On December 23, 2016 actress Debbie Reynolds had just set up a Christmas table as she was expecting her daughter, Carrie Fisher, who at that point was on a plane on her way to Reynolds’ home. 60-year-old Carrie suffered a medical emergency on the plane and stopped breathing. A passenger performed CPR on the beloved Star Wars actress and she was rushed to hospital upon landing. She died four days later. 84-year-old Debbie was devastated after the loss of her daughter and died one day after Fisher.
On December 20, 2016, Reynolds had told a close friend that she’d had a ‘vision’ and that something bad was going to happen to her daughter. In the vision she saw a dark cloud which moved over and settled on the side of the bed her daughter usually sat on when she visited. She also told her caretaker that “Carrie is not coming home.”
Several other celebrities have had premonitions of their own deaths or of the death of a celebrity friend. On this list are just a few of the eerie predictions that preceded shocking deaths.
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10 “I will never live long enough for you to write a story about me.”
Hank Williams is widely considered to be one of the first country music superstars. He conquered the music world with hit songs including “Your Cheatin’ Heart”, “Hey, Good Lookin’”, and “I Saw The Light.”
Williams’ personal life was one of strife however. He suffered from a spinal condition, spina bifida, and started abusing drugs and alcohol as an adult to try and relieve his constant back pain.
During a series of interviews with H.B. Teeter, Williams once said “I will never live long enough for you to write a story about me.” These chilling words rang true when the singer was found dead in the back of his Cadillac on 2 January 1953, while he was being driven to a scheduled performance in Canton, Ohio. He was 29 years old.
9 “I’m gonna go see Jesus.”
Whitney Houston became one of the first African American models to appear on the cover of Seventeen magazine, when she was a teenager. At age 19, she was discovered by Clive Davis after which her career as a pop, R&B and soul music icon skyrocketed. Houston became the only artist to have seven consecutive number one hits on the US Billboard chart and soon made her acting debut in the film, The Bodyguard.
Unfortunately the bright shine of her stardom was eventually overshadowed by her excessive drug use and a tumultuous marriage to Bobby Brown. At the start of 2012, Houston returned to her gospel roots, singing hymns and having deep conversations about Jesus, Christianity and the afterlife. She sang “Yes Jesus Loves Me” at a Hollywood nightclub on February 9, 2012, and told a friend afterwards, “I’m gonna go see Jesus… I want to see Jesus.” Two days later, on the morning of the 2012 Grammy Awards ceremony, Houston quoted Matthew 3:13 to 17 which speaks of the baptism of Jesus.
While a Grammy party was being held by Clive Davis that night, Houston was found dead in a bathtub in her Beverly Hilton hotel room. Her death was confirmed to have been an accidental drowning with contributing factors being heart disease and cocaine use.
8 “Kobe is going to end up dying in a helicopter crash.”
Kobe Bryant was a phenomenal basketball player and became one of the best NBA players of all time. He was also adept at creating and writing animated films and fantasy books and dearly loved his family. In 2016, following his retirement, Bryant was honored with his own day, namely “Kobe Bryant Day” or “Mamba Day” to commemorate his impact on the game of basketball.
On January 26, 2020 the unthinkable happened. Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven other people died after the helicopter they were flying in crashed in Calabasas, California. They had been on their way to watch a basketball game at the Mamba Sports Academy.
In the days after Bryant and his daughter’s death, several rumors started making the rounds including that Bryant’s death had been predicted by an animated kids’ show. The episode of “Legends of Chamberlain Heights” was quickly pulled from the Comedy Central website.
Also making the rounds was a tweet by Twitter user @dotNoso who posted a single line on the popular social media platform on November 13, 2012: “Kobe is going to end up dying in a helicopter crash.”
7 “Do you think they’ll do that to me?”
As soon as it was announced on August 31, 1997 that Diana, Princess of Wales, had died after a car crash in Paris, the rumors and conspiracies began to fly. There was talk of the royal family planning the crash because they didn’t approve of Diana’s boyfriend, Dodi Fayed. Other rumors said that Diana had been pregnant with his baby and that the royal family would never have allowed her to marry Fayed or have the baby. Some still believe Diana’s bodyguard was in on the plan to cause the car crash, while others are convinced that the paparazzi created an unsafe scenario which would lead to the accident.
However, it does seem that Diana herself feared for her own life in one way or another. After her friend Gianni Versace’s murder in 1997, she became introspective and once asked Fayed’s bodyguard, “Do you think they’ll do that to me?” It has also been claimed by Diana’s fashion designer friend, Roberto Devorik, that she had feared she would be murdered and that the murder would be covered up, saying: “They will do it when I am in a small plane, in a car when I am driving, or in a helicopter.”
6 He’s going to join the 27 Club.
Tim Bergling, known as Avicii, was a hugely popular Swedish DJ. He was 16 when he began using electronic music forums to create a hype around his remixes and this saw him getting his first record deal. Between 2011 and 2015 he released many successful singles including “Wake Me Up”, “Hey Brother”, The Nights”, and “Waiting for Love.”
By 2016 Bergling suffered from burn out after excessive drinking and a hectic touring schedule left its mark on him. He retired from touring that year, citing stress and it was also revealed that he was struggling with poor mental health. Fellow DJ Laidback Luke, who was friends with Bergling, said in 2015 that he had had a vision of the star joining the group of famous musicians who all died at the age of 27. It was around the same time that Bergling had made the decision to stop touring.
Luke’s vision was only off by a few months. Tim Bergling committed suicide on April 20, 2018 at the age of 28.
5 “Was this some kind of omen?”
Having risen to fame as a member of the band Wham! and later embarking on a successful solo career, George Michael was eventually named one of the Greatest Hot 100 Artists of All Time. He was also one of the best-selling singers of all time, winning a host of music awards. Michael came out in 1998 and before his personal life and legal issues made headlines during the early 2000s, he was an active campaigner for LGBT rights. He also performed at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992 will all the proceeds going to AIDS research.
Michael struggled with drug abuse and was addicted to sleeping pills. At one point it was reported that he battled a crack cocaine and heroin addiction and smoked around 25 spliffs every day. George Michael died in bed on December 25, 2016 and most people, including family members, suspected that drugs were to blame. The coroner eventually attributed his death to myocarditis and fatty liver disease.
Two days prior to Michael’s death record producer, Nile Rodgers, was on his way to the singer’s home to meet with him about a new album. He was about to turn into the road where Michael stayed when a funeral procession cut him off. He took a photo of the scene and when Michael died, he remembered this and believed it to have been an omen. After watching a documentary on Michael’s life the following year, he posted the image on Twitter alongside a message: “This (is) a photo I snapped whilst waiting to turn on the street to go to @GeorgeMichael house on Dec 23 2016. Was this some kind of omen? #tears.”
4 “I don’t want to die.”
Amy Winehouse will forever be known for great songs like “Back to Black”, “Rehab”, and “Valerie”. In 2008 she won five Grammy awards and her album Back to Black became one of the best-selling albums in UK history. Before the success of this album, she went through a period of heavy drinking, excessive drug use and by 2007 she was hospitalized for an overdose of a variety of drugs. It was revealed that the singer suffered from depression and eating disorders and that she was engaging in self-harm. She also had run-ins with the law because of violent behaviour.
Winehouse’s drug habit caused several other health problems, including an irregular heartbeat. As her drug addiction worsened, Winehouse told friends and family that she knew she would join the 27 Club. On July 22, 2011 Winehouse’s GP visited her at home and she admitted to the doctor that she had started drinking again after a period of abstinence. She also told Dr. Christina Romete, “I don’t want to die.”
The following day, Amy Winehouse was found dead at her home in Camden, north London. She was 27 years old.
3 I’m going to die young, just like my dad.
During the early nineties, celebrities weren’t much different from today’s famous people. They partied whenever they got the chance and they partied hard. It was during these years that a young Brad Pitt and Brandon Lee would often be at the same party and indulge in strange conversations after having one too many.
One morning, Pitt and Lee ended up at Lee’s house after a night of partying and Lee said something to Pitt that would continue to haunt the famous actor years later. Lee told Pitt that he believed he would die young, just like his famous father Bruce Lee had. Pitt didn’t think much of it at the time. Life went on and Brandon Lee got the lead role in The Crow the following year. During filming a defective blank went off, killing Lee instantly. He was 28 years old, 4 years younger than Bruce Lee who died at the age of 32 in 1973.
2 “It is dark in my favorite dream.”
In July 2001, 22-year-old R&B singer Aaliyah had a recurring dream about being scared, someone following her and then lifting off from the ground, swimming in the air and feeling weightless. She told a German newspaper about the dream in an interview a month before she was due to fly to the Bahamas to shoot a music video.
After a great four days in the Bahamas in August 2001, Aaliyah boarded a twin-engine Cessna plane along with a number of other colleagues. The plane was hardly airborne when it crashed near the runway and caught fire. Aaliyah and eight others died. It was revealed afterwards that the plane had been overloaded and that the pilot, who wasn’t certified to fly the aircraft, had traces of alcohol and cocaine in his blood.
Aaliyah’s dream was later thought to have been a foreshadowing of the tragedy and her own fate, especially since it was known that she had a fear of small planes. In the years after her untimely death, Aaliyah’s music was posthumously released and led to 32 million album sales worldwide.
1 “If you get in that car, you will be found dead in it by this time next week.”
James Dean was a handsome young actor who starred in the famous film, Rebel Without a Cause, in 1955. His first television appearance came in the form of a Pepsi Cola commercial which inspired him to quit college and become a full-time actor. He went on to play several roles in television shows before landing his infamous role as Jim Stark. In 1954, Dean became interested in motorsport and competed in his first professional event just before filming commenced on Rebel Without a Cause.
After finishing the filming of his scenes for another movie, Giant, Dean took up racing again after being barred by Warner Brothers from doing so during filming. He traded in his Speedster for a 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder and entered the Salinas Road Race event that was due to take place on 1 and 2 October, 1955. While driving the Porsche to Salinas, Dean was involved in an accident with another car. He sustained fatal injuries including a broken neck and was pronounced dead on arrival after being taken to a nearby hospital.
James Dean and actor, Alec Guinness, had a chance encounter at a Los Angeles restaurant in September 1955. Dean showed Guinness his Porsche Spyder and Guinness immediately had a terrible feeling. He told Dean: “Please, never get in it. It is now ten o’clock, Friday the 23rd of September, 1955. If you get in that car, you will be found dead in it by this time next week.”
Dean died in the car crash a week later on September 30, 1955.
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