Heathcliff Andrew Ledger (April 4, 1979 – January 22, 2008) was an Academy Award-nominated Australian actor. After appearing in television roles during the 1990s, Ledger developed a Hollywood career. He starred in both critical and financial successes, including The Patriot, Monster's Ball and Brokeback Mountain, and completed the role of The Joker in the forthcoming The Dark Knight. Ledger was found dead in a New York City apartment on January 22, 2008.

Simon John Beverley, formerly Simon John Ritchie (May 10, 1957 - February 2, 1979), better known as Sid Vicious, was an English punk rock musician, the bass player of the Sex Pistols (replacing Glen Matlock). He was deeply involved in the birth of the British punk scene, along with close friend John Lydon (Johnny Rotten, Sex Pistols vocalist). He died of a drug overdose at the age of 21.

Christopher Crosby Farley (February 15, 1964 - December 18, 1997) was an American actor and comedian. Farley was a cast member at Chicago's Second City Theatre and achieved his greatest fame as a cast member on the American sketch comedy show "Saturday Night Live". He starred in a string of moderately successful comedic films in the 1990s before his death in late 1997.

Christopher Bowman (born March 30, 1967 in Hollywood, CA) is an American figure skater. Known as "Bowman the Showman", he is a two-time U.S. National Champion. He is also a two-time medalist at the World Figure Skating Championships and competed in two Olympic Games. Before his skating career, he was a child actor. During his career, he was trained by Frank Carroll, Toller Cranston, and John Nicks.

Russell Tyrone Jones was an American MC known by the stage name Ol' Dirty Bastard (often shortened to ODB). He was one of the founding members of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan. Ol' Dirty Bastard simultaneously brought a measure of humor and a touch of the absurd to the Wu-Tang Clan. Often noted for his unusual microphone technique (critic Steve Huey writes of Jones' "outrageously profane, …

Gram Parsons was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. A solo artist as well as a member of the International Submarine Band, The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers, he is best known for a series of recordings which anticipate the so-called country rock of the 1970s and the alt-country movement that began around 1990. Parsons described his records as "Cosmic American Music". He died of a drug overdose at the age of 26. In 2004, …

Mary Anissa Jones (March 11, 1958 - August 28, 1976) was an American child actress, born in West Lafayette, Indiana. She is best remembered as 'Buffy' on CBS's "Family Affair". She died of a drug overdose at the age of 18.

Robert Pilatus, better known as Rob Pilatus, was a German-American model, dancer and singer of Afro-German heritage, and former member of the pop music duo Milli Vanilli.

Bobby Sheehan, (b. June 12, 1968 in Summit, New Jersey, U.S.A. - d. August 20, 1999 in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A.) was the bassist for Blues Traveler. He died of a drug overdose in 1999.

Lapo Elkann (October 2 1978) is a New York-born Italian industrialist, former marketing manager and heir to the automaker Fiat. He is the brother of John Elkann, who is widely expected to become the head of the Fiat group. Lapo Elkann was engaged to the Italian show-girl Martina Stella. Lauded in fashion circles for inheriting his grandfather's sense of style, Elkann has become famous for wearing (and thus promoting) Fiat-branded sweaters at any occasion, …

Dwayne Rudolph Goettel (February 1 1964 - August 23 1995) was a member of the industrial band Skinny Puppy. He played keyboards for an early incarnation of the Canadian gothic/synthpop band Psyche, as well as a band called Water, who opened for Skinny Puppy in 1985. He joined Skinny Puppy sometime during the recording of "Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse" (mid-1986) when Wilhelm Schroeder left the band to pursue his Front Line Assembly project.

Epic Soundtracks was the stage name of Kevin Paul Godfrey (23 March 1959 - 5 November, 1997), who was a British musician. He was brought up in Solihull, Midlands with his brother Adrian Nicholas, who was known as Nikki Sudden(1956 - 2006). In 1972 Kevin and Nicholas formed the nucleus of what was to become the post-punk rock group Swell Maps, with "Epic" on drums and piano, and "Nikki" on guitar and vocals.

Linda Wong (born September 13, 1951 in Hawaii - died December 17, 1987 in Petaluma, California of an accidental drug overdose) is a former pornographic actress and one of the first Asians to become a star in the adult film industry. In 1998 Wong was added to XRCO Hall of Fame.

Rachel Whitear (1979 - May 2000) was a British student from Ledbury, Herefordshire who died following a heroin overdose. Her death in May 2000 led to a large-scale anti-drugs campaign in Britain, particularly in secondary schools, when her parents allowed a police photograph to be shown publicly - it showed her discoloured body collapsed in the foetal position. The school campaign was centred on a 22-minute video called "Rachel's Story".

Carl Crack was a Berlin-based techno artist best known for his membership in the digital hardcore band Atari Teenage Riot from 1992 to 2000. Around 1992 Crack displayed little interest in the music scene as it was at the time. He felt that The Beatnigs (the original vehicle for social and political critic Michael Franti, later of the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and Spearhead) were one of the few significant bands around.

Christopher Pettiet (12 February, 1976 - 12 April, 2000) was an American television and film actor best known for his role as Jesse James in the Western TV series "The Young Riders" and as Zach Crandell in the cult comedy film "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead". He was born in Dallas, Texas. He made appearances in many other television series such as "SeaQuest DSV", "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Chicago Hope", …

Arcadia Lake (born Michelle Carpenter, died 1990) was a pornographic actress. Arcadia met porn star Eric Edwards, who helped her through a detox program for methadone. She was later introduced to pornography by Edwards, becoming a porn starlet during the late 1970s and early 1980s. During her tenure in pornography, she worked mainly with Edwards, to whom she was briefly married. During this span, Arcadia made about 50 movies, …

James Ray (born James Ray Raymond in Washington, D.C. in 1941, died c. 1964) was an African American R&B singer of the early 1960s. A resident of Washington, the diminutive, 5-foot (1.5-meter) singer was discovered in 1961 while destitute and living on a rooftop, and began recording as James Ray for Caprice Records. His best-known hit was "If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody", which reached #22 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1962 and was also a top 10 R&B hit.

Enrique Urquijo (March 15, 1960 - November 17, 1999) was a Spanish singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Born in Madrid, Spain, Enrique Urquijo is best known as one of three brothers in the Spanish New Wave music group "Los Secretos" formed in 1980. Enrique Urquijo died in Madrid in 1999 of a drug overdose. He is interred in the Cementerio de la Almudena in Madrid

Michael Ansara (born April 15, 1922) is a stage, screen and voice actor. Ansara was born in Syria. His family emigrated to the United States when he was two years old. He originally wanted to be a physician but developed a passion for acting when he began acting classes to overcome his shyness. It was the popular TV series "Broken Arrow" (1956) where he played the lead role of Cochise, raising Ansara's profile and making him a household name on television.

Beatrice Mathews Sparks (born January 15, 1918 in Goldburg, Idaho) is a psychologist and Mormon youth counselor who is known for producing books purporting to be the 'real diaries' of troubled teenagers. The books deal with topical issues such as drug abuse, Satanism, teenage pregnancy or AIDS, and are presented as cautionary tales. Although Sparks always presents herself as merely the discoverer and editor of the diaries, …

West Arkeen (June 18, 1960 - May 30, 1997) was an American musician best-known for co-writing several Guns N' Roses songs, and was known unofficially as GN'R #6. He died on May 30, 1997 in Los Angeles of a drug overdose.

Paige Summers (born Nancy Ann Coursey on July 21, 1976 in Lorain, Ohio, USA, died September 22, 2003) was an American adult model. She moved with her family to Morganton, North Carolina and graduated from Freedom High School where her senior superlative was "Barbie Look-Alike". She invented the name Paige Summers for her pornographic modeling career. She appeared in several issues of "High Society" and "Cheri" magazines in 1995, …

Gia Paloma (born June 27, 1984) is an American pornographic actress. Paloma was born in Diamond Bar, California of Italian ancestry. She has appeared in over 200 adult films since her 2003 debut. Her stage name comes from "Gia", a 1998 movie in which Angelina Jolie played model Gia Carangi, and "Paloma", the Spanish word for dove as well as the name of Pablo Picasso's daughter. Adult studios Paloma has worked with include; Digital Playgroud, Wicked, …

Hanin Elias (born May 31 1972 in Wittlich) is a German industrial/techno artist. She was a member of Atari Teenage Riot (ATR) and is currently a solo artist. After the non-definitive stop of Atari Teenage Riot in 2000 and the subsequent death of Carl Crack due to a drug overdose, the members of ATR split up for a while and Hanin set up her own record label, Fatal Recordings. Hanin spent much of her early life living in Syria.

Kevin Prindiville Farley (born June 8, 1965) in (Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A.) is an actor, production designer, and sometime composer. He is the younger brother of comedian Chris Farley. He is best known for portraying "Doug Linus" from the fictional boy band 2ge+her. He also had a brief role in the movie Dirty Work. He is also the brother of actor John P. Farley. The Farley brothers do routines together and receive roles from many of Chris's SNL castmates, …

Tsakani "TK" Mhinga was a SAMA award-winning South African R&B and kwaito artist who went by the stage name of TK. She was a princess of the baTsonga tribe of the Limpopo Province, as well as the niece of veteran South African singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka. Her singing style was sometimes compared to that of Mariah Carey, and her voluptuous looks and charismatic stage presence reminded some of Beyoncé Knowles.

Luis Andrés Caicedo Estela was a Colombian writer born in Cali, the city in which he spent most of his short life. In 1964, when he entered third grade, he wrote his first story - "El Silencio" ("The Silence"). From this moment on, Caicedo wrote several short stories and theatre plays, and started his first novel. In 1973 Caicedo travelled to the US, and started what is often taken to be his best novel - "¡Que viva la música!".

Robert Bingham (1966 - November 28, 1999) was an American writer and a founding editor of the "Open City Magazine". Bingham graduated from Brown University in 1988. He then received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University. His fiction and non-fiction appeared in "The New Yorker", and he worked for two years as a reporter for the "Cambodia Daily".

Michael VerMeulen (10 December 1956 - August 28 1995) was an American magazine editor. Born in Chicago, VerMeulen was a freelance journalist at several magazines including "Vanity Fair" and "Parade" before joining British "GQ" in 1988 as its founding features editor. In the same year he became engaged to author and journalist Antonella Gambotto. VerMeulen was promoted within GQ to deputy editor in 1990 and to editor in 1992, …

Frank X. Leyendecker, the younger brother of J. C. Leyendecker, was also an American illustrator. For most of his life he worked with his brother in their studio, first in Chicago and later in New York City. He was born in Germany, and studied for a time at the Academie Julian in France. He was known for his stained glass work as well as his illustrations for posters, magazines and advertisements. Leyendecker died of a drug overdose.

Seth Rudetsky is currently a host on Sirius Satellite Radio's Broadway's Best. In this role, Rudetsky is the voice of Broadway theatre for people across the United States. Rudetsky was nominated for the Emmy Award on three occasions for his work as a comedy writer for "The Rosie O'Donnell Show". He was a writer for the Grammy Award shows of 1999 and 2000. Rudetsky created the opening numbers for the 1998 and 2000 Tony Awards.

Andrew Goody (1963-2005) was the father of the television personality Jade Goody by Jackiey Budden. He was born in London the son of a West Indian father Winston Coyne and an English mother Jacqueline Goody. He led an unhappy life, which was blighted by crime and drug addiction. He died prematurely from a drug overdose in Bournemouth in 2005, aged 42.