And so they zoom off in their cadillacs, convertibles or Harley-Davidsons, eager to sample life’s evanescent pleasures like there’s no tomorrow. And maybe there isn’t, if this list of celebrity crashes were any indication. For these casualties, the road to fame proved to be a shortcut to mortality as well.
1. On Aug. 21, 2010, Bb. Pilipinas-International 2009 Melody Gersbach, 24, and her two companions were killed when their van was hit head-on by a passenger bus in Camarines Sur. The bus driver was trying to avoid hitting a tricycle, the police said.
2. Similar circumstances surrounded the death of award-winning director Lino Brocka, who died on May 21, 1991 at age 52. Brocka’s driver, actor William Lorenzo, avoided a tricycle that suddenly crossed their path, only to see two people crossing the street. The actor tried to avoid hitting them, but ran smack against a concrete electric post.
3. Ric Segreto who hit it big with such pop songs as “Kahit Konting Pagtingin,” ”Give Me a Chance,” and “Don’t Know What to Do, Don’t Know What to Say” was riding a motorcycle along the Buendia flyover that was then under construction when his bike skidded. He died of head injuries at age 46, on Sept. 6, 1998.
4. Jay Ilagan was 39 when he lost control of his motorcycle and died on Feb. 3, 1992.
5. Claudia Zobel, who made waves when she starred in Lino Brocka’s “Bayan Ko: Kapit sa Patalim,” was learning to drive when she lost control of her vehicle on Feb. 10, 1984. The sexy starlet’s car hit a concrete gutter, flipped and was hit by an oncoming vehicle.
6. Like Claudia, Jonjon Hernandez died when his car hit a concrete barrier in 2000. The child actor of “That’s Entertainment” fame was the son of actress Alicia Alonzo and actor Ross Rival.
7. Bold star Halina Perez was barely 21 when she died on March 4, 2004. She had just come from a gig in Camarines Sur when their SUV hit a container van.
Hollywood’s celebrity crashes are as grim.
8. The cause of Jayne Mansfield’s fame (or notoriety) preceded her, literally. Nope, this busty Hollywood sex goddess didn’t get decapitated when her speeding car rear-ended a tractor trailer and went under it in a fatal accident in 1967. The photograph of her blonde wig thrown against the windshield gave rise to the disproven rumor about the star losing her head. She was 34.
9. On Jan. 4, 1960, French existential novelist and dramatist Albert Camus was killed in a car accident in France. He was only 46.
10. In November, 2007, former Social Welfare secretary Dulce Saguisag died after a speeding dump truck rammed the family vehicle. She and husband, former senator Rene Saguisag, were on their way home after going ballroom dancing.
11. On Jan. 23, 2004, international glamor and fashion photographer Helmut Newton was leaving the Chateau Marmont Hotel when he lost control of his Cadillac limousine and ploughed into a nearby wall on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. He was 83.
12. Before automobiles, there were horse carriages, and they were just as deadly. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Pierre Curie, 47, died after being run over by one on April 19, 1906.
13. Former porn star turned anti-pornography crusader Linda Lovelace of “Deep Throat” notoriety, died from injuries suffered in a car crash on April 22, 2002.
14. This time, he didn’t report the news; he made it. On April 23, 2007, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and historian David Halberstam (“The Best and the Brightest,” “The Powers That Be”) was killed when his driver, a graduate student, ran a light and made an illegal left turn into the path of a car. He was 73.
15. Before Princess Di, there was Prince Aly Khan, 48, son of Aga Khan (Asian and African Ismaili Muslim leader), and husband of screen legend Rita Hayworth. The prince was killed in France in a head-on collision with another automobile on May 12, 1960.
16. In 1956, American pop artist Jackson Pollock, 44, lost control of his convertible while driving near East Hampton, New York, hit an oak tree, and died instantly of a skull fracture.
17. Byrds guitarist Clarence White was only 29 when he was killed by a drunk driver who hit him while he was loading music equipment into a van. The co-inventor of the Parsons-White string bender died on July 14, 1973.
18. Did you know that John Lennon’s mother, Julia, died in an automobile accident on July 15, 1958? One wonders how old this famous Beatle was then.
19. Just like that, she was “Gone with the Wind.” On Aug. 16, 1949, novelist Margaret Mitchell, 48, died after being struck down by a speeding taxi driven by an intoxicated driver.
20. Too old to drive. On Aug. 30, 1991, country singer Dottie West was killed when she rode a car with her 81-year-old neighbor, who was speeding and subsequently lost control of his car. Dottie died five days later. She was 58.
21. And who can forget Princess Di of Wales? On Aug. 31, 1997, the people’s princess, 36, and her companion Dodi Fayed, 42, were killed in an automobile accident in Paris, France, while trying to get away from pursuing paparazzi on motorcycles.
22. There was also no fairy-tale ending for Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco, who died in a car crash on Sept. 14, 1982. The car was driven by one of her daughters.
23. Metallica bass player Cliff Burton, 24, was killed when the band’s tour bus flipped over on an icy road in Sweden on Sept. 27, 1986.
24. And then there was actor and cultural icon James Dean. Dean died of a broken neck on Sept. 30, 1955 when his Porsche Spyder hit another car on a California highway.
25. Bad news: On Oct. 24, 1983, NBC News correspondent and anchorwoman Jessica Savitch, 36, drowned when the car she was riding in went into a canal and flipped over, making it impossible for her to escape.
26. Gone too soon. Rock star Duane Allman, 24, of the Allman Brothers was killed in a motorcycle accident in Macon, Georgia on Oct. 29, 1971.
27. Corporate conspiracy? On Nov. 13, 1974, lab technician, union activist and nuclear informant Karen Silkwood, 28, was killed in an automobile accident while on her way to meet with a New York Times reporter and an official of the Atomic Energy Commission. The whistleblower had discovered evidence of spills, leaks, and missing plutonium and exposed them – a courageous move made into the movie, “Silkwood.”
28. Lost in transit. In November 1982, Barack Obama, Sr., 46, father of the US president, died in an alcohol-related accident after driving his car off the road and crashing. A few months earlier, Obama senior had lost both legs in an automobile accident and subsequently lost his job.
29. Anti-war activist, co-founder of the Yippies, and one of the Chicago Seven protestors, Jerry Rubin, 56, was killed when he was hit by a car in November 1994
30. Finally, there’s American general George Patton, who died in a Heidelberg, Germany military hospital after being injured in a three-vehicle accident. Patton died of an embolism on Dec. 21, 1945. PAC
No comments:
Post a Comment