Random Entertainers Who Died While Performing (63 items)

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  (#1) John Ritter

  • Dec. at 55 (1948-2003)

  John Ritter died on September 11, 2003, after he fell ill on the set of his show "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter." He was rushed to the hospital where he was misdiagnosed with a heart attack. He was later found to have had an aortic dissection, but it was too late to save his life.
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  (#2) Steve Irwin

  • Dec. at 44 (1962-2006)

  On September 4, 2006, Steve Irwin was filming the documentary series Ocean's Deadliest at Batt Reef near Port Douglas, Queensland when he decided to snorkel nearby during a break. While swimming in shallow water, Irwin was stabbed a stingray's barb, which pierced his heart and caused him to bleed to death. 
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  (#3) Carmen Miranda

  • Dec. at 46 (1909-1955)

  On August 4, 1955, Carmen Miranda collapsed while performing on "The Jimmy Durante Show." She regained her composure and finished the performance, but she suffered a fatal heart attack the following morning.
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  (#4) John Candy

  • Dec. at 44 (1950-1994)

  John Candy died of a heart attack on March 4, 1994 while on location in Mexico filming "Wagons East!." He was 43 years old.
  
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  (#5) Brandon Lee

  • Dec. at 28 (1965-1993)

  Brandon Lee died on March 31, 1993 after being accidentally shot on the set of "The Crow." A prop gun was not properly secured, causing the fatal accident. He was 28 years old.
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  (#6) Col. Bruce Hampton (Ret.)

  • 71

  Bruce Hampton - sometimes known at Col. Bruce Hampton Ret. - died on May 1, 2017, during a concert in honor of his birthday. The musician, who turned 70 on April 30, was playing an encore performance when he collapsed. Many in the audience and on stage thought it was part of his performance, which delayed their reactions.

  He died a few hours later at an Atlanta hospital.
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  (#7) Redd Foxx

  • Dec. at 69 (1922-1991)

  Redd Foxx died on October 11, 1991 after suffering a heart attack on the set of "The Royal Family." When he first grabbed his chest, several members of the cast and crew thought that he was joking, performing the gag that he made famous on "Sanford and Son."
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  (#8) Sib Hashian

  • 69

  Sib Hashian, former drummer for the band Boston, died on March 22, 2017, at the age of 67. He was performing at sea as part of the Legends of Rock Cruise when he suddenly collapsed. Efforts to perform CPR and use of a defibrillator were unsuccessful. Hashian joined Boston in 1975 and performed on their 1976 self-titled debut, as well as Don’t Look Back and Third Stage, before leaving the group.

  Said self-titled debut was a monster, with almost every song dominating the airwaves and suburban bedroom turntables of the mid-to-late '70s. With this LP a fixture in American households in this era, perhaps Hashian’s greatest claim to fame was being known as the white guy with the coolest afro around, given his placement smack in the middle of the iconic band photo on the back cover of Boston.
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  (#9) Vic Morrow

  • Dec. at 53 (1929-1982)

  Vic Morrow died on July 23, 1982 after a helicopter crashed on him and two child actors while filming "Twilight Zone: The Movie." He was decapitated by the helicopter rotor.
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  (#10) Nick Menza

  • 54

  Former Megadeath drummer Nick Menza died on stage in 2016. The 51-year-old was performing in Los Angeles with his progressive jazz trio when he suddenly collapsed. Audience members delivered CPR, but could not revive him. It is suspected that he died of a heart attack.

  Menza performed on five Megadeth albums (making him the band's longest-serving dummer), before leaving in 1998 to pursue his interest in jazz.
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  (#11) Jane Little

  Bass player Jane Little played with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for 71 years. She died performing onstage when she was 87 years old. Little first started with the orchestra for free when she was 16 years old. Over the years, she started making a salary and even met her late husband, the orchestra's principal flute player, through her work. In the months before her death, she was honored by the Guinness Book of Records for playing in the symphony for so many years.
  
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  (#12) Irma Bule

  Indonesian singer Irma Bule died after using a cobra as a prop during a performance in Karawang, West Java. Bule, who sang a type of Indonesian folk music called Dangdut, routinely used snakes in her performances. According to witnesses, she believed that the cobra in her April, 2016 show had been defanged. So when it bit her after she stepped on its tail during her second song, she continued to perform. Fourty-five minutes later, she began to vomit and sieze on stage. She was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
  
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  (#13) Raphael Schumacher

  In 2016, actor Raphael Schumacher was performing a hanging scene in the courtyard of Pisa's Teatro Lux when a spectator noticed that he was actually being choked to death. The spectator was a medial graduate and saw that Schumacher was trembling beneath his head covering. She and another person in the crowd helped get him down, but it was too late. He was taken to a hospital, where doctors suspected he was brain dead.

  The play's producers said that Schumacher changed the script at the last minute that day. The scene had originally included a gun shot, but Schumacher switched it to a hanging without notifying the crew.
• 

  (#14) Owen Hart

  • Dec. at 34 (1965-1999)

  Professional wrestler Owen Hart died on May 23, 1999 after falling to his death when a stunt went wrong during a pay-per-view event. He died because of internal bleeding as a result of his injuries.
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  (#15) Marty Feldman

  • Dec. at 48 (1934-1982)

  Marty Feldman died of a heart attack on December 2, 1982 while on location in Mexico filming "Yellowbeard." He was 48 years old.
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  (#16) Dimebag Darrell

  • Dec. at 38 (1966-2004)

  Pantera musician Dimebag Darrell was shot and killed on Dec. 8, 2004 during a performance with his band Damageplan. The gunman Nathan Gale did not give any reason for the shooting, but it is suspected that he was angry that Pantera had broken up.
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  (#17) Sam Patch

  • Dec. at 22 (1807-1829)

  Daredevil Sam Patch died on November 13, 1829 while attempting to jump into the Genesee River from 125 above the surface. He either fell or had a bad jump and never emerged from the water. His body was found the following spring.
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  (#18) Felix Mottl

  • Dec. at 55 (1856-1911)

  Felix Mottl suffered a heart attack while conducting a performance of "Tristan" in Munich on June 21, 1911. He went to the hospital, but died less than two weeks later.
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  (#19) Alexander Woollcott

  • Dec. at 56 (1887-1943)

  Alexander Woollcott died after suffering a heart attack while appearing on a Writers' War Board panel on CBS Radio on January 23, 1943. His last broadcasted words were, "It's a fallacy to think that Hitler was the cause of the world's present woes... Germany was the cause of Hitler."
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  (#20) Yann Arnaud

  Condolences to friends and family of former Le Reve performer @yann_arnaud who experienced a fatal fall during a performance of Cirque du Soliel VOLTA in Tampa last evening. pic.twitter.com/O4ZMCvAUb0

  — Sam Novak (@sammasseur) March 18, 2018

  Yann Arnaud was an aerialist who had worked for Cirque du Soleil for over 15 years. On March 17, 2018, Arnaud fell to his death during a performance in Tampa, Florida. 
• 

  (#21) Albert Stoessel

  • Dec. at 49 (1894-1943)

  Albert Stoessel died on May 12, 1943 after suffering a heart attack while conducting an orchestra for the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York. He was 48 years old.
• 

  (#22) Simon Barere

  • Dec. at 55 (1896-1951)

  Simon Barere died on April 2, 1951 after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage while performing Grieg's Piano Concerto at Carnegie Hall. He died collapsed on stage and died backstage shortly after.
• 

  (#23) Johnny Ace

  • Dec. at 25 (1929-1954)

  Musician Johnny Ace died during a set break of a performance at City Auditorium in Houston, Texas on Dec. 25, 1954. He died of an accidental, self-inflicted gunshot wound in a drunken accident.
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  (#24) Tyrone Power

  • Dec. at 44 (1914-1958)

  Tyrone Power died on Nov. 15, 1958 after suffering a heart attack while filming "Solomon and Sheba." Yul Brynner replaced Power in the film.
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  (#25) Gareth Jones

  • 65

  Gareth Jones died on Nov. 30, 1958 during a break while filming "Underground" on the ITV network. He suffered a fatal heart attack.
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  (#26) Louis Jean Heydt

  • Dec. at 57 (1903-1960)

  Louis Jean Heydt died on Jan. 29, 1960, after suffering a heart attack while performing "There Was a Little Girl" in Boston. Jane Fonda co-starred in the play, which was set to appear on Broadway.
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  (#27) Leonard Warren

  • Dec. at 49 (1911-1960)

  On March 4, 1960, Leonard Warren died on stage during a performance of "La forza del destin." He died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage.
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  (#28) Alan Marshal

  • Dec. at 52 (1909-1961)

  Alan Marshal died on July 13, 1961 after suffering a heart attack while performing in the play "Sextette" in Chicago. Mae West starred in the production.
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  (#29) Nelson Eddy

  • Dec. at 66 (1901-1967)

  Nelson Eddy died on March 6, 1967 of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was performing at the Sans Souci Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida at the time of the incident and died a few hours later.
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  (#30) Joseph Keilberth

  • Dec. at 60 (1908-1968)

  Joseph Keilberth died on July 20, 1968 while performing "Tristan und Isolde" in Munich. Fellow conductor Felix Mottl died in the same location decades earlier.
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  (#31) Kenneth Horne

  • Dec. at 62 (1907-1969)

  Kenneth Horne died on February 14, 1969 after suffering a heart attack while hosting the annual Guild of Television Producers' and Directors' Awards in London.
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  (#32) David Burns

  • Dec. at 69 (1902-1971)

  David Burns died on March 12, 1971 after suffering a heart attack during an audition for the musical "70, Girls, 70."
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  (#33) Jerome Rodale

  Writer Jerome Rodale died after suffering a heart attack on June 8, 1971 during an appearance of "The Dick Cavett Show." The episode never aired, but during his segment Rodale said, "I'm in such good health that I fell down a long flight of stairs yesterday and I laughed all the way."
• 

  (#34) Leslie Harvey

  • Dec. at 28 (1944-1972)

  Stone the Crows guitarist Les Harvey died on May 3, 1972 after being electrocuted by a microphone that was not earth-grounded during a performance at Swansea Top Rank.
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  (#35) Lee Morgan

  • Dec. at 34 (1938-1972)

  Trumpeter Lee Morgan died on Feb. 19, 1972. He was shot by his common-law wife Helen More in between sets at Slug's Saloon in New York. He bled to death before the ambulance arrived at the scene.
• 

  (#36) Irene Ryan

  • Dec. at 71 (1902-1973)

  "Beverly Hillbillies" actress Irene Ryan suffered a stroke on March 10, 1973 during a performance of "Pippin." She died on April 26, 1973 due to complications with the stroke.
• 

  (#37) Christine Chubbuck

  • Dec. at 30 (1944-1974)

  News reporter Christine Chubbuck died on July 15, 1974 after committing suicide during a live broadcast. She shot herself in the head saying, "In keeping with Channel 40's policy of bringing you the latest in 'blood and guts', and in living color, you are going to see another first—attempted suicide."
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  (#38) Sid James

  • Dec. at 63 (1913-1976)

  Sid James died on April 26, 1976 after suffering a heart attack during a performance of "The Mating Season" at the Sunderland Empire Theatre.
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  (#39) Karl Wallenda

  • Dec. at 73 (1905-1978)

  Daredevil Karl Wallenda fell to his death on March 22, 1978 while attempting to walk on a wire between the two towers of the ten-story Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was 73 years old.
• 

  (#40) Bill Stewart

  • Dec. at 64 (1942-2006)

  ABC News journalist Bill Stewart died on June 20, 1979 after being assassinated by Nicaraguan government National Guard forces while covering the Nicaraguan Revolution. His execution was broadcast on several news networks.
• 

  (#41) Tommy Cooper

  • Dec. at 63 (1921-1984)

  Magician and comedian Tommy Cooper died on April 15, 1984 after suffering a heart attack during a live broadcast of "Live From Her Majesty." Many people watching believed that his collapsing was just part of his act.
• 

  (#42) Eric Morecambe

  • Dec. at 58 (1926-1984)

  Comedian Eric Morecambe died on May 28, 1984 after suffering a heart attack immediately following a performance at the Roses Theatre in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire. He died at the Cheltenham General Hospital a few hours later.
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  (#43) Onie Wheeler

  • Dec. at 63 (1921-1984)

  Musician Onie Wheeler died on May 26, 1984 after suffering a heart attack while performing with Rev. Jimmie Snow.
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  (#44) Philippé Wynne

  The Spinners musician Philippé Wynne died on July 14, 1984 after suffering a heart attack during a performance at Ivey's nightclub in Oakland, California the previous night.
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  (#45) Jon-Erik Hexum

  • Dec. at 27 (1957-1984)

  Jon-Erik Hexum died of an accidental, self-inflicted gunshot wound on Oct. 18, 1984. Bored during the break on the set of the CBS show "Cover Up" Hexum used a prop gun, loaded with blanks, to play a game of Russian Roulette. At such a close range, the blank caused him to have massive hemorrhaging. He was declared brain dead at the hospital several days after the initial incident.
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  (#46) Jane Dornacker

  Traffic reporter Jane Dornacker died on October 22, 1986, when her traffic helicopter for WNBC 660 AM Radio in New York City crashed into the Hudson River. She was 39 years old.
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  (#47) Dick Shawn

  • Dec. at 64 (1923-1987)

  Comedian Dick Shawn died on April 17, 1987 after suffering a heart attack during a performance at UC San Diego's Mandeville Hall. The audience waited for five minutes after Shawn initially collapsed, thinking that it was part of his act.
• 

  (#48) Wong Ka Kui

  • Dec. at 31 (1962-1993)

  Singer Wong Ka Kui went into a coma after falling on his head during an appearance on the Japanese game show "Ucchan-nanchan no yarunara yaraneba." He died in the hospital on June 30, 1993.
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  (#49) Country Dick Montana

  Country Dick Montana died on November 8, 1995 after suffering a heart attack on stage while performing with The Beat Farmers at the Longhorn Saloon in Whistler, British Columbia.
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  (#50) Tiny Tim

  • Dec. at 64 (1932-1996)

  Musician Tiny Tim suffered a heart attack on Sept. 28, 1996 while performing at a ukulele festival at the Montague Grange Hall. After being treated at the hospital for several weeks, he died on Nov. 30, 1996 after suffering a heart attack during a performance at a gala benefit at The Woman's Club of Minneapolis.

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