When dying makes you a Hollywood legend

FROM the beautiful, tragic screen goddess Marilyn Monroe to the handsome and gifted young actor River Phoenix, movie history is littered with stars that checked out of life too soon. Whether their demise was triggered by drugs, drink, a combination of both or it was an accidental death, the fact remains that stars who die young seem to automatically become legends.

Yet, rather cynically, the legendary status of many deceased stars has been attributed to the fact that they died before their time more than anything else. It’s almost as though the act of death lends an air of mystery and intrigue that they otherwise wouldn’t have achieved.

Whatever your opinion on the matter, there’s no denying that the legends of these tragic heroes and heroines continues to endure to this day. Here is a run down of some of the most famous young stars who left the party way too early.

Marilyn Monroe (1 June 1926-August 1962)

Born Norma Jean Baker in 1926, Marilyn Monroe started her career as a model before going on to make her name as an actress. She appeared in numerous Hollywood movies including classics such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), The Seven Year Itch (1955) and Some Like It Hot (1959) for which she won a golden globe award for her dazzling performance as jazz singer Sugar Cane. Despite her immense popularity and vastly under-rated acting abilities, Marilyn found it hard to shake the “dumb blonde” persona that plagued her throughout her career. She was found dead in her bedroom on 5 August 1962 with a lethal dose of barbiturates in her body. The coroner’s verdict was probable suicide. She was just 36 years-old.

John F. Kennedy (29 May 1917-22 November 1963)

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, often referred to simply by his initials JFK, was the thirty-fifth president of the United States. He served from 1961until his untimely death in 1963. JFK was the youngest ever president, elected to office at the age of just 43, and was very popular with the younger generation. His boyish good looks allowed him to become something of a pin-up, while his political stance on civil rights and organised crime made him a hero in the eyes of many. President Kennedy’s leadership of America was cut short on 22nd November 1963 – a date ingrained in people’s minds across the world. While riding in a presidential motorcade with his wife Jacqueline, JKF was assassinated. He was just 46 years-old.

 

James Dean (8 February1931-30 September 1955)

James Byron Dean was a two-time Oscar-nominated American movie actor. Dean’s status as a cultural icon is best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause (1955) in which he starred as troubled high school rebel Jim Stark. The film proved hugely popular with teen audiences and catapulted Dean to superstar status. Off screen Dean’s passion for race cars lead him to buy a Porsche 550 Spyder and he began to compete in races. It was on the way to one such event that Dean met with his untimely death on 30 September 1955. Dean was driving along when another car ploughed straight across his path without seeing him. The two cars hit virtually head-on and Dean was taken to hospital, but sadly, later pronounced dead.

Natalie Wood (20 July 1938-29 November 1981)

Endearing child-star Natalie Wood starred opposite legendary actor James Dean aged just sixteen in the cult classic, Rebel Without a Cause (1955). She later went onto cement her name in movie history playing Maria in the screen musical West Side Story (1961). Wood married fellow actor Robert Wagner in 1958 and the pair were considered the Posh and Becks of their day. However, their relationship was fraught with problems and in 1962 the couple split-up, only to remarry again in 1972. Unfortunately, their marital bliss was not to last. Wood drowned in 1981 aged just 43, after slipping and falling from Wagner’s yacht.

River Phoenix (23 August 1970-31 October 1993)

River Phoenix was considered a most promising young actor during the mid 1980s. His remarkable portrayal of 12 year-old Chris Chambers in Rob Reiner’s coming-of-age film Stand by Me (1986) first brought Phoenix to public prominence. But Phoenix’s promising young career was cut all too short. The actor tragically died of an overdose of heroin and cocaine outside Hollywood nightclub, The Viper Room, on Halloween morning 1993. Phoenix was just 23 years-old. The untimely nature of his death shocked a generation of his fans.

Janis Joplin (19 January 1943-4 October 1970)

American singer and songwriter Janis Lyn Joplin rose to prominence in the late 1960s. She was the lead singer in the band Big Brother and the Holding Company and was later famous as a solo artist. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Joplin 46 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Despite this great success, Joplin was lonely and always felt that she was an outsider. Needless to say, her excessive use of alcohol and drugs did little to temper this feeling of being outcast. Joplin was in the process of recording, what would turn out to be, her last album Pearl (1971), when she was discovered dead in her hotel room from a drug overdose. It was October 1970 and she was just 27 years-old.

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