12 People Who Died on Their Birthdays

It's called The Birthday Effect: a statistical phenomenon that seems to indicate that the likelihood of one's death increases on or around his or her birthday. While one Swiss study in 2012 put your chances of leaving this world on the same day you entered it as 14 percent higher, there aren't a lot of examples of famous people who have managed to pull it off—with a few exceptions.

1. INGRID BERGMAN

Oscar-winning Casablanca star Ingrid Bergman was born on August 29, 1915, in Stockholm, Sweden. She died 67 years later in 1982 in London after battling breast cancer (though the official cause of death was lymphoma complications that came after a breast cancer operation).

2. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

William Shakespeare couldn't have written a more poetic circle of life for himself: While the exact date of his birth has long been a source of debate, the general consensus is that he was born on April 23, 1564 and died on that same date in 1616, at the age of 52. Though the exact cause of his death is unknown—he was said to be in high spirits and "perfect health" just weeks before his passing—an entry in the diary of John Ward, a vicar in the town where Shakespeare was both born and died, claimed that, "Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and it seems drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted."

3. WALTER DIEMER

Walter Diemer, the inventor of bubble gum, went "pop!" on his 93rd birthday on January 8, 1998.

4. BETTY FRIEDAN

Betty Friedan, author of the groundbreaking The Feminine Mystique, was born on February 4, 1921, and died on the same day in 2006. She died of congestive heart failure at her home in Washington, D.C. on her 85th birthday.

5. GEORGE "MACHINE GUN" KELLY

For a lifelong gangster and bootlegger, George "Machine Gun" Kelly got off pretty easy when he died of a heart attack at 59 years old, dying on his birthday, July 17, in 1954. Kelly was incarcerated at Leavenworth at the time.

6. LEVI P. MORTON

Levi P. Morton, Benjamin Harrison's vice president, died of pneumonia on his 96th birthday on May 16, 1920—outliving his former boss by nearly 20 years.

7. JOHNNY LONGDEN

Johnny Longden—a Triple Crown-winning jockey who took home wins at the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes while riding Count Fleet in 1943—was born on and died on Valentine's Day (in 1907 and 2003, respectively).

8. SIDNEY BECHET

Though he was largely overshadowed by Louis Armstrong, jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer Sidney Bechet actually found his way into the recording studio a few months ahead of Armstrong. But his alleged temper proved detrimental to his career, and it wasn't until the late 1940s that Bechet's accomplishments were fully recognized. Fortunately, he lived long enough to see it happen; he passed away in Garches, France on May 14, 1959, his 62nd birthday.

9. ELLA BAKER

Though she largely stayed behind the scenes, Ella Baker was a key activist who worked alongside some of the most well-known civil rights leaders of the 20th century, including Martin Luther King, Jr., W. E. B. Du Bois, and Thurgood Marshall. She was born in Virginia on December 13, 1903 and passed away on the same day 83 years later, in 1986.

10. KAMEHAMEHA V, KING OF HAWAII

Kamehameha V, King of Hawaii, died on his 42nd birthday on December 11, 1872.

11. ALLEN DRURY

Novelist Allen Drury—who won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1959 political novel Advise and Consent, based partially on the true-life story of the scandal and suicide of Senator Lester Hunt—died on his 80th birthday on September 2, 1998.

12. SWEDE RISBERG

Swede Risberg, whose name became synonymous with the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, died on October 13, 1975, his 81st birthday.