Let's get your day off to a winning start, shall we? Here is a short list of famous people I enjoyed who voluntarily took the long nap, ripped off from this page on Wikipedia. I'm sure you'll find people on that list you'll say I should have included, but oh well. I probably didn't really enjoy them (Sid Vicious and Kurt Cobain, for example). You may also think that I am posting this list as an ironic gag. That is not my intention. Suspected suicides of worthwhile famous individuals (Marilyn Monroe, for example) were not considered.
Diane Arbus
barbiturate overdose & slashed wrists
Scotty Beckett (shown above)
sleeping pills overdose
George Eastman
gunshot to chest
Sigmund Freud
lethal dose of morphine
Arshile Gorky
hanging
Spalding Gray
drowning
Ernest Hemingway
shotgun blast to the head
Jack London (major bummer)
overdose of morphine & atropine
Sylvia Plath
gassed in kitchen oven
Mark Rothko
anti-depressant overdose & slashed arms
Del Shannon
rifle blast to the head
Alan Turing
ate an apple laced with cyanide
Vincent van Gogh
gunshot to chest
Hervé Villechaize
gunshot
That's right, Hervé Villechaize made the list, but Ian Curtis didn't. Sue me.
September 27, 2007
A Short List Of Worthwhile Famous Humans Who Committed Suicide
Let's get your day off to a winning start, shall we? Here is a short list of famous people I enjoyed who voluntarily took the long nap, ripped off from this page on Wikipedia. I'm sure you'll find people on that list you'll say I should have included, but oh well. I probably didn't really enjoy them (Sid Vicious and Kurt Cobain, for example). You may also think that I am posting this list as an ironic gag. That is not my intention. Suspected suicides of worthwhile famous individuals (Marilyn Monroe, for example) were not considered.
Diane Arbus
barbiturate overdose & slashed wrists
Scotty Beckett (shown above)
sleeping pills overdose
George Eastman
gunshot to chest
Sigmund Freud
lethal dose of morphine
Arshile Gorky
hanging
Spalding Gray
drowning
Ernest Hemingway
shotgun blast to the head
Jack London (major bummer)
overdose of morphine & atropine
Sylvia Plath
gassed in kitchen oven
Mark Rothko
anti-depressant overdose & slashed arms
Del Shannon
rifle blast to the head
Alan Turing
ate an apple laced with cyanide
Vincent van Gogh
gunshot to chest
Hervé Villechaize
gunshot
That's right, Hervé Villechaize made the list, but Ian Curtis didn't. Sue me.
I don't mean to pick apart your list, but if you're going to disregard suspected suicides like marilyn monroe, then:
ReplyDeleteJack London's death is controversial. Many older sources describe it as a suicide, and some still do...this appears to be at best a rumor, or speculation based on incidents in his fiction writings. His death certificate gives the cause as uremia, also known as uremic poisoning.... it is known he was in extreme pain and taking morphine, and it is possible that a morphine overdose, accidental or deliberate, may have contributed. Clarice Stasz, in a capsule biography, writes "Following London's death, for a number of reasons a biographical myth developed in which he has been portrayed as an alcoholic womanizer who committed suicide. Recent scholarship based upon firsthand documents challenges this caricature." (wikipedia)
London had such a passion for life, maybe I just prefer to believe he didn't kill himself.
Also, howabout giving creds to people who commited suicide with extreme conviction? I'm not a fan of elliot smith, for example, but I can't imagine what sort of nerve it would take to stab yourself in the heart. There's also a guy on the wikipedia list, a revolutionary accused of bombing the haymarket riots, who killed himself by lighting a stick of dynamite and putting it in his mouth. Wow.
I also would include nick drake on the list, but that's just me.