# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/101 "2016-02-28T20:25:38Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > Sonny Bono skied into a tree. I was there that day. ---
**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 28, 2016, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/102 "2016-02-28T20:36:29Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I was there that day. Oh, you’re the guy who was seen scurrying away from the tree with a can of white spray paint? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/103 "2016-02-28T20:48:33Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > If only it had been the same tree. Tree Trivia: The tree has been removed. I “kinda” know where it was, and know someone who “exactly” knows the stump. He’d probably tell me if I asked. ---
**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 29, 2016, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/104 "2016-02-29T16:31:33Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Tree Trivia: The tree has been removed. I “kinda” know where it was, and know someone who “exactly” knows the stump. He’d probably tell me if I asked. Geez, talk about closing the barn door after the horses have escaped. ---
**Author:** ![twuest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e99b99/32.png) [@twuest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twuest)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/105 "2016-03-01T03:45:23Z")
Former Major League Baseball player Bo Diaz…I believe he was killed when the satellite dish he was trying to install fell on him. ---
**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:** [March 1, 2016, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/106 "2016-03-01T04:09:01Z")
New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson died when he clipped a tree while practicing takeoffs and landings in his Cessna private jet. The plane hit the ground and caught fire and Munson died of asphyxiation. His friend and his flying instructor, who were in the plane with him, both survived. Munson suffered a broken neck and likely would have been a quadriplegic if he had survived. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/107 "2016-03-01T04:50:16Z")
[Tycho Brahe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_Brahe#Death), supposedly of holding a piss in: > [@](#): > > Tycho suddenly contracted a bladder or kidney ailment after attending a banquet in Prague, and died eleven days later, on 24 October 1601 at the age of 54. According to Kepler’s first hand account, Tycho had refused to leave the banquet to relieve himself because it would have been a breach of etiquette. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2016, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/108 "2016-03-01T05:12:24Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Geez, talk about closing the barn door after the horses have escaped. Poor tree! Like it had any choice in the matter… ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90ced4/32.png) [@Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waltzes_with_Cacti)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/109 "2016-03-04T14:30:57Z")
In 1853, Benjamin Pierce, the 11-year-old son of President Franklin Pierce, riding in a train with his parents, died when the car derailed. The unfortunate child may have been decapitated. Accounts differ, with some sources stating that the head was crushed but remained on the neck, and others that the head was completely detached. One lurid story even has it that the head rolled down the aisle of the train car and came to rest at his mother’s feet. :eek: (As with the death of Jayne Mansfield, nobody really knows.) What\* is\* known is that Mrs. Franklin Pierce, having witnessed the death of her only surviving child (her two other children had already died), sank into despair and became a recluse. She lived in seclusion in the upper floors of the White House and left the First Lady’s social duties to other ladies. President Pierce, who covered his son’s body with his frock coat, became an alcoholic. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/110 "2016-03-05T22:41:54Z")
Andre the Giant died while in Paris to attend his father’s funeral. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/111 "2016-03-06T23:40:41Z")
> [@Randolph](#): > > It’s a cone-spiracy! Oh, fir goodness’ sake… ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/112 "2016-03-07T01:25:26Z")
Gouverneur Morris, a Founding Father of the US. A signatory to , and author of large sections of the US Constitution, he died after using a piece of whalebone to clear a urinary blockage. Apparently he caused himself internal injuries and infection [Gouverneur Morris](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gouverneur_Morris) ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/113 "2016-03-07T04:25:23Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson died when he clipped a tree while practicing takeoffs and landings in his Cessna private jet. The plane hit the ground and caught fire and Munson died of asphyxiation. His friend and his flying instructor, who were in the plane with him, both survived. Munson suffered a broken neck and likely would have been a quadriplegic if he had survived. And 27 years later, New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle died while trying to execute a U-turn in his Cirrus private jet and accidentally crashing into the side of an apartment building on the Upper East Side. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/114 "2016-03-07T04:33:00Z")
> [@twuest](#): > > Former Major League Baseball player Bo Diaz…I believe he was killed when the satellite dish he was trying to install fell on him. Also, former Chicago Cub (and other teams) pitcher Geremi Gonzalez (he switched to that spelling from Jeremi in 2006. The “J” version was spelled incorrectly, but it wasn’t changed in the MLB records until 2006, when he was traded to Milwaukee), died after being struck by lightning. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/115 "2016-03-07T07:34:34Z")
[My SDStaff article on Bob Crane’s death.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2795/how-did-bob-crane-die-anyway) ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/116 "2016-03-07T07:38:00Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Lupe Velez took pills, slipped, and fell into the toilet. Hit her head and drowned(I think) in the toilet. [My SDStaff article on Lupe Vélez](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2275/did-lupe-v-lez-really-drown-in-the-toilet): > [@](#): > > This is where we came in – the part with the downers and the commode. There are several problems with Anger’s story, starting with his failure to source it reliably enough for independent verification. The Los Angeles Examiner doesn’t mention anything about drowning in its coverage of her death, nor does the coroner’s report. True, a cynic raised on Chinatown or the works of James Ellroy might counter that someone might have had such embarrassing details excised from newspaper accounts, or even from official documents. But common sense suggests that if a person with her head in a toilet were to lose consciousness, the weight of her body slumping to the floor would most likely pull her head out of the bowl, not trap it inside. > So while anything is possible, Anger’s version of the death scene doesn’t seem particularly credible, and his clear delight throughout the book in passing along lurid tidbits makes it seem unlikely he’d let skepticism get in the way of a good anecdote. But, like H.L. Mencken’s story of Millard Fillmore and the White House bathtub, the yarn about Vélez and the toilet gained enough traction long ago that it’s credulously reported as fact by many sources today. The unadorned truth, however, is sufficiently dramatic: a beautiful, talented 36-year-old pregnant woman was so overcome with despair that she chose to end her own life. ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/117 "2016-03-10T22:17:07Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > Oh, fir goodness’ sake… He’s not dead … he’s pining for the fjords! ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2016, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/118 "2016-03-19T21:47:21Z")
Back in the 60’s there was a high profile professional golfer “Champagne” Tony Lema. He died when his plane crash landed, on a golf course. ---
**Author:** ![Mann\_Slaughter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@Mann\_Slaughter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mann_Slaughter)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/119 "2016-03-23T00:15:59Z")
The 2 members of the R&B duo Damian Dame both met with tragic ends after flirting briefly with fame in the early 90s. She died in a car accident on June 27, 1994… He died of colon cancer EXACTLY 2 years later on June 27, 1996! Damian Dame on Wikipedia: > **[Damian Dame](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damian_Dame?wprov=sfla1)** > > Damian Dame were an American R&B group that was active in the early 1990s. It consisted of Bruce Edward "Damian" Broadus (September 13, 1966 – June 27, 1996) and Debra Jean "Deah Dame" Hurd (September 20, 1958 – June 27, 1994). > In 1991 Damian Dame became the first act signed to LaFace Records, co-founded by Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds, for whom Hurd once sang backing vocals. The duo released their eponymous debut album on May 14, 1991, yielding the singles "Exclusivity" and "Right Down to It," whic... ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134/120 "2016-03-23T04:35:44Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > My favorite > Gus Sandberg; siphoned gas from a friends car. Tried to find out how much was in the tank by lighting a match for illumination. Explosion results, Sandberg died of burns. Sounds like Wil E Coyote. _A decrepit gasman named Peter While searching around for the meter Touched a leak with his light He rose out of sight And, as anyone who knows anything about poetry can tell you, he also ruined the meter._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-celebrity-deaths/747134.md?page=5)