Which star warned people about the dangers of smoking after he died?
And which celebrity eerily predicted his own death in his final interview?
Keep watching to find out!
James Dean was born in Marion, Indiana on February 8, 1931.
In high school, Dean developed an interest in acting that would lead him to move to the
west coast, where he briefly studied theater at the University of California, Los Angeles,
before dropping out to pursue acting.
Bit parts and commercial work then led Dean to New York, where he studied under Lee Strasberg
at the prestigious Actors Studio.
Dean's role in the Broadway play "The Immoralist" caught the eye of film director Elia Kazan,
who cast him in 1955's "East of Eden," the only film he would live to see released.
Starring roles in "Giant" and "Rebel Without a Cause" followed in quick succession.
Just 13 days before Dean's death, actor Gig Young interviewed the young star on the set
of "Giant" for the TV show "Warner Brothers Presents."
Dean, an avid racer, spoke with Young about safe driving and the importance of being careful
on the highway, ending the piece saying
"Take it easy driving.
The life you might save might be mine."
On September 30, 1955, Dean was killed instantly in a high speed car crash.
He was 24.
Béla Blaskó was born on October 20, 1882, in the town of Lugos in southern Hungary.
Although his career on stage and in film spanned over 50 years, the man known worldwide by
his stage name Bela Lugosi will forever be known for his role as Dracula in Universal
Studios' 1931 adaptation of Bram Stoker's classic novel.
But Lugosi revealed in 1955 that he had become addicted to morphine first prescribed to him
to alleviate severe leg pains and sciatica decades before.
Knowing that he would die without help, he voluntarily entered a medical facility to
receive treatment for his addiction.
Upon his release, a fully rehabilitated Lugosi emerged from the hospital to speak to the
press for what would be the last time.
"It's a terrible ordeal to go through withdrawal.
It's the greatest pain in the world."
But he said that his time in rehab was transformative.
"I became a new man.
A new lease on life.
I'm cured."
Optimistic about his future, Lugosi looked forward to getting to work on a new picture
with his friend, notorious filmmaker Edward D. Wood Jr.
Just a year later, though, Lugosi suffered a fatal heart attack while resting at his
modest Hollywood apartment.
He was 73.
Born in Iowa in 1907 as Marion Robert Morrison, John Wayne was a University of Southern California
football star before a shoulder injury permanently sidelined him.
Discovered by legendary director John Ford, Wayne would go on to epitomize Hollywood's
image of the American cowboy in such films as "Stagecoach" and "The Searchers."
In 1964, Wayne was diagnosed with lung cancer.
An operation to remove most of his left lung proved a stunning success.
Yet, cancer was not through with John Wayne.
In January 1979, doctors discovered a malignancy in the actor's stomach.
Surgeons removed Wayne's complete stomach in a nine-hour emergency procedure.
Wayne gave his last interview to ABC's Barbara Walters just one day before the discovery
of his stomach cancer.
Looking back on his 50-year-career, Wayne commented on his mortality.
"I want to hang around as long as I'm healthy and I'm not in anybody's way."
John Wayne made a final public appearance at the April 9, 1979 Academy Awards.
He died on June 11, 1979, at UCLA Medical Center, aged 72.
By the time Judy Garland was in her teens she had become one of Hollywood's biggest
draws, and when she starred in the 1939 classic "The Wizard of Oz," her fame only grew.
Garland moved into more mature roles in the 1940s in films such as "Meet Me in St. Louis,"
but addiction and mental illness nearly ended her career.
Later in life, she transitioned to recording and stage work with a series of successful
concert tours followed by a triumphant return to film in 1954's "A Star is Born."
But as documented in "Little Girl Lost" by Al DiOrio, by 1969, overwork, drug addiction,
crash-dieting, and series of nervous breakdowns had taken a serious toll on Garland's health.
In March of that year, she gave what would be her final interview to Radio Denmark.
Sounding fatigued, Garland stated,
"My life and my career have been like a roller coaster.
I'm either an enormous success or just a down and out failure."
When asked if she felt that she had led a rich life, Garland, recently married to fifth
husband Mickey Deans, replied,
"No, not until now.
I think it's been an interesting life.
I loved always giving performances to audiences.
[...] But I can't take the audience home with me."
Three months after this interview, Judy Garland was found dead of an accidental drug overdose
in her London home at the age of 47.
Immortalized in his signature role in the musical "The King and I," a part he would
play on Broadway over 4,000 times, Yul Brynner was an enigmatic figure.
With his shaved head and powerful voice, he was an imposing presence in roles ranging
from the Pharaoh Ramses in "The Ten Commandments" to the android gunslinger in "Westworld."
Yet, according to his son, Rock Brynner, author of "Yul: The Man Who Would be King," the actor's
greatest creation was his own persona.
When Rock Brynner challenged his father about the inconsistencies he found while researching
his past, the actor replied,
"The facts of my life have nothing to do with the realities of my existence."
Although the details of Yul Brynner's beginnings are murky, the facts of his sad last days
are irrefutable.
Aware that his death from lung cancer was imminent, Brynner appeared on ABC's "Good
Morning America" on January 7, 1985.
When asked by host David Hartman if there was anything he could change about his life,
Brynner answered
"If I could take back that smoking, we wouldn't be talking about any cancer.
I'm convinced of that."
After Brynner's death the following October at the age of 65, his widow, Kathy, gave the
American Cancer Society permission to use footage from the interview in a powerful anti-smoking
campaign, fulfilling one of her husband's final wishes.
In the PSA, Brynner looks directly into the camera and says,
"Now that I am gone, I tell you, don't smoke."
The late Gene Wilder made a career of playing off-kilter characters.
From Roald Dahl's famous candyman Willy Wonka to the titular character in Mel Brooks' comedy
classic "Young Frankenstein," Wilder brought eccentric characters to life with a sensitivity
rare among comic actors.
Despite his fame, Wilder was a private man who rarely gave interviews.
In one of his last before his death at age 83 from complications of Alzheimer's disease,
he spoke with Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies at the 92nd Street Y about why he retired
from acting.
The answer?
He just didn't like the kinds of movies being made.
"I didn't want to do the kind of junk I was seeing.
I didn't want to do 3D, for instance."
It wasn't just the style of the films, though, but what he perceived as a new coarseness
to the content that Hollywood was moving towards, citing an excessive amount of swearing in
movies..
Wilder also took aim at Tim Burton's take on Willy Wonka, a role Wilder made famous.
Suffice it to say, Wilder was not a fan.
"I think it's an insult."
"I don't care for that director.
He's a talented man, but I don't care for him doing stuff like he did."
Born November 10, 1977, in Atlanta, Georgia, Brittany Murphy got her first big break in
acting at age 14, playing Dabney Coleman's character's daughter on the sitcom "Drexell's
Class."
Her supporting role as the uncool Tai Frasier in the 1995 coming-of-age comedy "Clueless,"
however, catapulted her to international fame.
Critically acclaimed roles in such films as "Girl Interrupted" and "8 Mile" followed,
as well as a long-running voice role on the animated comedy "King of the Hill" followed.
But on December 20, 2009, Murphy, 32, shockingly collapsed at her home and died from a combination
of pneumonia, anemia, and intoxication of multiple over-the-counter and prescription
drugs.
Despite the coroner's report, her family and others would offer a number of alternate theories
for her cause of death, including intentional poisoning.
Appearing distracted and dazed, Brittany Murphy gave her final interview to Fox News' Pop
Tarts on December 3, 2003, just over two weeks before her death.
In the interview, she addressed her dramatic weight loss and promoted the charity Looking
Beyond, which aids underprivileged children in need of medical prosthetics.
She said,
"I feel very blessed for everything I have in my life and my family."
From biblical epics to sci-fi thrillers, Charlton Heston brought gravitas to every film he starred
in.
Heston's role as Moses in "The Ten Commandments" made him a superstar, and roles in several
historical dramas, including "Ben Hur," for which he earned an Academy Award, followed.
By the late 1960s and early '70s, Heston remolded himself as an action star thanks to such films
as "Planet of the Apes."
In his later years, Heston was an outspoken advocate of conservative causes, and in 1998,
he was elected president of the National Rifle Association.
Heston announced that he had Alzheimer's disease in 2002.
He spoke to ABC's Peter Jennings about his diagnosis later that year in his last public
interview.
"You have to take it as it comes.
You do the best with your life that you can, and what can't be cured must be endured."
Heston died on April 5, 2008, aged 84.
Texas-born '80s heartthrob Patrick Swayze began his career as a professional dancer
before finding success on Broadway in shows like "Grease."
Swayze's stage work eventually led him to Hollywood, where he scored his breakout role
as Daryl "Darry" Curtis in Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 film adaptation of S.E.
Hinton's teen novel "The Outsiders."
Swayze's skills as a dancer came to the forefront in the 1987 hit "Dirty Dancing," which established
him a Hollywood sex symbol.
The hits "Roadhouse," and "Point Break," also scored Swayze points with action fans.
Diagnosed with stage-four pancreatic cancer in 2008, Patrick Swayze spoke to Barbara Walters
eight months before his death in September 2009.
Despite his declining health, Swayze was determined to beat the odds.
"I want to last until they find a cure which means I better get a fire under it."
Carrie Fisher enchanted millions as Princess Leia in the "Star Wars" saga, and gained respect
behind the scenes as a fiercely talented novelist and screenwriter with an acerbic wit.
Yet, for much of her life, Fisher faced mental health issues and drug addiction — subjects
she spoke about with frankness and humor.
Fisher had been promoting her book "The Princess Diarist" when she appeared on "The Graham
Norton Show."
Taped in England just a couple of weeks before she suffered a heart attack while on a flight
from London to Los Angeles, Fisher spoke with humor and pathos about finding her "Star Wars"-era
diaries.
"I'd forgotten I wrote them.
They were in a storage room under my bedroom and so we brought all these things up thinking
I'd put them in a book.
I found these three diaries and I was a little saddened by them.
I'm very insecure in the books, and I didn't recall that I was that insecure."
No name is as synonymous with the words "movie star" as Marilyn Monroe.
Beloved for her vivacious personality, breathy voice, and stunning physical attributes, she
made her mark in such comedies as "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," and "Some Like it Hot."
Yet, her bubbly onscreen demeanor belied a life of loneliness and depression that would
fuel her successful dramatic turns in films like "The Misfits," her last completed film.
As documented by Biography, Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1,
1926.
While working in a munitions factory in Van Nuys, California, Norma Jean caught the eye
of a professional photographer and launched a successful career in modeling.
In 1946, she signed her first movie contract, dyed her red hair blonde, and rechristened
herself Marilyn Monroe.
Monroe gave what would be her final interview to Life's Richard Merryman.
In the article, Monroe spoke at length about the nature of fame, saying, quote, "everybody
is always tugging at you."
"They'd all like sort of a chunk, you know, somehow.
They kind of like take pieces out of you.
And I don't think that they realize it.
The interview appeared in the August 3, 1962, issue of Life, just two days before Monroe's
body was discovered.
Monroe died of an overdose of barbiturates in what was ruled an apparent suicide.
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.