MM-Unusual Celebrity deaths

Mr. Morbid

Dealing in the dark fascination we have with death and dying

UNUSUAL CELEBRITY DEATHS
Granted, the use of the term celebrity is a bit vague...but we're mainly talking about people who you might recognize the name of. But nowadays, almost anyone can become a celebrity...look at the cast of Survivor. And unusual...well, that just means a tad different...

Sherwood Anderson - writer
1941 --- after swallowing a toothpick at a cocktail party he died of peritonitis on an ocean liner bound for Brazil.

Attila the Hun
453 AD --- bled to death from a nosebleed on his wedding night.

Aleksandr II (Aleksandr Nikolaevich) - Czar of Russia 1855-81
1881 --- assassinated by a bomb which tore off his legs, ripped open his belly and mutilated his face.

Sir Francis Bacon
1626 --- pneumonia. He was experimenting with freezing a chicken by stuffing it with snow.

Amanda Blake- actress (Miss Kitty on "Gunsmoke")
1989 --- AIDS contracted from her bisexual husband.

Karen Carpenter - singer
1983 --- heart failure caused by anorexia nervosa, at age 32.

Jack Cassidy - actor
1976 --- died in a fire, while asleep on the couch in his apartment.

Catherine the Great - Empress of Russia
1796 --- a stroke, while going to the bathroom.

Marie Curie - chemist, discovered Radium
1934 --- leukemia, caused by exposure to radiation.

Jeffrey Dahmer - mass murderer
1994 --- beaten to death with a broomstick by a fellow inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institute.

Tommy Dorsey - Trombonist
1956 --- choked to death in his sleep, due to food that lodged in his windpipe.

Isadora Duncan - actress
1927 --- accidental strangulation when her scarf caught in car wheel.

Dominique Dunne - actress ("Poltergeist")
1982 --- choked by boyfriend, John Sweeny. She died after being in a coma for 5 days.

Albert Dekker - actor, California legislator
1968 --- suffocated, hanging from shower curtain rod, handcuffed, wearing women's lingerie.

Marty Feldman
1982 --- found dead in motel room in Mexico. Death from heart failure, either from climate change or from shellfish poisoning.

Michael Findlay - horror film maker
1977 --- decapitated by helicopter blade.

Jim Fixx - made jogging popular
1984 --- died of a heart attack . . . while jogging.

Eric Fleming - actor ("Rawhide")
1966 --- drowned when his canoe capsized during the filming of a movie near the headwaters of the Amazon in the Haullaga River, Peru.

Diane Fossey - primatologist
1985 --- found hacked to death, presumably by poachers, in her Rwandan forest camp.

Marvin Gaye (Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr.) - singer
1984 --- murdered on his birthday by his father.

Bobby Fuller - musician
1966 --- his badly beaten body was discovered in a parked car in Los Angeles. His death was attributed to asphyxia through the forced inhalation of gasoline.

Vitas Gerulaitis - tennis player
1994 --- died in his sleep of carbon monoxide poisoning at the home of a friend.

John Glasscock - musician (Jethro Tull)
1979 --- heart infection caused by an abscessed tooth.

Phil Hartman (Philip Edward Hartmann)
1998 -- shot by his wife, who then committed suicide.

Jon-Erik Hexum - actor
1984 --- playfully shot himself with a blank-loaded pistol on the set of TV spy show "Cover Up." The concussion forced a chunk of his skull into his brain; he died six days later.

Les Harvey - musician (Stone the Crow)
1972 --- electrocuted on stage at a show in Swansea, Wales. He touched a poorly connected microphone and died a few hours later.

William Holden - actor
1981 --- found dead in his apartment. He had been drinking, and apparently fell, struck his head on an end table, and bled to death.

Buddy Holly (Charles Hardin Holley)
1959 --- died in airplane crash with Ritchie Valens & the Big Bopper. The name of the plane was "American Pie."

Harry Houdini (Erich Weiss) - magician
1926 --- ruptured appendix. He died on Halloween.

Rock Hudson (Roy Harold Scherer, Jr.)
1985 --- died of AIDS. He was the 1st major public figure to announce he had AIDS.

Florence Griffith Joyner - US Olympic sprinter
1998 --- an epileptic seizure triggered by a brain abnormality. She died in her sleep at the age of 38.

Brandon Lee - actor
1993 --- shot by a gun firing blanks, while filming the movie "The Crow." His missing scenes were later filled-in by computer animation.

Bruce Lee (Li Yuen Kam) - actor
1973 --- died suddenly from a swollen brain.

Pete Maravich - basketball player
1988 --- heart attack while playing a game of pick-up basketball.

Butterfly McQueen (Thelma Lincoln McQueen)
1995 --- died of burns received when lighting kerosene heater in her apartment.

Sal Mineo - actor
1976 --- stabbed to death in the street outside of his home.

Vic Morrow - actor
1982 --- helicopter accident on the set of "Twilight Zone - The Movie."

Jim Morrison - musician (the Doors)
1971 --- heart attack while in the bathtub.

Elvis Presley
1977 --- accidental drug overdose. He died while sitting on the toilet.

Keith Relf - musician (The Yardbirds)
1976 --- electrocuted playing guitar in the bathtub.

John Augustus Roebling - designer of the Brooklyn Bridge
1869 --- died of a tetanus infection after having his leg crushed by a ferryboat while working on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Rudolph Valentino (Rodolfo di Valentina D'Antonguolla) - actor
1926 --- perforated gastric ulcer and ruptured appendix

Tennessee Williams - writer
1983 --- choked to death on a on a nose spray bottle cap that accidentally dropped into his mouth while he was using the spray. He was 71.

Dennis Wilson - rock musician (The Beach Boys)
1983 --- drowned after diving from his yacht in the harbor at Marina Del Ray, California.

Jackie Wilson - entertainer
1967 --- collapsed of a stroke and a heart attack on stage, while singing his hit "Lonely Teardrops": He never regained consciousness and died eight years later.