On this month's Morbid Page:

The last glimpse of famous people in their open caskets...and what was the cause of death for each?

Warning: some photos are graphic

Bela Lugosi

Bela Lugosi died in his sleep at 6:45 p.m. on Thursday, August 16th, 1956. He was 73. His body was discovered by his fifth wife, Hope, in their apartment at 5620 Harold Way, Los Angeles, on her return from work. Bela Lugosi was buried in the costume of his most famous role, Dracula.

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.

Cause of death: coronary occlusion with myocardial fibrosis (heart attack).

Bruce Lee

Born on November 27, 1940, Bruce Lee died on July 20, 1973 at the age of 32. After complaining of a headache, Lee took the painkiller Equagesic and went to take a nap, according to the 2018 biography Bruce Lee: A Life by Matthew A. Polly. He was later found unconscious and brought to the hospital via an ambulance, where he was pronounced dead. It happened just before the release of his last movie, Enter the Dragon. His funeral was held in Hong Kong, where he died, though he’s buried in Seattle alongside his son, actor Brandon Lee.

Cause of death: although some considered the circumstances of his death mysterious, the official cause of death was swelling of the brain caused by an allergic reaction to a headache medication. However, a new research paper from the National Library of Medicine proposes that Lee’s death was caused by his “kidney’s inability to excrete excess water.”

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. Many still consider the cause of his death on October 7, 1849 as mysterious. An article in the Smithsonian Magazine lists nine possiblities to account for his death, one of them being rabies. See the list HERE

Cause of death: His official death certificate lists the cause of death as phrenitis, or swelling of the brain.

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe's head was facedown and sideways when she passed in bed on August 4, 1962 at the young age of 36 in Brentwood, California.The angle of her face on the pillow led to a stain on the right side of her face created by livor mortis, visible in the above photo. Livor mortis is when blood settles due to gravity. This happens because the heart stops pumping blood through the body after death, causing red blood cells to sink and pool in the dependent parts. The blood then presses on the skin, leaving permanent red or purple marks that look like bruises. The above photo of Marilyn in death was taken after her body was washed, which explains why her hair was wet.

For two decades, baseball legend Joe DiMaggio had flowers delivered to Marilyn's grave twice a week until his own death.

Cause of death: Her official death certicate stated "acute poisoning by overdose of barbiturates" but over the years, many conspiracy theories still abound to this day as to exactly what happened.

James Brown

On December 25, 2006, famous soul singer James Brown died at approximately 1:45 am EST. He was 73 years old. Above he is viewed by Michael Jackson, which is ironic since Jackson died less than three years later.

Cause of death: congestive heart failure resulting from complications of pneumonia.

Michael Jackson was interred in a closed casket, but below is a photo of Jackson in the hospital.

Jesse James

One of America’s most famous criminals, Jesse James, was shot to death by fellow gang member Bob Ford, who betrayed James for reward money. For 16 years, Jesse and his brother, Frank, committed robberies and murders throughout the Midwest. Detective magazines and pulp novels glamorized the James gang, turning them into mythical Robin Hoods who were driven to crime by unethical landowners and bankers. In reality, Jesse James was a ruthless killer who stole only for himself.

Cause of death: His tombstone reads, “Jesse W. James, Died April 3, 1882, Aged 34 years, 6 months, 28 days, Murdered by a traitor and a coward whose name is not worthy to appear here.”

Claudia Zobel

Thelma Cabras Maloloy-on, better known by her stage name Claudia Zobel, was a Filipino actress. She shot to fame when the Board of Censors initially banned her launch film, Shame (1983). It was released after the producers agreed to cut some scenes.

She was killed in a car accident on February 10, 1984 in Makati City, Philippines, less than 17 days short of her 19th birthday. She was driving a Mitsubishi Colt with three relatives when it hit the island at the corner of EDSA Avenue and Pasong Tamo and collided with another car. Zobel's chest was pinned to the steering wheel. She died at the Makati Medical Center three hours after the 4:30 a.m. incident.

On August 27, 2013, almost 30 years after her death, Zobel's body was exhumed to be relocated beside her father's remains. However, upon opening the casket, relatives found her body to be in a perfect mummified state, with details on her skin still clearly visible.

Zobel was portrayed by Sabrina M. (Marie Karen Pallasigue) in the 1995 film Karanasan: The Claudia Zobel Story.

Cause of death: A sudden, nonpenetrating blow to the chest that caused ventricular tachyarrhythmias and cardiac arrest.

John Lennon

This photo above was snapped by a morgue attendent mere hours after John Lennon's death. On the evening of December 8, 1980, the English musician was shot and fatally wounded in the archway of the Dakota, his residence in New York City. The killer, Mark David Chapman, was an American Beatles fan who was envious and enraged by Lennon's lifestyle. This photo below shows Chapman asking Lennon for an autograph, and Lennon politely obliged. Afterwards, Chapman fired five shots at the musician from a few yards away with a Charter Arms Undercover .38 Special revolver. Lennon was hit in the back and neck. He was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital and pronounced dead on arrival.

Cause of death: N.Y.C.’s medical examiner, Dr. Elliot Gross, attributed Lennon’s death to “massive hemorrhaging and shock” caused by gunshot wounds.

River Phoenix

Born on August 23, 1970, on October 31, 1993, River Phoenix collapsed and died 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. See what happened to the movie HERE

Cause of death: The official toxicology report showed that Phoenix had “lethal levels of cocaine and morphine” in his system.

Elvis Presley

When Elvis Presley died suddenly on August 16, 1977 at the age of 42, he left hundreds of thousands of his fans heartbroken. He was found lying face down on the bathroom floor of his Graceland home.

Cause of death: The official autopsy of Elvis Presley found eight different prescription drugs in his body with no trace of any illegal drugs. According to the pathologist Thomas Noguchi, the Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner of Los Angeles Country, Presley died with the following drugs in his system among others: antihistamine, codeine, demerol and valium.

President Abraham Lincoln

On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln (the 16th president), was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater in Washington DC. Shot in the head as he watched the play, Lincoln died of his wounds the following day at 7:22 am in the Petersen House opposite the theater. At the time, he was the first U.S. president to be assassinated.

Cause of death: Gunshot wound to the head; however, the hospital steward arrived hours later with a Nelaton Probe, a device used at the time by surgeons to probe wound sites for bullets and other foreign bodies. Before getting the Nelaton device, the physician Dr. Leale actually used his finger to probe around inside the wound while Lincoln was still alive. Lincoln lived for nine hours after he was shot, but it is certain that a doctor who had no idea that germs existed and who used his unwashed finger to probe inside the wound (probably causing more damage to the brain) hastened his death. See more HERE