Christopher Walken was one of the last people to see Natalie Wood alive.
1. Marilyn Monroe is probably one of the most famous untimely celebrity deaths, and her last night is shrouded in mystery. Her last known phone call was with actor Peter Lawford, who was a brother-in-law to Robert and John F. Kennedy, as he had married their sister, Pat Kennedy. He stated she ended the call with, "Say goodbye to Pat, say goodbye to Jack, and say goodbye to yourself, because you’re a nice guy." Jack was in reference to then-President JFK.
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There were longstanding rumors of an affair between JFK and Monroe, as well as Robert F. Kennedy and Monroe. There are also rumors that Robert F. Kennedy visited her that night, though this was denied by the Kennedys. Her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, who was there all day and night and was the one to find her dead, later claimed Robert had visited and they'd fought.
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When Murray found Marilyn dead around 3:30 a.m., she was reportedly holding her phone, and then-LA chief of detectives Thad Brown reportedly claimed she was found with a crumpled up piece of paper with the number for the White House on it.
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Besides her connections to the Kennedys, there were other suspicious details around Monroe's death. Murray initially called Monroe's psychiatrist, Dr. Greenson, who called the doctor who had prescribed the pills, Dr. Engelberg, before calling the police. The police did not arrive for close to an hour after Murray initially saw Monroe's body. Lawford later claimed that he'd heard about her death at 1:30 a.m. The wife of Monroe’s press relations manager Arthur Jacobs also later claimed that her husband had received the call that Marilyn was dead at 10:30.
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2. Natalie Wood, who starred in a number of films including West Side Story, Rebel Without a Cause, and Gypsy, also died under extremely mysterious circumstances. The 43-year-old was with her husband Robert Wagner on his boat on a weekend vacation from filming Brainstorm when she drowned. According to Wagner himself (though he initially denied this), he and Wood argued, and then he went to bed without her. The next morning, her body was found a mile away.
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Wood had been drinking, and it's possible her death was an accident, but she was found with bruises that could mean she was attacked. Nearby witnesses had heard a woman scream. The captain of the boat, Dennis Davern, allegedly drunkenly confessed to Wood's sister years later that he'd seen Wagner push Wood, who then fell overboard, and that Wagner refused to rescue her...though this is unconfirmed.
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Wagner has denied he had anything to do with Wood's death.
Who else was on the boat that night? Brainstorm costar Christopher Walken. He had reportedly also argued with Wagner, and Wagner was (according to Davern) angry Natalie had invited him.
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Walken has not said much about the night beyond affirming it was an accident and that he had nothing to do with it. "I don't know what happened. She slipped and fell in the water. I was in bed then. It was a terrible thing." He also said, "The people who are convinced that there was something more to it than what came out in the investigation will never be satisfied with the truth. Because the truth is, there is nothing more to it."
3. When Sharon Tate and her friends were murdered by members of the Manson family, Tate reportedly begged that she be kept hostage instead until her baby could be born (she was eight and a half months pregnant), then be killed afterwards, so that her child could live. Her offer was refused and she was killed — but the coroner has stated she was still alive when she was hung, making her the last victim still alive.
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The word "PIG" was written on the door in Tate's blood — in fact, her husband, Roman Polanski, had photographer Julian Wasser take a photo taken of him next to the door, and take Polaroids to give to a psychic — the psychic reportedly stole the polaroids and sold them to a tabloid. The door was later auctioned off for $127K.
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You can see the photo of Polanski with the door here.
4. Brittany Murphy died of pneumonia in 2009, just before Christmas. Iron deficiency anemia and multiple drug intoxication (OTC medication and her prescribed medications) also contributed. And under six months later, her husband Simon Monjack died of pneumonia and anemia in the same house. Monjack's mother later claimed there was severe mold in the house that caused Monjack to hallucinate.
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According to Monjack, Murphy hated the house and thought it was "unlucky." Britney Spears had previously owned the home and reportedly left the house due to bad spirits, according to her former makeup artist.
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It's likely Murphy would've survived if she'd sought medical care in the days prior, though according to Monjack, Murphy knew she was dying and didn't seek care. The HBO documentary, What Happened, Brittany Murphy?, alleges that it was Monjack's controlling behavior that was to blame for Murphy not getting medical attention.
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5. It was originally believed that Bruce Lee's death from brain swelling was caused by an allergic reaction to the painkiller Equagesic, which he took after a headache — however, several months earlier, he'd actually almost died from brain swelling. In that incident, the brain swelling seemed to have been caused by heat stroke — Lee had a reduced ability to deal with heat because he'd had his sweat glands removed from his armpits so that he wouldn't have sweaty pits onscreen. So, essentially, his later death may have been caused by pressure to appear perfect onscreen.
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There are also theories that his death was caused by drinking too much water.
In another creepy detail, after Lee died before filming completed on his film Game of Death, the film was reworked with a new plot to make use of the footage Lee had shot for the original version. In this new version, Lee's character faked his own death. The funeral scene for his character made use of the actor's funeral footage — meaning his corpse was actually used in the film.
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6. OJ Simpson is best known today for the murder trial of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ron Goldman. One of the most memorable pieces of evidence in Simpson's defense was the fact that the gloves from the crime scene did not fit him when he tried them on for the jury. At the time, the prosecution argued that the blood had caused the gloves to shrink and that the rubber gloves OJ had to wear under the gloves meant they wouldn't go over his fingers as well.
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But Mike Gilbert, Simpson's former sports agent, more recently offered another explanation in the documentary, O.J.: Made in America. He claimed that two weeks prior to the infamous glove moment, Simpson had stopped taking his arthritis medication, meaning his hands were swollen in court.
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The arthritis medication claim was brought up by the deputy district attorney during the trial, with OJ's defense calling the claims paranoid (though he did not directly deny them). OJ himself never addressed the claims.
Speaking of OJ, just a month before the murders, he had completed filming the pilot for Frogmen. After the murders, the series was obviously not picked up, and the pilot never aired. But footage from the pilot was actually submitted as evidence in OJ's murder trial (though it didn't end up being used). The reason? OJ's character showed proficiency in knife combat, and Simpson reportedly received military training for the role.
Also, Simpson's costar Todd Allen had once accompanied OJ to Ross Cutlery between shooting. Ross Cutlery is the suspected source of the murder weapon, which was never discovered.
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You can check out a behind-the-scenes feature on the show here.
Another detail: Sydney and Justin, OJ and Nicole's two children, were in the house sleeping during the murder. Also, Simpson continued to have split custody of the children after the murder, despite the fact that he'd been accused of murdering their mother.
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There are multiple records of domestic abuse between OJ and Nicole. Police had responded to nine domestic abuse calls during their marriage. Police records showed that Brown had previously told police in 1989 that OJ was going to kill her after sustaining injuries from him, after which time he was sentenced to community service, probation, and fines. The two stayed together after the incident, but Nicole filed for divorce in 1992.
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Brown had reportedly been compiling proof of the abuse, including photos her her bruises, apology letters from Simpson, and news articles where he admitted to abusing her, which were all found in her safe deposit box after her death.
A worker from Sojourn House, which was dedicated to helping domestic abuse survivors, believed she had talked to Nicole in the days leading up to the murder, and that Nicole had said she was afraid her ex-husband, a celebrity, would kill her if he found her with another man, and that she was being stalked. A set of Nicole's spare keys had also reportedly gone missing in the weeks prior and were later found with OJ.
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The worker's testimony was banned from OJ's criminal trial but allowed in the ensuing wrongful death civil trial. OJ was acquitted of Nicole and Ron's murders, but he was found liable in the civil trial. Simpson has continually denied involvement in the murders.
7. In 2001, when Ashton Kutcher was 23, he planned a date with 22-year-old fashion student Ashley Ellerin. He was supposed to meet her at 8 p.m. for dinner and drinks but ended up getting there around 10:30 or 10:45, having gotten distracted watching the Grammy Awards at Kristy Swanson‘s house. When he arrived at Ellerin's house, she did not come to the door, which was locked. “I assumed she had left for the night and I was late and she was upset," Kutcher said. "I just assumed she had gone out with her friend and bailed.”
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Since the lights were on, Kutcher looked through the window and saw “what [he] thought was a red wine spilled on the carpet." But he said, "That wasn’t alarming because I went to her house party [days before] and it was like a college party. I didn’t think much about it.” He left, and Ellerin was found stabbed to death the next day. The “Hollywood Ripper," Michael Gargiulo, was found guilty for her murder.
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When Kutcher heard the news, he called police because he was worried his fingerprints were on the doorknob. He did not become a suspect.
8. Jim Carrey's ex-girlfriend, Cathriona White, died by suicide in 2015, only a week after their breakup. She addressed her suicide note to him. She had overdosed on pills prescribed to an "Arthur King," and there were texts on her phone from Carrey asking about where some of his prescription pills had gone, leading investigators to conclude “it appears likely that the bottles for ‘Arthur King’ found on her bedside table were the prescriptions [Carrey] was referring to.”
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Her estranged husband, Mark Burton, later sued Carrey for providing the drugs. In his wrongful death suit, he included a note White had written on her iPad two years prior, which accused Carrey of giving her herpes*, introducing her to drugs, and subjecting her to mental abuse. Carrey counter-sued, denying all allegations, and the lawsuit against him was dismissed.
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Carrey served as a pallbearer at her funeral. In response to the lawsuit against him, he said, "I will not tolerate this heartless attempt to exploit me or the woman I loved. Cat’s troubles were born long before I met her and sadly her tragic end was beyond anyone’s control. I really hope that some day soon people will stop trying to profit from this and let her rest in peace.” He also stated, “It would be easy for me to get in a back room with this man’s lawyer and make this go away, but there are some moments in life when you have to stand up and defend your honor against the evil in this world.”
*Carrey had initially paid White off not to go public with the herpes claim in 2013, which he later called a "mistake" and claimed Burton had "pressured" White into making the accusation in the first place.
9. After Mark David Chapman shot and killed John Lennon, he sat down and began reading from The Catcher in the Rye, which he later claimed to have motivated the shooting. In fact, he had previously attempted to change his name to Holden Caulfield (the name of the book's protagonist).
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Catcher in the Rye has been a favorite of multiple killers/would-be killers. Arthur Bremer, who tried to murder presidential candidate George Wallace, also reportedly had the book with him, as did Robert John Bardo, who murdered actor Rebecca Lucile Schaeffer.
Speaking of Chapman — he'd had other targets in mind should he fail to find access to Lennon. They included Johnny Carson, Elizabeth Taylor, Paul McCartney, George C. Scott, George Ariyoshi, and Ronald Reagan (who was president at the time).
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10. In a strange connection, John Hinckley Jr — who was also obsessed with The Catcher in the Rye — tried to murder Reagan a year later. He was also obsessed with Taxi Driver — he had seen the movie as many as 18 times, and it influenced the murder so much that Hinckley and the jury actually watched it during his trial. In particular, he was obsessed with Jodie Foster, who played a child prostitute in the film.
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Hinckley had tried to emulate Taxi Driver's protagonist by dressing like him and keeping a diary of things he was frustrated with.
Hinckley had been stalking Foster, leaving letters at her door and calling her. By shooting Reagan, he hoped to win her love, as revealed in a final letter he never sent her. After the shooting, this embroiled Foster in a media frenzy. There was also a copycat stalker who decided not to shoot her because she was "too pretty."
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The screenwriter of the film later admitted that Hinckley had mailed him letters trying to get in contact with Jodie, and that he'd had his secretary throw them away, telling her "they don't exist" and lying to the FBI. When he heard the news that Reagan had been shot, he said he immediately knew it was "one of the Taxi Driver kids" — aka, young men who had identified with the protagonist of the film.
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Still, Hinckley didn't believe the film had actually inspired violence, saying, "No, those guys were out there. They were out there. I didn’t create them.”
11. Six weeks before Michael Jackson's death, Dr. Conrad Murray (who would later be convicted of his manslaughter) recorded Jackson slurring his words as he talked about plans to create a children's hospital with the money from his upcoming tour. "I love them," Jackson said of children around the world. "I love them because I didn’t have a childhood. I had no childhood. I feel their pain. I feel their hurt. I can deal with it. ... I hurt, you know, I hurt.” The recording was played during Murray's trial, with no explanation for why Murray made the recording). The judge in the case decided that the recording was created to blackmail Jackson.
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Just before Murray realized Jackson was unresponsive, he had emailed an insurance broker to assure them reports of Jackson's ill health were "fallacious." Murray was also possibly on the phone with his girlfriend at the time he realized Jackson had stopped breathing, though he had alleged he went to the bathroom and came back to find Jackson not breathing.
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Murray was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and served two years of his four year sentence before being released.
And finally, let's end on a few details that are really just coincidences, but still pretty freaky:
12. Josh Ryan Evans died on the exact same day his character Timmy died on the soap opera Passions. After he'd appeared on the show for three years, his character was killed off — and the same day the episode aired, Evans unexpectedly died in real life. Timmy was actually supposed to be resurrected — Evans was only meant to take a few weeks off for filming. However, while seeking treatment for a congenital heart condition during the break, he died. He was only 20 years old.
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13. Actor Tyrone Power suffered a heart attack on the set of Solomon and Sheba. He died before making it to the hospital, still in his costume. What's creepy about it? Well, his father (also named Tyrone Power) had also died (in the arms of his son) during an on-set heart attack while he was shooting The Miracle Man.
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14. Judith Eva Barsi, the child actor who most famously voiced Ducky in Land Before Time, was murdered by her father at the age of 10. He also murdered his wife, Judith's mother, before killing himself. Eerily, Judith had previously played a child murdered by her father — who also killed the character's mother — in Fatal Vision.
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15. Tara Correa-McMullen, an up-and-coming actor who appeared on shows like Zoey 101, died in a potentially gang-related drive-by shooting at age 16 in 2005. Friends said that she had recently been hanging out with a "bad crowd" but had been trying to get her life back on track. Eerily, Correa-McMullen was best known for playing a former gang member on Judging Amy. Her character was trying to turn her life around after involvement in a drive-by shooting, but ultimately failed and was killed in jail.
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16. And finally, in Heathers, two of the actors later had untimely deaths that seemed predicted by their characters. Peter (Jeremy Applegate) prays he won't kill himself — the actor later died by suicide. Kim Walker — who had the iconic line, "Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast?" — died of a brain tumor.
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