• From cancer victims to dare devils who tried to outrace a speeding train, we count
ten YouTubers who died before their time.
10 – Zach Sobiech, • Minnesota musician Zach Sobiech was lead
singer of the band A Firm Shake and was diagnosed with the bone cancer osteosarcoma at age fourteen.
• When told he had only a year left to live, Zach uploaded a song called ‘Clouds’ about
his battle with cancer to the Woolly Rhino YouTube account.
The video achieved over twelve million views and the song reached the Billboard Hot 100
and became a hit in several countries.
• Zach died in 2013 and Dwight Shrute – I mean, Rainn Wilson – released a documentary
called My Last Day on his SoulPancake YouTube channel.
9 – Edd Gould, • Edd Gould was an animator who ran the
popular comedy webtoon Eddsworld entirely from his home studio in Britain.
• Tragically, Edd was diagnosed with cancer in 2006.
At first he was able to fight it, but was re-diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia
in 2011.
• Edd was abruptly killed by the disease in early 2012.
His friends continue to put out animations on his channel, which is a nice silver lining
for fans of Edd’s work.
8 – Clara Cannucciari, • Proving old people and technology aren’t
hopelessly incompatible, Clara Cannucciari reached generations of viewers with her popular
YouTube Depression Era Cooking show.
She improved people’s lives by teaching them cheap and easy ways to cook delicious
meals, like she had to do when living through the Great Depression.
• Clara lived to be ninety-eight and was likely the oldest YouTube star there is.
She was born in 1915 and passed away peacefully in 2013.
She probably runs some kick-ass cooking school in heaven.
7 – Daniel Kyre, • With a group of his friends, Daniel Kyre
made madcap YouTube videos as Cyndago that were so popular that YouTube mega star Mark
Fischbach, aka Markiplier, signed them up.
Cyndago produced a string of YouTube hits.
• However, on September 2015, tragedy struck when Daniel was found in a critical condition
in his room after attempting to commit suicide.
He suffered irreversible brain damage from an undisclosed cause and had to be taken off
life support two days later.
• Daniel’s millions of teenage fans are still processing the loss of someone they
felt intimately close to.
6 – Ben Breedlove, • Ben Breedlove was a Texan internet celebrity
who ran a popular relationship advice channel called OurAdvice4You with his friends.
He also had two other channels: BreedloveTV and TotalRandomness512.
• Sadly, Ben developed a rare heart condition called HCM at a young age, which caused his
heart muscle to thicken.
He explained it in his two-part video titled ‘This Is My Story’, both of which became
huge viral successes totalling over fourteen million views.
• Christmas was cancelled for Ben’s family in 2011, as Ben ended up passing away from
cardiac arrest on Christmas Eve.
He was eighteen.
Rapper Kid Cudi was so touched by Ben’s death that he dedicated his third album to
Ben.
5 – Brian Rickard, • Brian Rickard, more commonly known as
Yoteslaya, was a famous gamer known for his Borderlands 2 and Call of Duty Let’s Plays.
• He was killed at two am in Indiana in October 2013 while trying to outrace a train.
• Incredibly, Brian isn’t the only YouTuber to die doing this.
Brian’s example demonstrates just how deadly this behaviour is.
4 – Justin Carmical, • Justin Carmical – also known as Jew
Wario – was an avid gamer who specialised in Japanese import games.
• He died at home in 2014 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, leaving behind a heartbroken
wife and a legion of fans.
• Justin was eulogised on the Angry Joe Show.
Joe was a good friend of Justin’s and, like many, was devastated by the unexpected news.
3 – Talia Joy Castellano, • Talia Joy Castellano was a cover girl,
internet celebrity and young beauty guru who devoted her life to making the world more
beautiful.
• Her YouTube channel ‘TaliaJoy18’ was a mix of unique makeup tutorials and painfully
honest video blogs about her experiences with neuroblastoma and leukaemia.
• Talia battled these diseases for years, but ultimately passed away in 2013.
She was just thirteen years old.
2 – Will Norton, • Known for his comedy diary-style YouTube
channel WilldaBeast, Will Norton was one of 116 people who were tragically killed in the
Joplin tornado that rocked Missouri in 2011.
• Will had been coming home from his high school graduation with his father when the
tornado sucked him through the sunroof of their H3 Hummer.
• Will was considered missing for a few weeks until his body turned up in a pond.
He was just eighteen at the time of his death.
1 – Caleb Logan, • Thirteen-year-old Caleb Logan ran a popular
gaming channel called Blazenoutlaws where he often posted about Minecraft.
He was also the oldest of three siblings who posted on the popular YouTube channel Bratayley.
• With no warning signs, Caleb died in early October 2015 from an undetected medical condition
that was later confirmed to be Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.
This disease is known to kill just one percent of the people who have it.
• Caleb left behind a sea of heartbroken fans.
His last words to his fans were ‘See you guys tomorrow’.