People die in an array of places and ways, some of them unusual. Celebrities and historical figures are no exception. Some have died in weird places, including on toilets. From medieval monarchs to early Christian theologians, legendary architects to ground-breaking comedians, a surprising number of tragic historical deaths happened on the commode.
While many of these people either suffered with addiction or had health problems unrelated to their bowel movements, they all died in the same place - the toilet.
One of the most famous singers to ever grace an American stage, Elvis Presley shot to fame in the 1940s and 1950s when he sang, danced, and acted his way into the country's hearts. Best known for songs like "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Jailhouse Rock," the hip-gyrating star made women swoon. But during the latter part of his career, he became addicted to drugs, leading to him to an untimely demise while on the commode.
Elvis was going to the bathroom in his Graceland mansion on August 16, 1977, when the years of drugs he'd taken finally began to catch up with him. The King fell off the toilet next to a pool of his own vomit. Later, it was revealed that an extreme cocktail of drugs caused his passing.
Following a difficult childhood, the actor who would become known as Judy Garland took the stage and screen by storm. Like Elvis, she suffered from an addiction to drugs, but that didn't put a damper on the luster of her great career early on, which included a starring role in The Wizard of Oz as Dorothy.
Personal problems, ranging from nervous breakdowns and suicide attempts to bizarre behavior on set, led to the downfall of her Hollywood career. This was attributed to the cocktail of pills Garland regularly took, including barbiturates and amphetamines. At the age of 47 in 1969, Garland died on the toilet; her fifth husband found her body. Reports say Garland died sometime between 3 and 4 AM, her body slumped over the toilet with the bathroom door locked.
This monarch was German by birth - his dad, George I, was a distant cousin of the last ruler, Queen Anne, and inherited the throne because he was a Protestant. George II didn't get along with his dad at all; they fought by allying with different political factions in England (the pattern repeated itself with George II's son, Frederick Louis). It was during George I's reign that the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 took place.
George died in a manner not befitting his royal status. In 1760, he was straining to get things moving in his intestinal tract when he felt so ill that he tried to ring for assistance and fell off the toilet. Hearing a loud noise and a thud coming from the bathroom, his servant ran in to help him. But it was too late - George wound up dying soon after. Doctors found that a ventricle in his heart had burst.
Godfrey IV, Duke Of Lower Lorraine Was Killed While He Answered The Call Of Nature
This 11th century monarch was known as the "Hunchback" for his stature. Despite his nickname, Godfrey was a well-thought-of leader in his own time, dubbed "a young man indeed with an excellent mind, but with a hump." His wife was his step-sister, Matilda of Canossa, an occasional military leader who ruled a large area of Italy and supported papal forces against imperial factions.
This 16th-century Japanese warlord was one of the most important figures of his age. Uesugi Kenshin started his ascension to fame when he saved the life of his daimyo, or feudal master, and demanded he adopt Kenshin as gratitude. In battle, Kenshin reportedly was such an effective leader that he didn't need to speak to command his troops, and communicated solely through gestures. An extraordinarily brave man well-known for his epic rivalries with other lords, he also had a great impact on Japanese military technology, transmitting the recipe for gunpowder to his armies.
Kenshin's epic life wasn't matched by his ignominious death. Legend has it that one of his rivals sent an assassin to hide in the sewer beneath his toilet. When Kenshin went to use the commode, the killer sprang up and skewered his target with a sword or spear.
Evelyn Waugh was a 20th-century British author with quite the interesting life. He dropped out of Oxford University before graduating, became an international journalist, and married a woman also named Evelyn. Also a soldier, Waugh wrote a lot about the military, which inspired his Brideshead Revisited; he also suffered from unrequited love and tons of physical ailments.
The circumstances of Waugh's passing are a bit unclear. Some speculate he not only died on the toilet but actually drowned in it. According to reports, Waugh returned from mass and headed to the toilet. When he didn't return, his family went looking for him and found him dead on the floor. One friend said he was found with water in his lungs, though that is disputed.
Whether he died on it or in it, Waugh definitely collapsed in relation to the commode in 1966 and passed soon after. It was common knowledge that Waugh was in poor health and his official cause of death was determined to be heart failure.
