Remembering the most famous young showbiz celebrity deaths over the past century, from Rudolph Valentino to Michael Jackson. Daniel Chan relates the bittersweet life stories of these much-loved actors and singers who will remain forever young in the memory of their legion of fans around the world.

James Dean was only 24. Rudolph Valentino, 31. Bruce Lee, 32. Marilyn Monroe, 36. John Lennon, 40. Elvis Presley, 42. Now, Michael Jackson, 50, has joined this select pantheon of young showbiz superstars immortalised by sudden death.

In this celebrity-obsessed world of ours, famous actors and singers die young all the time — accidents, drugs and murder among the main causes — but only a few can command more than, as Andy Warhol wryly puts it, 15 minutes of your time.

On June 25 when Jackson died of cardiac arrest at his rented mansion in Los Angeles, much of the world stopped to lay flowers and condolence messages at makeshift shrines to honour the passing of this greatest colour-blind cross-cultural entertainer of all time, who was messiah-like in sprinkling pixie dust of joy and hope on an international scale.

And on July 7, with Jackson’s gold-plated casket lying in front of the stage before a full-house audience of 20,000 at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles for a two-hour star-studded memorial service that was surely the most-watched televised event in history, Jackson’s family and friends delivered eloquent eulogies and performed some of his best songs.

Most thought-provoking was Motown Records founder Berry Gordy Jr’s declaration that Jackson was “the greatest entertainer that ever lived” and civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton’s reminder that Jackson broke down, and transcended, many barriers.

And most heart-wrenching was Jackson’s elder brother Jermaine’s stirring rendition of Jackson’s favourite song — Smile, which Charlie Chaplin composed for his 1936 silent movie Modern Times — and, fittingly, towards the end of this unique memorial service that blended sombreness with celebration, Jackson’s 11-year-old daughter Paris tearfully revealing that Jackson was “the best father you could ever imagine… and I love him so very much”.

Jackson is likely to be buried at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in LA, but his final resting place could well be at his beloved 2,700-acre, amusement park-styled Neverland Valley Ranch near Santa Ynez in central California.

The cult of showbiz celebrity is a relatively new phenomenon brought about by the advent of cinema a century ago, and along with recorded music and television, allowed shared experiences on a global scale, fostering the rise of pop culture, with adulation for superstars bordering on mass hysteria.

Valentino, Dean and Lee died when their movie careers were red-hot. Monroe and Lennon were still in their prime. Presley’s career was in the doldrums, and Jackson was on the eve of staging a comeback with 50 sold-out concerts at the O2 World Arena in London from July 13 to next March. Gone too soon (which is also a title from Jackson’s repertoire), these showbiz superstars will remain forever young in our memories, and in the back of our minds, we will wonder what else they could have achieved.

Rudolph Valentino (May 8, 1895 to Aug 23, 1926) was one of the earliest beneficiaries of the silver screen when it was all in black and white, and silent. Italian-born Valentino, handsome and charming, sailed to New York City in December 1913 and worked in odd jobs, got bit parts in movies, and out of desperation, prostituted himself as a gigolo too.

He finally hit paydirt with the lead role as the hero in the 1917 The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and soon established himself as the silent screen’s first sex symbol with roles that garnered him the reputation as The Great Lover, notably, as a dashing Arab prince who ravishes an Englishwoman in 1921’s The Sheik and its 1926 sequel The Son of the Sheik (as the son of the Sheik and the Englishwoman), also as cocky Spaniard bullfighter in Blood and Sand, heroic Indian prince in The Young Rajah, (both in 1922) and swashbuckling Russian military officer in the 1925 The Eagle.

On Aug 16, 1926, Valentino collapsed due to appendicitis and gastric ulcers, and underwent an operation which resulted in a perforated ulcer and blood poisoning.

His death a week later evoked mass hysteria, with several women — and one man — committing suicide. Thousands thronged his three wakes: at two different churches in New York City, and then after his casket’s five-day journey to Los Angeles, at another church in Beverly Hills on Sept 7, and on the same day was finally laid to rest at the Cathedral Mausoleum of Hollywood Memorial Park in Santa Monica Boulevard.

James Dean (Feb 8, 1931 to Sept 30, 1955) remains unique in this select group because his iconic stature was quick to take root despite lead roles in only three films. Driving his 10-day-old Porsche 550 Spyder at a speed of about 55mph, Dean collided with a 1950 Ford Sedan (driven by a student) at the junction of route US 466 and Highway 41 about 45 kilometres from Paso Robles in California. Dean was killed instantly, but the student, and Dean’s passenger, his car mechanic, both survived. His body was sent back to his home state of Indiana where he was buried at Park Cemetery in Fairmont there.

At the time, Dean had just finished filming his final film, Giant which would be released on Nov 24, 1956. But he was newly famous due to his searing performance as an angry son in 1955’s East of Eden which opened on April 10 that year. His second film, in the title role of 1955’s Rebel Without A Cause, was released on Oct 27, 1955, less than a month after his death. Dean became the only person (to this day) to garner two posthumous Oscar nominations, as Best Actor for East of Eden, and then Giant. His intense acting style still sizzles in all three films, and that’s why he’s a legend.

Marilyn Monroe (June 1, 1926 to Aug 4, 1962), Hollywood’s greatest sex symbol, was adept at both comedy and heavy drama, and should have garnered an Oscar nod for Best Actress at least once. When she died at her modest home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, her death was certified as “acute barbiturate poisoning due to ingestion of overdose”, medical jargon for sleeping pill overdose. Most believe it was accidental, but many continue to speculate that it was suicide… or even murder.

Monroe, whose second husband was baseball superstar Joe DiMaggio and third husband was leading playwright Arthur Miller, was buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles, and in the almost half-century since, more books have been written about her than any other showbiz celebrity.

Bruce Lee (Nov 27, 1940 to July 20, 1973) was the first Asian to be given the lead role by a major Hollywood producer as the hero in Warner Bros’ 1973 actioner Enter The Dragon, which opened in the US a month after his death, on Aug 19 that year.

By that time, Lee was an international superstar due to lead roles in three Hong Kong-produced Chinese action flicks, first 1971’s The Big Boss, followed by 1972’s Fist of Fury and 1973’s The Way of the Dragon (the latter was the first Chinese film shot in Europe). By propagating his own Jeet Kune Do martial arts, soon, everybody was kung fu fighting (sorry, couldn’t resist using that hit song title as a pun) and he influenced martial arts choreography in many Hollywood and Bollywood movies.

Tragically, the mighty Lee was felled by an ordinary headache pill which caused the swelling of his brain, and “death by misadventure” was the official cause of his demise. The pill was given to him by Taiwanese actress Betty Ting Pei when he was at her Hong Kong flat to discuss a future film project, giving rise to a whiff of scandal.

Tens of thousands attended Lee’s wake in Hong Kong, and when laid to rest in Lake View Cemetery in Seattle, Washington, his pallbearers included macho Hollywood stars Steve McQueen and James Coburn who had kung fu lessons from Lee. Why Seattle? Lee, born in San Francisco, California, had his higher education in Seattle where he met his American wife, Linda Emery, and they had two offsprings, Brandon and Shannon.

Brandon (Feb 1, 1965 to March 31, 1993), who is buried next to Bruce, died after being shot by a prop gun used by co-star Michael Massee while filming in Wilmington, North Carolina, on the 50th day of a 58-day shoot of The Crow, with Brandon in the title role.

Elvis Presley (Jan 8, 1935 to Aug 16, 1977) was the undisputed King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, in the way that his future “son-in-law” Michael Jackson was hailed as the King of Pop. Besides his many chart-topping hits, Presley also enjoyed a fairly successful career as a movie star, and he acquitted himself well in serious roles in his early years.

Presley was found dead, or close to death, in the toilet of his stately Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee. His death was certified as “cardiac arrest due to adverse use of a cocktail of drugs” — this appears to be the same cause of death of Jackson, though the results of the toxicology tests on Jackson will only be ready by next month or so.

At Presley’s wake in Graceland, which was open to the public for three hours, 20,000 fans were allowed in to pay their respects, while 50,000 others had to be content grieving outside the gates. Presley was initially laid to rest in a public cemetery in Memphis, and an estimated 80,000 people lined the streets to witness the journey of his funeral. However, due to (foiled) grave-robbing attempts, Presley was re-buried at Graceland which has been turned into a profit-making shrine by his ex-wife Priscilla Beaulieu Presley (the mother of Lisa Marie Presley, the first wife of Jackson).

When Presley died, squeaky-clean crooner Pat Boone unexpectedly opined: “Good career move.” Inappropriate comment, but true, as Presley has long since become the most profitable dead celebrity with neverending repackings of his music recordings, and also spawning a global cottage industry in Elvis impersonators — now, expect the same for Jackson.

John Lennon (Oct 9, 1940 to Dec 8, 1980) was the head of The Beatles and soon after the group broke up, he moved to the US where he became a social activist who irked the US government which tried, unsuccessfully, to deport him. The Beatles was the most successful pop group of all time, with 20 No 1 hit singles in the US; next two highest are Mariah Carey (18 No 1s) and Presley (17 No 1s).

Lennon was shot five times in his arm and back at night while returning to his 34-room complex on the seventh floor of the Dakota Building in New York City. He stumbled up the six steps to the building and bled to death in the vestibule. His “assassin”, who used a 38-calibre revolver, was deranged Texas-born loner Mark David Chapman, then aged 25, who had obtained an autograph from Lennon sometime earlier but still felt that Lennon “sold out” from being a social activist. Indeed, the fiery Lennon of rabble-rousing post-Beatle hits like Power To The People and Give Peace A Chance, had mellowed somewhat when he released his Double Fantasy album on Nov 17, 1980, just three weeks before he was shot; songs in the album include the poignant Woman (after reconciling with his second wife Yoko Ono) and cutesy Beautiful Boy (his pean to then five-year-old Sean Lennon, his only child with Yoko). Lennon was cremated and his ashes given to family or a friend.

Lennon’s death robbed music lovers of several more decades of superb songs from this brilliant singer-composer. Candlelight vigils by throngs of Lennon fans instantly sprung up in New York City and his birthplace of Liverpool, England, and this has become an annual tradition for New Yorkers and Liverpudlians on Dec 8 ever since.

Jackson was acutely aware of his exalted status alongside The Fab Four and Elvis the Pelvis. Lisa Marie Presley, who has a daughter and a son from her first marriage to musician Danny Keough, tied the knot with Jackson on May 18, 1994, a dozen days after her divorce from Keough. Jackson first met Lisa when she watched him perform in Las Vegas, and at the time, he was 17, and she, seven.

Lisa (born on Feb 1, 1968, exactly nine months after her father married Priscilla on May 1, 1967) divorced Jackson after exactly 20 months, on Jan 18, 1996. During their union, Jackson paid loving, eternal tribute to Lisa in his music video You Are Not Alone in which she appeared partially unclothed.

Jackson reached out to Sean Lennon (casting him, then aged 13, in his 1988 film Moonwalker) and Paul McCartney (they teamed up on three songs — two for McCartney’s album, with Say, Say, Say the better of the two songs, and the best one, The Girl Is Mine, for Jackson’s album). Their ties soured somewhat after Jackson outbid McCartney for the rights to 251 Beatles songs, about half the repertoire of the Fab Four, and which Jackson still owned at the time of his death.

Michael Jackson (Aug 29, 1958 to June 25, 2009), the seventh of nine surviving children of Joseph and Katherine Jackson, has been entertaining us as a recording artiste since the age of 10 — first as afro-headed lead singer of The Jackson 5 with four of his elder brothers, under the Motown label, and then as face-changing, stringly-haired solo artiste with Sony’s Epic Records starting with his smashing 1979 disco-fied album Off The Wall (which sold 20 million copies, and accorded him his first Grammy triumph).

Jackson, with tremendous vocal range and mastery of many musical genres, has recorded about 200 songs (including those under The Jackson 5), sold 750 million records (only The Beatles and Presley have sold more), won 13 Grammy Awards (The Jackson 5 never won a Grammy) and his No 1 hit singles in the US jumps to 17 if the four chart-toppers attained by The Jackson 5 are counted too.

In detailing the sudden deaths of these showbiz immortals, one can’t help noticing how Jackson’s legacy, and reputation, would have been different had he not lived to nearly 51.

If Jackson had passed away on June 25, 1982 (at 24, like Dean), it would be five months before the release of his Thriller album on Nov 30, 1982. Would Jackson have posthumously swept eight Grammys for Thriller? When he achieved that feat in February 1984, it was unprecedented and the only other person to match that was Santana in 1999.

Also, there would not have been the groundbreaking 14-minute mini-movie Thriller music video, directed by John Landis, which was shot and released in 1983, nor his trend-setting moonwalk which he first performed at the 1983 Motown 25th anniversary concert.

And assuming that Jackson already completed the music videos of Billie Jean and Beat It, would the then newly-launched MTV have chosen Jackson as the first black artiste to have his music videos screened over their channel? Similar to Valentino being one of the first silver screen heartthrobs, Jackson benefited from the free plugs over MTV, such that Thriller has become the bestselling album in history (109 million copies, and counting).

More importantly, it was the clout from Thriller’s huge album sales and Grammy wins that Jackson was acknowledged as the King of Pop, with thanks to his good friend, two-time Oscar-winning actress Elizabeth Taylor, for persistently touting him as such.

Jackson was chameleonic: shy, softspoken and sensitive in person, but when on the stage, he often transformed into a raunchy, crotch-grabbing hellion whose black fedora hat, single white sequined-glove and white socks are as instantly recognisable as his trademarks as Chaplin’s Little Tramp persona with his undersized bowler hat, toothbrush mustache and bamboo cane.

Jackson commanded the respect of his elder peers in the music industry such that, on January 28, 1985, right after that year’s American Music Awards, he and Lionel Richie, who co-wrote We Are The World, were joined by the cream of the crop in American music to collectively record the song, and sales of that Grammy-winning charity song raised US$63 million (RM220 million) for their USA for Africa famine relief for Ethiopia.

On the other hand, dying young has its plus side. If Jackson had passed away on June 25, 1989 (at 31, like Valentino) or June 25, 1990 (at 32, like Lee), there would not have been the 1993 scandal in which Jackson’s character was severely tarnished by allegations that he sexually molested a 13-year-old boy; the boy’s father accepted a US$20 million payoff, and Jackson was never charged.

Then again, it was the 1993 scandal that clearly prompted Jackson to make two damage-control “grown up” decisions: get married (his second wife was his dermatologist’s nurse, Debbie Rowe, and their union lasted almost three years, from Nov 15, 1996 — when she was already pregnant — until Oct 8, 1999), and have children (Rowe bore Jackson a son, Prince Michael Joseph Jackson I, born Feb 13, 1997, and a daughter, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, born April 3, 1998).

Again, if Jackson had passed away on June 25, 1998 (at 40, like Lennon) or June 25, 2000 (at 42, like Presley), he would not have a third child, via a surrogate mother (Prince Michael Jackson II, nicknamed Blanket, born Feb 21, 2002).

But then again, there would be no 2005 court case in which Jackson was accused of molesting a cancer-stricken boy. To the credit of the all-white jury, they acquitted Jackson of all 10 charges, but the 14-week trial emotionally shattered his self-confidence, and trust in others, such that he abandoned Neverland (where he played host to thousands of children, including those terminally ill), never to return there.

During the 1980s and early 1990s when he could do little wrong, despite morphing from black to white, Jackson cemented his King of Pop status with 1987’s Bad (selling 32 million copies, and still the only album ever to chalk up five No 1 hit singles in the US), 1991’s Dangerous (selling 30 million copies, accompanied by his most successful international concert tour) and, after the 1993 scandal, 1995’s HIStory (selling 20 million copies).

Notice how, after the We Are The World charity song, Jackson became ever more socially conscious of being a good samaritan, and this was reflected through his intelligently-crafted message-laden music videos, especially, Man In The Mirror (on poverty and human rights, from Bad album), Heal The World (on children who are victims of war, from Dangerous), Black Or White (joyous celebration of universal cultural diversity, also from Dangerous) and Earth Song (on ecological threats to our planet, from HIStory). His genuine concern for others is again proven in his will, filed in 2002, in which he apportioned 20% of his estate to various charities (with 40% to his mother Katherine, now aged 79, and 40% to his three children).

Finally, and ironically, the 2005 court case that resulted in his not recording a new album since 2001’s Invincible (disappointing, but sold 10 million copies), allowed Jackson, who was not much of a husband, to devote more time to his three children. As a doting father for 12 years, Jackson was a self-anointed latter-day Peter Pan who did grow up.

Daniel Chan, a senior copy editor with The Edge, is a four-time winner of the Entertainment Journalism of the Year category in the Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) Awards

This article appeared in Options, the lifestyle pullout of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 763, July 13-19, 2009