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George Jessel: Dog Day Afte...
George Jessel was a longtime member of the comedians' Round Table at the exclusi...
Passing Advice
While serving as the BBC's adviser on Roman Catholic affairs, Father Andrew Agne...
Final Request
Shortly before his execution by firing squad, the notorious murderer James Rodge...
William Brodie: The Drop
William Brodie, a respected figure in Edinburgh, lived a double life as a highly...
Memorable Obituary
"Hugh Massingberd, a former editor of the obituaries page of the ...
Bonjour?
In 1974, Richard Nixon, not noted for his social graces, visited Paris to attend...
Bette Davis: Post-po...
Bette Davis was once informed by her attorney that rumors of her death were spre...
Comet Ferret
Charles Messier (whom Louis XV dubbed the "comet ferret") was once obliged to ab...
Spellbound
In 1960, Bette Davis and her husband Gary Merrill toured America doing readings ...
Meals to Die For
In 2004, Brian Price, a former inmate who once worked in a prison kitchen in Hun...
Vergil's Housefly
"Publius Vergilius Maro or Vergil, the Roman poet known for The Aeneid, o...
George Bush: Parachute Jumper
On June 12, 1999, George Herbert Walker Bush celebrated his seventy-fifth birthd...
Jimmy Carter: Grandson
"One year [at Christmas] we went out to Aspen," Jimmy Carter once recalled, "and...
Second Chances?
Ed Wood's 1958 film Plan 9 From Outer Space owes its cult following to it...
Eye For an Eye
King Saud was petitioned one day by a woman seeking a death sentence for the man...
Segovia's Guitar
"Towards the end of a recital in Berlin, just as Andres Segovia was concluding w...
Genital Humor
Shortly after the launch of Viagra, Robin Williams, famed for his ad-libbing gen...
Brief Reminder
While reading the newspaper one day, Rudyard Kipling came across a curious annou...
Little Lamb?
One day when Charles Lamb was little more than a toddler, his sister Mary took h...
Yapper?
One day Samuel Butler visited his wife on what he believed to be her deathbed: ...
Huhgel?
Even on his deathbed Hegel remained abstractly philosophical. "Only one man ever...
Dead Pope?
"When Pope Benedict XV was dangerously ill a premature report of his death was f...
Hart of Stone?
Despite his critically acclaimed poetry, Hart Crane suffered from severe depress...
Milk Man
While passing Ulysses S. Grant's tomb in New York one day, Robert Benchley scrib...
Perfectly Agreeable
One afternoon in 1911, Woodrow Wilson, then serving as New Jersey's governor, re...
Mass Consumption?
Prior to a Washington performance of "La Boheme" which Dwight Eisenhower was pla...
Hollywood Ending
When the 1957 funeral of the little-loved Hollywood mogul Louis B. Mayer attract...
Petard? (long)
Thomas Midgley's inquiring mind was a mixed blessing at best. According to biogr...
Great Turnip?
Winston Churchill and fellow British prime minister Stanley Baldwin cultivated a...
Chamberpot?
Winston Churchill vehemently opposed prime minister Neville Chamberlain's policy...
Loopy?
A lifelong agnostic, W. C. Fields was not entirely unconcerned about the possibi...
Finite Jest?
In his later years, Daniel Auber was one day compelled to attend a funeral servi...
Bobby Leech: Daredevil
Despite breaking "nearly every bone" in his body, in 1911 Bobby Leech survived a...
Sly Prediction
A firm believer in the astrological 'sciences,' Louis XI was hardly surprised wh...
Oscar Levant: Elegy
Shortly after George Gershwin's death, Oscar Levant was approached by a man who ...
Priceless Jest
During Bela Lugosi's funeral, Vincent Price and Peter Lorre went to view the dec...
John Holmes: Warm Feet
z (brother of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.) fell into a coma and lay motionless fo...
Ninth
Beethoven's notoriously difficult, groundbreaking Ninth (once called "the hammer...
Bennett's Box
At a low point in Constance Bennett's career, her Hollywood agent (Sue Mengers) ...
Fab Three?
In 1989, George Harrison rejected Paul McCartney's latest proposal for a Beatles...
French Academy
Francois Coppee was once asked by the wife of an aspiring writer to support her ...
Famous Last Words
Toward the end of his life, Voltaire was advised to foreswear Satan. He declined...
Perfectly Coenical
The Coen brothers, famed for their black humor (exemplified by such films noir a...
Arnold Bennett: Proof
In 1931, the English writer and theater critic Arnold Bennett died in Paris. The...
Robert Atkins: Atkins Diet
In 2004, militant vegans obtained the death certificate of Robert Atkins, the do...
Winston Churchill: Secret o...
As he approached his 90th birthday, Winston Churchill was asked the secret of lo...
Castlereagh
Castlereagh was not universally admired for his key role in the formation of a p...
Niece vs Nurse
As he lay dying, Henry Arthur Jones was asked whether he would prefer his niece ...
Upright Poet
The poet Ben Jonson once asked his benefactor, Charles I of England, for a squar...
Death Bed Confession
Toward the end of his life, a hospitalized John Barrymore - aware that he was dy...
Once More, Maurice...
As Maurice Barrymore was being laid to rest, the straps supporting the lowered c...
Morbid Mencken
In 1948, H. L. Mencken suffered a stroke which severely crippled his mental facu...
No, By George!
Late in life, George Burns was asked whether he planned ever retire. "Retire?" B...
Perfectly Sensible
One day, Napoleon III, having learned that his uncle Jerome was on his deathbed,...
Wilde's Toast?
While dying of cerebral meningitis in a Parisian hotel room, Oscar Wilde was off...
Blackwell's Head
For his role in a mysterious plot in Sweden, Alexander Blackwell was tortured an...
Robert Oppenheimer: Bhagged
On July 16, 1945, the world's first atomic bomb exploded at a test site in Alamo...
Joseph Stalin: Free at Last?
Russian dictator Joseph Stalin once fell into a rabid argument with another poli...
Elephant Man?
In the battle of the Wilderness during the Civil War, General John Sedgwick led ...
Pancho Villa
As Pancho Villa lay dying, he found himself at a loss for words. "Don't let it e...
9/11 Lawsuit
Shortly after the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001, a Manhattan landlor...
Farrakhan
In 1999, rumors surfaced that the controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Far...
Losing His ____?
Many observers may have felt slightly apprehensive when Vice President John Tyle...
Franz Dasch & the Yawning H...
"In July 1999, Austrian dwarf and circus acrobat Franz Dasch was killed during a...
Palmystery
At the age of eighteen, future AMD chairman Jerry Sanders had his nose, ribs, an...
Forrestal's Conspiracy Theory
In 1949, Secretary of Defense James Forrestal, frustrated with bureaucratic resi...
Black Humor
"When the Reverend Harold Davidson, the eccentric unfrocked rector of Stiffkey, ...
Composing?
Shortly after the death of a well-known composer, someone, unaware of the news, ...
Crockford
William Crockford died following a fit of apoplexy brought on by the poisoning o...
Mummy's Curse (long)
The words engraved on the exterior of King Tutankhamen's Tomb ("Death Shall Come...
Wild Bill Hickok: Dead Man
On August 2, 1876, the legendary frontier marshall Wild Bill Hickok entered Salo...
Catacombs
Samuel Rogers, whose bald, polished head and sunken eyes gave him a rather cadav...
Parkyakarkus
In 1958, the legendary radio comedian Harry Parke ("Parkyakarkus") attended a ro...
Trouser Moose?
Having performed some 20,000 autopsies, New York City Coroner Michael Baden had ...
Second Opinion?
One day, the great Chinese philosopher Shih Teng was consulted by the relatives ...
Loony Poet
How did Li Po, generally considered China's finest poet, die? While attempting t...
Jeremy Bentham: Last Wish
"English philosopher and the 'Father of utilitarianism,' Jeremy Bentham willed h...
Famous Last Worms?
P. J. Tierney, developer of the modern diner, died in 1917. The cause of death? ...
Mata Hari
In 1904 Mata Hari left her husband (a Dutch military officer), changed her name,...
Hot Date
Rossini once received a curious letter before a performance of one of his operas...
Breaking News
"And now, in keeping with Channel 40's policy of always bringing you the latest ...
Game Book
"One of the gentleman's most treasured possessons is his game book, in which he ...
Stamp Collector
"Baron Ferrari, the world-renowned stamp collector, received the news of his wif...
Russell Crowe & Meg Ryan
Shortly after his break-up with Meg Ryan, Russell Crowe (the lead singer, lead g...
Round Table
For years, George Burns ate lunch every day at a corner table in the Men's Grill...
Richter Quake?
Hans Richter was conducting Dvorak's Ninth Symphony one evening when the cymbal ...
Albert Einstein: Stroke of ...
Though Albert Einstein became a passionate Zionist (partly in response to German...
Landingham
One day in 2002, Califonia state assembly Majority Leader Kevin Shelley asked th...
Whistle
After Humphrey Bogart's death, his wife, actress Lauren Bacall, placed his ashes...
Backfire?
"Lupe Velez wanted to be remembered; that was her one wish. Since she was not be...
Buddy Holly & Waylon Jennin...
One day in early 1959, Buddy Holly playfully told Waylon Jennings (then playing ...
Last Wishes
American adventurer Richard Halliburton died in 1939 as he and his crew attempte...
Jerome Irving Rodale
One day in 1971, Jerome Irving Rodale - the founding father of the organic food ...
Certain Nobleman?
Voltaire attended the funeral of a certain nobleman. "He was a great patriot, a ...
Mayo
One morning, Dr. Mayo's mail was found to contain a letter from a spiritualist. ...
Her Time was Short
George Bernard Shaw once remarked that he and his wife were induced to settle in...
Stickler
Dominique Bouhours was obsessive about correct usage, particularly when the inte...
Arnold Schoenberg: Triskaid...
The composer Arnold Schoenberg suffered from triskaidekaphobia (the fear of the ...
Jerusalem
After Richard II had appropriated his inheritance and banished him from England,...
Heaven and Hell
Lord Desborough was infuriated one day to find his obituary printed in ...
Speedy Recovery
The violinist Dave Swarbrick was amused one day to find his obituary printed in ...
Bat Man?
Despite his advanced age and "odd-looking hair transplant," Republican Senator S...
Pearly Gates
Harrison Ford was once asked: If heaven exists, what would you want God to say t...
Pantheon
One day Alphonse Allais was called upon to deliver a lecture on the subject of t...
Comedy in Music
In 1953, Victor Borge starred in a one-man Broadway production entitled ...
Coolidge
One day in 1933, Dorothy Parker was informed that former president Calvin Coolid...
Ashes to Ashes
In July 2002, Larry Hagman (best known for his role as J. R. Ewing on the televi...
Gabriele D'Annunzio: Sentim...
Gabriele D'Annunzio once stayed at a hotel which owned a goldfish, to which the ...
Heinous Marriage
In 1841, the poet Heinrich Heine married Eugenie Mirat, an uneducated, boorish, ...
Jefferson's Epitaph
Toward the end of his life, Thomas Jefferson wrote his own epitaph, and instruct...
Morley
Robert Morley once bumped into his old friend and fellow actor Llewellyn Rees, w...
Great Ordeal
"I am ready to meet my Maker," Winston Churchill declared as the end drew near. ...
Francis Ferdinand's Death
Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria was remarkably vain. Prior to attending fo...
Alice Cooper Obituary
One day in the early 1970s, a British music magazine ran a mock obituary for Ali...
We Need Your Help!
In a classic Major League (playoff?) game, a certain slugger hit a game-winning ...
Ned Kelly: Such... a Moron
"In 1880, after years on the run, [the notorious Australian bushranger Ned] Kell...
Young Quentin Tarantino
"Quentin Tarantino as a child was preoccupied with movies, and he was always wri...
Tourist Trophy: Chief Annou...
For many years, Geoff Cannell served as chief announcer for the Isle of Man's To...
Darren Robinson: Human Lunc...
Darren "the Human Beat Box" Robinson (the fattest of the Fat Boys) once ordered ...
Yousouf Ishmaelo: What a Waist
"[Turkish wrestler Yousouf Ishmaelo] came to the U.S. in 1897, defeated former w...
David Falconer: Vermin Deat...
Oddball artist David Falconer was once asked whether he was proud of his latest ...
CSI: Hillbilly?
George Clooney was once caught in an earthquake in San Francisco. "I came runnin...
Denis Leary: Street Dealer
"The best pitch I ever heard about cocaine," Denis Leary once recalled, "was bac...
Harold Holt Memorial
While trekking around Australia one year, travel writer Bill Bryson passed throu...
Kevin Nealon: Death Threat
"I got a death-threat letter once from some crazy person," Kevin Nealon once rec...
Behan's Blessing
Just before he died, Behan looked up at a nun who was taking his pulse. "Bless y...
Open Grave
While attending a funeral one day, John Barrymore noticed an elderly gentleman l...
Nellie Melba: Ressurection
While touring America before World War I, famed opera singer Nellie Melba played...
Vivid Imagination
On his deathbed, Balzac is reported to have ordered the attending physician to "...
Adolph Green: Taste of Death
"[Broadway composer Adolph Green] never stopped insisting on delight. Green's wi...
Gold Digger
Richelieu was once informed that an elderly, rich, rather dim-witted widow of hi...
Even Handed
While broadcasting a Yankee game one day, Phil Rizzuto was informed that Pope Pa...
Screwed?
Jonathan Wild masterminded several robberies using organized gangs of thieves (m...
Turkmeniac?
In 2003, Turkmenistan's authoritarian president Saparmurad Niyazov took measures...
Royal Moron
Philip III, noted for his utter incompetence, is said to have died after "catchi...
Kalashnikov
Some 55 years after his invention of the AK-47 assault rifle (in 1947), Mikhail ...
Jackson's Duel
Shortly after his marriage to Rachel Donelson Robards in 1791, Andrew Jackson wa...
Healing Machines?
"After losing both his parents and three siblings to cancer at relatively young ...
Nutrition for Health?
Noted nutritionist Alice Chase, who wrote Nutrition for Health and other ...
Dust to Dust
Five years after D. H. Lawrence's death and burial in France, his widow Frieda L...
Chaplin's Soul?
Charlie Chaplin was visited on his deathbed by a priest. "May the Lord have merc...
X-treme Stupidity
In June 1999, BASE jumper Frank Gambalie III parachuted off the famed El Capitan...
Alfred Packer
During the heavy winter of 1874, the famous nineteenth-century Colorado pioneer ...
Janis Joplin: Bumped
In 1969, Janis Joplin was invited to appear on the cover of Newsweek. She...
Uncertainty Principle
Famed physicist Werner Heisenberg won a Nobel Prize in 1932 for his formulation ...
Feverish Don
"Henry Erskine, Lord Advocate of Scotland toward the close of the eighteenth cen...
Faithful Servant
Thus reads Maurice James Butler's epitaph: ...
Holiday Inn
On February 13th, 2003, Holiday Inn founder Kemmons Wilson passed away. "He 'che...
Buckey O'Neill
The lawyer, miner, cowboy, sheriff, and congressman Buckey O'Neill was one of Te...
Frugal Weston
George Weston, the billionaire founder of Canada's Weston food empire, died in a...
Fellow Poets
The Russian poet and novelist Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov first won attention fo...
Harvey's Last Words
"Until Fred Harvey came along in the 1880s, service in the railroad industry was...
Down In It
One day during the production of the video for "Down In It," the apparently life...
Pleasures of Hope
Thomas Campbell once told a friend that he had grown tired of his association wi...
Divine Retribution?
"The Sunday revivalist sessions of the little brown-skinned man who has called h...
Wacky Woodhull
In her old age, Victoria Woodhull, the first woman in American history to run fo...
Lees on Life
Because he alone was supporting his parents, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Billy L...
El Cap
While tackling El Cap's Dihedral Wall in 1968, legendary Yosemite rock climber J...
Samuel Parr: Dubious Compli...
How highly regarded were Samuel Parr's talents as a composer of Latin epitaphs? ...
Famous Last Words
One day Lord Palmerston, aged and ailing, was informed by his physician that he ...
Stiff Competition
James Eggink was among the players selected by the Montreal Alouettes in the 199...
Fifteen Minutes
In 1567, while leading the Roman Catholic forces against the Huguenots at the ba...
David McLean: Hack Actor
In 1995, David McLean died of lung cancer, prompting many people to ask: "Who wa...
Syria's Condition?
In 1799, Napoleon's troops, traveling through the desert on route to Syria, made...
Kill or be Killed
Before his lightweight title fight against Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini on November 1...
Duel
Sainte-Beuve once reluctantly agreed to fight in a duel. Just as the shooting wa...
Jayaprakash Narayan: Elder ...
"India was swept with grief on 22 March 1979 when the Indian Prime Minister, Mr ...
Indulgent Popes
Popes have not always lived up to the rigorous standards set for their congregat...
Pryor Knowledge
Richard Pryor's father died while having sex in a brothel. Was Pryor's mother su...
Tempting Fate?
Will Rogers was born in Oologah, Indian Territory (part of what is now Oklahoma)...
Can't Take It With You
One of Louis B. Mayer's colleagues once attempted to persuade the studio chief t...
Charity Bazaar
On May 4, 1897, a Parisian hall housing a charity bazaar over which the Duchess ...
Postcards from the Edge
Shortly after Johnny Morgan's cremation, many of friends of the late British bui...
Louis's Last Words
Louis XIV remained arrogant until the end. "Has God," he declared upon his death...
Woman on Top?
When George Burns died in 1996, 32 years after wife Gracie Allen had been lain t...
For God's Sake?
When Ernest Digweed died in 1976, he left £26,000 in the care of the Public Trus...
Mariah Carey: Royal Airness
In 1999, during a massive press conference held to promote a new single, Mariah ...
Abstruse
One day in 1807, while his wife was lying sick upstairs, the famed mathematician...
Coping with Death
Arnold Bennett, a stickler for detail, once boasted that Darius Clayhanger's dea...
Blackbird?
With his famous father, Donald Campbell built many record-breaking race cars and...
Maddalena's Ghost (long)
As a student at the Conservatory in Naples, Vincenzo Bellini gave singing lesson...
Coffee Lover
Voltaire, who drank copious amounts of coffee throughout his life, was once warn...
Cardano
Girolamo Cardano, whose addiction to gambling led to his pioneering studies of p...
Appendectomy
Wilson Mizner was once hospitalized for an appendectomy. Before his surgery, he ...
Ikku
Shortly before his death, Ikku handed several small packages to his disciples, o...
Stop Dying
Addison Mizner and his brother Wilson ran various businesses together and were v...
Taj Mahal
In 1629, the Mogul emperor Shah Jahan's favorite wife (Mumtaz Mahal) died while ...
Immortal Words
Woody Allen was once asked whether he liked the idea of living on on the silver ...
Inaugural Yapper
Following his election in 1841, President William Henry Harrison delivered the l...
Deadly Negotiator?
James McNeill Whistler was once visited in his Paris studio by an American milli...
General Custer: Famous Last...
During the Civil War, George Armstrong Custer was famed for his good luck. Thoug...
Smoking Kills
Brooke Shields, a noted anti-smoking advocate, once made a curious public servic...
Tailspin
New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, whom Ted Dawson once compared to Gen...
Thomas Hardy: Hardy's Heart
"When Thomas Hardy died in 1928, his will directed that he be buried unostentati...
Bob Alper: Eulogy
"I was leaving a funeral home," Rabbi Bob Alper once recalled, "when a man appro...
Famuos Lsat Wrods
Commissioned to negotiate a loan that would enable Louis XVI to escape at the ou...
Semmelweis
While working at Vienna's general hospital, Ignaz Semmelweis, having discovered ...
Dead Heat
As his end approached, Lord Norbury sent his valet to deliver a facetious messag...
Short Leash?
King Edward VII did not let his marriage to Alexandra interfere with pleasure - ...
Garfield's Death (long)
Just two hundred days into his presidency, James Garfield was shot by a lawyer n...
Richmond
Though suffering from a terrible headache one day, Bret Harte attended a lecture...
Noteworthy Precaution?
Famed fairytale author Hans Christian Andersen was hopelessly neurotic. Among ma...
Doppelganger?
"By the time he was 40, [legendary war photographer] Robert Capa had a bad back ...
Famous Last Words
One day toward the end of his life, Wilson Mizner awoke from a coma and found a ...
Actors' Studio
John Leguizamo was accepted into Lee Strasberg's actors' studio in 1982, and stu...
Forgiveness
Spanish prime minister Ramon Maria Narvaez was visited on his deathbed by a prie...
Last Wishes
"I'm proud to say that my mother was from the Bronx," director Mark Lewis once r...
Touche
Like the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001, the Kennedy assassination in...
Exceptional Visitor
While recovering from a serious illness one year, Phillips Brooks ordered that n...
Philanthropist
One day Lord Norbury was asked to contribute to a fund for the funeral an impove...
False Alarm
On the day before Labouchere's death, A. L. Thorold (his nephew and biographer) ...
Stage Fright
"Maria Jeritza and Enrico Caruso once appeared together in a production of the o...
Zeuxis: Laughably Bad
One day in 397 BC, Zeuxis completed a portrait of an old woman and found his bru...
Howard Hughes: Dead Prick?
Toward the end of his life, Howard Hughes bought up much of Las Vegas, where he ...
Kublai Khan's Carpet
According to a common tradition, royal blood should never be spilled on the grou...
Jefferson Lives
John Adams, ever the patriot, died on July 4th, 1826 - the 50th anniversary of t...
Marketing Macabre
The B-movie director/producer William Castle was famed for his over-the-top prom...
Shaggadelic Notion?
"In the 1930s Winston Churchill's critics called him rash, impetuous, tactless, ...
Uncle Billy
"My uncle Billy, an undertaker's assistant, came into a pub, ready to stand drin...
Beyonce Knowles: Second Per...
In 2003 Destiny's Child vocalist Beyonce Knowles celebrated the Fourth of July i...
Undertaker's Assistant
"Preparing a baldheaded body for its coffin, Uncle Billy [an undertaker's assist...
Heath's Last Words
Shortly before his execution, the notorious British murderer Neville Heath was o...
Afterlife?
The legendary lawman Wyatt Earp, who saw his brother Morgan through his final mo...
De Falla
Manuel de Falla was notoriously lax about answering correspondence and a large p...
Devil of an Austrian
John Peard first met the legendary Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi on the fie...
Urgent Telegram
While working in the Foreign Office Paul Gore-Booth once received an urgent tele...
Isaac Bickerstaff
"In 1707 Jonathan Swift decided to laugh the fraudulent John Partridge [the noto...
Questions for God
"When I meet God," the physicist Werner Heisenberg declared from his deathbed, "...
Zeta Hypothesis
The great mathematician G. H. Hardy was once invited to deliver the keynote addr...
Consecrated Ground
On February 17, 1673, Moliere, though desperately ill, insisted on perfoming in ...
Pliny the Curious
The great Roman scholar Pliny the Elder was in charge of the Roman home fleet, s...
St. Lawrence's Last Words
In 258 AD, for his refusal to surrender the church's treasures to the Emperor Va...
Alderman or Lady Cooper
London Alderman Sir William Cooper once attended a banquet hosted by the London ...
Daniel Webster: Harrison's ...
In 1841, President-elect William Henry Harrison wrote an inaugural address (larg...
Verwoerd Assassination
South African prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd was assassinated in Cape Town in 1...
Werner Herzog: One-Man March
In 1974, German director Werner Herzog hatched a plan to prevent a close friend ...
Vidal & Capote
Gore Vidal was no great fan of Truman Capote's work. "A great zircon," he once d...
Orrin Hatch & Capital Punis...
On May 16, 1988, Senator Orrin Hatch reaffirmed his support for the death penalt...
Les Dawson's Mother-in-Law
Like many men, Les Dawson did not see eye to eye with his mother-in-law. "The wi...
Lionel Johnson: Alcohol Kills
In 1902, the English critic and poet Lionel Johnson died in a bar. The cause of ...
Sharon Stone: Heart of Stone?
During the production of Deadly Blessing (1981), Wes Craven asked Sharon ...
Dr. Pepper Curse
"It seems everybody who's done one of Dr. Pepper's 'Be You' ads has run into maj...
Slipknot: Number 6
The unhinged destructo-metal band Slipknot - whose members wore jumpsuit "unifor...
Joe Eszterhas & Michael Ovitz
One day in 1989, star screenwriter Joe Eszterhas told Creative Artists Agency (C...
Gene Simmons: Kiss Kasket
In 2001, KISS unveiled the newest addition to a range of products which already ...
Pablo Escobar: Drug Runner
After Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar escaped from a minimal security priso...
Duke of Monmouth: Portrait
"The Duke of Monmouth was beheaded in 1685 in one of history's messiest executio...
Dale Earnhardt: HANS Device
Though many racing experts touted the HANS (head and neck safety) helmet-restrai...
Ralph Neves
"On May 8, 1936, [jockey Ralph Neves] was thrown from his horse during a race at...
Jean Harlow: Death Becomes Her
"The 26-year-old Jean Harlow, 'Hollywood's original platinum blonde,' died of ki...
Mickey Spillane: Ex-Wife
While interviewing Mickey Spillane for a story one day, Vanity Fair's Cli...
Elizabeth Taylor: Scandalous
Thirteen months after his marriage to Elizabeth Taylor, producer Mike Todd died ...
Jamie Foxx: Stupidest Thing
Jamie Foxx was once asked to recall the stupidest thing he had ever done. "I did...
Death by Laughter
A number of people have literally laughed themselves to death. In 1599, for inst...
Curnonsky: Splat
"Curnonsky" (the pen-name of Maurice Edmond Sailland) was France's most celebrat...
Michael O'Donoghue: Elvis i...
"I've seen this attributed to John Lennon," director John Landis once recalled, ...
Dwight Eisenhower: Verbal B...
Dwight Eisenhower was not immune to verbal bloopers. While serving during the Se...
Bono: Famous Last Words
"Bono's not great at the old driving," U2's Larry Mullen Jr once revealed. "It's...
Kevin Smith: Death Threat
Kevin Smith's irreverent religious comedy Dogma (a film featuring Chris R...
Andy Warhol: Worthless Bohe...
One summer day in 1968, Andy Warhol was shot in the stomach by a deranged femini...
Dave Eggers: Adam Rich Rumor
As a joke, Dave Eggers and Adam Rich (famed for his role as Nicholas Bradford on...
Pope Benedict: Prayer of Gr...
"It is said that Pope Benedict XIV had a good sense of humour and this lasted un...
Rahm Emanuel: Congress on t...
During one of his regular "Congress on the Corner" sessions, Rahm Emanuel handed...
Merv Griffin: Swimming Pool
"I was on 'The Merv Griffin Show'," Jay Leno once recalled, "and it took eight w...
Patrick Cargill: Funnel
"In the early Seventies, I was wandering along Shaftesbury Avenue when a man abo...
Kate Moses: Baking with Sylvia
Shortly after publishing Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath, Kate Moses p...
Woodrow Wilson & Albert Fall
President Woodrow Wilson's valiant battle for the League of Nations ruined his h...
Donald Trump: Friar's Club ...
On October 15, 2004, shortly before his wedding to model Melania Knauss, Donald ...
Dominic Dunne & Jane Stanto...
In April 2005, Dominic Dunne was sent the bound galleys of Jane Stanton Hitchcoc...
Barry Sonnenfeld: Flight Crew
Barry Sonnenfeld: "Having known most of my life that I was destined to die in a ...
Ed Headrick: Spinning in hi...
When Ed Headrick, the inventor of the frisbee, died in August, 2002, his family ...
Roses (long)
While working on the steamboat Pennsylvania in 1858, Mark Twain got into a fight...
Abraham Lincoln: Strange Co...
On his way home from Harvard one day, Abraham Lincoln's son, Robert, fell off th...
Bognor Regis
One day in 1936, George V's doctor assured him that, notwithstanding his unfortu...
White Heat?
In 1629, the Mogul emperor Shah Jahan's favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, died while ...
Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
After the six stars of "Friends" successfully banded together (in 1998) to reneg...
Deathbed Confession
While lying on his deathbed one day in 1635, Vega asked an attendant how much ti...
John Ashcroft & Mel Carnaha...
In November 2000, former Missouri governor John Ashcroft lost his bid for reelec...
Sly Fox
George Selwyn once called upon his old rival, the dying Henry Fox (Lord Holland)...
Pompadour Moment
As she lay on her deathbed, Madame de Pompadour, summoning all of her remaining ...
Star Turns?
Broadcasting from the WOR television booth at Shea Stadium one day, Ralph Kiner ...
Epitaph
Vanity Fair magazine once asked George S. Kaufman to suggest his own epit...
Age Thing
One day during an appearance on British television in 2002, Joan Collins was ask...
JFK: Dallas Loves You
On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey O...
Mel Blanc: Blanc Slate
Mel Blanc ("The Man of a Thousand Voices") was famed for his roles as Bugs Bunny...
Deathbed Confessor
One day toward the end of his life, Malherbe, a poet famed for his obsession wit...
George & Gracie
George Burns, who paid regular visits to Gracie Allen's grave following her deat...
Comic Remark
On his deathbed, Edmund Gwenn was visited by his friend and fellow actor Jack Le...
Contrarian
After suffering a stroke in 1900, Henrik Ibsen was obliged to abandon his writin...
Maybe Not...
What role was James Dean next scheduled to play when he died in 1955? Boxer Rock...
Precious Irony
One day during his tenure as mayor of New York, Ed Koch sought to clarify his po...
Victorian Standards
As Prince, Edward's love affairs and extravagant lifestyle often offended his mo...
Dust to Dust
Syndicated columnist and author Erma Bombeck once requested that her gravestone ...
Equal En-Tao-Ments?
When Juang-Zu's disciples elected to give their master an elaborate burial, the ...
V-Ball?
While George V, Queen Elizabeth's grandfather, lay comatose on his deathbed, the...
Pitter-Patter Chit-Chatter
Hans Christian Andersen once commissioned a musician to compose his funeral marc...
Waiting, Are They?
While examining Ethan Allen on his deathbed, the frontiersman's doctor was led t...
Black Humor
Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black was once required to attend the funeral of a di...
Patience
W. H. Auden, finding T. S. Eliot engrossed in a game of patience, expressed surp...
True Love
On the morning after Jack Benny's death, his widow, Mary, received a single long...
Thomas Hart Benton: Ashes t...
One day Thomas Hart Benton was summoned from Congress and informed that his Wash...
Twain Dead?
When Mark Twain was in London, a rumor concerning his death reached the editor o...
Halley's Comet
Mark Twain's birth in November 1835 was heralded by the return of Halley's comet...
Zero Tolerance?
At Dorothy Parker's funeral service, the actor Zero Mostel explained that she ha...
Titanic Chivalry
Among the well-heeled passengers aboard the ill-fated Titanic was the ind...
Wonderful Obituary
One day shortly before his death, Sir Malcolm Sargent was visited in his nursing...
Comte on Comte
Auguste Comte's pioneering studies of social structures and their evolution form...
Diophantine Riddle
Such was his love of problem-solving that the Greek mathematician Diophantus lef...
Jim Murray: Sports Writer
In 1990, Los Angeles Times sports writer Jim Murray was awarded the Pulit...
Imperial Conspiracy
"Shi Huangdi died [in 210 BC] while on a journey to seek the elixir of life. Two...
Shakespeare's Dust
William Shakespeare left a fittingly poetic epitaph: "Good frend for Jesus sake ...
Young Thomas Arne
Thomas Arne's father, an upholsterer and undertaker, expected his son to become ...
Channeling Timmy
Phil Jackson was famed for his application of meditation and other spiritual pra...
Well-Kept Secret
The famed magician Lafayette insisted that the pass door - the small door leadin...
House of Bollocks
"Jack Jones, the Labour member for Silvertown always has something to say, and s...
Florence Nightingale: Hypoc...
Florence Nightingale's tireless battle against death and disease during the Crim...
Stuart Burger?
"Dr. Stuart M. Berger, an author of the best-selling diet and health books who c...
Garry Shandling's Life
"I had a car accident when I was twenty-seven in which I was nearly killed," Gar...
Six-Million-Dollar Man?
Shortly after his resignation from the presidency Richard Nixon invited the dyna...
Famous Last Words
When filming wrapped on Giant, James Dean and a stuntman jumped into his ...
Ultime Parole Famose?
In 1866, Luisa Blondel learned that the Marchese d'Azeglio - with whom she had b...
Chesterfield's Carriage Ride
In the last weeks of his life, Lord Chesterfield became so infirm that his carri...
Victoria in Heaven
As Victoria lay dying, a member of the royal household wondered aloud whether th...
Rock Diver
F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda both suffered from self-destructive urges...
Blow-Out
The Greek orator and satirist Lucian once described an ill-fated debut: "Harmoni...
Land Across the Sea
"Waking up in his hospital bed after his car accident Michael Foot heard the mel...
Holy Relics
"Philip II of Spain, husband of Mary Tudor and begetter of the Armada, owned 7,0...
Gipp's Ghost
Shortly before he died of pneumonia at the height of his career (in December 192...
Ginsberg Goodbye
At the Edinburgh Literary Festival in 2001, author Ken Kesey revealed a curious ...
Deathbed Skeptic
On his deathbed, Voltaire (a skeptic at best) was visited by a priest to hear hi...
Talleyrand's Death
"Talleyrand was, by any standard, a miserable character. He was a remarkably cap...
Singular
Heinrich Heine died in poverty in a squalid Parisian garret, utterly deserted by...
Hay Fever
Dr. Holmes, a long time asthma-sufferer, was once asked how hay fever could be c...
The Golden Floor
On his deathbed, A. E. Housman's kindly doctor related the following story to th...
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Ard...
In later life, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle became an ardent spiritualist and frequent...
Knave Campbell?
Neve Campbell once proposed a novel way of ending the hit television series ...
Turandot
Turandot debuted seventeen months after Pucini's death (in 1924). Though ...
Cool Under Pressure
Jean Bailly, a member of the French Academy of Sciences, became the first mayor ...
Spartacus's Death
In 73 BC, the famed Thracian gladiator Spartacus led a slave revolt in Italy. Af...
Botha
In August, 2002, rumours began spreading around the South African parliament tha...
50-50
One Friday in 1979, Keith Richards blew into town and invited
John Belushi to ...
Survivor
In September 2000, San Francisco Chronicle reporter Jon Carroll had lunch...
Land of the Living
One day while the great Puritan leader John Owen was lying on his deathbed, his ...
Heeeeere's Johnny
"Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson was once asked to suggest his own epitaph. Car...
Summer of '69 (long)
In the summer of '69, future Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler and his "William Pr...
Arthur Phillip: Curious Dis...
Four years after establishing a penal colony in Australia (in 1787), Captain Art...
Yellow Fever
In 1900, Dr. Jesse William Lazear, a member of the Yellow Fever Commission in Cu...
Pope's Last Words
Though lying on his deathbed, Alexander Pope was assured by his doctor one day t...
One-Take Woody
The director "One-Take Woody" Van Dyke was famed for his ability to get a film -...
Roosevelt's Deadline
While sitting for a portrait one day, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announ...
Domino
One day not long before his death, an ailing Rabelais donned a domino (a cloak a...
Rabelais' Will
Francios Rabelais is said to have made the following will: "I owe much. I posses...
Sir Walter Raleigh's Execution
Sir Walter Raleigh's vituperative verbal attacks on Spain were silenced by James...
Laconic Threats
Late in his short life, Alexander the Great, having conquered much of the known ...
Perfect Hostess (long)
"The Thalbergs and the Fairbankses were next-door neighbors in Santa Monica and ...
La Gloire?
In September 1927, Isadora Duncan stepped into a brand-new Bugatti racing car, j...
Barrymore's Body (long)
"The day John Barrymore died director Raoul Walsh was at Errol Flynn's house dri...
Vice-Consul Puffkins
"The most curious visitor I ever had at the Foreign Office," J. D. Gregory once ...
Death of General Stonewall ...
"If it weren't for Major John Barry, you might be whistling Dixie instead of sal...
Louis XV: Ace of Spades
Louis XV was playing cards with a number of courtiers one day when a certain M. ...
Loud Suit
"There is a story of Dylan Thomas's friend in the funeral parlour, who looked do...
Thoreau's Last Words
Toward the end of his life Henry David Thoreau was urged to make his peace with ...
Saint Swithun
Swithun, a bishop of Winchester who died in 862, was famed for his great modesty...
Tommm...
During the production of Minority Report, rumors circulated in the tabloi...
C in C
Throughout World War II, the New York Times printed lists of U.S. armed f...
Hairy Situation
After Mary was beheaded on February 8th, 1587, her executioner bent over to retr...
Vitelleschi
"I am lucky to be alive," Stella Vitelleschi once remarked. "Before I was a year...
Kappfjell? (long)
Having jumped from several mountains and buildings around the world, BASE jumper...
Est! Est! Est!
"In the year 1110 Bishop Fugger set out from his German diocese for Rome to atte...
Jolie Morbid?
Angelina Jolie once complained about her reputation for being dark, disturbed, a...
10,000 Maniac?
Mir Bahboob Ali Khan died the richest prince in India in 1911 - having never wor...
Pierre Belon
Despite being warned of the danger to Christians, the French naturalist Pierre B...
Cheer Up, Children
"Cheer up, children," Franz Haydn declared from his deathbed one day. ...
For Whom the Bell Tolls
In 1961, Ernest Hemingway blew his head off with a double-barreled 12-gauge Engl...
Cummings and Goings
The eccentric and reclusive poet Djuna Barnes lived for many years in a tiny Gre...
One-Track Barnum
Barnum's business acumen did not desert him on his deathbed. His last words? "Ho...
Blanket Statement
In 2000, "Peanuts" creator Charles M. Schulz died, almost poetically, as his las...
Samuel Johnson: Lapidary In...
Someone once remarked upon the apparent discrepancy between an epitaph carved on...
RIP SOB?
Shortly after his death, Dorothy Parker visited F. Scott Fitzgerald's body in a ...
Smoker's Paradise
Mark Twain, an avid smoker, had a peculiar set of priorities. "If I cannot smoke...
Ham
"Among the friends who stood with Dottie [Dorothy Parker] on those California st...
Light Humor
"Don't turn down the light," O. Henry is reputed to have uttered just before his...
Mayer & Thalberg
In 1936, Louis B. Mayer and several of his MGM executives attended the funeral o...
Caesar
Julius Caesar was dining with friends one evening when the conversation turned t...
Blessing in Disguise?
One day, as the famously kind Abbe Mugnier was administering the last sacrament ...
Holy Logic?
The emperor Menelik took literally Francis Bacon's maxim that "some books are to...
Modest Degas
On his deathbed, Edgar Degas called his friend Jean-Louis Forain to his side to ...
Te Deum
The baton used by seventeenth-century conductors was much longer and heavier tha...
Death & Taxes
Some time after producing The Faithful Shepherdess by John Fletcher (1579...
Bloody Waste
George Washington died in 1799 after losing about two and a half litres of blood...
Classic Capone
The funeral of famed Chicago gangster Dion "Deany" O'Banion in 1926 was attended...
Deathbed Roulette?
On his deathbed, the Renaissance painter Pietro Perugino refused to send for a p...
Remote Viewing
Following Princess Diana's tragic death in 1997, psychic 'remote viewers' receiv...
Bat-Moron
"In 1911, a suburban tailor named Teichelt, who had invented a bat-wing cape tha...
Senecan Logic
Though his influence on the maniacal Nero grew weaker as time passed, Seneca end...
Anthrax: Band or Disease?
The terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001 were quickly followed by an 'anthra...
Serious Issues?
Boxer Alan Minter once found himself embroiled in a debate over the dangers of h...
I'm Casey Kasem?
Notwithstanding his wholesome image, radio host Casey Kasem occasionally lost hi...
Lunch Date
Former professional golfer Doug Sanders often had difficulty with his personal f...
Trice
In October 1923, a young black Iowa State football player named Jack Trice died ...
Beethoven's Last Words
Ludwig van Beethoven was completely deaf during the last eight years of his life...
Brotherly Love?
Though Leo Tolstoy had once rejected a spiritual life for one of debauchery, he ...
George Wyle: Rest in Peace
In May 2003, Conan O'Brien was dismayed to learn of the passage of George Wyle, ...
George Washington: Founding...
"As a general, [George Washington] chased more hoop skirts than Wilt Chamberlain...
Decatur's Duel
In 1820, the great U.S. naval hero Stephen Decatur was challenged to a duel by a...
Oxford Indifference
The Venerable Dr. Martin Routh was noted - as would befit the president of an Ox...
Lemierre and de Belloy
In the last year of his life, the invalid Voltaire was often visited by admirers...
High Stakes
Thomas Cranmer, having supported Henry VIII in his divorce from Catherine of Ara...
Workaholic?
The noted surgeon Joseph Green endeavored, even on his deathbed, to treat himsel...
Saroyan
Shortly before his death in 1986, American writer William Saroyan called the Ass...
Tough Momma
During the dictatorship of Juan Peron, Jorge Luis Borges refused to hang the tyr...
Well Done
"I was taking my daughter Jan, age six, through the local graveyard," 'Antiques ...
Adolf Hitler: Good Riddance
In April 1945, Adolf Hitler committed suicide inside his bunker. "The smaller fr...
Gandhi and Sex
Mahatma Gandhi, famed for his eccentric theories of vegetarianism, bowel movemen...
Thunderclap
Toward the end of his life, Beethoven fell into a coma. One evening, as a storm ...
French Academy
One day, at the behest of a friend, Tristan Bernard submitted a hastily-assemble...
Number Nine
John Lennon (born, like his son Sean, on October 9th), became pre-occupied with ...
Summons
When Ferdinand rejected an appeal by two prisoners, Peter and John de Carvajal, ...
Michael Jackson: Hollywood ...
According to Vanity Fair magazine, Michael Jackson visited Switzerland in...
Elvis Presley: Found Religion?
On August 16, 1977, Elvis Presley was found dead at Graceland, his legendary hom...
Tortured Poet
"I was complaining about some Sunday paper critic who used phrases like 'death-w...
Famous Last Words
"...when sitting in the car waiting for my sister, who was buying apples in an o...
Marx's Last Words
As he neared the end, Karl Marx was asked by his housekeeper whether he had any ...
Bon Vivant
In 1885, the famed bon vivant Monckton Milnes passed away at the age of 76. "My ...
Mum's the Word
The legendary gangster Arnold Rothstein upheld the Mob's code of secrecy to the ...
Assassination Attempt
One day in August 1962, the car in which Charles de Gaulle and his wife were tra...
Rubinstein's Will
"So sorry to be late," Arthur Rubinstein remarked upon arriving at a restaurant ...
Lovely Sensation
"I tried to commit suicide by gas," Nancy Mitford once reported. "It is a lovely...
Interview
In 1920, after falling seriously ill in China, Bertrand Russell elected to retur...
Pitt's Last Words
William Pitt died in office in 1806, overcome by the strain of work and dejected...
Capital Punishment
In 1950, a witness named John Christie testified that John Evans had killed his ...
Optimal Death
Ashley Montagu once found himself embroiled in a discussion of the optimal death...
War Hero
Legendary general George S. Patton gave short shrift to the romantic notion of d...
Trend Connections
Mick Jagger once received an unusual job offer from an Australian company called...
Oops
Milo, six time wrestling champion at the ancient Olympic games, was possessed of...
Religious Affiliation
While attending to John Field during his final hours, several of the musician's ...
Hsi and Ho
The first report of a solar eclipse appeared in Chinese records. The eclipse cam...
Last Cartoon
The legendary Times cartoonist Al Hirschfeld died on January 20th, 2003. ...
Shop At Home
The sports card dealer and NWA Wrestling announcer Don West, famed for his role ...
Victor Feuger's Final Meal
Shortly before his execution for kidnapping and murder, Victor Feuger requested ...
Providence
When his ship (Hampshire) struck a mine and sank shortly after leaving Sc...
Surprise Party?
On her deathbed, Lady Astor momentarily awoke to find herself surrounded by her ...
Sherwood Anderson: Cocktail...
In 1941, Sherwood Anderson, a heavy drinker, died aboard an ocean liner bound fo...
Lardner & Trumbo II
The famed screenwriter Dalton Trumbo was a complicated and sometimes difficult m...
Neighbors
"Cher has bought a plot in a Paris cemetery close to the grave of Edith Piaf," '...
Attila's Death
By 450 AD, Attila the Hun, famed for his brutality, had conquered all of Asia - ...
Kim Il Sung Institute
"When a leader is held to be divine, his sudden death poses practical problems, ...
Houdini's Death
Harry Houdini claimed to be able to absorb any punch to his abdomen, no matter h...
Telephone Game
James Agate's memorial service was arranged by two old friends, one of whom call...
Telephone Message
One day at Kedleston, Lord Curzon was summoned by his butler to the telephone. H...
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas literally drank himself to death. His last words? ...
Costello's Last Words
Lou Costello liked his food. The famous comedian's final words before dying of a...
Classic Yogi
Yogi Berra was famed for his verbal bloopers. "Always go to other people's funer...
Titanic Remembrance
After winning the Oscar for Titanic, director James "King of the World" C...
Caligula's Last Words
Caligula, famed for his ruthlessness, extravagance, and megalomania, was finally...
Gone in 60 Seconds
The death of Howard Hughes, who spent the last 15 years of his life as a reclusi...
Delicieux
Although French prime minister Georges Clemenceau was in his seventies during Wo...
Little Bastard
"The thing about these cars is that they're fail-safe," James Dean once declared...
Time of Death (long)
"Once we [the famed physicist Richard Feynman and Al Seckel] were talking about ...
Elegy
"It is said, with what truth I know not, that Liszt got Verdi to give him a lett...
Borodin's Finale
One day Alexander Borodin began playing the piano in a completely novel style. "...
Gluck's Last Judgment
Near the end of his life, Christoph Gluck was asked by Salieri whether a bass or...
No More Lubitsch
The talented German director Ernst Lubitsch was not without his critics. He died...
Switch
Near the end of his days, Humphrey Bogart reflected upon his life and declared t...
Kunitz's Death (long)
After giving a talk at New York University on the poetry of the Holocaust in Mar...
Killer Joke?
Abbott and Costello, the famous comedy duo, once took out a curious insurance po...
Wily De Mille
In one of the most important scenes in Cecil B. De Mille 's Biblical epic ...
Stevens' Last Words
One day during his final illness, Thaddeus Stevens was visited by a gentleman w...
Nostradamus & Henry II
Despite their patent ambiguity, the quatrains of the famous prophet Nostradamus ...
Morel's Wife
While engaged in a translation of Libanius one day, the French scholar Federic M...
Marquand & the Reaper
After suffering his first heart attack, John Marquand faced his fate with surpri...
Janet Leigh: Pearly Gates
Janet Leigh, who was famously clumsy, wrote her own epitaph. "I hope," it reads,...
Clift's Last Words
Montgomery Clift's last words reportedly came in response to a question. Clift w...
Lentze's Last Wish
"I would like to ask whether it would be possible to have an inflated sex doll l...
Diego Rivera Diet
According to his autobiography, the painter Diego Rivera once conducted an exper...
Charles Millar: Stork Race
Canadian lawyer Charles Millar's will consisted mainly of practical jokes. He wi...
Uncle Saddam
After a Los Angeles screening of Joel Soler's Uncle Saddam - a oddly humo...
Curious Herbert Spencer
The sociologist and economist Herbert Spencer was famed for his eccentricity. Am...
Stubborn Brando
In March 2003, 78-year-old Marlon Brando (aka the "Godfather of Bellies") was sa...
Sweet Kiss: RIP
"In February 1923, thirty-five-year-old horse trainer and wanna-be jockey Frank ...
Steven Drozd Epitaph
The Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd was once asked to suggest his own epitaph. His re...
Kosuke Tsumura: Final Home
At the turn of the millennium, Japanese designer Kosuke Tsumura unveiled a new a...
Shelby Lynne: Mother
Following the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Shelby Lynne performed the John Lennon ...
Jonathan Melvoin: Red Rum
One day in late 1996, Smashing Pumpkins keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin died of a d...
Ed Kelly: Rest in Peace
"Ed Kelly, the man who introduced America to Cool Whip, died at the age of 86," ...
Morris the Cat
Before he was rescued, Morris the cat was 20 minutes away from execution in a su...
Jim Morrison: The End
In 1970, shortly after the deaths of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, Doors frontm...
Jamie Foxx: Little Bitty-As...
"I flew in one fo these little bitty-ass planes," Jamie Foxx once recalled. The ...
Little Scavenger
"I was twelve when war [World War II] broke out," Jimmy Savile later recalled. "...
Allan Pinkerton: Deadly Risk
Allan Pinkerton, the founder of the detective agency which bears his name, faced...
Count Stenbock: Temper Tantrum
In a drunken rage, Count Eric Magnus Andreas Harry Stenbock once attacked a frie...
Dear Abby: Life After Death
Abigail Van Buren ("Dear Abby") received many oddball questions from troubled re...
Bridget Fonda: Blam
As a child, Peter Fonda was horrified after seeing Chad Hannah - in which...
Paul McCartney: Mourning Jo...
Though they had once been very close, fellow Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCart...
L. Marsland Gander: Obituary
"L. Marsland Gander, the Daily Telegraph's veteran TV critic, wrote his o...
Mick Taylor: Black and Blue?
Days before the Rolling Stones were scheduled to begin recording ...
Armand Hammer: Occidental A...
"After taking the company public, Armand Hammer, the founder of Occidental Petro...
Dr. James Barry
James Barry, a British army surgeon famed for his pioneering sanitary reforms, e...
Marilyn Monroe: Misfit
In 1960, Clark Gable was offered the lead role in The Misfits. Though fri...
Lentze's Last Wish
In March 2004, German artist Karl-Friedrich Lentze, inspired by an ailing Dutch ...
Martin van Butchell: Preser...
"Martin van Butchell was an English eccentric. In his marriage contract there wa...
William Haines: Epitaph
William Haines once proposed his own epitaph: "Here's something I want to get of...
Thomas Ottway: On a Roll?
"A poor man, Thomas Ottway had gone days without food and was driven by hunger t...
Last American Bonaparte
One day in 1945, 67-year-old Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, the last American Bonapa...
Rodolpho Fierro: Greed
"While marching toward Sonora with Pancho Villa's troops, [Mexican revolutionary...
Langley Collyer: Booby Trap
"[Eccentric collector and recluse] Langley Collyer was crushed to death in his o...
George Clooney: The Boys
"George Clooney [has] a legendary loyalty to his friends... And their bonding ex...
Robert Mitchum: Welcome to ...
In 1942, Robert Mitchum appeared in his first feature film, Border Patrol...
Robert Mitchum: Betty Ford ...
In 1984, Robert Mitchum's family persuaded him to check into the Betty Ford Clin...
Joy Adamson: Family Dysfunc...
Many biographers have traced Joy Adamson's fraught relationships to her difficul...
David Hume: Deathbed Atheist
"[James] Boswell hoped that [skeptical philosopher David Hume] would keep his at...
Ian McKellen: Lord of the Web
After setting up a website (ianmckellen.com), Ian McKellen began assidously cata...
Giuseppe 'Joe the Boss' Mas...
"From 1920 to 1931, Giuseppe 'Joe the Boss' Masseria was top Mafia don in New Yo...
Louis XIV: Hope Diamond Curse?
Evidence that the Hope Diamond is actually cursed is scanty at best. ...
Autobiography of Audrey Hep...
One day when she was very young, Audrey Hepburn developed a severe cough. To her...
William Ralph Inge: Praying...
For many years, William Ralph Inge was a regular contributor to the ...
Joe Trippi: Father & Son (l...
"In his freshman year [veteran campaign manager Joe Trippi] became the campus ag...
Jim Morrison: Fateful Predi...
"One night in London, as Jim [Morrison] and Ronay [Alain Ronay, a friend from UC...
Zachary Taylor: Cause of Death
Zachary Taylor died in 1850, at the age of 66. The cause of death? An overdose -...
Schrodinger's Cat
"Schrodinger's cat is a famous illustration of the principle in quantum theory o...
William Lever: Last Gasp
"William Lever [founder of Lever Brothers] took a cold bath most mornings and sl...
Roger Daltrey: Growing Old
"Why can't rock music be about growing old?" 61-year-old rocker Roger Daltrey wo...
Rodney Dangerfield: Inpatient
In August 2004, Rodney Dangerfield had heart valve replacement surgery. "If thin...
David Letterman: Oscar Host
In 1995, David Letterman hosted the Academy Awards. He did not host again...
Mal Evans: Motel Shooting
In 1976, former Beatles road manager Mal Evans was accidentally shot and killed ...
Steve Irwin: Keep Rolling
Famed crocodile hunter Steve Irwin was once asked about his number one rule to h...
Gustav Mahler: Modest Mistake
"Gustav Mahler will not play with the Stockton Symphony this season, as reported...
Jim Belushi: Wierdest Dream
"I had the wierdest dream," Jim Belushi once recalled. "In the dream, they told ...
Bill Murray: Memorial Ceremony
After the death of "Saturday Night Live" producer Audrey Dickman on May 21, 2002...
Lorne Michaels: Handling Be...
If "Saturday Night Live" producer Lorne Michaels loved John Belishi's comic geni...
Patricia Arquette: Red-Tail...
Patricia Arquette: "When my mom died, I went for a walk with this one woman and ...
Steve Irwin: Snake Bite
Steve "the Crocodile Hunter" Irwin once saw an Indian man get bit on the toe by ...
Edward Payson Weston: Pedes...
Edward Payson Weston is often called the father of modern pedestrianism (walking...
Young Allison DuBois
When she was six years old, Allison DuBois attended her great-grandfather's fune...
Boy George: Ironic & Glamorous
In 1999, '80s cross-dressing icon Boy George was treated for shock and severe br...
Jay Leno: The Telegram
Jay Leno: "Having a brother in Vietnam was, of course, a very frightening experi...
Arthur Lucan: Arthur Has Died
During a play in 1954, Arthur Lucan suddenly died on stage. The Management calle...
Spoken from the Heart
"'Twas Sir Everard Digby's ill fate to suffer in the Powder plott [the plot to b...
Francis Bacon: Cool Experim...
In March 1626, as Francis Bacon (father of the "experimental method") was passin...
Anne Boleyn: Getting Ahead
On May 19, 1533, Henry VIII, desperate for a male heir, had Anne Boleyn accused ...
Egon Friedell's Famous Last...
Following the Nazi annexation of Austria, the famed Viennese author, critic, and...
Lenny Bruce: Last Request
"Lenny Bruce was the original obscene comedian. Darling of the pseudo-intelligen...
Schwarzenberg
Schwarzenberg was once visited by a doctor who warned him that continued failure...
Lucknow?
In 2002, hundreds of Captain Frederick Wale's fans visited him in India, often b...
Toast to Courage
During the American Revolutionary War, Armand Lauzun accompanied Rochambeau to A...
Menotti's Will
"I have always felt that a man often betrays his friendships in his will," Gian-...
Palabras Pasadas?
Remarkably, General Franco persisted in surviving much longer than even his supp...
Generous Intention
In 1805, Haydn became so ill that reports of his death began to circulate in Par...
Great Escape?
Among the pallbearers at Harry Houdini's funeral were the noted Broadway produce...
Understatement?
When the Marchese d'Azeglio's second marriage (to Luisa Blondel) proved frought,...
Venus of Urbino
Although his wife was unattractive and growing old, The Duke of Urbino agreed to...
Minor Hitch
Melanie Griffith was once given an unusual gift by Alfred Hitchcock: A minature ...
Blue Blooded?
One day while he was trying to stop his gardener's pet monkey from attacking his...
Revolutionary Thought
Despite their outspoken protests against royal corruption and inefficiency, Jean...
Perfect Irony
JFK was once asked how, if given the choice, he would prefer to die. "You never ...
Nelson Crashes
Ricky Nelson died in 1985 when the plane in which he was flying crashed. What ca...
Thales & Solon
While visiting Thales at his home in Miletus one day, the great Athenian law-giv...
Higher
In 1910, airshow promoters in Milan, Italy, offered a large prize to the first f...
King Kodoko: Tyrant King
"King Kodoko of the Congo managed to hang on to his crown for three years after ...
Bruce Lee Curse
The death of martial-arts film icon Bruce Lee in 1973 (of an apparent brain hemm...
Out With a Bang
The son of a bookie, Peter O'Toole was in many ways a stereotypical self-desrtuc...
Fellerocked?
Nelson Rockefeller reportedly died in the company of his mistress - while they w...
Long Goodbye
When Pedro I became King of Portugal in the 14th century, he had his dead mistre...
Fetterman (long)
"In November, 1866, Captain William J. Fetterman reported in to the 18th U.S. In...
Ethan Allen's Wife
When Ethan Allen's notoriously ill-tempered first wife passed away, a local man ...
Guevara's Death
After serving in various high-level government positions in Cuba, Che Guevara be...
Famous Last Words
On November 2nd, 1961, Thurber - having contracted pneumonia while recovering fr...
Sobhuza
One day King Sobhuza (of Swaziland) called a meeting of his ministers to discuss...
Poems
In 1862, just two years after their marriage, Rossetti's lovely wife, Elizabeth ...
Kylie Minogue & Michael Hut...
"Everything I know about sex, I learned from Michael," Kylie Minogue once recall...
Frederick William's Final W...
On his deathbed, the Prussian king Frederick William was visited by a priest. En...
Busy Woman
As Goethe's mother lay on her deathbed, a servant girl arrived with an invitatio...
Shajar-al-Durr
When the Egyptian Sultan died during the siege of Cairo, his wife, Shajar-al-Dur...
Edward Thomas
"On the morning of Easter Monday, 1917, Edward Thomas volunteered to occupy a fo...
Chopin's Death
"A gentleman of undoubted musical abilities... played very well and was extremel...
Immortal Words
In 1830, Goethe's disolute son, August, the source of considerable grief, died i...
Classic Keillor
"They say such nice things about people at their funerals," Garrison Keillor onc...
Posthumorous
A singer once asked Brahms to give her some of his least-known songs for a forth...
Nuclear Reaction?
On August 6, 1945, when the first nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, 282,000...
For Whom the Bell Tolls
After he he taken holy orders and repudiated his former worldly life, John Donne...
Dead Awful
One evening the famous Fleet Street journalist and spiritualist Hannen Swaffer a...
Doctor Zhivago
In her autobiography, Boris Pasternak's mistress and muse, Olga Ivinskaya (the b...
Last Request
George Kelly (Grace's uncle) was visited on his deathbed by one of his nieces (M...
Boots
When the ship on which Wellington was traveling one evening was buffeted by a vi...
Health Watch
New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, whose meddling drew the ire of fans ...
Press Complaint
Though his firm employed seventeen hundred journalists in eighty-five bureaus ar...
Nostradamus's Death
One evening in 1566, Nostradamus's assistant found the cryptic prophet writing a...
Woody Allen: Interesting Qu...
"Love is the answer," Woody Allen once declared, "but while you're waiting for t...
Servetus
Though Servetus - declared a heretic for his denial of the doctrine of the Trini...
Fairbanks Will
"The late Douglas Fairbanks senior, famed among his friends as a practical joker...
Eternal Optimist?
Douglas Fairbanks' final words? "I've never felt better!"...
Birthday Girl
One day a young friend of Robert Louis Stevenson's complained of being born on C...
Doc Holliday's Last Words
On November 8, 1887, the legendary gunfighter Doc Holliday awoke after 57 days o...
Workaholic?
The noted Swiss physician Albrecht von Haller endeavored, even on his deathbed, ...
Martha Raye & Mark Harris
A month before her death, 75-year-old Martha Raye married her seventh husband, 4...
Olivia Goldsmith: Rejuvenat...
"Last month, Olivia Goldsmith, an American author, died at the age of 54," ...
Environmental Defense Fund:...
"Because most environmentalists continue to support the ban [on the pesticide DD...
Alan Abel: Obit
In 1979, legendary hoaxer Alan Abel staged a tragic accident on the slopes outid...
Elizabeth Taylor: Lady Luck?
Thirteen months after her marriage to producer Mike Todd (in 1957), Elizabeth Ta...
Derek Jarman: Famous Last W...
In Derek Jarman: Life as Art (2004), Christopher Hobbs reported the idios...
Jimi Hendrix: Witch's Brew?
"I had a dream," Jimi Hendrix's friend Rosa Lee Brooks once recalled of his deat...
Bruce Willis: Final Scene
While shooting the final scene in Armageddon (1998), in which Harry S. St...
Devil in the Details
"'If you cannot learn to live with Communists,' he [Norman Thomas] told his audi...
Bobby Hatfield: Personal Em...
On November 5, 2003, the crowd gathered in Western Michigan University's Miller ...
Last Supper
After the Jacobins came to power following the French Revolution, Condorcet was ...
Swimming Lessons
In the early months of 1822, the Shelleys were visited by a young adventurer nam...
Jolly Giant
"For three days [Ronald Knox] lay in a coma dying of liver cancer, but once Lady...
Aretino
While laughing at a remark made by the Duke of Urbino, Aretino had a stroke and ...
Gabriel Byrne: The First Grief
Gabriel Byrne did not always get along with his younger brother. Indeed, in his ...
Henry Who?
In his later years, as his faculties began to fail, Ralph Waldo Emerson often re...
Magenta
"[The noted Mexican architect Luis] Barragán never forgot the vibrant forms and ...
John Byng
When John Byng was court-martialed and brought before the firing squad (for fail...
Gladys Over
Gladys Cooper, brushing her hair on the last night of her life, peered into a mi...
Dreiser's Last Words
During World War I, Theodore Dreiser befriended H. L. Mencken - whom he later ap...
Final Insult?
Erskine Childers, a veteran of the Boer War and World War I, was a writer and Ir...
Versailles Sunset
As Louis lay on his deathbed, he noticed that his attendants were crying. "Why a...
Barbaric Yawp
After a lifetime of setting down les mots justes, Walt Whitman's last bar...
Suicide Bomber?
Following the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001,...
Shelley's Death
Percy Bysshe Shelley was fascinated by water and often predicted his death by dr...
Martinet
The French general Jean Martinet, who beat Louis XIV's soldiers into shape with ...
Earl Wild
After a concert one evening, the mischievous eighty-seven-year-old American pian...
Rational-Emotive Therapy
Albert Ellis, the famous founder of Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy, once reca...
Michelangelo
One day when he was nearly ninety years old, Michelangelo was visited in his stu...
Fog
Emily Dickinson once composed a verse ("XV") which reads as follows: ...
Swift Decline?
At the age of fifty Jonathan Swift, gazing at the withered crown of a nearby tre...
Are You Talking to Me!?
In March 1896, the body of Nicephorus Glycas, the Greek Orthodox Bishop of Lesbo...
Comet
As Mazarin lay dying, the sky was lit by a comet which fuckingstitious observers...
Petrarch
After lying, apparently dead, for twenty hours in Ferrara, Petrarch suddenly sat...
Franz Kafka's Death
Franz Kafka's last words were fittingly absurd. As he lay dying of tuberculosis,...
Master's Death
The music critic Ludwig Karpath once found Gustav Mahler sitting, dejected and s...
Adams's Last Words
In 1846, John Adams suffered a stroke and, although he returned to Congress the ...
Small Consolation?
Among the distinguished pallbearers at Thomas Hardy's funeral were J. M. Barrie ...
Joey Levitch and his Hollyw...
Jerry Lewis early stage show, "Joey Levitch and his Hollywood Friends," was not ...
Delusions of Grandeur
Fleeing Rome, Nero sought refuge in his villa in Antium, just outside the city. ...
Knockout
"It was one thing to knock down old-time boxer Stanley Ketchel. It was quite ano...
Small Consolation
One day Sacha Guitry's fifth (and final) wife grew jealous of her many predecess...
Joey Ramone: In A Little While
Joey Ramone reportedly died in his hospital bed just after U2's song "In A Littl...
Gutter Ball
In 1849, Edgar Allen Poe, a notorious drunk, tried to dry out for a while. His g...
George Eastman
Shortly after Kodak founder George Eastman's suicide, a note was found explainin...
Patsy Cline
On March 5th, 1963, Patsy Cline hopped on a plane in terrible weather. "I'm real...
More's Last Words
For his refusal to recognize the Act of Supremacy (stipulating Henry VIII's auth...
Fading Light
During the American Civil War General Stonewall Jackson, in a brilliant military...
Flowery Outlook?
One day, while suffering from a severe illness, Walter de la Mare was visited by...
McKinley's Last Words
On September 6th, 1901, while greeting people at a reception in Buffalo, William...
J'ai Soif
Gerard de Nerval, noted as much for his periodic bouts of madness as for his lit...
Oates's Last Words
In January 1912, Robert Falcon Scott and his expedition team reached the South P...
Mr. Hughes
At the time of his death, Howard Hughes, with an estimated worth of $2.5 billion...
Spike Milligan
Spike Milligan was once asked whether he was afraid of dying. "No," he replied, ...
Theda Bara
The Jewish film star Theodosia Burr Goodman was the prototypical vamp. Her stage...
Next World
The noted physician Georg von Zimmermann was called to attend to Frederick the G...
Weekend at Barrymore's
After John Barrymore's death in 1942, director Raoul Walsh, actor Peter Lorre an...
Morbid Thought
Chopin was terrified of being buried alive. "The earth is suffocating," he remar...
Hank Williams: Boozehound
"New Year's Day, 1953. Boozehound Hank Williams sleeps one off in the back of a ...
Hearing Aid
Jerry Lewis was told one day that his beloved cocker spaniel was going deaf. Lew...
Malcolm X: Good Religion?
"There is nothing in our book, the Koran, that teaches us to suffer peacefully,"...
Schultz and Schmidt
The great German conductor Hans von Bulow detested two members of an orchestra n...
Smoking Kills
On September 15th, 1945, the avant-garde composer Anton von Webern stepped out o...
Solon: Greatest Gift
The Greek legislator and statesman Solon often related the story of two young bo...
Doc Pugh's Death
After the death of his long-time assistant, Doc Pugh, Louis Armstrong was offere...
Red Foxx: Heart Disease
"Did you know," Demond Wilson asked Red Foxx during a memorable episode of 'Sanf...
Smells Like Victory?
In 1812, in the path of Napoleon's advancing army, the Russians abandoned the ci...
Albert Einstein's Last Words
"We shall never know what wonders Albert Einstein revealed on his deathbed," one...
Katharine Hepburn: Gross In...
In Cecil Beaton's 'Fair Lady' (1964), the famed photographer fondly recal...
Great Legend
Is there any truth to the legend that Catherine the Great died when she was crus...
Edberg Service
"The freakiest sports fatality occurred on the tennis court. At the Junior Boys'...
Chelsea Horror Hotel
In 2002, the body of punk legend (and novelist) Dee Dee Ramone was found in his ...
Rivers Kill
"In the 1977 biker flick 'Hi-Riders,' [stuntman] Vic Rivers successfully drove h...
Al Gore: Funeral Moment
"Al Gore attended music legend Johhny Cash's funeral," Conan O'Brien announced i...
Kam Heskin: Tragic Actress
Kam Heskin found her role on "Sunset Beach" morbidly challenging. "My character ...
Glenn Hughes: Village Peopl...
On March 4, 2002, Glenn Hughes died (at 50) of lung cancer. Hughes, the original...
Sir Thomas More: Food for F...
"After Sir Thomas More was beheaded [for his refusal to recognize the Act of Sup...
Henry Halford, Bone Collector
"Charles I was beheaded [in 1649, after the English Civil War] then buried at Wi...
Nutty Lee Lewis
On November 22, 1976, Jerry Lee Lewis drove his Rolls Royce to Graceland and, at...
Mayor Slay: Cursed with a C...
In August 2002, loony St. Louis school board official Rochell Moore, upset by th...
Billy Tipton
Until his death in 1989, Billy Tipton was a popular jazz musician in Washington....
El Cid: Leadership
"Wounded in battle [while battling the Moors] in 1099 and dying, El Cid's last w...
Fredric March: Epitaph
Fredric March once proposed his own epitaph: "This is just my lot."...
Thomas May: Drooping Chins
"As he grew fatter and fatter, the historian Thomas May found it expedient to ti...
Richard Burton: Famous Last...
Richard Burton died on August 5, 1984, following a cerebral hemorrhage. His wife...
Dorothy Parker's Epitaph
In 1967, Dorothy Parker died alone of a heart attack in the hotel room she calle...
Elizabeth von Arnim: Causti...
"I asked Elizabeth [the novelist Elizabeth von Arnim]," Somerset Maugham once re...
Dale Earnhardt, Jr: Outpaced
In 2002, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. earned almost $20 million less than his father. The...
Bell's Last Words
As professor of vocal physiology at Boston University, Alexander Graham Bell tau...
Captain Philip
During the Spanish-American War (in 1898), the Spanish fleet was blockaded by th...
Forgetful Reaper
"Death has forgotten us," a friend remarked to the elderly Bernard de Fontenelle...
Dave Gahan: Window Dresser
Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan once worked as a window dresser. He quit after ...
Nostalgia Trip
While visiting Florence in the early years of their marriage, Victoria and Alber...
Bishop Hatto
Hatto II's cruelty is a thing of legend. At a time of a famine in 913, Hatto was...
Last Word on Religion?
After an aimless youth in Moscow, Leo Tolstoy served as an officer in the Crimea...
Andante
During his stay in London Haydn, an enthusiastic collector of anecdotes, filled ...
Candy Casket
Following Frank Sinatra's death in 1999, his daughter (Nancy Sinatra) spent six ...
Forfeit
When, during her run (as Anna Leonowens) in the original Broadway stage producti...
Lugosi's Death
While playing poker with some friends one night in 1956, comedian Joey Bishop wa...
Blacks Only
While traveling with her white business manager in Clarksdale, Mississippi in Se...
Proof of Death
"My friend, G. H. Hardy, who was professor of pure mathematics," Bertrand Russel...
Stevens Burial
The great Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens was so dedicated to helping ...
Good Lord Astor
"[In 1919] Lord Astor, by now 71 years old, had given himself sombrely to the pl...
Rector of Stiffkey
Chess has attracted its share of misfits, chief among them the defrocked Reveren...
Catherine's Last Words
When Catherine of Aragon bore Henry VIII a daughter (Mary, later Mary I) but no ...
Young Nick Cave: Bad Seed?
As a boy, Nick Cave had a nose for trouble. On one occasion, riding his bicycle ...
O'Neill's Last Words
Fittingly, the great playwright Eugene O'Neill was born in a hotel room on Broad...
Future Poet
One day when he was four years old, Robert Graves casually asked his mother whet...
Bush
Uma Thurman was not thrilled to learn that George W. Bush was likely to win the ...
Pier Paolo Pasolini's Murder
In 1975, Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini was murdered by a young hustler wh...
Raleigh's Last Words
Sir Walter Raleigh's Last Words? "I have a long journey to take," he simply decl...
Astor's Last Words
One day on her deathbed, Nancy Astor turned to her son. "Jackie," she asked, "is...
Hail Marye
During the fighting in Fredericksburg in 1862, Confederate troops under General ...
Good Old Casey Stengel
At the age of seventy, Casey Stengel was asked how he was doing. "Not bad," he r...
Mozart's Last Words
Josepha Hofer, who played the role of the Queen of the Night in Mozart's ...
Keats's Death
Having contracted tuberculosis (a condition exacerbated by his tormented love fo...
Mourning
When Georges Boulanger's mistress, Marguerite de Bonnemain, died of tuberculosis...
Euler's Last Calculation
"After having amused himself one afternoon calculating the laws of ascent of bal...
Swimming Mao
When rumors of Mao Zedong's declining health surfaced in the 1970s, the Communis...
Robespierre
As an idealistic young man, Maximilien Robespierre was so opposed to the death p...
Gertrude Stein: Famous Last...
Dying of cancer, Gertrude Stein turned to her companion Alice B. Toklas and murm...
Last Words
In many regards, Victor Hugo remained an enigma until the very end. His last wor...
Hemlock
When Socrates was tried on charges of corrupting the Athenian youth and sentence...
John Belushi: Famous Last W...
In one classic "Saturday Night Live" sketch, John Belushi played the last surviv...
Fatwa
On February 14th, 1988, Iranian cleric Ayotollah Khomeni issued a fatwa against ...
Death by Installment
"Shortly before his death [Abraham De Moivre] declared that it was necessary for...
Black Jack Ketchum: RIP
"Black Jack" Ketchum was hanged for murder without remorse. "I'll be in hell bef...
Plump Remark
The British government once offered a substantial reward for a list of the signa...
Shakira Fan
Shakira once had an encounter with a starstruck Miami DJ who, in a bid to ingrat...
Precious Moment
A reporter once apologized to Sacha Guitry for calling on him during what would ...
Franklin's Last Words
On April 17th, 1790, as Benjamin Franklin lay dying, his daughter suggested that...
Dust to Dust
In December 1950, Harold Nicholson visited the former home of George Bernard Sha...
Tempting Fate
"Not content with being called anaemic, Sarah Bernhardt painted her face chalk w...
Vespasian's Last Words
"Dear me, I believe I am becoming a god," Vespasian declared at the end. "An emp...
Wilhelm's Last Words
One day during his final illness, Wilhelm I was asked whether he was tired. His ...
Runyon's Last Words
Shortly before his death, Damon Runyon declared that he wanted no formal memoria...
Crawford's Last Words
One day as she lay on her deathbed, Joan Crawford was dismayed to hear her house...
Boxer Blooper
"Those who survived the San Francisco earthquake said, 'Thank God I'm still aliv...
Round the Corner Surprise
"Round the corner of an orange grove in Italy Eric Ambler came face to face with...
Cohn Production
Given the animosity with which Columbia studio chief Harry Cohn was regarded by ...
Purcell's Wife
Henry Purcell kept such late hours that his wife finally ordered his servants to...
Intellectual to the End
One day near the end of his life, John von Neumann (the father of computing) con...
Tchaikovsky's Suicide? (long)
The circumstances surrounding Tchaikovsky's death remain a mystery.
Tchaikovsk...
Rachmaninov's Hands
Toward the end of his life, the composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninov became i...
Loyal Hepburn
Spencer Tracy, one of the most notorious drunks in Hollywood, required constant ...
Dior's Clairvoyant
Christian Dior developed an obsessive reliance on a noted Parisian clairvoyant, ...
Charles Darwin's Last Words
In 1985, the televangelist Jimmy Swaggart told his enthralled listeners that Cha...
Byron's Death
In 1824, after volunteering to fight in the Greek war for independence from the ...
Wise Move
After accepting an invitation to address an anti-Nazi rally in Brooklyn one year...
Carlin's Death Wish
George Carlin was once asked how he would like to die. "I'd just like to explode...
Milk's Murder
Harvey Milk, the famously gay Supervisor of the city of San Francisco - and the ...
Putin's Mother
Russian President Vladimir Putin was very nearly never born. His mother fainted ...
Chloroform
While studying the anesthetic properties of such gases as nitrous oxide, ether, ...
Korn & Cub Scouts
Korn's frontman Jonathan Davis once traced his morbid outlook to a brief stint i...
Style of Departure
The Who's bassist John Entwistle died in 2002 - while having sex with a stripper...
Late Abe Vigoda
After a national magazine accidentally referred to the actor Abe Vigoda as "the ...
Haunted Palazzo
Following the construction of Giovanni Dario's famous Venetian palazzo (in 1487)...
Tennessee Williams: Bottle Cap
"A claustrophobe, Tennessee Williams always feared suffocation," Gore Vidal once...
Matthew McConaughey: Death ...
Matthew McConaughey was once asked how he hoped to die. "Dad did it in about the...
Aaliyah's Funeral
"When Aaliyah's dangerously overloaded and unbalanced Cessna 402B crashed as it ...
Amazing Joe Burrus
"Escape artist Amazing Joe Burrus, a recovering drug addict, wanted to give back...
Pocahontas: European Vacation
In 1616, Pocahontas and her husband, a Virginian settler named John Rolfe, trave...
Mountbars the Exterminator
According to the author B.R. Burg, Mountbars the Exterminator developed a novel ...
Rube Goldberg: Epitaph
The cartoonist Rube Goldberg once proposed his own epitaph: "Dear God: Enclosed ...
Marcus Licinius Crassus: Ba...
The notorious Roman leader and moneylender Marcus Licinius Crassus reportedly me...
William Ker: Famous Last Words
In 1923, William Ker visited the Italian Alps. While trekking up the slopes of t...
Gauguin's Hut
Paul Gauguin died in 1903 (from syphilis in the Marquesas Islands) in a thatched...
John Paul II: Albacete & th...
Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete: "The last conversation we [Albacete & the Pope] had ...
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King delivered his legendary "I have a dream" speech during the Ma...
Patton's Ghost
George Patton was devastated by his father's death. Shortly thereafter, he saw t...
Missionary Blooper
While visiting the mountain village of Navatusila in Fiji in 1867, the Rev. Thom...
Senna's Flag
After Ayrton Senna's fatal crash during the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola in 19...
Baden-Powell's Epitaph
Boy Scouts founder Lord Baden-Powell's tombstone in Nyeri park, Kenya, is adorne...
William Conquered
How did William the Conqueror die? He was killed after falling from his horse wh...
Young William Stephenson
"In January 1901, the future spy-master [Sir William Stephenson], who would beco...
Tughluq Dynasty
"Ghiyjas ud din Tughluq wanted to shift the capital from Delhi to a new city Tug...
Last Words of Charles II
King Charles II is said to have addressed his final words to various attendants ...
Tragic Poet
While absent-mindedly reading the inscriptions on various gravestones in a Londo...
Reincarnation of Patsy Cline
"I think I am the reincarnation of Patsy Cline," k.d. lang declared one day in 1...
Abstract Thinker
The Russian painter Kasimir Malevich once produced a canvas depicting nothing mo...
Dutch Schultz
When the legendary gangster Dutch Schultz, New York's "king of beer" during the ...
Danton's Death
Despite his leadership in the early days of the French Revolution and his dedica...
Hill's Last Words
Joe Hill, an itinerant laborer, hobo, and songwriter, joined the International W...
S. T. Coleridge
Shortly after Samuel Taylor Coleridge's tragedy Remorse appeared, its aut...
Beautifully Done?
One day during his final illness, the British artist Stanley Spencer was given a...
Greater Prize
One day toward the end of his life, Graham Greene was asked whether he was disap...
Jesus's Last Words
Several Biblical passages describe Jesus's last words, among them: ...
Bulloch's Bollocks
Mogwai's Martin Bulloch once took a "dead test" on the Internet "where they ask ...
Ho Chi Minh's Tomb
The North Vietnamese president (and Viet Mihh founder) Ho Chi Minh died in 1969,...
James Otis
"There was an apocalyptic manner about the most intellectual of the fathers of t...
Institutes
One day Charles Sumner became so ill that, in considerable pain and quite unable...
James Lawrence's Last Words
James Lawrence died commanding the frigate Chesapeake during a naval batt...
Gallant Death
In 1832, the mathematician Evariste Galois became involved with a woman (Stéphan...
Famous Last Words
Saki's famous last words? "Put out that bloody cigarette!"...
Forgiveness
For the last decade of his life, Heinrich Heine suffered from a crippling spinal...
Ampere's Epitaph
The famed physicist and mathematician Andre Marie Ampere was dogged by bad luck....
Cotton Mather's Last Words
The great New England Puritan preacher Cotton Mather once prayed for an easy dea...
Distinguished Thing
When Henry James suffered his first stroke, he understandably thought he would s...
Hannibal's End
When the Romans defeated King Antiochus III's Syrian forces at Magnesia (in 189 ...
Martyrs
After their show trial for heresy in 1555, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley (the...
Socrates' Last Words
In his Apologia, Plato related Socrates' last words: "The hour of departu...
Autoerotic Asphyxiation
In May 1996, Kevin Gilbert (Sheryl Crow's ex-boyfriend) died from what the coron...
Sheryl Crow's Epitaph
Sheryl Crow once revealed the inscription which she planned to have engraved on ...
Famous Last Words
As the famed zoologist Georges Cuvier lay upon his deathbed, leeches were applie...
Jack Baer: Famous Last Words
Boxer Jack Baer's final words? "Oh, God... here I go."...
President Greeley
In 1872, Horace Greeley (the founder of the New York Tribune) ran for Pre...
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