An aneurysm is an abnormal ballooning of a part of a blood vessel that can develop in various parts of your body. When an aneurysm occurs within your brain, as it does for an estimated three to six percent of the adult population of the United States, and it subsequently ruptures due to pressure, the results can be fatal. Luckily, only one percent of those with a brain aneurysm experience such a predicament, but for those that do, death is a very real possibility. Likewise, when an aneurysm in your the major blood vessel that supplies blood to the body, the aorta, ruptures and bleeds out, death can quickly follow. Fifteen thousand Americans a year die from aortic aneurysms. The following celebrities died due to ruptured aneurysms- a Major League pitcher that won well over two hundred games, an actor well known for his television roles in two series, a man who was called the “Clown Prince of Baseball”, the man who played Marlo Thomas’s love interest in “That Girl”, the actor that portrayed “Patton” among other memorable parts, and a singer who gave us the smash hit “Gloria.
Joe Niekro, brother of Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro, had a very fine career of his own in baseball, winning 221 games in his 22 year career. Niekro won twenty games in a season twice, in back to back years with the Astros, but he is perhaps best known for comically trying to hide a nail file that the umpires were looking for when they went to the mound to actually search him after he was accused of scuffing up the baseball to make it dip out of the strike zone in a 1987 contest. Niekro suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm on October 26th, 2006 in Plant City, Florida, dying the next day after being transferred to a Tampa hospital, at the age of 61.
Guy Williams starred in the Walt Disney television series “Zorro” in the late 1950s and then came up big again playing the father of the Robinson family in the sci-fi hit “Lost in Space” a few years later. Williams was always interested in fencing, and this came in handy when he was considered for the Zorro role, helping him land the part. The show was immensely popular, as was “Lost in Space” in the mid 1960s. Williams retired to Argentina, where he was thought of as something of a legend from his “Zorro” days. On April 30th, 1989, the 65 year old Williams died of a brain aneurysm; his body was found in his apartment a week later by the authorities.
Max Patkin was not much of a pitcher, but he became known to baseball fans as the sport’s “Clown Prince.” While in the Navy in 1944, Patkin allowed a home run to Joe DiMaggio in a Hawaii game between service teams, and then threw down his glove and followed the Yankee Clipper around the bases. His antics drew such laughter that Patkin was able to make a career of being a baseball buffoon so to speak, coaching the bases while acting silly. He had a face that some described as a rubber mask and was double jointed, and he wore a baggy uniform with a question mark on the back instead of a number. Baseball team owner and entrepreneur Bill Veeck employed Patkin for years, sometimes coaching the bases and entertaining the fans, and Patkin estimated he performed over 4,500 times around the country, never missing an appearance between 1944 and 1993. Patkin suffered his brain aneurysm the day before Halloween in 1999 in Paoli, Pennsylvania, passing away at 79 years of age.
Ted Bessell will forever be remembered as Donald Hollinger, Ann Marie’s boyfriend on “That Girl.” Bessell was often at odds with Ann’s father on the show , played by actor Lew Parker, and the sit-com ran from 1966 until 1971. Bessell would later be featured in other series, but none of them ever made it. He felt typecast by his “That Girl” part, but he did become an Emmy winning producer in 1989 for his work on “The Tracy Ullman Show”. Bessell collapsed on October 6th, 1996 while in Los Angeles of an aortic aneurysm and was gone at 61.
George C. Scott made his motion picture debut in the 1959 Western “The Hanging Tree.” He went on to become one of the most revered actors of his time, winning an Academy Award, which he famously refused to accept, for “Patton” in 1970. Scott also starred in movies like 1961s “The Hustler” with Paul Newman and the satirical 1964 comedy “Dr. Strangelove” with Peter Sellers. Scott’s work as Scrooge in the 1984 made-for-TV movie version of “A Christmas Carol” is widely regarded as one of the best jobs ever done with the character. George C. Scott had an abdominal aortic aneurysm burst in September of 1999, killing him. He is buried in a Westwood, California cemetery next to another famous actor, Walter Matthau. Scott was 71 years old when he left this world.
Laura Branigan gave voice to the catchy tune “Gloria” in 1982 and also went on to have mega-hits with songs like “Self Control” and “How Do I Live Without You?” “Gloria” was at the top of Billboard’s Top Ten for twenty-two weeks, and Laura was nominated over her career four times for a Grammy Award. Colon cancer claimed the life of her husband Larry in 1996, and she left the public eye until returning to play Janis Joplin in the New York City Musical “Love, Janis.” Branigan’s father and grandfather on her dad’s side had both died from brain aneurysms, and Laura too went that way, at the tragically young age of 47 in 2004. Laura Branigan’s remains were cremated and spread over Long Island Sound.
