Beautiful Corpses (Young Deaths In The Entertainment Industry)

For awhile now I've had an obsession with death and deliverance, particularly in regards to those whose time to leave their print on the world was cut short. It seems that there's an undeniable magical quality that arises from an artist who dies before their time, which can lead us to a special form of obsession when we think of them. I notice this in others as they idolize celebrities like Elvis, James Dean, or Heath Ledger etc. and I see it in myself as I view actresses like Inma De Santis, Katrin Cartlidge or Soledad Miranda.

It's almost as though these people give us the ability to stare directly into immortality, and upon realizing that existence and non existence are an immortal unbreakable bond, one that lasts for alltime, the choices we make appear both evermore grave and evermore fleeting, the ultimate consequence and zero consequence melding into one and the same. In the end, all you can ever have and hope for lies in your acceptance of the reality you make out of your own experience. None of these people were supposed to die when they did; none of them were meant to grow old, and none of them were meant to be born in the first place.

Generally speaking, we're all brought up to believe that we're living in a rat race where we fight and compete against each other, all so we can end up on top, inheritors to a greater position in power, wealth and age until we notice that everyone around us is dying and exiting early as we fight and carry on to the end, an end where everyone finishes right where they started. We who carry on have life and they the fallen have deliverance. Who wins? In the end, these people and their work, in their everlasting youth, beauty, and ambition for success and accomplishment, connect me to humanity in a very special way that I can't get by any other means, which makes me feel like the loser and the winner both at the same time, staring directly into immortality through their eyes as it escapes me.

It's been a little bit difficult to decide what the cut-off age should be for this list, but I definitely find it necessary in the interest of conformity, in that I don't want there to be too large a disparity between the artists on this list who are extremely well-established and well-accomplished vs. artists who clearly died with some of their best work still ahead of them. In addition to this, I'm also considering the fact that certain budding artists may only rise to success by the time they're already middle-aged.

40 seems too young of a cut-off age and 60 seems too old to accommodate the proper balance here. As such, this list operates upon the assumption that by 50, most artists are well-established and have already accomplished some of their best work, so although 55 is still perceived as an early death, in many cases the artist will have produced more than half of their full potential by this time, and therefore can be seen as sufficiently well established that their death did not significantly effect their place in history. In my opinion most artists who've died over 50 can't fairly be viewed in the same light as artists who died in their 20's or earlier. For these reasons, 50 is the cut off age we're sticking with, as imperfect as it still feels. The list is ordered from young deaths to old.

Total

Unnatural

Suicide Homicide Accidental

Natural

Heart Attack Cancer Natural

Men

Unnatural

Suicide Homicide Accidental

Natural

Heart Attack Cancer Natural

Women

Unnatural

Suicide Homicide Accidental

Natural

Heart Attack Cancer Natural