Not all film stars live happy ever after lives. Since Hollywood began, many famous actors and actresses battled drug and alcohol abuse and depression. Others became victims of their own fame and were murdered by one of their fans. Still others were lost in car and plane accidents.
Film Star Deaths: Drugs and Alcoholism
The pressures of the job caused many actors and actresses to become dependent on drugs or alcohol or in some cases, a lethal combination of both.
Actor Bela Lugosi, the Hungarian-born star best known for his role as Dracula, battled drug addiction. An early film success, by the1950s he was all but forgotten. He checked himself into a hospital in an unsuccessful attempt at rehabilitation. Gaunt and frail, he continued to play in B movies such a Plan 9 from Outer Space until his death from a lifetime of drug abuse. .
Up and coming comedian John Belushi got his start as a member of the 1975 Saturday Night Live team. He went on to make comedic movies such as National Lampoon’s Animal House and The Blues Brothers. His life ended as a result of a lethal mix of cocaine and heroin.
Rising star River Phoenix, brother of Joaquin, once shunned drugs and alcohol, but later took to abusing them. The young actor known for his roles in Stand by Me and young Indiana Jones in the 1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was found dying outside the infamous Viper club, after a fatal overdose.
Famous Film Stars and Accidental Deaths: Car and Plane Crashes
Plane Crashes took the lives of several stars such as famous actor Will Rogers, who died in a fatal plane crash in 1935 near Point Barrow, Alaska, when the plane experienced engine trouble and plummeted into the riverbank. Singer and TV star Rick Nelson died in 1985 when his chartered DC-3 crashed in a field east of Dallas enroute to a performance.
Charismatic actor James Dean made only a handful of movies before his death in a fatal car crash. The star of Rebel without a Cause died when his silver Porche Spider collided with another vehicle on a California road near Paso Robles. He had just been issued a speeding ticket.
Poised and beautiful actress Grace Kelly whose fairy tale life included marring a prince, died in a car accident on a treacherous slope in Monaco in 1982. It was believed the actress had suffered a stroke prior to the wreck.
Film Stars: Murders and Suicides
The entire world was shocked when pregnant actress Sharon Tate, wife of director Roman Polanski, was brutally murdered in a mass slaying. At first it was believed the murders were drug-related, but it was soon discovered that psychotic killer Charles Manson had been behind the killing spree.
Freddy Prinze, the 1970s up and coming star best known for his role in Chico and the Man committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. He had previously been treated for drug abuse and depression.
How Famous Film Stars Died
Drugs and Alcohol:
- John Barrymore
- Bela Lugosi
- Judy Garland
- Veronica Lake
- William Holden
- Bobby Driscoll
- John Belushi
- Chris Farley
- River Phoenix
Plane Crashes and Car Accidents
- Will Rogers
- Carole Lombard
- Audie Murphy
- Eric Fleming
- Grace Kelly
- James Dean
- Jayne Mansfield
Murders
- Sal Mineo
- Sharon Tate
- Phil Hartman
- Rebecca Schaeffer
- Dominique Dunne
- Tupac Shakur
Suicides
- Geroger Sanders
- Carole Landis
- Freddy Prinze
- Herve Villechaize
- Marilyn Monroe (under suspicious circumstances)
Sources:
Parish, James. The Hollywood Book of Death: The Bizarre, Often Sordid, Passings of More than 125 American Movie and TV Idols. McGraw Hill, 2001. ISBN 0809222272
Readers may be interested in the following articles on famous film star deaths: Suspicious Film Star Deaths: Suicide or Murder?, Deaths of Anna Nicole Smith and Marilyn Monroe.
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