on her way to meet a client in the hotel. They found the body in a water-storage tank on top of the hotel several days after she went missing. Yes, the water that was pumped into the rooms and kitchens. Lovely. It eventually transpired that a security guard had killed her in the parking garage. She’d asked him for directions to the client’s room, he made some smart-ass remark to her about being a prostitute, she ripped him a new asshole mouthing off to him, so he killed her. Dumped the body in the water tank and took off for his village in the Northeast without so much as a by your leave. Since he disappeared about the same time the girl was last seen alive, the police put two and two together and tracked him down in his village. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/25 "2016-02-26T02:36:43Z")
French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully stabbed himself with his staff while conducting. The wound became infected, leading to the gangrene which killed him. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/26 "2016-02-26T02:53:08Z")
Helmut Köllen, bassist and vocalist for the German prog-rock band Triumvirat, died of carbon monoxide poisoning while he was listening to tapes of some studio tracks on his car stereo, in a closed garage with the engine running. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/27 "2016-02-26T03:02:20Z")
Comedian/actor Dick Shawn died of a massive heart attack while performing his act on stage. No one did anything for five minutes, thinking it was part of the act. A stagehand finally went on stage and discovered he was dead. The audience remained in the theater until the paramedics arrived, still thinking it was an act. ---
**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:** [February 26, 2016, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/28 "2016-02-26T03:05:46Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Comedian/actor Dick Shawn died of a massive heart attack while performing his act on stage. No one did anything for five minutes, thinking it was part of the act. A stagehand finally went on stage and discovered he was dead. The audience remained in the theater until the paramedics arrived, still thinking it was an act. Didn’t the same thing happen to Redd Foxx? They thought he was just doing his “Elizabeth, here I come” shtick again. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/29 "2016-02-26T03:16:39Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Comedian/actor Dick Shawn died of a massive heart attack while performing his act on stage. No one did anything for five minutes, thinking it was part of the act. A stagehand finally went on stage and discovered he was dead. The audience remained in the theater until the paramedics arrived, still thinking it was an act. Ooh, similar … Irene Ryan (the grandma on Beverly Hillbillies), had a stroke while performing in the stage musical Pippin, just as the curtain was coming down after her big number. She never recovered, and passed away a few weeks later. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/30 "2016-02-26T03:29:35Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Didn’t the same thing happen to Redd Foxx? They thought he was just doing his “Elizabeth, here I come” shtick again. Sorta. To his castmates’ credit (it happened during rehearsal for The Royal Family), they figured out he was having a real heart attack and called for help fairly quickly, but the delay, brief as it was, probably didn’t help his survival. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/31 "2016-02-26T03:29:55Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > Charles Drew, the inventor of the “blood bank” and pioneer of successful blood transfusions, died during a failed blood transfusion after a car accident in North Carolina. He was injured so badly that virtually nothing could have saved him. One of his colleagues, who was in the crash with him, even believed that a blood transfusion might have killed him sooner. > **[Charles R. Drew](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_R._Drew)** > > Charles Richard Drew (June 3, 1904 – April 1, 1950) was an American surgeon and medical researcher. He researched in the field of blood transfusions, developing improved techniques for blood storage, and applied his expert knowledge to developing large-scale blood banks early in World War II. This allowed medics to save thousands of Allied forces' lives during the war. As the most prominent African American in the field, Drew protested against the practice of racial segregation in the donation... ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/32 "2016-02-26T03:40:26Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > Didn’t some famous British puppeteer die while trying to move the TV antenna on the roof of his house? [Rod Hull](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Hull#Death). > [@RealityChuck](#): > > Comedian/actor Dick Shawn died of a massive heart attack while performing his act on stage. No one did anything for five minutes, thinking it was part of the act. > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Didn’t the same thing happen to Redd Foxx? They thought he was just doing his “Elizabeth, here I come” shtick again. See also UK comedy magician [Tommy Cooper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Cooper#Death_on_a_live_television_show). “On 15 April 1984 Cooper collapsed from a heart attack in front of millions of television viewers, midway through his act.” ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/33 "2016-02-26T03:41:44Z")
The great American baritone Leonard Warren was performing in Verdi’s Don Carlo, and had just sung an aria that began “Morir, tremenda cosa” (to die, a momentous thing) when he suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage and died onstage. ---
**Author:** ![Obeseus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbce88/32.png) [@Obeseus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obeseus)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/34 "2016-02-26T03:53:38Z")
Health nut Jerome Rodale died on Dick Cavett show shortly after saying he had never felt better in his life. [The Dick Cavett Show "Jerome Rodale Death" Episode (1971 Unreleased Talkshow Episode) | Lost Media Archive | Fandom](http://lostmedia.wikia.com/wiki/The_Dick_Cavett_Show_%22Jerome_Rodale_Death%22_Episode_(1971_Unreleased_Talkshow_Episode)) ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/35 "2016-02-26T04:09:12Z")
Bobby Fuller died in a car under mysterious circumstances and was found to have gasoline in his stomach. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/36 "2016-02-26T04:26:58Z")
Bob Crane of Hogan’s Heros was violently beaten to death with a camera tripod. The main suspect was none other than John Carpenter. Years later he was officially charged but the charges were ultimately dismissed. ---
**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:** [February 26, 2016, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/37 "2016-02-26T04:34:50Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > Sonny Bono skied into a tree. Natasha Richardson also died from what had appeared to be a minor skiing accident. ---
**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:** [February 26, 2016, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/38 "2016-02-26T04:38:22Z")
Tennessee Williams was trying to open a bottle of eye drops. He was having difficulty getting the cap off so he pried it off with his teeth. He accidentally swallowed the cap and choked to death. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/39 "2016-02-26T05:08:18Z")
> [@White SIFL](#): > > Bob Crane of Hogan’s Heros was violently beaten to death with a camera tripod. The main suspect was none other than John Carpenter. Years later he was officially charged but the charges were ultimately dismissed. That’s not John Carpenter who made Halloween and The Thing, it’s some other guy no one ever would have heard of he wasn’t associated with Bob Crane’s death. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/40 "2016-02-26T05:08:25Z")
Detroit Tigers pitcher Mark “The Bird” Fidrych was found dead beneath his ten-wheel dump truck. Apparently got out to work on something under the truck, and his shirt got entangled on a spinning power takeoff shaft and he suffocated. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134.md?page=3)