Michael Jackson and 6 Other Celebrities You Definitely Know Died — It Turns Out the Naming Rights! Membership Option Was For Real and Someone Is Now Five Hundred Bucks Poorer Presents Nat

Celebrities! Their lives are sources of endless fascination, not to mention fertile subjects for internet lists like the one you’re currently reading. But the deaths of famous people fascinate us even more. It’s not common, but celebrities occasionally pass away without the public being aware of their tragic deaths.

Sometimes that’s because the half-forgotten celebrity fell from the giddy heights of fame to the sordid depths of anonymity long before their untimely passing. Sometimes the demise of a celebrity does not receive the press or attention it deserves because that news is pushed out of the headlines by more important stories or the demise of even bigger celebrities.

We’ve published dozens of hastily written, widely hate-read, highly clickable listicles here about celebrities who died without you even knowing. To be perfectly honest, we’ve pretty much run out of celebrity deaths you did not know about. So we’ve decided to shift our focus to the flip side: celebrity deaths you DEFINITELY know about if you pay even the tiniest bit of attention to pop culture and celebrity news.

7. Michael Jackson

How successful was “King of Pop” Michael Jackson? In 2009, The Guinness Book of World Records officially deemed the superstar musician nothing less than the “Most Successful Entertainer of All Time” in recognition of achievements that include being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, once as a solo artist and also as part of the Jackson 5, thirteen number one solo singles and an equivalent number and Grammies and, in Thriller, the best-selling album in history by a large margin.

Jackson rocketed to superstardom as the precociously, almost preternaturally gifted child frontman of Motown hit machine the Jackson 5. Jackson was even more successful as a solo artist, scoring a string of classic albums like Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad.

When Jackson shocked and saddened the world by dying of an accidental propofol overdose on June 25th, 2009 it made front page headlines all over the world. It was easily one of the biggest news stories of 2009 so unless you spent the year in a cave or a coma you’re almost assuredly very aware that Jackson is, unfortunately, no longer with us.

“Wacko Jako” famously boogied with the dead in his revolutionary “Thriller” video. Now, tragically, he’s dead dead himself. Jackson is not hanging out at Neverland Ranch anymore. Instead he’s taking a dirt nap for eternity.

6. Princess Diana

Diana, Princess of Wales’ common touch and incredible popularity won her the admiring nickname “The people’s Princess.” Diana’s fairy tale courtship with Prince Charles made international news while their 1981 wedding completely changed the wedding industry forever.

The kind-hearted Princess was famous for her work for AIDS charities and advocacy against landmines but her tumultuous personal life and eventual divorce made her a fixture of the tabloids as well.

Diana was famously full of life. Then she legendarily perished in a car crash in Paris attempting to elude the paparazzi in 1997 and her body became full of death. Di once had to worry about the tabloids and the disapproving attitudes of a hypocritical and judgmental British royal family but these days days all she has to worry about is rigor mortis.

5. Amy Winehouse

It didn’t take Amy Winehouse long to dazzle the world with her voice and her unique retro style. The big-haired British songstress made an auspicious debut with 2003’s witty, sophisticated Frank, with its sardonic lyrics, jazzy vocals and soulful production.

But it was 2006’s Back to Black that catapulted Winehouse to icon status and name her a worldwide superstar. Sadly, Winehouse lived the hard life she sang about, particularly where drugs, alcohol and toxic relationships are concerned, and it took a toll on her health, her career and her mental health.

Winehouse sadly cemented her status as one of the great doomed geniuses of popular music when she joined the notorious 27 club of rock stars who died at that fateful age due to alcohol poisoning on July 23rd, 2011.

Winehouse is legendary for her powerhouse voice and instant-classic tunes like “Rehab”, “Back to Black” and “You Know I’m No Good” but the extremely dead chanteuse may be even more famous for the manner in which she bit the dust than her incredible music. Winehouse, sadly, is too busy being dead to even think about going to rehab.

4. John F. Kennedy

“Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country!” challenged John F. Kennedy, whose dramatic life was defined by public service, whether in the form of military heroism in World War II or serving his country as a politician and leader, first as a Representative, then as a Senator and ultimately as our 35th president.

Kennedy famously brought movie star charisma and Hollywood glamour to the White House, not to mention any number of famous friends and mistresses but like many show-business legends, Kennedy died young and dramatically when he was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

Kennedy’s controversial, must-discussed killing is literally one of the most famous political assassinations in American history so pretty much everyone knows that the old horndog met his maker well over a half century ago and is probably cheating on his wife now with only the finest and sexiest of angels up in heaven.

For all of his famous star-power and eloquence, JFK eventually went the way of all flesh. He’s super dead or he probably wouldn’t be on the American half dollar coin.

3. Betty White

Audiences came to know and love Betty White as saucy Sue Ann Nevins in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, a popular candidate for greatest television comedy of all time. But White was already in her fifties and a seasoned vet when she snagged a role that would win her back to back Emmys in 1975 and 1976 for Best Actress.

White rose to even bigger fame as ditsy Rose Nylund in The Golden Girls. She picked up another Emmy, and seven more nominations for that even more iconic role but astonishingly, this television legend and national treasure received her first Emmy nomination nearly 70 years ago for her role on the early television comedy Life With Elizabeth, which she also produced, making her the first woman to do so.

Yes, White lived a long, happy life but everyone has to perish eventually and for this nonagenarian the end came on, wait, lemme see, I’m not sure I researched this entry that well to be honest.

Crap! It turns out that White is not actually dead but it’s too late to take her off the list now. White is very old, though, so even if she’s technically still with us, she’ll obviously die in the near future, which is terrible, of course, but does justify putting her on this list.

2. James Dean

Nobody epitomized the concept of living fast and dying young more purely than James Dean. The deathless exemplar of adolescent angst and youthful rebellion became not just a movie star but a legend for the ages on the basis of a mere three films.

Dean’s signature masterpiece is undoubtedly Rebel Without a Cause, where he played the quintessential tortured teen but Nicolas Ray’s legendary exploration of adolescent alienation is actually the only film Dean starred in that did not earn him an Academy Award nomination.

Dean was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his feature film debut in 1955’s East of Eden and became the first actor to be nominated posthumously for an Oscar when he picked up another Best Actor nod for 1956’s Giant.

Alas, all the fame and awards in the world couldn’t prevent Dean from meeting the Grim Reaper on September 30th, 1955 when he died in a car accident. Unlike Betty White, we are one hundred percent certain that Dean is dead.

Indeed, Dean is probably as known for the very dramatic fashion in which he kicked the bucket as his extraordinary but all too brief life and career.

1. Abraham Lincoln

Leaders do not come greater or more distinguished than Abraham Lincoln. Our sixteenth president’s face is carved into Mount Rushmore and his stoic visage adorns the five dollar bill for a very good reason: Lincoln did nothing short of save our great nation in a time of great unrest and uncertainty through his stalwart leadership during the Civil War. There is similarly a good reason he is known as “the Great Emancipator.” The orator and statesman ended the odious institution of slavery and was cut down by a Confederate sympathizer named John Wilkes Booth on April 15th, 1865, a tragedy commemorated in any number of hilarious jokes.

The tall and lanky president was famously 6 feet and a whole lot of change during his lifetime but since 1865 he’s sadly been six feet under and pushing up daisies.

Even the greatest of men eventually become worm food. Lincoln, sadly, is no exception.

If you’re aware of Lincoln’s life but somehow don’t know that a man born in 1809 is no longer with us then you’re pretty dense but the fact that you even clicked on this article in the first place, frankly, does not reflect terribly well on your intelligence or your judgment.

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