Cass Elliot: A Tragically Young Death from Morbid Obesity
Cass Elliot was “Mama Cass”, the close-to-300 pound contralto lead singer of The Mamas and Papas, a dominant folk rock vocal group in the late 1960s. They sold more than 40 million records, with six of their albums making it to the Billboard top ten.
Babe Ruth’s Young Death Might Have Been Prevented Today
Babe Ruth was arguably the greatest baseball player who ever lived. When he retired from baseball in 1935, he held the record for most home runs (714), had a batting average of .342, batted in 2,213 runs, had a slugging percentage of 690, got on base 47.4 % of the time he batted, scored 2,174 runs, hit for 5,793 total bases, and was walked 2,062 times. Forget about what goes on today. Ruth did all this without taking anabolic steroids.
Robin Williams and Lewy Body Dementia
We lost one of the greatest comics and actors of our time when Robin Williams took his own life at his home in California on August 11, 2014. When his brain was examined, he was found to have suffered from Lewy Body Dementia (LBD), which has no known cause and no effective treatment.
Hank Aaron Did Not Die from Vaccination
Hammerin' Hank Aaron was regarded as one of the greatest baseball players ever. He hit 755 home runs to break Babe Ruth’s record, hit 24 or more home runs every year from 1955 through 1973, and in 1982, was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame for holding the Major League Baseball records for the most career runs batted in (2,297), most extra base hits (1,477), and most total bases (6,856).
Elvis Presley was Killed by Inflammation
Elvis Presley sold more records than anyone else in the history of recorded music. He was nominated for 14 Grammys and won three, and has been inducted into virtually every music hall of fame. He died at the tragically young age of 42. In the last years of his life, he suffered from obesity, drug addiction, depression, chronic insomnia, glaucoma, high blood pressure, liver damage, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic constipation and an enlarged colon.
Medical History of Cocaine
From the 1860s through 1922, there were no laws to limit the use of cocaine and it was a common ingredient of patent medicines, including the original Coca-Cola, which was developed by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton. Two famous doctors of that time used cocaine regularly and experimented with its medicinal uses. and a third doctor described its use by his beloved fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes.
Houdini’s Appendix
Harry Houdini was probably the most famous escape artist, magician, and stunt performer of all time. He usually appeared in a long coat and tie, and was one of the cockiest performers ever to appear on stage. He died at age 52 from a ruptured appendix, reportedly caused by being punched in the stomach.
Bernie Madoff, Lowlife Ponzi Schemer
On February 5, 2020, Bernard L. Madoff, the mastermind of the largest Ponzi scheme in history, filed a court brief asking to be released from his 150-year prison sentence because his doctors said that he had less than a year and a half to live due to end-stage kidney disease. His request was denied, and on April 14, 2021, he died in prison, apparently from heart failure brought on by his chronic kidney failure and a previous heart attack.
Rapper DMX, Destroyed by His Childhood
DMX (birth name Earl Simmons) was a very famous and successful American rapper, songwriter, actor and television star whose childhood was so brutal that it caused him to spend his entire lif.e breaking the rules of society and going in and out of prison. Childhood trauma can cause self-destructive behavior in adulthood
Garry Shandling’s High Blood Calcium
A blood calcium test is one of the routine blood tests done on normal physical exams. If your doctor ever tells you that your blood calcium is high, make sure that you find a cause. The most common cause of high blood calcium is a parathyroid tumor, which usually can be removed and you are cured. Otherwise it can harm and even kill you.
Alan Turing, Code Breaker and Computer Genius
This week, the Bank of England unveiled its new 50-pound note that features the brilliant World War II codebreaker Alan Turing. The 50-pound note is the highest denomination in circulation and its new design honoring Turing completes the change from paper to polymer currencies that include Winston Churchill on the five-pound note, author Jane Austen on the 10-pound note and artist J. M. W. Turner on the 20-pound note. Turing was selected by more than 250,000 public votes, an effort to atone for the unbelievable cruelty and prejudice against gay people that led Turing to suicide.
James Levine, Metropolitan Opera Conductor
James Levine was among America’s most acclaimed and successful orchestra conductors. He was the music director of the Metropolitan Opera, conducting 2,552 performances from 1976 to 2016, when he was felled by the ravages of Parkinson’s disease. He also directed the Munich Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and was the winner of eight Grammy Awards and the 1997 National Medal of Arts.
Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Middleweight Boxing Champion
Marvin Hagler was the undisputed middleweight boxing champion of the world from 1980 to 1987, knocked out 78 percent of his opponents and was knocked down only one time during his entire professional career. In 1982, he changed his legal name to “Marvelous Marvin” because network announcers at his fights often did not refer to him by his preferred nickname.
Mozart and Sore Throats
In 1791, arguably the world’s most gifted composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, died at the very young age of 35. Today, no serious researchers believe that Mozart was poisoned because his medical history and his symptoms match those of a classic disease that can now be cured.
Rush Limbaugh, Talk Radio Legend
Rush Limbaugh earned more than $84 million per year as the host of his famous talk radio show, with more than 15 million listeners each week. He was widely known for leading the conservative movement in the United States and was rewarded with induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame and National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
Larry Flynt, Free Speech Advocate
Larry Flynt was a publisher, businessman and promoter who was one of the most notorious producers of pornography, rising to fame and great wealth from his raunchy Hustler magazine. He built a $100 million business empire based on magazines, private clubs, casinos, sex-toy stores, videos, and three pornographic television channels.
Christopher Plummer, Oldest Oscar Winner
Christopher Plummer was a Canadian actor in film, theater and television, who was most famous for his 1965 performance as Captain Georg von Trapp in The Sound of Music. Over his incredibly active career, he won an Academy Award, two prime-time Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a British Academy Film Award, and was nominated for many other honors.
Emil Zatopek, the Best Distance Runner
Most runners today still think that Emil Zatopek was the greatest runner who ever lived. At the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games, he won three gold medals in the 5,000 meters, the 10,000 meters and marathon, all in Olympic and world record times, a feat that will probably never be equaled.
Larry King, a Life of 60,000 Interviews
As his doctor and friend, I knew Larry King as the hardest working person I have ever met. He hosted a nightly national Mutual Broadcasting System talk show on 500 radio stations from 1978 to 1994, which were rebroadcast until 2010.
Babe Didrikson Zaharias, the Best Female Athlete
Babe Didrikson Zaharias was named the best female athlete of the 20th century. In the 1932 Olympics, she became the only track and field athlete, male or female, ever to win individual Olympic medals in a running, throwing and jumping event. She set four world records:
• She won the 80-meter hurdles in a world-record 11.7 seconds and breaking her previous world-record she set in a preliminary heat.
Tommy Heinsohn, Beloved Boston Celtic
Tommy Heinsohn was inducted into the National Basketball Association Hall of Fame twice, first as a player and then again as a coach. He spent 60 years with the Boston Celtics, as a player from 1956 to 1965, their coach from 1969 to 1978, and more than 30 years as a broadcaster of their games.
Phyllis McGuire, Last of the McGuire Sisters
Phyllis McGuire, lead singer of the “McGuire Sisters” who were famous in the 1950s and 1960s, died on December 29, 2020 at age 89 in Las Vegas. In 1968, she left her singing career for a multi-year affair with equally famous Sam Giancana, who a notorious gangster and leader of the Chicago mob.
Bobby Farrell of Boney M
Today my favorite song is “The Rivers Of Babylon”, the second highest-selling single of all time in the UK. I heard the song for the first time a few weeks ago on YouTube. It was recorded in 1978 by “Boney M,” whose original members were with the band from 1976 until 1986. They all came from the Caribbean: Bobby Farrell came from Aruba, Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett were from Jamaica and Maizie Williams was from Montserrat, an island in the Lesser Antilles.
Linus Pauling and Prostate Cancer
Linus Pauling died at age 93 of prostate cancer, a disease that affects nearly 100 percent of North American men over age 90. He was one of the most influential chemists of all time, and also a peace activist, author, and educator. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962 for his campaign against nuclear weapons testing.
Charley Pride, Country Music Superstar, Dies of COVID-19
Charley Pride was the first Black superstar of country music. He grew up in abject poverty and wanted to be a professional baseball player. He had the talent, but an elbow injury at age 24 cut short his baseball pitching career. To make enough money to feed his family, he started singing at baseball games, night clubs and social events.
Rafer Johnson, Olympic Decathlete, Dies from Stroke
Rafer Johnson was one of America’s greatest athletes. He was the world record holder and 1960 Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon, having won silver in the 1956 Olympics and also gold in the 1955 Pan American Games. He was the star of his Kingsburg High School's football, baseball and basketball teams and won the 1953 and 1954 California state high school decathlon championships.
Diego Maradona, Troubled Best Soccer Player
Diego Maradona was widely regarded as one of the greatest soccer players of all time. He could dribble the ball through an entire opposing team and could kick the ball where the goalie couldn’t reach it.
John Enders, Vaccine Pioneer
The year 2020 will be remembered for the incredible ground-breaking research leading to vaccines to prevent COVID-19, which may progress to new vaccines that...
Paul Hornung: Another Football Great Felled by Dementia
Paul Hornung was better than everyone else on a football field, according to Frank Leahy, his coach at Notre Dame, who said, “He could run through opposing teams like a mower going through grass.” Vince Lombardi, his coach with the Green Bay Packers., said, “Paul Hornung is the greatest player I've ever coached . . ."
Frank Sinatra, Voice of the 20th Century
Frank Sinatra was the most famous popular singer in the world from the 1940s on, with every performance accompanied by screaming and swooning teenagers. His countless friends included presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, members of Britain's royal family and Princess Grace of Monaco.
