Celebrities Who Eerily Predicted Their Own Deaths

Have you ever felt like death was on your doorstep? We've all heard strange stories about someone who sensed the grim reaper was coming for them. Thankfully, those feelings often pass, but when the worst does occur, we're left to wonder if the portending was clairvoyance or coincidence? Whatever it is, fatalistic foreshadowing wields a strange power. It captivates our imaginations and open a world of possibilities. When this type of thing happens with celebrities, the results are seductive. Many stars already have a mythic air about them, so when they make proclamations, innuendos, or even jokes about their deaths — and then death follows through — those stories become otherworldly.

Some stars felt haunted by their mortality. Others laughed it off. The infamous predictions on this list took played out in dreams, song lyrics, movies, or intimate conversations. The following celebrities reportedly talked about their own deaths, providing what appears to be uncanny specifics about their eventual demise. Each story is different in the details but identical in the results. Here are the celebs who seemed to eerily predict their own deaths.

Rapper and singer Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes (center), best known as a member of TLC, was involved in an eerie and tragic car accident just weeks before the car accident that claimed her life in Honduras. In the earlier incident, in which she was a passenger, a little boy named Bayron Isaul Fuentes Lopez was struck and killed while running across the street. The aftermath of that horrible event was captured in the documentary, The Last Days of Left Eye. In the film, the superstar shows the camera a pair of the boy's shoes. "His last name was Lopez," she says, sadly. "Isn't that something?" According to the makers of the documentary, the similarity in the last names was important to Lopes because she believed "the spirit that is haunting her killed the child by mistake."

Just a few weeks later, on April 25, 2002, Lopes, 30, reportedly lost control of the vehicle she was driving and crashed, reported MTV. She was the only one of the vehicle's eight occupants to die in the wreck.

Iconic rapper Tupac spoke about his eventual death in different songs in different ways. In the posthumously released video for "I Ain't Mad at Cha," his character is shot and killed by a masked man. In January 1995, two months after surviving being shot five times in a robbery, Shakur told a Vibe reporter (via 2PacLegacy.net), "This is my last interview. If I get killed, I want people to get every drop. I want them to have the real story." 

That wasn't his final interview, but that hasn't stopped fans from obsessing about Tupac's life and death and the possibility that some divine force was behind his demise. Among all the quasi-predictions bandied about, one of the most telling omens comes from an unlikely source: Tupac's co-star, Tim Roth, on the set of Gridlock'd. Roth told Rolling Stone he was concerned with how many guns the rapper carried and the drama that followed him around. When Roth asked Tupac about it, the rapper reportedly told him, "I think there's a bullet out there with my name on it, man." 

The 25-year-old rapper was shot and killed Sept. 7, 1996, four months before the film's release.

When the small Cessna carrying 22-year-old R&B singer Aaliyah (Aaliyah Haughton) crashed on Aug. 25, 2001, shortly after takeoff from the Bahamas, authorities searched for clues as to what went wrong. The investigation focused on engine failure and overloading as possible causes, but depending on one's views on bad omens, perhaps fate played a role in the singer's tragic death.

Approximately one month before the fatal crash, Aaliyah spoke to the German newspaper Die Zeit (via E! News) about a recurring dream. "It is dark in my favorite dream," she said. "Someone is following me. I don't know why. I'm scared. Then suddenly I lift off. Far away. How do I feel? As if I am swimming in the air. Free. Weightless. Nobody can reach me. Nobody can touch me. It's a wonderful feeling." For those interested in portents, Aaliyah's dream offers multiple interpretations. The ominous flying parallel may seem like a dark prediction, particularly considering Aaliyah was reportedly afraid of small planes, but the peaceful, freeing feelings she expressed may also provide some comfort for her grieving friends and family.

Lady Diana Spencer became English royalty as the first wife of Prince Charles and mother to Princes William and Harry. In the '80s, her tireless charity work found her advocating for the homeless, victims of landmines, and people suffering from stigmatized epidemics. The princess would physically comfort those afflicted with HIV/AIDS at a time when many scientists still believed the disease could be contracted through touch. After her highly-publicized divorce from Prince Charles in 1996, Diana continued her royal duties and charity work until the fateful night of Aug. 31, 1997, when the 36-year-old "People's Princess," her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, and a driver were killed in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris.

Here's the creepy part: in a letter sent ten months before her death to her former butler, Paul Burrell, Diana alleged someone was trying to kill her. According to the Daily Mail, the princess said someone was "planning 'an accident' in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for Charles to marry" someone else. We may never know if this tragedy was tainted by paranoia or conspiracy, but the fact of the matter is, Princess Diana has been immortalized as one of history's most beloved world leaders.

The Doors frontman Jim Morrison was a poet who became a rock star, and like many of his kind, he developed a dependence on drugs and alcohol. His mysterious death in his Paris apartment on July 3, 1971, made him a member of the infamous "27 Club," a collective term for celebrities who have died at age 27. Morrison's death was preceded by rock icons Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Losing his musical peers deeply disturbed Morrison. Friends hanging out with him at a Los Angeles bar in October 1970 recalled hearing him mutter these chilling words: "You're drinking with number three. That's right. Number three."

Several conspiracy theories surrounding The Beatles have circulated for decades, but one of the most famous is that John Lennon accurately predicted his death. The best example of Lennon's foresight may have surfaced during a 1965 interview (via Newsweek). In it, Lennon spoke about the band's future, saying, "We'll either go in a plane crash or we'll be popped off by some loony." But that isn't the only evidence that Lennon may have tapped into his fate line.

In what may be his final interview, Lennon stated that he wasn't interested in being some "dead hero." He also laughed off a letter from a fan claiming to have received information from a spirit that there would be an assassination attempt on his life. While the date quoted was wrong, the prediction would prove correct. The 40-year-old musician was murdered in New York on Dec. 8, 1980, by Mark David Chapman, a "deranged" man who called the voices in his head "the little people." 

Not only did Mikey Welsh predict his own death, he predicted the exact day. The bassist joined Weezer in 1998, but abruptly left the band in 2001 after he suffered a mental breakdown due to drug use and undiagnosed bipolar disorder. Following a suicide attempt, Welsh spent time in a psychiatric hospital. He emerged and became a painter, with his work featured in gallery exhibitions, on Burton snowboards, and on album covers. Welsh seemed to be experiencing a new lease on life when he posted this eerie tweet: "dreamt i died in chicago next weekend (heart attack in my sleep). need to write my will today." His next tweet: "correction – the weekend after next."

Two weeks later, on Oct. 8, 2011, Welsh, 40, was found dead in a Chicago hotel room from a suspected drug overdose.

"Pistol" Pete Maravich graduated from Louisiana State University in 1970, yet he still remains the NCAA Division 1 all-time leading scorer with 3,667 career points and an average of 44.2 points a game. To put those gaudy statistics in perspective, Maravich was prohibited from playing varsity as a freshman due to NCAA rules at the time, and the three-point line wasn't used in college until 1987. Known for his almost preternatural ball-handling ability and assassin-like shooting, Maravich is widely considered the greatest college basketball player to ever lace up. Maravich moved on to the NBA, and in 1974, at the age of 26, he had this to say in an interview with the Beaver County Times (via the Wilmington Morning Star): "I don't want to play 10 years in the NBA and then die of a heart attack at the age of 40."

Sidelined by injuries, Maravich retired in 1980 after 10 years in the pros. In 1988, during a pickup game, Maravich collapsed and died of a heart attack caused by an undiagnosed congenital heart defect, reported the Los Angeles Times. Friends said his last words, spoken just before he fell, were, "I feel great." Maravich was 40 years old.

Soon after the shooting death of controversial rapper XXXTentacion (Jahseh Onfroy) on June 18, 2018, a strangely prophetic Instagram Live video went viral. In the video, posted months earlier, XXXTentacion addresses his own death, seemingly suggesting that an untimely demise was a real possibility. The 19-year-old rapper says if he becomes "a sacrifice," and/or "If worse thing comes to worst, and I f***ing die or some s**t and I'm not able to see out my dreams, I at least want to know that the kids perceived my message and were able to make something of themselves and able to take my message and use it and turn it into something positive and to at least have a good life."

Despite XXXTentacion allegedly engaging in a lifestyle of violence and crime, the young rapper clearly channeled his prophetic sense of foreboding into a desire to make a difference in the lives of others. 

For the friends and family of Dolores O'Riordan, lead singer of The Cranberries, her death from accidental drowning was devastating, particularly considering how far she'd come in the years leading up to that fateful night. O'Riordan's friend, Barry Egan, told the Belfast Telegraph that O'Riordan had long battled depression and previously attempted to take her own life but had since changed her tune and found some peace. 

As part of her healing process, Egan said the singer would speak to herself in the mirror. When asked what she'd say to her reflection, O'Riordan responded: "That it is not your fault. And I love you. Be nice to yourself. And slow down. Because I am not going to live that long. I'm 43. If I see 50, I'll be happy. I mean that." O'Riordan died Jan. 15, 2018, at age 46. 

In what might be the most accurate of all celebrity death predictions, Oliver Reed's appearance on the somewhat obscure show, Without Walls – The Obituary Show in 1993, would become one of the eeriest of all episodes. For those who haven't seen the show, participants give themselves a fictional/hypothetical death and then discuss their lives in retrospect. Guests would join the show and speak of the hypothetically deceased as well. For Reed's make-believe death, he said, "I died in a bar of a heart attack full of laughter. We were having a cabbage competition. I was very confident that for once I was going to win this vegetable competition. And somebody made a bet with me that was so lewd that I took it on and he shook my hand. And I laughed so much I was sick and died."

Years later, Reed was in Malta shooting the blockbuster movie Gladiator when he fell ill and died at a place called "The Pub" on May 2, 1999. The 61-year-old actor was reportedly having a really good time with his wife and some friends. Air Malta reports, "On his last night, Oliver Reed downed over eight pints of lager, twelve double rums and half a bottle of whiskey, won an arm-wrestling content against many members of the British Royal Navy crew, HMS Cumberland, and insisted on paying for the entire round."

When The Notorious B.I.G's debut album, Ready To Die, dropped in September 1994, it cemented Biggie (real name Christopher George Latore Wallace) as one of the greatest rappers of all time. A critical and commercial success, Ready To Die became one of the best-selling rap albums of all time. Fans considered the record a seminal work of art chronicling a raw and violent journey that audiences across generations could relate to. But one track, in particular, seemed intensely personal and foreboding. In "Suicidal Thoughts," Biggie raps, "I swear to God I feel like death is f—ing calling me."

That prediction came true on March 9, 1997, when the 24-year-old rapper was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. Biggie Smalls died at the hospital — two weeks before the release of his sophomore album, Life After Death. How's that for prophetic? If you don't know, now you know...

When Bob Fosse co-wrote, directed, and choreographed All That Jazz, it was clear that the chain-smoking, work-obsessed director and choreographer at the heart of the film, a guy by the name of Joe Gideon, was a Fosse surrogate. A reviewer for The New York Times described the semi-autobiographical film like this: "It's a little bit as if Mr. Fosse had invited us to attend his funeral." 

In real life, Fosse escaped death on numerous occasions. He survived a major heart attack when rehearsing for a Broadway performance of Chicago in 1974, and he endured two more heart scares the following year. Perhaps those close calls inspired him to create All That Jazz. Was he issuing a warning of sorts; coming to grips with his potential demise? 

Years later, life imitated art and Gideon's fate in the film became his own. On Sept. 23, 1987, the night a revival of his musical Sweet Charity opened at the National Theatre, Fosse, 60, suffered a fatal heart attack while walking to the theater from his hotel.

Beautiful and inspiring art is often born out of heartache and pain, and when you listen to Amy Winehouse, you can almost feel her invisible scars. The singer's well-documented struggles with alcohol and drugs nearly overshadowed her music when she was alive, but that all changed on July 23, 2011, when Winehouse was found dead in her London home from alcohol poisoning. Winehouse had reportedly consumed five times the legal limit, rendering her comatose.

Winehouse was supposedly well aware of the so-called "27 Club" of musicians, and she became a member ten months after her 27th birthday. A source told the Mirror, "It was almost as if she wanted to die young, to leave a legacy, and to be remembered for her music and her voice." The singer's stylist and long-time friend, Alex Foden, added, "Amy always told me she thought she'd become a member of the 27 Club. It is heart-breaking that she appears to have gone through with her plans. Amy knew her limits — I truly believe she knew this final binge might kill her."

Jimi Hendrix's death in 1970, at age 27, came far too early for a man whose legendary status was in its infancy, but his his fame continued to grow even after his passing. Several new albums from the rocker were released posthumously, and one song, in particular, captured the imaginations of many fans: "Ballad of Jimi." When R&B singer Curtis Knight released the song in 1970, shortly after Hendrix's death, fans noticed some eerie lyrics. In the tune, a guitarist named Jimi foresees his own death, and the song ends with Knight singing, "Five years, this he said. He's not gone, he's just dead." In Knight's Jimi biography, he claims those lyrics were inspired by a dream he had in which Hendrix died. When he told Hendrix about the dark dream, the rocker allegedly told Knight, "It is now 1965, and I will be dead in five years." Knight claims the ballad was written and recorded on Sept. 18, 1965 — five years to the day before Hendrix's passing. 

This spooky story is not without conflicting evidence and inconsistencies. For one, another cut of the song without those infamous lyrics was reportedly released before Hendrix died. "When the track resurfaced in October 1970, one month after Jimi's death, the lyrics had remarkably changed with Knight reminiscing about his spiritual relationship with Jimi," notes the book Jimi Hendrix – From the Benjamin Franklin Studios, casting a long shadow of doubt on this particular prediction. Was this really a case of fatal foreshadowing? You decide.