Top 10 Hollywood Stars Who Died Under Mysterious Circumstances

George Barris / public domain The disappearance of her personal diary and conflicting timelines of her housekeeper and doctors have fueled the twentieth century's most persistent conspiracy theories for more than sixty years. In the early morning of August 5, 1962, the 36-year-old style icon was found dead in her home in Brentwood. The official inquest indicated acute poisoning from a massive overdose of sleeping pills (Nembutal and chloral hydrate), classified as a 'probable suicide'. However, no glass of water was found in the bedroom to take the dozens of pills, and remarkably her stomach contained hardly any capsule residue. Her alleged affairs with both President John F. Kennedy and his brother Secretary Robert Kennedy gave rise to theories about Secret Service or Mafia involvement. Declassified documents in the FBI Records Vault archive show that Monroe was closely watched in her final months, adding to the mystery surrounding her final hours. “`

Millions of television viewers knew Bob Crane as the sympathetic and witty Colonel Hogan from the immensely popular comedy series Hogan's Heroes. However, out of sight of the cameras, the actor led a risky double life full of sexual excesses and secret video recordings. In June 1978, a colleague found his lifeless body in an apartment complex in Scottsdale, Arizona. Crane lay in his bed with a smashed skull, believed to have been inflicted with a heavy camera tripod, while an electrical cord was wrapped tightly around his throat. The prime suspect was John Henry Carpenter, a friend with whom Crane regularly went out nightlife and exchanged video equipment. Although traces of blood were found in his rental car, a jury acquitted him in 1994 due to a lack of DNA evidence. The murder case still ranks as one of the most talked-about cold cases in America.

Her morbid phobia of dark water was well known in her inner circle. It was therefore incomprehensible that film star Natalie Wood slipped from the yacht Splendor at Catalina Island on the freezing night of November 28, 1981 and drowned. Three men were on board the ship at the time: her husband Robert Wagner, co-star Christopher Walken and captain Dennis Davern. After a night of drinking and heated marital arguments, Wood was found hours later floating in her nightgown, while the dinghy drifted empty. The mystery was reopened decades later. In 2012, the coroner amended her death certificate from "accidental drowning" to "drowning and other undetermined factors" due to unexplained bruising on her arms. As reported by CBS News, police officially identified Robert Wagner as a suspect involved in 2018.

As successor to Rudolph Valentino, Mexican-born Ramon Novarro became Hollywood's ultimate sex symbol in the 1920s. His leading role in the legendary epic Ben-Hur from 1925 made him immensely wealthy and world famous in one fell swoop. However, on October 30, 1968, his remote Laurel Canyon villa turned into a bloody crime scene. Novarro, now 69, was visited by two young brothers, Paul and Tom Ferguson, who tortured him for hours in the belief that a fortune of $5,000 was hidden in the house. The loot ultimately turned out to be very small: the brothers found a total of twenty dollars in his pocket. Novarro died on the spot of asphyxiation by his own blood. The perpetrators were sentenced to life in prison, although later probation and new crimes committed by the duo caused great social outrage.

Just three days after the birth of her daughter Dannielynn, Anna Nicole Smith's life suffered a devastating blow. Her 20-year-old son Daniel visited her in a hospital room in the Bahamas and suddenly collapsed after taking a lethal mix of methadone and antidepressants. The former Playboy model never recovered from the loss. Exactly five months later, on February 8, 2007, 39-year-old Smith was found unconscious at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Florida. Detectives found dozens of bottles of heavy sleeping pills and narcotics in her hotel room. As documented by Biography.com, the coroner determined that a fatal overdose of the sleep aid chloral hydrate had stopped her heart, after which her doctors were legally prosecuted for dispensing drugs under false names.

The sudden death of the 32-year-old actress from Clueless and 8 Mile in December 2009 shocked the film world. Brittany Murphy succumbed in her bathroom to untreated pneumonia, severe anemia and a toxic cocktail of legal drugs. The case only really turned into a bizarre mystery when her widower, scriptwriter Simon Monjack, died in the same bed exactly five months later. The coroner also found the same cause of death for him: acute pneumonia combined with severe anemia. Rumors about toxic black mold in the home or even deliberate poisoning with heavy metals immediately arose. However, extensive investigations by the Los Angeles County Coroner showed that the combination of neglect, self-medication and a polluted indoor environment had both proven fatal.

The fifteen-meter-high letter 'H' of the then 'Hollywoodland' sign became the setting for the most symbolic suicide in film history in September 1932. 24-year-old British theater actress Peggy Entwistle climbed up a maintenance ladder and jumped into the ravine. Entwistle had enjoyed success on Broadway, but her Hollywood debut was a major disappointment. Her role in the thriller Thirteen Women was drastically shortened by the studio after disappointing test screenings, after which her contract with RKO Pictures was not renewed. Hikers found her body two days later in the bushes beneath the famous monument. According to History.com archives, she left a short note in her bag with the words: "I'm scared, I'm a coward. I'm sorry for everything."

The malicious rumor that her body was half-eaten by her own dog after her death was spread in the 1950s by the infamous gossip book Hollywood Babylon. The reality was considerably less sensational, but just as tragic. The Canadian actress was one of the biggest stars of silent film at Warner Bros. in the 1920s. However, after the sudden death of her mother, Prevost became heavily addicted to alcohol and suffered from severe depression. Her weight gain cost her major film contracts, leaving her in deep poverty. In January 1937, neighbors found her lifeless body in a rental apartment on Hollywood Boulevard. Police determined that she died at the age of 38 from acute alcohol poisoning and extreme malnutrition. The small bite marks on her legs turned out to be from her dachshund Maxie, who had desperately tried to wake his unconscious owner.

Twenty years after his death, friends and fans in Los Angeles casually organized an official 'Welcome Back Andy' party. The comedian and Taxi actor had built his entire career around complicated jokes, alter egos and audience deception, which meant that virtually no one believed that his death was real. Kaufman died in May 1984 at the age of 35 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from a rare form of large cell lung cancer. Because he had never smoked and continued to perform until shortly before his death, many suspected that he had faked his own death as the ultimate prank. Even his faithful writing partner Bob Zmuda kept the myth alive for decades. However, documents and doctor's statements in the Biography.com archive conclusively confirm that the groundbreaking comedian actually succumbed to the debilitating disease.

The rumor that his masterful portrayal of The Joker in The Dark Knight was mentally fatal to him has been repeatedly debunked by his family. The 28-year-old Australian thoroughly enjoyed the role, but had been struggling with chronic insomnia and severe pneumonia for years. On January 22, 2008, his housekeeper found him lifeless in his apartment in SoHo, New York. The toxicology report from the New York coroner's office found that Ledger died of acute poisoning from a lethal combination of prescription sleep aids, painkillers and tranquilizers. Although the police concluded that it was a tragic accident, the events surrounding his discovery raised questions. The masseuse who found him first called actress Mary-Kate Olsen in California, who then contacted private hosts before finally calling 911. Ledger received a posthumous Oscar for his role a year later.