The Paradise Syndrome: Celebrity Suicides

If you are the brother or sister, or son or daughter of a celebrity, notice of your death may begin with that link. Such was the situation that unfolded this week in two high profile incidents.

"The older brother of actor Richard Belzer jumped to his death from the roof of his 16-floor Upper West Side apartment building Wednesday," said the New York Post on July 30, 2014.

250 West 94th St.

After his award-winning Sesame Street director wife Emily Squires passed away at the age of 71 in November 2012, Leonard Belzer went into a depression.

Belzer, 73, who lived on the 11th floor of his building, jumped at 6:55 a.m. from the roof of his West 94th Street apartment complex. Belzer’s dad died by suicide in 1968.

It is a daunting statistic, but 50% of all people who kill themselves have had someone very close to them die by suicide. The person is usually in their immediate family. It is the copycat effect in its most easily understood form. A model for dealing with being in pain or being so depressed the blackness won't go away, is right there in the individual's life - and mind. They choose suicide as their "way out," as their escape from their psychological torment.

Leonard's brother, Richard Belzer, 69, is a co-star of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He also is the author of books, including UFOs, JFK, and Elvis: Conspiracies You Don't Have to Be Crazy to Believe (Ballantine Books, 2000) and Hit List: An In-Depth Investigation into the Mysterious Deaths of Witnesses to the JFK Assassination (Skyhorse Publishing, 2013).

Leonard Belzer was a Columbia University grad and an Air Force Intelligence Service veteran.

Len Belzer and Emily Squires co-wrote Spiritual Places In and Around New York City (2000), and Spiritual Places In and Around New York City: UPDATED EDITION (2006).

"Spiritual Places In and Around New York City brings together places that Emily Squires and Len Belzer have found valuable in maintaining their own personal sanity amid the frenetic pace of the city. Each sketch lends spiritual insights and a sensual feel of the place that invites readers to plumb for themselves the mystery and depths of its sacredness. Entries on Communities, Day Trips, Gardens, Museums, Learning and Healing Centers, Libraries and Bookstores, Nature Walks, Restaurants, Overnights, as well as Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu, and Sufi places of worship," noted the Paraview Press overview. (My friend Anomalist Books publisher Patrick Huyghe was the editor behind the publishing of the Squires/Belzer book and alerted me to his sad passing.)

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Meanwhile in California...

Jessica Barrymore (from left), half-sister Drew Barrymore and half-brother John Barrymore III together in 2004 in Joshua Tree, California. (Via Facebook)

Jessica Barrymore, via her Facebook page, on July 5, 2014.

A day before Belzer's death, another sibling of a celebrity died by suicide. Jessica Barrymore, half-sister of actress Drew Barrymore, was lifeless in her car surrounded by drugs, when two strangers found her, in a parked Toyota Camry blocking their driveway in National City, California, on Tuesday. The 47-year-old Barrymore had vodka, methamphetamine and various pills scattered on the passenger seat in her car. She had a SoBe energy drink between her legs, a witness told ABC 10News.

The Petco worker was found about 40 miles south of her San Diego County residence with no obvious ties to the street where she died, authorities said. Jessica Barrymore would have turned 48 on Thursday, July 31.

The woman was found inside the car in the 900 block of Hoover Avenue at about 6 a.m. Tuesday. The San Diego Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed late Tuesday night that firefighters responded and found her dead. Marta Lopez told local news she was trying to leave for work, but a car was blocking her driveway on Hoover and 9th Street. She got out and walked over to the woman behind the wheel. “You need help, you need help,” she told her, but the woman did not respond. Lopez said the seat was reclined and the woman had a SoBe energy drink between her legs. Then, Lopez looked at her neck to see if she was breathing, but something was terribly wrong. Over on the passenger seat, there was another disturbing image: dozens of white pills scattered around. That is when Lopez called police. Source.

Jessica's great-aunt, Diana (1921–60), one of the famed actor John Barrymore's two children, died by suicide. John Barrymore's other child, known as John II is the father of Jessica, Drew, and the son known as John III.

One of the greatest philanderers in Hollywood history, John Barrymore (1882-1942), would state that in his life that he was molested by his stepmother as a youth. John Barrymore's daughter, Diana (1921-1960), would claim in her biography that he had tried to rape her. As noted in the Feral House's 2007 book, Hollywood's Hellfire Club (by Gregory William Mank with Charles Heard and Bill Nelson), in their loveless life, womanizing was a competitive sport among John Barrymore and his friends, the "Bundy Drive Boys," which included John Decker, Errol Flynn, John Carradine, Vincent Price, and W.C. Fields. (H/t for the reminder from aferrismoon.)

The book notes:

It has come to our attention, though a conversation with John Barrymore III (1954- ), that his great-grandfather, born Herbert Blythe (1849-1905), renamed himself Maurice Barrymore after a historical character named Richard Barry, the 7th Earl of Barrymore (1769-1793). The Earl of Barrymore was born a little too late to become involved in The Hellfire Club, but on his own went against the rules of aristocracy by acting and becoming known as "The Rake of Rakes," and like Hellfire Club members, was an enthusiastic womanizer. The Bundy Drive Boys are the true latter-day version of the Hellfire Club.

Celebrities and suicides...

In a shadowy parallel to the suicide death of Margaux Hemingway on July 1, 1996, Jessica's sister Drew and brother John are expressing skepticism that the death was a suicide. This often happens in families where there is great denial that a suicide did occur. The Hemingways had seven suicides in their family. We know that the Barrymores had, at least, two, allegedly.

The Copycat Effect and the Paradise Syndrome go hand-in-hand, as I noted in this excerpt from The Copycat Effect:

The copycat effect may even play a role in the so-called "Paradise Syndrome." Reuters reporter Rachel Noeman explained the term in a 1996 news story: "They inherit celebrity names, appear to have it all and live apparently gilded lives, but what may at first seem like paradise can end in pain or even tragedy."
Noeman was reporting on the suicide death of Amschel Rothschild, 41-year-old chairman of Rothschild Asset Management and great-great-great-grandson of Nathan Meyer Rothschild -- who established in 1804 the merchant bank in the City of London that still bears his name. He hanged himself in a Paris hotel room ten days after Margaux Hemingway, who also was 41, was found dead.
Noeman was making the link between the two, in terms of the "Paradise Syndrome." While the modeling of a suicide on those most like the suicide victim is most often discussed in terms of people basing their suicide on that of a celebrity, descendants of celebrities may actually be the most vulnerable for the copycat effect. Amschel Rothschild’s widow Anita Rothschild repeated what is often said in the wake of such deaths, that it was “totally unexpected,” and the family was "shocked and devastated."

Some children of very well-known celebrities have died by suicide:

1965: Charles Boyer's son Michael Charles Boyer, 21, dies by suicide while playing Russian Roulette. In 1978, Charles Boyer takes his own life with a lethal dose of seconal.
1968: Robert Taylor's stepson Michael Theiss, 23, dies of a drug overdose in a LA motel room.
1969: Art Linkletter's daughter, Diane Linkletter, 20, dies when she jumps from a window at her apartment in West Hollywood. Linkletter blamed his daughter's death on LSD and proclaimed it not a suicide.
1975: Gregory Peck's son, news reporter Jonathan Peck, killed himself with a gun.
1975: Jim Arness's daughter, Jenny Lee Arness,24, also 25, dies due to a lethal dose of pills.
1976: Scientology mastermind L. Ron Hubbard and his third wife, Mary Sue Whipp's son Quentin Hubbard, 22, was dies by suicide.
1978: Paul Newman's son, Scott Newman, 28, an aspiring actor, was found dead in a hotel after overdosing on pills and alcohol.
1980: Mary Tyler Moore's son, Richard Meeker Jr., 24, "accidentally" shot himself dead with a sawed-off shotgun.
1981: Ray Milland's son, Daniel Millard, shot himself in the head in the bedroom of his Beverly Hills home.
1981: Louis Jourdan's son, Louis Henry Jourdan, 29, shot himself in his parent's home in Bel Air.
1988: Gloria Vanderbilt's oldest son, Carter Vanderbilt Cooper, 23, jumped from the 14th floor terrace of his mother's Manhattan apartment.
1991, Willie Nelson's son Billy Nelson, 33, hanged himself in his family's Tennessee cabin.
1995: Marlon Brando's daughter, Cheyenne Brando, 25, hanged herself in 1995.
1995: Carroll O'Connor 's son, Hugh O'Connor, 32, shot himself dead.
2007: Burt Bacharach and Angie Dickinson's daughter, Nikki Bacharach, 40, suffocated herself, using a plastic bag and helium.
2009, 46 years after his mother's own suicide, Sylvia Plath's son, Nicholas Hughes, 47, hanged himself.
2010: Marie Osmond's 18 year-old son, Michael Blosil, jumped from the 8th floor of an LA apartment building.
Source.

For more on the "Hemingway Curse," please click here.

Also, Hemingway & Gellhorn: War and Love.

NFL Suicides: 1942-2010

Kenny McKinley's suicide is the latest such event among NFL players. Here is a list of some famed, known American football players who have died by suicide.



2010

Kenny McKinley, a Denver Broncos (NFL) wide receiver who was out for the season recovering from knee surgery, was found dead of an apparent suicide September 20, 2010, Monday afternoon at his home, according to the Denver Post. The body of McKinley, 23, was found by authorities in a second-floor bedroom with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound at around 3:25 p.m. MDT. A second-year player out of South Carolina, he had undergone season-ending surgery for a recurring knee injury in August 2010.

"Although the death of McKinley appears to be the result of a self inflicted gunshot, the investigation into this matter, conducted by the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office and the Arapahoe County Coroner's Office, is on-going, " Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson told Denver's Fox 31 News.

The death is the third for the Broncos since 2007. Cornerback Darrent Williams died in a drive-by shooting and running back Damien Nash collapsed at a charity basketball game in 2007. The Denver Post reports that current and former Broncos were attending a fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Club of Metro Denver, site of the Darrent Williams Memorial Teen Center, when they learned of McKinley's death.

Earlier football suicides

1942

Lyle Randolph "Al" Bigbee (August 22, 1893 in Waterloo, Oregon - August 5, 1942 in Portland, Oregon) was a former outfielder and pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics and Pittsburgh Pirates and halfback for the Milwaukee Badgers. Bigbee died by suicide due to a self-inflicted shooting.

1961

John Henry Mohardt (January 21, 1898 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – November 24, 1961 in La Jolla, California) was a former professional football and baseball player. Mohardt played in the National Football League for the Chicago Cardinals, Racine Legion, and Chicago Bears from 1922 - 1925. One of Mohardt's teammates with the 1925 Bears was pro football Hall of Famer Red Grange. Mohardt also played in five major league baseball games in 1922 with the Detroit Tigers. Mohardt later earned an M.D. and served in the United States Armed Forces during World War II. He died by suicide in La Jolla, California, on November 24, 1961, the day after Thanksgiving that year. (The football games and scores that Thanksgiving were Green Bay Packers 17, Detroit Lions 9 and New York Titans 21, Buffalo Bills 14.)

1980

James Efflo Tyrer (February 25, 1939–September 15, 1980) was an American football offensive tackle in the American Football League for the Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs. He also played in the National Football League for the Chiefs and the Washington Redskins. After football, a series of apparent business misfortunes culminated on September 15, 1980 when Tyrer, the father of four, shot his wife and then died by suicide by turning the gun on himself.

1982

Benjamin "Benny" Friedman (March 18, 1905 – November 24, 1982) was an American football quarterback who played for the University of Michigan (1924-1926), Cleveland Bulldogs (1927), Detroit Wolverines (1928), New York Giants (1929-1931), and Brooklyn Dodgers (1932-1934). Suffering from severe diabetes, Friedman died by suicide in 1982.

1987

Larry Bethea (July 21, 1956 – April 24, 1987) was an American football defensive lineman who played six years in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys. He later played for the Michigan Panthers, Oakland Invaders and Houston Gamblers of the United States Football League. He died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound within hours of being identified as a suspect in two armed robberies.

1992

Michael Allen "Mike" Wise (June 5, 1964 – August 21, 1992) was a professional American football defensive end in the National Football League. He played five seasons for the Los Angeles Raiders (1986-1990) and the Cleveland Browns (1991). Wise was born in Greenbrae, California. He did by suicide at his home in Davis in 1992.

1993


Jeffrey Lawrence Alm (March 31, 1968 – December 14, 1993) was an American football player who played defensive tackle for the Houston Oilers of the National Football League. According to an eyewitness, Alm and his best friend, Sean P. Lynch, had dinner at a Houston-area steakhouse on December 13, 1993. At 2:45 a.m. Central Standard Time the following day, Alm’s Cadillac lost control heading south on Intrastate 610 southbound at the 59 north exit ramp and Lynch was thrown out of the car through the passenger window to his death. Alm had been speeding and lost control of his 1993 Cadillac Eldorado on a curved exit ramp. After the crash Alm ran across the ramp and looked down an embankment towards the Southwest Freeway, discovering that his boyhood friend had been thrown to his death 30 feet below. Apparently distraught by his best friend’s death, Alm took out a pistol grip shotgun, fired two shots into the air and then shot himself in the face.

1995

Thornton Steve Stonebreaker (born October 28, 1938 in Moline, Illinois; died March 28, 1995 in Metairie, Louisiana) was a professional American football linebacker in the National Football League. He played eight seasons for the Minnesota Vikings (1962-1963), the Baltimore Colts (1964-1966), and the New Orleans Saints (1967-1968). Stonebreaker died by suicide on March 28, 1995 by inhaling carbon monoxide from a car exhaust.

2000

Lawrence Morgan "Larry" Kelley (May 30, 1915 – June 27, 2000) was an American football player born in Conneaut, Ohio. He played end, for Yale University. While at Yale he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and Skull and Bones, and was the second winner of the Heisman Trophy in 1936, the year it was renamed in honor of John Heisman. To benefit of his nieces and nephews, Kelley sold his Heisman Trophy at an auction in December 1999 for $328,110 to the owner of The Stadium Museum, Restaurant & Bar in Garrison, New York, where it now resides. On June 27, 2000, in failing health, Kelley died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Hightstown. It was said to be a suicide by the Hightstown police.

2005

Terry Long (July 21, 1959–June 7, 2005) was a National Football League offensive lineman. He played from 1984–1991 for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He died in 2005 from drinking antifreeze.

2006

Andre Waters (March 10, 1962 – November 20, 2006) was an NFL defensive back who played for the Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals from 1984 to 1995. On November 20, 2006, three days before Thanksgiving, Waters died by suicide shortly after 1 a.m. on November 20, 2006 (three days before Thanksgiving), according to the Hillsborough County (Fla.) Sheriff's Office, dying of a gunshot to the head. He was at his home in Tampa, Florida where he was found by his girlfriend. No suicide note was found. Later investigations have revealed a possible link to mild traumatic brain injury, which may have resulted in post-concussion syndrome.

2009

Shane Dronett (January 12, 1971 – January 21, 2009) was an American football defensive lineman, who played for the NFL's Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions and Atlanta Falcons between 1992 and 2002. On January 21, 2009, Dronett was found dead at his home near Atlanta, Georgia. The death was ruled a suicide by the Gwinnett County Medical Examiner's office.

McNair's 2009 Death



It will be recalled that Stephen LaTreal McNair (February 14, 1973 – July 4, 2009), born on Valentine's Day, died on Independence Day 2009, when his mistress, Sahel Kazemi, shot and killed him before turning the gun on herself. Steve McNair (nicknamed "Air McNair") was an American football quarterback who spent the majority of his NFL career with the Tennessee Titans. He retired as a Baltimore Raven in 2007.

MLB Suicide: Brian Powell

Brian Powell, a former major league baseball pitcher, has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a sheriff's official in Georgia has reported. He was 35.



Captain Liz Crowley of the Decatur County Sheriff's Office said Powell died Monday, October 5, 2009, at a hospital in Tallahassee, Florida. Powell was from Bainbridge, Georgia.

The Bainbridge native was a three-year letterman for the Bulldogs from 1993-95, going 19-14 with a 3.80 ERA. He ranks second in school history with 17 complete games, 352 strikeouts and five shutouts. In 1995, he led the Southeastern Conference in strikeouts (138); innings pitched (147) and was second in complete games (seven).

Powell was a second-round pick, the 41st overall selection, of the Detroit Tigers in the 1995 MLB draft and reached the majors in 1998.

Powell was 7-18 with a 5.94 ERA in 59 games for Detroit, Houston, San Francisco and Philadelphia. He last pitched in the majors with the Phillies in 2004, and spent 2005 in Triple-A for Washington.

Funeral services were held at 11 a.m. Thursday, October 8, 2009, in Bainbridge, Georgia.

Powell is survived by his wife and three children. Our thoughts go out to his family, friends, and former teammates.



The timing of Powell's suicide, at the end of the regular season of 162 games (despite the one tie-breaker that was played on Tuesday, October 6, 2009), does not appear to be a coincidence.

I wrote the following concerning what my study of such suicides revealed about their timing:

Baseball players were most likely to die by suicide during the off-season, if the individual was a recent player, within three years of an active involvement in the majors, or after age 65, after a "retirement" from a post-baseball career. For some former players, the end of March to the April opening days seemed to be a specific temporal black hole.

That a suicide should occur so close to the end of the regular season should not be a surprise.

Chapters on my findings regarding baseball players' suicides are to be found in Baseball and American Culture: Across the Diamond (2003) by Edward J. Rielly, in my own book The Copycat Effect (2004), and in other sources now quoting those books.

This year, 2009, is the 20th anniversary of my research and call for suicide prevention efforts among Major League Baseball players. There was a cluster of baseball suicides in 1989, which I had predicted. Donnie Moore was the individual MLB player who died of suicide receiving the most publicity, but there, sadly, were others.

Spider-Man Suicide

Spider-Man 3 is a 2007 film written and directed by Sam Raimi, with a screenplay by Ivan Raimi and Alvin Sargent. The character Jennifer Dugan, a reporter in the film, was played by Lucy Gordon.



On Wednesday, May 20, 2009, Gordon died by suicide in her Paris apartment, France-Info radio reported on Thursday. She was found in her flat in the city's 10th (district) arrondissement. Gordon lived in a £2,000-a-month two bedroom rented apartment in that bohemian arrondissement of Paris, an up-and-coming area popular with young professionals on the Right Bank of the Seine.

Gordon took her own life, just two days before her 29th birthday. Police said her boyfriend, told them he woke to find her hanging.

He was still being questioned Wednesday night, but the spokesman stressed it was believed Gordon died by suicide.

Neighbors said the boyfriend told them Gordon had been deeply affected by the recent suicide of a friend in Britain. But one neighbor said she had heard "a couple rowing" the night before her body was found, according to the Daily Mail.

UPI is running with the graphic headline, "U.K. actress Lucy Gordon found hanged."

Lucy Gordon left two suicide notes before hanging herself in the Paris flat she shared with her cinematographer boyfriend, her father said today.

Gordon detailed her last wishes regarding her estate on one piece of paper and left a letter for her parents on another.

Her father Richard Gordon said a post-mortem examination proved she had died from hanging and that no other marks were found on her body. He spoke today to end speculation that the death might be anything other than suicide.

Lucy Gordon’s boyfriend, revealed today as top cinematographer Jerome Alveras, was asleep in the Paris apartment when the actress hanged herself on Tuesday night.

Her father said: "We speak to him daily and he is also distraught."

Almeras - the cinematographer behind last year's Kristin Scott Thomas hit film I've Loved You So Long - has spent two days since the suicide being questioned by police about his 28-year-old lover’s apparent suicide.

Almeras, a Frenchman in his 40s, rushed out of the two-bedroom rented flat and alerted a nearby shopkeeper, but it was too late to save Gordon.

An experienced camera operator, Mr Almeras has worked on numerous films, including Cineman, in which Miss Gordon had a role.

The film, a comedy, is currently in post-production. It was not clear if the couple had met on the set or if they knew one another previously.

Since Gordon's debut in the 2001 movie Perfume, Gordon appeared in about a dozen films, including French director Cedric Klapisch's The Russian Dolls, American filmmaker John Krasinski's Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, as well as Spider-Man 3. Other films she did include Frost, The Four Feathers*, and Serendipity.

Lucy Gordon starred with Audrey Tautou in Les poupées russes, The Russian Dolls (2005). Tautou played Sophie Neveu in the 2006 thriller The Da Vinci Code, paired with Tom Hanks.

Gordon recently wrapped production on Joann Sfar's anticipated biopic about late French singer Serge Gainsbourg (April 2, 1928 – March 2, 1991) entitled, Serge Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life. In the film, Lucy Gordon plays Gainsbourg's lover -- actress and film director Jane Birkin.

Gainsbourg died of a heart attack. Birkin, born December 14, 1946, is still alive. Gainsbourg and Birkin are the parents of actress Charlotte Gainsbourg (born July 21, 1971).

Birkin was first married, from 1965 until 1968, to John Barry, an English composer who wrote the musical score to the James Bond movies. Their daughter, the photographer Kate Barry, was born in 1967. In 1982, Birkin gave birth to her third daughter, Lou Doillon, from her relationship with the director Jacques Doillon.

"The film 'Gainsbourg (a heroic life)' owes a lot to Lucy Gordon's generosity, kindness and the immense talent," Sfar and the film's producers Marc du Pontavice and Didier Lupfer said in a press release sent out late Wednesday night in France. The film will hit Gallic theaters next year.

Lucy Gordon (May 22, 1980 – May 20, 2009) was born in Oxford, England.



[Watching Spider-Man getting hammered by the giant Sandman...]
Jennifer Dugan: It's hard to believe what's happening. The brutality of it. I-- I don't know how he can take anymore.
Anchorman: This could be a tragic day for the people of New York. It could be the end of Spider-Man.

*Updates:

The Four Feathers is a 2002 American drama film directed by Shekhar Kapur, starring Heath Ledger, Wes Bentley, Djimon Hounsou, Kate Hudson and Lucy Gordon (who played Isabelle), a historical drama about cowardice.



Lucy Gordon is shown at the premiere of The Four Feathers with the poster visible behind her with images of Heath Ledger and Kate Hudson.

Heather Ledger died between Crosby and Lafayette Streets in SoHo, New York City, on January 22, 2008.


Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter.
Rue Lafayette,
Paris, 1891

Thanks for linkages from Todd Campbell and Theo Paijmans, as per the comments.

Also, please see Pseudoccultmedia's Lucy Gordon posting. Notes about the age being the same for Gordon & Ledger, Birkin's father being an intelligence officer, butterfly & other imagery and much more are detailed.

:-) Thank You.