Famous On-Air Deaths

Alexander Woollcott

Woollcott was famous for “discovering” the Marx Brothers and was a critic working for the New Yorker magazine. In January of 1943 he was participating in a live radio show on CBS radio about Adolph Hitler on the 10th anniversary of Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. Woollcott mentioned he was not feeling well but continued the show and said, “It’s a fallacy to think that Hitler was the cause of the world’s present woes. Germany was the cause of Hitler.” Woollcott then suffered a massive heart attack on air and died a few hours later in the hospital at age 56.

Inejiro Asanuma

Image via Wikipedia (Yamaguchi stabbing Asanuma on live TV)

Inejiro Asanuma was the head of the Japanese Socialist Party. At a televised rally in 1960 he was killed by 17-year-old right-wing nut Otoya Yamaguchi, who stabbed Asanuma with a wakizashi sword. Three weeks later Yamaguchi used toothpaste to write on his juvenile detention cell wall, “Seven lives for my country. Ten thousand years for His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor!” He then hung himself from a light fixture using his bedsheet.

Jerome Irving Rodale

Image via Wikipedia (Pete Hamill was sitting next to Rodale when he passed away on TV)

Jerome Irving Rodale founded a publishing empire, founded several magazines, and published many books, his own and those of others, on health. Rodale is famous for popularizing the term “organic”. In 1971 at age 72, he appeared on The Dick Cavett Show and during his interview he said, “I’ve decided to live to be a hundred”, as well as saying “I never felt better in my life!” He had also told people, “I’m going to live to be 100, unless I’m run down by some sugar-crazed taxi driver.” After his interview Rodale stayed on set on the interview couch, as was customary, to listen to Cavett’s next guest, New York Post columnist Pete Hamill. Rodale appeared to fall asleep and reportedly Cavett said to him, “Are we boring you, Mr. Rodale?”, after Hamill leaned over to Cavett and pointed to Rodale and said, “This looks bad.” Rodale had had a heart attack and already passed away.

Tommy Cooper

Cooper was a comedic magician who was known for intentionally getting magic tricks wrong to make audiences laugh. In 1984 while performing live on the UK variety show Live From Her Majesty’s, Cooper suffered a massive heart attack and collapsed onstage. The audience thought it was part of his act and kept laughing but it was no joke and Cooper passed away.

Christine Chubbuck

Source

Chubbuck was a morning talk show host in Florida. On July 15, 1974, Chubbuck pulled out a gun from her purse and shot herself live on the air. She died 14 hours later in the hospital. Many people on the set at first thought it was a prank. Unknown to her co-workers was the fact that Chubbuck was suffering from severe depression.

For more see Nine Weird Wacky Deaths of Famous People, Seven Extraordinarly Bizarre and Wacky Deaths, Inventors Who Died From Their Own Inventions and 12 Bizarre and Wacky Deaths.