From freak accidents to still-unsolved mysteries to deeply costly mistakes, these celebs did in death what they also achieved in life: make headlines.
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00:00From freak accidents to still unsolved mysteries to deeply costly mistakes, these celebs did
00:06in death what they also achieved in life, make headlines.
00:11For nearly as long as musicians have been rockin' and rollin', losing beloved rock
00:14stars has been an all-too-common part of the chaotic culture.
00:18However, some stars' deaths are weirder than others.
00:21Ozzy Osbourne was already famous when he hired Randy Rhoades as his new guitarist within
00:27him.
00:28Rhoades, who had previously been one of the founding members of Quiet Riot, played on
00:31some of the most classic Ozzy albums, including Blizzard of Oz and Diary of a Madman, and
00:36most notably the song Crazy Train.
00:39While his accomplishments were enough to see Rhoades inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
00:42of Fame in 2021, sadly, he was only in Ozzy's band for a couple of years before he died.
00:48While on tour, the band's bus stopped for a rest at a lot that held some small planes.
00:54The tour bus driver, Andrew Aycock, was also a pilot and decided to take a couple of flights.
00:59Despite being afraid of flying, the 25-year-old Rhoades was a passenger on the final one,
01:04along with the band's 58-year-old seamstress, Rachel Youngblood.
01:07On his previous flights, Aycock had flown closely over the tour bus, trying to wake
01:11up the people sleeping inside it.
01:13Sadly, this time around, the prank went wrong and the plane's wing clipped the bus.
01:18The collision caused the plane to crash, killing all three of the people inside.
01:22However, according to Louder, there are other theories on the accident.
01:26Witnesses say Aycock might have been trying to crash deliberately, and Rhoades was attempting
01:30to stop him.
01:31Or that Youngblood had a heart attack and fell on the controls, causing the plane to
01:35nosedive.
01:36Unfortunately, the true reason will forever remain unknown.
01:39If he hadn't got killed when he did, he would be up there with the big guys.
01:46Bobby Fuller had been playing music since he was a kid in Texas, and by 1966, he and
01:51his band The Bobby Fuller Four had a top-ten hit with I Fought The Law.
01:55They were famous and going places, although this was marred by annoyance at their manager
02:00and his many strange ideas for publicity stunts.
02:03Otherwise, according to Fuller's loved ones, he was happy.
02:06However, on July 18, 1966, Fuller was found dead in his car, covered in gasoline, at the
02:11age of 23.
02:13Witnesses say he had injuries like he'd been in a fight, and that his car hadn't
02:17been in the parking lot where it was found just minutes before.
02:20Even though he had been dead for hours.
02:21If this wasn't weird enough, officials didn't seem to agree on why Fuller ended
02:25up dead.
02:26While several obituaries in major newspapers implied that he had died by suicide, the official
02:31report determined it was accidental.
02:33However, even that wasn't conclusive, as the report also had a question mark next to
02:37the boxes for both suicide and accident.
02:40The debate about whether Fuller's death was suicide, accident, or murder has raged
02:44for decades.
02:45Fuller's strange death was even included in the October 18, 1996 broadcast of Unsolved
02:50Mysteries, and although at least one person connected to him contacted the tip line afterward,
02:54the truth about his passing remains unknown.
02:58When Chicago was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016, original member
03:02Terry Kath wasn't there, but was not forgotten.
03:06As co-founder Lee Loughnane told the Metro,
03:08"...through the years, his guitar playing has been overlooked, probably because he was
03:12in such a large band.
03:14But if Terry had been in a trio, he probably would have been right up there with Jimi Hendrix,
03:17who idolized Terry."
03:19Kath seemed to be aware of this as well, since he was planning on releasing a solo album
03:23before he died on January 23, 1978.
03:27His friend and fellow musician Joe Walsh told Rolling Stone,
03:30"...with that band dynamic in Chicago, he needed to do a solo album.
03:34I don't know how much of it was recorded, but he was going in that direction, and it's
03:38a shame it didn't happen.
03:40He would have never remotely thought about suicide.
03:42That was a complete accident."
03:44Suicide or accident has always been the question surrounding Kath's bizarre death.
03:49The musician was deep into drugs and also loved guns, which is never a good combination.
03:54When he died, he was handling firearms, which he assured the person he was with were unloaded.
03:58"...he's ejecting all the bullets out of the gun.
04:02Then he let the clip go, left one in the chamber."
04:05According to Loughter, his last words were supposedly,
04:08"...what do you think I'm going to do, blow my brains out?"
04:11Sadly, the gun went off.
04:13Kath was 31 years old.
04:16Dimebag Darryl Abbott was a founding member of Pantera, the incredibly popular metal band.
04:21They formed in 1981, but in the 21st century, the band split up, and Abbott started a new
04:26band called Damageplan.
04:28In 2004, Damageplan was playing a gig in Cincinnati, Ohio, when a man named Nathan Gale jumped
04:34on stage.
04:35He damaged thousands of dollars in equipment and fought with security before being removed.
04:40The police were called, but no charges were filed, because the band thought it would be
04:43too inconvenient to return for the court date.
04:46Eight months later, Gale showed up at another Damageplan concert in Columbus.
04:50Some people present noticed him as soon as he entered the venue from a side entrance
04:54and raced towards the stage.
04:56As Billy Payne of Volume Dealer, another band on the bill that night, told Rolling Stone,
05:00"...the dude was way determined.
05:02He was on a mission.
05:03He looked angry.
05:04He was walking like he was going into battle."
05:06Gale got on stage, pulled out a gun, and confronted Abbott.
05:10Joe Dameron, Volume Dealer's bass player, said Gale looked to be saying something, but
05:14he couldn't hear what.
05:15Gale then shot Abbott, but at first, it wasn't clear how serious the situation was.
05:20A security guard present said, "...I thought they were playing a big gimmick.
05:24People were pumping their fists, thinking it was a hoax."
05:26When people finally started to intervene, Gale shot and killed three of them.
05:30Sadly, Abbott did not make it either.
05:32He was 38.
05:35A cellist trained at the Royal Academy of Music may not sound like your standard rock
05:38star, but Mike Edwards was an original member of the Electric Light Orchestra.
05:42He played with them from 1972 to 1975, a period that encompassed four albums and two top ten
05:48hits on the UK charts.
05:50Edwards was a big hit with fans, standing out for his kooky outfits and the bits he
05:55did on tour, such as playing the cello with a piece of fruit and pretending to play his
05:59cello before it exploded.
06:01He eventually left the band but continued to play music, and his death fit right in
06:05with his strange stage persona.
06:07On September 3, 2010, the 62-year-old was killed in a freak accident when a 1,300-pound
06:13hay bale rolled off a tractor and into a road.
06:16It then slammed into Edwards' car, crushing it.
06:19At the time of his death, Edwards was playing with a local group called Devon Baroque, and
06:23fellow member Jasper Solomon told BBC News, "...Mike's talent was his musicality.
06:28He could range over all genres from classical to jazz, modern to medieval renaissance.
06:33He lived for his music, and it showed."
06:36The chairman of the music group, Angus Gordon, said, "...he was simply the nicest guy and
06:40a brilliant musician.
06:41He taught the cello, and his incredible patience and encouragement, even with the slowest of
06:45students, made him a very good teacher."
06:49Everyone knows there's a long list of stars who died at age 27, but Les Harvey's inclusion
06:53on the list has to be one of the most surprising.
06:56He was in several bands in the UK before joining one called Power, which was renamed one night
07:01in 1969 by Led Zeppelin's manager.
07:04From then on, the iconic Scottish band was known as Stone the Crows, and their albums
07:09are still popular re-releases many decades later.
07:12On May 3, 1972, the group was preparing to perform at a gig in Wales.
07:17Some 1,200 people were in the audience, and according to contemporary reporting, some
07:21of them decided to take souvenirs in the form of wires out of the band's electronics before
07:26they took to the stage.
07:27This of course caused technical problems, which took time to fix.
07:31Harvey came on stage to explain the delay when disaster struck.
07:35As drummer Colin Allen explained to Louder, "...we heard this deep humming sound.
07:39Leslie had the microphone in one hand and his guitar in the other.
07:42They kind of went together, and then like an arc shape appeared.
07:45I was up really quickly and kicked the guitar out of his hand as he was lying on the floor."
07:50The accident was caused because a ground wire to the microphone had not been fixed, and
07:54when Harvey touched his metal guitar strings, he closed the circuit.
07:58He died a short time later in the hospital, aged 27.
08:03Philip Taylor Kramer joined the band Iron Butterfly in 1974, and played bass on two
08:07of their albums.
08:09After he left the band, he went on to become a rocket scientist, and then an important
08:13figure in the booming computer industry of the early 1990s.
08:17But on February 12, 1995, he vanished.
08:20Kramer went to pick up a business associate and their partner from the airport, but left
08:25before meeting them.
08:26Chuck Carter, a private investigator hired by Kramer's family, told the L.A. Times,
08:30"...something happened during that time, either in his head or at the terminal, that
08:34made him turn away.
08:35And I'll tell you, I haven't a clue.
08:37The guy didn't have an enemy.
08:39The guy was a dedicated family man."
08:41There's no indication that there's another woman involved, there's no indication of
08:44alcohol or drugs or anything of that nature.
08:47What we do know is that Kramer started calling loved ones to say goodbye.
08:51Then he called 911 and announced he was going to kill himself, and said,
08:54"...I want everyone to know O.J. Simpson is innocent.
08:58They did it."
08:59According to the debrief, Kramer was expected to contribute expert testimony at Simpson's
09:03trial.
09:04However, in 1999, Kramer's van and remains were discovered at the bottom of a canyon.
09:09It can't be proven if he died by suicide, and theories of foul play still abound.
09:14Some think he might have been threatened over one of his new software programs, but we'll
09:18likely never know for sure.
09:20The year before he died, Colonel Bruce Hampton told ArtsATL,
09:24"...I never plan anything, good, bad, or ugly.
09:27I just go with it.
09:28I must say that I've always just wanted to play music.
09:31Not work music, not earn music.
09:33Just play music and make joyful noise.
09:35And I don't know if it's good or bad, but I keep doing it.
09:38Show up and play."
09:40According to CNN, Hampton was known as the granddaddy of the jam scene, and the respect
09:44other musicians had for him was clear by how many showed up to jam with him at his 70th
09:48birthday concert in 2017.
09:51It was the very end of the performance when Hampton dropped to his knees, then laid on
09:55the stage.
09:56The audience just thought he was playing around, as did the other musicians, who kept playing
10:00as Hampton lay there, suffering a massive heart attack.
10:04It took several minutes for anyone to realize something was very wrong.
10:07However, according to his friends, it's exactly what Hampton would have wanted.
10:11Rolling Stone's keyboardist Chuck Lavelle, who was on stage with Hampton at the time,
10:15said,
10:17And I'm sure if he had written the script himself, that would have been the last page
10:20of the last chapter.
10:21Additionally, Hampton's former bandmate, Jeff Mojer, posted on Facebook that he, quote,
10:26"...could have never imagined a more joyful departure."
10:30In the U.S., the day the music died was the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Richie
10:34Valens and the Big Bopper.
10:36But in Ireland and Northern Ireland, that phrase refers to July 31, 1975, when three
10:41members of the popular group The Miami Show Band were murdered.
10:45Show bands were huge on the island at the time.
10:47They would travel around playing concerts and regularly cross the border between Ireland
10:51and Northern Ireland, which was part of the United Kingdom.
10:54Unfortunately, the Miami Show Band did this in the 1970s, right in the middle of the sectarian
10:59violence known as the Troubles.
11:00The show band scene was fantastic because people were living in the Troubles and it
11:08was a release for them.
11:10When the band's van was pulled over, they thought it was a checkpoint, a common occurrence
11:14at the time.
11:15What they didn't know was it was a fake army patrol made up of Ulster Defence Regiment
11:19and Ulster Volunteer Force members.
11:21What took the event from purely tragic to bizarre is that the Ulster men didn't plan
11:25on killing the band, but instead to place a bomb on their bus that would explode once
11:29they were across the border in Ireland.
11:31However, it exploded while it was being attached, killing two of the Ulster men.
11:36The remaining assailants then started shooting at the band, killing lead singer Fran O'Toole,
11:41guitarist Tony Garrity, and trumpeter Brian McCoy.
11:44Two other members were injured but survived the massacre.
11:47The incident effectively put an end to Irish show bands crossing the border to play in
11:51Northern Ireland.
11:53Bizarre helicopter accidents, prop guns gone wrong, and unsolved boating disasters — all
11:58these things have ended the lives of beloved actors.
12:01Here are their strange stories.
12:03Anne Heche was perhaps best known for starring opposite Harrison Ford in the 1998 drama Six
12:08Days, Seven Nights, and for her long-term relationship with Ellen DeGeneres.
12:12Throughout her career, Heche had been open about her belief that she had serious undiagnosed
12:17mental health issues stemming from a difficult childhood, and also about her past heavy drug
12:22use.
12:23Despite these issues, she amassed an enviable body of work as an actor.
12:27Unfortunately, her life came to an end in bizarre fashion on the morning of August 5th,
12:322022.
12:33Heche was driving her Mini Cooper in a Los Angeles suburb when she inexplicably lost
12:36control of the vehicle and crashed into a private residence.
12:39The ensuing blaze was so intense that it took 20 minutes for firefighters to beat the flames
12:44back enough to move the car.
12:46Miraculously, Heche initially survived, hanging on for nearly a week before succumbing to
12:50her injuries on August 11th.
12:53Investigators suspected at first that the crash was due to drugs or alcohol, but this
12:56was not the case.
12:58In December, the L.A. coroner's office announced that there was no evidence pointing to Heche
13:02being impaired in any way at the time of the accident.
13:05Brandon Lee, had he lived, may have eclipsed even his famous father Bruce Lee in star power.
13:10Like his dad, Brandon Lee was an explosively talented martial artist possessed with a ton
13:15of charisma and a formidable screen presence.
13:17His early features, such as 1991's Showdown in Little Tokyo and 1992's Rapid Fire, were
13:23proof positive of these qualities.
13:26But it was his breakthrough lead role in the 1994 supernatural thriller The Crow, an adaptation
13:31of the 1989 indie comic of the same name, that made him a household name.
13:36It was also his final role, as his life was cut short due to a freak accident with just
13:40two weeks of filming left.
13:42Lee was killed when he was shot in the abdomen by a prop gun fired by actor Michael Massey,
13:47a gun which had been improperly handled and which contained a portion of a dummy round
13:51in one of its chambers.
13:52Lee was only 28 years old, and although Massey was found to have not been at fault, he never
13:57truly recovered after Brandon Lee's death.
14:00What happened to Brandon was a tragic accident.
14:05It's something that I'm gonna live with."
14:09The Crow went on to become a box office success and a cult classic, but one can't help but
14:13wonder what might have been if the circumstances that led to its star's death had played out
14:18differently.
14:19With his steely good looks and intimidating presence, David Carradine carved out a decades-long
14:24career in film and television.
14:25He was a mainstay in westerns before famously starring in the TV series Kung Fu, and while
14:30many of his 80s and 90s credits consisted of TV guest spots in B-movies, he experienced
14:35a serious career resurgence in the early 2000s.
14:38Carradine played the title role in Quentin Tarantino's feature epic Kill Bill and appeared
14:43in guest roles in hit TV shows like Medium and Alias.
14:46In 2009, his life was cut short.
14:49He was found dead in the closet of a hotel room in Bangkok, Thailand.
14:53While authorities first suspected death by suicide, this turned out not to be accurate.
14:57It's since been alleged that Carradine was instead partaking in a dangerous practice
15:02known as autoerotic asphyxiation.
15:04The finding was bolstered by court documents filed in his divorce from his ex-wife Marina
15:08Anderson, in which she alluded to Carradine's history of, quote, deviant sexual behavior.
15:14Several projects featuring Carradine were released posthumously, including the thriller
15:18The American Connection, which began production in 2007 but didn't see release until 2021.
15:24Hollywood legend Vic Morrow was perhaps best known as the star of the 60s TV series Combat.
15:30He had settled into a career of supporting roles when he was tapped to lend his considerable
15:34skill to Twilight Zone the movie, a feature film revival of the iconic TV series.
15:39In the lead-off segment Time Out, Morrow portrayed Bill Connors, an unrepentant racist who finds
15:44himself supernaturally thrust into the shoes of people he's persecuted in the past.
15:49In one scene, he was to play a Vietnamese peasant during the Vietnam War, frantically
15:53attempting to rescue two children as a U.S. Army helicopter fires on them.
15:58The scene was cut after its filming went tragically wrong.
16:01Pyrotechnics used in the scene caused damage to the helicopter, causing veteran pilot Dorsey
16:06Wingo to lose control of the craft, which crashed directly on top of Morrow and two
16:10child actors, killing all three.
16:12In the first for Hollywood, the segment's director John Landis, producer George Fulsi
16:17Jr., Wingo, and two others were tried criminally for their actions on set.
16:22After a sensational 10-month-long trial, all parties involved were acquitted.
16:26It was just a wonderful time, and I wish we could get the jurors close for a minute.
16:31I want to kiss at least half of them."
16:33Natalie Wood was an actor who bridged the gap between old and new Hollywood.
16:37As a child, she appeared in the 1947 edition of Miracle on 34th Street.
16:42As a teenager, she co-starred with James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, and she portrayed
16:47Maria in the classic 1961 musical West Side Story.
16:51By the late 60s and 70s, she had successfully transitioned to adult fare like the comedy
16:56Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, and in the early 80s, she was tapped to star in the sci-fi
17:01thriller Brainstorm.
17:02This would be her final role, due to a fateful yacht trip with her husband Robert Wagner
17:07and her co-star Christopher Walken.
17:09By all accounts, Wood and Wagner got into a drunken argument aboard the boat during
17:13the night of November 28th, 1981.
17:16Wood somehow ended up overboard, and her body was found the next morning a mile from the
17:20yacht.
17:21Authorities ruled the death accidental, but the investigation was reopened in 2011.
17:26Seven years later, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department officially named Wagner
17:30as a person of interest in her death, although he's always denied any wrongdoing.
17:35There are those who believe Wagner killed Natalie Wood.
17:37They reopened the Natalie Wood thing.
17:39Mm-hmm.
17:40Did you have a comment on that?
17:41No, I never did.
17:42In 2020, Wood's biographer Suzanne Finstad claimed to have unearthed new witnesses who
17:48had information that would prove that Wood's death was no accident.
17:51But as of mid-2024, the case is still unresolved.
17:56Giancarlo Coppola, the son of Hollywood icon Francis Ford Coppola, was just beginning to
18:01make his presence known in Hollywood.
18:03As a boy, he appeared in bit parts in his father's classics like The Godfather and Apocalypse
18:07Now, and as a young man, he popped up in a larger role in 1983's Rumblefish.
18:12He also worked as a producer on the classic 1983 coming-of-age film The Outsiders and
18:17was working as a camera operator on Gardens of Stone in 1986, when a tragic boating mishap
18:23took place during a break from shooting.
18:25Coppola and Griffin O'Neill, the son of actor Ryan O'Neill, had been drinking and were riding
18:30in a boat that attempted to cut between two others.
18:32They failed to realize that the rear boat was actually being towed by the lead one.
18:37Both young men came into contact with the tow line.
18:40O'Neill survived the accident, but 22-year-old Coppola was driven into the floor of the craft
18:44and suffered fatal head injuries.
18:46But you can't make good memories on the water unless you know how to boat safely.
18:51If I'd taken a course, I'd have some better memories.
18:55In a 2020 interview with Vulture, Francis Ford Coppola cited Gardens of Stone as the
19:00one film he wishes he had never made, saying,
19:03"...it cost me everything, and that was one of the movies I made at a time when I had
19:07to make a movie every year to just keep my house and my household together.
19:11I fantasize about having not made Gardens of Stone.
19:14I wouldn't have lost my son."
19:15I am Jane Dornacker, traffic reporter for WNBC."
19:20Jane Dornacker was a woman of many talents.
19:22She began her career in show business as a comedian, then briefly performed with a band
19:26called Layla and the Snakes before joining legendary Bay Area rockers The Tubes in the
19:31late 70s.
19:32In 1983, she launched her acting career, appearing in a small role in The Right Stuff, and was
19:37also known for her stints as a radio traffic reporter for KFRC San Francisco, and later
19:42for WNBC New York City.
19:44In April 1986, a helicopter she was riding in crashed into the Hackensack River, but
19:50she and her pilot managed to swim to safety.
19:52She was not as lucky in a second crash just months later.
19:56Dornacker was in the middle of her traffic report when, according to witnesses, the aircraft
20:00simply stalled out and plummeted into the Hudson River.
20:03Emergency responders were on the scene within minutes, but Dornacker was unresponsive when
20:08pulled from the water, and she was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
20:12One of the great actors of Hollywood's Golden Age, William Holden appeared in many classics
20:16over several decades, from Billy Wilder's 1950 opus Sunset Boulevard to Sidney Lumet's
20:221976 masterpiece Network.
20:25He was the quintessential old-school actor, and like many of his peers, he was a bit of
20:29a drinker.
20:30This, unfortunately, was a factor in the accident that led to his death in 1981.
20:34Holden was drinking alone in his Hollywood apartment when he apparently slipped on a
20:38throw rug, smacking his head on a bedside table.
20:41Still conscious, Holden tried to tend to the two-inch gash on his forehead with a few tissues
20:46to no avail.
20:47He passed out, and he soon bled to death.
20:49The coroner who attended to Holden would later say that he registered a blood alcohol level
20:53of 0.22, and was likely unaware of just how badly he had hurt himself.
20:58He further noted that although Holden probably lived for about half an hour after sustaining
21:02the injury, it appeared that he had not tried to call for help.
21:06John Eric Hexham was practically made for the lead role in a series that could only
21:10have been created in the 80s, Cover-Up, in which he portrayed a former Green Beret-turned-model
21:16who, accompanied by a fashion photographer played by Jennifer O'Neill, conducted covert
21:21intelligence operations around the globe.
21:23The series lasted only one season, but Hexham only appeared in seven episodes.
21:28He was fatally injured on set after a tragic accident between scenes.
21:32The cast was filming in October 1984 when they learned there would be a delay in shooting
21:36the next scene.
21:38According to witnesses, Hexham asked his castmates,
21:40"...Can you believe this crap?"
21:42before picking up a prop pistol, holding it to his head, and pulling the trigger.
21:46The blast fractured his skull and propelled a bone fragment into his brain, and despite
21:51the best efforts of doctors to save him, he was declared brain-dead six days later.
21:56Perhaps the only silver lining, Hexham was an organ donor.
21:59His heart saved the life of a former Navy SEAL and father of two, his kidneys saved
22:04two more lives, and his corneas gave sight to two more people.
22:08Jack Nance enjoyed a three-decade career in film and television, but he'll forever be
22:12associated with the role of Henry Spencer, the protagonist of David Lynch's surrealist
22:171977 masterpiece Eraserhead.
22:19The actor landed steady work throughout the 80s and 90s, and continued to work with Lynch
22:24in projects such as the iconic TV series Twin Peaks, as well as Lynch's big screen features.
22:29In 1997, a trip down the street from his home in Pasadena to a local donut shop costs Nance
22:35his life.
22:36Witnesses told authorities that Nance got into a verbal altercation with two men outside
22:40the shop, which turned physical.
22:42Nance was punched in the head, but walked away from the scene, returning to his apartment.
22:46He was found dead the following morning at his home by a friend who came by to check
22:50on him.
22:51The cause of death was ruled to be blunt force trauma to the head.
22:54No one was charged with the crime.
22:56The fact that Jack's death was an unsolved homicide, in some kind of quirky way, I think
23:03he would have loved that.
23:05Speaking with the press, Nance's old friend Lynch did not seem terribly surprised, telling
23:09reporters,
23:10"...Jack always said he wouldn't be too hard to kill."
23:14A rising star cut down by a faulty gear shift, a possible victim of the poltergeist curse,
23:19and a plane crash that launched the CIA conspiracy theory.
23:22These child stars may have had varying degrees of success in their careers, but all of their
23:25tragic passings occurred in strange ways.
23:29Anton Yelchin got his start in acting at an early age, booking his first TV role in a
23:332000 episode of ER, before delivering a memorable performance in the film Hearts in Atlantis.
23:38Yelchin successfully navigated the often tricky transition to adult roles, most notably portraying
23:43Pavel Chekhov in the Star Trek film franchise.
23:45"...I can do that.
23:47I can do that!"
23:48Yelchin's star was on the rise when he was killed in a freak accident involving his vehicle
23:52in 2016.
23:53TMZ was the first to report that his body was discovered pinned between a mailbox and
23:57the security gate in front of his home by his SUV, which had rolled down an incline
24:01while in neutral.
24:03Yelchin's parents filed a lawsuit against the vehicle's manufacturer, Fiat Chrysler,
24:07claiming that the vehicle's gear shifters were responsible for the fatal accident.
24:11Indeed, just a couple of months earlier, the company had recalled more than a million vehicles
24:14due to confusing gear shifters that led drivers to think their vehicles were in park, when
24:18they were actually in neutral, resulting in numerous accidents.
24:21That was precisely what had happened to Yelchin when he exited the vehicle to punch in the
24:24security code.
24:26One of the biggest child stars of the 1980s, Gary Coleman played wisecracking Arnold Jackson
24:31on hit sitcom Diff'rent Strokes.
24:33"...You should draw my words."
24:35Coleman had suffered health problems from an early age due to nephritis, a congenital
24:39defect of a kidney.
24:40As a result, he required dialysis throughout his life and had undergone two kidney transplant
24:45operations, one at the age of five and another when he was a teenager.
24:48Given his chronic medical issues, Coleman's life expectancy was shortened, and in his
24:52later years he experienced some well-publicized health scares, including a seizure in February
24:572010 while on the set of The Insider.
24:59Just a few months later, the 42-year-old actor suffered a serious fall at his home just outside
25:03of Provo, Utah.
25:05Coleman was rushed to a nearby hospital, where doctors determined that he'd suffered an intracranial
25:10hemorrhage.
25:11Coleman was conscious when he first arrived at the hospital, but eventually slipped into
25:13a coma.
25:14He was placed on life support, which was discontinued soon after.
25:17In a statement, a spokesperson revealed that friends and family were at his side when the
25:21life support was terminated.
25:23Just six years old when Poltergeist was released in 1982, Heather O'Rourke catapulted to stardom
25:28as Carol Ann, the film's central character.
25:31She went on to reprise the role in two Poltergeist sequels and appeared in several TV series.
25:36Just after completing Poltergeist 3, O'Rourke, then 12, died on an operating table in a
25:40San Diego hospital while undergoing surgery to address a bowel obstruction.
25:44The obstruction led to an infection that caused septic shock, which then resulted in pulmonary
25:49and cardiac arrest.
25:50What made O'Rourke's death so bizarre was that she hadn't demonstrated any symptoms,
25:54even though she had the undiagnosed condition since birth.
25:57O'Rourke's tragic death came to become the cornerstone of the so-called Poltergeist curse,
26:01which included the grisly murder of her on-screen sister, actor Dominique Dunne, and the eventual
26:06deaths of cast members Julian Veck and Will Sampson.
26:10Matthew Garber has delighted generations of children via his role as youngster Michael
26:14Banks in Disney's 1964 musical Mary Poppins.
26:17Garber made just three movies during his brief Hollywood career, all Disney productions.
26:21In addition to Mary Poppins, he also appeared in 1963's The Three Lives of Thomasina and
26:26The Gnome Mobile in 1967.
26:29After that, he gave up acting and returned to normal life in London.
26:32A few years after his graduation, Garber was visiting India when he became infected with
26:36hepatitis.
26:37In the summer of 1977, he decided to return to London for further medical treatment.
26:41Sadly, he'd waited too long.
26:43When he finally made it back to England, medical tests revealed that the hepatitis had spread
26:47to his pancreas.
26:48He died at the age of 21.
26:50The official cause of death was determined to be hemorrhagic necrotizing pancreatitis,
26:54a rare but serious condition that had been left untreated for a tragically long period
26:58of time.
26:59A popular child actor in her native Britain, Myalesia Naylor experienced early success
27:04as star of the kids' show Tattie's Hotel before going on to appear in films such as Cloud
27:08Atlas and Code Red.
27:10From 2014 until 2018, she was a cast member on the popular British series Millie in Between.
27:15She was just 16 years old when she died under tragic circumstances.
27:19A subsequent inquest determined that she'd died by hanging and categorized her death
27:23to have been caused by, quote, "'misadventure' rather than death by suicide."
27:27E! News obtained the coroner's report, in which the assistant coroner came to conclude
27:30that Naylor's death had been accidental.
27:33Her father, Martin Naylor, concurred when he testified at the inquest, stating,
27:36"'She had not been her normal self.
27:38She was stressed about her exams.
27:39I honestly believe she was just making some sort of point.
27:42I genuinely believe she did not mean to do it.'"
27:45Jayne Madison Wright was just 9 years old when she made her on-screen debut in a 1994
27:50episode of Grace Under Fire, before guest-starring in the Fran Drescher sitcom The Nanny.
27:54Later that year, she was cast in the NBC sci-fi series Earth-2, which ran for just
27:58one season.
27:59She continued acting for a few more years, making her final appearance in the 1998 comedy
28:04Safety Patrol.
28:05Wright was forced to put her acting career on pause after an X-ray revealed her heart
28:09was dangerously enlarged.
28:10She was diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the muscles in the heart's
28:15lower chamber become rigid and won't fill with blood.
28:18In 2000, 15-year-old Wright underwent a life-saving heart transplant and subsequently became a
28:22vocal advocate for organ donation.
28:25In 2006, she married Brent Joseph Morris.
28:28One day after the newlyweds returned from their honeymoon to their home in Lexington,
28:31Kentucky, Wright had a fatal heart attack.
28:34She was just 21 years old at the time of her death.
28:37Best known as a member of the boy band Together, actor and singer Michael Cuccioni made his
28:41screen debut in 1997, appearing in an episode of Baywatch.
28:45Prior to that, he'd had a difficult childhood, as he was just 9 years old when he was diagnosed
28:49with Hodgkin's lymphoma.
28:50Cuccioni underwent an aggressive course of chemotherapy that lasted for six months and
28:55was eventually declared free of cancer.
28:57Unfortunately, a routine checkup six months later revealed that the cancer had returned
29:01and Cuccioni required a bone marrow transplant.
29:03That medical procedure was successful.
29:05He always had a positive attitude, even at times when he was struggling, and he did have,
29:11you know, fear of what was going to happen next.
29:14However, intensive chemo had left his organs in a perpetually weakened state, particularly
29:19his lungs.
29:20In late 2000, Cuccioni and his mother were involved in a car accident, and he underwent
29:24surgery to repair a damaged diaphragm.
29:26While hospitalized, he became ill with pneumonia.
29:29His lungs had become so weakened by the chemotherapy from years earlier that, two weeks later,
29:33he was still unable to breathe on his own without a respirator.
29:36In January 2001, he died at age 16.
29:40In 1982, 10-year-old Samantha Smith had been watching TV shows about the Cold War.
29:44Horrified by the idea of nuclear war, she wrote a letter to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov,
29:50asking what plans he had to avoid it from happening.
29:52The letter made her a sensation in Russia, and in 1983, she and her parents were invited
29:56to visit Moscow.
29:57Her popularity also exploded in her homeland.
30:00In 1984, she hosted her own TV special, Samantha Smith Goes to Washington, Campaign 84, interviewing
30:06various American politicians.
30:08She then went on to dabble in acting, guest-starring on Charles in Charge, and playing a recurring
30:12role in the TV series Lime Street.
30:14In August 1985, Smith and her father were returning to their home in Maine after she'd
30:18been shooting Lime Street.
30:20They were flying in a small commuter plane when the aircraft crashed while attempting
30:23to land, killing them both.
30:25Oddly enough, Smith's death sparked a conspiracy theory in the Soviet Union, which claimed
30:29that she'd been assassinated by the CIA because her childish efforts to avoid nuclear war
30:34didn't align with America's aggressively anti-Soviet policy at the time.
30:38The R-Gang shorts from the 1920s and 30s, later renamed The Little Rascals, featured
30:43many memorable characters.
30:45Among the most beloved characters was Alfalfa, played by child actor Carl Switzer.
30:49As Switzer grew older, acting roles dwindled, and he found himself typecast.
30:52Relegated to low-budget B-movies and bit parts, he made ends meet by tending bar and hiring
30:57himself out as a hunting guide.
30:58He also bred dogs as a sideline, and in 1959, Switzer sold a dog to a fellow named Moses
31:04Stiltz and believed that he still owed him $50.
31:07Switzer had been drinking when he showed up on Stiltz's doorstep, demanding that the debt
31:10be repaid immediately.
31:12According to Stiltz, Switzer burst into his home and a scuffle ensued, during which Switzer
31:16pulled a knife.
31:17Stiltz, however, one-upped the former child star when he pulled out a gun and ended the
31:21altercation by shooting Switzer dead.
31:23Stiltz was put on trial, and his claims that he acted in self-defense were upheld by the
31:27coroner's report.
31:28The jury agreed that he had been defending himself and deemed Switzer's death to be a
31:31justifiable homicide.
31:34Best known as Darla in The Little Rascals during the 1930s and 40s, Darla Hood shone
31:38in the role.
31:39Hood continued her acting career into the 1950s as a series regular on The Ken Murray
31:43Show.
31:44She went on to experience success as a singer, and she also did voiceover work for TV commercials,
31:48singing jingles for Campbell's Soup and Chicken of the Sea Tuna.
31:51Hood was just 48 years old when she died in 1979 after undergoing a routine operation
31:56to remove her appendix.
31:57An autopsy subsequently revealed that she'd received a transfusion of tainted blood during
32:02surgery and had inadvertently been infected with hepatitis, which led to heart failure.
32:07Just five years old when she was discovered, Judith Barsi had a successful run as a child
32:11actor.
32:12Barsi was cast in dozens of commercials before going on to appear in numerous TV series and
32:16films, including Jaws The Revenge and providing the voice of young dinosaur Ducky in the animated
32:21hit The Land Before Time.
32:23Sadly, the young actor's life was cut short in 1988 when 10-year-old Barsi was found dead
32:28in her home alongside her mother and father, Maria and Joseph Barsi.
32:31Joseph had killed his wife and daughter, shooting them both with a .32-caliber pistol.
32:36After setting the bodies on fire, he fatally shot himself.
32:39Subsequent reports pointed out that there were plenty of warning signs indicating Barsi
32:43was being continually abused by her father.
32:45A posthumous Los Angeles Times exposé quoted a relative who claimed that when Barsi left
32:49for Barbados to film the Jaws sequel, her father threatened to slash her throat if she
32:53didn't return.
32:54As her parents' marriage deteriorated, Barsi became so stressed by her father's threats
32:58of violence that she plucked out all her eyelashes.
33:01I wish that Daddy'd stop shouting at Mommy."
33:04She told family and friends how terrifying her home life had become, allegedly saying,
33:08"...I'm afraid to go home.
33:10My daddy is drunk every day, and I know he wants to kill my mother."
33:15A medical mishap, an onstage seizure, and a deadly attack with an axe.
33:19These rappers gained fame with their music, but became infamous on account of their tragic
33:22deaths.
33:24Presenting a gritty, visceral, and bleak depiction of urban New York life in the early 1990s,
33:29Mobb Deep helped define the East Coast gangsta rap sound of the era.
33:32The duo, consisting of Havoc and Prodigy, released eight albums worth of material, including
33:36acknowledged hits and classics like Shook Ones Part II and Quiet Storm.
33:41Mobb Deep's Prodigy, born Albert Johnson, contended with chronic medical issues from
33:45infancy.
33:46As a baby, he was diagnosed with sickle cell anemia, wherein red blood cells change form
33:50and don't last as long as they should, leading to extremely painful blood flow problems as
33:53well as weakness and diminished motor skills.
33:57In June 2017, Prodigy performed at an outdoor hip-hop festival in Las Vegas, and the extreme
34:01heat triggered an episode that required hospitalization.
34:04That's common for sickle cell anemia patients, but while under medical supervision for that
34:08health issue, Prodigy choked to death.
34:10He was eating an egg, and part of it became lodged in his airway, killing the rapper.
34:15Prodigy was 42 years old.
34:17A producer, singer, and writer as well as a rapper, Static Major was instrumental in
34:21the creation of some of the biggest and most era-defining hip-hop-flavored hits of the
34:24late 1990s and early 2000s.
34:27He wrote Aliyah's Are You That Somebody and Try Again, helped produce Genuine's Pony,
34:31and earned a Featured Artist credit on Lil Wayne's Lollipop, a Grammy-winning number
34:35one hit in 2008.
34:37In February 2008, the musician-born Stephen Garrett sought medical treatment at Baptist
34:41Hospital East in Louisville, Kentucky, the city where he grew up.
34:45Doctors explained that his suite of symptoms was caused by myasthenia gravis, a scarcely
34:50diagnosed autoimmune disease.
34:52It's a chronic condition that usually appears in men over the age of 50.
34:55Static Major was only 33, and he wouldn't survive his hospital visit.
34:59During immediate treatments, a surgeon placed a catheter into the rapper's neck, and he
35:03immediately reported severe pain, not at the point of insertion but in what felt like his
35:07internal organs.
35:08An X-ray indicated an improperly placed line, and when the nurse removed the catheter, Garrett
35:13lost consciousness.
35:14Doctors were unable to save him.
35:16The dark, introspective, and highly descriptive rap subgenre known as drill emerged in the
35:202010s, and Pop Smoke became one of the movement's earliest and best-known figures.
35:25In 2019 and 2020, Pop Smoke released Meet the Woo and Meet the Woo 2, the latter peaking
35:30at number seven on the U.S. album chart.
35:32In the summer of 2020, the rapper scored four Top 20 hits — For the Night, What You Know
35:37About Love, The Woo, and Mood Swings — but he wouldn't get to enjoy any of that success.
35:42In February 2020, the Brooklyn-based Pop Smoke, also known as Bashar Jackson, lived temporarily
35:47in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles, in a home owned by Real Housewives of Beverly
35:51Hills cast member Teddy Mellencamp.
35:53In the early hours of February 19, 2020, a group of four young men staged a home invasion
35:58with the intent to rob the house and the rapper.
36:00During the altercation, one of the masked intruders shot Jackson.
36:03Suffering mortal wounds in the attack, the rapper was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center,
36:07where his death was declared.
36:08Pop Smoke was 20 years old.
36:10While the rapper's death was undoubtedly tragic, the bizarre aspect was the part that social
36:14media had enabled the home invaders to locate Pop Smoke.
36:17"...we showed police social media posts that appear to show Pop Smoke and a friend posing
36:22in front of the home yesterday."
36:24Hours before the crime took place, the rapper had posted photos of elaborate expensive gifts
36:28he had been sent in congratulations for the recent release of his mixtape, Meet the Woop
36:322, with a label bearing his Los Angeles address.
36:36Performer Joe C. joined the Twisted Brown Trucker band in the 1990s after being spotted
36:40in the crowd by Kid Rock.
36:41Appreciated for his deep knowledge of the star's early indie work, Joe C. rapped and
36:45served as a hype man, helping to popularize his boss and friends' then-novel combination
36:49of hip-hop, hard rock, and country.
36:51Early in childhood, Joe C. was diagnosed with celiac disease.
36:54Aside from its gastrointestinal effects in relation to the consumption of gluten, celiac
36:58disease is also a serious autoimmune condition that can lead to joint pain, mental health
37:02issues, and growth and maturation problems.
37:05For the rapper-born Joe Calleja, celiac disease is the reason why his adult height was limited
37:09to 3 feet 9 inches.
37:11He also endured intestinal pain, and in attempts to stay healthy, he ingested 65 pills and
37:15underwent kidney dialysis treatment, both daily.
37:18On November 16, 2000, Joe C., who had to cut down on his touring jaunts with Twisted Brown
37:22Trucker for health reasons, died in his sleep from complications of chronic celiac disease
37:27at the age of 26.
37:29James Jamie Patterson built a reputation locally as a musician, and more specifically as a
37:33rapper on Long Island, New York.
37:35In 2022, Patterson left New York in favor of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and was gearing up to
37:39put out his first album.
37:41Early in the evening of October 17, the rapper was sitting on a friend's sofa in the living
37:44room of their apartment, eating an egg roll.
37:47On the other side of the room stood Israel Trejo, in the middle of negotiating the purchase
37:50of an axe from another person in the residence.
37:53At no point did Trejo and Patterson ever speak, and they reportedly hadn't met before that
37:57night.
37:58That makes it all the more inexplicable that Trejo decided to swing the axe in Patterson's
38:02direction without any warning or obvious cause.
38:05The axe landed squarely in the rapper's head.
38:07The unprovoked attack, really the demonic aspect of this entire case, is difficult to
38:14get out of your head.
38:16After three days in a Tulsa hospital, Patterson died from injuries to his head and brain.
38:20He was 22 years old.
38:22Police charged Trejo with first-degree murder, for which he received a sentence of life in
38:26prison.
38:28Atlanta's YSL Records is the home of many emergent trap rappers, including label founder
38:32Young Thug as well as Gunna and would-be superstar Lil Keed.
38:36In 2018, Lil Keed released five mixtapes, including Keed Talked to Him and Trapped on
38:40Cleveland 2, and he followed up regional success and accolades with some national long-form
38:45hits, Long Live Mexico and Trapped on Cleveland 3.
38:48Lil Keed's career was still on the rise when it all came to an abrupt and tragic end.
38:52In May 2022, Lil Keed experienced stomach and back pain so extreme that he couldn't
38:56leave his bed for four days.
38:58After his brother noticed Lil Keed's eyes had taken on a jaundiced yellow hue, a potential
39:02sign of liver problems, he took the rapper to a Los Angeles hospital.
39:05En route, the rapper had a seizure and lost consciousness.
39:08About two hours after arrival, Lil Keed was declared dead.
39:11He was 24 years old.
39:13An investigation conducted by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner determined
39:17that the rapper's death stemmed from an undiagnosed and untreated case of eosinophilia.
39:21In that rarely diagnosed condition, the body dangerously overproduces eosinophils, a variety
39:26of defensive white blood cells, possibly in response to a threat of parasite, cancer,
39:30or an allergen.
39:32Ambitious and eager to see if he had what it took to be a rapper, the musician who called
39:36himself Indian Redboy loitered at Los Angeles-area recording facilities and waited for his chance.
39:41As his aunt, Jasmine Rivera, told University Times,
39:44"...he just went into the studio hoping someone would hear him out, and one day they did and
39:48let him record."
39:49The ascendant rapper ultimately recorded very little music before his untimely death.
39:53On the afternoon of July 8, 2021, Indian Redboy sat in a parked car outside of an apartment
39:58complex in Hawthorne, California, near Los Angeles, to make an Instagram Live video.
40:03As he spoke with his friend and influencer Capone, who was at another location, an unidentified
40:07man approached the car and opened fire.
40:10At least 12 gunshots could be heard in the live feed, broadcast out to the rapper's tens
40:14of thousands of followers.
40:16Hawthorne police arrived at the scene and found the rapper deceased in the driver's
40:19seat of his car, having sustained a number of gunshot wounds.
40:22The rapper, born Zarell Dijon Rivera, was 21 years old, and the victim of what police
40:27believe to be a premeditated act.
40:30Born Constantino Soblanoglu and adopting the name Kostetic, this rapper was among the biggest
40:34rising stars in African hip-hop, utilizing lyrics in English and South African languages
40:39as well as cutting-edge American beats.
40:41Albums Made in Africa and You're Welcome proved to be big hits in the 2020s, and Akon recruited
40:46the rapper to his Convict Culture label and performed on and amplified the remix of the
40:49hit Big Flexa.
40:51Kostetic was seemingly primed for big success outside of his home country.
40:55Kostetic was a major draw to the 2023 Ultra Music Festival, staged in Johannesburg, South
40:59Africa.
41:00As he performed his set on March 11th, the rapper suddenly fell down on stage and was
41:04assisted back to his feet by one of his dancers.
41:06The performance continued on for a few more moments, only for the rapper to once again
41:10stumble, this time tumbling off the stage.
41:12Despite receiving emergency medical treatment, Kostetic died shortly thereafter.
41:16He was 28 years old.
41:18More than a year later, the musician's family shared the results of an autopsy, which determined
41:22that a combination of long-term stress and pressure on his heart triggered an irregular
41:26heartbeat, which then led to a fatal seizure.
41:29A rapper and singer associated with the Afrobeats movement, Mobad, born Elirio Lua Olandemiji
41:34Oloba, developed a significant following in his home nation of Nigeria.
41:38He represented a voice that is not normally heard in Nigeria, and that's for the inner-city
41:43youth.
41:44After he performed a September 2023 show in Ikorodu, Mobad engaged in a violent altercation
41:49with a lifelong friend and a fellow hip-hop musician known as Prime Boy.
41:53Mobad reared up to punch Prime Boy, but didn't make contact and instead hit a car window,
41:57severely lacerating his hand.
41:59Over the next couple of days, the untreated injury grew inflamed and became extremely
42:03painful, leading the rapper to seek out medical attention, and he went to a nurse's assistant
42:07who practiced out of her home.
42:08She delivered multiple medicines intravenously, including what was supposed to be a tetanus
42:12shot to prevent potential bacterial infection.
42:15Immediately after, Mobad suffered seizures and died in the early morning hours of September
42:2012, 2023.
42:21The musician was 27 years old.
42:23The National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives reported that the nurse who delivered
42:27the medicine wasn't a licensed medical professional, and she was subsequently arrested.