Some left behind critically-acclaimed performances, others, millions in record sales.
But they all left behind a sea of heartbroken fans when they passed away before their time.
These are the celebrities who died at the peak of their fame.
Cory Monteith Thanks to his career-defining role as Finn
Hudson on Glee, Cory Monteith became a superstar.
After his fatal overdose on heroin and alcohol on July 13, 2013, he was written off the show
in a loving tribute, but Glee was just a springboard for the promising young star.
In fact, the 31-year-old Monteith had just completed a stint in rehab and was already
embarking on a burgeoning film career at the time of his loss.
In perhaps a somewhat macabre testament to Monteith's star power, Glee creator Ryan Murphy
acknowledged to Entertainment Weekly that losing the actor changed the show forever,
saying,
“What started off as being such a great celebration of love and acceptance ultimately
became about darkness.”
Paul Walker It's undeniable that Paul Walker was at the
peak of his fame when he died in a gruesome car accident on November 30th, 2013.
It was a hauntingly ironic demise for the star of the Fast & The Furious franchise,
which heavily features increasingly outlandish stunts involving cars.
Walker died before production was finished on Furious 7, which grossed more than $353
million in the United States, a box office record at the time not only for the series
but also for Walker's career.
The Furious franchise earned Walker and several co-stars spots on Forbes' list of top-grossing
actors for 2013.
At the time of his passing, Walker was putting in some of his best performances in side projects
such as Brick Mansions and Hours.
In addition to experiencing profound professional growth, Walker was also beloved by fans: a
reported 5,000 mourners showed up for his public memorial at the site of his fatal crash.
Heath Ledger Posthumously earning an Oscar has to be the
biggest indicator that an actor died at the exact apex of their career.
Heath Ledger would have continued churning out fantastic performances had he not overdosed
on prescription drugs in 2008 at age 28, but nobody can argue with the fact that his Joker
in The Dark Knight was the game changer for his craft.
In fact, he was planning to return to the franchise in The Dark Knight Rises.
Unfortunately, Ledger passed away long before that film began production in 2011.
At the time of his passing, Ledger was in the middle of shooting The Imaginarium of Doctor
Parnassus and director Terry Gilliam had nothing but praise for the actor, writing for the
New York Post: "It still rankles with me that he's dead because
he would have been streets ahead of anyone else in his generation.
[Ledger] just kept getting better and better.
He was fearless."
Anton Yelchin While he may never have achieved the mainstream
name recognition of his Star Trek reboot co-stars Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, Anton Yelchin
was well on his way toward just that when he died tragically in a freak accident on
June 19th, 2016 after being pinned between his car and a brick mailbox pillar.
Before that cruel twist of fate, Yelchin was moving up from his successful career as an
endearing supporting player.
Yelchin's director on one of his last projects, Thoroughbreds, seemed to concur with that
sentiment, telling the New York Post: "I thought [Yelchin] had such a lovely, off-kilter
leading-man energy.
He always just jumped off the screen for me."
River Phoenix At the age of 23, River Phoenix had already
received an Oscar nomination, played Young Indy in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,
and starred in the classic Stand by Me.
Director Rob Reiner told Entertainment Weekly that Phoenix could have become one of the
greatest screen actors of all time.
By many accounts, Phoenix was poised to be the next leading man when he fatally overdosed
on morphine and cocaine in 1993, outside The Viper Room, Johnny Depp's famous rock club
in Hollywood.
Consider these coveted roles he was planning to play before he passed away: Christian Slater
snagged Phoenix's slot in the smash hit Interview with the Vampire, and an up-and-coming Leonardo
DiCaprio earned praise for his "bust-out star performance" in The Basketball Diaries.
Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes It's not always drugs or violence that claim
the life of a celebrity.
Car accidents can happen to anyone, and a particularly bad one in Honduras left Lisa
"Left Eye" Lopes dead at the age of 30 on April 25th, 2002.
The feisty, rapping component of TLC had traveled to the Central American country to shoot a
documentary about her spiritual journey.
MTV reported that at the time of her fatal car accident, Lopes was in a somewhat tumultuous
phase of her career marked by a dispute over the release of her first solo album, and a
move to sign with controversial producer Suge Knight.
None of that seemed to matter to fans.
When Lopes died, TLC was set to release a fourth studio album to follow their legendary
CrazySexyCool and FanMail.
With millions of albums sold and nine Top 10 hits on Billboard's Hot 100, TLC was the
female R&B group to beat until it lost "Left Eye."
Aaliyah The list of stars who have the juice to operate
under just one name isn't long, but Aaliyah was clearly on it.
The R&B star died on August 25th, 2001 at 22-years-old in a plane crash after shooting
a music video for what would become the hit single, "Rock the Boat."
She had also just completed a starring role in the horror movie Queen of the Damned.
Reacting to her passing, Aaliyah's contemporaries lavished her with praise.
Mega-producer Timbaland said: "Beyond the music, she was a brilliant person,
the [most special] person I ever met."
While Diddy lamented: "Her time was coming; [she] was just about
to explode."
A true triple threat, Aaliyah had the presence, voice, and acting chops to follow in the famous
footsteps of other successful singer-turned-actresses.
Selena A huge star in Latin pop markets, Selena Quintanilla
Perez was shot in 1995 by the president of her own fan club.
She had just won a Grammy, and was set to release her first English-language album.
The titular hit song from that album, Dreaming of You, went straight to the top of the Billboard
200 Chart, helping Selena realize her dream of crossover stardom, albeit posthumously.
The album's first-day sales of 175,000 copies made it, at the time, the fastest-selling
album by a female artist in pop history.
Selena was so popular in both America and Mexico that NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw
dubbed her the "Mexican Madonna."
Tupac Shakur Undoubtedly one of the most successful rappers
of all time, Tupac Shakur represented west coast hip hop despite being born and raised
in Harlem, New York.
He died in 1996 at the age of 25 in a high-profile Las Vegas drive-by shooting, speculated to
be related to the East Coast-West Coast hip hop feud.
Despite the mysterious circumstances surrounding his passing, Shakur was so dominant in the rap
game that he topped the Billboard charts while serving a prison sentence and released so
many posthumous albums that he was still making money years after his passing.
According to Forbes, Shakur's estate brought in $9 million in 2007 alone, over a decade
after his passing.
By 2011, Shakur had racked up 11 platinum albums, seven of which came from beyond the
grave.
So yes, to say he was only getting started when his life was cut short would be an obvious
understatement.
The Notorious B.I.G.
Like Tupac Shakur, rapper Christopher "Biggie Smalls" Wallace died violently in a drive-by
shooting, which was also widely attributed to hip hop's East Coast-West Coast beef.
Investigations later suggested both shootings were a result of gang affiliations.
Wallace died in early 1997 at age 24, just before the release of his aptly titled double
album, which skyrocketed to the top of the charts and became one of
only a few "diamond-certified" albums in the rap genre.
Wallace was clearly on the very cusp of an already influential career, which many agree
changed hip hop forever.
Brandon Lee Son of martial arts and screen legend Bruce
Lee, Brandon Lee's life ended in March 1993 after a freak accident on the set of the cult
classic film The Crow.
A co-star fired an improperly prepared prop gun at Brandon, causing a projectile fragment
to puncture his abdomen and aortic stem.
He died the next day.
Lee's role in The Crow was not only a star-making moment for Lee, but it was also the the highest
grossing film of his brief career.
Brandon's follow-up to The Crow was supposedly an action-thriller about an officer sent on
a chase by a deceptive villain.
If that sounds familiar, it's because after Lee's passing, that film was recycled into the
plot of the blockbuster hit Die Hard With a Vengeance.
Philip Seymour Hoffman Already established as a veteran actor who
could tackle comedy or drama, Philip Seymour Hoffman passed at the point in his career
where just lending his name to a project gave it credibility.
Hoffman reportedly succumbed to an overdose, a mix that included heroin, cocaine, benzodiazepines
and amphetamine.
He died at 46 years old on February 2nd, 2014.
He left behind performances in films such as God's Pocket and The Master, both of which
demonstrated his powerful ability to woo the audience toward even the most despicable characters.
Hoffman was not only starring in the highest grossing franchise of his career at the time
of his passing with The Hunger Games, but he'd also just completed a critically-acclaimed
run on Broadway as Willy, a classic play in which Theater Mania praised
his performance as award-worthy.
This man was a modern classic.
Chris Farley On December 18th, 1997, just two years after
the end of his star-making run on Saturday Night Live, Chris Farley reportedly died at
age 33 from an overdose of cocaine and morphine.
His notorious drug-use mirrored his larger than life persona, both of which were said
to have masked his insecurities as a comedic performer.
Attempting rehab an astounding 17 times, Farley couldn't beat back his personal demons.
At the time of his passing, Farley had successfully transitioned from TV to film.
Even the critically panned Beverly Hills Ninja brought in box office figures on par with
his well-received earlier efforts in Tommy Boy and Black Sheep.
In short, fans were still there for him, even if the critics weren't.
Rolling Stone reported that Farley was earning around $6 million per movie and he was supposedly
considering tackling a dramatic role in a bio-pic about comic legend Fatty Arbuckle.
That's a testament to the star power he, sadly, never saw in himself.
John Candy Comedic actor John Candy was a household name
when he succumbed to a heart attack on the set of the western send-up, Wagons East, in
1994.
Before his passing, Candy was appearing in what seemed to be an unstoppable string of hits.
His successful career included Uncle Buck, Only the Lonely, Cool Runnings, and a fantastic
cameo in Home Alone.
Just a few years before his untimely passing, Candy had even proven his acting chops with
a dramatic turn in Oliver Stone's JFK.
Had Candy lived, he might have garnered the type of Oscar-winning success of fellow funnyman-turned-dramatic
actor Robin Williams.
Phil Hartman Saturday Night Live legend Phil Hartman died
at age 49 at the hand of his own wife in a horrific event.
Hartman was at the height of his career when he was shot by his spouse in their San Fernando
Valley, California home.
Even Hartman acknowledged just a few years prior that he'd reached a pinnacle in his
career, saying: "I've succeeded beyond my wildest dreams,
financially and the amount of fun I have in my life."
Beloved by co-stars and fans alike, Hartman dominated the TV comedy world with impressions,
voicework, and acting, from SNL to News Radio to The Simpsons.
He stole any scene he was in, as a bizarre Alcatraz prison guard in So I Married an Axe
Wielder, or in his role opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Jingle All the Way.
There's no doubt we would have seen Hartman stealing the show for years on screens both
big and small.