# Who were the Most Famous Suicides of the 20th Century? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 19, 2008, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364 "2008-09-19T20:43:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364/41 "2008-09-20T02:51:48Z")
[Christine Chubbuck](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Chubbuck) should be just as famous as Buddy Dwyer for the same reasons, but isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364/42 "2008-09-20T02:58:40Z")
I would think in a few years Cobain will be scarcely remembered for anything. Sid Vicious is not remembered very well now (looking at previous responses) yet was probably as well known as Cobain in his time. ---
**Author:** ![Erasmus\_Darwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c57346/32.png) [@Erasmus\_Darwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erasmus_Darwin)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364/43 "2008-09-20T03:25:06Z")
> [@Randy\_Seltzer](#): > > Since we’re nitpicking what constitutes the 20th century, it’s worth pointing out that September 11th, is eight months and eleven days after the cutoff. 😛 Oops. That’s the last time I buy a discount calendar with the extra month of Julaugust in it. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364/44 "2008-09-20T03:55:24Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > I’d say that Sylvia Plath’s suicide is a lot more famous than the OP gives credit to. It’s the first one I thought of. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364/45 "2008-09-20T04:43:42Z")
Tony Curtis kissed both of the two most famous suicides of the 20th century. He famously compared them: “Necking with Marilyn Monroe is like kissing Hitler” Curtis now claims that he liked Monroe and that at one time they were lovers. [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,127466,00.html](http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,127466,00.html) Apparently she was very demanding about retakes on set. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364/46 "2008-09-20T05:55:04Z")
The death of [Primo Levi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primo_levi) (author and Auschwitz survivor) was ruled a suicide, but there appears to be some dispute about that. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_fight_the_hypothetical)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364/47 "2008-09-20T06:00:13Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > I’d say that Sylvia Plath’s suicide is a lot more famous than the OP gives credit to. Seconded. ---
**Author:** ![Lisa-go-Blind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Lisa-go-Blind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa-go-Blind)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364/48 "2008-09-20T06:13:12Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > Sid Vicious is not remembered very well now (looking at previous responses) yet was probably as well known as Cobain in his time. Sid Vicious didn’t commit suicide. He died of a drug overdose. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364/49 "2008-09-20T07:33:11Z")
Things I did not know before reading this thread [Kurt Gödel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_G%C3%B6del) starved himself to death in 1978 ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364/50 "2008-09-20T08:40:51Z")
> [@Sr\_Siete](#): > > Should we consider Heath Ledger as the biggest name of this centurt? I thought that had been ruled accidental. Spalding Gray might **not** be a candidate for 21st century, because the proof of the suicide was a sad conclusion to a long vigil beforehand. Ooh, what about Peg Entwhistle? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364/51 "2008-09-20T09:51:49Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Doing the research would dull the point of my response: > > Who? Lead singer of post-punk band _Joy Division_. A better musician and more influential than Cobain could dream of being. Still missed greatly. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364/52 "2008-09-20T12:12:26Z")
^^^ the rest of the band went on to form New Order, if that helps anyone who hasn’t heard of him > [@Nurobath](#): > > Speaking of Family Feud…[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray\_Combs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Combs) Holy shit! :eek: > [@](#): > > Combs was eventually admitted to the psychiatric ward of Glendale Adventist Medical Center and placed on a 72-hour mental observation hold. At about 4:10 in the morning, Pacific Standard Time, on Sunday, June 2, 1996, he removed the sheets from his bed and hanged himself in the closet of his hospital room. Dude hanged himself while in a mental hospital on a 72-hour! That’s hardcore. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364/53 "2008-09-20T20:58:48Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > George Reeves (who may not have been a suicide) [See post #8 on why Reeves death was a suicide.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=380703) (Seriously. I don’t think we’ll ever have a better expert on the subject posting here than is in that thread.) > [@neutron star](#): > > Dude hanged himself while in a mental hospital on a 72-hour! That’s hardcore. No, that’s a failure of the healthcare system. Some accounts have Tom Mix committing suicide, but [Wiki thinks it was an accidental death.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mix#Death) > [@](#): > > On the afternoon of October 12, 1940 Mix was driving his 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton near Florence, Arizona (between Tucson and Phoenix) on a two-lane road when he came upon construction barriers at a bridge previously washed away by a flash flood. A workcrew watched as he was unable to brake in time and his car slid into a gully. A large, polished aluminium suitcase he had put on the seat behind him flew forward and struck Mix in the back of the head, shattering his skull and breaking his neck. The 60 year old actor was killed almost instantly. Accounts vary as to whether Mix was speeding before the accident, along with the role alcohol consumption may have played. > > The site of his death is located on what is now State Route 79. There is an historical marker and the gully is named Tom Mix Wash. Mix is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364/54 "2008-09-20T22:17:53Z")
I’ve read a lot on Marilyn Monroe, and all indications are it was a self inflicted death. No one killed her, but her. Now whether she INTENDED to die is another story. If you read about her you quickly learn she had many, many attempts of crying wolf. She would get time release pills to calm her down and then crush them to get all the drugs in her system fast. She would drink and pop pills, now unless someone wanted her dead and set out to increase the dosage in her pills or somehow other make her self destructive behaviour more lethal, Marilyn did herself in. Now from what I read, I don’t believe it was intentional. I believe she expected someone to come along before she died and bail her out like happened before. So if you’re saying suicide as in intending to kill yourself it’s a bit different from suicide as accidently taking too many pills or playing with a gun you didn’t know was loaded. Like that guy in Hollywood who didn’t realize a gun with blanks could kill him. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364/55 "2008-09-21T02:15:51Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > No, that’s a failure of the healthcare system. Well, that too. I did a 72-hour once (long, drunken story) and they physically checked on me every fifteen minutes, on the dot, for those three days. Plus the closets didn’t have doors. His actions would have been impossible in the hospital where I stayed. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364/56 "2008-09-21T02:33:52Z")
My vote goes for Hitler as well. The circumstances surrounding his suicide are just as incredible as everything that came before it. Who in 1941 could have imagined that in four years he would end up dead in a trench, covered in gasoline, and on fire? I’d vote Cobain second. That happened when I was in middle school and made half my classmates COMPLETELY lose their shit, as teenagers often do after something like this. ---
**Author:** ![Ferd\_Burfel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@Ferd\_Burfel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferd_Burfel)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364/57 "2008-09-21T14:31:46Z")
[Jack Kevorkian.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kevorkian) This is a little outside of the box, but, although he is still among the living, he \*does \*lead the league in assists. I think when our grandchildren Google search the terms “20th Century” and “Suicide” his name will bubble up to the top. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364/58 "2008-09-21T14:58:54Z")
I seem to be a little odd. The first person I thought of was Freddy Prince. I watched [Chico and the Man](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chico_and_the_Man)every week and I was only 10 when he committed suicide so was he surely my first exposure to suicide. I guess he is a far cry from the most famous. I think Hitler is probably the answer to the OP. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364/59 "2008-09-23T13:04:12Z")
President of Chile. Early accounts (and the joke) have him committing suicide by shooting himself in the back, pausing only once to reload. Or; the coup plotters did it; or the CIA did it. Current evidence and witness depositions seem to indicate suicide according to various links off the internet and Wiki. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364/60 "2008-09-23T13:41:37Z")
For the last decade of the 20th century, Vince Foster is up there on the list. (Not that I think he should be, but some people have an unnatural fixation on him) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-were-the-most-famous-suicides-of-the-20th-century/464364.md?page=4)