The most tragic ends of Old Hollywood stars

Natalie Wood was an industry darling, having starred in West Side Story, Splendor in the Grass, Rebel Without a Cause and Love with the Proper Stranger; so when she mysteriously and tragically passed away in 1981 at the age of 43, Hollywood was heartbroken.

Natalie was on a yacht ride off the coast of California with her husband, Robert Wagner, her friend, actor Christopher Walken, and the boat's skipper, Dennis Davern, when she and Robert reportedly got into an explosive fight.

Robert believed she had gone to bed after the fight, but discovered she was missing around 11 p.m. The next day, her body was found in a nearby cove around 8 a.m., and her death was ruled an accidental drowning.

According to the coroner, Natalie had likely tried to get into the dinghy after a night of drinking, had fallen into the water and died of hypothermia. Despite this being the accepted theory, Natalie's sister, Lana, has maintained the belief that Robert was somehow responsible for his wife's death.

Robert later admitted that the pair had argued before her disappearance in his 2008 memoir, Pieces of My Heart. "Did I blame myself? If I had been there, I could have done something," he wrote. "But I wasn't there. I didn't see her. The bottom line is that nobody knows exactly what happened."

The mother of two's case was never solved, and Robert was named as a person of interest in 2018 before he was cleared of any involvement in 2022.

Marilyn Monroe's tragic death in 1962 left the world stunned and spawned countless conspiracy theories about the exact nature of her passing. The actress was found dead inside her home in Los Angeles at just 36 years old, with a hand wrapped around her phone and pill bottles strewn around the bedroom.

Upon investigation, authorities ruled that Marilyn had died from acute barbiturate poisoning; she was known to have suffered substance abuse and mental health issues in the past.  

Several conspiracy theories cropped up after her death, including the theory that she had been killed to keep the secret of her alleged affairs with John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert F. Kennedy.

The rumours surrounding the nature of her death grew so loud that authorities conducted a threshold investigation in 1982, before determining that there was no evidence of foul play.

The budding Hollywood actor was about to hit the big time thanks to his starring role in 1955's Rebel Without a Cause, when tragedy struck. 

James and his friends were driving in his Porsche 550 Spyder to a sports car rally in California in 1955, when he crashed into an oncoming Ford Tudor that was turning left at an intersection. 

James, who was 24 years old, died instantly, leaving behind the mark of a star gone far too soon.

The blonde bombshell was leaving her show at a nightclub in Mississippi on the evening of June 28, 1967, when her life was tragically cut short, leaving five kids without their mother.

Jayne, 34, was travelling to New Orleans with her boyfriend, a driver from the nightclub, and three of her children, when their car ran into the back of a truck on the highway. 

The actress, her boyfriend and the driver were all killed, while her kids, including Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay, miraculously survived the crash.

Linda's fame never quite reached the heights of stars like Marilyn Monroe or Natalie Wood, but she was known for her glamorous good looks and for her performances in A Letter to Three Wives, The Mark of Zorro and Forever Amber.

In 1965, Linda's career had largely stalled, and the 41-year-old was staying at the home of her former secretary in Illinois. While watching movies on the television, the actress reportedly fell asleep with a lit cigarette in her hand, which then sparked a fire and caused the house to burn down.

Linda was taken to the hospital with severe burns on more than 80% of her body, and she succumbed to her injuries days later. 

The eeriest part of her story was that in her final interview, which was published after her death, Linda shared with the National Enquirer that she hoped her life "won’t end in tragedy".

The handsome and dashing star’s life was tragically cut short in October 1985 when he passed away from AIDS-related complications at 59, just months after disclosing his diagnosis to the world.

Rock was a gay man and tried to keep his personal life under wraps; however, he could no longer keep this secret by 1985, as AIDS had ravaged his body and left him deathly ill. 

"I am not happy that I am sick. I am not happy that I have AIDS. But if that is helping others, I can at least know that my own misfortune has had some positive worth," he wrote in a telegram sent to a fundraiser. 

Although his passing was incredibly tragic, Rock brought worldwide attention to the AIDS crisis as one of the first public figures to disclose their diagnosis.

"Because everyone knew Rock Hudson, now everyone in the world knew somebody who had AIDS. And suddenly, there was public interest," said biographer Mark Griffin in the 2023 documentary Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed. 

"It was Rock's own physician who said, 'Rock Hudson was the single most influential AIDS patient in history, because he changed the way that the disease was perceived.'"