Famous People Who Died On The Toilet

Celebrities have a habit of dying in weird places, including toilets. What has caused so many rich and famous throughout the ages to have their final moments on the commode? From medieval monarchs to early Christian theologians, legendary architects to ground-breaking comedians, tons of tragic historical deaths came on the crapper.

While many of these people either suffered with addiction or had health problems unrelated to their bowel movements, they all died in the same place - the toilet.

Arius was one of the most important men in early Christianity, founding a doctrine that was a legitimate rival to what became Catholic doctrine. Hailing from North Africa, this 3rd century priest wrote and preached that the Holy Trinity was not an equal power, and that God the Father was the divine, not the Son.

This theology, called Arianism, was one of many ideas of the nature of Christ floating about in the 4th century. Because of this, Arius suffered. In 325 the Council of Nicaea condemned him as a heretic and was set to suffer the consequences of such a label. But he died before this came to fruition. Legend has it that Arius died either on the toilet or on his way to the toilet, perhaps of a stroke or heart attack, but this might have been a rumor designed to emphasize his lack of piety.

Jerry Bruckheimer, the Hollywood producer behind moves like Black Hawk Down, had a powerful ally in his longtime business partner, the energetic and passionate Don Simpson. Together, the two helped create blockbusters like Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop, but their bond suffered when Simpson became dangerously addicted to illegal prescription drugs. Simpson became reclusive and separated professionally from Bruckheimer, although he was planning a comeback in the 1990s.

Sadly, before he could really turn his life around, Simpson died on the toilet while reading a biography of director Oliver Stone. The official cause? A heart attack, probably brought on by the drugs.

One of the most famous singers to ever grace an American stage, Elvis Presley shot to fame in the 1940s and 1950s where he sang, danced, and acted his way into the country's hearts. Best known for songs like "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Jailhouse Rock," the hip-gyrating star made women swoon. But he became addicted to drugs, leading to him being the most famous person to kick it on the crapper. 

Elvis was going to the bathroom in his Graceland mansion on August 16, 1977, when the years of drugs he'd taken finally began to catch up with him. The King fell off the toilet and into a pile of his own vomit. Later, it was revealed an extreme cocktail of drugs caused his passing. 

Evelyn Waugh was a 20th century British author with quite the interesting life. He dropped out of Oxford University before graduating, became an international journalist, and married a woman also named Evelyn. Also a soldier, Waugh wrote a lot about the military, which inspired his Brideshead Revisited; he also suffered from unrequited love and tons of physical ailments.

The circumstances of Waugh's passing are a bit unclear, some speculate he not only died on the toilet, but had actually drowned in it. According to reports, Waugh returned from mass when he headed to the toilet. When he didn't return, his family went looking for him and found him dead on the floor. One friend said he was found with water in his lungs, though that is disputed. 

Whether he died on it or in it, Waugh definitely collapsed on the commode in 1966 and passed soon after. It was common knowledge that Waugh was in poor health and his official cause of death was from heart failure. 

This monarch was German by birth - his dad, George I, was a distant cousin of the last ruler, Queen Anne, and inherited the throne because he was a Protestant. George II didn't get along with his dad at all, and they fought by allying with different political factions in England (the pattern repeated itself with George II's son, Frederick Louis). It was during George's reign that the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 took place.

George died in a manner not befitting his royal status, though. In 1760, George was straining to get things moving in his intestinal tract, when things went wrong. He fell off the toilet, and his servant ran in to help him after hearing what was described as a "noise louder than the royal wind." But it was too late - George wound up dying soon after. Doctors found that a ventricle in his heart had burst.

This 11th century monarch was known as the "Hunchback" for his stature. Despite his nickname, Godfrey was a well-thought-of leader in his own time, dubbed "a young man indeed with an excellent mind, but with a hump." His wife was his extraordinary step-sister Matilda of Canossa, an occasional military leader who ruled a good chunk of Italy and supported papal forces against imperial factions.

In 1096, Godfrey was in Flanders when he was attacked by an assassin as he "answered the call of nature." He survived for nearly a week after the attack, but eventually died. It's believed he was killed in retaliation for a military victory.

After a tragic home life, the actress who would become known as Judy Garland took the stage and screen by storm. Like Elvis, she suffered from an addiction to drugs, but that didn't put a damper on the luster of her great career, which included a starring role in The Wizard of Oz as Dorothy. Her daughter, famed entertainer Liza Minnelli, followed in her footsteps.

Personal problems, ranging from nervous breakdowns and suicide attempts to bizarre behavior on set, led to the downfall of her Hollywood career. This was attributed to the cocktail of pills Garland regularly took, including barbiturates and amphetamines. At the age of 47 in 1969, Garland died on the toilet; her fifth husband found her body. Reports say Garland died sometime between 3 am and 4 am, her body slumped over the toilet with the bathroom door locked. 

Louis Kahn was one of America's most celebrated architects, best known for combining Modernist sensibilities with inspiration from ancient monuments. Born in Estonia, he migrated to America in his childhood, but he did head back to Europe later in life, drawing on his recollections of medieval castles. Ultimately, his work was a composite of all sorts of fascinating influences; he taught at the most prestigious institutions in the country and designed some epic buildings.

Sadly, Kahn died in 1974 in a not-so-great building - New York City's Penn Station. This was where Kahn had stopped to use the bathroom, suffered a heart attack, and died.

This 16th century Japanese warlord was one of the most important figures of his age. Uesugi Kenshin started his ascension to fame when he saved the life of his daimyo, or feudal master, and demanded he adopt Kenshin as gratitude. In battle, Kenshin reportedly was such an effective leader than he didn't need to speak to command his troops, and communicated solely through gestures. An extraordinarily brave man well-known for his epic rivalries with other lords, he also had a great impact on Japanese military technology, transmitting the recipe for gunpowder to his armies.

Sadly, Kenshin's epic life wasn't matched by his ignominious death. One of his rivals sent an assassin to hide in the sewer beneath his toilet. When Kenshin went to use the commode, the killer sprang up and skewered his target with a sword or spear. It's possible, though, that this story was a legend rather than the truth, but it's interesting nevertheless.

The king of Bohemia in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, Wenceslaus III was a flash in the pan as a ruler. He gave up his rights to the Hungarian crown in order to pursue the throne of Poland, but died before he could raise an army to conquer that country.

Who offed him? A mysterious assassin, who barged in on Wency while he was sitting on the toilet. In 1306, the killer attacked the king with a spear and offed him while Wenceslaus was sitting on the toilet.