Celebrity Deaths Overshadowed By The Assassination Attempt On Donald Trump

On Saturday, July 13 the world witnessed the first event of its type of the modern era: a gun-based assassination attempt on a U.S. politician. At a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, former U.S. president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump survived an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle attack perpetrated by 20-year-old suspect, Thomas Matthew Crooks. While Crooks didn't succeed in killing Trump and merely grazed his ear, he did hit three people in the crowd. One of those individuals died. Meanwhile, U.S. citizens and global leaders alike are still trying to make sense of the event and what it means for democratic societies worldwide.

But even as discussion and contemplation regarding Trump's assassination attempt persist, so do the lives — and deaths — of everyone else on Earth. Most notably, several high-profile U.S. public persons died during the weekend of the assassination attempt. These individuals might have gotten some headlines, but at the same time lost some attention because of media coverage centered on Trump. Specifically, we're speaking of '80s health guru and limitless font of positivity Richard Simmons, sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer who rose to prominence in the '80s for her candid discussions of taboo topics, '90s TV star Shannen Doherty of "Beverly Hills 90210" fame, and Super Bowl touchdown-scoring wide receiver Jacoby Jones. All these individuals died from July 12 through July 14 leading into and following Trump's July 13 assassination attempt.

Few people stormed 1980's TV like fitness guru Richard Simmons. Sporting signature fizzy energy and frizzy hair, Simmons rode the '80s aerobics wave meets home video boom to build a veritable exercise empire, especially on the VHS front. He did this based on the power of his charisma, accessible fitness methods, and simple message: move every day and don't eat too much. 

Born Milton Teagle Richard Simmons in New Orleans in 1948, Simmons was an overweight child bullied for his size — 200 pounds by eighth grade, he told NPR. Using this experience as motivation, Simmons opened a fitness studio in Beverly Hills in 1974 originally called The Anatomy Asylum, but later the amazingly-named SLIMMONS. His message of moderation came from personal experience and common sense. He made over 65 home fitness videos during his life, most notably everyone's favorite, "Sweatin' to the Oldies," which sold 20 million copies. The Richard Simmons website estimates that he helped people lose a combined 3 million pounds.

Starting in the 1990s Simmons grew notably distant from public life, however he was a prolific poster on Facebook. Articles most often speculated that health reasons were the cause for his retreat from appearances. In 2024 he posted on Facebook, "I no longer have a manager, and I no longer have a publicist. I just try to live a quiet life and be peaceful. Thank you for all your love and support" via The Guardian. On July 13 he died in his home. People reported that no foul play is suspected, but the cause of death is under investigation. 

Few people helped break cultural taboos like Dr. Ruth Westheimer did in the 1980s. The German-born, 4-foot-7 therapeutic titan turned talk of family and sex mainstream thanks to a "grandmotherly" voice mixed with "the perfect attitude," as NBC News quotes Westheimer's manager from her first radio show. Starting with a mere 15-minute radio show, "Sexually Speaking," Dr. Ruth swarmed the airwaves, got loads of fan mail, saw her show expand to one hour, and quickly became America's favorite pop culture psychologist. The New York Times' 1981 description of Dr. Ruth summarizes things perfectly: "Her warm, frank, and often funny answers are delivered in an idiosyncratic accent that invites but defies mimicry." 

Less known are the unreal, gobsmacking circumstances surrounding Dr. Ruth's life long before she arrived in the United States. As NBC News explains, her parents put her on a train to Switzerland at the age of 10 in 1938 right when the Nazi party was gaining power. It was the last time she saw her parents, who died in Auschwitz. After World War II she moved to Palestine, adopted her middle name "Ruth," and served as a sniper in the Jewish resistance leading up to Israeli independence in 1948. After moving to New York City she earned $1 an hour as a housekeeper and taught herself English through romance novels. She even leveraged this time into a master's degree in sociology.

Dr. Ruth's died peacefully in her home according to her publicist Pierre Lehu. She is survived by two children across three marriages. She had four grandchildren. 

Shannen Dougherty was one of the most recognizable TV stars of the 1990s. Starring in "Beverly Hills 90210" and "Charmed," Dougherty was known for playing characters who were as much of a "force of nature" as she was in real life, as NBC News quotes Jason Priestley. Making the headlines for her personal goings-on as often as for her roles, Dougherty "became a metaphorical reality-TV star before there were actual reality-TV stars," Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University told NBC.

Dougherty knew from day one that she wanted to go into acting, as IMDb says. Born in 1971 in Memphis, Tennessee to middle-class parents, her family wound up moving to Los Angeles when Dougherty was 7. Within three years Dougherty had landed her first role in 1981's "Father Murphy." Renowned actor Michael Landon saw her on the show and cast her in "Little House on the Prairie," which cemented her career from that point forward. Though Dougherty worked almost exclusively in TV, she starred in a couple of movies like 1988's "Heathers" and 1995's "Mallrats." 

Sadly, Dougherty spent practically the entire last decade of her life struggling with breast cancer after being diagnosed in 2015. In June 2023 she posted a very personal video on Instagram of her receiving radiation on her brain after learning her cancer had metastasized there. Publicist Leslie Sloane revealed that Dougherty died on July 13 at the age of 53. She'd finalized her divorce from Kurt Iswarienko one day prior. 

Super Bowl XLVIII in 2013 was one of the more stupendous upsets in recent football memory — and strangest games. Pitting the Baltimore Ravens against the San Francisco 49ers, who until then had never lost a championship game, the Ravens came out on top in a close final score of 34 to 31, power outage and all. The Ravens owed two of their touchdowns to wide receiver Jacoby Jones, the only player in NFL history to score both a receiving and kickoff return touchdown in the same Super Bowl. His kickoff return touchdown is also the longest in Super Bowl history. Jones died on July 14, 2024.

Drafted by the Houston Texans in 2007, he stayed for five seasons before moving to the Ravens. He also had one season each with the San Diego Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers. While we don't have many details about Jones' life or what he was up to after retiring from the NFL, one anecdote from Ravens' coach John Harbaugh might say it all. "My favorite football play was when Jacoby was talking to his mom in the end zone, just before a late-game kickoff return against the Vikings in a snowstorm shootout. Jacoby then raced to catch the ball and run it back for a touchdown" via Global News. 

Jones' cause of death is unknown, although he died young at 40. On X fellow Raven Ray Lewis wrote, "My brother, you will truly be missed. They can't take the memories and the hard work you put in on and off the football field. You always gave back and always a pillar in the community."