They say fame is like a drug. There are countless stories of celebs who have had struggles dealing with being famous and the loss of their anonymity. There are also celebrities that embrace their fame and just can't live without it. But there are also instances where fans obsess over their favorite celebs and their devotion crosses over to an unhealthy need to have them at all costs. The drug of fame sadly goes both ways. Want to know more? We've made a video that looks into celebs that were sadly killed by their fans. Here are the details about how these tragic deaths occurred.
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00:00Celebrities obviously tend to attract quite a lot of attention, but it's not always positive,
00:05and sometimes it can even prove fatal.
00:07Here are a few stars whose lives were cut short by their own fans.
00:11Christina Grimmie
00:12Christina Grimmie was a 22-year-old up-and-coming superstar.
00:15She had just wowed viewers on The Voice, placing third in her season, and was beginning to
00:19branch out on her own.
00:20You're more comfortable than I am up there, almost, and that is the moment where you realize
00:25that this person can be a huge star."
00:27But that came to an end when a crazed fan named Kevin James Loible murdered her in front
00:32of a crowd of stunned fans in 2016.
00:35Loible was described by a friend as a severe loner, who over the previous year or so had
00:40grown psychotically attached to Grimmie.
00:42He would watch her videos on YouTube nonstop, altered his appearance so that he might look
00:47good for her, and got angry when it was pointed out that the chances of Loible winning Grimmie's
00:51heart were slim to none.
00:53Finally, Loible decided to meet Grimmie, and apparently thought that if he couldn't have
00:57her, nobody could.
00:58On June 10th, Grimmie was signing autographs after a show when Loible approached.
01:03He took out one of the two guns he had somehow smuggled into the building and shot the singer.
01:08Grimmie's brother quickly grabbed Loible, who managed to struggle and escape, only to
01:12shoot himself dead immediately after.
01:14Latina songstress Selena Quintanilla Perez was a rising star when her fan club founder,
01:20Yolanda Saldívar, gunned her down in 1995.
01:24According to Time, Selena befriended Saldívar soon after the fan club was founded in 1991,
01:30and eventually hired her as an assistant and later brought her on as manager of the Selena
01:35Etc. clothing boutique.
01:36That's when the trouble began.
01:38Saldívar was fired after reportedly embezzling funds from the Grammy winner.
01:42Sometime later, Selena agreed to meet with Saldívar at a Days Inn in order to retrieve
01:47some financial records.
01:48It was there that Saldívar shot Selena in the back.
01:51According to The New York Times, a nine-hour standoff with police followed before Saldívar
01:56eventually surrendered.
01:57She was sentenced to life in prison, most of which she has reportedly spent in solitary
02:02confinement for her own protection.
02:04Can you tell me if you were angry?
02:06Frustrated?
02:07No, I was never angry.
02:08I was never frustrated.
02:11The killing of up-and-coming actress Rebecca Schaeffer in 1989 has left a lasting impression
02:16in the law ever since.
02:18The 21-year-old star of My Sister Sam was shot in the doorway of her Hollywood home
02:23by obsessed fan Robert John Bardo on July 18th.
02:27According to the Los Angeles Times, Bardo had stalked Schaeffer for three years prior
02:31to the killing and even sent her letters in an attempt to meet with her on the set of
02:34her sitcom.
02:36When his gestures went unanswered, Bardo spent $250 on private investigators to track down
02:41Schaeffer's address, which they acquired from the California DMV.
02:45Bardo then paid his crush a fatal visit, reportedly ambushing her when she answered
02:50the door.
02:51After Schaeffer's death, legislation was passed to prohibit DMV employees from disclosing
02:55addresses.
02:56Damageplan and former Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell was shot while performing on stage
03:02on December 8th, 2004.
03:04His killer was diehard Pantera fan Nathan Gale, a former football player and U.S. Marine
03:09whose friends described as having been a good guy until something snapped inside him.
03:14Gale reportedly began thinking that he'd penned some of Pantera's songs.
03:18One-time friend Jeremy Bray told the Columbus Dispatch,
03:21"...he was off his rocker.
03:23He said they were his songs, that Pantera stole them from him and that he was going
03:27to sue them."
03:28According to the Daily News, Gale also blamed Darrell for the breakup of Pantera.
03:34During that fateful show in Columbus, Ohio, the 25-year-old reportedly rushed the stage
03:38screaming,
03:39"...he broke up Pantera!"
03:41Gale killed the guitarist and three others before being shot and killed by a police officer.
03:47Perhaps the worst thing about John Lennon's death at the hands of Mark David Chapman on
03:51December 8th, 1980, is that it happened for virtually no reason at all.
03:56Chapman was a Beatles fan earlier in his life, but he wasn't exactly obsessed with Lennon
04:00until Chapman had a religious awakening and thought he saw hypocrisy in Lennon's lyrics.
04:06But mostly, Chapman targeted Lennon simply because he was famous.
04:09"...why did you kill John Lennon?"
04:11"...I thought by killing him, I would acquire his fame."
04:17In his mind, he figured that assassinating a major celebrity would earn him instant and
04:21long-lasting fame.
04:23To that end, he approached Lennon outside his apartment in New York, asked for an autograph,
04:28got it, and then came back later and shot him dead.
04:31According to The Telegraph, when Chapman went up for parole for the ninth time in 2016,
04:36he told the board that he had, quote, "...a true sociopathic mind."
04:40Unsurprisingly, the parole board rejected his request for freedom, just as they had
04:45done eight times in the past.
04:46He was up for parole again in 2018, but received his tenth rejection, to the surprise of absolutely
04:52no one.