Stacy Conradt
10 Non–Rock Stars Who Died at the Tragically Young Age of 27
by Stacy Conradt - July 23, 2011 - 9:19 PM

© Laurence Baker/Corbis

On Saturday, Amy Winehouse passed away and became the latest member of Club 27—an exclusive club you don’t want to be in. Club 27 is headlined by musicians Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and Brian Jones, who all died of a drug overdose, suicide, or accident at that young age. But the musically inclined aren’t the only ones who die at 27. Here are 10 other people who didn’t live to see 28.

1. Pope John XII. One of the youngest Popes ever, Pope John XII sat on the papal chair from 955-964. He was a rather unethical Pope whose crimes against the chair allegedly included adultery, gambling and even murder. He died under suspicious circumstances, but the rumor is that he was “stricken by paralysis in the act of adultery” at the young age of 27.

2. Pat Tillman. The NFL player, who turned down a $3.6 million contract to enlist in the U.S. Army after 9/11, was just 27 when he was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004.

3. Henry Moseley was an English physicist with a promising future ahead of him; he had already identified gaps in the periodic table and was measuring the X-ray spectra of chemical elements. And then World War I hit, so Moseley turned down a job at Oxford to enlist in the Royal Engineers of the British Army. He had served as a technical officer in communications for just four months when he was shot in the head by a sniper on August 10, 1915. “In view of what he might still have accomplished,” Isaac Asimov once wrote, “his death might well have been the most costly single death of the War to mankind generally,”

4. Joseph Merrick. The unfortunate fellow you probably know better as The Elephant Man died in 1890, following a lifetime of being exhibited, prodded and poked at. To this day, experts are still not sure what caused Merrick’s deformities, though they think his ailment did contribute to his death at the age of 27. His doctor, Frederick Treves, believed that Merrick had attempted to sleep horizontally in bed like most people do, and as a result, asphyxiated due to the weight of his head.

5. American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat died of a heroin overdose in 1988. It’s said that when Andy Warhol died the previous year, Basquiat was so distressed that his attempts at staying sober took a nosedive. He died in his studio at the age of 27.

6. French mathematician François Proth died of unknown causes in 1879. Though he was young, the self-taught Proth had already developed four theorems and the Proth number.

7. Alfonso XII. Alfonso’s mother, Isabella II of Spain, abdicated in his favor in 1870, making him King of Spain at the age of 13. That gave him nearly 15 years of ruling before he died of tuberculosis in 1885. His youngest child, born seven months after his death, was the grandfather of Juan Carlos I, the current King of Spain.

8. Alain-Fournier was the author of Le Grand Meaulnes, considered by many to be one of the most important works of French literature. It was also his only work. Though he had started another, it was incomplete when he, like Henry Moseley, enlisted to serve his country during WWI. He died a month after joining up in 1914, but his body wasn’t identified until 1991. Alain-Fournier was his pseudonym, by the way – his real name was Henri Alban-Fournier.

9. Reggie Lewis. The pro basketball player had been with the Boston Celtics for six years when he collapsed on the court during an off-season practice at Brandeis University on July 27, 1993. His cause of death was determined to be sudden cardiac arrest.

10. We’re reaching on this one, but John Wilkes Booth was a month away from his 27th birthday when he assassinated Abraham Lincoln. Booth, of course, was killed almost two weeks later.

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Comments (23)

  1. My dad died when he was 27. Captain John L. Dunnavant, 101st Airborne, 326th Medical Battalion. He was on a civilian rescue mission when his helicopter malfunctioned and crashed January 4, 1978.

    posted by @rdweatherly on 7-23-2011 at 9:52 pm

  2. I just turned 28. Reading about all these people just leaves me thinking “Sheesh, what have I accomplished lately?”

    posted by Paul on 7-23-2011 at 10:26 pm

  3. Bradley Nowell, Sublime’s lead singer, was 28 by three months when he died of a heroine overdose. I still miss him.

    posted by song on 7-23-2011 at 10:40 pm

  4. This means only 10 more years of Justin Beiber!

    posted by Craig on 7-23-2011 at 11:06 pm

  5. This is the first thing that I thought of hearing the news about Amy Winehouse —

    I remember turning 28 and feeling a little relieved! 27 seems to be cursed.

    But – seriously – who didn’t see this coming? Amy Winehouse had been living on borrowed time in my opinion.

    posted by Leslie on 7-23-2011 at 11:34 pm

  6. Korey Stringer, 27-year-old Pro Bowl tackle for the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, died of complications of heat stroke caused by pre-season practice in 2001.

    posted by Kerry Zukus on 7-24-2011 at 12:06 am

  7. @Paul
    I know how you feel. I still feel young at 28 until I read what all of these people did. Still, I am also very glad that I have not made the same life choices that Amy Winehouse and many others in that “club” have made.

    posted by Virginia on 7-24-2011 at 2:12 am

  8. I turn 27 tomorrow! I was excited– now I’m just scared!

    posted by Melanie on 7-24-2011 at 7:52 am

  9. Excellent research, Stacy. Fascinating article. The “Paul Mcartney is Dead” rumors were stirring around when he was 27, at the end of 1969. Luckily, they were just rumors.

    posted by Eddie on 7-24-2011 at 10:02 am

  10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27_Club

    posted by Amy on 7-24-2011 at 10:12 am

  11. A fictional member of the dead-at-27 club is Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop. His age is always given as 27, and he may have already been dead at the start of the show (and just in limbo). But if you believe he was alive when Cowboy Bebop starts, then he was actually 28 when he dies at the end of the series. If you believe he dies at the end, because it’s far from clear. It’s a strange show :)

    posted by Pilsner on 7-24-2011 at 10:14 am

  12. Granted most of the below are repeats…

    http://listverse.com/2008/10/14/20-notable-people-who-died-at-27/

    posted by Amy on 7-24-2011 at 10:15 am

  13. Robert Johnson, blues singer, died at 27

    posted by Marty on 7-24-2011 at 4:50 pm

  14. @Marty: Robert Johnson is also the first of many musicians who have been attributed to the story of selling his soul to the devil at the Crossroads. IIRC, Jimi Hendrix is also tied to the Crossroads legend as well.

    posted by Craig on 7-24-2011 at 6:10 pm

  15. American author Stephen Crane died at 28, just barely made the list. (1871–1900)

    posted by Joe on 7-25-2011 at 9:09 am

  16. tragic indeed, but personally I think this “27 Club Curse” is pure bunk…think of all the amazing people who DIDN’T die at age 27!!

    posted by Pete on 7-25-2011 at 1:01 pm

  17. Woo Hoo! I’m 54 so I’ve made it twice.

    posted by Tom on 7-25-2011 at 1:03 pm

  18. If you have the chance watch the Pat Tillman story…Richard Tillman if by some chance your reading this, your eulogy was one of the gutsiest things Ive ever saw man.

    posted by CJ on 7-25-2011 at 2:12 pm

  19. Anyone else notice on number 7, ” . . .his youngest child, born 7 months after his death.” I guess if it is his only it would be his youngest, and his oldest. Unless he was enjoying the benefits a monarch brings you (it’s good to be the king) and had a few other kids born 8 and nine months after his death. Just an observation . . .

    posted by Nathan on 7-25-2011 at 2:30 pm

  20. Famed Romantic poet John Keats died of tuberculosis at 27.

    posted by Caroline on 7-25-2011 at 3:09 pm

  21. @ Nathan- according to Wikipedia, Alfonso XII had two daughters, born in 1880, and 1882. His only son Alphonso XIII was born in 1886. Making him the youngest child.

    posted by Brenna on 7-25-2011 at 3:12 pm

  22. @nathan- well.. his last born child would be his youngest… he may have had children before.. they would be his older children..

    posted by Ashley on 7-25-2011 at 5:22 pm

  23. Spike Spiegel isn’t dead at the beginning of the show, he’s in “limbo” as he never dealt with his past and he has never really moved on. The guy was a bonafide deathseeker before meeting Julia,afterwards he became afraid of dying because of losing her. When he did lose her (not dead but because of Vicious), he was stuck between deathseekermode and Julia aka the will to live.

    When Julia died, his “beast” woke up and the only thing he wanted was avenge Julia and die in the process. The Deathseeker nature won in the end, tragic and also kinda beautiful.

    posted by DeathseekerSpike on 7-27-2011 at 5:29 pm

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