James Dean: 1931 - 1955 - Among my favourite cute dead guys and first on our list. Feel free to add more.
James Dean’s career only spanned four years, and he made just three films - but what an impact. Rumoured to have played the field on both sides of the fence, Dean was, and still is, a sexual icon for both women and men. He died in a car collision in 1955. His death at the young age of 24 guaranteed his name would never be forgotten, and cemented his role in Rebel Without A Cause, released one month after he was killed, as one of the most celebrated in film history. His final movie, Giant, was released the following year and earnt Dean the first posthumous Best Actor nomination in Academy Awards history.
River Phoenix: 1970 - 1993
The beautiful and mysterious River Phoenix was one of Hollywood’s biggest rising stars. The older brother of Joaquin Phoenix was only 23 when he died on Halloween 1993 of drug related heart failure – taking a combination of heroin and cocaine is never a good idea, right kids? It has been speculated that Phoenix’s growing depression and dependence on drugs was rooted in the years he spent with the Children of God cult as a child. Whatever the reasons behind it, drugs robbed this young actor of a long and promising career. His final completed movie, Silent Tongue, was released the following year. Phoenix was working on another film, Dark Blood, which was ninety per cent done before his death, but it never saw the light of day as several key scenes couldn’t be shot without him.
Bruce Lee: 1940 - 1973
A perfect example of how you can have the fittest, healthiest and strongest body possible, but there will always be one part of it which screws you over. What’s particularly sad about Lee’s death is that seemingly the dedicated martial arts action star was given painkillers by a friend to relieve a headache, and it was the ingredients in those pills that lead a fatal reaction in Lee’s brain. Imagine how bad that friend feels. In fact, details of Lee’s exact cause of death are shrouded in controversy, and some even believe it was a result of a curse placed on him and his family. We can confirm here for the first time that it WAS a curse. Not really. Lee’s last completed move, Enter the Dragon, was released just six days after he died. He was 32.
Brandon Lee
The son of Bruce Lee was only eight years old when his father passed away, and twenty years later, Brandon Lee went to join him. Whilst filming a scene for The Crow – the movie that would have made him a star – he was shot and killed by a make-shift bullet from a faulty prop gun. He died on March 31st 1993. The coincidence of his death twenty years after Bruce’s passing, and, once again, just before the release of a career defining movie, ensured the ‘Lee family curse’ theory continued to surround Brandon’s death for many years. The Crow had to be completed with two stunt doubles and computer trickery, and was released in May 1994.
James Dean’s career only spanned four years, and he made just three films - but what an impact. Rumoured to have played the field on both sides of the fence, Dean was, and still is, a sexual icon for both women and men. He died in a car collision in 1955. His death at the young age of 24 guaranteed his name would never be forgotten, and cemented his role in Rebel Without A Cause, released one month after he was killed, as one of the most celebrated in film history. His final movie, Giant, was released the following year and earnt Dean the first posthumous Best Actor nomination in Academy Awards history.
River Phoenix: 1970 - 1993
The beautiful and mysterious River Phoenix was one of Hollywood’s biggest rising stars. The older brother of Joaquin Phoenix was only 23 when he died on Halloween 1993 of drug related heart failure – taking a combination of heroin and cocaine is never a good idea, right kids? It has been speculated that Phoenix’s growing depression and dependence on drugs was rooted in the years he spent with the Children of God cult as a child. Whatever the reasons behind it, drugs robbed this young actor of a long and promising career. His final completed movie, Silent Tongue, was released the following year. Phoenix was working on another film, Dark Blood, which was ninety per cent done before his death, but it never saw the light of day as several key scenes couldn’t be shot without him.
Bruce Lee: 1940 - 1973
A perfect example of how you can have the fittest, healthiest and strongest body possible, but there will always be one part of it which screws you over. What’s particularly sad about Lee’s death is that seemingly the dedicated martial arts action star was given painkillers by a friend to relieve a headache, and it was the ingredients in those pills that lead a fatal reaction in Lee’s brain. Imagine how bad that friend feels. In fact, details of Lee’s exact cause of death are shrouded in controversy, and some even believe it was a result of a curse placed on him and his family. We can confirm here for the first time that it WAS a curse. Not really. Lee’s last completed move, Enter the Dragon, was released just six days after he died. He was 32.
Brandon Lee
The son of Bruce Lee was only eight years old when his father passed away, and twenty years later, Brandon Lee went to join him. Whilst filming a scene for The Crow – the movie that would have made him a star – he was shot and killed by a make-shift bullet from a faulty prop gun. He died on March 31st 1993. The coincidence of his death twenty years after Bruce’s passing, and, once again, just before the release of a career defining movie, ensured the ‘Lee family curse’ theory continued to surround Brandon’s death for many years. The Crow had to be completed with two stunt doubles and computer trickery, and was released in May 1994.