Controversial celebrity deaths
Already the "Queen of Tejano" to fans of the genre, singer Selena was on the cusp of crossing over into pop stardom when she was murdered by Yolanda Saldivar in March 1995. Although she was just 23, the Grammy-winning artist had established an incredible legacy at the time of her death, one that her husband, Chris Perez, chronicled in the book "To Selena, With Love."
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Controversial celebrity deaths
British songstress Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London home in July 2011. She was 27. The soulful singer, who openly struggled with drug and alcohol abuse during her career, died of accidental alcohol poisoning, a finding that sparked a global conversation on the nature of substance abuse and its treatment. "Amy," a documentary on her life, was released in 2015.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
Jam Master Jay, DMC and Rev Run of Run DMC attend Run DMC-Beastie Boys Press Conference on May 11, 1987 at B. Smith's Restaurant in New York City. Jay was shot and killed October 30, 2002 at a recoding studio in Queen, New York. The homicide is still unsolved.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
On September 7, 1996, Tupac Shakur was leaving a boxing event in Las Vegas when he was shot multiple times. Six days later, he was dead at 25. He left behind an ever-increasing fan base, a catalog of music and one of culture's most persistent mysteries. The presumption is that his death was caused by the volatile East Coast/Wast Coast rap war of the era, a feud that held Tupac and New York rapper Notorious B.I.G. as its avatars. Although nearly every fan has his or her own theory on who was involved in the young talent's death, his killing remains unsolved.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
Heath Ledger was poised to ascend to a new level of stardom when he died at 28 in January 2008. The actor had been nominated for an Oscar for 2005's "Brokeback Mountain" and was set for another nod for "The Dark Knight" when he was found dead in his New York apartment. Police said he died from an accidental overdose of prescription medications, including painkillers, anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills. He didn't live to see the Academy award him the best supporting actor Oscar for his role of the Joker.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
"Hogan's Heroes" actor Bob Crane was found bludgeoned to death in his apartment on June 29, 1978, at the age of 49. Even after the case was reopened in 1990, Crane's murder has still not been solved.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
Singer Aaliyah was just hitting her stride when her life ended in an August 2001 plane crash in the Bahamas. The 22-year-old had released her third album the month prior and was lining up future movie projects as well. Investigators said the plane was overloaded with luggage at the time of the crash, which killed all nine people on board.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
Actress Natalie Wood mysteriously drowned in the Pacific Ocean on November 29, 1981, in a death that was initially ruled accidental. That changed in 2012 when a renewed investigation into Wood's death prompted the Los Angeles coroner to amend her cause of death to "drowning and other undetermined factors" because of questions surrounding the bruises found on Wood's body.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
Chris Farley (at left with David Spade and Christina Applegate) was found dead of a drug overdose on December 18, 1997. He was 33 years old.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
Actress Brittany Murphy's death hit like a bombshell in December 2009, when she died at 32. A coroner said the actress died from a combination of pneumonia, an iron deficiency and multiple drug intoxication. Her husband, Simon Monjack, died five months later of acute pneumonia and severe anemia, "just like Brittany," the coroner said. Her father is contesting those findings and questioning whether she was poisoned.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
Michael Jackson's 2009 death from an overdose of propofol stunned the world.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
James Dean's death is part of his legend. The actor's life and career were cut tragically short on September 30, 1955, when the 24-year-old got into a collision while driving his Porsche 550 Spyder on a California highway. He never lived to see his iconic movie, "Rebel Without A Cause," arrive in theaters that October.
Controversial celebrity deaths
"The Adventures of Superman" star, George Reeves, was found dead in his home on June 15, 1959, at the age of 45. He died from a gunshot wound to the head, which was ruled a suicide. But many still believe that Reeves was murdered.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
The August 5, 1962, death of Marilyn Monroe is still shrouded in mystery. The screen siren died in her Los Angeles home at the age of 36. The official cause of death was an overdose, but that hasn't stemmed the tide of persistent theories that something more nefarious led to Monroe's untimely passing.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
Guitarist Brian Jones, a founding member of the Rolling Stones, was found dead in a swimming pool in July 1969 after a party at his home. The hard-living 27-year-old's passing was ruled death by misadventure, yet theories abounded that he'd been the victim of a crime. In 2009, police in Sussex, England, began to look into his death once again.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
The gruesome 1969 murder of actress Sharon Tate -- along with four others -- left a mark on pop culture that still appears today. Tate, who was married to director Roman Polanski, was 26 years old and eight months pregnant when she was murdered, an act committed by members of the Manson Family.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
Jimi Hendrix is another legend who died young, passing away at 27 in September 1970. According to Rolling Stone, police said at the time that it was a drug overdose and that he'd died of suffocation in his own vomit. We can only imagine what the rock star could have gone on to create, given the incredible influence he had on music in the short span of time he was internationally known.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
Musician and poet Jim Morrison of The Doors was found dead in the bathtub of his Paris apartment in 1971, also at the age of 27. But the cause of his death has been a hot topic of debate: His passing was officially due to natural causes, but a 2007 book fueled theories that there was a cover-up.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
As a master of martial arts and an action star, Bruce Lee was reaching the zenith of his career when he died at 32 in July 1973. He was in Hong Kong at the time of his death, which was blamed on a brain edema caused by an allergic reaction to painkillers. His sudden and shocking passing came just a month before the premiere of his classic 1973 film, "Enter the Dragon."
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Controversial celebrity deaths
Elvis Presley's death at 42 in August 1977 left some fans so shocked, they refused to believe it. Hopeful conspiracy theorists swore that the King was still alive and well in the years following his collapse in his bathroom at Graceland. Although Elvis' death was ruled to be the result of an irregular heartbeat, there were accusations that prescription drug abuse was a factor.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
The final chapter in the lives of Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen is one of music's most famous. In October 1978, Nancy died from a stab wound in Room 100 of New York's Chelsea Hotel, and Sid was arrested as a top suspect. Four months later and out on bail, Sid died of a drug overdose.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
John Lennon was shot and killed outside of his Manhattan apartment on December 8, 1980. In 2010, the convicted assailant, Mark David Chapman, told a parole board that he gunned down the Beatles giant because he thought at the time "that by killing John Lennon, I would become somebody." Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, has poignantly referred to Lennon's death in efforts to curb gun violence.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
Twenty years after his father, Bruce Lee's, death, actor Brandon Lee died at 28 after being fatally wounded on the set of "The Crow." The shooting was accidental -- it was supposed to be Hollywood gun play for the sake of the scene -- but it sparked plenty of rumors that Lee's death wasn't an accident.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
Even though Kurt Cobain died 21 years ago, many of a certain age can still recall the exact place they were in when they learned the Nirvana frontman had been found dead at 27. As Rolling Stone explains, "People looked to Kurt Cobain because his songs captured what they felt before they knew they felt it," and that remains true even after his death -- which some aren't convinced was a suicide, as authorities ruled it to be.
Controversial celebrity deaths
Just a year after the loss of Tupac, hip-hop weathered the death of another giant of the genre, Notorious B.I.G. The rapper was shot and killed at 24 while leaving a music industry party in March 1997. Like Tupac's, his slaying remains unsolved.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
Fashion designer Gianni Versace was fatally shot on the steps of his Miami Beach, Florida, mansion on July 15, 1997. Police believe a 27-year-old named Andrew Cunanan killed the 50-year-old head of the renowned fashion empire, although they couldn't uncover a motive. Cunanan took his own life on a nearby houseboat a week after Versace's death.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
An official inquest into the August 1997 death of Princess Diana ruled that it was her "grossly negligent" driver and the paparazzi who trailed him that caused the car crash that ended her life. The beloved Princess of Wales was just 36 when she died in Paris. Although the inquest aimed to offer closure to the grieving, there are those who've claimed the British Royal family had something to do with Diana's passing.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
The death of comedic actor and "Saturday Night Live" star Phil Hartman stunned fans in May 1998, when he and his wife were discovered shot to death in their Los Angeles home in an apparent murder-suicide. Autopsies revealed that Hartman had been shot in the head several times, while his wife, Brynn, died of a single self-inflicted gunshot wound.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
Topless dancer-turned-model-turned reality TV star Anna Nicole Smith died at 39 in February 2007 after being found unconscious in her Florida hotel room. Smith died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs, but her death led to a two-year legal drama that involved Smith's lawyer-boyfriend and two doctors. The three were accused of conspiring to feed Smith's drug addiction, and using false names to obtain the drugs, but most of the charges were tossed out in 2011. That wasn't all: Following Smith's death, there were also legal battles over custody of the former Playboy Playmate's body, as well as the custody of her daughter, Dannielynn.
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Controversial celebrity deaths
Whitney Houston was on the verge of a comeback when she was found unresponsive in her Beverly Hilton hotel room in February 2012. The 48-year-old had been in Los Angeles with plans to attend a pre-Grammys party and had just performed an impromptu duet two days before her sudden death. An autopsy showed that the music icon drowned face-down in a tub of water about 12 inches deep; the drowning was ruled as accidental, with the "effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use" listed as contributing factors.
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Story highlights
- The rapper was gunned down in 1996
- Officer was on the scene of the shooting in Las Vegas
- He asked Shakur "Who shot you?"
The first police officer at the scene of Tupac Shakur's 1996 drive-by murder has revealed the last words spoken by the late rap legend. And they're not exactly peaceful.
"He looked at me, and he took a breath to get the words out, and he opened his mouth," says Chris Carroll, a retired sergeant with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, in a new feature with Vegas Seven. "And then the words came out: 'F**k you.'"
Shakur was shot multiple times on September 7th, 1996. After leaving a boxing match with former Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight, the rapper and his bodyguards got into a scuffle with 21-year-old Crips gang member Orlando Anderson in the lobby of the MGM Grand casino. Carroll, who worked with the city's bike patrol unit, had also been watching the same Mike Tyson fight, but was unaware of the brawl taking place in the lobby.
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Later, a white Cadillac pulled up beside Knight and Shakur while they were stopped at a traffic light and one man began shooting out of the back window. Carroll was the first officer to respond to the grisly scene.
"I grab the car door and I'm trying to open it, but I can't get it open," he says. "[Knight] keeps coming up on my back, so I'm pointing my gun at him. I'm pointing it at the car. I'm yelling, 'You guys lay down! And you, get the f**k away from me!' And every time I'd point the gun at him, he'd back off and even lift his hands up, like 'All right! All right!' So I'd go back to the car, and here he comes again. I'm like, 'F**ker, back off!' This guy is huge, and the whole time he's running around at the scene, he's gushing blood from his head. Gushing blood! I mean the guy had clearly been hit in the head, but he had all his faculties. I couldn't believe he was running around and doing what he was doing, yelling back and forth."
Carroll says when he finally was able to open the door, Shakur's limp body fell out of the vehicle, "like he was leaning against the door."
"So I grabbed him with my left arm, and he falls into me, and I've still got my gun in the other hand," he continues. "He's covered with blood, and I immediately notice that the guy's got a ton of gold on -- a necklace and other jewelry -- and all of the gold is covered in blood. That has always left an image in my mind. . . After I pulled him out, Suge starts yelling at him, 'Pac! Pac!' And he just keeps yelling it. And the guy I'm holding is trying to yell back at him. He's sitting up and he's struggling to get the words out, but he can't really do it. And as Suge is yelling 'Pac!,' I look down and I realize that this is Tupac Shakur."
Carroll says he attempted to get a "dying declaration" of a potential suspect from Shakur, but the rapper was ignoring him at first.
"And then I saw in his face, in his movements, all of a sudden in the snap of a finger, he changed," he says. "And he went from struggling to speak, being noncooperative, to an 'I'm at peace' type of thing. Just like that. . . He went from fighting to 'I can't do it.' And when he made that transition, he looked at me, and he's looking right in my eyes. And that's when I looked at him and said one more time, 'Who shot you?'. . . He looked at me and he took a breath to get the words out, and he opened his mouth, and I thought I was actually going to get some cooperation. And then the words came out: 'F**k you.' After that, he started gurgling and slipping out of consciousness."
So why is Carroll coming forward with with information in 2014? Two reasons: Retiring from the Metro has allowed him the freedom to speak about the homicide case without being reprimanded ("It's been almost 18 years," he says. There's clearly never going to be a court case on this."), and he also didn't want "Tupac to be a martyr or a hero because he told the cops 'F**k you.'"
Carroll says Shakur never spoke another word -- remaining silent even when another officer tried to draw out a declaration in the ambulance.
"As soon as he got to the hospital, he went into surgery and was heavily sedated, and I guess he went into a coma and really never came out of that, until they took him off of life support," he continues. "So that moment I talked to him was his last real living moment where he was speaking. I talked to the cop who rode in the ambulance with him. He said Tupac never came out of it, and he never said anything at the hospital. There was nothing else."
FAQs
What was Tupac listening to when he got shot? ›
Death Row associate Kurt Kobane revealed in an interview in 2016 that Shakur was listening to Nas' It Was Written the day he got shot – September 7, 1996 – on his way to Las Vegas.
How old would 2Pac be today? ›
Rap icon Tupac “2Pac” Shakur would have turned 50 years old in 2021.
How many times was 2Pac shot? ›
Tupac Shakur died on September 13, 1996, six days after an unknown gunman in a white Cadillac shot him four times in the chest at a stoplight in Las Vegas.
What did Mike Tyson say about Tupac? ›
“I feel a little guilty about him coming to the fight and me pressuring him … I was supposed to go out with him that night. I promised to go to the 662 with him that night, but I just had a little baby and her mother was provoking me to stay home, so I stayed home,” Tyson said in an interview with DJ Vlad.
What are Tupac's last words? ›
Tupac's Last Words: 'F**k You,' Says First Responder Cop (Report) A new interview with the first police officer on the scene of the fatal shooting of Tupac Shakur says that, instead of naming his killers, the rapper used his last conscious moments to insult him.
Did Tupac wear a seatbelt? ›
legacy Tupac was one of the biggest thugs I know, and he always wore his seat belt 😂😂...
Did 2Pac have kids? ›
He was serving time for a sexual abuse conviction. Tupac and wife Keisha had planned to have kids, but the pair split before he died.
Where is Tupac buried? ›
The day after Tupac died, he was cremated, and his remains were given to his mother. The dates for the following are not documented, but Afeni has said that she spread her son's ashes over a special place in Los Angeles and that she took the remaining ashes back to her home in Stone Mountain, Georgia.
Who is Tupac's wife? ›
Who shot Tupac the 1st time? ›
Dexter Isaac, one of the self-confessed shooters involved in the 1994 Quad Records Studios shooting of Tupac Shakur, has come forward with a new claim regarding the infamous incident.
Who shot 50 Cent? ›
Darryl Baum, also known as Darryl 'Hommo' Baum, served as Tyson's bodyguard. In 2000, Baum shot 50 Cent. He was also killed a few weeks later.
Who is Tupac's kid? ›
Jaycee Shakur (born b/w 1993-1996) is a popular TikTok star, entrepreneur, social media personality, media face, and Instagram sensation from the United States. She came into the limelight after claiming herself as the daughter of the famous American rapper late Tupac Shakur.
Did Tyson know Tupac? ›
Tyson and Shakur were very close friends up until the latter's untimely death. They became particularly tight while Tyson was in prison when Tupac would visit him for support.
Who is Mike Tyson's daughter? ›
Mike Tyson
What was Nipsey last words? ›
According to the Associated Press, 47-year-old Shermi Villanueva, who was also injured during the March 2019 shooting that killed Hussle, says the philanthropist and entrepreneur acknowledged Holder shot him before he fell to the ground. “'He shot me. He shot me,'” Villanueva said of Hussle's last words.
What was 2Pac's last song? ›
“Fame,” he recalls, would be Tupac's final recording. In an interview with Vlad TV, Spice 1 tells his story of the night before 'Pac was ambushed by gunfire in Vegas. According to him, the two were in the studio together on September 6, 1996.
Who inherited Tupac's money? ›
Tupac left his estate to Afeni as the sole beneficiary upon his shooting death in 1996. When Afeni died in 2016, all of her “tangible personal property” was left to Sekyiwa, who argued in the new lawsuit should include the items that Afeni inherited from Tupac.
Who was Tupac in love with? ›
Tupac was never coming back. One of the last people to speak to the rapper before he entered a coma was his fiancée Kidada Jones, according to Vanity Fair. The couple's romance had become a big part of the rapper's life in his final months. “Tupac was the love of my life,” Kidada wrote in her father's autobiography.
Did 2pac date Jada? ›
Pinkett Smith and the rapper, born Lesane Parish Crooks, met at the Baltimore School for the Arts in Maryland in the late 1980s and became close friends. Pinkett Smith has previously said that the two were never romantic.
Does Tupac have a statue? ›
His monument is tucked away in garden on the property of the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center of The Arts, created by his mother Afeni Shakur in his honor. The bronze likeness of himself stands in the center of the garden almost watching over the center of performing arts.
Where did Tupac live when he died? ›
Rapper and actor Tupac Shakur's last house, a nearly 6,000-square-foot mansion in an area of Woodland Hills near the Calabasas border, is on the market for $2.659 million, reports TMZ. Shakur lived in the house from 1995 up to the time of his 1996 murder in Las Vegas.
How old is Keisha Morris? ›
How long was Tupac married? ›
In October 1995, Tupac was released from prison, and their marriage was annulled five months later. "Things were getting very different once he got bail, and I felt like I wasn't needed anymore," Keisha said about their breakup. "It wasn't a good feeling.
Did stretch set up Pac? ›
According to Isaac, it was 'Pac's own friend and crew member, Stretch, that set up the entire attack. “Stretch set the whole thing up,” Isaac tells Gully TV in the interview. “He was in cahoots and was giving us the play-by-play.
Is Jimmy Henchman still alive? ›
...
James Rosemond.
| Jimmy Henchman | |
|---|---|
| Other names | Jimmy Henchman |
| Occupation | Music entrepreneur |
| Years active | 1986–2015 |
| Criminal status | Incarcerated |
How many times did Lil Jay get shot? ›
Per a police investigation, Tjay was shot multiple times, while one of his associates, Antoine Boyd, was shot once, in an alleged attempted robbery. Boyd was also arrested on weapons charges, as was Tjay's associate Jeffrey Valdez.
Who is majestic in real life? ›
| Kenneth McGriff | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 19, 1960 New York City, U.S. |
| Other names | Supreme Preme |
| Occupation | Gangster drug lord |
| Years active | 1981–2007 |
Is 50 Cent friends with Mike Tyson? ›
In an interaction with Diverse Mentality, the rapper had revealed he was terrified when Tyson once got mad. The two had even partied together several times. So, it's safe to state that Mike Tyson and 50 Cent are friends.
Who was Mike Tyson's best friend? ›
| Cus D'Amato | |
|---|---|
| Born | Constantine D'AmatoJanuary 17, 1908 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | November 4, 1985 (aged 77) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation | Boxing manager and trainer |
| Years active | 1933–1985 |
Who did Mike Tyson fight when Tupac got shot? ›
...
Bruce Seldon vs. Mike Tyson.
| Title(s) on the line | WBA heavyweight title |
| Tale of the tape | |
|---|---|
How old is Mikey Lorna? ›
What happened Mike Tyson's daughter? ›
Mike Tyson's Daughter's Death
Tragedy struck in 2009 when Tyson's 4-year-old daughter Exodus died. She was playing on a treadmill in her mother's home in Phoenix, Arizona, when she accidentally hung herself with a treadmill cord that was handing from the exercise machine.
What do Mike Tyson's kids do? ›
Mike Tyson