The last words you speak in this life are a pretty big deal,
so you'd better get them right. In the case of these celebrities,
their final words left a pretty haunting impression among their family, friends, and fans.
Old Blue Eyes, Francis Albert Sinatra, had a truly stunning career,
both in the scope of his achievements and the length of his time in the limelight.
He began performing music as a teenager, and by his mid 20s was starting to attract attention from
far and wide. He became a sensation during the war years in the 1940s, launching a career that,
with minor slumps, would not truly settle until his health began to fail him in the 1990s.
At the end of his long and storied life, Sinatra's last words were few
and were spoken only to his grief-stricken wife, Barbara.
Lying in a Los Angeles hospital bed after a heart attack, Sinatra said,
"I'm losing it."
Sinatra lost consciousness and passed away shortly after speaking these words,
showing a prescience about his situation that may actually be seen as comforting.
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was not a celebrity in the traditional sense — at least not at the start
of his career. Before the 2000s, Jobs was better defined as a tech entrepreneur and businessman,
and of course he remained those things to the end of his life — a life cut short in
October 2011 by pancreatic cancer. In the last decade or so of his life, as Jobs presided over
Apple's rolling out of products like the iPod, iPhone, iPad, and ever-improved versions of
the beloved Macintosh computers, he became a celebrity with an almost cult-like following.
Clad in his signature black turtleneck, Jobs could command the attention of thousands in auditoriums,
and many more watching remotely, as he unveiled Apple's newest creations
and explained the implications they had for the world beyond.
"Today we're introducing iPhone 4, the fourth generation iPhone."
At the end of his 8 year battle with cancer, it seems as though he were
looking into a world beyond, as well. Jobs' last words, as heard by relatives, were,
"Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow ..."
Much like Frank Sinatra, who seemed to have known the end was upon him,
so too did James Brown, the Hardest Working Man in Show Business.
Brown's final words were strikingly similar to those of Sinatra as well.
On the morning of Christmas 2006, Brown suffered congestive heart failure and uttered the words,
"I'm going away tonight,"
to his longtime friend and manager, Charles Bobbit.
Bobbit initially didn't believe Brown was in any real danger but quickly realized
the severity of the situation when Brown slipped into unconsciousness, and took his final breaths.
The Godfather of Soul had spent more than half a century putting on high-energy performances
with his band, and his infamous drug abuse had done irreparable damage to his body.
"How did all this trouble begin?
"Living in America."
Brown was not the type to settle into retirement though.
Despite being weak, confused, and near death in the final days of 2006,
Brown was scheduled to play a New Year's Eve show just a few days later.
Looking back on the life and death of John Belushi, the latter of which occurred on March 5,
1982, it's hard to believe the actor and comedian was just 33 years old when he died.
From never-to-be-forgotten roles in movies like "The Blues Brothers"
and "Animal House," to his time as one of the original seven cast members on
"Saturday Night Live," it's easy to think the man had been around much longer.
More than a decade of hard drug use and a generally unhealthy lifestyle
had wreaked havoc on the actor's body, and he looked to be a good
decade older than he actually was by the last days of his life. His actual death came as a
result of a drug overdose, after he was injected with a so-called "speedball,"
a mixture of heroin and cocaine. His friend and drug dealer, Catherine Smith, was the
one who injected the narcotics into Belushi, and was the person who heard his last words:
"Just don't leave me alone."
Smith did leave him alone, though, and would later serve
time for manslaughter for the actor's tragic death.
Despite becoming a real life princess, the life story of Diana, princess of Wales, was anything
but a happily-ever-after tale. It was a life that commenced with an unhappy childhood in a broken
home, and one in which she was rejected by much of her new family after marriage. It was a life
in which a husband's affair led to a painfully public divorce, and a life cut short by tragedy.
Unbeknownst to many, Diana did not die immediately following the tragic car crash both caused
and documented by paparazzi who were tailing her car. In the immediate aftermath of the car crash,
Diana reportedly had time to look about and, in confusion, say,
"My god, what happened?"
as she saw the lifeless bodies of two other passengers in the vehicle.
The specific cause of Princess Diana's death was a tear to a vein in her lungs caused by the crash,
doctors later found. It was a rare injury and,
only adding to the tragedy, one that could have been avoided had Diana worn a seatbelt.
When Heath Ledger died of an accidental prescription drug overdose in January 2008,
he was at a point in which his career should have blasted off into the stratosphere.
Instead it was cut short at age 28. His final words show that the actor had no intention of
dying, but he was indeed in some deep state of denial. On his last night,
the Australian actor told his sister over the phone,
"Katie, Katie, I'm fine. I know what I'm doing."
Ledger, who had earlier said he just needed to get some sleep,
confided to his sister that he had taken several different prescription medications
and said his fateful and far-from-accurate last words in response to her warning him
against mixing so many different drugs. The toxicology report run on Ledger found
a deadly mix of sleeping pills and opioids in his system at the time of his death.
When he died, Ledger was father to a toddler,
he had an Academy Award-winning role as The Joker in the "The Dark Knight" in the can,
and every indication he believed he would indeed be fine and live on.
"I think you and I are destined to do this forever."
The similarities between the lives and deaths of John Belushi and Chris Farley are so
striking as to be unsettling; it's almost as if these two men's lives followed the same script.
Like Belushi, Farley cut his teeth in comedy at the famed Second City Theater in Chicago
and went on to national and even international fame,
thanks to his years as a cast member on "Saturday Night Live" in the 1990s. Farley later ended up
landing starring roles in several films that are unlikely to ever be forgotten,
most notably his performance alongside SNL costar David Spade in the comedy "Tommy Boy."
Tragically, Farley was just 33 when he died from a major drug overdose.
His last known words are almost a word-for-word
re-hashing of Belushi's, too. Farley's last words spoken to another person were,
"Don't leave me."
His final words were spoken to a reported sex worker
who, before leaving him to die alone in his Chicago apartment,
stole his watch and took pictures of the actor and comedian as he lay on the floor, near death.
The medical examiner said Farley had alcohol, cocaine, morphine,
and marijuana in his system when he died, just months after participating in a rehab program.
Everything about legendary fashion designer Coco Chanel was larger than life,
right down to her last words. Born into poverty, Chanel pulled herself up by her bootstraps,
using her wit, charm, and her undeniable ability as a designer and businesswoman
to launch an empire that would include clothes, accessories, perfumes, and more.
During World War 2, Chanel became romantically involved with a Nazi intelligence officer,
and when her nephew was imprisoned by the Germans, she even made a deal to use her
contacts in European high society to work as a spy for the Nazis in exchange for his release.
By the time of her death in 1971, the 87-year-old Chanel, or at least her brand, was a household
name. Chanel clearly knew when the end was imminent, even though she didn't seem ill despite
her advanced age. True to her character, her final words were a flourish that topped off an amazing —
if controversial — life. On January 10th, 1971, Chanel reportedly said to her maid Celine,
"You see, this is how you die."
And shortly thereafter she did just that, her bed becoming a deathbed.
The last words spoken by legendary actor and comedian Groucho Marx would be haunting and
tragic if spoken by most people lying on their deathbeds, but when Marx said,
"This is no way to live,"
shortly before dying, he was making one last quip for the ages. So in this case, his last
words are actually pretty hilarious, and it's okay to laugh — he was in on the joke.
Marx was 86 years old when death came for him in 1977. He had been in poor health for two months,
suffering from respiratory ailments that worsened into the pneumonia that
would eventually kill him. Marx seems to have been well aware he was near the end,
and his last words were perhaps the ultimate example of superb comic timing.
Legendary singer Bob Marley was only 36 years old when he died in 1981,
a fact that is hard to believe when one considers the outsized impact the man had on music
and culture at large. What's less surprising is that his last known words,
spoken to his son Ziggy, were sage and sorrowful, uttered shortly before succumbing to complications
of a malignant form of melanoma that, over the course of half a decade, spread from one of his
toes throughout his entire body. The cancer that killed Marley may well have been treated
had he allowed the amputation of his toe, but his Rastafarian faith forbade such an operation.
And also in keeping with the type of messaging he had espoused his whole life,
Marley's last words to Ziggy were,
"Money can't buy life."
One can speculate that he meant money cannot buy the treatment needed to sustain life,
but more likely Marley meant money cannot bring happiness and fulfillment in life;
only a life well lived can do that.
"My richness is life, forever."
Say what you will about John Lennon and Yoko Ono's relationship breaking up The
Beatles or about Lennon's notorious arrogance and eccentricities,
He was an excellent musician. And he was a human being who deserved to live a lot longer than he
did. But due to the actions of Mark Chapman, who was determined to kill a famous person
and resented Lennon's comments about The Beatles being bigger than Jesus, his life was cut short.
Chapman shot Lennon in the back multiple times at close range on December 8,
1980. His last words were long thought to be the gut wrenching "I'm shot!
I'm shot!" but later it came out that his last spoken word could also have been a soft
"yes" whispered in response to being asked if he was John Lennon.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, please call the Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Administration's 24/7 National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP. That's 1-800-662-4357.