Which Stars Came To A Bad End?

John Lennon

Did Liza, Lorna and Joey have tp pay off the debt?

Elvis Presley (also found sitting on the toilet when he died)

Prince (found dead in his elevator)

Carole Landis (barbiturate overdose at home)

Marilyn Monroe (another barbiturate overdose, perhaps a murder, in a hotel room)

Lupe Velez (another barbiturate overdose, at home)

John Belushi (speedball overdose in a hotel)

Chris Farley (speedball overdose in his apartment)

The legendary Elvis Presley who was named the greatest singer of the 20th Century. During the last 5 years of his life he became bloated and unhealthy due to a drug addiction. At only age 42 he died from an accidental drug overdose, sprawled out on the bathroom floor. A bizarre ending for such a lofty, iconic star.

Jim Morrison, heart attack/heroin overdose in bathtub. Jimi Hendrix, asphyxiation from inhaled vomit /possible murder on floor of apartment.

R2 Judy was buried in a crypt but didn't get a gravemarker until years later when Liza paid for one for her mother.

John F. Kennedy Jr.

Had it all - great looks, a powerful political family, a President for a father, and fame and fortune. At only age 38 he was flying his own plane in the fog and it crashed, killing him as well as his wife and her sister. What might have been...…..

Tupac and Biggie!

Bob Crane Sal Mineo

[quote] Judy Garland was one of the all time great iconic singers

Judy was one of the most talented singers ever. She also had a lot of pain and struggle throughout her life. Despite that, she had a good heart, which is hard to encounter in Hollywood. At a time when gay people were oppressed beyond belief, they identified with her struggles and she theirs.

Michael Jackson owns this thread!

He actually spent hours begging his "doctor" to give him a fatal overdose.

Rebecca Schaeffer.

[quote] He actually spent hours begging his "doctor" to give him a fatal overdose.

Not that I don’t believe you, but link please. I’d be interested in reading that.

Anna Nicole Smith.

^ I honestly thought that was Willam from RuPaul's Drag Race.

I’d have to go Phil Hartman.

Remember Adrienne Shelly? She was murdered by a worker in her building who framed it as a suicide.

Reserve a spot on this thread for Roseanne.

Tim Barnett

The popular boyish singer John Denver died at age 53 when he took off in his experimental plane and had trouble with the gas gauges - it crashed, he was killed, and his body was disfigured so badly that dental records had to be used to properly identify him.

He's leaving on a jet plane R20.

Yvette Vickers, whose mummified body was found by her neighbor a year after she died. She’s the drunk blonde girl on the phone at Jack Webb’s party in “Sunset Boulevard”.

Mama Cass was the breakout star of The Mamas And The Papas. She took her solo career to London where she was later found dead in a flat at only age 32 from heart failure. And no, it wasn't from choking on a ham sandwich - no food was found in her windpipe.

R21 "Leaving On A Jet Plane" was John's first big success as a hit for Peter, Paul and Mary, and also their biggest hit which went to #1.

[quote] And no, it wasn't from choking on a ham sandwich - no food was found in her windpipe.

I’m the the sandwich that killed Mama Cass.

Sophie Ellis Baxter, murdered on the dancefloor.

Back in the day, Mama Cass was considered hugely FAT. Nowadays, she’d be slightly larger than average.

Veronica Lake

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Mama Cass was great in Hairspray. She can dance!

Although not technically a "star" Princess Diana was the most famous woman in the world at the time of her death.

Lindsay Lohan

Julie Gabriel!

Iconic singers Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin died within 2 weeks time of each other in 1970 from accidental drug overdoses at 27 years of age. The following year in 1971 Jim Morrison died at 27 from heart failure. This was the beginning of the phrase, "The 27 Club".

Extremely popular rock musician Kurt Cobain joined The 27 Club in 1994 when he died from a self inflicted gunshot wound.

His wife Courtney Love said publicly "Why couldn't it have been Eddie Vedder?"...………...

Lenny Bruce.

Sharon Tate.

Jack Cassidy died after falling asleep drunk, cigarette in hand. His charred corpse was found in a doorway of his burnt apartment.

His son, David, died of liver failure. He just gave up on life and drank himself to death.

Gloria Dickson' exit was a lousy one

Martha Mansfield was anotheR

Linda Darnell

I watched Can’t Buy Me Love today. Holds up decently well. Lovely Amanda Peterson shone wonderfully in the lead role. Pity drugs overtook her.

I’ve lost a few former classmates to drug overdoses. I always wonder what drove them to a lifestyle of drugs when a fair few of them had lots of opportunities to lead different lives.

Then again, like with finding out your favorite stars are/were real garbage in their personal lives, or died tragically or as a result of drugs/alcohol, etc, you only know what people show you.

Those classmates I last saw decades ago when we were in school. Lots happened in the years following that I wasn’t privy to. So it caught me by surprise.

I never watched Peterson in anything after Can’t Buy Me Love. In fact, I’ve only seen her in that and The Explorers.

So in the near 30 years that passed, I never heard about her. Only her eventual tragic death. So to me I always see her as the sweet lead girl in this two films, never thinking she could’ve been or turned into a bitter, angry, vile or drug addled person during those 30 years. Or could’ve been a good person but just succumbed to an addiction.

Motown superstar Marvin Gaye. The day before his birthday, during a heated argument, his father, a minister, shot and killed him. He would have been 45 the next day.

One of the most tragic endings. Jayne Mansfield died at only age 34 in a gruesome car crash.

r2 Liza paid off Judy's debts, even though she was not obligated to do so.

r3 Marilyn Monroe died in her own house, not in a hotel room.

Inger Stevens died of a barbiturate overdose.

Ramon Novarro, closeted actor, was murdered by two criminal brothers he allowed into his house because he thought they were rent boys.

Patsy Cline is considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century.

Isadora Duncan- garroted by her own scarf that got caught on her car's wheel.

Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens & the Big Bopper.

Jayne Mansfield, scalped or skull lopped off in the car accident .

Heath Ledger, Brittany Murphy, Dana Plato, Heather O'Rourke, Christopher Reeve(s?), Brad Renfro, that Milli Vanilli guy

r51 Not scalped, not decapitated - her skull was crushed and her wig fell off. Much less sexy, I know.

Sam Cooke, one of the all time great soul singers, shot and killed in a dingy hotel under murky but unsavory circumstances.

R41, she revealed later in life that she had been raped at 15 and didn’t tell anyone.

We don’t know what kind of trauma or mental illness people are dealing with. We often just see an end result like this.

I think of how empathy so often gets lost in ignorance. We see a mess of a human being without understanding how the mess came to be.

Architect File:

Antoni Gaudia at 73 was crossing the street in Barcelona and hit by a tram. He was skinny, wearing shabby clothes and had no identification and was believed to be a street vagrant. Because of this response and medical treatment were delayed and it was only days later that a priest at the hospital recognized him, but it was too late and he died soon after. That was in 1926, while he was working on his masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia, which remains unfinished to this day.

Louis Kahn was a visionary modernist architect, who in 1974 was returning to Philadelphia, but had a heart attack and dropped dead in the men's room in Penn Station. Because of issues with his identification it was only two days later that his family was notified of his death. And what a family it was, he left behind three separate ones who lived within miles of each other but never crossed paths until his funeral.

Bonus Near Miss: Frank Lloyd Wright had abandoned his wife and six kids and run off with another woman who was a friend of the family. She and her two children were living at his house, Talisen, in 1914 when the disgruntled butler locked all the doors and set the house on fire. Besides his lover and her two children there were a other household staff and some of his architectural staff. As they struggled to get out of the burning building he bludgeoned them with an ax. In all seven died and two survived. Wright would live to the age of 91 and die peacefully in the hospital after an operation.

[quote]r11 He actually spent hours begging his "doctor" to give him a fatal overdose.

Wouldn't that be interesting to see.

[quote]r3 Marilyn Monroe (another barbiturate overdose, perhaps a murder, in a hotel room)

I believe it was in her new home. It was the first home she'd ever purchased herself. Before that she'd rented, and bought a Connecticut farm with her husband for weekends ... but she really wasn't a super materialistic person, or avaricious about aquiring jewels, huge contracts etc. like Liz Taylor.

The house was quite modest by movie star standards, and almost empty of decoration.

[quote]r17 Remember Adrienne Shelly? She was murdered by a worker in her building who framed it as a suicide.

She'd told him to be quieter while working on the building.

You don't do that in NY - mind your own goddamn business, if you know what's good for you.

Billie Holiday. Cirrhosis and congestive heart failure at 44.

The most depressing book I have is called FALLEN ANGELS by Kirk Crivello. It profiles Hollywood actresses who spiraled into bad luck and tragedy.

The saddest was Jean Peters, who apparently had talent and a rising career (with an Oscar nomination), but then a rifle went off in a hunting accident and she ended up paraplegic. She did some stage and radio projects, and one more film, but it's rather limiting to only play characters in a wheelchair! She stopped eating and died at age 31.

Bummer!

Some of the movie Susan Peters made after her accident - she enters after the [bold]4:00 mark

Dorothy Dandridge

Barbara Payton - ended up a drunk Skid Row hooker

Tom Neal - killed his wife and went to jail for manslaughter. Died of heart failure while out on parole

[quote] but it's rather limiting to only play characters in a wheelchair!

I made a masterpiece out of my wheelchair role.

Ona Munson

a.k.a. Belle Watling in GWTW

Joyce Jameson

Fun Girl from Andy Griffith Show

Linda Darnell - burned to death in a fire

Carl Dean Switzer

"Alfalfa"

Frances Farmer.

Butterfly McQueen died when a kerosene heater she was trying to light burst into flames.

R72 Did her son Steve make it out of the house alive?

r58 MM had owned the house on 5th Helena Drive for six months before she passed. It was a small home with only two bedrooms, she must have known she'd never be a mother. DiMaggio gave her the money for the down payment.

There is a Latin coat of arms written in ceramic tile at the front door that reads "Here ends my journey."

Bobby Driscoll - former child star who became a Skid Row drug addict

Tommy Kirk - he went from movie star to carpet cleaner. There are fates worse than death.

What about me?

The body of Bobby Driscoll, one of the most successful child actors of his day, was found in an abandoned New York tenement when he was 31. No identification was made, and he was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave. An identification wasn't made until almost two years later, when his mother was trying to locate him because his father was near death and she was hoping to reunite them.

So, pretty much the definition of "coming to a bad end."

Did they have to dig him up? How did they identify a body from 2 years prior?

R78, are you also R75?

Anissa Jones, Buffy from Family Affair, overdose at age 18.

As was Sophie Ellis-Bextor R26

Brian Jones founded that club R33.

[quote]Did they have to dig him up? How did they identify a body from 2 years prior?

R79, Driscoll's mother contacted the New York police in an attempt to find her son, who had become lost in New York's "underground" scene. Years of drug addiciton had left him broke. Police identified the body in potter's field as Driscoll's from fingerprint record. Although there's a plaque with Bobby Driscoll's name on his father's tombstone, the body was never dug up and remains in potter's field.

River Phoenix. Took a speedball and was having seizures on the ground in front of the viper room. All the while people walked around him. The only person that called 911 was his little brother. Whitney Houston also. Was so drugged up she drowned. The bath was so hot, she had burns all over her when they did her autopsy.

I really truly believe Britney Spears came thisclose in 2007-2008.

She’s never been quite the same since then, but I’m so happy she loved. I really do think we came so close to losing her.

Carol Wayne, an actress who played dumb blondes in to sitcoms and occasionally in Tonight Show sketches with Johnny Carson. Carol fell on hard times and was working as an escort. She went on vacation at a Mexican beach resort with a man named Edward Durston. Hotel staff said Durston hurriedly left the hotel. Wayne's body was found floating in 4 feet of water offshore in the coming days. Wayne's family Sud she couldn't swim and never would've gone into the water at the beach. Mexican police really couldn't be bothered investigating.

Turns out Durston was also in the apartment with Art Linkletter's daughter Doane when she "jumped" from a window. Linkletter spent years demonising LSD, claiming his daughter jumped out the window while under the influence of LSD, thinking shecould fly. She was probably murdered.

James Dean, killed in a collision with another car while speeding in his Porsche on a California 2-lane highway.

Natalie Wood.

Heath Ledger, OD.

Paul Walker died from burns and trauma as a result of a car accident.

Lana Clarkson was murdered by music mogul Phil Spector. Lama was another blonde actress fallen on hard times making ends meet as a "girlfriend" to wealthy men. She is seen in final scenes of the classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High as the wife of the geeky science teacher.

Nicole Brown Simpson. Nuff said.

DL fave Jon-Erik Hexum. Shot himself in the head with a prop gun on the set of his television show.

Selena.

Is the OP drunk? Does he know where he is? Is he twelve years old? Does he think there is anyone on Datalounge who does NOT know what happened to Judy Garland? What an idiot.

R96 Take your sour grapes somewhere else and do a legitimate posting of your own.

Robin Williams ☹️

This one is bizarre and very tragic because of all the lost lives involved. John Wayne, Susan Hayward and Agnes Moorehead were shooting "The Conqueror" on location in the desert outside of Las Vegas where radioactive bombs had been tested and exploded. To make matters worse the radioactive sand was gathered up and taken back to the movie set where they could finish the movie. All three stars died from cancer in the 1970's as well as a number of other people who worked on the set, as well as people who lived in a nearby small town. Before she died Agnes Moorehead stated that she knew she was dying from cancer because of that dreadful movie that they made in the desert.

Brandon Lee, son of martial arts star Bruce Lee also died from a prop gun that was loaded with real bullets

Thank goodness Helen Lawson remains with us still.

Gandolfini died taking a dump on a toilet in Rome while his son was in the other room.

Sal Mineo, stabbed to death by a crazed pizza delivery man.

Music superstar James Brown's body was moved 14 times after his death due to his complicated "family" life. Turns out he had many families and children and they fought over his body. His legs were amputated after death for a paternity test. His body had so many embalming fluids in it to preserve it that his legs had to be cut off to get at his bone marrow for his DNA.

Grace Kelly 👑🚘⚠️💥

Jean Harlow.

When I was growing up this is what "Princess Grace Kelly" looked like. I was watching some old rerun or film clip on TV and Bob Hope or some other old fossil referred to Princess Grace Kelly like she was some great, sexually desirable beauty. I did not understand wtf he was talking about.

It wasn't until decades later that I saw Rear Window and realized what Princess Grace Kelly looked like when she was younger

Chuckles The Clown

Dorothy Kilgallen

Natasha Richardson died a few days after sustaining a brain injury in a ski accident.

The beautiful but scandalous Errol Flynn.

Because of living life in the fast lane of booze, drugs, nonstop sex and partying he died of natural causes at only age 50.

Vic Morrow and two kids were split into pieces by the propellers of some bitch diva helicopter on the set of The Twilight Zone.

Michael Hutchence and David Carradine

Amy Winehouse

R111 Errol Flynn toward the end of his life. The carnage had set in.

Is that what happened to Judy?

Thank goodness a gay forum finally has someone to explain to the gays what happened to Judy Garland.

I consider a "bad end" something that a self destructive person brings on to his or her self. Dying of a heart attack or an accident or an illness doesn't really constitute a "bad end." Things like that can happen to anybody. Murder doesn't necessarily constitute a "bad end", either. An innocent person getting murdered (like Rebecca Schaeffer or Adrienne Shelly or Marvin Gaye) getting murdered is a tragedy, not a "bad end."

There are so many people bigger than Mama Cass now. I'm surprised how long they live. I mean you rarely hear of 30-something women dying of a heart attack like that. Sad loss of talent way too early.

[quote] An innocent person getting murdered (like Rebecca Schaeffer or Adrienne Shelly or Marvin Gaye) getting murdered is a tragedy, not a "bad end."

I’m sure their families thought they were both tragic and a bad end.

Edie Sedgwick. Fell from grace, burned in a fire, shipped to a mental hospital, got into a fight at a party, went home, died in bed.

The fool who keeps listing names and not explaining how the people he lists died is zero help.

Nico.

Sedgwick.

Sedgwick.

Nico.

Carole Lombard. Returning home from a very successful war bond rally (during which she raised $2 million in a single day), her plane flew straight into the side of a Las Vegas mountain soon after takeoff. It was a nighttime flight, and safety beacons were turned off as a precaution against Japanese bomber planes finding their way into the airspace, so the pilot was flying in pitch black conditions. Her mother and press agent were also killed. Lombard actually shouldn't have even been on the plane. Her party was supposed to take a train, but Carole was anxious to hurry home to her husband Clark Gable. Rumor had it that she was rushing home to reclaim him from young Lana Turner, who was filming a movie with Gable. Her body was badly burned in the crash, and a friend was only able to identify her skull (all that had been found at the time) by her jawline and an earring.

Grumpy Cat. The famous/infamous cat was making millions of dollars for her owner when she passed away unexpectedly at only 7 years of age from a urinary tract infection.

And they say only the good die young...…...

R124 Grumpy Cat speaks one more time.

Françoise Dorléac - burned to a crisp when her Renault encore flipped over and burst into flames, enroute to Nice airport.

Belinda Lee - died in San Bernardino enroute to LA from Las Vegas, when the convertible she was riding in flipped over, throwing her onto the asphalt, breaking her neck and cracking her skull.

Claudia Jennings - died when her convertible VW beetle collided with a van on Topanga Cyn Blvd, trapping and crushing her inside.

Frederick Stafford, from the Hitchcock movie Topaz, was killed in a plane crash in 1979.

DropdeadGorgeous homosexual JFK Jr. had an Italian father!

Peg Entwistle. She was a successful Broadway actress who came to Hollywood, but was cast in only one film (1932's Thirteen Women) and most of her role ended up on the cutting room floor. When received word that RKO was not going to renew her contract, she fell into despair. So she left a note for family that read, "I am afraid, I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E." She then proceeded to commit the most iconic suicide in Hollywood history: she leaped to her death from H on the Hollywoodland sign. She was 24.

Ironically, a few days later a from RKO arrived requesting that she report back to work. But by then it was too late.

R.I.P.

Dorothy Stratten. In 1980, she was Playboy's Playmate of the Year. She had also begun a promising film career, including a leading role in her boyrfriend Peter Bogdanovich's film They All Laughed. But her life was cut short when she was brutally raped and murdered by her estranged husband. She was 20 years old.

Jean Seberg. At age 18, she was a fresh-faced Midwesterner plucked from obscurity, winning a national talent search conducted by Otto Preminger to star as Joan of Arc in his 1957 film Saint Joan. She became an international star, landing lead roles in major films such as Lilith, Bonjour Tristesse, The Mouse that Roared, Airport, and Jean-Luc Godard's groundbreaking Breathless.

But she was plagued by mental health problems, as well as a well-documented FBI plot to discredit her because of her left-wing political activism. The FBI planted false stories that she was pregnant with the child of a Black Panther, which seriously damaged her career and contributed to her deteriorating mental health. In 1979, she took an overdose of barbiturates, leaving behind a note that read, "Forgive me. I can no longer live with my nerves." She was 40 years old.

Gig Young. He was a longtime Hollywood actor who, in 1970, finally nabbed the prize he had long craved: an Oscar for his supporting role They Shoot Horses, Don't They? The award was well-deserved; as the MC of a brutal dance marathan during the 1930s Great Depression, he is terrific in that dark film.

But unfortunately his Oscar did not bring about the career breakthrough he'd been dreaming of. Post-Oscar, his alcoholism escalated and his career went into decline. Mel Brooks fired him on the first day of filming for Blazing Saddles, and after that good roles were few and far between.

In September 1978, Young married his fifth wife, a woman who was over three decades his junior. Less a month later, he murdered her and then turned the gun on himself. He was 64.

Gig Young

Beautiful, talented, promising young actress Maggie McNamara, who got her big break opposite William Holden in the controversial "The Moon Is Blue", for which she was nominated for an Oscar. Also starred in the hit "Three Coins in the Fountain", as well as opposite Richard Burton in "Prince of Players". She considered herself a serious New York stage actress, so when she came to Hollywood, she refused to play the "game" -- not doing publicity for her films, not posing for "cheesecake" photos (not doing the "casting couch"?) -- and thus was labeled as "difficult". It didn't help that she turned down practically every film offer that came her way after "Prince of Players". Her last film was 1963s "The Cardinal", after that she made a handful of one-off appearances on TV shows, and her last acting role was in 1964. She spent the next 15 years supporting herself as a typist, and in 1978 committed suicide by ODing on sleeping pills.

[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.]

The Sun in a few millennia. Mark my words.

Paul Walker, a rising star in The Fast And Furious movies. He and a friend were driving in a Porsche when it went out of control and was involved in a horrific crash. Walker, 40, was killed and burned beyond recognition,

The legendary James Dean. He was driving his brand new Porsche (another Porsche!) to a race car rally when he was involved in a head-on collision with another car and was killed instantaneously. He had 3 big movies under his belt and had the makings of a superstar but his life was snuffed out at only age 24.

^^^ I was driving in Northern California and in the middle of nowhere, but there were 14-15 cars parked along the road for what seemed like no reason at all. I later learned it was the crash site for James Dean. I guess people make pilgrimages there all the time.

Up and coming actor, Robert Francis ("The Caine Mutiny"") was piloting a Beechcraft Bonanza out of Lockheed Terminal in Burbank, when the plane lost power and crashed and burned in a parking lot, killing Francis and his two passengers. Francis did not possess a pilot's rating or certificate, and the crash was deemed by the CAA a result of pilot error. He was only 25.

R139 Gruesome. James Dean Memorial Junction.

By the standards of this thread, every single method of dying is "a bad end." Therefore EVERYBODY comes to "a bad end."

R141 Thanks, I found this on a another website:

On This Very Spot on September 30, 2005, 50 years to the day after Dean's death, a formal dedication of the James Dean Memorial Junction and the unveiling of the official sign (top photo) took place.

I was there before 2005, and it also says that there is now free roadside parking available at this spot.

Many died suddenly from terrible accidents such as Jayne Mansfield and Sonny Bono.

That differs from those with failed careers, becoming destitute, succumbed to severe mental illnesses, addictions, overdose, suicide, etc.

Maybe define 'bad end' more specifically or clearly.

Good point, r142.

[quote] Peg Entwistle. She was a successful Broadway actress who came to Hollywood, but was cast in only one film (1932's Thirteen Women) and most of her role ended up on the cutting room floor. When received word that RKO was not going to renew her contract, she fell into despair. So she left a note for family that read, "I am afraid, I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E." She then proceeded to commit the most iconic suicide in Hollywood history: she leaped to her death from H on the Hollywoodland sign. She was 24. Ironically, a few days later a from RKO arrived requesting that she report back to work. But by then it was too late. R.I.P.

Some more Peg Entwistle trivia: she was the second wife of character actor Robert Keith, which made her the stepmother of Brian "Family Affair"/"Hardcastle & McCormick" Keith. Brian Keith, you may remember, shot himself to death just two months after his daughter Daisy killed herself.

Rodney Harvey

Corey Haim

Danny Locklin from the movie HELLO DOLLY , killed by an S&M trick .

Paula Deen , dead from grease filled arteries and brain .

Empress Elisabeth of Austria

Bobby Buntrock who played Harold "Sport" Baxter on Hazel. Car accident, age 21, went off bridge, drowned in submerged car.

It happens in Bollywood, too!

[quote]Danny Locklin from the movie HELLO DOLLY , killed by an S&M trick .

He was so cute, and seemed like a great guy; sad that he died such a horrible, tortuous death.

Here's Danny very last gig, as a contestant on The Gong Show. He won the prize, and he and his friends literally went straight from the set to a local bar to celebrate. The friends later left, Danny stayed behind, and picked up the fatal S&M trick. The episode never aired, iirc.

Some on DL glorify acting to the extreme. Not all former actors left the profession due to death, physical decline, or destructive lifestyles,

Some become disinterested. Others become too stereotyped to continue in prefered roles. Others age beyond available roles, others become out-of-shape and less attractive, and still others choose to pursue different business opportunities, travel, move, or enter politics. And others marry and decide to raise kids and/or pets, and perhaps live life on a farm or ranch. Some tire of acting, don't want to rehearse lines anymore, or put up with all the backstabbing, deal with demanding producers and directors, and the other bullshit that comes with it. And some don't want the unappealing offers and don't need the money.

Well if you're going to include random car accidents as a bad end, there's former child star Brandon de Wilde. He began his career at age 7 onstage in Member of the Wedding and played a young boy in the movie "Shane," which had him call the at-the-time iconic "Shane! Come back!"

Like a lot of child actors, he was smaller than most kids his age which worked to his advantage until he hit adolescence. His small stature and delicate features worked against him in adulthood and he struggled to find work. He was doing Butterflies Are Free in regional theatre in Colorado when he died in a car accident at age 30

There was a whitewashed bad end for another Disney star, Matthew Garber. Many years after Garber had starred in Three Livesof Thomasina the Cat and Mary Poppins, Disny execs decided to get together the child stars Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber. But they couldn't find Garber. It turned out he was dead. He was an odd looking child, which worked for him as a kid but didn't look so good as he aged. He couldn't find work, got involved in drugs and was living rough. He was found on the front steps of a hospital for the indigent, unconscious and bleeding. The staff believe he had been badly beaten. He was taken inside but died. The family didn't really know (and it didn't seem really care) what happened to him. It seems either he had stopped communicating with his family or they had stopped communicating with him due to what seemed to be his mental troubles & drug problem. When Disney came calling, Garber's brother was bitter at Disney because they hadn't "helped him" after his life as a child actor.

When news of Garber's death and rough life spread, either Disney or Garber's brother came up with the story that Matthew had been just fine, thank you very much, and had gone to India to "find himself" like the Beatles had, where he picked up either hepatitis or pancreatitis (the disease varied, but I think they settled on pancreatitis) and upon his return to UK he went to the hospital for treatment but it was too late. My guess is that it was Disney company execs who came up with the idea of having caught a disease that killed him during a stay in India and that they gave Garber's family money to go along with the less seamy and more exotic death.

Having had Bobby Driscoll's sordid death on their hands, the Disney corporation didn't want the death of yet another child-actor-rejected- because-he-got-ugly as part of their legacy. Garber's brother changed his story and he and Disney laid the actor's death his time traipsing around India.

Hervé Villechaize

Gary Coleman

This thread is depressing

[quote] Michael Hutchence and David Carradine

Except it was kind of a happy end.

Child actor, Jack Wild, played the artful dodger in the 1968 movie musical: "Oliver!".

At age 53, he died of oral cancer he attributed to alcoholism and smoking.

Jack Wild was adorable in the late 60s and early 70s. Sad

Kate Spade

Robin Williams

Anthony Bourdain

Joan Rivers

George Rose - murdered by a hustler

British character actor Peter Arne - another one in the "murdered by a trick" category

The prime suspect in Arne's murder was a schoolteacher from Verona, Italy, who had been living rough in a local park, and for whom Arne had been providing food. Police issued a photofit image after eyewitnesses reported seeing a young man loitering nearby eating a jar of honey. Four days later, a body matching this description was found in the River Thames at Wandsworth, having drowned in an apparent suicide. Bloodstained clothes were later found upstream at Putney.[9] Police identified the body as that of Giuseppe Perusi, an Italian schoolteacher. Inquiries revealed Arne had been giving food to the Italian man.

How weird, creepy and cinematic

Jon-Erik Hexum. One stupid mistake cost him his life and his fans the pleasure of watching him.

In his interviews, he seemed like a good guy, He knew the hunk thing got him in the door and the rest, having a longer career, would be up to him.

If only the prop guy had taken the gun away from him, if only someone had called him away to do something else...if only he hadn't been sitting there or lying there and made that one awful mistake.

One of Beaver's friends in "Leave It To Beaver" fell into drugs and met a rough end. I can't remember who it was,but it wasn't Larry Mondello.

Judging from this thread, the only way NOT to come to "a bad end" is to die peacefully in one's own bed, just going to sleep and never waking up. Other than that, you come to a "bad end."

Brian Keith. Such a nice man with an easy going, laid back persona. Tragically he died from a self inflicted gunshot wound at age 75, 2 months after his daughter committed suicide.

Jesus Christ Superstar, crucifixion.

From the warm content of Family Affair one would never guess that both Anissa Jones and Brian Keith would come to a tragic end. She died at only age 18 from a massive and accidental drug overdose.

Ok, this one died of cancer, so it’s not really a “bad end” but she ruined her career.

Oscar winner Gloria Grahame was an actress who was in demand in Hollywood. She often played noir characters - bad girls. She played Violet Bicks in Its a Wonderful Life. Virginia had some problems. She didn’t like her frenulum and had multiple surgeries on her upper lip. Eventually, she suffered partial paralysis of the top of her mouth. She took a part in The Music Man but couldn’t sing and claimed the crew tormented her. She got a reputation for being difficult. She married quite a few men. Then she married the son of one of those husbands. There was a rumor that she had started an affair with the son of her husband when the son was only 13 (probably untrue). At any rate, the marriage was a scandal that pretty much ended her film career. She eventually did some small parts after years off the screen and returned to theater (after marrying a man 30 years her junior) but died of cancer.

I wonder if Errol Flynn was bipolar, like Vivian Leigh. In a woman, promiscuity was a sign of mental illness, but in a man, it was considered virile.

Jan-Michael Vincent

Albrt Dekker, who played the heavy in Kiss Me Deadly, among other films. One of the most squalid Hollywood deaths I've ever heard about:

"He was kneeling nude in the bathtub. A noose was around his neck but not tight enough to have strangled him. A scarf was tied over his eyes and a horse’s bit was in his mouth, fashioned from a rubber ball and metal wire, the bit had chain “reins” that were tightly tied beneath his head. Two leather straps were stretched between the leather belts that girded his neck and chest. A third belt, around his waist, was tied with a rope that stretched to his ankles, where it had been tied in some kind of timber hitch. The end of the rope, which continued up his side, wrapped around his wrist several times and was held in Dekker’s hand. Handcuffs clamped both wrists with a key attached. Written in red lipstick on his right buttock was the word, “whip.” Sunrays had also been drawn around his nipples. “Make me suck,” was written on his throat, and “slave,” and “cocksucker,” on his chest. On his stomach was drawn a vagina. He had apparently been dead for several days."

I am so tired of people that refuse to read the threads and somehow think their post about someone has not been discussed.

"I wonder if Errol Flynn was bipolar, like Vivian Leigh. In a woman, promiscuity was a sign of mental illness, but in a man, it was considered virile. "

No, he was just an asshole.

People with bipolar disorder only go overboard on the sex and unsafe behavior when they're in a manic episode, Flynn kept it up his entire adult life.

R175 did someone else mention Dekker? I swear, I looked at all of the posts trying to see. I missed it. Sorry about that. Shit.

"here was a rumor that she had started an affair with the son of her husband when the son was only 13 (probably untrue). "

No, actually it probably was *true.* Gloria Grahame (why do you refer to her as "Virginia"?!) was caught in bed with her 13-year old stepson, Tony, by her husband the director Nicholas Ray. That was reported in the one biography that has been written about her (Suicide Blonde: The Life of Gloria Grahame by Vincent Curcio), which is pretty reliable.

Ray himself claimed to have caught them together. After the discovery, Ray sent Tony back to military school. Years later, after Gloria and Nicholas had divorced, Gloria and Tony reconnected again when he was about 20. They soon started seeing each other and married a few years later. They kept the marriage secret at first. But when world got out it created a scandal that severely damaged Gloria's career (though, to be clear, her career was already on the downswing due to other issues).

Nevertheless, Gloria and Tony had two children together and stayed together for 14 years, far longer any of her three previous marriages.

Also, R171, Gloria Grahame never "married a man 30 years her junior"--not after her marriage to Tony Ray nor at any other time. But towards the end of her life she did have an affair with Peter Turner, a young English actor almost 30 years years her junior. Turner wrote a memoir about their time together that was the basis of the movie from a few years ago called Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, starring Annette Bening as Grahame.

One other error in R171's post: Gloria Grahame was never in The Music Man. But she famously played Ado Annie in the movie version of Oklahoma!, even though she couldn't really sing.

She best in her great film noir roles in movies like In a Lonely Place, The Big Heat, and Human Desire. She won the best supporting actress Oscar for her performance in Vincente Minnelli's Hollywood melodrama The Bad and the Beautiful.

Karen Carpenter

One of the biggest movie stars of all time, Rock Hudson. He died from the big disease with the little name - AIDS - at only age 59. But it put a face on the disease, people became more sympathetic (even Ronald Reagan), and some good came out of it.

R182 Ironically his last public appearance was with his beloved costar Doris Day. He looked gaunt and thin and everyone knew that there was something wrong.

Rock looks hot in the photo with Doris.

If only he had stopped the AZT, etc., possible amyl as well, he would be alive today.

"But it put a face on the disease, people became more sympathetic (even Ronald Reagan), and some good came out of it."

Ronald Reagan was NEVER 'sympathetic" to AIDS sufferers. He didn't give a shit about AIDS.

Johnnie Ray was a very popular singer in the early to mid 1950s. He was bisexual and an alcoholic from a very early age. He was the best man for Judy Garland's last marriage (they were on tour in England at the time}. He died of alcoholic liver failure after his career fizzled out.

R186 Funny, I’ve never heard of him as a musical star, but I immediately recognized his name from Come On Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners. Even in my memories of the video, I didn’t recall the autobiographical beginning with the footage of him, it slips my mind overpowered by all those overalls later on. He was caught up in various gay sting operations during his life time, but married and divorce and was then on the down low.

Frank Silvera, American-Jamaican character actor who appeared on Broadway (A Hatful of Rain, Skin of Our Teeth) and in many movies (The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima, Viva Zapata!) . Over the course of his 36-year career, he was cast in a wide variety of ethnic roles in film and television, mainly dramas and westerns (Studio One in Hollywood, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Bat Masterson, Thriller, Riverboat, Twilight Zone, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, The Untouchables, Bonanza, etc.). Silvera was nominated for a Best Actor Tony Award in 1963 for his role in The Lady of the Camellias.

Silvera was killed on June 11, 1970, after accidentally electrocuting himself while repairing a garbage disposal unit in his kitchen sink. He was 55.

My mother made me watch every time he appeared on TV in a movie or show. I remember him vividly playing the evil provincial administrator Artur Santos in The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima, the one who tortures the little girls. He scared me to death. My mother would tell me “Frank Silvera is your real father.” To this day, I have no idea if that’s true or not.

[quote] My mother would tell me “Frank Silvera is your real father.” To this day, I have no idea if that’s true or not

Wtf?

R189, apparently my motel dated Silvera before she married my father. That part I know to be true.

R187, Though largely forgotten, Frankie Laine and Johnnie Rey were the precursors to rock 'n' roll, bridging the gap between the crooners (Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, etc.), and the rockers (Elvis, Jerry Lee, Roy Orbison, etc.), singing standards, jazz, country, and rhythm and blues. Johnnie was dubbed "The Prince of Wails" because of his penchant for crying out his lyrics and overemoting, which is something grown men just didn't do in the 1950s.

Correction: Johnnie RAY

What does DL think of Lorna Lufts' book Me and My Shadows? I'm new here and would like to know.

Jean Seberg OD’d in the backseat of her Renealt in august. By the time she was found, the smell wafting from the car was so bad, the police had to shut off the street.

Anton Yelchin- crushed by his own Jeep when it rolled backwards down his driveway and pinned him up against a fence. I think it took him almost two minutes to die. His friends found him hours later after he didn’t show up to a get together.

It’s more of a ‘bad death’ than bad end, b/c he was doing alright in life, but it still sucked. He seemed like a good guy.

[quote] because of his penchant for crying out his lyrics and overemoting, which is something grown men just didn't do in the 1950s.

If only that were still true.

R188, the first and only time I saw Frank Silvera was in an episode of Perry Mason from, I think, 1958. Although his character's race was never mentioned, his son and daughter in the plot were obviously white. I thought his character looked biracial, but I couldn't imagine that Hollywood would cast someone who was black by America's idiotic one-drop rule as a white character or as one of the leading guest stars on a hit TV show back then. It was pretty cool when I found that that that's exactly what they had done.

Jim Morrison - drowned in the bath while overdosing on heroin.

Not a star, but Michael Rockefeller, who either drowned or was eaten by cannibals in Papua New Guinea.

Florence Ballard, the classic case of from rags to riches to rags again. From the projects of Detroit she reached dizzying heights, fame and fortune with the iconic Supremes - then in a series of controversies she was kicked out of the group and ended up in the poorer part of Detroit again, and at only age 32 she died from a heart attack, penniless with children. Berry Gordy paid for her funeral.

A rising superstar in the music business, singer Otis Redding was killed in a plane crash at only age 26. Shortly after he died his recently recorded song Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay was released, went to #1 and became one of the biggest hits of that year.

Character actor Albert Salmi murdered his wife, then shot himself

Robert Walker; died after being administered -- against his will -- the sedative amobarbital. Which, combined with the large amount of alcohol in his system, caused the actor to immediately lose consciousness and stop breathing. His psychiatrist claimed Walker was in a state of hysteria at the time and needed the sedative, although a witness claimed that was not the case. Walker's last words were purportedly "Don't give me that, you'll kill me!"

Rawhide actor Eric Fleming (played trail boss Gil Favor) drowned while filming High Jungle in Peru in 1966. His canoe overturned on a river, he was swept away by the current, and died. He was 41.

Dick Kallman - gay actor who was murdered (along with his life partner) by burglars

Whitney Houston.

I read through this thread but I haven’t seen (or I missed) Brian Jones. The founder of The Rolling Stones, it was Jones who was intrigued by the Beatles use of instruments that weren’t used in rock and roll like sitars, harpsichords, xylophones and he used those instruments in Rolling Stones songs. He was the leader of the group and the most musical member. But when the Stones hit the big time on TV, it was singer Mick Jagger who got all the attention. Jagger and Keith Richards rebelled against Jones and wrote songs without him. Jones felt shut out. Unfortunately, Jagger and Richards each had a large capacity for drink and drugs, but Jones didn’t. He couldn’t handle the drugs and became increasingly unable to perform.

In 1968 the Stones did a tv special, Rock and Roll Circus, after the Beatles had done a psychedelic tv show. The Stones included Jethro Tull, The Who and John Lennon & Yoko Ono as guests. The Who had just returned from touring America where they had perfected their onstage act. When they performed “A Quick One While He’s Away, they blew away the Stones. Mick Jagger was incensed at being upstaged while Brian Jones wandered about obliviously stoned. Jagger had wanted to tour the US but blamed Jones’ incapacitation & legal problems for postponing the tour. Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend felt that night would be the last time Jones would perform with the Stones.

Jagger finally fired Jones in June 1969. Jones continued drinking and drugging though he clearly couldn’t handle it. He was found at the bottom of his swimming pool in July 1969. His autopsy showed his heart and liver had been badly damaged by his drug and dinking habits.

Gail Fisher who played gal friday Peggy Fair on the TV series Mannix. Gail was the first African American member of. Lincoln Center’s Repertory Theater, the first African American to star in and speak lines on a television commercial and the first African American woman to win an Emmy and a Golden Globe. .

Gail became addicted to drugs. In 1978 she was arrested for possession of cocaine and marijuana which effectively ended her career.. Gail was a diabetic as well and died of renal failure at age 65.

Irish actress Constance Smith was a hot mess. She was under contract to 20th Century Fox in the 50s and was touted as a dead ringer for Hedy Lamarr. She arrested for the attempted murder of her boyfriend....but strangely, he stayed with her. She slipped into poverty and drug abuse and died in obscurity.

There is an old thread about Dick Kallman.

Silent star Olive Thomas - accidentally poisoned by her husband's syphilis medication!

Gail Russell was a lovely actress who starred in such films as The Uninvited, Angel and the Badman, and Night Has a Thousand Eyes. She allegedly had an affair with her Angel and the Badman co-star John Wayne and went on to marry actor Guy Madison (the marriage ended in divorce).

She was pathologically shy and in front of the camera, she felt such great anxiety that early in her career she started drinking on set to calm her nerves. By the early 1950s, she began racking up alcohol-related arrests and her career began its downward trajectory. In 1957, she drove her new convertible through the glass windows of Jan's Restaurant in Beverly Hills and seriously injured a janitor who worked there.

She tried AA, made a few more films, and (according to DL) had a two-year lesbian relationship with singer Dorothy Shay. But she continued to drink. 48 years ago today, on August 26, 1961, she was found dead by neighbors, who were concerned after they hadn't heard from her for several days. Her body was surrounded by empty liquor bottles and an autopsy found that she'd succumbed to alcohol-related causes. She was 36 years old.

I meant to mention Moonrise, which is also one of Gail Russell's best films.

Here's another photo of her. She was only 31 at the time.

Another one for the "Dead at 27" club.....former child star Jonathan Brandis committed suicide

Forgot to include a photo of Brian Jones, one of the early members of the 27 Club. Looks a bit rough

Former Zeigfeld star, and one of Broadway's first "triple threats", Marilyn Miller. She was Flo Zeigfeld's favorite star, inspiring the famous number "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody". Her life of tragedy, heartbreak, physical and mental illness, and substance/alcohol abuse would rival the later, better-remembered Marilyn (it's said that Norma Jean adopted her alliterative stage name because Miller was her favorite actress). By her mid-30s, she was completely washed-up, and she died at 37, following complications from nasal surgery.

Now nearly forgotten, Miller (representing musical comedy) is nonetheless immortalized by a marble statue atop Time Square's I. Miller Shoe Company building, along with other female performing arts stars Ethel Barrymore (theater), Mary Pickford (film), and Rosa Ponselle (opera).

Jeanne Eagles, star of the original 1929 version of "The Letter", died of drug and alcohol poisoning at age 39. She received a posthumous (the first) Oscar nomination. Her jittery performance leads me to believe she was under the influence even as they were filming.

Final scene:

Dorothy Shay was known as the Park Avenue Hillbilly, r211.

Gig Young

Douglas McPhail. He and his wife Betty Jaynes were being groomed as "The Next Nelson Eddy and Jeanette McDonald" by MGM. The public reacted with a shrug. Later he committed suicide at the age of 30.

Actress Lisa Sheridan - died from chronic alcoholism

R219, Douglas McPhail became a bit of a heavy drinker when fame and fortune eluded him. Betty Jaynes divorced him and she won custody of their sole daughter. Despondent, he drank poison, but changed his mind and called his mother, who called the police. Three years later, while working as a gardener, he again drank poison, but this time succeeded.

McPhail (an unfortunate name, btw, for someone hoping for showbiz success: "Douglas McFailed at Stardom"), had a wholesome boy-next-door look, which was perfect for wartime America. Betty Jaynes, however, had a wide, old lady face, which made her look a bit of a frump.

The mysterious death of George Reeves, the original Superman | Film | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/nov/18/features.weekend1

George Reeves, the original Superman, committing suicide by gun, at just 45 years old, although the death is surrounded by controversy due to the bizarre circumstances.

His story is actually pretty sad. Had a blooming career, until serving in the war. When he returned he landed the role of Superman and became very popular. Unfortunately, that role was a blessing and a curse, since that's what he became most recognized for by the public. The shadow of Superman loomed over him when it came to obtaining and competing other acting roles.

Some details:

"[...] his body was found, in the early morning of June 16 1959, while his fiancee, Leonore Lemmon, reputedly a headline-hungry gold digger, sat downstairs with a house guest called Robert Condon and two neighbours, all of them stupefied with drink when the cops arrived.

In the windowless upstairs bedroom, Reeves lay naked on the bed in a pool of blood, a gun between his feet, a shell casing beneath his corpse, a bullet in his brain and a thick spray of his gore stretching up the wall to the slanted ceiling."

Apologies for misplacing the link.

We need another apology R223 for the bad link.

Sorry R224 I hate crome and it's amp crap. Let's try this again, since it's an interesting story.

Thanks R225.

Actor David Bacon was murdered. The murder is still unsolved to this day.

Neutron Star

Susan "Wasp Woman" Cabot

"In 1964 she gave birth to her son, Timothy, who suffered from dwarfism. He bludgeoned her to death with a weightlifting bar while she slept in the bedroom of her Encino (CA) home. He was charged with involuntary manslaughter but cited years of mental and physical abuse by her as his defense. He received a three-year suspended sentence and was placed on probation for the crime."

I just started watching Wasp Woman just now!

R229 "I was sleepwalking, carrying a weightlifting bar, when it fell numerous times, whilst I happen to be in my mother's room."

I read for decades that Judy was 2 million in debt, which was still a ton on money in 1969. A lot of that was back taxes and penalties which I believe die when you do, and Liza paid off the rest.

So many others had it far worse. I love reading about silent film stars, a bunch of whom had awful ends, see:

Wallace Reid

Barbara LaMarr

Mae Murray

Olive Thomas and Jack Pickford

Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle

John Gilbert

James Murray

Mabel Normand

Ramon Novarro

Someone was dead in their vodka bottle strewn apartment for a week before being found, and their dogs had started eating her.

(Gail Russell?)

Philippine Cinema superstar Nida Blanca, the "Queen of Movies" in the 1950s was found murdered in the back seat of her car, in a parking lot of Atlanta Centre in Greenhills, San Juan, in 2001. She was beaten and stabbed 13 times. The prime suspect was her estranged American husband, Roger Strunk, whom prosecutors claimed had hired a hitman after Blanca had disinherited him from her will. Strunk fled to the US, successfully fought extradition to the Philippines, but later killed himself in 2007, by jumping from a 2nd floor balcony of a building.

Strunk had a brief acting career in the 1960s, under the name Rod Lauren, having appeared in Gomer Pyle, USMC and The Crawling Hand (1963). He also had a Billboard Top 40 hit with "If I Had a Girl."

One-hit wonder, Rod Lauren, "If I Had a Girl."

R206 Many felt that Brian Jones was murdered. There were builders working on his house and he'd had a lot of rows with them. Apparently, one of them admitted murdering Jones when he (the builder) was on his own death bed.

r232 Marie Prevost. Not eaten.

R235 So Brian Jones and Adrienne Shelly were both murdered by contractors in a rage because they were asked to keep it down? Did they try to make Brian’s look like suicide too?

R237 No, it looked like he'd been high on drugs and drink and drowned in the swimming pool. And that was the official story for years.

Brian Jones was a very rough looking 27.

Teresa Graves - She was a regular performer on "Laugh-In" from 1969-1971. Graves was also known for the TV series "Get Christie Love!" which ran for one season (1974-1975).

Teresa Graves retired from show business in the early 1980s and became a devout Jehovah's Witness. She lived with her mother in a modest home in the Hyde Park section of Los Angeles.

In October of 2002 her mother was hospitalized, and in the early morning of the 10th, Teresa was home alone, sleeping in the former back porch, which had been enclosed and converted into a bedroom. Just around 12:30 a.m., a faulty space heater burst into flames. A smoke detector went off in the front of the house, but it failed to rouse Teresa from her sleep. When firefighters arrived, the back portion of the house was engulfed in flames.

Graves was taken to nearby Daniel Freeman Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 1:04 a.m., of burns and smoke inhalation. She was 54-years-old. Her neighbors had no idea of her Hollywood past.