Celebrities With Chilling Connections To Other Famous Deaths

When you look at celebrities, whether modern-day movie and TV stars or the legends of Hollywood's Golden Age, it's easy to think that they're living the good life. But celebrity status doesn't necessarily mean stars are insulated from some of the darker realities of the world, and sometimes their names get tangled up with seriously morbid events. 

Death affects everyone in some way, after all, and there are more than a few stories of chilling, famous, or even infamous deaths out there. In some cases, those deaths imply direct connections between a number of different celebrities, all implicated in some shady or mysterious ways. But in other cases, the connections are perhaps more unexpected, tying members of the Hollywood elite (or, in some cases, the political elite) to the dark worlds of cults or serial murder. And sometimes celebrities are simply pulled into one of the many swirling, endless conspiracy theories and speculations that have stood the test of time.

In many cases, the chilling connections between some celebrities and other famous deaths are the crossovers that no one ever saw coming.

While Peter Lorre might not necessarily be the biggest name when it comes to modern celebrity news, he was certainly quite a big figure back in the Golden Days of Hollywood. Originally born in Hungary, Lorre became a huge film star who would become renowned for his portrayals of villains. He just excelled with a chilling, quiet, nearly psychotic sort of stage presence which landed him roles in some pretty major movies, many of which you're probably familiar with, such as "Crime and Punishment," "Casablanca," and "The Maltese Falcon."

As for where Lorre crosses over into the realm of dark, notorious deaths, that would actually be his daughter. In November 1977, Catharine Lorre was walking home when she was approached by two men who tried to convince her to get in their car. She refused their offer after proving to them that she was Peter Lorre's daughter, showing them a photo of herself with her father when she was just a kid. They ultimately let her go, but as the world would later learn, Peter Lorre's daughter was nearly a victim of the Hillside Stranglers.

Cousins Angelo Buono Jr. and Kenneth Bianchi terrorized the Los Angeles area between October 1977 and February 1978. They kidnapped, assaulted, and strangled 10 women during that period, often disposing of the bodies on hillsides. Lorre had been another intended victim, but as it turned out, they were actually fans of her father's movies and decided to leave her alone, reasoning that killing the daughter of a star would draw too much attention.

Many might remember what it was like on the day Heath Ledger died in 2008. The 28-year-old actor was found unresponsive in his New York apartment on January 22, 2008. EMTs couldn't revive him, and coroners later determined that his death was caused by an accidental overdose of various prescription drugs and sleep aids. But that tragic event is also a bit of an unsolved mystery.

The strange part involves Mary-Kate Olsen. As of mid-2024, there's still no clear answer as to how or if Olsen is actually connected, but there are some intriguing details. The two were likely dating casually in the months leading up to Ledger's death. And after Ledger's masseuse found him unresponsive, her first call wasn't to the authorities or the hospital; it was to Olsen. The same was true of the second and third calls made by the masseuse. Finally, the fourth call was to 911 (though a fourth call to Olsen was also made after the paramedics had arrived). Somewhere in that chaos, Olsen also got involved, sending her own personal bodyguards to the scene, who actually arrived around the same time as the paramedics.

In the months following Ledger's death, there were investigations into the drugs at fault. Reportedly, everyone the Drug Enforcement Administration questioned was willing to cooperate ... except for Olsen. Her lawyer wanted guarantees of some level of legal immunity and issued statements on her behalf, but Olsen herself refused to speak on it.

When it comes to mysterious Hollywood deaths, you really don't need to look much further than the tragic death of Natalie Wood. On Thanksgiving weekend in 1981, 43-year-old actress Natalie Wood was on a boat off Catalina Island with her husband — actor Robert Wagner — and recent co-star Christopher Walken. What exactly happened is a persistent mystery, but it ended with Wood's body found floating face down in the ocean. Originally, the drowning was labeled an accident, and it was believed that Wood took a dinghy to try and head back into town, before falling into the water.

But that never truly satisfied people — speculation that seemed supported when authorities reopened the case three decades later, labeling her death as suspicious and noting signs of potential assault. Many have taken this as more reason to believe Robert Wagner killed Natalie Wood, as reports seem to indicate that he was alone with her at some point in the night, and other testimonies recalled a fight that broke out between the couple in their room. Investigators also noted that Wagner apparently changed his story over the years, feeling like he might still be hiding something.

To add another bit of mystery on top of this, Wood's sister has also spoken out, claiming that Walken also came forward when the case was reopened. Despite publicly agreeing with the official story, he apparently told investigators everything that he knew, but also demanded that his testimony never be revealed to anyone. 

In the spring of 1978, Rosalynn Carter, wife of U.S. President Jimmy Carter, was photographed at a private event in Chicago — following a Polish Constitution Day celebration — shaking hands with a man. In that photo, this man was wearing an emblem or pin on his lapel with a large "S," an indication that apparently he had been given some level of security clearance. And that photo was even signed personally by the first lady, herself: "To John Gacy, best wishes, Rosalynn Carter."

That's right, there is photographic evidence that Rosalynn Carter literally shook hands with a serial killer. John Wayne Gacy — also sometimes referred to as the "Killer Clown" — was one of the most notorious serial killers in U.S. history, having killed at least 33 young men between 1972 and his capture in 1978. He violently assaulted his victims before killing them in brutal fashion, finding he got a thrill from it. Most of his victims were then hidden in the crawl spaces beneath his own house.

Even more chillingly, the photo was taken when Gacy was well into his killing spree, and after victims had tried to point the police in his direction. He'd even been given security clearance at this private event — a matter which the Secret Service admitted they had to look into, once the photo was published in 1979.

You may not know this, but actor Woody Harrelson's father was a hitman: Charles Voyde Harrelson — described by plenty of people, including his son, as being especially charming and eloquent — was being paid by people to pull off hits. 

Harrelson Sr.'s first kill took place in 1968: A carpet salesman hired him to kill a rival, whose body wasn't found for six months. His second hit was on a grain dealer whose business partner apparently wanted to collect on a life insurance payout. And, most notably, he was convicted for the first assassination of a federal judge in the 20th century. As that story goes, he was hired by drug trafficker Jamiel Chagra to kill U.S. District Judge John Wood Jr. 

On the day of Chagra's trial — May 29, 1979 — Wood was outside his home when he was shot in the back with a sniper rifle. Harrelson got away for a bit, but given this was the biggest FBI investigation since JFK's assassination, they ended up catching up with him in September 1980. In fact, Harrelson was so intoxicated by drugs when investigators caught him that, in his hallucinatory ravings, he claimed that he'd killed John F. Kennedy. He was arrested and found guilty in late 1982.

Nowadays, you probably just regard Ashton Kutcher as a very successful actor, notable for "Two and a Half Men," or maybe for his breakout role in "That 70s Show." But did you know that in 2001, there was another really big thing in Kutcher's life that wasn't related to television?

See, 2001 also happened to be the beginning of the reign of a serial killer known by a couple of names: "The Chiller Killer," "The Hollywood Ripper," or "The Boy Next Door Killer." The murderer — real name Michael Gargiulo — was convicted in 2019 for two Southern California murders in 2001 and 2005, with a third attempted murder in 2008 actually being the crime that led investigators to him, via the use of DNA analysis. Two years later, in 2021, he was sentenced to death. And Kutcher was one of the main witnesses who testified against him.

As it turns out, Gargiulo's first victim, Ashley Ellerin, was actually dating Kutcher at the time of her murder. In Kutcher's testimony, he explained that he was late to pick her up for their date on February 22, and when he knocked on her door, no one opened it. Assuming that she'd decided to head out without him, he turned to leave, but not before spotting something through her window: red stains on the floor. At the time, he'd thought they were from spilled wine, but with the added context, it's more likely he'd just missed Gargiulo's attack.

While there are a number of celebrities connected to Charles Manson, The Beatles don't have any direct connections to him and the string of murders committed by his followers, better known as the Manson Family. However, their music — specifically "Helter Skelter," a song off the "White Album" — was strangely central to those murders, even if that was never the intention of the artists. After all, Paul McCartney has spoken on this specifically (via History): "I was using the symbol of a helter skelter (a playground slide) as a ride from the top to the bottom — the rise and fall of the Roman Empire ... You could have thought of it as a rather cute title."

Manson, however, saw things very differently. Apparently something of a wannabe musician, Manson would play music to his followers — particularly music by The Beatles — and began twisting the lyrics to fit his own fantasies. He fully believed that the music was talking about a future filled with violence and death, a race war that would devastate Los Angeles, and he thought himself the only one capable of truly being able to relate that message. At his own trial, he claimed, "It's the Beatles, the music they're putting out ... I hear what it relates. It says 'Rise.' It says 'Kill.' Why blame it on me? I didn't write the music."

And, well, killing was exactly what happened. The seemingly innocent Beatles song suddenly became justification for nine murders committed by the Manson Family in the summer of 1969.

On March 31, 1993, a tragedy occurred on the movie set of "The Crow." Cameras were rolling, and a dramatic scene was in full swing; 28-year-old actor Brandon Lee approached another actor, who leveled a prop gun at him and fired. Which should've just been another day at work. Except, all of a sudden, Lee fell to the ground, bleeding profusely. 

Lee had been shot in the abdomen. This wasn't fiction anymore, and the actor was rushed to the hospital, where he died 12 hours later. The incident was ultimately ruled an accident, though it did spawn plenty of investigations into how a live round could have gotten onto the set in the first place.

Brandon Lee was famously Bruce Lee's son; both of them ended up dying rather young while filming movies, and under infamously mysterious circumstances (there's quite the tragic truth behind Bruce Lee's death). But there's another level of morbidity to their connection. The last movie Bruce Lee was working on was called "Game of Death." In one scene, a movie director starts instructing actors on how to load blanks into their prop guns, only for one of them — a secret assassin — to load a real bullet into the chamber. The cameras started rolling, at which point Lee's character leaps into action, only to be shot in the face by a very real bullet — an eerie foreshadowing of the very real death of Brandon Lee.

The death of Brandon Lee in 1993 was a tragic one. Other actors and industry professionals weighed in at the time, questioning how a live bullet ever got on set, although it should be noted that it wasn't a bullet, but rather a leftover bullet fragment. Plenty of questions regarding safety and the use of ammunition were flying around Hollywood back in 1993.

But nowadays, that same story might sound pretty familiar, and that might be because you're thinking of the 2021 incident on the set of the film "Rust." If you need a refresher, during a rehearsal, actor Alec Baldwin was pointing a revolver at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. The gun went off, at which point everyone realized it was loaded with a live round, killing Hutchins and wounding Joel Souza.

When only considering the causative factors, both tragedies are effectively the same. But on top of that, both Lee and Hutchins were close friends with the same movie producer, Jeff Most, who was the producer for "The Crow" — and has recalled the tragic tale of Lee waving goodbye to him just an hour before his fatal accident. Most had befriended Hutchins almost immediately after she entered the industry. Hutchins' death brought back vivid memories of Lee, and Most spoke to his disappointment in Hollywood: "To see that in the almost 30 years between the movies we haven't improved upon that was certainly devastating" (via The Guardian).

There's a certain picture of the mid-20th century, both dazzling and dangerous. You know, the sort of stuff that makes a good movie these days, especially if you throw them together. But the story of Lana Turner and Johnny Stompanato is basically the real-life version of that.

In the mid-1900s, Lana Turner was one of the rising starlets of Hollywood, and she was dating Johnny Stompanato, a reported associate of mobster Mickey Cohen and seemingly the template for the archetypal gangster in today's fiction. But the relationship was an incredibly abusive and possessive one, leading to the April 4, 1958 murder of Stompanato. As the official story goes, Turner testified in court that she had intended to end things with Stompanato, sending him into a violent rage in which he threatened to kill both Turner and her daughter Cheryl Crane. Turner insisted that Crane leave the room, only for Crane to return shortly later with a butcher knife, stabbing Stompanato to death. She even confessed, and the jury ruled it a justifiable homicide. Turner's career continued, and Crane lived through a fairly troubled childhood.

However, theories have floated around regarding what might have happened instead. Stompanato's son actually insisted that Turner was the one holding the knife — not Crane — and forced her teenage daughter to take the blame. Even modern theories have made similar claims, putting the knife in Turner's hand, but asserting that she might have only done it to protect her family.

[Featured image by Los Angeles Times via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY 4.0]

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues or is dealing with domestic abuse, contact the relevant resources below:

• The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

• The National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.