Have you ever heard of the 27 Club, the group of famous musicians and other artists who died
at the age of 27? As it turns out, that's not the only age at which some celebrities passed
away young. Here are the celebrities who tragically passed away before reaching 30.
R&B singer Aaliyah was a '90s icon who was poised for even bigger fame
when she died at the age of 22. At that point in her career,
she was branching out from the music biz and turning her sights towards the big screen.
She delivered a breakout performance alongside Jet Li in 2000's Romeo Must Die,
and then she played the lead vampire in Queen of the Damned, which has since become a cult classic.
In August 2001, Aaliyah set off to the Bahamas to shoot her "Rock the Boat"
music video. As her boyfriend Damon Dash later recalled on an episode of The Real in 2016,
she was actually hesitant to get on the small plane — a twin-engine Cessna 402-B. But she
made it to her destination safely, shot the video, and then proceeded to head home. Alas,
shortly after takeoff, the plane crashed close to the runway,
resulting in a blaze of fire. Aaliyah and eight other passengers died immediately.
"Before she went there, she was like, 'I don't like that plane.'
And I was like, 'Don't get on it.' And she was just like, 'You know, I gotta do it.'"
Christopher Wallace, aka The Notorious B.I.G., aka Biggie Smalls, left a lasting legacy in the
rap world, even though he released only a single album while he was alive. A New York native,
he's a legend of East Coast hip hop, with his cool ​​baritone instantly recognizable on all
of his tracks. Signed to Sean Combs' Bad Boy Records, Biggie released the iconic single
"Juicy" in August of 1994 and his first album, Ready to Die, the following month.
Sadly, Biggie's successes were short-lived, as he died a mere three years after his debut album
was released. On March 9, 1997, he was shot at a stoplight in Los Angeles, which killed him
instantly. His eerily-titled second album, Life After Death, was set to be released just two weeks
after his untimely passing. To this day, Biggie's murder remains unsolved. What's more, it turns
out that the rapper was concerned about his own safety during his trip to L.A. In one of his final
interviews, he reflected how anyone who is as high profile as himself is a target. As he put it,
"They gonna attack you if you on top. It's your job to bob and weave. I need the security."
Tupac Shakur was born in Harlem, New York, even though he's considered a legend of
the West Coast rap scene. His family struggled financially and eventually ended up in Baltimore,
Maryland. It was there that he began positioning himself as a creative,
while studying at the Baltimore School for the Arts. The family then made their way
to Marin City, California to escape their old crime-ridden neighborhood.
By 1991, Shakur had recorded his first single,
which led to a deal with Interscope Records. He released four platinum albums during his lifetime,
and even more after his death. As of 2021, he's sold more than 75 million albums.
There's no doubt that Shakur would've only seen his star rise even further
if not for his death in September 1996 at the age of 25. At the time,
he was in Las Vegas to watch a Mike Tyson boxing match. As he was leaving, he was
killed in a drive-by shooting. His fifth album was released only eight weeks after his death,
and it reached number one on the charts. His murder remains unsolved to this day.
For someone who appeared in only three feature films during his lifetime,
James Dean's influence as a Hollywood star is unparalleled. His name is synonymous with the
1955 classic Rebel Without a Cause, as he came to represent the youth culture of that decade.
"You're tearing me apart!"
Born in Marion, Indiana, Dean bounced between his home state and California in his youth.
He eventually dropped out of college and enrolled in Lee Strasberg's prestigious Actors Studio in
New York. In a letter that he wrote to his family in 1952, Dean boasted of other fellow
thespians that attended, such as Marlon Brando and Julie Harris. As he explained in the letter,
"If I can keep this up and nothing interferes with my progress,
one of these days, I might be able to contribute something to the world."
Heartbreakingly though, Dean didn't get a chance to contribute much more after he burst onto the
scene. He loved fast cars, and after getting a hefty paycheck for 1955's East of Eden, he bought
himself a Porsche 550 Spyder. On September 30, 1955, he took the convertible out for a joy ride,
getting a speeding ticket at 3:30 pm. A mere two hours later, he collided with a sedan
on the highway near Cholame, California and died almost instantly. He was only 24.
Did taking on the role of the Joker in 2008's The Dark Knight contribute
to Heath Ledger's untimely passing? On January 22,
2008, he was found dead in his New York apartment by his masseuse. He was only 28.
A toxicology report revealed that he died of an accidental overdose of prescription medications,
some of which were common painkillers, anti-anxiety drugs, and sleeping pills.
It turns out that Ledger was undoubtedly struggling with playing the Joker. As his
roommate and dialect coach Gerry Grennell told People Magazine in 2017, the actor was indeed,
quote, "exhausted, emotionally and physically." Grennell also noted that he would catch Ledger
roaming the apartment late at night, and when he would try and get him to go to sleep,
Ledger would merely reply, "I can't sleep, man." The actor was survived by his daughter,
Matilda, whose mother is his ex-girlfriend and Brokeback Mountain co-star Michelle Williams.
Janis Joplin was a rock icon, but her time in the spotlight sadly lasted only a few short
years. Born in Port Arthur, Texas, she was known for her rebellious nature and love of music,
often going to dive bars in Louisiana to admire fellow artists. After a brief stint in Los Angeles
in 1961, she moved back to her home state, where she enrolled at the University of Texas in Austin
while singing in a band. After a few more attempts at fame both in California and New York,
she joined the psychedelic rock group Big Brother and the Holding Company,
where she put the band on the map with her booming vocals.
Alas, Joplin's habit of dabbling in amphetamines, heroin, and alcohol created a rift in the band.
She broke off from Big Brother in 1968 to pursue a solo career,
releasing her first album, I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!, the following year. That
release was met with mixed reviews, and her addiction only worsened. On October 4, 1970,
she died of a heroin overdose in a Los Angeles hotel room. She was only 27. Her second album,
Pearl, was released posthumously, and it ended up becoming certified quadruple platinum.
Amy Winehouse's rise to fame and subsequent tragic downfall were all documented for the
public to see through tabloids and paparazzi in the mid-2000s. Snagging her big break early
in life, she was discovered at the age of 16 by a friend who passed her demo tape to the label A&R.
This subsequently led to a signing with Island/Universal. Her double-platinum debut,
2003's Frank, saw her star rise even further. But this was also a time when her reputation as,
quote, "an unstable party girl" became apparent.
Winehouse's refusal to attend rehab for alcoholism led to her most successful album,
2006's Back to Black. She even sang about that experience on the hit single "Rehab," which at
the time ended up being the most successful debut in the United States by a female Brit.
Yet, as Winehouse became more popular, her behavior and addiction became increasingly
troubling. As her best friend Tyler James recalled to RNZ in 2021,
"When there was so much expected of her, when there was so much pressure to be this character,
to be this Amy Winehouse, this person who’d won five Grammys. That life
wasn’t for her [...] She didn’t want to be famous, she didn’t want it, she hated it."
"And I feel like she's missing. I feel like she's with me, too, you know? But…"
On July 23, 2011, Winehouse died in her home of accidental alcohol poisoning. She was only 27.
Sid Vicious' name is instantly recognizable among punk music fans, yet his time as the bassist for
the Sex Pistols was exceptionally brief. Born Simon John Ritchie in London, England,
his early life was fraught with turmoil. His mother had a heroin and opiate addiction and
kicked her son out of her home when he was 16. A high school dropout, Ritchie caught
the eye of Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren in 1977, who believed he had the perfect punk look
needed for the band. The group had become iconically successful, but then in 1978,
they embarked on a U.S. tour that lasted a mere eight concerts before they split up.
At this point, Vicious was free to focus on his relationship with his girlfriend
Nancy Spungen, with whom he moved to New York. While she tried working as his manager,
the pair were more focused on fueling their drug addictions,
which ultimately led to the murder of Spungen after a fatal stabbing. Vicious
confessed and was charged with second-degree murder. Following a couple of prison stints,
he was released on bail on February 1, 1979. After celebrating his release by taking heroin,
he was found dead in a New York apartment less than 24 hours after his release. He was only 21.
Many different theories have cropped up surrounding Doors frontman Jim Morrison's puzzling
death, yet one thing remains certain: he died way too early. Morrison met the rest of his bandmates
while studying film at UCLA, and they formed the iconic rock group in 1965. They were quickly
signed to a label the following year, and then released their self-titled debut in January 1967.
Despite the band's success, Morrison's personal struggles with alcoholism negatively affected
the group, and he was even arrested twice for his onstage antics. By 1971, Morrison and the Doors
released their iconic song "L.A. Woman," and after that, he moved to Paris in March of that year.
He spent his brief time in France partying, which likely led to his untimely demise.
On July 3, 1971, a 27-year-old Morrison was found dead, with varying stories as to how exactly he
passed emerging since then. His girlfriend Pamela claimed that after a dinner and movie date,
they retired to their home and went to sleep. When Morrison woke up feeling sick, he ran a bath,
which was where Pamela eventually found him dead. Another story comes from biographer Sam Bernett,
who claims that Morrison died of a heroin overdose in a bathroom stall of a Parisian
nightclub. Since no autopsy was ever performed, his death remains a mystery.
Along with their contemporaries like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden,
Nirvana will forever be beloved for spearheading the grunge movement of the 90s. The genre emerged
as a direct response to vastly different musical stylings of the previous decade:
the overstuffed sounds of synth-pop and the glamorous excesses of hair metal.
At a time when young people were filled with angst, grunge was their choice of rebellion.
Kurt Cobain founded Nirvana in 1988, but it wasn't until they signed to Geffen Records in 1991 and
released their second album, Nevermind, that they became the icons that they're remembered as today.
In January 1994, mere months before his tragic death, Cobain told Rolling Stone,
"It was so fast and explosive. I didn't know how to deal with it. If there was a
Rock Star 101 course, I would have liked to take it. It might have helped me."
"I'm in pain all the time, you know?"
Around the same time that Nirvana landed their record label,
Cobain was experimenting with heroin as a way to cope with the mounting pressures of suddenly
wife — fellow rocker Courtney Love — and their young daughter, Frances Bean. He was only 27.
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts,
please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.