The Morbidly Fascinating Page
This Month: Celebrity Open Caskets
IN THE ARCHIVES:
Jack the Ripper’s Victims
Chimera
Lizzie Borden
Rasputin
Voodoo in New Orleans
Screaming Mummies
BELA LUGOSI
Bela Lugosi died in his sleep at about 6:45 p.m. on Thursday, August 16th, 1956. He was 73. The cause of death was recorded as a coronary occlusion with myocardial fibrosis. His body was discovered by his fifth wife, Hope, in their apartment at 5620 Harold Way, Los Angeles, on her return from work. Although Lugosi felt that he had been forgotten in his later years, his death was deemed newsworthy enough for a photographer to rush to his apartment to snap a photograph of his body being wheeled away by the undertakers. Bela Lugosi was buried in the costume of his most famous role, Dracula.
RIVER PHOENIX
Born on August 23, 1970, on October 31, 1993, River Phoenix collapsed and died of drug-induced heart failure on the sidewalk outside the West Hollywood nightclub The Viper Room at the age of 23. At the time of his death, Phoenix had been in the middle of filming the movie Dark Blood. Director George Sluizer held onto the Dark Blood footage for close to 14 years. In 2007, when he was told an aneurysm would limit his remaining years, he decided to complete the film, glossing over the unfilmed scenes with voiceover narration.
B.B. KING
Born on September 16, 1925, legendary blues legend B.B. King died of Alzheimer's disease and various other ailments associated with old age, according to an autopsy report released — not of poisoning, as some of his daughters had claimed. King died May 14, 2015, in hospice care in Las Vegas. He was 89.
EDGAR ALLAN POE
Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, and went on to create the eerie yet beautiful poetry and fiction that we all love. However, his death on October 7, 1849, has remained mysterious: the circumstances leading up to it are uncertain and the cause of death is disputed.
JAMES BROWN
On December 25, 2006, Brown died at approximately 1:45 am EST from congestive heart failure resulting from complications of pneumonia, at the age of 73. Here he is viewed by Michael Jackson, which is ironic since Michael died less than three years later (Mr. Jackson was interred in a closed casket, but below is the hospital photo).
BRUCE LEE
Born on November 27, 1940, Bruce Lee died on July 20, 1973 at the age of 32 from a brain aneurysm. It was before the release of his last movie, Enter the Dragon. He is buried next to his actor son Brandon Lee.
RELATED TOPICS FROM THE HORROR ZINE
See Famous Deaths HERE
See Celebrity Tombstones HERE
MORE OPEN CASKETS
Evil Knieval
Elvis Presley
President Lincoln
