Famous people who died in freak accidents

Sonny Bono - Skiing accident. Skied right into a tree.

Vic Morrow

Rebel Wilson

Cass Daley

Natalie Wood (maybe not an accident)

That Russian American actor, last year.

John Eric Hexum

Jackie chan's son

David Carradine, the best way to go, auto-erotic asphyxiation

Isadora Duncan. Her long scarf got caught in the car wheel and snap - there went her neck.

"All The President's Men" director Alan J. Pakula; driving on the L.I. Expressway when the car in front of him hit a metal pipe, which flew through Pakula's windshield.

Tennessee Williams choked on a bottle cap.

Not sure how you define "freak accident"

Michael Hutchence

Grace Kelly

Paul Walker

Brandon Lee (Bruce Lee's son)

Well, maybe not Michael Hutchence, I don't remember if it was autoerotic asphyxiation or suicide

Aaliyah

Leslie Howard - plane shot down

Carole Lombard - plane crash

Ricky Nelson - plane crash

Lovely playboy US tennis star Vitas Gerulaitis, carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty heater.

Vitas and John in double denim.

Russ Columbo - shooting.

Samatha Smith - plane crash

Vic Marrow was mentioned but the part about his head being sliced off by a helicopter part wasn't! He was a jerk though

Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopes, from the group TLC. She was in Honduras, filming for a documentary (I believe), when her vehicle crashed. This is her right before her demise.

Marc Bolan

Payne Stewart

Steve Irwin

Payne Stewart was creepy -- we heard while the plane was still up there, flying along on autopilot while everyone inside was dead.

Natasha Richardson

Cass Daley

On March 22, 1975, alone in her apartment, the 59-year-old comedian apparently fell and landed on her glass coffee table. A shard of glass jammed into her throat and she bled to death before her husband came home and discovered her.[6] For her contribution to the television and radio industry, Cass Daley has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6303 Hollywood Blvd. Cass Daley is buried next to a tree along the roadside in the north end of Section 8 (the new Garden of Legends), at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.

Patsy Cline - plane crash

Big Bopper, Richie Valens, Buddy Holly - all in same plane crash.

Glenn Miller, Roberto Clemente -their planes disappeared, they were never found.

Natasha Richardson - skiing accident

Mama Cass - choked to death

Sam Cooke - shot under mysterious circumstances

I didn't think being intentionally shot (murdered) counted as a freak accident but since someone else mentioned it:

Phil Hartman - shot by his wife

Marvin Gaye - shot by father

Rebecca Schaeffer - shot by stalker

There should be a separate thread for stalkers, spouses and suicides.

Linda Darnell - burned in a house fire

1970s NY Yankees great, Thurman Munson - broken neck in a small plane crash.

John Jacob Astor, one of the worlds richest men at the time - went down with the Titanic.

R3 Do you know something we don't know?

[quote]On March 22, 1975, alone in her apartment, the 59-year-old comedian apparently fell and landed on her glass coffee table.

You're supposed to be UNDER the glass coffee table.

Frasier producer David Angell died on 9-11 on AA 11.

Berry Berenson,a photographer and widow of Anthony Perkins, also died on Flight 11.

Michael Rockefeller was likely eaten by cannibals while on an expedition in New Guinea, early 1960s.

Lord Mountbatten, the Queens uncle or cousin, was killed when the IRA blew up his yacht. 1970s?

Fascinating. Request: please tell how the person died. Thanks!

"Tennessee Williams choked on a bottle cap."

No, he didn't. This is from "Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh", a very good biography of him by John Lahr:

"Fame, which was problematic for Williams in life, also proved a difficulty in death. On February 26 Dr. Elliot M. Gross, announced to the press that he did not suspect foul play. "The cause of death is asphyxia due to obstruction of the glottis," he said, "by a plastic over-cap." According to Michael Badin, a forensic pathologist and a former chief medical examiner of New York, however, the bottle cap was "not wide enough to stop up William's airway. In fact, it was not even in his airway. It was in his mouth." Nonetheless, the tale of Williams choking on a long thin rubber medical bottle stopper was the news headline."

This doctor Gross was a shady character. His "controversial practices and his behavior at the time of William's death in particular, were featured in a New York Times expose." Later Gross conceded that "apparently the over-cap was being used to take the barbiturates."

The toxicology report stated the cause of William's death: "whether by accident or by choice Williams had ingested a toxic level of Seconal. The report showed that William's brain, blood, stomach, liver and kidney were saturated with secobarbital."

Adrienne Shelley of that little gem of a film, "Waitress"; she was murdered, but he made it look like she hanged herself. The family thought that for some time until he was caught. The last shot of the film, of her and her toddler, is heartbreaking.

R38, not an accident but I get your point.

[quote] Isadora Duncan. Her long scarf got caught in the car wheel and snap - there went her neck.

The late, great Charles Pierce (whose death was not a freak accident) had a line in his show. I think it was delivered as Tallulah Bankhead: 'I told her, Isadora, darling, wear the green scarf; it'll bring out your eyes'.

Joan Rivers died from unexpected complications after having a routine endoscopy.

Case Elliot choked on a ham sandwich.

Brian Jones drowned in his pool, but I think he was murdered by Mick.

Adrienne Shelley was working in her apartment when some workmen renovating another space kept making noise. She kept telling them to hold it down until the illegal alien decided she wasn't showing enough "respect" so strangled her and hung her in her shower to make it look like she killed herself.

One of those "Dreamers" r38, that make you verklempt and rich

JFK Jr.

Spanish architect, Antonio Gaudi, was killed when hit by a trolley car, in Barcelona, 1926.

Gordon Lightfoot (sang "the Edmund Fitzgerald"). Crashed on the Long Island expressway, IIRC.

David Carradine - erotic auto asphyxiation gone wrong. Very wrong.

Being shot or stabbed are not freak accidents ffs.

One of the Kennedys also died skiing.

Not sure how famous he was, but Jim Heselden. owner of the Segway Corporation, rode his Segway right off a cliff.

That was Harry Chaplin, R46. Gordon Lightfoot is still living.

Al Baldwin chocked on a steak. Oh, that hasn't happened yet.

John Denver. Left on a small plane and never came back again.

Butterfly McQueen died a horrible death at age 84.

She had been attempting to light a kerosene heater in her apartment when it malfunctioned and burst into flames and caught her clothing on fire. She was found by firefighters lying on the sidewalk outside with severe burns over 70 percent of her body. Rushed to the hospital, she died soon afterward

Plane crashes are not freak accidents either.

Steve Irwin, pierced by the barb of a large stingray while filming it.

1940s-50s Actor Albert Dekker.

Found bound & gagged in his bathtub, apparently dying during some heavy BDSM session. Whoever did it was never caught.

Actor Robert Kulp, died in a fall while hiking, after suffering a heart attack.

[quote]Case Elliot choked on a ham sandwich.

Wow. You managed to get her first name, last name, AND cause of death wrong.

Actress Carol Wayne- did she drown? We'll never know:

In January 1985, Wayne and a companion, Edward Durston were vacationing at the Las Hadas Resort in Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico. After they had an argument, Wayne reportedly took a walk on the beach. Three days later a local fisherman found Wayne's body in the shallow bay. An autopsy performed in Mexico revealed no signs of drugs or alcohol in her body. Her death was ruled "accidental".

Didnt Kanye Wests mother die from some kind of dried surgery fuck up?

Jackson Pollock, drunk drove his car into a tree.

^^ weird, not dried. Lol

Oldie: Eric Fleming, starred with Clint Eastwood in Rawhide in the 50's-60's drowned when his canoe overturned while filming in Peru. His costar swam to shore, but Fleming was washed down-river and drowned.

Keith Relf, lead singer of the 1960s band, The Yardbirds, was electrocuted by a faulty microphone.

Please learn what is a freak accident before posting. Thanks.

Jon Eric Hexum shot himself with a blank from a movie prop gun.

Kanye's mother had a heart attack the day after going in for a variety of cosmetic procedures. Tummy tuck, lipo and breast reduction I think. It was a lot for one person all at the same time.

Michael Clark Rockefeller - eaten by cannibals

Harry Chapin

Jack Nance died under mysterious circumstances. On December 29, he lunched with friends Leo Bulgarini and Catherine Case. Nance had a visible "crescent shaped bruise" under his eye; and, when asked about it, he related to them the story about a brawl outside a Winchell's Donuts store on the morning of December 29. He described the incident as, "I told off some kid. I guess I got what I deserved." He soon went home, complaining of a headache. The injuries he received caused a subdural hematoma, resulting in his death the following morning.

R59 = close to the dangerous shallow end of the pool.

Yeah, r71 -- we heard that "story" too.

Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter:

"He went into some shallow waters and saw a sting ray that was huge. It was literally eight feet wide. The fish reacted to Irwin as if he was a shark that was attacking it and hit him several times with its tail spine and killed him.

At first, it seemed that Irwin only had a punctured lung, however, his heart was pierced as well and he eventually bled to death. He was pronounced dead on the scene."

Steve Allen. Died (while napping) of a ruptured blood vessel caused by chest injuries he did not realize he had sustained in a minor traffic accident earlier in the day.

George Washington Carver died in a fall down the stairs.

Producer Boris Sagal (Katey's father) was partially decapitated after walking into a helicopter's tail rotor blades. Even freakier: he lingered five hours before finally dying.

Chastity Bono.

Thread closed.

Thanks, R66. I know we live in an age of hyperbole, but not every accident is a freak accident, and murder and falling down the stairs definitely do not fit the description. Being gored to death by a sting ray, yes, freakish; falling and shattering a glass table, a piece of which stabs you fatally in the throat, yes; autoerotic asphyxiation, no.

Mama Cass Elliot. That ham sandwich had her name on it alright.

Maria Montez - heart attack from too-hot bath water?

R&B singer Charmayne Maxwell.

Jeffrey Hunter fell on a staircase at his home, struck his head on a banister, and fractured his skull. He died the next day.

r80 see r59

Never pass on an opportunity to post Jeffrey Hunters photo, r83

Murders and car accidents and plane crashes aren't really "freak" accidents. They happen all the time.

I thought what happened to Jim Henson was kind of freakish. He's been a Christian Scientist (was he still one at the time of his death) and they avoid going to doctors if they can help it. Anyway, he became very sick very quickly but didn't seek medical treatment immediately. He died from a particularly fast acting strep infection. I thought his sudden death was freakish and avoidable; Jim Henson didn't HAVE to die.

So right, R85. Here he is with Natalie Wood, who also figures in this thread.

R83, His widow was Emily McLaughlin, who played Nurse Jessie Brewer on General Hospital for years.

Sonny Bono skied into a tree.

[quote]Jim Henson didn't HAVE to die.

We ALL have to die, dear. It's the ONLY thing everyone has to do.

Singer Kirsty MacColl was hit by a boat while scuba diving in Cozumel, Mexico in 2000. The boat's owner claimed an employee was at the controls, even though the owner was the only one on board with a permit to operate the boat. The deckhand was sentenced to jail, but paid a fine and restitution amounting to about $2200 in lieu of serving time.

Ahem, R89... .

Princess Diana - died when her car crashed in a Paris tunnel whilst being chased by photographers and driven at high speed by a drunk driver

^^ Allegedly.

Silent film star Helen Chadwick, formerly married to William Wellman, died from complications of a fall over a chair.

Victor Sen Yung, who played Charlie Chan's no. 2 son, and later was Hop Sing on Bonanza, died from a gas leak in his home. Pernell Roberts gave the eulogy and paid for his funeral.

So sad. Eric Clapton's baby son accidentally fell from a 49th story window and was killed. The maid had left it open - wonder what happened to her?

Clapton wrote his famous song, "Tears In Heaven".

Jack Daniel, the whiskey maker, died from kicking his safe with his foot after he couldn't get it open. His big toe got infected and killed him.

The first man to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel died a few months later. He slipped on an orange peel and broke his neck.

And let's not forget Christopher Reeve. The horse riding accident that left him immobile- which led eventually to his death.

Jack Cassidy burned to death when he fell asleep (passed out?) and his lit cigarette set his Naugahyde couch on fire

The CEO who purchased the company that makes the Segway, drove one off a cliff and died.

I've forgotten the name of this famous woman (I think she had something to do with manners and etiquette) but she was cleaning her windows in a very high-up apartment, leaned over too far with the open window and fell out, down to her death.

That's why some people say, "I don't do windows".........

Amy Vanderbilt, r101 ?

Who was that '30s movie mogul who crashed his car, allegedly while being blown by his twink passenger (I think the twink died)? I thought it was James Whale, but he committed suicide.

R46 Mr Lightfoot is still alive

[quote]So sad. Eric Clapton's baby son accidentally fell from a 49th story window and was killed. The maid had left it open - wonder what happened to her?

Actually Clapton's son wasn't a baby, Conor Clapton was four years old when he fell out of an open window in Clapton's New York City high-rise. Conor was living in the apartment with his mother, actress and Italian television personality Lory Del Santo. Clapton wasn't living with them, just visiting during the time Conor was killed. Conor was never actually involved with Lory, he just knocked her up.

The housekeeper had left the window open, Conor was running around and fell out. It's assumed the apartment had floor to ceiling windows, which usually don't open at the bottom. Not sure exactly how Conor fell out, unless he was bouncing on a bed near an open window. Where was Lory while Conor was running around or bouncing on a bed?

Conor's Mom:

CLAPTON’S EX BREAKS SILENCE ON SON’S DEATH

By Bill Hoffmann March 20, 2000 | 5:00am

The shattered mother of Eric Clapton’s son Conor – who plummeted to his death from a Manhattan high-rise that had no window guards – says the tragedy turned her into “a zombie” who couldn’t think straight.

And Lory del Santo adds that she’s so freaked out by Clapton’s poignant tribute song to his dead 4-year-old, “Tears from Heaven,” that she has to flee when she hears it.

“For five years after the accident, I hardly felt as though I was there, hardly alive,” del Santo told London’s News of the World in her first interview since the 1991 tragedy. “I was like a zombie and just couldn’t cope.”

Del Santo, 39, clearly remembers March 20, 1991, when she was living in a 53rd-floor apartment in the Galleria Condominium building on West 57th Street.

“The window had been left open. Eric was on his way to pick Conor up,” she says.

“I heard the fax machine and checked it out before going to check on Conor. I walked in just a fraction of a minute too late. He had gone. If I hadn’t checked the fax, he’d still be alive.

“When I told Eric what had happened, he froze solid. It was like he’d just stopped functioning. He didn’t say anything. It was all so unreal. When Conor died, the relationship between Eric and me died.”

That was F.W. Murnau R103. When Murnau was chasing after twink actor David Rollins he called his studio for advice, and the studio said "Do whatever it takes to make Mr. Murnau happy."

R26? No.

R107, think the director Pasolini died the same way! What's with driving real fast while getting a blowjob?

Pasolini was murdered, reportedly either by hustlers he had picked up or by the mafia due to the violent nature of his death. He had been run over several times with his own car, suffering multiple broken bones. His testicles were crushed by a metal bar of some type. His body had been partially burned by gasoline after his immediate death.

Since this thread has discounted a number of causes of death as not being freakish, I want to add that both William Holden and Jeffrey Hunter were hard core alcoholics who fell and fatally injured themselves while inebriated. When someone spends all of his waking moments knee-walking drunk, falling down is not a surprise.

Holden's death bothered his friends because he bled to death from what would not have been a fatal injury for someone who wasn't passed-out drunk.

Same with Jack Cassidy, sort of, r111.

Princess Diana is the Queen of this thread.

Princess Grace the royal fatso

Jayne Mansfield

Mike Edwards, former member of the Electric Light Orchestra.

Cylindrical hay bale weighing nearly a ton rolled down a hillside and landed on a van he was driving.

Dean Paul Martin, gorgeous son of singer Dean Martin, died when his plan crashed during a snowstorm. He was 35. He was married to Olivia Hussey and Dorothy Hammill.

"Martin, an avid pilot, obtained his pilot's license at age 16 and became an officer in the California Air National Guard in 1981. He rose to the rank of captain. He died in 1987 when his Air National Guard F-4 Phantom jet fighter departed March Air Force Base and crashed in California's San Bernardino Mountains during a snowstorm, killing him and his Weapons Systems Officer, Captain Ramon Ortiz. Martin is buried in the Los Angeles National Cemetery, a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs cemetery in Los Angeles, California."

R105 "Conor was never actually involved with Lory, he just knocked her up." Oh dear.

Naugahyde, R99? I looked it up, and it means plastic. Some rich guy with first world alcohol problems lit his plastic couch on fire and burned. We are amazed at the freakiness of it. Drunks never burn anything down.

I think Naugahyde furniture first appeared ipomoea The Price is Right.

R73. What is the real story on Jack Nance?

The silent film days were full of freak accidental deaths. There was one actress- can't remember her name- who was appearing in a period drama, with a big hoop skirt and dress. A crew member flicked a cigarette, the spark caught her dress, and she went up like a Christmas tree. Burned to death.

Viola Dana gives a heartbreaking account in Kevin Brownlow's series, Hollywood, of the accidental death of her boyfriend, stunt pilot Ormer Lockyer. He was doing an aerial stunt at nighttime when the lights on the ground mysteriously cut out and, losing all sense of direction and depth perception, he crashed to earth.

Olive Thomas, married to Mary Pickford's brother Jack- picked up his syphilis medication from the nightstand, thinking it was a glass of water. Died a slow excruciating death from poisoning several days later.

Nick Lowe wrote a song about silent film actress Marie Prevost. She was an alcoholic who basically drank herself to death. Her dog supposedly started to eat her dead body. Her body was discovered two days after her death because her neighbors complained about the dog's non-stop barking.

"Naugahyde" was more typically used to describe the textured vinyl automobile upholstery of the 1960s & 70s, R119

There was even a joke-y bumpersticker you could get back then., "Save The Naugas"

R124, Naugahyde, is pleather and was / is used to make furniture, particularly office furniture.

It seems that almost every story in "Hollywood Babylon" was Kenneth Anger pulling stuff out of his ass.

Fun read anyway, though. Snippet from Wikipedia:

Prevost's death was featured in the book Hollywood Babylon, by Kenneth Anger. In the book, Anger claims Prevost's dog consumed her remains over the ensuing days to survive. However, Anger's claims that Prevost's dog made "mincemeat out of his mistress"[24] are false. While Prevost's pet dachshund Maxie did bite her legs in an effort to wake her, the dog did not attempt to eat her body.[25] Nick Lowe's song "Marie Provost" (sic) from the 1978 album Jesus of Cool details her life and Anger's account of her death. The song includes the lyric in the chorus, "She was a winner/Who became the doggie's dinner".

I'm speaking from memory, not Wikipedia, R125. When I source Wikipedia, as I did in R126, I cop to it.

I had a Naugahyde record player, and a small reel-to-reel tape recorder in a Naugahyde case as a kid-the sh*t was everywhere and used for everything. . Essentially, it's vinyl.

The person who mentioned Murnau's death got it backwards, at least as far as the legend, which may be apocryphal. Murnau himself was the one giving head, to his 14-year-old "houseboy," Garcia Stevenson, who was driving the car. Stevenson lost control for some reason, and Murnau was killed in the crash. Stevenson survived, as did a third passenger in the car. The presence of this third person may indicate that the "fatal blowjob" story was indeed just made up by Kenneth Anger.

Related DL thread linked

Is everyone done copying and pasting text from google hits yet?

Well, second hand celebrity, by way of her husband, David Niven. Primula Rollo Niven, his first wife.

"It was during a party at Tyrone Power's house that a terrible accident occurred. During a game of sardines (hide-and-seek), Primmie mistakenly walked through a doorway thinking it was leading into a closet, but instead it was a flight of stone steps leading to the basement. She died of a fractured skull and brain lacerations."

Romy Schneider's son David died at the age of 14 after attempting to climb the spiked fence at his stepfather's parents' home and puncturing his femoral artery in the process.

Jessica Savitch, along with her beau and Chewy, drowned in the Pennsylvania Canal.

Whitney Houston drowned in a bathtub.

Michael Jackson died while being administered propofol.

R&B singer Charmayne Maxwell bled to death after falling backwards unto a broken wine glass. Shards of glass punctured her neck. She may have been a little tipsy.

R112, Her beau was a hottie, Martin Fischbein.

r121 --

In David Lynch's Twin Peaks, Pete Martell is the man who discovers Laura Palmer's body. While the question of who killed Palmer may have been answered years ago, the real life death of Jack Nance, the man who played Martell, remains a mystery more than 20 years on.

Nance is best known for his role as Herbert Spencer in Eraserhead, another Lynch project. Nance and Lynch were close friends, and the director often cast Nance in small roles so he could hang on to his SAG membership and the health benefits that came with it. Nance was a troubled guy, a career alcoholic who looked 20 years older than he really was. He joked with Lynch that he would not be hard to kill.

On December 29th, 1996, Nance met for lunch with his friends Catherine Case and Leo Bulgarini. They noticed he had a black eye, and questioned him about it. Nance said he had been outside the Winchell's donut shop near his Pasadena home around 5am. He had gotten into a confrontation with two hispanic males. After telling them to get haircuts and jobs, he was struck in the face and fell down. Not an abnormal occurence in the life of Nance, who was known to get into trouble after drinking, and his friends thought little of it. He complained of a severe headache but said that he probably deserved it, and headed home.

The next morning, Bulgarini arrived at Nance's home to help him with his laundry. What he found was Nance, face down, on the washroom floor. After investigation, it was determined that he had died of a subdural hematoma from being struck in the head. After speaking with Case and Bulgarini, police checked security camera footage from the strip mall where the attack had supposedly occured but found nothing. No witnesses ever came forward, and it seems possible that the men responsible for the death may not even be aware of it.

The case is about as cold as it gets, and police have even speculated that the story may have been false; that Nance, who had had two strokes in the years leading up to his death, and had a high blood alcohol level when found, may have just collapsed and hit his head.

However, last year Michael J. Anderson accused David Lynch of having Nance murdered. He also accused him of being part of a Jewish conspiracy and of basing the sexual abuse in Twin Peaks on his own life. Is this the lead that will break this case wide open?

PS -- The people of the town at that time were no fans of Jews but did not believe David Lynch is involved, either. Also, the Mexicans hired to work in that town at that time were chosen for being even handed and reasonable. If some old white guy had started to rant at them, they would have merely walked around him, especially at 6AM on a workday. This is why the cops didn't believe the story.

R46 Gordon Lightfoot is still alive.

Harry Chapin

R86 I've heard from industry insiders it was actually AIDS, but they went to extreme lengths to cover it up to protect "The Muppets" brand.

Jim Henson and Sammy Davis, Jr. died on the same day, May 16, 1990.

Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died on the same day, June 25, 2009. Also not freak accidents. This thread is being hijacked all over the place.

Car accidents are common. Plane crash deaths are probably more common than plane crash survivals. Falling and dying is common. Murder is common. Dying from surgery is, while perhaps not common, not freakish.

Lastly, suicide is boringly common (except for maybe the SNL guy who slit his own throat).

R107 That story has been debunked by Les Hammer, in his book "F.W. Murnau: For The Record," (2012)

[quote] For the record, Garcia Stevenson was not 14 years old and he was not having sex with Murnau when the fatal accident occurred on March 10, 1931.

[quote] Eliazar Garcia Stevenson was born in 1900 to Edward Stevenson, a British expatriate who had been living in San Francisco at the turn of the century, and his wife, Elivira Garcia of Mexico.

[quote] When the fatal accident occurred on Pacific Coast Highway, north of Santa Barbara, Eliazar Stevenson was at the wheel of a Packard touring car. The 26-year-old chauffeur, John Freeland, was sitting next to him. Murnau was in the back seat, holding his dog, Pal.

[quote] Without warning, a truck veered into the oncoming lane. Stevenson swerved to avoid a head-on collision. But the car hit an embankment and overturned, throwing everyone out of the vehicle. Stevenson escaped with minor injuries. Freeland suffered severe facial lacerations, while Murnau was thrown into a ditch. He died the next morning of head and internal injuries at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital -- one week before the premiere of his last film "Tabu." A coroner's jury ruled that Murnau's death was "accidental.

[quote] Eliazar Stevenson traded the petty humiliations of a servant for the raucous life of a bartender in Las Vegas, where he died in 1985. To the end of his life, Stevenson never responded to the patently false and libelous allegation in Kenneth Anger's scandal-mongering book "Hollywood Babylon" that he was Murnau's "boy" -- if, in fact, he ever read the book.

R142, Les Hammer and his book are hardly impeccable sources. Hammer's book is self-published by Bookstand Publishing, one of the biggest author services in the country. For as low as $500, you can get your book published just as Hammer did.

There are no reviews of note of Hammer's little tome. In fact, there are no reviews, period.

Why did it take to r93 to get to Diana?

Because her death was a car crash, 144, not a freak accident.

Jayne Mansfield (the OP's example) was in a car accident, and Anton Yelchin was too... kinda...

In 1627, the French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully accidentally hit himself in the foot with a long staff (used to beat time by a conductor)

He died when the wound became gangrenous.

The Playboy Bunny murderess (allegedly) died from complications of a broken leg months after the initial injury. Bambi Bennenek (sp?) or something like that.

R127, you are not the only one speaking from memory. Naugahyde furniture was ubiquitous when I was growing up.

Kind of famous in the amateur gay porn community. Active Duty and Jake Cruise performer "Nick" and a fellow ass shaker, while performing in Montreal, decided that they were going to stiff a cabbie who had driven them to a nightclub and ran away from the scene. Sadly, they were unfamiliar with the terrain and both ran right off a cliff and perished when they climaxed at the bottom.

A lesson to us all, R132. A TV anchor should stay away from water.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Margaret Mitchell - stepped onto Peachtree Street in Atlanta without looking.

Harry Chapin

On Thursday, July 16, 1981,[9] just after noon, Chapin was driving in the left lane on the Long Island Expressway at about 65 mph (105 km/h) on the way to perform at a free concert scheduled for later that evening at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, New York. Near exit 40 in Jericho, he put on his emergency flashers, presumably because of either a mechanical or medical problem (possibly a heart attack). He then slowed to about 15 miles (24 km) per hour and veered into the center lane, nearly colliding with another car. He swerved left, then to the right again, ending up directly in the path of a tractor-trailer truck. The truck could not brake in time and rammed the rear of Chapin's blue 1975 Volkswagen Rabbit, rupturing the fuel tank as it climbed up and over the back of the car, which burst into flames.

The driver of the truck and a passerby were able to get Chapin out of the burning car through a window after cutting the seat belts before the car was engulfed in flames. Chapin was taken by police helicopter to a hospital, where ten doctors tried for 30 minutes to revive him.[citation needed] A spokesman for the Nassau County Medical Center said Chapin had suffered a heart attack and died of cardiac arrest, but there was no way of knowing whether it occurred before or after the accident. In a 2004 interview, many years after his death, Chapin's daughter Jennifer said, "My dad didn't really sleep, and he ate badly and had a totally insane schedule."[6]

R150, Nick's real name was Mark Kraynak and he was my second cousin.

[quote]Jayne Mansfield (the OP's example) was in a car accident, and Anton Yelchin was too...

What happened to Anton Yelchin is the very definition of "freak accident," even though it involved a car.

Mansfield was just a car accident. The nature of it was gruesome, but it wasn't a freak accident, unless one contends that the circumstances - that they were going on a route they hadn't intended, at a time they didn't intend, and the crop sprayer just happened to be on the road in a heavy for then ... but that still doesn't make it a freak accident, just an accident.

Porn actor Tom Farrell died when he was hit by a passing car while taking a piss by the side of the road in Providence, RI.

He was only 22

This is nutty ranting @ R135:

"PS -- The people of the town at that time were no fans of Jews but did not believe David Lynch is involved, either. Also, the Mexicans hired to work in that town at that time were chosen for being even handed and reasonable. If some old white guy had started to rant at them, they would have merely walked around him, especially at 6AM on a workday. This is why the cops didn't believe the story."

1. David Lynch isn't Jewish.

2. What do Jews have to do with anything?

3. A town had a policy of hiring only Mexicans of a certain character? and the ability to make that happen? and we can predict how "the Mexicans" working in that town would have behaved if confronted by Jack Nance?

Silent film star Martha Mansfield had just finished shooting a scene for The Warrens of Virginia when someone tossed a match, igniting her Civil War era costume. She had retired to a car when the costume burst into flames, severely burning poor Martha. She died several hours later in hospital. She was 24.

Guitarist Leslie Harvey of Stone the Crows was performing in concert on a rainy day in Swansea in 1972, when he reached for the microphone and was immediately electrocuted.

Keith Relf of The Yardbirds was also electrocuted, not on stage, but in the basement of his home while playing his improperly grounded guitar.

R152 Is that Jennifer Aniston in the picture with Chaz?

This is one of those maybe, maybe not a freak accident.

Doug Kenney, one of the founders of the groundbreaking satirical National Lampoon magazine, died in Hawaii falling off a cliff. Various reports claim suicide, accidental death, or vaguely possible foul play.

Kenney went to Kauai Hawaii with his girlfriend, Kathryn Walker, to regroup after Caddyshack didn't do well at the box office. She may or may not have been with him when he died (reports vary) but the guy left positive personal notes, written ideas for new projects, etc in his hotel room before he drove out to Hanapepe Lookout the day he died. From what I am told, it is a geological/soil unstable spot and many people have accidentally fallen to their death there due to soil collapse under their feet. It might have been that which seems to have caused the local HI police to officially determine his death to be accidental.

My photography professor in college had been at the National Lampoon from the beginning. He mirrored a devastated grief on the part of all the NL staff in response to Doug's death. I am very grateful that that prof illuminated Doug's genius to me, from Doug's Harvard Lampoon days forward. Suicide did not at all seem on the table for Doug at that time. I can't think of Doug now without remembering that prof's elegiac photo of Doug, reflectively smoking a joint while sitting on a 'mud bucket' in the middle of a nameless urban field somewhere.

If you don't know him otherwise, Doug was Stork in Animal House.

Zola Budd was bent down in the of the street picking up a ball when a van came along and ran into her fat ass. Blood and poo sprayed everywhere and even knocked over some bystanders.

R150 There was also speculation that "Nick" was murdered because he reneged on a promise to do a gay porn.

Memorable scene with the movie's screenwriter, Doug Kenney, as Stork.

Zola Budd is not dead.

Gordon Lightfoot just called. He's still alive and sends his love.

Anton's really was so damn tragic. Not just because he was so young and a good little actor but because I think a lot of us can imagine the same kind of thing happening to us when we were young and stupid. That final minute of his life trying to squirm out of the mess... makes me sad.

Ramón Novarro - killed by two male prostitute brothers.

Gordon died on the Edmund Fitzgerald. At least in terms of his chart career. (I kid... still love him, of course).

Mama Cass and a ham sandwich.

Has anyone mentioned Gordon Lightfoot? If you could read his mind, it's because it was spattered all over the highway after Aunt Diane rammed his car in a head-on collision on the Carefree Highway.

Catholic monk Thomas Merton was electrocuted when a fan fell into the bath tub while he was bathing.

There was some singer who choked while eating a sandwich or something. I forget her name. Also, Sony Bonno.

George "Chuckles" Bowerchuck was shelled by a rogue elephant.

Final Destination needs to do a celebrity edition.

r158 -- Nance lived in a "Sundowner" town and any Mexican who roughed up a white guy would get roughed up by the cops. The cops knew who worked in town and who didn't, and if any brownie acted up, they would be run out of there.

It is now a Chinese town, so not like this any more. The Asians are free to be the victims of brown and black as well as white crime, as occurs when a town stops being a sundowner.

Revoke R175's gay card.

Was Mama Cass mentioned yet? Something about slipping on a sandwich?

Charles VIII of France died in 1498. While on his way to watch a game of jeu de paume (real tennis) in Amboise he struck his head on the lintel of a door. At around 2 PM, while returning from the game, he fell into a sudden coma, and died nine hours later, perhaps of a subdural hematoma.

On June 30, 1924, President Cal Coolidge's 16 year old son got a blister playing tennis. It became infected and he died a week later.

Aeschylus, the father of Greek tragedy, had a rather tragic demise--death by turtle.

In Sicily, where he died, the eagles love to eat turtles among other things. However, the turtle shell, of course, makes it difficult to get to the turtle itself. To break open the shells, the eagles would snatch turtles from the ground, fly into the air, and then drop them on rocks. Aeschylus died after being struck by a falling turtle.

[quote]Was Mama Cass mentioned yet? Something about slipping on a sandwich?

R180, Thanks for mentioning Mama Cass. I was wondering if anyone was going to think of her. I'm surprised it took 180 replies before her name came up.

I heard the same story--that she slipped on a sandwich while in the shower and it got wedged into her lady parts. She couldn't get it out so they had to call for medical assistance. At least that's the story they "told" to explain the circumstances, but several medical professionals have since said that it's highly unlikely that slipping in the shower would result in anyone getting pork in the pink. Anyway, if I remember correctly I believe she died a few hours later from toxic shock resulting from trichinosis poisoning.

Does anyone know the name of his fan R174?

I'm surprised nobody has done Coolidge as a biopic. Especially with that story of his son. "The nominees for Best Supporting Actor are... Garrett Clayton for "Blister"..."

CUT TO Oscar clip: "My toe! I can't feel my toe!"

Later, in Best Actor, Tom Hanks will be seen weeping at the Oval Office desk: "I can't believe this happened!"

R186: "How can this happen in the 20th Century?"

Charles McGraw slipped and fell through a glass shower door and bled to death.

Mark Frechette, who starred in Antonioni's Zabriskie Point, was subsequently jailed for bank robbery and died in the prison weight room when a 150 pound weight bar fell on his throat.

Thanks, R184, that clarifies a lot! So who was the guy in the tree when a box of skies hit him in the head? Was that John Denver?

Per LA Times: Steve Cochran's death were highly unusual. His 40-foot schooner, the Rogue, was discovered drifting off the coast of Guatemala by the Guatemalan Coast Guard on June 26, 1965. Two teenage girls and a woman, all from Mexico, were found aboard the yacht. They had been been stranded on the vessel with Cochran's dead body for 12 days. Officials later determined Cochran had died after an infection swelled his lung. After his death his female companions, ages 14, 19 and 25, did not know how to pilot the boat and were forced to let it drift in the ocean. The passengers, all from Acapulco, said they met the colorful movie "heavy" through an advertisement in a newspaper that said Cochran was seeking young girls to work on his boat and play bit movie parts.

Jack Cassidy fell asleep with burning cigarette. Found his charred corpse by door.

Ferris Bueler killed a lady by driving on wrong side of road. Turned him gay.

Work on his boat? You mean sucking his dick right?

R179 is humor-impaired.

Stuntman A.J. Bakunas died while attempting a record-breaking 323-foot fall from Kentucky's Kincaid Tower for the Lee Majors movie, "Steel". He hit the airbag and went straight through; the beginning of the fall made it into the movie (how else were they gonna get butts in seats for a Lee Majors film?)

The entire incident is in this clip.

10 year old actress Judith Barsi died at the hands of a freak, her father, who also killed his wife and himself. Does that count?

Dorothy Kilgallen

Henry II of France was an avid participant in jousts and tournaments. On 30 June 1559, during a match, King Henry was wounded in the eye by a fragment of the splintered lance of Gabriel Montgomery, [bold] despite wearing a face guard with only slits for eyesight[/bold], as you might have seen on TV or in movies. The king died of septicemia on 10 July 1559.

Henry's death was thought to have been predicted by Nostradamus, making him famous.

Mama Cass did not choke on a sandwich, she died from heart failure in her sleep.

The passengers and crew of the Mary Celeste.

r198 = Ham, trying to clear it's good name

Handsome French singer Claude Francois was electrocuted while changing a light bulb above his bathtub....while standing in water in the tub

Famous French dancer (and rumored double agent) Catherine "Ko-Ko" Belanger-du-Jacques ran from her apartment into the street to celebrate the liberation of Paris in 1945 when the steeple of the Church of Saint Theresa, "the little flower", collapsed and its massive bell "Le Grotesquerie" fell on her. She's buried in a crypt beneath the current bell tower with her lover, a German who was shot for the occasion.

Brandon Lee, on set mishap

Owen Hart, above ring mishap

David Angell, Executive Producer, "Fraiser" sitcom

Indian TV news anchor Kanchan Nath died after a coconut tree fell on her as she took a morning stroll in Mumbai.

Did anyone die from choking on Mama Cass's lady ham?

BILL TAYLOR, suspicious woodchipper "accident."

OK folks! We've killed everyone in Hollywood. These names are now nothing but repetitive.

Wait, Mama Cass is dead ?

How many times has David Angell been killed in this thread?

The western painter Frank Tenney Johnson died from a kiss from his hostess after leaving a dinner party. She died and few days after the party from spinal meningitis, and FT Johnson died about a week later.

John Delorean.

I would have preferred Pastrami.

John Denver killed Sonny Bono by hitting him over the head with a ski.

Didn't Robert Goulet die from an aggressive lung disease for which only a lung transplant could have saved him but one wasn't located in time?

Robert Goulet is dead?

Robert Goulet died 10 years ago.

70s singer Jim Croce - his small plane crashed into a stand of trees, shortly after takeoff.

Well known muscleman/bodybuilder Greg Plitt died in a freak accident while trying to do a stunt in which he was racing with a train, trying to outrun it. The train won and he died.

Elizabeth Berkeley.

Her career was instantly killed by obvious lack of acting talent in a horror movie called Showgirls.

Someone should start a thread about famous people who SHOULD die in a freak accident. That would go to 600 pretty damn quick.

R205 wins. That video was something else, poor woman.

Michael Hutchence died of autoerotic asphyxiation, but it was officially ruled a suicide so as not to embarrass his family or his memory.

I challenge, R212!

Does anyone know what kind of bread Mama Cass made her ham sandwich with?

John Richardson, the special effects consultant for The Omen, was responsible for creating the movie's death scenes. While working on his next production in Holland, A Bridge Too Far, Richardson was involved in a crash that killed his girlfriend/assistant, Liz Moore. Guess which day that happened on? That's right, Friday the 13th.

The accident had some weird coincidences with the movie. First off, Moore was cut in half by the colliding vehicle's wheel, similar to the death scene of photographer Keith Jennings in The Omen. Also, the first thing Richardson saw upon regaining consciousness was "Ommen 66,6." This stood for Ommen, Netherlands at kilometer 66,6

Didn't Mama Celeste choke on a frozen pizza?

R226, I seriously doubt any country in Europe posts mileage signs to the tenth of a kilometer.

No, but the spooky story that ties together a mystical theme out of random events fuels the high that R226 feels when engaged in magical thinking.

I thought Mama Celeste choked on Bono in some pseudo-Sicilian cosplay?

Mama Celeste was shot and killed by Marie Callender in a lovers quarrel over Chef Boyardee.

Bruce Jenner.

Former head of the UN General Assembly, John Ashe, died at his Dobbs Ferry, NY home, when weights he was lifting, fell on his throat. Allegedly.

He was under indictment for taking bribes from a Chinese billionaire, at the time. Said billionaire was sentenced just today, to about 50 yrs in jail.

Two Palestinian prisoners were beheaded while in Israeli court custody before their trial even began.

Would you bitches give Mama Cass a long deserved rest ... even though the sandwich in question could have saved poor Karen Carpenter.

Cher's husband died while ice skating.

Mama Cass died in a meat packing accident, right?

R237 Yes. Something to do with her lady ham. Or her beef curtains.

Famous Belgium watch-maker and Resistance team leader Reneé de Zeit was tasked with detonating a bridge over the Scheldt River to haunt the German advance in 1914. Arriving to survey the damage after the appointed time, he was distressed to see the bridge still standing. Knowing the Hun was closing in, he attempted to cross the bridge to where his team had been told to gather. He did so just as his team, not seeing him arrive on the scene, detonated the bridge. Reneé's watch was found, it was stopped in the explosion, 10 minutes fast.

Today, if your waffles are served late, it's called a "Reneé de Zeit" and it's traditionally on the house. Only with the advent of the EU are German-speakers grudgingly offered the courtesy.

Faye Dunaway's career died after she make the freaky "Mommie Dearest" that Hollywood hated. She couldn't forgive her for desecrating legendary Joan Crawford so soon after her death.

R240 "THEY couldn't forgive her for desecrating the legendary Joan Crawford so soon after her death."

Poor Yelchin. The artwork for "Alpha Dog" still creeps me out.

What did Grace Kelly have that Natalie Wood could have used?

A stroke.

Sherwood Anderson died of peritonitis caused by a toothpick he had unwittingly swallowed

Robert Walker died after his doctor gave him an injection of a sedative, not knowing that Walker had,been drinking,heavily.

One of the Dorseys died of aspirating food in his sleep.

Dorothy Dandridge may have died from an embolism caused by a fragment of bone dislodged when she stumbled on a barbell.

.

Why is Yelchin's pic in black and white and everyone else is in colour?

Cuz he's Russian around.

HI Ho!! You are correct , Sir!

Have we discussed?

R248 I go with the theory that Michael Rockefeller never made it back to shore and drowned. In fact one of the plastic gas containers that he had tied to his body to try to help keep him afloat was found in the water. Being found and eaten by cannibals is a very exciting and stimulating theory but I don't really think that it happened.

In fact, one of the native chiefs interviewed years later stated that he was a young man at the time, a chief's son, and he never heard of Rockefeller making it to shore or being held captive or eaten by cannibals.

The chief or the chef?

r232 wins this thread.

"Being found and eaten by cannibals is a very exciting. ..theory..."

Oh, yeah? Why don't you try it some time?

--M.R.

Publicist Michael Sands choked to death on a piece of beef he was sampling at an upscale Century City deli

R248 I was deeply fascinated by this disappearance at the time and again decades later when I coincidentally came in contact with 2 individuals - one male, one female - who spent a great deal of time travelling throughout Indonesia in the late 60s and on, including Irian Jaya, the Indonesian part of New Guinea. Both were in Asmat country too, if less frequently than in the other reaches of Indonesia. There was a third party associated with a different friend but known to my immediate friends.

That third party had spent many years in relatively close proximity to the Asmat when they were not agreeable to contact with white man. He was a trader in cultural artifacts, an expat Brit.

The man I knew personally did travel into and spend direct personal time with the Asmat who had ongoing contact with Michael Rockefeller. Some of them said he was last seen trying to swim ashore from a capsized vessel and was eaten by a croc, but after long association with several individuals in the community, my friend was allegedly shown the shrunken head of Rockefeller. This was not a casual act but one of alleged trust that spawned some boasting alongside a pointed but at the time benign threat to my friend. The Asmat are not to be fucked with. These people live their lives in and on the water with salt water crocodiles, the largest terrestrial predators on this planet which can be 20 ft or more at maturity. The croc is a way of life for them. My female friend, an intrepid, fearless traveler in Indonesia and New Guinea, believed wholeheartedly the mutual friend who said he'd been shown the Rockefeller shrunken head. His character supports his claim.

The real issue, as I am told, is that Rockefeller was collecting Asmat funerary poles, which he'd carefully and respectfully been negotiating to purchase with the intent of preserving them in museum collections. That was, in its own way, technically done with acceptable protocol to a point, and as far as the Asmat understood it, okay. However, it was very close to the complex and tricky cultural politics of trophy death, tribal cultural keeping honor, and territorial statements that are through many millenia duly proscribed in tradition.

As I said, just do not fuck with the Asmat, the saltwater crocodile people.

Charlene died because she's never been to me!

Oysters Rockefeller

Beloved singer Cass Elliott died of choking.

THere's a very good recent New Yorker (?) article on what happened to Michael Rockefeller.

Anton is the victim of the story in that film, R245. True story about Jesse "Hollywood" James, I think his name was. The friendly kidnapping that turned deadly.

^^^ Poofter.

I've read of several men, angry men, who take women out on dates, have them give them a blowjob and then place both their hands on the woman's head so that she can't move or get away and she ends up choking to death on their cock.

Anne Frank's dad, Frank, committed patricide and suicide by Nazi all because of a song Anne composed and sang endlessly - "Send in the clowns".

Film director/producer Alan J. Pakula died on November 19, 1998 in a car accident on the Long Island Expressway in Melville, New York. A driver in front of him struck a metal pipe, which went through Pakula's windshield, struck him in the head, and caused him to swerve off the road and into a fence. He was killed instantly.

R253, He looks like Mr. Blackwell.

Mike Wallace had two children with his first wife, Norma Kaphan. Wallace's younger son, Chris, is also a journalist. His elder son, Peter, died at age 19 in a mountain-climbing accident in Greece in 1962.

"On their cock"

Just put the bite on it.

Anyway, that sounds like an urban legend. I'll check Snopes.

Justin Trudeau's brother was killed in an avalanche. The body was never found and is presumed to be at the bottom of a lake.

Famed aviator/stunt flyer Paul Mantz was killed when his plane crashed during the climactic scene in the original version (1965) of "The Flight of the Phoenix." Several film cameras captured the accident as it unfolded...

tl;dr was Sony Bonno mentioned?

r269: No, but Sony Bono was.

How about Sunny Bonobo?

Eric Fleming, who drowned at 41, had an eventful life. Only child, born with a club foot, abused by a father whom he tried to kill at 8, but the gun jammed, thought himself ugly, then was in an accident that required him to have plastic surgery. Wiki has it all.

Jeff "you're too,big for polka dots, Jeff" Chandler (ne' Ira Grossel) died at 41 when an artery was nicked during a fairly routine operation.

Lana Turner had a near miss when Fernando Lamas' pinga became lodged in her throat.

A lot of the cast members of the dreadful The Conqueror (John Wayne as Ghengis Khan) were exposed to sand that had been irradiated in Nevada bomb tests, and many of them died of cancer. Many of them were probably heavy smokers, however.

More on THE CONQUEROR:

[quote]A People magazine article in 1980 reported that of 220 cast and crew, 91 had contracted cancer, with 46 of them dying. No bombs were tested during the filming, but the article quoted Robert Pendleton, director of radiological health at the University of Utah, saying radioactivity from previous blasts probably lodged in Snow Canyon. It also attributed an immortal quote to a scientist from the Pentagon’s defense nuclear agency: “Please, God, don’t let us have killed John Wayne”.

Cancer-related deaths from THE CONQUEROR:

[quote} Director Dick Powell died of cancer. After Powell, several of the leading actors succumbed to cancer, as well. There was Pedro Armendáriz, who killed himself in June of 1963, rather than live with his terminal diagnosis. Agnes Moorehead was the next star of the film to die of cancer, in April of 1974. She was followed by Susan Hayward (March, 1975) and John Wayne, who first contracted lung cancer in September of 1964 and finally died of stomach cancer on June 11, 1979.

Didn't Mama Cass slip and fall over a ham sandwich laying on the floor because some idiot dropped it?

I'm lousy at linking, but some may wish to check out pics of young Pedro. Quite striking. Those cheekbones!

Dead. Thread.

If it wasn't mentioned before, Mama Cass died when eating something.

Has anyone mentioned Natasha Richardson? Yes I'm too lazy to read the entire thread.

Bono, of U2 fame, died in a skiing accident.

What kind of wood doesn’t float?

Cass Eliot did NOT fucking choke to death, on a ham sandwich or anything else. She weighed a million pounds, and died of a heart attack. The joke was started because an uneaten meal was next to her dead body, and people enjoyed joking about the fact that an obese person would of course die choking on food.

The ham sandwich thing has been debunked a million times, yet people still cling to it because no one ever bothers to fact-check anything. One of the reasons Faux News is so popular and Trump is president.

R282 Natalie Wood

Surprised no one mentioned Cary Grant, killed by a rogue crop duster.

Mama Cass choked to death while muff-diving Michelle.

r281 = Larry King

Who was the old actress that was supposed to have ended up drowning in her toilet?

R288, Author Kenneth Anger wrote in his 1959 book HOLLYWOOD BABYLON that in 1944, Lupe Velez, pregnant and unmarried, was found drowned with her head in the toilet. He claimed she took a huge number of sleeping pills, hoping for a 'glamorous' front-page death, but before she could die, she crawled to the bathroom with indigestion and died after throwing up the remains of a spicy last meal.

But that has since been debunked in the 2012 book BEVERLY HILLS CONFIDENTIAL: A CENTURY OF STARS, SCANDALS, AND MURDER. According to that book Lupe was found on the floor, not in the bathroom with her head “jammed down the toilet bowl” as Anger had written.