From street fights gone wrong to shocking acts of cruelty, the tragic deaths of these actors
prove one terrifying truth — that Hollywood can be as dangerous as it is glamorous.
The story of Dr. Haing S. Ngor is one of the most inspiring, and tragic,
in Hollywood history. Born in Cambodia in 1940, Ngor was a trained doctor who was unfortunate
enough to live through the horrific reign of Pol Pot. One of the worst despots of the 20th
century, Pol Pot was the leader of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge government in the late 1970s. He was
largely responsible for the Cambodian genocide, which killed as many as 2 million people.
During the genocide, Ngor lived in a forced labor camp, where he was tortured and lost both his
wife and unborn child. Ngor eventually escaped Cambodia and made his way to the United States,
but the experiences traumatized him. Once in the U.S., Ngor was cast in the movie The Killing
Fields, which takes place amidst the Cambodian genocide he had endured in real life. He was
cast as a Cambodian-American reporter Dith Pran and won an Oscar for his outstanding performance.
"I know his heart. I love him like my brother, and I'd do anything for him. Anything."
Sadly, Ngor was killed on February 25th, 1996,
while he was parked in his car outside of his home. Authorities found him shot
to death by three members of the Oriental LazyBoyz street gang, who were all later
given life sentences in prison. The killers were all in their early 20s and also from Cambodia.
Little Rascals icon Carl Switzer was tragically gunned down on January 21st,
1959, by a friend named Moses "Bud" Stiltz. Switzer and Stiltz were partners who owned a
bear hunting guide business together, but had a falling out over financial issues.
Switzer thought that Stiltz owed him money and confronted him at a California home,
and the two ended up fighting over a pistol, which went off and killed Switzer.
Switzer reportedly thought that Stiltz owed him $50, though it seems that Stiltz may not have
agreed and refused to pay the money. The two were both under the influence of alcohol at the time of
the shooting. Though Stiltz was arrested by police and charged with Switzer's death, he was acquitted
of self-defense as it was ruled a justifiable homicide under California law by a jury.
Switzer had come to prominence in Hollywood as a child actor, appearing as the beloved
character Alfalfa in the comedy short series Our Gang from the 1930s and '40s. Switzer continued
his career in Hollywood, racking up well over 100 credits by the time of his death.
When Bertrand Cantat released his new album in the fall of 2013, there was some pretty understandable
outrage — but it had absolutely nothing to do with Cantat's musical abilities. Ten years prior,
on August 1st, 2003, Cantat had attacked his former mistress, French actor Marie Trintignant,
and beaten her to death in a fit of rage. The two were staying in Lithuania,
and authorities detained Cantat after Trintignant was found severely injured.
At the time, Cantat was the lead singer for the French band Noir Désir;
he initially denied doing anything wrong. The couple had gotten into a fight on July 27th,
and Trintignant was in a coma for nearly a week before she passed away on August 1st. A year
later, Cantat was convicted of killing Trintignant and sentenced to eight years in prison. However,
Cantat was released from prison on parole in October 2007 after serving
less than half of his sentence. Marie was 41 years old at the time of her death. She
had been very popular as an actor, having won multiple awards for her performances.
When Dorothy Stratten was murdered on August 14th, 1980, her career in Hollywood had just
started to get underway. Born in 1960, Stratten was killed by her estranged husband, Paul Snider,
who had been the one initially responsible for Stratten's success by getting her signed
by Playboy when she was just 18. Originally from Canada, the couple moved to Los Angeles
to pursue her modeling career; by all accounts, Stratten was an incredibly charming young woman,
but the same could not be said about Snider, who often rubbed others the wrong way.
"He was not on the up and up. You know, if you shake hands,
you count your fingers after you did it."
The two got married in June 1979 just before she hit her big break,
but there was already trouble in the relationship. Stratten felt dependent on Snider,
but he displayed misogynistic tendencies and appeared to be unfaithful to her. Eventually,
the two started to move apart as Stratten began to excel in her career, which upset
Snider greatly. Soon, Stratten was living with filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich, who had written
her into a movie he was making called They All Laughed, which would be released after her death.
While they were separated, Stratten agreed to meet with Snider at his
house to work out a divorce agreement. Snider subsequently murdered Stratten
before dying by suicide himself. Stratten was only 20 years old at the time of her death.
While Stephanie Moseley might not have been the biggest star, she was still fairly well-known
in Hollywood when she was murdered on December 8th, 2014. Moseley was killed by her husband,
rapper Earl Hayes. Police came over to investigate a shooting after receiving
a call from a neighbor who said that he'd heard around a dozen shots fired early in
the morning in their apartment. Both were reportedly dead by the time the SWAT team
showed up. Hayes appeared to have killed Moseley before dying by suicide himself.
While it wasn't entirely clear what Hayes' motive was for killing Moseley, the couple had recently
been separated, potentially over infidelity, though they were reportedly trying to work things
out and get back together. Moseley was appearing on the show Hit the Floor on VH1 when she died.
Moseley's credits mainly included doing dance and choreography work for singers such as Beyonce and
Britney Spears, but she also had more than a dozen acting credits, including a role as a cheerleader
on Ashely Tisdale's show Hellcats. Acting since 2003, Moseley was 30 years old when she died.
Lana Clarkson was a 40-year-old actor who was murdered by the once-famous record producer
Phil Spector in 2003. While she was not a huge draw during her career, she still had
notable roles in a few films; her last credit was in 2001, a few years before her death.
Clarkson and Spector had met on the night of February 2nd, 2003. She voluntarily accompanied
him to his house in California. According to prosecutors in Spector's murder trial,
Clarkson spurned Spector's advances early the next morning on February 3rd, which upset Spector so
much that he shot her to death — though Spector claimed that she had died by suicide and denied
shooting her. However, immediately after killing Clarkson, Spector reportedly left the house and
confessed the murder to his driver, who would later relay his words to police.
"As soon as he opened the door I jumped, and went to the back
door. And he was standing in the door with the gun in his hand."
Police arrested Spector the night after the murder, but he was able to get out on $1 million
bail while he was awaiting trial. Twenty months later, prosecutors charged Spector with murder,
but the first trial ended in a hung jury when they could not get a conviction. Upon retrial,
the 69-year-old Spector was convicted of murder and given a sentence of 19 years to life in
prison. In 2021, Spector died at age 81, while still incarcerated in a California state prison.
Judith Barsi was a child actor who, by the time of her death at age 10, already had an
impressive 25 acting credits to her name. This included her role as Thea in Jaws IV: Revenge;
she also starred in 72 commercials, helping her to bring in a six-figure salary at her young age.
Beneath the success, however, Judith was suffering an abusive relationship at the
hands of her father. For years leading up to Judith's death,
Jozsef Barsi had threatened to kill her and her mother, by one friend's count
saying so at least 500 times. Jozsef was also physically abusive to Judith.
Jozsef and Maria had fled the Soviet Union in the 1950s to settle in Los Angeles,
but the couple's relationship quickly began to sour, partly over Jozsef's drinking. They
separated after she filed a police report in 1986 alleging abuse and verbal threats,
though no legal action was taken against him. According to police, Jozsef shot both Judith
and Maria before burning their bodies and dying by suicide at their home in San Fernando, California.
Though he got a late start to his acting career, Thomas Jefferson Byrd was a widely respected and
admired actor when he was shot to death at age 70 on October 3rd, 2020. Born in 1950,
Byrd did not get his start in the acting industry until he was already in his early 40s, but he
finished his career with more than 30 credits. This included a number of Spike Lee movies,
most recently the director's TV series She's Gotta Have It. He was also a Tony Award nominee in 2003.
Witnesses suggested that the shooting may have taken place over an argument that Byrd allegedly
got into at a local store, but police could not confirm this. A break in the case came a few
weeks later on October 16th, when 30-year-old Antonio Rhynes was arrested in connection with
Byrd's death. He was charged with felony murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
On June 10th, 2016, the world was shocked by the news of the murder of singer and actor Christina
Grimmie. Grimmie had shot to fame by singing on her popular YouTube channel and appearing on
the reality TV competition show The Voice. She had also just acted in her first feature film,
The Matchbreaker, which was released just a few months after her death.
Grimmie was in the middle of an autograph signing when she was murdered by 27-year-old Kevin James
Loibl. She had just performed a set of music immediately prior to the autograph session at
a venue called The Plaza Live in Orlando. Loibl died by suicide after he was tackled by Grimmie's
brother following the shooting, and police found more weapons and ammunition on him afterward.
"I just don't understand who would— why, why he would do this to her."
Grimmie was only 22 years old when she was murdered and had
her entire career ahead of her. After her death, her brother, Marcus Grimmie,
began the Christina Grimmie Foundation in her honor, which helps victims of gun violence.
On February 27th, 1985, prominent TV actor David Huffman was stabbed to
death by a 16-year-old after attempting to stop a car burglary. Huffman had begun his
acting career back in 1973. He mainly worked on TV, though he was also in a few movies.
The teenager, Genaro Samano Villanueva, was breaking into vans near where Huffman had been
parked. After hearing a commotion, Huffman was told that Villanueva had broken into a motorhome,
and he drove after Villanueva trying to stop and detain him.
Once Huffman reached the young teen, he and Villanueva got into a struggle. It ended
with Villanueva fatally stabbing Huffman twice. Despite their difference in age,
the 39-year-old Huffman was only a little bigger than the 16-year-old Villanueva,
and it was not Villanueva's first run-in with the law. Villanueva was given a 26-year-to-life
sentence for Huffman's murder. In 2011, The San Diego District Attorney reported
that Villanueva had been denied parole and would not be eligible again until 2026.
Merlin Santana was tragically murdered in South Central Los
Angeles just as he was primed for his breakout. Born in 1976,
Santana was most widely known for his starring role on The Steve Harvey Show, where he played
Romeo Santana for 122 episodes from 1996 to 2002. He had also obtained roles on a number
of other major shows, and he had recently started making the jump from TV to movies.
Sadly, that was all cut short on November 9th, 2002, when Santana was shot to death
while sitting in a car with his friend. The circumstances surrounding his death
appear to revolve around a 15-year-old runaway named Monique King. Apparently,
Santana and King were at a house that night when King falsely claimed that Santana and
one of his friends had made unwanted sexual advances on her. She left the house and got
two of her older friends, who then came back and shot Santana while he was in the car.
The killer, Damien Andre Gates, was sentenced to 70 years to life in prison;
King was remanded into custody for eight years, and the other accomplice received
a 23-year sentence. Santana was only 26 years old at the time of the shooting.