40 oz. of Freedom was their launching album, then their self-titled Sublime album after that went platinum five times over. Shortly thereafter, he died of a heroin overdose.
What, you think his best paintings were done while he was in the bunker surrounded by the Russian army?
Gentleman Jim Reeves
Ernie Kovacs–a pioneer in surrealistic visual humor who was only 42 when he was killed in a car crash in 1962.
Also, has Keith Moon been mentioned yet?
I would definitely put his performances in the artistic category. Advertising is definitely an artform even if it is not “fine art”.
Eddy Guerrero.
I will throw in Bobby Darin. His career was changing from flash Vegas to more of a contemplative style, but no less important. And no one had more talent, and then it was over.
. . .Chet Baker, Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, Diz, Red Norvo, Ali Farka Toure. . .
Bernie Mac
Stan Rogers - Canadian Folk Legend died at 33 in an airplane fire. Nominated twice posthumously for Juno awards (Canadian equivalent of Grammy award).
Um, he was 73. As a circus performer, one can only assume his best days were behind him.
**Bradley Nowell **of Sublime died of a heroin overdose just a couple of months before the release of the band’s third album, which became their huge breakout success.
DARN - Took too long to type this up and Mr. Buttons beat me to the punch
Chet Baker died at age 58, Miles Davis at 65, Dizzy Gillespie at 75, Red Norvo at 91 and Ali Farka Toure at 66. While some artists do great work late in life, I don’t think I’d consider these to be examples of artists who died at the height of their success.
Where there is jazz, there will be nerds. I’m one.
IIRC, both Bix and Bird, though young men, were in somewhat of a slump at the time of their deaths. Bix, for example, had been in the equivalent of detox at least once during 1929-30, and out of work and ill with pneumonia through much of 1931. It was the pneumonia which finally killed him.
Sadly Jaco was pretty much an outcast due to his mental health problems, and had been so for a while when he was killed.
I wonder if Karl went “whooosh” before he died. 
Steve Clark-Def Leppard.
What about Chris Farley?
Galois (mathematician)…he thought he might be killed in a duel the next day so spent the night writing out his ideas.
Well, unless it took ya 8 hours to type up a reply, I think I beat your typing by a lot more. 
But thanks for clarifying he died before the album came out. I was thinking he died after he saw the album become successful. Shame to OD 2 months before you sell 17 million albums. 