Celebrities Who Were Murdered

1. John Lennon

John Winston (later Ono) Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, in Liverpool, England, to Julia Lennon (née Stanley) and Alfred Lennon, a merchant seaman. He was raised by his mother's older sister Mimi Smith. In the mid-1950s, he formed his first band, The Quarrymen (after Quarry Bank High School, ...

2. Sharon Tate

Actress | Valley of the Dolls

Sharon's early life was one of constant moving as her father served in the military. When she lived in Italy, she was voted "Homecoming Queen" of her high school. After being an extra in a few Italian films, Sharon headed to Hollywood where she would again start as an extra. Her first big break ...

3. Phil Hartman

Actor | NewsRadio

Phil Hartman was born Philip Edward Hartmann on September 24, 1948, in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. His surname was originally "Hartmann", but he later dropped the second "n". He was one of eight children of Doris Marguerite (Wardell) and Rupert Loebig Hartmann, a salesman. He was of German, Irish, ...

4. Christina Grimmie

Soundtrack | The Matchbreaker

Christina Grimmie was an American actress, singer, song writer, and YouTube sensation. Grimmie is known as 'zeldaxlove64' on YouTube. Grimmie gained recognition after posting covers of popular songs on YouTube. She also placed 2nd Runner up on The Voice. On June 10, 2016, Grimmie was shot three ...

5. Jam Master Jay

Soundtrack | Die Hard

Jam Master Jay was born on January 21, 1965 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Die Hard (1988), The Bounty Hunter (2010) and Friday Night Lights (2004). He was married to Terri Corley. He died on October 30, 2002 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA.

6. Marvin Gaye

Soundtrack | High Fidelity

Marvin Pentz Gay Jr. (known professionally as Marvin Gaye; April 2, 1939 - April 1, 1984) was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of successes, earning him the nicknames ...

7. Kurt Cobain

Soundtrack | The Batman

Kurt Cobain was born on February 20 1967, in Aberdeen, Washington. Kurt and his family lived in Hoquiam for the first few months of his life then later moved back to Aberdeen, where he had a happy childhood until his parents divorced. The divorce left Kurt's outlook on the world forever scarred. He...

8. Dimebag Darrell

Soundtrack | Triple Frontier

Dimebag Darrell was born on August 20, 1966 in Dallas, Texas, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Triple Frontier (2019), The Big Short (2015) and Lethal Weapon (2016). He died on December 8, 2004 in Columbus, Ohio, USA.

9. Tupac Shakur

Actor | Juice

Born in New York City, Tupac grew up primarily in Harlem. In 1984, his family moved to Baltimore, Maryland where he became good friends with Jada Pinkett Smith. His family moved again in 1988 to Oakland, California. His first breakthrough in music came in 1991 as a member of the group Digital ...

10. Sam Cooke

Soundtrack | Innerspace

Sam Cooke was born January 22, 1931 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He was one of eight children of Charles Cook Sr., a Baptist minister. When Sam sang as a little boy in church, everyone made note that his voice had "something special". He sang in church and in local gospel choirs until a group called...

11. Adrienne Shelly

Actress | Waitress

The late Adrienne Shelly was born in Queens, New York, to Elaine Langbaum and Sheldon Levine. After graduating Jericho High School in Jericho, New York, she enrolled at Boston University and majored in film production. She dropped out after her junior year and moved to Manhattan, where she made a ...

12. Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer

Actor | Second Childhood

Carl Switzer was an American child actor, singer, dog breeder, and hunting guide from Paris, Illinois. He became famous for portraying Alfalfa in the film series "Our Gang" during the 1930s. His character was one of the most memorable characters ever portrayed in the series. Later in his career, ...

13. Rebecca Schaeffer

Actress | Radio Days

Rebecca began modeling at the age of 16, going off to New York on her own to begin her career. Four months later, she found herself in Japan, modeling. Eventually, she landed a co-starring role on My Sister Sam (1986), for which she is now best known. In 1989 she also became a spokesperson for ...

14. Elizabeth Short

Elizabeth Short was born July 29th, 1924, in Medford, Massachusetts, to Phoebe and Cleo Short. When she was five her father disappeared; his car was later found near a lake, apparently abandoned, which led to the belief that he had committed suicide. However, he later appeared at home and ...

15. The Notorious B.I.G.

Soundtrack | Fast X

Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. Biggie Smalls, was born on May 21, 1972 in Brooklyn, New York. He was the son of Jamaican parents, Voletta Wallace, a pre-school teacher, and Selwyn George Latore, a welder and small-time politician. He was raised in the poor Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant. ...

16. Gianni Versace

Costume_designer | Judge Dredd

Gianni Versace was born on December 2, 1946 in Reggio di Calabria, Italy. He was a costume designer and production designer, known for Judge Dredd (1995), Showgirls (1995) and The Leading Man (1996). He died on July 15, 1997 in Miami Beach, Florida, USA.

17. Pier Paolo Pasolini

Writer | Il Decameron

Pier Paolo Pasolini achieved fame and notoriety long before he entered the film industry. A published poet at 19, he had already written numerous novels and essays before his first screenplay in 1954. His first film Accattone (1961) was based on his own novel and its violent depiction of the life ...

18. Bob Crane

Actor | Hogan's Heroes

Bob Crane was born in Waterbury, CT, the youngest of two sons. In school he was known for being a class clown and an intense music lover. His favorites were jazz and big band. Bob's specialty was the drums. After graduating from Stamford High School in 1946, he turned his attention to his love for ...

19. Lana Clarkson

Actress | Fast Times at Ridgemont High

This beautiful, long-legged blonde actress was known to be a kind, intelligent and dependable actor with a comedic talent as well. She appeared in many American TV hits of the 1970s and 1980s, such as Three's Company (1976), The Jeffersons (1975), The New Mike Hammer (1984), Riptide (1984), Knight ...

20. Sal Mineo

Actor | Exodus

Salvatore (Sal) Mineo Jr. was born to Josephine and Sal Sr. (a casket maker), who emigrated to the U.S. from Sicily. His siblings were Michael, Victor and Sarina. Sal was thrown out of parochial school and, by age eight, was a member of a street gang in a tough Bronx neighborhood. His mother ...

21. Robert Johnson

Soundtrack | The Skeleton Key

Robert Johnson was born on May 8, 1911 in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, USA. He was a writer, known for The Skeleton Key (2005), Chocolat (2000) and Holes (2003). He was married to Calleta "Callie" Craft and Virginia Travis. He died on August 13, 1938 in Greenwood, Mississippi, USA.

22. Judith Barsi

Actress | The Land Before Time

The only child of Jozsef Barsi and Maria Benko, Judith Eva Barsi beat 10,000-to-1 odds when she was discovered at a San Fernando Valley skating rink at age 5 1/2 in 1983 and mistaken for a three-year-old. Her first commercial was for Donald Duck Orange Juice and she went on to appear in anywhere ...

23. Ramon Novarro

Actor | Ben-Hur A Tale of the Christ

Ramon Novarro was born José Ramón Gil Samaniego on February 6, 1899 in Durango, Mexico, to Leonor (Gavilan) and Dr. Mariano N. Samaniego Siqueiros, a prosperous dentist. Ramon and his family moved to Los Angeles in 1913, as refugees from the Mexican Revolution. After stints as a ballet dancer, ...

24. Tara Correa-McMullen

Actress | Rebound

Tara Correa-McMullen was born on May 24, 1989 in Westminster, Vermont, USA. She was an actress, known for Rebound (2005), Judging Amy (1999) and Zoey 101 (2005). She died on October 21, 2005 in Inglewood, California, USA.

25. Terry Knight

Composer | The Incident

Terry Knight was born on April 9, 1943. He was a composer, known for The Incident (1967). He died on November 1, 2004 in Temple, Texas, USA.

26. Al Jackson Jr.

Soundtrack | Hellboy

Al Jackson Jr. was born on November 27, 1934 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. He was a composer, known for Hellboy (2004), X: First Class (2011) and Rush Hour (1998). He died on October 1, 1975 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.

27. Peter Tosh

Soundtrack | Savages

Peter Tosh was born on October 19, 1944 in Grange Hill, Jamaica. He was an actor and composer, known for Savages (2012), Pineapple Express (2008) and Lords of Dogtown (2005). He died on September 11, 1987 in Kingston, Jamaica.

28. Mia Zapata

Soundtrack | The Gits

Mia Zapata grew up listening to Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Jimmy Reed, Ray Charles and Hank Williams. She was also a gifted poet and artist. In the fall of 1986, she formed a rock band called The Gits with three classmates at Antioch College in Ohio. In 1989, they relocated to Seattle, where ...

29. Marie Trintignant

Actress | Colette, une femme libre

Marie Trintignant died tragically on the 1st of August, 2003 from a cerebral edema in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris, France, following a violent fight with her boyfriend, Bertrand Cantat, lead singer in the French rock band, Noir Désir. She was just finishing filming a TV movie about Colette, ...

30. Merlin Santana

Actor | The Steve Harvey Show

Merlin Santana was born in New York to parents from the Dominican Republic. His mother pushed him into a showbusiness career to keep him off the mean streets and out of trouble. He began as an advertising model for a fast-food chain at age 3, and soon became noticed as Stanley, one of Rudy ...

31. Barbara Colby

Actress | Mary Tyler Moore

At age 36, actress Barbara Colby was on the brink of TV-character stardom when the native New Yorker was senselessly shot and killed one evening on the streets of Los Angeles. The tall, toothy, husky-voiced, frizzy-haired actress equipped with a keen, Brooklyn-tough sensibility and dead-on comedy ...

32. Jam Master Jay

Soundtrack | Die Hard

Jam Master Jay was born on January 21, 1965 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Die Hard (1988), The Bounty Hunter (2010) and Friday Night Lights (2004). He was married to Terri Corley. He died on October 30, 2002 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA.

33. Mac Dre

Soundtrack | Fruitvale Station

Mac Dre was born on July 5, 1970 in Vallejo, California, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Fruitvale Station (2013), Blindspotting (2018) and All Day and a Night (2020). He died on November 1, 2004 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

34. David Mark Berger

David Mark Berger was born on May 24, 1944 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

35. Al Adamson

Director | Blood of Ghastly Horror

Although it is very unlikely that his admittedly cheap-'n'-cheesy films will ever be acknowledged as true works of cinematic art, producer/director/screenwriter Al Adamson did, nonetheless, make a slew of entertainingly trashy low-budget exploitation features for the drive-in market throughout the ...

36. Susan Cabot

Actress | The Wasp Woman

Susan Cabot was born in Boston and raised in a series of eight foster homes. She attended high school in Manhattan, where she took an interest in dramatics and joined the school dramatic club. Later, while trying to decide between a career in music or art, she illustrated children's books during ...

37. Katherine Walsh

Actress | The Chase

Actress, born in Northern Kentucky on April 11, 1947. The first born daughter out of five children born to Thomas and Martha Katherine Walsh. From the moment of birth, Kathy was not only beautiful and brilliant, but she had a confidence unlike that of most newborns. She was exceptionally talented ...

38. Al Singer

Self | Screen Snapshots Series 10, No. 6

Al Singer was born on September 6, 1909 in New York City, New York, USA. He died on April 20, 1961 in the USA.

39. Roger Troutman

Soundtrack | Venom

Roger Troutman was born on November 29, 1951 in Dayton, Ohio, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Venom (2018), Iron Man 2 (2010) and Pixels (2015). He died on April 25, 1999 in Dayton, Ohio, USA.

40. Euronymous

Soundtrack | Lords of Chaos

Euronymous was born on March 22, 1968 in Norway. He died on August 10, 1993 in Oslo, Norway.

41. Lou Perryman

Actor | The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

Excellent and engaging Texas-born character actor Lou Perryman never became a household name, but he nonetheless proved to be a substantial and delightful asset to the handful of movies he appeared in throughout the years. Perryman first became involved in the film business back in 1961 while on ...

42. Natalie Wood

Actress | Rebel Without a Cause

Natalie Wood was an American actress of Russian and Ukrainian descent. She started her career as a child actress and eventually transitioned into teenage roles, young adult roles, and middle-aged roles. She drowned off Catalina Island on November 29, 1981 at age 43.

Wood was born July 20, 1938 in ...

43. Thelma Todd

Actress | Horse Feathers

Thelma Todd was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, an industrial city near the New Hampshire state line. She was a lovely child with good academic tendencies, so much so that she decided early on to become a schoolteacher. After high school she went on to college but at her mother's insistence ...

44. Ronni Chasen

Driving Miss Daisy

Ronni Chasen was born Veronica Cohen in Kingston, New York. She always harbored childhood ambitions to be a publicist after Roy Rogers and Dale Evans made a personal appearance in Madison Square Garden. Ronnie shook hands with Evans, and later told everyone she saw that she "shook hands with the ...

45. Bob Crane