20 (More) Great Artists that Never Reached 30

Posted by CultCase at Friday, May 08, 2009 | 23 comments

Read more about art , death , featured , people , weird

Several performing artists enjoyed long, almost epic in magnitude, careers. But for some, cultural significance was achieved in a short, meteoric explosion. Some fade away, some burn out. If you are a frequent CultCase reader you may have already stumbled the first article in this topic. It was only thank to our devoted readers, who protested the omission of their favorite under-30 dead artists, that we managed to assemble this complementary list. Before we begin, based on 40 examined cases, the following is a non exhaustive list of recommendations for our young, under 30, artistically inclined readers:

If you do drugs not to overdose (8 didn't). Stay away from guns, mainly held by others but also by yourself (7 didn't). Diseases such as Influenza, Tuberculosis and Typhoid often disagree with you (6 didn’t realize it in time). Modern transportation arrangements such as cars and buses (4) or planes (4) can be extremely dangerous, especially when their drivers are heavily sedated or alcohol intoxicated. Avoid fluids in your respiratory system (3 didn't) and try to stay away from wars (2 didn't). Artists can bleed. here they are, 20 more culturally significant artists that never made 30.

Hank Williams (29)

• Age: 29
• Cause of death: Morphine overdose

Hank Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer and songwriter and musician who has become an icon of country music and one of the most influential songwriters of the 20th century. Above Image: Williams on stage at the Midnight Jamboree broadcasting from the Ernest Tubb Record Store. Copyright: Jett Williams



On January 1, 1953, a 17-year-old chauffeur named Charles Carr pulled over at an all-night service station in Oak Hill, West Virginia and discovered that Hank Williams was dead in the back seat. Controversy has since surrounded Williams' death, with some people claiming Williams was dead before leaving Knoxville on his way to Oak Hill. In the above image: Hank giving a concert from the back of a flatbed truck in his hometown of Georgiana, Alabama. Audrey, Hank's first wife, is the woman in sunglasses in the foreground. Copyright: Hank Williams Boyhood Home and Museum

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Alain Fournier (28)

• Age: 28
• Cause of death: War

Henri-Alban Fournier, who wrote under the pseudonym Alain-Fournier,was born October 3, 1886 at the Chapelle d’Anguillon in France. In 1910, he went to work as a journalist for the Paris Journal and fell in love with Jeanne Bruneau who was later the basis for the character of Valentine in his book "le Grand Meaulnes (The Wanderer)". The creation was first published in the July-October 1913 issue of the "Nouvelle Revue française" and later on as a book. Although nominated for the prestigious Goncourt Prize, The Wanderer narrowly lost the prize to Marc Elder's "Le Peuple de la Mer".

In 1914, Alain-Fournier started work on a new book "Colombe Blanchet", which remained unfinished as he had to join the army in August 1914 and got killed only one month later. His body remained unidentified until 1991, at which time he waslaidtorest in the cemetery of Saint Remy la Colonne. Above: Alain-Fournier, 19 years old.

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Bradley Nowell (28)

• Age: 28
• Cause of death: Heroin overdose

Bradley James Nowell (February 22, 1968 – May 25, 1996) was an American musician who served as lead singer and guitarist of the popular genre transcendent band Sublime. He died at 28 from a heroin overdose shortly before the release of Sublime's self-titled major label debut. Shown above (center) with his Sublime mates and below, young and happy.

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Brandon Lee (28)

• Age: 28
• Cause of death: Gunshot while filming

Brandon Bruce Lee (February 1, 1965 – March 31, 1993) was a Chinese-American actor and the son of the late legendary martial arts film star Bruce Lee. Lee followed in his father's footsteps, starting a promising career in action movies and signing a multi-film contract with 20th Century Fox. He was accidentally shot and killed while filming The Crow (1994). Leading critic Roger Ebert wrote that "Lee clearly demonstrate[d] that he might have become an action star, had he lived."

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Heath Ledger (28)

• Age: 28
• Cause of death: Toxic combination of prescription drugs

Heath Andrew Ledger (4 April 1979 – 22 January 2008) was an Australian television and film actor. His work includes 19 films, most notably 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), The Patriot (2000), Monster's Ball (2001), A Knight's Tale (2001), Brokeback Mountain (2005), and The Dark Knight (2008). In addition to his acting, he produced and directed music videos and aspired to be a film director.



Ledger died at the age of 28 from an accidental "toxic combination of prescription drugs." A few months before his death, he had finished filming his penultimate performance, as the Joker in The Dark Knight.

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Jean-Michel Basquiat (27)

• Age: 27
• Cause of death: Cocaine and heroin mix ("speedballing) overdose

Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was a Haitian American artist. He gained popularity first as a graffiti artist in New York City, and then as a successful 1980s-era Neo-expressionist artist. Basquiat's paintings continue to influence modern-day artists and command high prices. He died accidentally of mixed-drug toxicity, combining cocaine and heroin, a mix known as "speedballing" at his studio in 1988. Above: Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1987 in a photo portrait by Ari Marcopoulos.

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Nick Drake (26)

• Age: 26
• Cause of death: Suicide by acute amitriptyline poisoning

Nicholas Rodney Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English singer-songwriter and musician best known for his acoustic, autumnal songs. His primary instrument was the guitar, though he was also proficient at piano, clarinet, and saxophone. Although he failed to find a wide audience during his lifetime, Drake now ranks among the most influential English singer-songwriters of the last 50 years. During the night of 24/25 November 1974 Drake died at home in Far Leys from an overdose of amitriptyline, a type of antidepressant. The cause of death has been stated as a result of "Acute amitriptyline poisoning - self administered when suffering from a depressive illness", and concluded a verdict of suicide.

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Tose Proeski (26)

• Age: 26
• Cause of death: Car accident

Todor "Toše" Proeski (January 25, 1981 – October 16, 2007) was a famous Macedonian pop singer. He was popular across the entire Balkan area and further north, and locally he was considered a top act of the Macedonian music scene. Proeski was known for his trademark quote "Ve sakam site" (I Love You All), and was called "Elvis Presley of the Balkans" by BBC News. He died in a car crash in Croatia on October 16, 2007.

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Aubrey Beardsley (25)

• Age: 25
• Cause of death: Tuberculosis

Aubrey Vincent Beardsley (21 August 1872 – 16 March 1898) was an English illustrator and author. Beardsley was active till his death in Menton, France, at the age of 25 on 16 March 1898, of tuberculosis.

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John Keats (25)

• Age: 25
• Cause of death: Tuberculosis

John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet who became one of the key poets of the English Romantic movement during the early nineteenth century. During his very short life, his work received constant critical attacks from periodicals of the day, but his posthumous influence on poets such as Alfred Tennyson has been immense. In 1820, Keats began showing serious signs of tuberculosis, the disease that had plagued his family. On the suggestion of his doctors, he moved into a house in Rome, Italy (today a museum dedicated to his life and work) where despite attentive care the poet's health rapidly deteriorated. He died in 23 February 1821 and was buried in the Protestant Cemetery, Rome.

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Randy Rhoads (25)

• Age: 25
• Cause of death: Plane crash

Randall William "Randy" Rhoads (December 6, 1956 – March 19, 1982) was an American heavy metal guitarist who played with Ozzy Osbourne and Quiet Riot. Despite his short career, he is cited as an influence by many contemporary heavy metal guitarists. Rhoads was killed instantly in a plane crash along with 2 of his friends, including the pilot of the plane Andrew Aycock who was also the Blizzard of Ozz group tour bus driver. All three bodies were burned beyond recognition, and were identified by dental records. It was later revealed in an autopsy that Aycock's system showed traces of cocaine at the time; Rhoads' toxicology test revealed only nicotine.

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Tupac Shakur (25)

• Age: 25
• Cause of death: Murdered by gunshot

Tupac Amaru Shakur (June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper. In addition to his status as a top-selling recording artist, Shakur was also a promising actor and a social activist. Most of Shakur's songs are about growing up amid violence and hardship in ghettos, racism, problems in society and conflicts with other rappers. On the night of September 7, 1996, Shakur was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas and was admitted to University of Nevada Medical Center. He died six days later of respiratory failure and cardiac arrest at the University Medical Center. 2Pac became the unlikely martyr of gangsta rap, and a tragic symbol of the toll its lifestyle exacted on urban black America.



2Pac died six days later of respiratory failure and cardiac arrest at the University Medical Center and became the unlikely martyr of gangsta rap, and a tragic symbol of the toll its lifestyle exacted on urban black America.

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• Images sources: 1, 2

Cliff Burton (24)

• Age: 24
• Cause of death: Bus accident

Clifford Lee Burton (February 10, 1962 – September 27, 1986) was a bassist best known for his work with the American heavy metal band Metallica from 1982 until his death in 1986. As a bassist he made heavy use of distortion and effects (several of which are usually associated with non-bass guitars), best exemplified on his signature piece, "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth".



On the evening of September 26, 1986, Burton was asleep when at several minutes before 7 am (on the 27th), according to the driver, the band's tour bus ran over a patch of black ice, skidded off of the road and flipped onto the grass in Ljungby Municipality, near Dörarp in rural southern Sweden. Burton was thrown through the window of the bus, which fell on top of him causing his death. James Hetfield later stated that he first believed the bus flipped because the driverwasdrunk,claiming he had smelled alcohol on the driver's breath after the accident. Above: Metallica. Left to right - Cliff Burton, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett

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Selena Quintanilla-Pérez (23)

• Age: 23
• Cause of death: Murdered by gunshot

Selena Quintanilla-Pérez (April 16, 1971 – March 31, 1995), best known as Selena, was an American singer who has been called "The Queen of Tejano music". The youngest child of a Mexican couple, Selena released her first album at the age of 12(!). She won Female Vocalist of the Year at the 1987 Tejano Music Awards and landed a recording contract with EMI a few years later. Her fame grew throughout the early 1990s, especially in Spanish-speaking countries.



On the morning of March 31, 1995 at a hotel room, Selena and Yolanda Saldívar - the president of Selena's fan club and the manager of her boutiques - had a fight over some missing financial papers. At 11:48 am, Saldívar drew a gun from her purse, pointing at Selena. As the singer turned and left the room, Saldívar shot her once in the back. Critically wounded, Selena ran towards the lobby to get help. She collapsed on the floor as the clerk called 911, with Saldívar chasing her, calling her a bitch. Before collapsing to the floor, Selena named Saldívar as her assailant and gave the room number where she had been shot. After an ambulance and the police arrived on the scene, Selena was transported to a local hospital and died there from loss of blood at 1:05 p.m. She was 23.

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Aaliyah Dana Haughton (22)

• Age: 22
• Cause of death: Plane crash

Aaliyah Dana Haughton (January 16, 1979 – August 25, 2001), who performed under the mononym Aaliyah, was an American recording artist and actress. Introduced to audiences by R&B singer R. Kelly, Aaliyah became famous during the mid-1990s with several hit records from the songwriting-production team of Missy Elliott and Timbaland. She found success with her debut album Age Ain't Nothing But a Number, while introducing a "street but sweet" style which would become her trademark throughout her career followed by two more albums, One In a Million and the eponymous Aaliyah.



In addition to Aaliyah's commercial success, collaborations with Timbaland helped shape the sound of R&B in the later half of the 1990s. She also modeled for Tommy Hilfiger, appeared in a Victoria Secret ad and starred in two motion pictures, Romeo Must Die and Queen of the Damned, before she and 8 other people died in a small plane crash in the Bahamas on August 25, 2001 after filming the music video for the single "Rock the Boat".

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Darby Crash (22)

• Age: 22
• Cause of death: Heroin overdose

Darby Crash (September 26, 1958 – December 7, 1980) was an American punk musician who, along with long time friend Pat Smear, co-founded the music band The Germs. Crash committed suicide on December 7, 1980, at age 22. Unreported at the time, Crash had overdosed on heroin in a suicide pact with close friend Casey Cola, who ended up surviving. She insists that he did not intend for her to live, nor did he change his mind at the last minute and intend for himself to live. As he lay dying, he attempted to write "Here lies Darby Crash" on the wall, but did not finish.

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Rebecca Schaeffer (21)

• Age: 22
• Cause of death: Murdered by gunshot

Rebecca Lucile Schaeffer (November 6, 1967 – July 18, 1989) was an American actress who was best known for her role in the sitcom My Sister Sam. Schaeffer was stalked and then murdered by an obsessed fan, prompting the passage of anti-stalking laws in California. On July 18, 1989, Schaeffer was murdered by Robert John Bardo, an obsessed fan who had been stalking her for three years. Bardo pulled out a gun from a brown paper bag and shot her once at point-blank range in the chest in the doorway of her apartment building in Los Angeles, California. Schaeffer screamed and collapsed in her doorway as Bardo fled. The following day, Bardo was arrested in Tucson, after motorists reported a man darting through traffic on Interstate 10. He immediately confessed to the murder.



Above: Rebecca Shaeffer and Pam Dawber in My Sister Sam

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Raymond Radiguet (20)

• Age: 20
• Cause of death: Typhoid fever

Raymond Radiguet (June 18, 1903 – December 12, 1923) was a French author. He associated himself with the Modernist set, befriending Picasso, Max Jacob, Juan Gris and especially Jean Cocteau, who became his mentor. Radiguet also had several well-documented relationships with women. An anecdote told by Ernest Hemingway has an enraged Cocteau charging Radiguet with decadence for his tryst with a model: "Bébé est vicieuse. Il aime les femmes." ("Baby is depraved. He likes women.") Radiguet, Hemingway implies, employed his sexuality to advance his career, being a writer "who knew how to make his career not only with his pen but with his pencil." Above: left - Raymond Radiguet. Right: Jean Cocteau, Georges Auric, Raymond Radiguet at John Russell Bibliothèque Jacques Doucet, Paris.



Radiguet had died December 12, 1923 aged 20, of typhoid fever, which he contracted after a trip he took with Cocteau. In reaction to this death Francis Poulenc wrote, "For two days I was unable to do anything, I was so stunned". Alongside these two novels, Radiguet's works include a few poetry volumes and a play. Above: Portrait de Raymond Radiguet by Jacques-Emile Blanche.

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Ritchie Valens (17)

• Age: 17
• Cause of death: Plane crash

Ritchie Valens (Richard Steven Valenzuela; May 13, 1941 – February 3, 1959) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. A rock and roll pioneer and a forefather of the Chicano rock movement, Valens' recording career lasted only eight months. During this time, however, he scored several hits, most notably "La Bamba", which was originally a Mexican folk song that Valens transformed with a rock rhythm and beat that became a hit in 1958, making Valens a pioneer of the Spanish-speaking rock and roll movement.



On February 3, 1959, on what has become known as The Day the Music Died, Valens was killed in a small-plane crash in Iowa, an event that also claimed the lives of fellow musicians Buddy Holly and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. Above: Valens with Bob Keane.

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Heather O'Rourke (12)

• Age: 12
• Cause of death: Cardiac arrest caused by septic shock due / medical misdiagnosis

Heather O'Rourke (December 27, 1975 – February 1, 1988) was an American child actress who played Carol Anne Freeling in the Poltergeist film trilogy and made several television guest appearances. O'Rourke became ill in early 1987, and was misdiagnosed by Kaiser Permanente Hospital as having Crohn's disease. She was prescribed medicine to treat the Crohn's, which allegedly "puffed up her cheeks".



On January 31, 1988 O'Rourke was ill again, vomiting and unable to keep anything down. The next morning she collapsed while trying to leave for the hospital and her step-father called paramedics. She suffered a cardiac arrest en route to the hospital, and after resuscitation was airlifted by helicopter to Children's Hospital and Health Center in San Diego, where she died.

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• Image sources: 1, 2

Enjoyed this article? See also: Live Fast, Die Young: 20 Great Artists that Never Reached 30

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7 Non-Egyptian Mummies and Mummy Cemeteries You Must See Before You Die

Posted by CultCase at Friday, March 20, 2009 | 13 comments

Read more about death , featured , human-biology , science , weird

For most of us thinking of mummification means thinking of mysterious ancient Egypt and the pharaohs. Indeed, eternal life was the main focus of all ancient Egyptians who believed the body was home in the afterlife to a person's Ka and Ba, without which it would be condemned to eternal wandering. Famous movies such as The Mummy, a British horror film from 1959 to name one, have also contributed their part to our somewhat "Egyptian-biased" perception of mummification. Here is a (2:17 min) reminder:



Nonetheless, mummification existed in many non-Egyptian cultures just as well, as exemplified in the largest and most ambitious mummy exhibitions ever staged, recently opened in the northern Italian town of Bolzano. With more than 60 mummies from Asia, Europe, South America as well as Egypt, Mummies of the World: The Dream of Eternal Life will tour science centers and museums in the United States for a three year tour commencing July 2010. So, to celebrate this spectacular must see exhibition and since we know many of you want to but will not be able to attend, here are 7 famous mummies and mummy cemeteries we think you should see before singing off for your eternal wandering.

Oetzi the Iceman



Among the mummies that will be exhibited on the Dream of Eternal Life show will be the world-famous 5,300-year-old Oetzi. Natural Mummies - mummies that are formed as a result of naturally-occurring environmental conditions - have been found all over the world. Yet, none of them is even remotely amazing as this mummified Neolithic hunter also spelled Oetzi and known as Frozen Fritz or "The Iceman".

• via crystalinks.com

Otzi the Iceman is a well-preserved natural mummy of a man from about 3300 BC, found as shown in the above astonishing photographs by two German tourists, Helmut and Erika Simonby in 1991 in a glacier of the Otztal Alps in Italy, near its border with Austria. Otzi rivals the Egyptian "Ginger" as the oldest known human mummy, and has offered an unprecedented view on the habits of Chalcolithic (Copper Age) Europeans.

• Via National Geographic

Thanks to modern x-ray technology recently published studies tell a lot of new facts about how Otzi lived. And died. For example, we know he was a member of a relatively advanced farming society and may even have been an Alpine herdsman. His moccasins were not made of bearskin, as previously believed, but from the skin of ancient seasonally migrating cattle made by herdsmen in the region of the Alps. We also know he died from an arrow-inflicted lesion to an artery near his left shoulder.

• Via National Geographic

Grauballemanden the Tollund Man



The Tollund man, shown above, is another fantastic example of what ancient Europeans may have looked like. This naturally mummified corpse was dressed only in a pointed cap and belt when discovered in a peat bog in Denmark in 1952. The Tollund Man is believed to be over 2000 year old from the Pre-Roman Iron Age in Scandinavia.

• By Malene Thyssen via Wikimedia

Tollund Man was found buried in a peat bog on the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark, which preserved his body. Amazingly, the head and face were so well-preserved that at the time of discovery he was mistaken for a recently deceased murder victim. Below are a few more interesting snapshots of the Tollund Man mummy.

• Via tollundmanden.dk

Mummy Juanita the Ice Maiden

• Via USAToday

Mummy Juanita is a frozen Inca mummy of a teenage girl who died more than 500 years ago and was discovered in Peru in 1995 by anthropologist Johan Reinhard and his Peruvian climbing partner Miguel Zarate. Also known as Momia Juanita (original Spanish), the Ice Maiden, the Lady of Ampato and the Frozen Lady, this mummy is unfortunately going through quite a difficult modern life and not doing so well. In 2006 daily newspaper El Comercio published that an expert from the U.S. Smithsonian Institution who was vacationing in the southern Andean city of Arequipa detected dampness inside the mummy's glass-enclosed refrigeration compartment. Shown above: Mummy Juanita when found on Mount Ampato in Peru in 1995.



The above photograph was released by Peruvian press agency ANDINA on 18 May 2007. Authorities of the National Culture Institute said that the mummy is currently suffering from a slight deterioration that could eventually end in a complete decomposition if not saved by new technology.

Chinchorro Mummies

• by Iain McDonald

Chinchorro mummies go back to 7000 years, practically thousands of years before the Egyptian mummies mummified, thus representing the world earliest attempt known to date to intentionally preserve the dead. They are believed to be the remains of individuals from the South American Chinchorro culture found in what is now northern Chile and southern Peru around 5000 B.C. and reaching a peak around 3000 B.C. Their old age is clearly shown in the above photo by Iain McDonald and the one below by Paul but they can still provide a general idea of what you can expect if you happen to pay them a visit.

• by Paul

• Via artslivres

Chauchilla Mummies

• By Colegota via Wikimedia

The cemetery of Chauchilla, located 30 Km away from Nazca, southern Peru, offers a particularly interesting set of pre-columbian mummies, human bones and skulls as well as some very interesting pottery work. We say "particularly interesting" because… well, they are just there, awaiting their visitors at open air. Above: A resting mummy in the Cemetery of Chauchilla.

• By Ryan Kelly

• By Nicola e Pina in Per…

• By Lucas Steiner

• By snoww

Guanajuato Mummies

• Via LATimes

Perhaps the most terrifying mummy set ever discovered has certainly nothing to do with ancient Egypt but with the horrible cholera epidemic outbreak in Guanajuato, Mexico in 1833. The Mummies of Guanajuato are naturally mummified and - believe it or not - some of them were actuality buried alive:

"Due to the ferocity of the epidemic, more cemeteries had to be opened in San Cayetano as well as Cañada de Marfil. Many of the bodies were buried immediately to control the spread of the disease; in some cases, the dying were buried alive by accident. As a result, some of the mummies have horrific expressions attesting to their death in the tombs, though most expressions became fixed postmortem." (Wikipedia)

No one knows exactly how many bodies were extracted but unclaimed ones are from time to time extracted and put on display for your enjoyment in the Museo de las Momias in the city of Guanajuato near Mexico City. At the moment, according to L.A. Times, there are 56. Below photos from Guanajuato's Museum of Mummies via studenttravel.about.com.

• Above: Ignacia Aguilar's Mummy, buried alive?

• Via studenttravel.about.com

• by Tomascastelazo via Wikimedia

Above: Hand of Guanajuato mummy in the Museo de las Momias where unclaimed bodies often end up for public exhibition. Below are some more photos taken by visitors in the museum.

• By Jeffrey

• By David Sgeary

• By Jeanne & Ray Burnham

• By Phyllis k. Johnson

Takla Makan Mummies



In the late 1980's, perfectly preserved 3000-year-old mummies such as the amazing Marquis of Dai Mummy (via chinatravel.net) shown above began appearing in a remote Taklamakan desert.

"They had long reddish-blond hair, European features and didn't appear to be the ancestors of modern-day Chinese people. Archaeologists now think they may have been the citizens of an ancient civilization that existed at the crossroads between China and Europe. The discoveries in the 1980s of the undisturbed 4,000-year-old ”Beauty of Loulan” and the younger 3,000-year-old body of the ”Charchan Man” are legendary in world archaeological circles for the fine state of their preservation and for the wealth of knowledge they bring to modern research." (meshrep.com)

• Taklimakan Baby, Man and Woman Mummies, via ancestry.com

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