List of Celebrity Prescription Drug Deaths

From time to time, a tragedy among America’s most famous celebrities shines a brief spotlight on an otherwise unreported problem. The unfortunate death of singer Whitney Houston provides one of those opportunities. While we don’t know the exact cause of death just yet, media outlets like CNN and Nancy Grace are reporting that a variety of prescription drugs were found at the scene.

America’s most famous people have been dying from prescription drugs for decades. Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe just to name two. But just as the epidemic has exploded on main street, so too has it taken its toll among the nation’s most celebrated people. Here is just a brief list, from the past and the present, and the prescription drugs that killed them.

Marilyn Monroe (1962) – Pentobarbital, chloral hydrate

Dorothy Dandridge (1965) – Imipramine/Tofranil

Jimi Hendrix (1970) – Secobarbital/Seconal

Bruce Lee (1973) – Equagesic

Freddie Prinze (1977) – Methaqualone/Quaaludes

Elvis Presley (1977) – 14 drugs, including codeine, methaqualone/Quaaludes

Keith Moon (The Who) (1978) – Clomethiazole/Heminevrin

Abbie Hoffman (1989) – Phenobarbital

Steve Clark (Def Leppard) (1991) – Unspecified antidepressant and painkiller

Margaux Hemingway (1996) – Phenobarbital

Rob Pilatus (Milli Vanilli) (1998) – methadone

Dana Plato (1999) – Carisoprodol/Soma, Vicodin

Ol’ Dirty Bastard (Wu-Tang Clan) (2004) – Tramadol

Chris Penn (2006) – Promethazine, codeine

Gerald Levert (2006) – 6 drugs including Vicodin, Percocet, Dextropropoxyphene/Darvocet

Anna Nicole Smith (2007) – 11 drugs including chloral hydrate, clonazepam/Klonopin, lorazepam/Ativan, oxazepam/Serax, diazepam/Valium

Pimp C (Underground Kingz) (2007) – Promethazine, codeine

Heath Ledger (2008) – 6 drugs including oxycodone, hydrocodone, temazepam, diazepam/Valium, alprazolam/Xanax and doxylamine

Michael Jackson (2009) – propofol, benzodiazepine

Brittany Murphy (2009) – multiple drugs including hydrocodone, L-methamphetamine, chlorpheniramine

Leslie Carter (Nick/Aaron) (2012) – pending toxicology results

Whitney Houston (2012) – pending toxicology results

While the above losses are tragic and saddening, let’s not forget the 14,800 Americans that die each year from the effects of prescription drugs. And that number, provided by the CDC, only includes the deaths attributed to painkillers. Unfortunately, with the massive profits drug companies make by flooding the market with addictive and deadly drugs, along with the campaign contributions big pharmaceutical giants routinely donate to our nation’s politicians, it seems things will only get worse before they get better.


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