24 Celebrities Who Were Involved in Fatal Incidents

Legendary bluesman Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter, famous for the song “Midnight Special,” was sent to the Imperial State Prison Farm in Texas for murder and aggravated assault after shooting a relative in a dispute over a woman. He served seven years of a 35-year sentence before being pardoned by the governor.

Long before she became first lady when George W. Bush became president in 2001, Laura Bush was involved in a tragedy. In November of 1963 in Midland, Texas, the 17-year-old Bush (née Welch) ran a stop sign and slammed into a vehicle driven by 17-year-old Michael Douglas, who was killed. No charges were filed. She said she was overcome with guilt for years after the accident.

Actor Rebecca Gayheart, driving a vehicle owned by Marco Leonardi, her co-star in the film “Dusk Till Dawn 3,” struck and killed 9-year-old Jorge Cruz Jr. in Los Angeles. Gayheart pled no contest to vehicular manslaughter and was sentenced to probation, a one-year suspension of her license, a $2,800 fine, and 750 hours of community service. She paid the boy’s funeral expenses.

Literary critics as well as himself say that William S. Burroughs’ accidental killing of his wife, Joan Vollmer, was the event that made him a writer. While hosting a party with friends in their Mexico City apartment, Burroughs took out his gun and proclaimed he and his wife were going to recreate the William Tell fable. His wife put a glass of gin on her head and Burroughs shot her in the forehead. He was held in jail without bail on a homicide charge. Burroughs bribed lawyers and other Mexican officials to get let out of jail after just 13 days. He fled to the U.S. and would go on to write 14 books.

Christian Brando, son of iconic actor Marlon Brando, received a six-year sentence for manslaughter in California for the shooting death of his half-sister’s Tahitian lover. The younger Brando said he accidentally killed Dag Drollet in a fight, claiming Drollet had beaten his half-sister, who was pregnant. During testimony, Marlon Brando said that he and his son’s mother, Indian-born actress Anna Kashfi, may have failed their son as parents.

Well before Don King entertained the world with his flamboyant suits and equally outrageous public comments as boxing promoter for Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson, he was jailed for killing a man. King was involved in the gambling rackets in Cleveland in his youth. He got in a dispute with a man who owed him money and beat him to death. King was convicted of second-degree murder, but the charge was reduced to voluntary manslaughter. He served almost four years in Marion Correctional Institution in Marion, Ohio.

The Oscar-winning film director (“Treasure of Sierra Madre”), who became known as a libertine, had already developed a reputation as a hard-drinking carouser when he was involved in a car accident in Hollywood in 1933. Huston struck and killed the wife of a Brazilian actor crossing Sunset Boulevard. Huston was absolved of responsibility but was traumatized by the accident. He left Hollywood for Europe and would not return until 1937 to resume his career.

Life unfortunately imitated art for Johnny Lewis. The actor who died violently fictionally on the well-received cable television series “Sons of Anarchy” apparently strangled his landlady to death and fought with neighbors before he fell to his own death in Los Angeles. The actor who had appeared in TV shows such as “The O.C.,” “Boston Public,” and “Judging Amy,” had mental issues for years before the tragedy.

Henry Ruggs, a 23-year-old former wide receiver with the Las Vegas Raiders, faces felony DUI charges in connection with a fatal crash that occurred on Nov. 2, 2021. Ruggs, who played college ball at the University of Alabama, is accused of driving 156 mph before hitting a car driven by Tina Tintor, killing the 23-year-old woman and her dog. If convicted, Ruggs faces a mandatory two years in jail and possibly 50 years in prison.

Keith Moon was the face of the unfettered bad behavior of rock stars in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1970, he was involved in a fatality. The drummer for the Who and his wife were fleeing a group of menacing skinheads in London when in a panic, an inebriated Moon jumped into his car and tried to drive off. In the chaos, Moon’s chauffeur, Cornelius Boland, fell under the car and was crushed. Moon pleaded guilty to drunk driving, driving without a license, and driving without insurance. A British court cleared him of all charges.

The Olympic and Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius was found guilty of culpable homicide for the fatal shooting of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. He is serving a sentence of 13 years and five months in South Africa. Pistorius, nicknamed “Blade Runner” for his six Paralympic gold medals in sprint events, could be released from prison this year, based on positive reports of his behavior.

Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil pleaded guilty to drunken driving in a 1984 crash in Redondo Beach, Calif., that killed his passenger, Nicholas Dingley, a 24-year-old drummer with the band Hanoi Rocks. Neil wasn’t injured. His conviction on manslaughter and drunken driving charges got him 20 days in jail, and he agreed to pay $2.5 million in restitution to victims. Since that incident, Neil has committed other DUI violations.

Ted Kennedy, the youngest member of America’s most famous political family, was involved in a car accident that cost the life of a young woman and scuttled his chances of ever becoming president. The Massachusetts senator was driving with political campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne on Martha’s Vineyard when their car plunged off the Dike Bridge on the island of Chappaquiddick. Kennedy got out of the car and said he tried to free Kopechne but was unable to do so and she perished. Kennedy was convicted of leaving the scene with bodily injury. Questions about the incident remain to this day.

R&B singer Brandy was involved in a four-car highway crash that left a 38-year-old mother of two dead. No arrests were made. A California Highway Patrol report said that Norwood, driving a 2007 Land Rover, failed to slow down and rear-ended a 2005 Honda at about 65 mph. Parents of Awatef Aboudihaj, the woman killed in the accident, brought a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against Norwood that was dismissed because of insufficient evidence.

Aaron Hernandez was a gifted tight end at the University of Florida and for the New England Patriots, but he had a troubled family background and exhibited violent behavior off the field. Hernandez was convicted of killing Odin Lloyd, who was dating the sister of his wife. Five days after he was acquitted of another murder, Hernandez hanged himself in his cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Massachusetts. After his death, the Boston University CTE Center, which has examined the brains of ex-NFL players for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative illness caused by repeated head injuries that can result in behavioral problems, studied Hernandez’s brain. The center reported that the 27-year-old had a severe case of the disorder.

A music producer for the Beatles, Tina Turner, and the Righteous Brothers, Phil Spector also wrote such hits as “Be My Baby,” “Da Doo Ron Ron,” and “To Know Him Is to Love Him.” In February 2003, he was arrested for shooting actress Lana Clarkson to death in his home. More than six years later, he was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 19 years to life. He died in 2021 from Covid-19 complications while serving his sentence.

Howard Hughes struck and killed a pedestrian with his car in Los Angeles in 1936. A witness told police that Hughes was driving fast and erratically. An attending physician said Hughes was sober but noted that he had been drinking. Hughes was booked for negligent homicide and released on bail. The witness later changed his story and said the victim moved directly in front of Hughes’ car. Hughes was cleared of charges.

Sid Vicious was a bass player for the punk band the Sex Pistols. Nancy Spungen was a troubled young woman who became a groupie and then the girlfriend of Vicious. The two were staying at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City when Spungen was stabbed to death. Vicious initially confessed to the crime and then denied it. He was released on $25,000 bail. Four months after Spungen’s death, Vicious was found dead of a drug overdose by his mother and his new girlfriend in a Greenwich Village apartment. The case remains unresolved.

Matthew Broderick was in a relationship with Jennifer Grey in 1987 and they were vacationing in Northern Ireland when an accident occurred that changed their lives profoundly. The roads were wet when Broderick drove into the wrong lane and crashed head-on with a vehicle carrying Margaret Doherty and her daughter Anna Gallagher. The two Irishwomen were killed. Broderick had a concussion and Grey had spinal injuries that required surgery. Broderick has no memory of the accident.

Marion “Suge” Knight is a music executive and co-founder and CEO of Death Row Records, which released albums for Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Tupac Shakur, MC Hammer, and others. Knight had already done time in prison before the events of Jan. 29, 2015. On that date, Knight ran over two men in a parking lot, killing one of them. He was charged with murder, attempted murder, and hit-and-run. In 2018 Knight pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter, and was sentenced to 28 years in prison. He’s not eligible for parole until July 2037.

Actor Alec Baldwin (“The Departed,” “30 Rock”) was charged with involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during the filming of “Rust” at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in New Mexico. At the time of the tragedy, Baldwin was rehearsing with a pistol supposedly loaded with blanks when the gun discharged, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. The film’s lawyer said the 64-year-old Baldwin will remain as the star of the movie.

In Dec. 2015, a high court in Mumbai overturned the conviction of Salman Khan, one of Bollywood’s biggest stars, in a hit-and-run case from 2002, in which he had driven over and killed a man sleeping on the pavement. The original charges were dropped, but he was formally charged with culpable homicide in 2013, and in May of that year a lower convicted him and sentenced him to five years in prison. He was released on bail and remained free with a suspended sentence until the charges were overturned.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said Caitlyn Jenner would not be charged for her role in a deadly four-car accident. Prosecutors said that it couldn’t be proved that Jenner’s driving was negligent and they didn’t file a misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charge. The 1976 Olympic decathlon champion was driving a black Cadillac SUV that was the third vehicle involved in a multiple rear-end collision on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu that killed Kimberly Howe, 69.

No charges were filed against tennis champion Venus Williams in Florida following the investigation of a car accident that resulted in the eventual death of Jerome Barson in 2017. Barson’s wife, Linda, was driving their Hyundai Accent when it crashed into Williams’ Toyota Sequoia at an intersection in Palm Beach Gardens. Jerome Barson died two weeks later. It was eventually determined that the accident was caused by an unidentified third driver, and the case was dismissed with prejudice after a settlement was reached between Williams and Barson’s estate. No settlement amount was listed.