FAMOUS PEOPLE, TRAGIC DEATHS

I was recently going to do a blog post with photos of famous people. As I was sorting through photo files, it suddenly occurred to me that most of the people I chose had died under tragic circumstances. This wasn't a purposeful ploy, it was simply coincidence.

So, I decided to revise my original post and feature people who all had tragic deaths.
Perhaps depressing, but interesting.

 This haunting 1942 photo is supposedly the last one ever taken of Anne Frank (1929-1945) and her sister Margot (1926-1945). 

Anne didn't become famous until after her death, when her remarkable diary was published. The diary was written during the two years that she and her family were in hiding from the Nazis. The only member of the family to survive the holocaust was Anne's father Otto.
Anne and her sister Margot died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945 - only weeks before the liberation.

Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia (1872-1918). The German-born Princess Alix of Hesse was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria. In 1894 she married Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia, the future Emperor Nicholas II. 

 Emperor Nicholas II

(1868-1918)

In March, 1917, Nicholas was forced to abdicate during the frenzy of the Russian Revolution. He and his family were placed under house arrest and later imprisoned in Siberia.

In July, 1918, Nicholas, Alexandra, and their five children were executed by the Bolsheviks. 

Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna (1864-1918) was the sister of Empress Alexandra. Born in Germany, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse was also the granddaughter of Queen Victoria. In 1884 she married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich  of Russia, who was the uncle of Emperor Nicholas II.

Grand Duke Sergei

(1857-1905)

Even though Elizabeth and Sergei were devoted to one another and shared many similar interests, it is almost certain that their marriage was never consummated. It was no secret that  Sergei was a homosexual.

In 1905 Grand Duke Sergei was killed by a bomb, courtesy of the revolutionists. The incident happened near his home. Grand Duchess Elizabeth ran out of the palace to the street and gathered up pieces of her husband's body.

After the murder, Elizabeth renounced all her worldly riches and became a nun - devoting herself to the needy. She eventually founded the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent. 

Grand Duchess Elizabeth

as a nun

In 1918 Elizabeth - along with several of her Romanov relatives - was arrested and murdered by the Bolsheviks. They were thrown alive down a mine shaft, which was subsequently blown up with grenades.

 Mata Hari (1876-1917)

Mata Hari was the stage name of the Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan, whose real name was Margaretha Geertruide MacLeod nee Zelle.

Mata Hari was a flamboyant, promiscuous, adventuress who used her seductive powers to advance her career and attain privilege in high places.

By 1912, when her dancing career began to fizzle, she was compelled to expand her creative erotic abilities into other channels.

Her amorous escapades eventually got her involved in espionage. In February, 1917 she was arrested in France and convicted of spying for Germany.

In truth, her involvement with spying was minimal and largely inconsequential, but her dubious reputation increased the evidence against her. 

Mata Hari was found guilty, and in October, 1917, she was executed in France by firing squad.

Isadore Duncan (1877-1927) was an American dancer, widely known as one of the innovators of modern dance. Her flamboyant and colorful lifestyle afforded innumerable adventures in Europe and Russia.

The great tragedy that marred her existence with profound depression was the death of her two children, who were killed in an automobile accident in 1913. Both of the children were conceived out of wedlock. Deirdre's father was theatrical designer Gordon Craig, and Patrick's father was millionaire sewing machine magnate Paris Singer.

In 1921 Isadore went to Moscow, where she met the Russian poet Sergei Esenin (or Yesenin), who was eighteen years her junior. They were married in May, 1922, but it was a short-lived union which ended a year later.

In September, 1927, Isadore's life ended abruptly in Nice, France, in a bizarre auto accident. She was riding with a mechanic in an open car. The long scarf she was wearing got entangled in the spokes of one of the car wheels and the axle. Her neck was instantly broken.

In the above photo of Isadore and Sergei, the scarf she is wearing is playfully (and ironically) entwined around Sergei's arm.

 

 Sergei Esenin (Yesenin)

(1895-1925)

One of the many reasons that the marriage of Isadora Duncan and Sergei Esenin didn't last was that she spoke no Russian and he spoke no English. He  intensely disliked America (he had accompanied Isadora on one of her American dancing tours). He was also a heavy drinker and was notoriously known for frequent violent outbursts.

In December, 1925 - at the age of thirty - he hanged himself in a St. Petersburg hotel room.

His suicide note was a poem entitled Farewell, My Friend, Farewell - which he wrote in his own blood.

I had many more of these but the post was getting too long.