Weird History Famous Suicides List  

Notable Famous Deaths
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Whether it's a Hollywood celeb or another famous figure, this list of famous suicides goes to show fame doesn't always buy happiness. From Robin Williams to Swedish DJ Avicii, plenty of rich & famous stars struggle with mental health—among other hardships. To put things into perspective, just check out this complete list of the most famous suicides in history, including a lot of Hollywood suicides.

Some of these famous suicides happened by overdose, as many of those who took their own lives were consumed by depression. An actor or two on this list was also believed to have killed himself, though the results of his death report has been disputed. The list below shows all celebrity suicides and all other notable people who ended their lives. What celebrities have committed suicide? This list also includes information about the methods of committing suicide used by each of these famous people who killed themselves. In short, numerous notable actors, musicians, and other famous professionals have become victims of suicide.

If you find this list interesting, check out these lists of famous suicide notes and of these suicidal celebrities who attempted to kill themselves.

Aaron Swartz is listed (or ranked) 1 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 27 (1986-2013) Aaron Hillel Swartz was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer and Internet hacktivist who was involved in the development of the web feed format RSS and the ...more

Abbie Hoffman is listed (or ranked) 2 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 53 (1936-1989) Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman was an American political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party. Hoffman was arrested and tried for conspiracy and inciting to ...more

Ahn Jae-hwan is listed (or ranked) 3 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 36 (1972-2008) South Korean actor, carbon monoxide poisoning Ahn Jae-hwan was a South Korean actor. His wife was comedienne Jung Sun-hee. Ahn was found dead in his car on September 8, but the exact time of his death has not been revealed; police confirmed ...more

Albert Ayler is listed (or ranked) 4 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 34 (1936-1970) American jazz saxophonist, jumped into New York City's East River Albert Ayler was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer and composer. Ayler began recording music during the free jazz era of the 1960s, but some critics claim that, although his style ...more

Alice de Janzé is listed (or ranked) 5 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 42 (1899-1941) American heiress, committed suicide with a firearm. Alice de Janzé, née Silverthorne, also known as Alice de Trafford and holder of the noble title Comtesse de Janzé for a few years, was an American heiress who spent years in ...more

Alfred Henry Maurer is listed (or ranked) 6 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 64 (1868-1932) Alfred Henry Maurer was an American modernist painter. He exhibited his work in avant-garde circles internationally and in New York City during the early twentieth century. Highly respected ...more

Alfred, Hereditary Prince of S... is listed (or ranked) 7 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 25 (1874-1899) Member of the British Royal Family, shot himself Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, born Prince Alfred of Edinburgh, was the only son and heir apparent of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, later Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

Allyn King is listed (or ranked) 8 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 31 (1899-1930) Allyn S. King was an American stage and film actress and singer who began her career in vaudeville, and later as a Ziegfeld Follies performer. King's 1930 suicide was the end result of her long ...more

Ambrose Olsen is listed (or ranked) 9 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 25 (1985-2010) Ambrose Olsen was an American male fashion model. He was known for appearing in dozens of ad campaigns for Armani and Hugo Boss.

Andre Waters is listed (or ranked) 10 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 44 (1962-2006) Andre Waters was an NFL safety who played for the Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals from 1984 to 1995. Waters was regarded as one of the NFL's hardest-hitting defenders, serving as an ...more

Anne Sexton is listed (or ranked) 11 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 46 (1928-1974) Anne Sexton was an American poet, known for her highly personal, confessional verse. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967 for her book Live or Die. Themes of her poetry include her long ...more

Andrew Koenig is listed (or ranked) 12 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 42 (1968-2010) Joshua Andrew Koenig, was an American character actor, film director, editor, writer, and human rights activist.

Anthony Bourdain is listed (or ranked) 13 on the list Famous Suicides List
age 61

Died at 61 (1956 - 2018)

 Anthony Michael Bourdain is an American chef, author, and television personality. He is a 1978 graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and a veteran of numerous professional kitchens, ...more

Antonin Moine is listed (or ranked) 14 on the list Famous Suicides List
Antonin Moine Dec. at 53 (1796-1849) Antonin-Marie Moine was a French romantic sculptor in the first half of the 19th century.

Assia Wevill is listed (or ranked) 15 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 42 (1927-1969) German born lover of English poet Ted Hughes; murder-suicide of her daughter with Hughes, gas Assia Wevill was a German-born woman who escaped the Nazis, living in Mandate Palestine and later in Britain, where she had a relationship with the English poet Ted Hughes. She killed herself ...more

Avicii is listed (or ranked) 16 on the list Famous Suicides List
age 28 Tim Bergling, better known by his stage name Avicii, is a Swedish EDM DJ, remixer, and a country and electro house record producer. Avicii ranked 3rd on DJ Magazine '​s annual Top 100 DJs in ...more

Beatrice Hastings is listed (or ranked) 17 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 64 (1879-1943) Beatrice Hastings was the pen name of Emily Alice Haigh an English writer, poet and literary critic. Much of her work was published in The New Age under a variety of pseudonyms, and she lived ...more

Benjamin Hendrickson is listed (or ranked) 18 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 56 (1950-2006) Benjamin Hendrickson was an American actor known for playing Harold "Hal" Munson, Jr., the Chief of Detectives for the mythical town of Oakdale on the daytime soap opera, As the World

Bob Welch is listed (or ranked) 19 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 67 (1945-2012) Robert Lawrence "Bob" Welch was an American musician. A former member of Fleetwood Mac, Welch had a successful solo career in the late 1970s. His singles included "Hot Love, Cold ...more

Brian Bianchini is listed (or ranked) 20 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 26 (1978-2004) Brian Leo Bianchini was an American male model, and occasional film actor, active from the late 1990s through the mid-2000s.

Brad Delp is listed (or ranked) 21 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 56 (1951-2007) Bradley Edward Delp was an American musician, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock bands Boston and RTZ.

Butch Trucks is listed (or ranked) 22 on the list Famous Suicides List
age 70

Drummer for the Allman Brothers Band, shot himself in West Palm Beach, FL, on January 24, 2017.

 Claude Hudson "Butch" Trucks is an American drummer who is one of the founding members of The Allman Brothers Band. One of Trucks' first bands was local Jacksonville band The Vikings, ...more

Carole Landis is listed (or ranked) 23 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 29 (1919-1948) Carole Landis was an American film and stage actress, who worked as a contract-player for Twentieth Century-Fox in the 1940s. Her breakthrough role was as the female lead in the 1940 film One ...more

Charles Rocket is listed (or ranked) 24 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 56 (1949-2005) Charles Adams Claverie —known by such stage names as Charlie Hamburger, Charlie Kennedy, and, most famously, Charles Rocket—was an American film and television actor. He was best known for his ...more

Charlotte Dawson is listed (or ranked) 25 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 48 (1966-2014) Charlotte Dawson was a New Zealand–Australian television personality. Her death by suicide attracted Australia-wide news coverage. She was known in New Zealand for her roles as host of Getaway, ...more

Chester Bennington is listed (or ranked) 26 on the list Famous Suicides List
age 42 Chester Charles Bennington is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor. He is best known as the lead vocalist of rock bands Linkin Park and Dead by Sunrise. He was originally the lead ...more

Christiane Pflug is listed (or ranked) 27 on the list Famous Suicides List
Christiane Pflug Dec. at 36 (1936-1972) Christiane Pflug was a German-born Canadian painter and draughtswoman. During her short lifetime Pflug established a successful career in Canada. She held a teaching position at the Ontario Art ...more

Chris Acland is listed (or ranked) 28 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 30 (1966-1996) British drummer for the band Lush, hanging Christopher John Dyke Acland was an English musician. He was the drummer of the London-based shoegazing and Britpop band Lush.

Chris Benoit is listed (or ranked) 29 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 40 (1967-2007) Professional wrestler, hung himself after murdering his wife and son. Christopher Michael Benoit(May 21, 1967 – June 24, 2007) was a Canadian professional wrestler who wrestled for Extreme Championship Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, and World Wrestling ...more

Chris Cornell is listed (or ranked) 30 on the list Famous Suicides List
Died at 52 (1965-2017) Chris Cornell is an American rock musician and singer-songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist, primary songwriter and rhythm guitarist for Seattle rock band Soundgarden and as former lead ...more

Clara Bloodgood is listed (or ranked) 31 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 37 (1870-1907) Clara Bloodgood was an American socialite who became a successful Broadway stage actress.

Clayne Jeffs is listed (or ranked) 32 on the list Famous Suicides List
Clayne Jeffs Nephew of Warren Jeffs, committed suicide with a firearm after admitting that Warren Jeffs had sexually assaulted him as a child.

Cliff Davies is listed (or ranked) 33 on the list Famous Suicides List
Cliff Davies Dec. at 60 (1948-2008) Clifford Davies known by his stage name Cliff Davies was a British drummer, songwriter and producer.

Clodius Albinus is listed (or ranked) 34 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 47 (150-197) Roman emperor, killed himself after a defeat in battle Clodius Albinus was a Roman usurper who was proclaimed emperor by the legions in Britain and Hispania after the murder of Pertinax in 193, and who proclaimed himself emperor again in 196, before ...more

Dalida is listed (or ranked) 35 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 54 (1933-1987) Yolanda Cristina Gigliotti, best known as Dalida, was an Italian singer and actress who performed and recorded in more than 10 languages, including Arabic, Italian, Greek, German, French, ...more

Dana Plato is listed (or ranked) 36 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 35 (1964-1999) Dana Michelle Plato was an American actress notable for playing the role of Kimberly Drummond on the U.S. television sitcom Diff'rent Strokes from 1978 to 1986. After leaving the cast of ...more

Danielle Collobert is listed (or ranked) 37 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 38 (1940-1978) Danielle Collobert was a French author, poet and journalist, born in Rostrenen, Côtes-d'Armor on 23 July 1940. She died, by her own hand, in Paris on 23 July 1978. Her mother, a teacher, ...more

Daul Kim is listed (or ranked) 38 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 20 (1989-2009) Kim Daul was an international South Korean fashion model, Painter and blogger. She committed suicide at the age of 20.

Darren Sutherland is listed (or ranked) 39 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 27 (1982-2009) Darren John Sutherland was an Irish professional boxer from Mulhuddart, County Dublin, Ireland. His amateur career was crowned by a bronze medal for Ireland in the middleweight division at the ...more

Deborah Digges is listed (or ranked) 40 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 59 (1950-2009) Deborah Digges was an American poet and teacher.

David Foster Wallace is listed (or ranked) 41 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 46 (1962-2008) David Foster Wallace was an American author of novels, short stories and essays, as well as a professor of English and creative writing. Wallace is widely known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest, ...more

Deborah Laake is listed (or ranked) 42 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 47 (1953-2000) Deborah Laake was a columnist at the Dallas Morning News in the 1980s and later a staff writer, columnist, editor, and executive at the Phoenix New Times. She was famous for her 1993 book ...more

Diane Arbus is listed (or ranked) 43 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 48 (1923-1971) American photographer, overdosed on pills and slashed wrists Diane Arbus was an American photographer and writer noted for photographs of "deviant and marginal people or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal". Arbus believed a camera ...more

Doodles Weaver is listed (or ranked) 44 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 72 (1911-1983) Winstead Sheffield Glenndenning Dixon Weaver, known professionally as Doodles Weaver, was an American character actor, comedian and musician. Born into a wealthy West Coast family, Weaver began ...more

Dorothy Hale is listed (or ranked) 45 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 33 (1905-1938) Dorothy Hale was an American socialite and aspiring actress who killed herself by jumping off a building in New York City. Hale was considered a remarkably beautiful woman with less remarkable ...more

Dorothy Uhnak is listed (or ranked) 46 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 76 (1930-2006) Dorothy Uhnak [ˈjunæk] was an American novelist.

Douglas Hemphill Elliott is listed (or ranked) 47 on the list Famous Suicides List
Douglas Hemphill Elliott Dec. at 39 (1921-1960) Douglas Hemphill Elliott was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. Douglas H. Elliott was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended the schools of ...more

Drake Sather is listed (or ranked) 48 on the list Famous Suicides List
Dec. at 45 (1959-2004) Drake Sather was an American stand-up comedian and Emmy nominated television writer. His credits include Zoolander, Saturday Night Live, Dennis Miller Show, Ed and NewsRadio. Sather was born in ...more

Edgar Mittelholzer is listed (or ranked) 49 on the list Famous Suicides List
Edgar Mittelholzer Dec. at 56 (1909-1965) Edgar Austin Mittelholzer was a Guyanese novelist, the earliest novelist from the West Indian region to establish himself in Europe and gain a significant European readership. Mittelholzer, who ...more

Edward Matthew Ward is listed (or ranked) 50 on the list Famous Suicides List
Edward Matthew Ward Dec. at 63 (1816-1879) Edward Matthew Ward RA was an English Victorian narrative painter best known for his murals in the Palace of Westminster depicting episodes in British history from the English Civil War to the ...more