* VIPatients, an interactive IPhone / Android application maintained by Dr. Berger, follows the diseases and deaths of all famous persons throughout history

The complete list follows.  (musicians are marked with an asterix *)

  Allen, Hervey  
  Barnett, Isobel  
  Clayton, Paul  *
  Cochran, Sir Charles Blake  
  Commodus  
  Dominguez, Oscar  
  Dutschke, ‘Red Rudy’  
  Farndon, Pete  *
  Givens, Candy  *
  Guzman, Jacobo  
  Hardy, Mary  
  Heggen, Thomas O.  
  Houston, Whitney * 
  Marat, Jean-Paul  
  Mauldin, Bill  
  Montez, Maria  
  Morphy, Paul  
  Morrison, Jim  *
  Pfaff, Kristen  *
  Radcliffe, Marc  
  Redenbacher, Orville  
  Romanos III Argyros  

For the complete medical histories of these and 19,426 other IP’s, see the VIPatients app – now available for IPhone and Android … updated daily.

As of December 2011, the app  30,000 individual medical problems / causes of death … for 19,328 famous people !

Users can access a single VIP by first or last name, or create a customized list by profession, disease, year of death … or any combination.   For example, list all famous movie stars who died of AIDS;  or all Popes who were murdered …….

A weekly alert will be automatically sent to subscribers, listing new additions to the data-base.

On August 26 1930, Lon Cheney, Jr. died of a lung tumor – the first movie actor to die of cancer. 

Paul Newman was five years old.

Some people collect stamps – I collect death and disease.  For over 45 years, I’ve  scoured all available biographies, anthologies, major newspapers, the Internet … for the diseases and deaths of famous persons.  Stamp collections cost money and take up space.   Death arrives to my laptop free of charge.

The earliest Hollywood death of known causes was that of Director, Francis Boggs –  shot to death by an insane janitor named Frank Minematsu, in 1911.  As of October 2008, 1,799 movie people (including 173 porno stars, and 273 Producers / Directors) have succumbed to identifiable diseases or injuries.  Countless others died “after a long illness,” “suddenly,” “of natural causes,” etc and are not included in this analysis.  

Trends in Hollywood deaths are contrasted with statistics for all famous persons in Figure 1.  Note that since 1950, the relative number of movie obits have actually decreased somewhat.  

Cancer accounts for 29.1% of all death in Hollywood.  In fact, since the murder of Francis Boggs, cancer has accounted for 24.5% of all famous deaths; and movie people have accounted for 19.4% of all death among famous persons.  The specific type of cancer is mentioned in only 54% of death notices.  Lung tumors account for 29.2% of all famous cancers, but only 20.2% of cancers in Hollywood.  In contrast, 14.4% of Hollywood tumors have involved the brain, but only 9.6% of tumors among other famous folk.

In figure 2, I’ve summarized the cumulative number of cancer deaths for famous people in general, and for movie people specifically.  Note that the relative proportion of movie folk – and movie folk with lung cancer – has actually been decreasing over the past 90 years.

Lung Cancer Deaths in Hollywood 

The complete “collection” of famous disease and death is available at www.VIPatients.com , with expanded content and functions on the new IPhone app = VIPatients.  On this site you can access the full medical history of any specific person (or animal); or generate a custom-designed list according to disease, profession, year … or any combination.  As of October, 2008 the website documents the 17,655 misfortunes of 12,457 famous persons

World Leaders Who Have Died in Airplane Accidents

Year	Name	Country
2010	Lech Kaczynski	Poland
2004	Boris Trajkovski	Macedonia
1997	Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai	Afghanisan
1994	Cyprien Ntaryamira	Burundi
1994	Juvenal Habyarimana	Rwanda
1988	Muhammad Zia  Ul-Haq	Pakistan
1986	Samora Machel	Mozambique
1981	Jaime Roldos Aguilera	Ecuador
1981	Omar Torrijos	Panama
1980	Francisco Carneiro	Portugal
1979	Ahmed Ould  Bouceif	Mauritania
1977	Dzemal Bijedic	Jugoslavia
1976	Joel Rakotomalala	Madascar
1971	Lin Piao	China
1969	Rene Barrientos	Bolivia
1967	Humberto Castelo  Branco	Brazil
1966	Abdul Salam Arif	Iraq
1961	Dag Hammarskjold	United Nations
1959	Barthelemy Boganda	Central African Republic
1957	Ramon Magsaysay	Philippines
1945	Subhas Chandra  Bose	India
1943	Wladyslaw Sikorski	Poland
1940	Jose Felix Estigarribia	Paraguay
1936	Arvid Lindman	Sweden

This material has been abstracted from www.VIPatients.com – an up-to-date source for the diseases and deaths of ALL famous persons.  The site is interactive, allowing to search for the diseases of any given VIP (living or dead); or generate lists according to disease, profession, year of death, etc.  As of 2010, VIPatients.com contains over 25,000 medical diagnoses which have affected almost 14,000 VIP’s.  Access all of this information, with expanded content and functions on the new IPhone app = VIPatients.

• Movie people:  Pamela Britton, Susan Hayward, Arthur Kennedy, Pola Negri, Ann Pennington, Zachary Scott, Alexis Smith, Francois Truffaut and Bobby Vann
• World leaders:  Claire Booth Luce, Mo Mowlam and Sir Thomas Raffles
• Music greats:  William “Cat” Anderson, Sergio Franchi, George Gershwin, Johnnie Mercer, Ethel Merman, Lou Rawls and Barnard “Buddy” Rich
• Sports personalities:   Bobby Bonds, Milt Davis, Dick Howser, Walter Johnson, Tommy Jones, Wayne Maki and Pete Rozelle.
• Authors:  John Galsworthy, Thor Heyerdahl, Chaim Potok and Mary Shelly.

The complete list is available at www.VIPatients.com – an interactive site that follows all of the diseases and deaths … of all famous persons, in real time.  Users can access the medical history of a single “VIP” or generate a list based on disease and or profession.  Or access all of this information with expanded content and functions on the new IPhone app = VIPatients.

The only other world leader known to have committed suicide in this way was Chechoslovakian President, Jan Masaryk (1948) – though many believe that he was actually murdered.

Throughout history, 538 world leaders have been murdered; but only 68 have commited suicide (only 0.58% of all deaths in this group).  In other words, the ratio of murders to suicides is eight-to-one.

Details are given for 49 suicides in this particular “profession” - the preferred method being gunshot (20 cases).  Eight others died of drug overdose, six using knives or other sharp objects, and five by hanging.

Among the more bizarre methods used, Roman Ruler Cato the Younger (died 44 B.C.E.) killed himself by pulling his intestines out through a battle injury; while Cleopatra VII (30 B.C.E.) is said to have exposed herself to the bite of an asp.  Four additional Roman rulers of the period committed “suicide by proxy” – having themselves killed by servants.

A single ruler, Ludwig II of Bavaria, has the dubious distinction of being the only world leader to drown himself (in 1886).

A comprehensive, interactive source for all diseases and deaths – in  all famous persons – is available at www.VIPatients.com

These lists are from www.VIPatients.com, an interactive website that follows the diseases and deaths of all famous persons.  Lists include famous animals, singers, politicians, sports heroes, movie stars, serial killers … over 13,000 to date.   Users can access the medical history of a single person; or generate a list based on disease, profession, year of death – or any combination.   Or access expanded content and functions on the new IPhone app = VIPatients.

World Leaders Who Have Died from Influenza

Year	Name	Country
1862	Martin Van Buren	United States
1901	Benjamin Harrison	United States
1925	Takaaki Kato	Japan
1932	Paolo Boselli	Italy
1936	Archduke  Frederick Hapsburg	Hungary
1951	Antonio Carmona	Portugal
1953	Francesco  Nitti	Italy
1965	Adolf Scharf	Austria
1974	Juan Peron	Argentina
1999	Amintore Fanfani	Italy

Other cases of fatal Influenza

Year	Name	Profession
1768	Lawrence Sterne	Author
1835	William Cobbett	Publisher
1891	Helena Blavatsky	Theosophist
1895	Thomas Henry Huxley	Paleontologist
1896	John Haydon	Described Down’s syndrome
1898	Lewis Carroll	Author
1900	John Ruskin	Philosopher
1907	Dmitri Mendeleyev	Physicist
1918	Amadeo de Sousa-Cardoso	Painter
1919	William Allen Sturge	Physician
1925	Elwood Haynes	Automobile inventor
1926	Krao Farini	Barnum - ‘Missing Link’
1926	Charles Griffes	Classical composer
1928	Floyd Bennett	Aviator
1928	Edward J.  Connelly	Actor
1928	Theodore Roberts	Actor
1929	Roscoe Jackson	Founder of Hudson Motors
1929	Lillie Langtree	Actress
1936	Billy Mitchell	American military
1937	Jean Harlow	Actress
1948	Hack Wilson	Baseball player
1957	Shoghi Effendi	Bahai leader
1962	Jacques Ibert	Composer
1966	Estelita Rodriguez	Actress
1967	Ali Osman Khan	Indian Ruler -– World’'s richest man
1968	Tallulah Bankhead	Actress
1976	Angela  Baddeley	Actress
1976	Luchino Visconti	Movie Director
1981	Sir Claude Auchinleck	English military
1988	Trevor Howard	Actor
2005	John Paul II	Pope
2008	Jules Dassin	Movie Producer

In some cases, the diagnosis of “Influenza” was speculative, or one of multiple diseases given as the cause of death.

These lists are from www.VIPatients.com , an interactive website that follows the diseases and deaths of all famous persons.  Lists include famous animals, singers, politicians, sports heroes, movie stars, serial killers … over 13,000 to date. Users can access the medical history of a single person; or generate a list based on disease, profession, year of death – or any combination.  More detail with expanded content and functions on the new IPhone app = VIPatients.

Cancer was recorded as the reason for death in 38.9% of notable deaths, while heart attack or stroke accounted for 16.7%.
7.1% died of pneumonia and 6.2% vehicular accidents (half of these related to automobiles).
3.1% were murdered and 3.3% committed suicide.
An additional 9.4% succumbed when their liver, lungs, kidneys or heart “failed”; while 6.6% died because their brains did likewise (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, etc).

During the past two decades, a small number of fatal conditions have continued to account for most deaths among the famous and infamous; however, the relative ranking of some diseases appears to be changing.
A cause of death was specified for 4,652 VIP’s during 1990 to 2008.

The most obvious change has been the fact that people rarely die of AIDS any more.
287 famous persons are known to have contracted AIDS.
172 have died of the disease since 1989, but only 20 since 1999.
In contrast, the contribution of cancer to famous death increased significantly during the same period.
Cancer accounted for 25.7% of VIP obits in 1990, and 35.8% in 2008.
In fact, throughout all of history, 2,708 famous persons have died of cancer.
91% of these deaths have occurred since 1900, 87% since 1950, 56% since 1990 … and 5.8% during the single year, 2008 !

Of course, “cancer” is not a single disease. The nature of fatal tumors was specified in 65% of cancer obits. During 1990 to 2008, the relative proportion of fatal lung and brain cancers has remained fairly constant. The contribution of breast and hematological malignancy (leukemia and lymphoma) has declined, while prostate and colon tumors have increased accordingly.
Cancer of the pancreas, a relatively unfamiliar tumor, is actually more common than breast, prostate or colon cancer as a cause of death in this population.

We should not assume that VIP-death reflects mortality trends among the general population. Indeed, famous persons are “not like the rest of us.” Many follow a life style which might invite medical misfortune, while enjoying access to excellent medical facilities. Thus, an analysis of mortality in this group might not represent the incidence of nonfatal diseases. In any case, diagnoses which we read in obituaries are often based on speculation or tend to stress the more sensational misfortunes of famous people.  This and much more on the new IPhone app = VIPatients.