people gone too soon: remembering 65 celebrities who died far too young

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. John Belushi

Actor | Saturday Night Live

John Belushi was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, on January 24, 1949, to Agnes Demetri (Samaras) and Adam Anastos Belushi, a restaurant owner. His father was an Albanian immigrant, from Qytezë, and his mother was also of Albanian descent. He grew up in Wheaton, where the family moved when he was ...

3. Grace Kelly

Actress | Dial M for Murder

On November 12, 1929, Grace Patricia Kelly was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to wealthy parents. Her girlhood was uneventful for the most part, but one of the things she desired was to become an actress which she had decided on at an early age. After her high school graduation in 1947, Grace ...

4. Jessica Savitch

Actress | Nasty Habits

Jessica Savitch was born on February 1, 1947 in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Her father suddenly died when she was just 12 years old. It was he that encouraged her for a career in broadcast journalism. Jessica first considered a career in broadcasting while in high school. A friend then got her a ...

5. Karen Carpenter

Soundtrack | Paul Williams: Still Alive

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Karen Carpenter moved with her family to Downey, California, in 1963. Karen's older brother, Richard Carpenter, decided to put together an instrumental trio with him on the piano, Karen on the drums and their friend Wes Jacobs on the bass and tuba. In a battle of the...

6. Ricky Nelson

Actor | The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet

Ricky Nelson was born on May 8, 1940 in Teaneck, New Jersey, USA as Eric Hilliard Nelson. He was an actor, known for The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet (1952) and Rio Bravo (1959). He was married to Kristin Harmon. He died on December 31, 1985 in De Kalb, Texas, USA.

7. Christa McAuliffe

Self | The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

Christa McAuliffe was born on September 2, 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She was married to Steven McAuliffe. She died on January 28, 1986 in over Atlantic Ocean.

8. Andy Gibb

Soundtrack | Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle

A blessing or a curse? Every silver lining has a cloud, yet sadly Andrew Roy Gibb had to find that out the hard way. Born the fifth and final child to parents Barbara (17 November 1920-12 August 2016) and Hugh Gibb (15 January 1916-6 March 1992) Andy grew up with his three older siblings dominating...

9. 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 ...

10. Ryan White

Actor | The Ryan White Story

Ryan White was born in Kokomo, Indiana in 1971. A hemophiliac, Ryan regularly needed injections of blood products to survive. In 1985 at the age of 13, it was discovered that Ryan contracted the AIDS virus, sometime during the previous year, from tainted blood. His case got national attention when ...

11. Gilda Radner

Actress | Saturday Night Live

Gilda Radner was one of the great comic geniuses of the 20th century, ranked with Lucille Ball and other comedy legends of the highest caliber. She was born on June 28, 1946, in Detroit, Michigan, the younger of two children of Henrietta (Dworkin), a legal secretary, and Herman Radner, a ...

12. Jim Henson

Soundtrack | The Muppet Show

Jim Henson never thought that he would make a name of himself in puppetry; it was merely a way of getting himself on television. The vehicle that achieved it was Sam and Friends (1955), a late-night puppet show that was on after the 11:00 news in Washington DC. It proved to be very popular and ...

13. River Phoenix

Actor | My Own Private Idaho

River Phoenix was born River Jude Bottom in Madras, Oregon. His mother, Arlyn (Dunetz), a Bronx-born secretary, and his father, John Bottom, a carpenter, met in California in 1968. They worked as itinerant fruit pickers, and later joined the Children of God religious group (John was originally ...

14. John Candy

Actor | Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Candy was one of Canada's greatest and funniest character actors. His well-known role as the big hearted buffoon earned him classics in Uncle Buck (1989) and Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987). His career has handed him some dry spells but Candy always rebounded.

Born in Newmarket, Ontario, in ...

15. 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...

16. Elizabeth Glaser

And the Band Played On

Elizabeth Glaser was born on November 11, 1947 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for And the Band Played On (1993), Convention '92 (1992) and Wogan (1982). She was married to Paul Michael Glaser. She died on December 3, 1994 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

17. Selena

Soundtrack | Don Juan DeMarco

Selena was born in Lake Jackson, Texas, 50 miles southeast of Houston, to Abraham Quintanilla Jr. and Marcella Quintanilla. Abraham opened a Mexican restaurant, Papagayo, in Lake Jackson. Selena was 9 years old when her father discovered her talent for singing. He formed a band consisting of Selena...

18. Jerry Garcia

Soundtrack | The Box

One of the most prolific and iconic guitarists of the second half of the 20th Century, Jerome John Garcia was born in San Francisco, California, USA on August 1st 1942. Garcia, whose mother was a registered nurse and whose father, Jose, was a small time jazz musician, had a troubled childhood. At ...

19. Margaux Hemingway

Actress | Killer Fish

Born in Portland, Oregon, she grew up in on a farm in Ketchum, Idaho. But dad was Jack Hemingway, son of the Nobel prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway and, with that heritage, fame was almost foreordained. By the time she was 21, after the lead in the rape melodrama Lipstick (1976), she had a ...

20. JonBenét Ramsey

Born JonBenet Patricia Ramsey, at Northside Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia on August 6th, 1990 to John Bennett Ramsey and Patricia Paugh Ramsey. JonBenet moved to Colorado with her family when she was just a year old. Her first name is a combination of her father's first and middle names, John ...

21. 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.

22. Princess Diana

Self | Charles & Diana: Never Meant to Be

Princess Diana was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, and the mother of Prince William and Prince Harry. Diana's activism and glamour made her an international icon and earned her an enduring popularity.

Diana was born into the British nobility ...

23. John Denver

Soundtrack | Armageddon

His birth occurred on Friday, December 31st, 1943, as the son of an Air Force officer, Denver was constantly moved from state to state and country to country. It was in Tucson, Arizona, that his grandmother gave him his first acoustic guitar, a gift that would prove an icebreaker when meeting other...

24. 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, ...

25. Dana Plato

Actress | Diff'rent Strokes

Dana Michelle Plato was born in Maywood, California, on Saturday, November 7, 1964. Her first excursion into the film world occurred when she was 11 in the television film Beyond the Bermuda Triangle (1975). Dana never made an impact on the TV screen until she landed the role of Kimberly Drummond ...

26. John Kennedy Jr.

Actor | A Matter of Degrees

John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. was born on November 25, 1960, in Washington, DC, to John Fitzgerald Kennedy (President-to-be John F. Kennedy) and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy (Jacqueline Kennedy). Three weeks before his birth, his father was elected President of the United States, and the nation ...

27. John Ritter

Actor | Sling Blade

Jonathan Southworth Ritter was born in Burbank, California, on September 17, 1948. He was the son of legendary country singer/actor Tex Ritter (born Woodward Maurice Ritter) and his wife, actress Dorothy Fay (née Dorothy Fay Southworth). The couple married in 1941 and had their first child, Tom ...

28. Christopher Reeve

Actor | Superman

Christopher D'Olier Reeve was born September 25, 1952, in New York City, to journalist Barbara Johnson (née Barbara Pitney Lamb) and writer/professor F.D. Reeve (Franklin D'Olier Reeve). He came from an upper-class family; his paternal grandfather was CEO of Prudential Financial, and one of his ...

29. Dana Reeve

Actress | Everyone's Hero

Dana Reeve was born on March 17, 1961 in Teaneck, New Jersey, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for Everyone's Hero (2006), Loving (1983) and Above Suspicion (1995). She was married to Christopher Reeve. She died on March 6, 2006 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.

30. Steve Irwin

Actor | Dr. Dolittle 2

Steve Irwin was born in 1962 to parents Lyn and Bob Irwin, who were animal naturalists. He shared the love for animals all his life, stemming from being raised at the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park. There, he partook in daily duties of animal feeding and care. He quickly established himself with...

31. Anna Nicole Smith

Actress | Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult

Anna Nicole Smith was born on November 28, 1967 in Houston, Texas, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994), Be Cool (2005) and Illegal Aliens (2007). She was married to J. Howard Marshall II and Billy Smith. She died on February 8, 2007 in Hollywood...

32. Freddie Prinze

Actor | Chico and the Man

Freddie Prinze was born Frederick Karl Pruetzel in New York City, New York, to a Puerto Rican mother, Aurea Elena Ruiz, and a German immigrant father, Edward Karl Pruetzel. Freddie grew up in the Washington Heights section of New York City. As a chubby child, he was often bullied, but was quite ...

33. Brad Davis

Actor | Midnight Express

Born in Florida in 1949, Brad Davis moved to Georgia after graduating from high school to pursue an acting career. From there, he moved to New York City, twice, to find work. By the early 1970s Davis was acting in off-Broadway plays while studying acting at the Academy of Dramatic Arts. His stage ...

34. Jon-Erik Hexum

Actor | Voyagers!

In the early 1980s, this ruggedly handsome young American actor of Norwegian parentage was seen as the "next big thing", and then suddenly he was dead from an accident via a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The son of Thorleif Hexum (born in Norway) and Gretha Paulsen (born in Minnesota), Jon-Erik ...

35. Brandon Lee

Actor | The Crow

Born on February 1, 1965 to Bruce Lee (Martial Arts idol) and Linda Lee Cadwell. Brother to Shannon Lee. In 1970-71, they moved to Hong Kong, where Brandon lived until age eight, becoming fluent in Cantonese. By the time he was able to walk, he was already involved in learning about martial arts ...

36. Heather O'Rourke

Actress | Poltergeist

Heather Michele O'Rourke was born on December 27, 1975 in Santee, San Diego, California, to Kathleen, a seamstress, and Michael O'Rourke, a construction worker. She had German, Danish, English, and Irish ancestry.

Heather entered American cinematic pop-culture before first grade. She was sitting ...

37. Michael O'Donoghue

Writer | Mr. Mike's Mondo Video

Michael O'Donoghue was born on January 5, 1940 in Sauquoit, New York, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (1979), Saturday Night Live (1975) and Manhattan (1979). He was married to Cheryl Hardwick and Janice Bickel. He died on November 8, 1994 in New York City, New York...

38. Alexander Godunov

Actor | Die Hard

He was born on Sakhalin Island at the far eastern end of the former Soviet Union and began studying dance at age 9 in the Riga State Ballet School. He later said his mother put him there to prevent his becoming "a hooligan". One of his classmates and friends at the school was Mikhail Baryshnikov. ...

39. Chris Farley

Actor | Tommy Boy

Christopher Crosby Farley was born on February 15, 1964, in Madison, Wisconsin, to Mary Anne (Crosby) and Thomas Farley, who owned an oil company. Among his siblings are actors Kevin P. Farley and John Farley. He was of Irish heritage. Farley studied theatre and communications on Marquette ...

40. David Strickland

Actor | Suddenly Susan

David Strickland was born in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York, on October 14, 1969. Raised in Princeton, New Jersey, he never thought about an acting career until moving to the LA suburb of Pacific Palisades while in high school. Instead of going to college, he joined a theater company and began ...

41. Charlotte Coleman

Actress | Four Weddings and a Funeral

Charlotte Coleman was born in Islington, London, England as Charlotte Ninon Coleman. She was an actress, known for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1989), Worzel Gummidge (1979-1982), Educating Marmalade (1983), Danger: Marmalade at Work (1984) and Beautiful ...

42. Josh Ryan Evans

Actor | Passions

Despite being one of the smallest actors in Hollywood at 37 inches, Josh proved quality early on in life. By creating and distributing his own business cards before he was even a teenager, Josh landed a spot on "The Dancing Baby" ice cream commercial, which led to his role in Baby Geniuses (1999), ...

43. Robert Pastorelli

Actor | Striking Distance

Beefy, roughhewn actor Robert Pastorelli was a former boxer and an admitted drug addict before he cleaned up his act and pursued theater work in New York in such 1970s productions as "Rebel Without a Cause," "The Rainmaker," and "Death of a Salesman," he headed west and turned to film and TV in ...

44. Matthew McGrory

Actor | Big Fish

Originally a student of pre-law at Widener University, and later majoring in Criminal Justice at West Chester University, Matthew started his career by making appearances on The Howard Stern Show (1990), The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986), and music videos of Iron Maiden, Marilyn Manson, and Blondie. ...

45. Chris Penn

Actor | Reservoir Dogs

Christopher Shannon Penn was born on October 10, 1965 in Los Angeles, California, the third son of actress Eileen Ryan (née Annucci) and director, actor, and writer Leo Penn. His siblings are musician Michael Penn and actor Sean Penn. His father was from a Lithuanian Jewish/Russian Jewish family, ...

46. Elvis Presley

Soundtrack | Girls! Girls! Girls!

Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935 in East Tupelo, Mississippi, to Gladys Presley (née Gladys Love Smith) and Vernon Presley (Vernon Elvis Presley). He had a twin brother who was stillborn. In 1948, Elvis and his parents moved to Memphis, Tennessee where he attended Humes High School. ...

47. Stevie Ray Vaughan

Soundtrack | Unbreakable

Stevie Ray Vaughan was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist from Dallas, Texas. He was the main guitarist and frontman for the musical trio "Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble" from 1978 to his death in 1990. Vaughan and his band-mates specialized in blues rock, and Vaughan was a key ...

48. Freddie Mercury

Soundtrack | Flash Gordon

Freddie Mercury was born on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar. His parents, Bomi and Jer Bulsara, sent him off to a private school in India, from 1955 til 1963. In 1964, he and his family flew to England. In 1966 he started his education at the Ealing College of Art, where he graduated in 1969. He ...

49. 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 ...

50. 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. ...

51. Michael Hutchence

Soundtrack | Donnie Darko

Michael Hutchence is one of the greatest singers and performers in Australia's history, with a career that spanned 20 years. Born to Kelland Hutchence and Patricia Hutchence (a film and television make-up artist), Michael was the second of three children. He grew up in Hong Kong, USA, and Australia...

52. Paula Yates

Self | Have I Got News for You

Paula Yates was born on April 24, 1959 in Colwyn Bay, Wales, UK. She was a writer, known for Have I Got News for You (1990), The Tube (1982) and Sex with Paula (1995). She was married to Bob Geldof. She died on September 17, 2000 in Notting Hill, London, England, UK.

53. Rob Pilatus

Actor | Das Erbe der Guldenburgs

Rob Pilatus was born on June 8, 1964 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. He was an actor, known for Das Erbe der Guldenburgs (1987), Rob & Fab: We Can Get It On (1992) and Milli Vanilli: Blame It on the Rain (1989). He died on April 2, 1998 in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany.

54. Wendy O. Williams

Actress | Reform School Girls

Wendy O. Williams was born on May 28, 1949 in Rochester, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Reform School Girls (1986), Pucker Up and Bark Like a Dog (1989) and The Legend of Billie Jean (1985). She died on April 6, 1998 in Storrs, Connecticut, USA.

55. Joey Ramone

Soundtrack | Rock 'n' Roll High School

Joey Ramone was born Jeffrey Ross Hyman and the lead singer of the four-member punk-rock band the Ramones. In 1974, the band began in Queens, New York, when as he said "The only thing that you heard on the radio was disco." By 1976, the band became a major force in the evolution of rock-n-roll; ...

56. Aaliyah

Soundtrack | Romeo Must Die

Talented. Beautiful. Modest. These three words described R&B singer-turned-actress Aaliyah perfectly.

Aaliyah Dana Haughton was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Diane (Hankerson) and Michael Haughton. Her uncle was music manager Barry Hankerson and her brother is director Rashad Haughton. Aaliyah was ...

57. Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes

Soundtrack | Captain Marvel

Controversial, flamboyant, and spontaneous are probably the best words to describe Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes. Born in Philadelphia, and raised throughout the world as the daughter of a U.S. Army serviceman, Lisa Lopes became one of the most important trendsetters in the 1990s music scene. After ...

58. Luther Vandross

Soundtrack | The Goonies

Designated the "heartbeat" of R&B during the 1980s and 1990s, Luther Vandross led a productive singing and songwriting life before to this preeminence. The soul balladeer's strong commitment to the art of music continued on its Grammy-winning course, even after an acute stroke in 2003 left him ...

59. Sergei Grinkov

Self | Greatest Hits on Ice

Sergei started skating at the age of five. Russian born. He was Russian to his soul. He started as a single skater but was paired up with his only partner Ekaterina Gordeeva in 1982 when he was 15. They won the Junior World Championships in 1985 after placing 5th the year before. In 1986 they won ...

60. Payne Stewart

Actor | We Married Margo

Payne Stewart was born in Springfield, Missouri, on Wednesday, January 30th, 1957. He and his wife, Tracy Stewart (nee, Ferguson), were married on Tuesday, November 10th, 1981. They had 2 children, Chelsea, and William Aaron. Over the course of his PGA career, he won eleven PGA Tour events, ...

61. Dale Earnhardt

Actor | BASEketball

Ralph Dale Earnhardt, born April 29, 1951, in Kannapolis, North Carolina, was the son of NASCAR Grand National champion Ralph Earnhardt and his wife Martha. His Winston Cup career started with a bang, winning the Rookie of the Year in 1979 and his first of his championships in 1980, to date the ...

62. Adam Petty

Self | NASCAR on CBS

Adam Petty was born on July 10, 1980 in High Point, North Carolina, USA. He died on May 12, 2000 in Loudon, New Hampshire, USA.

63. Kenny Irwin Jr.

Self | ESPN Speedworld

Kenny Irwin Jr. was born on August 5, 1969 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. He died on July 7, 2000 in Loudon, New Hampshire, USA.

64. Cory Lidle

Self | Sunday Night Baseball

Cory Lidle was born on March 22, 1972 in Hollywood, California, USA. He was married to Melanie Varela Lidle. He died on October 11, 2006 in New York City, New York, USA.

65. Keiko

Actor | Free Willy

Keiko, a Genus Orca whale, was born in 1976 and captured off the coast of Iceland in 1979. He was sold to the marine park industry, and in 1985 he arrived to Reino Aventura in Mexico City where and lived a normal life for a captive whale until 1993. In that year, he was cast as "Willy" in the movie...