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15 Famous People Who Allegedly Died of Food Poisoning

15 Famous People Who Allegedly Died of Food Poisoning

If you’ve ever come down with a case of food poisoning (and who hasn’t?), then you already know that it’s no joke. Getting food poisoning can be an absolutely miserable experience – and it’s actually killed some of history’s most prominent people.

Food poisoning, also called foodborne illness, is the result of eating food that’s been contaminated with bacteria, a virus, parasites, toxin, or another pathogen. According to the CDC, each year it’s estimated that 48 million people get sick from a foodborne illness, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die. (Here are 25 foods that can make you sick or kill you.)

Of the many pathogens that can cause foodborne illness, four are particularly fatal, and are responsible for the majority of food poisoning deaths in modern times: Campylobacter, the most common bacterial cause of diarrheal illness in the United States; noroviruses, which are America’s leading cause of foodborne illness; listeria, a bacteria which sickens about 1,600 Americans annually; and salmonella, a bacteria that kills about 420 Americans every year.  

While it’s impossible to completely erase your risk of getting food poisoning, there are thankfully some easy steps you can take to minimize your risk. The CDC’s Four Steps to Food Safety are: Clean (wash your hands, surfaces that come into contact with food, and fruits and vegetables), Separate (avoid cross-contamination), Cook (make sure to cook meat to the right temperature), and Chill (refrigerate food promptly to keep it out of the Danger Zone” between 40°F and 140°F).  

To compile a list of prominent people who have died of food poisoning, or are believed to have, 24/7 Tempo consulted the category listing of deaths from food poisoning on Wikipedia, as well as lists on several pop culture websites, then verified details through the New York Times and Britannica. (Whether from food poisoning or other causes, these are some very famous people who died at the dinner table.)

Thankfully, due to advances in refrigeration, medicine, and food safety overall, we know a lot more about foodborne illnesses than in the past. Sadly, for these mostly historical figures, that knowledge didn’t come soon enough or may have been disregarded.

Source: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Henry I
> Known as: King of England
> Date of death: Dec. 1, 1135

Henry I of England, the fourth son of William the Conqueror, ruled from 1100 to 1135, and was known as a harsh but effective monarch. According to a chronicler, he died in the Normandy town of Lyons-la-Forêt – supposedly after eating too many lampreys (a type of jawless fish with sharp teeth) against his physician’s advice, though many historians are convinced that it was food poisoning that claimed his life..

Source: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Pope Clement VII
> Known as: Pope and ruler of the Papal States
> Date of death: Sept. 25, 1534

Pope Clement VII was head of the church from 1523 until his death in 1534, and oversaw a particularly turbulent and consequential political, military, and religious era at the tail end of the Italian Renaissance. He is best known for approving Copernicus’s theory that the earth revolves around the sun and commissioning Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment” fresco in the Sistine Chapel. After months of illness, which included liver failure and blindness, he died at age 56, and while his death was attributed to eating poisonous mushrooms at the time, the cause is debated among modern historians.

Source: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Charles VI
> Known as: Holy Roman Emperor
> Date of death: Oct. 20, 1740

The Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy Charles VI was in power from 1711 until his death in 1740. After a day spent hunting in cold and wet conditions, Charles fell ill and died; the official cause of death was eating poisonous death cap mushrooms. His death sparked the War of the Austrian Succession, which plagued his successor, Maria Theresa.

Source: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Anton Fils
> Known as: German composer
> Date of death: March 14 (?), 1760

Anton Fils was a German composer who penned at least 34 symphonies and about 30 concertos in his short life (he died at age 26). In an odd bit of classical music trivia, a biographer attributed his death to a habit of eating spiders, which he claimed tasted like strawberries.

Source: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Johann Schobert
> Known as: German composer and harpsichordist
> Date of death: Aug. 28, 1767

Johann Schobert was an Alsatian composer and harpsichordist in the household of Louis François I de Bourbon, prince de Conti, and is best known as a major early influence on Mozart. In 1767 he went mushroom picking with his family. Two restaurant chefs turned him away when he asked them to cook what he’d foraged, because they recognized the mushrooms as poisonous. Schobert refused to believe them, and a doctor friend reinforced that belief, so he made them into a soup at home. Schobert, his wife, the doctor, and all but one of his children died as a result.

Source: Hulton Archive / Getty Images

Zachary Taylor
> Known as: President of the United States
> Date of death: July 9, 1850

A popular military leader and hero of the Mexican-American War, Zachary Taylor was elected president in 1848 but only served for 16 months before dying of a stomach ailment. He fell ill after consuming lots of cherries and iced milk during a fundraising event for the Washington Monument and died of acute gastroenteritis several days later. His specific cause of death remains debated.

Source: Antony McCallum / Wikimedia Commons

William Stephens
> Known as: Dean of Winchester Cathedral (England)
> Date of death: Dec. 22, 1902

William Stephens was the Dean (or head) of Winchester Cathedral, in the English city of Winchester, from 1895 to 1902. At a mayoral banquet in that year, Stephens ate oysters that had been contaminated with raw sewage, and he died six weeks later from the typhoid fever he’d contracted as a result.

Source: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Gaston Méliès
> Known as: French silent film director
> Date of death: April 9, 1915

Brother of the famed film director Georges Méliès, Gaston Méliès was a noted (if unsuccessful) director in his own right, who spent several years filming around the Asian Pacific before moving to Corsica with his wife in 1913 – where he died from shellfish poisoning two years later at age 63.

Source: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Hersal Thomas
> Known as: Blues pianist and composer
> Date of death: June 2, 1926

Hersal Thomas was an American blues pianist and composer who recorded several songs in 1925 and ’26, including a session with young Louis Armstrong. While headlining at a music venue called Penny’s Pleasure Inn in Detroit, he contracted food poisoning and died at the young age of just 19.

Source: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Corinne Barker
> Known as: Silent film star
> Date of death: Aug. 6, 1928

Corinne Barker was an actress and costume designer during the silent film era. She became well-known for her appearances in Vitagraph films and also appeared in several Broadway productions. She died of food poisoning in 1928, at age 38.

Source: Tomstuartsanderson / Wikimedia Commons

Wilfrid Sanderson
> Known as: English composer and organist
> Date of death: Dec. 10, 1935

Wilfrid Sanderson was a noted English church organist and an examiner at London’s Trinity College of Music. He died in 1935, at age 56, after contracting typhoid from contaminated oysters.

Source: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Robert Schable
> Known as: Stage and film actor
> Date of death: July 7, 1947

Robert Schable began his career as a stage actor and transitioned to silent films in 1919. He became well-known for his comedic roles and portrayal of characters with European flair. He died of food poisoning in 1947, at age 73.

Source: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Bandō Mitsugorō VIII
> Known as: Kabuki actor, Japanese “National Living Treasure”
> Date of death: Jan. 16, 1975

One of Japan’s most revered Kabuki actors, Bandō Mitsugorō VIII was named a “National Living Treasure” by the Japanese government in 1973. Two years later, he ordered fugu kimo, or puffer fish liver – an organ that’s known for being toxic but wasn’t banned until 1894 – at a Kyoto restaurant, claiming that he could survive the poison’s paralytic effects. He couldn’t.

Source: Jim Massara / Wikimedia Commons

C. Martin Croker
> Known as: Animator and voice actor
> Date of death: Sept. 17, 2016

C. Martin Croker was a voice actor best known for providing voices on Cartoon Network’s “Space Ghost Coast to Coast,” as well as an animator best known for his work on “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.” Croker suddenly fell ill, vomiting and with a fever, on December 17, 2016, and attributed it to food poisoning from sushi he’d eaten earlier that day. He died several hours later at age 54, and no official cause of death has been given.

Source: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Alexander Pisarev
> Known as: Russian Mixed Martial Arts fighter
> Date of death: Oct. 30, 2022

Alexander Pisarev was a Russian MMA star who was sickened, along with his wife, after eating watermelon that had been contaminated. Slicing an unwashed melon can drive bacteria that’s present on the skin onto the edible portion. His wife was hospitalized and recovered, but Pisarev sadly passed away at age 33 on Oct. 30 of this year.

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