Through history, many entertainers have died while performing live or while recording a performance.[1][2] The following list excludes deaths involving stunt persons, as they are
listed separately.
17th century
1673:
Molière, the French actor and playwright, who suffered from
pulmonary tuberculosis, died after being seized by a violent coughing fit while playing the title role in his play Le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid).[3] However, he did not die on stage—as he was able to finish the play—but died a few minutes later at his home. The
superstition that green brings bad luck to actors is said to originate from the colour of the clothing he was wearing at the time of his death.
19th century
1817: An actor known as Mr. Cummins died on stage while playing the part of Dumont in The Tragedy of Jane Shore by
Nicholas Rowe, at the
Leeds Theatre in
Hunslet. He died of "ossification of the heart" (
aortic stenosis) on 20 June having uttered his final words from the play "May such befall me at my latest hour...".[4]
1820: Madame Delinsky, the female half of a magic act, was accidentally shot and killed while performing the "
bullet catch" trick. One of the six marksmen had mistakenly loaded his rifle with a live bullet.
1861: The four Gale sisters were a team of British ballerinas who were appearing at Philadelphia's Continental Theater. They were among eight dancers who died when Zelia Gale's gauze dress caught on fire from a gas tube. The deadly flames spread to the other three sisters Hannah, Ruth, and Adeline when they tried to rescue their sibling.[5]
1872: Lion tamer
Thomas Macarte, known as Massarti the Lion Tamer, who had previously lost an arm when attacked by one of the lions, entered the lion's cage for a performance with a travelling menagerie in
Bolton market on 3 January. Attacked by the lions, he attempted to fight them off with his sword and a pistol loaded with blanks but they overcame him. Although other members of the show eventually forced the animals back into an inner cage they dragged Macarte with them. Eventually rescued, he died on the way to the hospital.[6]
1873: The actress Matilda Pascaly died from injuries suffered on stage while playing the part of an angel in Don Juan de Maraña. Stagehands mishandled her wires and sent her crashing upside down into a wall.[7]
1882: The actress
Annie Von Behren died during a performance of Si Slocum at
Cincinnati's Coliseum when a firearm wielded by her co-actor,
Frank Frayne, accidentally discharged, shooting her in the head.
1897: Operatic bass
Armand Castelmary died onstage at New York City's
Metropolitan Opera House during a performance of
Friedrich von Flotow's Martha. The audience, believing his collapse to be a stroke of brilliant acting, rewarded him with a loud ovation as the curtain was lowered.
20th century
1904: Emil Hasda, a Polish comic actor, took six curtain calls after a performance in
Nimptsch,
Germany (now part of
Poland) on 11 April before shooting himself in the head in front of the audience, apparently because a female member of the company had rejected his marriage proposal.[6]
1911: On 9 May:
Sigmund Neuberger, a vaudeville performer known as "The Great Lafayette", died in
Edinburgh's
Empire Palace Theatre while performing his "Lion's Bride" illusion after a stage lamp sparked a fire that killed Neuberger, his double, the lion, and ten other performers.
1918:
Chung Ling Soo, magician (real name: William Ellsworth Robinson), died as a result of a
bullet catch illusion going wrong on stage.[8]
1922:
Eugenie Blair, actress, was performing in the original production of Anna Christie. Despite feeling unwell and suffering a headache, she declined the opportunity to be replaced by an understudy. After completing her last scene, she went offstage to sit down and died in the chair.
1927: John "Chuck" O'Connor, performer in
vaudeville and father of actor
Donald O'Connor, died of a heart attack while dancing onstage in their family act.
1938: On April Fools Day 1938, actor
Joseph Greenwald died during a West Coast premiere performance of
Golden Boy at the
Lobero Theatre in
Santa Barbara, CA. Greenwald collapsed and died on the stage after saying the line "I wait for this moment all my life."
1953:
Gaetano Merola,
San Francisco Opera General Director and co-founder, collapsed and died of a heart attack on August 30, while conducting an outdoor concert in Stern Grove. San Francisco legend is that he fell as soprano Brunetta Mazzolina, singing "Un Bel Di" from
Madama Butterfly by
Giacomo Puccini, reached the word Morir, "To Die."
Gareth Jones was portraying a character who died of a heart attack in a live science fiction play Underground in
ABC Television's Armchair Theatre television series (30 November) when he died of a real heart attack between his scenes. The actors and director improvised to account for his absence.
Tyrone Power was stricken by a massive heart attack while filming a dueling scene with his frequent co-star and friend,
George Sanders for the film Solomon and Sheba. He died while being transported to the hospital in
Madrid on 15 November, aged 44.
Singer
Leonard Warren died after performing his
aria in the second act of the opera La forza del destino at the
New York Metropolitan Opera. He was then to perform Don Carlo's act III aria, which begins Morir, tremenda cosa ("to die, a momentous thing"), when he started coughing and gasping. He fell face first to the ground and it was revealed he had died of a massive heart attack.
1961:
Actor
Alan Marshal died on stage while appearing with
Mae West in her play Sextette in Chicago.
1965: Wagnerian bass-baritone
Hermann Uhde died on stage of a heart attack during a performance in Copenhagen's
Royal Danish Theatre on 10 October 1965.
1966:
Vaudeville doubletalk comedian
Al Kelly died immediately following his performance at the
Friars Club roast of
Joe E. Lewis, after returning to his seat on the dais and during the applause.
1967:
Singer and actor
Nelson Eddy, famous for his roles in such movie musicals as Rose Marie, died on 6 March after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage while performing onstage at a Miami Beach, Florida hotel.
Comedian and singer Jodie "Butterbeans" Edwards, the surviving member of the long-running vaudeville duo
Butterbeans and Susie, died on 28 October as he walked onstage at the Dorchester Inn, outside Chicago.
Professional wrestler
Mike DiBiase suffered a heart attack in the ring while wrestling his opponent
Man Mountain Mike on 2 July in
Lubbock, Texas. CPR was unsuccessful, and an autopsy revealed coronary artery disease. DiBiase is the father of wrestling star
Ted DiBiase.
Country music star
Spade Cooley died from a heart attack while backstage during the intermission of a benefit concert in
Oakland, California on 23 November. Cooley was serving a life term in prison for beating his wife to death in front of their daughter, and played the show on a weekend furlough. He was scheduled to be paroled three months later, in February 1970.[16]
Performer
Kenneth Horne, star of the radio comedy show Round the Horne, died of a heart attack while hosting the annual
Guild of Television Producers' and Directors' Awards at the
Dorchester Hotel in London, moments after the show scriptwriters had received an award and Horne had urged the audience to tune into its next series which had been due to commence shortly.
1970:
Actor George Ostroska collapsed from a heart attack at the start of the second act while playing the title role of
Macbeth at the Crawford Livingston Theater in
St. Paul, Minnesota.
Thai actor
Mitr Chaibancha fell to the ground in the last shooting day of his film Insee Thong (
Thai: อินทรีทอง, or Golden Eagle). The stunt shot required him to grasp the helicopter's rope ladder, ascend from the ground and fly off into the sunset, serving as the final shot in the film. During filming, he leapt from the ground to seize a rope ladder suspended from the aircraft, attaining only the lowest rung. Unfortunately, the helicopter pilot, oblivious to this, ascended to greater heights. Eventually, Mitr was unable to maintain his grip, falling to the ground. The entire accident was captured on camera. It was left in the final theatrical release but has been removed from DVD versions.[18]
1971:
Musician
Lil Hardin Armstrong, the former wife of
Louis Armstrong, was appearing on a Chicago tribute to the jazz legend in August, a month after Louis Armstrong had died. She was playing St. Louis Blues on piano when she had a heart attack and fell to the floor.[19]
Longevity expert
J. I. Rodale was a guest on The Dick Cavett Show. After his interview was done,
Pete Hamill was being interviewed by Cavett when Rodale slumped. Hamill, noticing something was wrong, said in a low voice to Cavett, "This looks bad." Rodale had died of a heart attack at age 72. The episode was never aired.
1972:
Les Harvey, lead guitarist of the
Glasgow rock band
Stone the Crows, died after being electrocuted by his microphone while performing at
Swansea's Top Rank Ballroom.[1]
Luther Lindsay, one of the first black stars in professional wrestling, died of a heart attack at the end of a match. Lindsay had just delivered his winning move, and died while lying on top of his opponent.
26 April: British actor
Sid James died at 63 after collapsing on stage at the opening night performance of The Mating Season at the
Sunderland Empire Theatre.[22]
10 September: Finnish magician
Aimo Leikas [
fi] accidentally shot himself in front of a crowd while performing his
Russian roulette act. He had been performing the act for about a year, selecting six bullets from a box of assorted live and dummy ammunition.[23][24]
1977: Actor
Zero Mostel collapsed and died from an aortic aneurysm during the first preview performance of The Merchant, a Broadway-bound adaptation of The Merchant of Venice.
4 August: Comedian
Frank Fontaine died of a heart attack immediately after performing at a benefit show where he had just raised $25,000 for heart research.[27]
1980:
Jayan, the biggest star in
Malayalam cinema, was killed in a helicopter accident while refilming a stunt for the action movie Kolilakkam. Jayan was hanging onto the helicopter's landing skids when it crashed and later succumbed to his injuries.
Danish actor and comedian
Dirch Passer suffered a fatal heart attack backstage immediately prior to going on stage in
Tivoli Gardens on 3 September 1980.
1981: East German comedian
Rolf Herricht on 23 August 1981 died of a heart attack while acting at
Metropol Theater in East Berlin.
1982:
5 January: Actor
Harvey Lembeck suffered a heart attack while performing in an episode of Mork & Mindy and collapsed as he was leaving the stage.
Actor
Vic Morrow and two children, My-Ca Dinh Le (age 7) and Renee Shin-Yi Chen (age 6), died in
an accident while filming on location for the Twilight Zone: The Movie in
Ventura County, California. Morrow, Le, and Chen were filming a scene set during the
Vietnam War in which their characters attempt to escape from a pursuing
U.S. Army helicopter out of a deserted Vietnamese village. The helicopter was hovering at about 25 feet (7.6 m) above them when pyrotechnic explosions damaged it and caused it to crash on top of them, killing all three instantly.[28]
Actor and comedian
Joe E. Ross suffered a heart attack and died while performing on stage on the evening of 13 August. His wife reportedly collected just half of Ross's fee because he had failed to do a full show.[29]
1983: Musician
Rebop Kwaku Baah died of a cerebral haemorrhage while performing in
Stockholm, Sweden.
Actor
Jon-Erik Hexum died after shooting himself with a blank pistol. On 12 October 1984, the cast and crew of the TV series Cover Up were filming the seventh episode of the series, "Golden Opportunity", on Stage 17 of the
20th Century Fox lot. One of the scenes filmed that day called for Hexum's character to load blanks into a
.44 Magnum handgun. When the scene did not play as the director wanted, there was a delay in filming. Hexum became restless during the delay and began playing around to lighten the mood. He had apparently unloaded all but one blank round when, at 5:15pm, he spun the cylinder and, as if playing
Russian roulette, put the revolver to his right temple and pulled the trigger. The force of the blank round was sufficient to dislodge fragments of his skull, which acted as projectiles in lieu of a bullet loaded in the cartridge. The skull fragments were propelled into his brain.
Magician and comedian
Tommy Cooper suffered a heart attack during a performance on the
London Weekend Television variety show Live From Her Majesty's. Cooper was known for getting his illusions deliberately and comically wrong. After Cooper collapsed, his audience laughed for almost a minute, thinking that his stage character had swooned at the appearance of a pretty magician's assistant (even she thought Cooper was improvising a comic bit). The TV show cut away to an unscheduled break. Efforts to revive Cooper backstage failed and he was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
British comedian
Eric Morecambe collapsed from a heart attack as he left the stage of the
Roses Theatre in
Tewkesbury following a performance; he died in hospital a few hours later.[32]
British actor-comedian
Leonard Rossiter died of a heart attack in his dressing room at the
Lyric Theatre, London whilst preparing to go on stage during a performance in Joe Orton's play Loot.[33]
1985:
Butoh dancer Yoshiyuki Takada was performing The Dance of Birth and Death with a Tokyo artistic troupe, on the side of
Seattle's Mutual Life building. His rope broke, and he fell six stories to his death.[34]
Actress Edith Webster died onstage from a heart attack while performing her death scene in the play The Drunkard, in a lodge in
Baltimore. The role called for her to sing "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" and then slump to the floor, which she did.[35]
1987:
Saxophonist
Warne Marsh collapsed at a Los Angeles jazz club while soloing on the standard "Out of Nowhere".
Comedian
Dick Shawn died on stage while performing at the
University of California, San Diego after suffering a fatal heart attack. He lay motionless on the stage for several minutes, while audience members (thinking it was part of his act) began shouting comments, such as: "Take his wallet" and "How long is this going to go on?". The stage manager came out to check on Shawn several times before realizing it was not part of the show. A doctor was called up from the audience to perform CPR on the comedian until the paramedics arrived. He was later pronounced dead at Scripps Memorial Hospital.[36]
Soviet actor
Andrei Mironov suffered a brain aneurysm while performing the title character of Beaumarchais's play
the Marriage of Figaro in
Riga, on 14 August. He died 2 days later having never regained consciousness.
On 1 June 1988,
Ricky May had a fatal heart attack at the Regent Hotel, Sydney, after getting a standing ovation on the opening night of a new cabaret show. He was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital. He was 44 years of age.[37]
Ferial Karim, a Lebanese actress, died on stage during a performance, 4 July.
On 30 May, Italian conductor Giuseppe Patane, 57, died from an apparent heart attack while conducting a performance of The Barber of Seville at the
Bavarian State Opera in Munich.[38]
1990: Escape artist Joseph W. "Amazing Joe" Burrus died on Halloween when the glass 'coffin' he was attempting to escape from collapsed under the weight of wet cement poured on top of it. Burrus died on the 64th anniversary of the death of
Harry Houdini, who was Burrus' inspiration for the performance.
1991: Actor
Redd Foxx suffered a fatal heart attack on the set of the
CBS sitcom The Royal Family.[39][40] It was noted that initially cast mates on set thought Foxx was only fooling around after he clutched a chair and fell to the floor, since his character on Sanford and Son often faked heart attacks.[41]
1992:
13 February, Don "Maddog" Wright, jazz clarinetist, died of a heart attack while performing with
Greg Brown at The Folkway, a club in
Peterborough, New Hampshire. He was 80.
22 February, Polish actor
Tadeusz Łomnicki died of a heart attack during one of the last dress rehearsals at the
Poznań-based Teatr Nowy of
Shakespeare's King Lear, in which he was playing the lead role, much awaited by public and critics. The piece was due to be premiered a week later.
On 3 May, Indian film actor
Alummoodan died of a heart attack while performing at the sets of Adwaitham. He died on the arms of co-star
Mohanlal while filming.[42]
Brandon Lee, son of martial artist
Bruce Lee, died while filming the movie The Crow in
Wilmington, North Carolina. A prop gun had been
squib loaded, causing the blank cartridge to propel the bullet into Lee and kill him. Contrary to urban legend, the footage of his death was not kept in the movie. Instead, they re-shot the scene using a different actor, whose death in the film was by a throwing
knife.
On 11 June 1993, English comic actor
Bernard Bresslaw died of a sudden heart attack in his dressing room at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park, London, where he was to play Grumio in the New Shakespeare Company's production of The Taming of the Shrew.
On 13 December, professional wrestler
Larry Cameron died of a heart attack while wrestling a match with
Tony St. Clair in
Bremen, Germany. He was 41 years old.
Radio disc jockey
Jack Spector died during his daily broadcast on
Long Island radio station
WHLI. His death was discovered when he failed to speak following the end of a record.
Singer
Tiny Tim suffered a fatal heart attack while turning to leave the stage during a benefit concert in
Minneapolis.
Motocycle daredevil
Butch Laswell died in
Mesquite, Nevada, attempting to set a new world record by jumping over a 38-foot-high (12 m) pedestrian bridge. While in the air, Laswell was blown off course by crosswinds, pushing him to the left of the landing ramp. He flat-landed and crashed.
Opera singer
Richard Versalle died on stage at the
Metropolitan Opera during the company's première performance of The Makropulos Case when he suffered a heart attack while standing on a sliding ladder attached to a file cabinet. He was stricken after singing the line, "Too bad you can live only so long."
Guitarist/singer
Johnny "Guitar" Watson collapsed and died onstage during a performance in
Yokohama, Japan. The cause of death was a heart attack.
1997:
English actor Anthony Wheeler died by strangulation while playing
Judas Iscariot at a performance of Jesus Christ Superstar in
Chalkidiki, Greece. He hanged himself after failing to attach the rope to a safety harness that would have kept pressure from his neck, though he had successfully performed the stunt numerous times over the preceding three years.[44]
1998:
Paolo "Feiez" Panigada, member of the Italian band
Elio e le Storie Tese, died of a brain haemorrhage while performing onstage at the Roialto club in
Milan.
English
reggae performer
Judge Dread died from a heart attack as he walked off stage after performing at The Penny Theatre in
Canterbury.[45]
1999:
Owen Hart, a Canadian-born professional wrestler for
WWF, died during
Over the Edge, a pay-per-view event, when performing a stunt. It was planned to have Hart come down from the rafters of
Kemper Arena on a safety harness tied to a rope to make his ring entrance. The safety latch was released and Hart dropped 78 feet (24 m), bouncing chest-first off the top rope resulting in a severed
aorta, which caused his lungs to fill with blood.[46]
Mark Sandman, bassist and lead vocalist for the band
Morphine, collapsed on stage at the Giardini del Principe in Palestrina, Latium, Italy (near Rome) while performing with Morphine. He was pronounced dead of a heart attack.[47]
2000:
On 7 January, professional wrestler
Gary Albright suffered a heart attack during a match against Lucifer Grimm in
Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Grimm was scheduled to lose the match, and thus rolled Albright's motionless body on top of himself. Albright was carried from the ring and pronounced dead at the scene.[48]
Actor
Renato Di Paolo was portraying Judas in a
passion play outside of
Rome on the day before Easter. During the hanging scene he accidentally hanged himself, and died soon after.[49]
Saudi Arabian singer
Talal Maddah collapsed and died suddenly on Al Meftaha Stage (Arabic: مسرح المفتاحة) in front of his fans just after performing the intro to one of his popular oldie songs. The concert was being aired live on
Saudi national television.[50]
2002: 23–26 October: During the
Nord-Ost Siege at Russia's Dubrovka Theater, 17 actors and members of the orchestra were murdered during the initial terrorist raid or in the following days.[51]
2003:
20 February:
Ty Longley, guitarist for the band
Great White, died in
The Station nightclub fire that caused the deaths of 99 other people in
West Warwick, Rhode Island.[52] Longley had re-entered the venue after escaping, with conflicting reports that it was either to ensure the safety of friends attending, or to save his guitar.
20 October:
New Vagrants drummer Joe Forgione died of a heart attack onstage at the Downtime Club, New York.
20 July: Patrick Sherry, 29, frontman of the UK-based rock band Bad Beat Revue, died of head trauma as a result of a head-first
stage dive from a lighting gantry at the Warehouse club in
Leeds, fracturing his skull. Sherry's death is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the first fatal stage dive by a musician.
3 October:
Franco Scoglio, Italian football manager and sport TV commenter, died of a heart attack while on the air during a program on the
Genoan private TV station Primocanale, after a heated discussion over the phone with
Genoa chairman
Enrico Preziosi. He passed out in his seat while Preziosi continued with his call.
29 October: Québécois 1960s pop singer
Pierre Therrien died at the age of 62 after collapsing on stage while performing, in costume, some of
Les Classels biggest hits.
5 December: Icelandic musician
Rúnar Júlíusson suffered a heart attack and died while performing on stage in
Keflavík, aged 63.
2009: 13 June: Japanese wrestler
Mitsuharu Misawa suffered a cervical spine injury while receiving a
suplex move during a match at the
Hiroshima Green Arena, causing fatal cardiac arrest.
2011: 3 March: Swedish comedian
Lasse Eriksson died during the final number of his show Fyra lyckliga män 2(Four happy men 2) at Reginateatern in
Uppsala, Sweden. He was one of Sweden's first stand-up comedians.
2012: 23 December: American guitarist
Mike Scaccia (
Rigor Mortis,
Ministry,
Revolting Cocks) collapsed on stage during a special Rigor Mortis performance in
Fort Worth, Texas. Scaccia was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Cause of death was listed as a heart attack.
2013:
7 July:
Funk ostentação singer and rapper
MC Daleste was fatally shot in the abdomen during a free performance in
Campinas, São Paulo, before a crowd of four thousand people.
27 July:
Mick Farren died on-stage at
The Borderline, London, while performing with his band, The Deviants. The cause of death was stated to be a heart attack.
2014:
7 December: Italian singer
Mango died from a heart attack during a concert in
Policoro,
province of Matera, while performing his song "Oro".[60]
21 March: Mexican wrestler
Perro Aguayo Jr. suffered fatal cardiac arrest caused by cervical spine damage during a match in Tijuana. The severity of Aguayo's condition was not immediately apparent because he fell awkwardly and was draped limply onto the ring ropes, a position that is typically assumed by opponents of
Rey Mysterio, another wrestler in the match.
30 October: Four of the five members of the Romanian metalcore band
Goodbye to Gravity died during the
Colectiv nightclub fire. The band's pyrotechnics, consisting of sparkler firework candles, ignited the club's flammable polyurethane acoustic foam, and the fire spread rapidly, killing 62 people in total. Guitarists Mihai Alexandru and Vlad Țelea were pronounced dead on the scene, while drummer Bogdan Enache and bassist Alex Pascu died shortly thereafter in the hospital due to injuries sustained in the fire.
2016:
3 April: Indonesian
dangdut singer Irma Bule died during a performance in
Karawang,
West Java, after she was bitten by a
king cobra she brought on stage as a prop. She continued singing for 45 minutes after being bitten before she collapsed and died.[62]
21 May: Former
Megadeth drummer
Nick Menza collapsed and died of heart failure during a performance with his band
OHM at
The Baked Potato in Los Angeles.
10 June: 22-year-old
Christina Grimmie, singer from YouTube and The Voice, was fatally shot while signing autographs for fans following a performance at The Plaza Live in Orlando, FL.
15 June:
Milorad Mandić suddenly died of a heart attack onstage during a matinee performance of Peter Pan.
8 October: Taiwanese singer
Kuo Chin-fa collapsed on stage during a performance in
Kaohsiung. He was then declared dead in a hospital of cardiorespiratory failure.
23 November: Italian guitarist and electronic music producer Alberto Bertapelle, better known by his stage name
Brainbug, died of heart attack during a performance in
Tavagnacco of
Udine,
Italy.
2017:
3 January: Nepali actor Bishnu Bhakta Phuyal died while acting on stage. He fainted during a performance at the theater in Kathmandu.[64]
18 March: Former
Boston drummer
Sib Hashian died after collapsing during a performance on the Legends of Rock cruise.[65]
1 May: Guitarist and
jam band performer
Colonel Bruce Hampton collapsed and died of a heart attack during a jam at an all-star concert held in honor of his 70th birthday at the
Fox Theatre in
Atlanta, Georgia.[66] Hampton collapsed in the middle of a performance of "
Turn On Your Love Light", while guitarist
Brandon Niederauer took a solo, an action that the other musicians on stage first assumed was humorous act of homage by the quirky, older musician to the younger guitarist before they realized Hampton was not moving.[67] Before his death, Hampton had often joked to friends and journalists that he would prefer to die onstage if given the choice.[67]
19 July: French barefoot singer
Barbara Weldens collapsed while performing in a church in
Gourdon, France, apparently from electrocution from a faulty cable on the floor.[68]
17 September:
Laudir de Oliveira, Brazilian percussionist and former member of the band
Chicago, died of a heart attack during a performance in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.[69]
11 March: Argentine singer
Sergio Denis suffered a 3-meter (10-foot) fall from the stage in the middle of a song during a show in
San Miguel de Tucumán. Unconscious and with a broken shoulder, he was transported to the hospital in which he was induced in a coma. He died without having woken up on 15 May 2020, a year and two months after his fall.[71]
11 April: Comedian
Ian Cognito died of a heart attack during a show in
Bicester. He is reported to have "sat on a chair and laid back for five minutes," with audience members initially believing it to be part of his routine until the event's compère called an ambulance.[72] A few minutes earlier, Cognito had joked about having a stroke that would cause him to start speaking in Welsh, and said, "Imagine if I died in front of you lot here."[27]
2 September:
Joana Sainz García, Spanish singer and dancer of Super Hollywood Orchestra, died in
Las Berlanas, Spain when a
pyrotechnic was shot in the wrong direction during an on-stage explosion.[74]
27 November:
Godfrey Gao, Taiwanese-Canadian model and actor, died of cardiac arrest while filming Chase Me.
31 December: Juliano Cezar, Brazilian
sertanejo singer, died of a heart attack during a concert in
Uniflor, Paraná.[75]
2020:
18 January: Singer-songwriter
David Olney, 71, died in
Santa Rosa Beach, Florida while at the 30A Songwriters Festival. While performing alongside
Amy Rigby, he became motionless. Fellow performer
Scott Miller said, "David was playing a song when he paused, said 'I'm sorry' and put his chin to his chest. He never dropped his guitar or fell off his stool. It was as easy and gentle as he was."[76]
2021:
18 July:
Milan Lasica, Slovak comedian and author, died in
Bratislava during his singing performance with
Bratislava Hot Serenaders. Just after he finished a song called "I am an Optimist" and gave a bow, he slid down the stage and lost consciousness. After 20 minutes of resuscitation, he was pronounced dead from heart failure.[77][78]
12 September: American drag performer Valencia Prime, 25, collapsed and died from heart disease while performing at a nightclub in
Philadelphia.[80]
16 October: Haitian singer Michael Benjamin a.k.a. "
Mikaben", 41, fell unconscious on
Accor Arena's stage, right after he finished performing at a
Carimi reunion show.[81] He was pronounced dead a few minutes after.
24 October: Radio presenter Tim Gough, 55, died at his home in
Suffolk, UK whilst presenting his breakfast show.[82] Music suddenly stopped during the programme before starting again later.[83]
26 May: Cuban-American musician Juan Carlos Formell (son of
Juan Formell), 59, died from a heart attack during a concert in New York City.[85]
5 November: Juan Jumalon, known as DJ Johnny Walker, was shot during a live radio broadcast.[86]
19 November: Polina Menshikh, a Russian actress, was killed during a shelling of Russian soldiers in the village of
Kumachove located in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. A video shows Menshikh performing in a hall when the singing and lighting ended abruptly.[87]
2024:
13 January: Cajun accordionist
Jo-El Sonnier died of a heart attack after completing a concert in Llano, Texas.[88]
^Kobayashi Koichi, ed., Hundred Years' History of Takarazuka Revue, Hankyu Communications, 2014, pp. 52–53 [小林公一監修『宝塚歌劇100年史 虹の橋 渡り続けて(人物編)』阪急コミュニケーションズ、2014年、52–53頁],
ISBN9784484146010.
^"Timeline". Takarazuka Forever.
Archived from the original on 20 March 2018. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
^Bergman, Dr. George (14 April 1961).
"TINY LAUNCESTON JEWRY DWINDLES". The Australian Jewish Herald. p. 9.
Archived from the original on 12 June 2022. Retrieved 11 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
^"Satchmo's Ex-Wife Dies Here". Chicago Tribune. 28 August 1971. p. 1.
Archived from the original on 27 May 2023. Retrieved 27 May 2023 – via newspapers.com.
^"In Memoriam"(PDF). The Circus Report. Vol. 5, no. 38. 20 September 1976. p. 2. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 3 September 2012. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
^Shawn G. Kennedy (7 October 1984).
"Leonard Rossiter, Actor Dies". The New York Times.
Archived from the original on 24 May 2015. Retrieved 13 September 2015. Leonard Rossiter, one of Britain's most popular comic actors, collapsed during a performance in London and died Friday night, apparently of a heart attack. Mr. Rossiter, who was 57 years old, was declared dead at Middlesex Hospital. ...
^Шимадина, Марина (11 December 2002).
"Постановка по требованию". p. 28.
Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 5 March 2016 – via Kommersant.
Through history, many entertainers have died while performing live or while recording a performance.[1][2] The following list excludes deaths involving stunt persons, as they are
listed separately.
17th century
1673:
Molière, the French actor and playwright, who suffered from
pulmonary tuberculosis, died after being seized by a violent coughing fit while playing the title role in his play Le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid).[3] However, he did not die on stage—as he was able to finish the play—but died a few minutes later at his home. The
superstition that green brings bad luck to actors is said to originate from the colour of the clothing he was wearing at the time of his death.
19th century
1817: An actor known as Mr. Cummins died on stage while playing the part of Dumont in The Tragedy of Jane Shore by
Nicholas Rowe, at the
Leeds Theatre in
Hunslet. He died of "ossification of the heart" (
aortic stenosis) on 20 June having uttered his final words from the play "May such befall me at my latest hour...".[4]
1820: Madame Delinsky, the female half of a magic act, was accidentally shot and killed while performing the "
bullet catch" trick. One of the six marksmen had mistakenly loaded his rifle with a live bullet.
1861: The four Gale sisters were a team of British ballerinas who were appearing at Philadelphia's Continental Theater. They were among eight dancers who died when Zelia Gale's gauze dress caught on fire from a gas tube. The deadly flames spread to the other three sisters Hannah, Ruth, and Adeline when they tried to rescue their sibling.[5]
1872: Lion tamer
Thomas Macarte, known as Massarti the Lion Tamer, who had previously lost an arm when attacked by one of the lions, entered the lion's cage for a performance with a travelling menagerie in
Bolton market on 3 January. Attacked by the lions, he attempted to fight them off with his sword and a pistol loaded with blanks but they overcame him. Although other members of the show eventually forced the animals back into an inner cage they dragged Macarte with them. Eventually rescued, he died on the way to the hospital.[6]
1873: The actress Matilda Pascaly died from injuries suffered on stage while playing the part of an angel in Don Juan de Maraña. Stagehands mishandled her wires and sent her crashing upside down into a wall.[7]
1882: The actress
Annie Von Behren died during a performance of Si Slocum at
Cincinnati's Coliseum when a firearm wielded by her co-actor,
Frank Frayne, accidentally discharged, shooting her in the head.
1897: Operatic bass
Armand Castelmary died onstage at New York City's
Metropolitan Opera House during a performance of
Friedrich von Flotow's Martha. The audience, believing his collapse to be a stroke of brilliant acting, rewarded him with a loud ovation as the curtain was lowered.
20th century
1904: Emil Hasda, a Polish comic actor, took six curtain calls after a performance in
Nimptsch,
Germany (now part of
Poland) on 11 April before shooting himself in the head in front of the audience, apparently because a female member of the company had rejected his marriage proposal.[6]
1911: On 9 May:
Sigmund Neuberger, a vaudeville performer known as "The Great Lafayette", died in
Edinburgh's
Empire Palace Theatre while performing his "Lion's Bride" illusion after a stage lamp sparked a fire that killed Neuberger, his double, the lion, and ten other performers.
1918:
Chung Ling Soo, magician (real name: William Ellsworth Robinson), died as a result of a
bullet catch illusion going wrong on stage.[8]
1922:
Eugenie Blair, actress, was performing in the original production of Anna Christie. Despite feeling unwell and suffering a headache, she declined the opportunity to be replaced by an understudy. After completing her last scene, she went offstage to sit down and died in the chair.
1927: John "Chuck" O'Connor, performer in
vaudeville and father of actor
Donald O'Connor, died of a heart attack while dancing onstage in their family act.
1938: On April Fools Day 1938, actor
Joseph Greenwald died during a West Coast premiere performance of
Golden Boy at the
Lobero Theatre in
Santa Barbara, CA. Greenwald collapsed and died on the stage after saying the line "I wait for this moment all my life."
1953:
Gaetano Merola,
San Francisco Opera General Director and co-founder, collapsed and died of a heart attack on August 30, while conducting an outdoor concert in Stern Grove. San Francisco legend is that he fell as soprano Brunetta Mazzolina, singing "Un Bel Di" from
Madama Butterfly by
Giacomo Puccini, reached the word Morir, "To Die."
Gareth Jones was portraying a character who died of a heart attack in a live science fiction play Underground in
ABC Television's Armchair Theatre television series (30 November) when he died of a real heart attack between his scenes. The actors and director improvised to account for his absence.
Tyrone Power was stricken by a massive heart attack while filming a dueling scene with his frequent co-star and friend,
George Sanders for the film Solomon and Sheba. He died while being transported to the hospital in
Madrid on 15 November, aged 44.
Singer
Leonard Warren died after performing his
aria in the second act of the opera La forza del destino at the
New York Metropolitan Opera. He was then to perform Don Carlo's act III aria, which begins Morir, tremenda cosa ("to die, a momentous thing"), when he started coughing and gasping. He fell face first to the ground and it was revealed he had died of a massive heart attack.
1961:
Actor
Alan Marshal died on stage while appearing with
Mae West in her play Sextette in Chicago.
1965: Wagnerian bass-baritone
Hermann Uhde died on stage of a heart attack during a performance in Copenhagen's
Royal Danish Theatre on 10 October 1965.
1966:
Vaudeville doubletalk comedian
Al Kelly died immediately following his performance at the
Friars Club roast of
Joe E. Lewis, after returning to his seat on the dais and during the applause.
1967:
Singer and actor
Nelson Eddy, famous for his roles in such movie musicals as Rose Marie, died on 6 March after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage while performing onstage at a Miami Beach, Florida hotel.
Comedian and singer Jodie "Butterbeans" Edwards, the surviving member of the long-running vaudeville duo
Butterbeans and Susie, died on 28 October as he walked onstage at the Dorchester Inn, outside Chicago.
Professional wrestler
Mike DiBiase suffered a heart attack in the ring while wrestling his opponent
Man Mountain Mike on 2 July in
Lubbock, Texas. CPR was unsuccessful, and an autopsy revealed coronary artery disease. DiBiase is the father of wrestling star
Ted DiBiase.
Country music star
Spade Cooley died from a heart attack while backstage during the intermission of a benefit concert in
Oakland, California on 23 November. Cooley was serving a life term in prison for beating his wife to death in front of their daughter, and played the show on a weekend furlough. He was scheduled to be paroled three months later, in February 1970.[16]
Performer
Kenneth Horne, star of the radio comedy show Round the Horne, died of a heart attack while hosting the annual
Guild of Television Producers' and Directors' Awards at the
Dorchester Hotel in London, moments after the show scriptwriters had received an award and Horne had urged the audience to tune into its next series which had been due to commence shortly.
1970:
Actor George Ostroska collapsed from a heart attack at the start of the second act while playing the title role of
Macbeth at the Crawford Livingston Theater in
St. Paul, Minnesota.
Thai actor
Mitr Chaibancha fell to the ground in the last shooting day of his film Insee Thong (
Thai: อินทรีทอง, or Golden Eagle). The stunt shot required him to grasp the helicopter's rope ladder, ascend from the ground and fly off into the sunset, serving as the final shot in the film. During filming, he leapt from the ground to seize a rope ladder suspended from the aircraft, attaining only the lowest rung. Unfortunately, the helicopter pilot, oblivious to this, ascended to greater heights. Eventually, Mitr was unable to maintain his grip, falling to the ground. The entire accident was captured on camera. It was left in the final theatrical release but has been removed from DVD versions.[18]
1971:
Musician
Lil Hardin Armstrong, the former wife of
Louis Armstrong, was appearing on a Chicago tribute to the jazz legend in August, a month after Louis Armstrong had died. She was playing St. Louis Blues on piano when she had a heart attack and fell to the floor.[19]
Longevity expert
J. I. Rodale was a guest on The Dick Cavett Show. After his interview was done,
Pete Hamill was being interviewed by Cavett when Rodale slumped. Hamill, noticing something was wrong, said in a low voice to Cavett, "This looks bad." Rodale had died of a heart attack at age 72. The episode was never aired.
1972:
Les Harvey, lead guitarist of the
Glasgow rock band
Stone the Crows, died after being electrocuted by his microphone while performing at
Swansea's Top Rank Ballroom.[1]
Luther Lindsay, one of the first black stars in professional wrestling, died of a heart attack at the end of a match. Lindsay had just delivered his winning move, and died while lying on top of his opponent.
26 April: British actor
Sid James died at 63 after collapsing on stage at the opening night performance of The Mating Season at the
Sunderland Empire Theatre.[22]
10 September: Finnish magician
Aimo Leikas [
fi] accidentally shot himself in front of a crowd while performing his
Russian roulette act. He had been performing the act for about a year, selecting six bullets from a box of assorted live and dummy ammunition.[23][24]
1977: Actor
Zero Mostel collapsed and died from an aortic aneurysm during the first preview performance of The Merchant, a Broadway-bound adaptation of The Merchant of Venice.
4 August: Comedian
Frank Fontaine died of a heart attack immediately after performing at a benefit show where he had just raised $25,000 for heart research.[27]
1980:
Jayan, the biggest star in
Malayalam cinema, was killed in a helicopter accident while refilming a stunt for the action movie Kolilakkam. Jayan was hanging onto the helicopter's landing skids when it crashed and later succumbed to his injuries.
Danish actor and comedian
Dirch Passer suffered a fatal heart attack backstage immediately prior to going on stage in
Tivoli Gardens on 3 September 1980.
1981: East German comedian
Rolf Herricht on 23 August 1981 died of a heart attack while acting at
Metropol Theater in East Berlin.
1982:
5 January: Actor
Harvey Lembeck suffered a heart attack while performing in an episode of Mork & Mindy and collapsed as he was leaving the stage.
Actor
Vic Morrow and two children, My-Ca Dinh Le (age 7) and Renee Shin-Yi Chen (age 6), died in
an accident while filming on location for the Twilight Zone: The Movie in
Ventura County, California. Morrow, Le, and Chen were filming a scene set during the
Vietnam War in which their characters attempt to escape from a pursuing
U.S. Army helicopter out of a deserted Vietnamese village. The helicopter was hovering at about 25 feet (7.6 m) above them when pyrotechnic explosions damaged it and caused it to crash on top of them, killing all three instantly.[28]
Actor and comedian
Joe E. Ross suffered a heart attack and died while performing on stage on the evening of 13 August. His wife reportedly collected just half of Ross's fee because he had failed to do a full show.[29]
1983: Musician
Rebop Kwaku Baah died of a cerebral haemorrhage while performing in
Stockholm, Sweden.
Actor
Jon-Erik Hexum died after shooting himself with a blank pistol. On 12 October 1984, the cast and crew of the TV series Cover Up were filming the seventh episode of the series, "Golden Opportunity", on Stage 17 of the
20th Century Fox lot. One of the scenes filmed that day called for Hexum's character to load blanks into a
.44 Magnum handgun. When the scene did not play as the director wanted, there was a delay in filming. Hexum became restless during the delay and began playing around to lighten the mood. He had apparently unloaded all but one blank round when, at 5:15pm, he spun the cylinder and, as if playing
Russian roulette, put the revolver to his right temple and pulled the trigger. The force of the blank round was sufficient to dislodge fragments of his skull, which acted as projectiles in lieu of a bullet loaded in the cartridge. The skull fragments were propelled into his brain.
Magician and comedian
Tommy Cooper suffered a heart attack during a performance on the
London Weekend Television variety show Live From Her Majesty's. Cooper was known for getting his illusions deliberately and comically wrong. After Cooper collapsed, his audience laughed for almost a minute, thinking that his stage character had swooned at the appearance of a pretty magician's assistant (even she thought Cooper was improvising a comic bit). The TV show cut away to an unscheduled break. Efforts to revive Cooper backstage failed and he was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
British comedian
Eric Morecambe collapsed from a heart attack as he left the stage of the
Roses Theatre in
Tewkesbury following a performance; he died in hospital a few hours later.[32]
British actor-comedian
Leonard Rossiter died of a heart attack in his dressing room at the
Lyric Theatre, London whilst preparing to go on stage during a performance in Joe Orton's play Loot.[33]
1985:
Butoh dancer Yoshiyuki Takada was performing The Dance of Birth and Death with a Tokyo artistic troupe, on the side of
Seattle's Mutual Life building. His rope broke, and he fell six stories to his death.[34]
Actress Edith Webster died onstage from a heart attack while performing her death scene in the play The Drunkard, in a lodge in
Baltimore. The role called for her to sing "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" and then slump to the floor, which she did.[35]
1987:
Saxophonist
Warne Marsh collapsed at a Los Angeles jazz club while soloing on the standard "Out of Nowhere".
Comedian
Dick Shawn died on stage while performing at the
University of California, San Diego after suffering a fatal heart attack. He lay motionless on the stage for several minutes, while audience members (thinking it was part of his act) began shouting comments, such as: "Take his wallet" and "How long is this going to go on?". The stage manager came out to check on Shawn several times before realizing it was not part of the show. A doctor was called up from the audience to perform CPR on the comedian until the paramedics arrived. He was later pronounced dead at Scripps Memorial Hospital.[36]
Soviet actor
Andrei Mironov suffered a brain aneurysm while performing the title character of Beaumarchais's play
the Marriage of Figaro in
Riga, on 14 August. He died 2 days later having never regained consciousness.
On 1 June 1988,
Ricky May had a fatal heart attack at the Regent Hotel, Sydney, after getting a standing ovation on the opening night of a new cabaret show. He was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital. He was 44 years of age.[37]
Ferial Karim, a Lebanese actress, died on stage during a performance, 4 July.
On 30 May, Italian conductor Giuseppe Patane, 57, died from an apparent heart attack while conducting a performance of The Barber of Seville at the
Bavarian State Opera in Munich.[38]
1990: Escape artist Joseph W. "Amazing Joe" Burrus died on Halloween when the glass 'coffin' he was attempting to escape from collapsed under the weight of wet cement poured on top of it. Burrus died on the 64th anniversary of the death of
Harry Houdini, who was Burrus' inspiration for the performance.
1991: Actor
Redd Foxx suffered a fatal heart attack on the set of the
CBS sitcom The Royal Family.[39][40] It was noted that initially cast mates on set thought Foxx was only fooling around after he clutched a chair and fell to the floor, since his character on Sanford and Son often faked heart attacks.[41]
1992:
13 February, Don "Maddog" Wright, jazz clarinetist, died of a heart attack while performing with
Greg Brown at The Folkway, a club in
Peterborough, New Hampshire. He was 80.
22 February, Polish actor
Tadeusz Łomnicki died of a heart attack during one of the last dress rehearsals at the
Poznań-based Teatr Nowy of
Shakespeare's King Lear, in which he was playing the lead role, much awaited by public and critics. The piece was due to be premiered a week later.
On 3 May, Indian film actor
Alummoodan died of a heart attack while performing at the sets of Adwaitham. He died on the arms of co-star
Mohanlal while filming.[42]
Brandon Lee, son of martial artist
Bruce Lee, died while filming the movie The Crow in
Wilmington, North Carolina. A prop gun had been
squib loaded, causing the blank cartridge to propel the bullet into Lee and kill him. Contrary to urban legend, the footage of his death was not kept in the movie. Instead, they re-shot the scene using a different actor, whose death in the film was by a throwing
knife.
On 11 June 1993, English comic actor
Bernard Bresslaw died of a sudden heart attack in his dressing room at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park, London, where he was to play Grumio in the New Shakespeare Company's production of The Taming of the Shrew.
On 13 December, professional wrestler
Larry Cameron died of a heart attack while wrestling a match with
Tony St. Clair in
Bremen, Germany. He was 41 years old.
Radio disc jockey
Jack Spector died during his daily broadcast on
Long Island radio station
WHLI. His death was discovered when he failed to speak following the end of a record.
Singer
Tiny Tim suffered a fatal heart attack while turning to leave the stage during a benefit concert in
Minneapolis.
Motocycle daredevil
Butch Laswell died in
Mesquite, Nevada, attempting to set a new world record by jumping over a 38-foot-high (12 m) pedestrian bridge. While in the air, Laswell was blown off course by crosswinds, pushing him to the left of the landing ramp. He flat-landed and crashed.
Opera singer
Richard Versalle died on stage at the
Metropolitan Opera during the company's première performance of The Makropulos Case when he suffered a heart attack while standing on a sliding ladder attached to a file cabinet. He was stricken after singing the line, "Too bad you can live only so long."
Guitarist/singer
Johnny "Guitar" Watson collapsed and died onstage during a performance in
Yokohama, Japan. The cause of death was a heart attack.
1997:
English actor Anthony Wheeler died by strangulation while playing
Judas Iscariot at a performance of Jesus Christ Superstar in
Chalkidiki, Greece. He hanged himself after failing to attach the rope to a safety harness that would have kept pressure from his neck, though he had successfully performed the stunt numerous times over the preceding three years.[44]
1998:
Paolo "Feiez" Panigada, member of the Italian band
Elio e le Storie Tese, died of a brain haemorrhage while performing onstage at the Roialto club in
Milan.
English
reggae performer
Judge Dread died from a heart attack as he walked off stage after performing at The Penny Theatre in
Canterbury.[45]
1999:
Owen Hart, a Canadian-born professional wrestler for
WWF, died during
Over the Edge, a pay-per-view event, when performing a stunt. It was planned to have Hart come down from the rafters of
Kemper Arena on a safety harness tied to a rope to make his ring entrance. The safety latch was released and Hart dropped 78 feet (24 m), bouncing chest-first off the top rope resulting in a severed
aorta, which caused his lungs to fill with blood.[46]
Mark Sandman, bassist and lead vocalist for the band
Morphine, collapsed on stage at the Giardini del Principe in Palestrina, Latium, Italy (near Rome) while performing with Morphine. He was pronounced dead of a heart attack.[47]
2000:
On 7 January, professional wrestler
Gary Albright suffered a heart attack during a match against Lucifer Grimm in
Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Grimm was scheduled to lose the match, and thus rolled Albright's motionless body on top of himself. Albright was carried from the ring and pronounced dead at the scene.[48]
Actor
Renato Di Paolo was portraying Judas in a
passion play outside of
Rome on the day before Easter. During the hanging scene he accidentally hanged himself, and died soon after.[49]
Saudi Arabian singer
Talal Maddah collapsed and died suddenly on Al Meftaha Stage (Arabic: مسرح المفتاحة) in front of his fans just after performing the intro to one of his popular oldie songs. The concert was being aired live on
Saudi national television.[50]
2002: 23–26 October: During the
Nord-Ost Siege at Russia's Dubrovka Theater, 17 actors and members of the orchestra were murdered during the initial terrorist raid or in the following days.[51]
2003:
20 February:
Ty Longley, guitarist for the band
Great White, died in
The Station nightclub fire that caused the deaths of 99 other people in
West Warwick, Rhode Island.[52] Longley had re-entered the venue after escaping, with conflicting reports that it was either to ensure the safety of friends attending, or to save his guitar.
20 October:
New Vagrants drummer Joe Forgione died of a heart attack onstage at the Downtime Club, New York.
20 July: Patrick Sherry, 29, frontman of the UK-based rock band Bad Beat Revue, died of head trauma as a result of a head-first
stage dive from a lighting gantry at the Warehouse club in
Leeds, fracturing his skull. Sherry's death is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the first fatal stage dive by a musician.
3 October:
Franco Scoglio, Italian football manager and sport TV commenter, died of a heart attack while on the air during a program on the
Genoan private TV station Primocanale, after a heated discussion over the phone with
Genoa chairman
Enrico Preziosi. He passed out in his seat while Preziosi continued with his call.
29 October: Québécois 1960s pop singer
Pierre Therrien died at the age of 62 after collapsing on stage while performing, in costume, some of
Les Classels biggest hits.
5 December: Icelandic musician
Rúnar Júlíusson suffered a heart attack and died while performing on stage in
Keflavík, aged 63.
2009: 13 June: Japanese wrestler
Mitsuharu Misawa suffered a cervical spine injury while receiving a
suplex move during a match at the
Hiroshima Green Arena, causing fatal cardiac arrest.
2011: 3 March: Swedish comedian
Lasse Eriksson died during the final number of his show Fyra lyckliga män 2(Four happy men 2) at Reginateatern in
Uppsala, Sweden. He was one of Sweden's first stand-up comedians.
2012: 23 December: American guitarist
Mike Scaccia (
Rigor Mortis,
Ministry,
Revolting Cocks) collapsed on stage during a special Rigor Mortis performance in
Fort Worth, Texas. Scaccia was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Cause of death was listed as a heart attack.
2013:
7 July:
Funk ostentação singer and rapper
MC Daleste was fatally shot in the abdomen during a free performance in
Campinas, São Paulo, before a crowd of four thousand people.
27 July:
Mick Farren died on-stage at
The Borderline, London, while performing with his band, The Deviants. The cause of death was stated to be a heart attack.
2014:
7 December: Italian singer
Mango died from a heart attack during a concert in
Policoro,
province of Matera, while performing his song "Oro".[60]
21 March: Mexican wrestler
Perro Aguayo Jr. suffered fatal cardiac arrest caused by cervical spine damage during a match in Tijuana. The severity of Aguayo's condition was not immediately apparent because he fell awkwardly and was draped limply onto the ring ropes, a position that is typically assumed by opponents of
Rey Mysterio, another wrestler in the match.
30 October: Four of the five members of the Romanian metalcore band
Goodbye to Gravity died during the
Colectiv nightclub fire. The band's pyrotechnics, consisting of sparkler firework candles, ignited the club's flammable polyurethane acoustic foam, and the fire spread rapidly, killing 62 people in total. Guitarists Mihai Alexandru and Vlad Țelea were pronounced dead on the scene, while drummer Bogdan Enache and bassist Alex Pascu died shortly thereafter in the hospital due to injuries sustained in the fire.
2016:
3 April: Indonesian
dangdut singer Irma Bule died during a performance in
Karawang,
West Java, after she was bitten by a
king cobra she brought on stage as a prop. She continued singing for 45 minutes after being bitten before she collapsed and died.[62]
21 May: Former
Megadeth drummer
Nick Menza collapsed and died of heart failure during a performance with his band
OHM at
The Baked Potato in Los Angeles.
10 June: 22-year-old
Christina Grimmie, singer from YouTube and The Voice, was fatally shot while signing autographs for fans following a performance at The Plaza Live in Orlando, FL.
15 June:
Milorad Mandić suddenly died of a heart attack onstage during a matinee performance of Peter Pan.
8 October: Taiwanese singer
Kuo Chin-fa collapsed on stage during a performance in
Kaohsiung. He was then declared dead in a hospital of cardiorespiratory failure.
23 November: Italian guitarist and electronic music producer Alberto Bertapelle, better known by his stage name
Brainbug, died of heart attack during a performance in
Tavagnacco of
Udine,
Italy.
2017:
3 January: Nepali actor Bishnu Bhakta Phuyal died while acting on stage. He fainted during a performance at the theater in Kathmandu.[64]
18 March: Former
Boston drummer
Sib Hashian died after collapsing during a performance on the Legends of Rock cruise.[65]
1 May: Guitarist and
jam band performer
Colonel Bruce Hampton collapsed and died of a heart attack during a jam at an all-star concert held in honor of his 70th birthday at the
Fox Theatre in
Atlanta, Georgia.[66] Hampton collapsed in the middle of a performance of "
Turn On Your Love Light", while guitarist
Brandon Niederauer took a solo, an action that the other musicians on stage first assumed was humorous act of homage by the quirky, older musician to the younger guitarist before they realized Hampton was not moving.[67] Before his death, Hampton had often joked to friends and journalists that he would prefer to die onstage if given the choice.[67]
19 July: French barefoot singer
Barbara Weldens collapsed while performing in a church in
Gourdon, France, apparently from electrocution from a faulty cable on the floor.[68]
17 September:
Laudir de Oliveira, Brazilian percussionist and former member of the band
Chicago, died of a heart attack during a performance in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.[69]
11 March: Argentine singer
Sergio Denis suffered a 3-meter (10-foot) fall from the stage in the middle of a song during a show in
San Miguel de Tucumán. Unconscious and with a broken shoulder, he was transported to the hospital in which he was induced in a coma. He died without having woken up on 15 May 2020, a year and two months after his fall.[71]
11 April: Comedian
Ian Cognito died of a heart attack during a show in
Bicester. He is reported to have "sat on a chair and laid back for five minutes," with audience members initially believing it to be part of his routine until the event's compère called an ambulance.[72] A few minutes earlier, Cognito had joked about having a stroke that would cause him to start speaking in Welsh, and said, "Imagine if I died in front of you lot here."[27]
2 September:
Joana Sainz García, Spanish singer and dancer of Super Hollywood Orchestra, died in
Las Berlanas, Spain when a
pyrotechnic was shot in the wrong direction during an on-stage explosion.[74]
27 November:
Godfrey Gao, Taiwanese-Canadian model and actor, died of cardiac arrest while filming Chase Me.
31 December: Juliano Cezar, Brazilian
sertanejo singer, died of a heart attack during a concert in
Uniflor, Paraná.[75]
2020:
18 January: Singer-songwriter
David Olney, 71, died in
Santa Rosa Beach, Florida while at the 30A Songwriters Festival. While performing alongside
Amy Rigby, he became motionless. Fellow performer
Scott Miller said, "David was playing a song when he paused, said 'I'm sorry' and put his chin to his chest. He never dropped his guitar or fell off his stool. It was as easy and gentle as he was."[76]
2021:
18 July:
Milan Lasica, Slovak comedian and author, died in
Bratislava during his singing performance with
Bratislava Hot Serenaders. Just after he finished a song called "I am an Optimist" and gave a bow, he slid down the stage and lost consciousness. After 20 minutes of resuscitation, he was pronounced dead from heart failure.[77][78]
12 September: American drag performer Valencia Prime, 25, collapsed and died from heart disease while performing at a nightclub in
Philadelphia.[80]
16 October: Haitian singer Michael Benjamin a.k.a. "
Mikaben", 41, fell unconscious on
Accor Arena's stage, right after he finished performing at a
Carimi reunion show.[81] He was pronounced dead a few minutes after.
24 October: Radio presenter Tim Gough, 55, died at his home in
Suffolk, UK whilst presenting his breakfast show.[82] Music suddenly stopped during the programme before starting again later.[83]
26 May: Cuban-American musician Juan Carlos Formell (son of
Juan Formell), 59, died from a heart attack during a concert in New York City.[85]
5 November: Juan Jumalon, known as DJ Johnny Walker, was shot during a live radio broadcast.[86]
19 November: Polina Menshikh, a Russian actress, was killed during a shelling of Russian soldiers in the village of
Kumachove located in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. A video shows Menshikh performing in a hall when the singing and lighting ended abruptly.[87]
2024:
13 January: Cajun accordionist
Jo-El Sonnier died of a heart attack after completing a concert in Llano, Texas.[88]
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