These celebrities lived and died for their fans.

I'm an Editorial Director at BuzzFeed who covers the internet’s funniest photos and jokes, weird human history, movie facts, and more.

Pandemonium broke out as Gale killed two more people and took a hostage, inching toward the exit with the gun at the hostage's temple. However, before he could escape, a police officer shot him dead. Adding to the horror of it all, this happened on the anniversary of John Lennon's murder, when he, too, was shot and killed by a troubled fan. 

So why did Gale murder Abbott? It later came out that Gale, a former Marine with mental health issues, held Abbott responsible for the breakup of his favorite band, Pantera. 

Bule had performed with snakes onstage for three years, but the snakes were normally nonvenomous and/or had their mouths duct-taped closed. 

On the night of her death, the snake she was asked to perform with was neither nonvenomous nor duct-taped. Bule's show began as it always did, with her dancing and singing, until — in a flash — the snake bit her. Footage online shows Bule crouched at the side of the stage just after the bite, with the snake handler tending to her. Forty-five minutes later, she was dead.

On March 23, 1918, during a performance at the Wood Green Empire in London, Soo (the fake Chinese magician, to be clear) tried to perform his most famous act, the "bullet catch," which involved catching a bullet fired at him...but it went terribly wrong. A malfunction caused a real bullet to be fired, striking Robinson/Soo in the chest. Breaking character and speaking English onstage for the first time, he exclaimed, "Oh my God. Something's happened. Lower the curtain." He died the following day.

Robinson's death shocked the public, revealing that the "Chinese" magician was, in fact, a white dude from America. His commitment to his stage persona was so complete that many were unaware of his true identity until his untimely demise. (From the vantage of 2025, you'd think a white guy in yellowface would be pretty obvious, but maybe not 100+ years ago.)

The sounds weren't balloons — Loibl shot Grimmie three times at point-blank range. Grimmie's brother tackled the shooter, and the two fought before Loibl broke away and shot himself. Grimmie was rushed to the hospital but pronounced dead less than an hour after offering Loibi that hug.

Investigators learned that Loibl was obsessed with Grimmie, spending his free time watching videos of the singer and poring over her social media accounts. He believed they were soulmates, so to make himself more attractive to her, he underwent Lasik eye surgery, got hair plugs, and lost 50 pounds. When he was told it was unlikely they'd ever be together, Loibl became angry and defensive. Somewhere along the way, he decided on this new, horrible course of action.

Kris Mohandie — a clinical, police, and forensic psychologist — told BuzzFeed News that social media can create an unnatural obsession for some fans. "There is all this social networking stuff that is happening right now and to an unstable person that can really complicate into them thinking they do have a relationship with this person. They read more into it because of their misperceptions."

Following the incident, many felt Mays had hit Chapman on purpose for crowding the plate, and Hall of Famer Ty Cobb even suggested someone should do the same to Mays. Chapman's death led to some changes in baseball. Beforehand, pitchers were allowed to dirty up the ball with soil, licorice, or tobacco juice. That was forbidden after Chapman's death, as it reduced the visibility of the baseball and made it harder to see (and thus evade).

A minor leaguer died the next season in the same manner, but even so, batting helmets weren't used widely until the 1950s.

The incident was not broadcast live, as a pre-recorded segment was airing at the time. The audience in attendance witnessed the fall, though, and the frantic attempts to save his life afterward. Despite the tragedy, WWF owner Vince McMahon decided to continue the live broadcast after a 15-minute break.

Hart's widow, Martha Hart, was horrified, writing in a book about her husband, "As he lay dying in the ring, he struggled to live for our children and me. After he lost his fight for life, they just scooped him up and ordered the next match out. Where's the humanity?"

In the aftermath, Martha Hart filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the WWF, claiming they were negligent and hadn't hired qualified riggers. The WWF settled for $18 million, and she used the settlement to establish the Owen Hart Foundation, supporting various charitable causes.

Stagehands eventually dragged him offstage as performers tried to keep the show going. It was later confirmed that Cooper died of a heart attack...right there onstage.

Officials quickly waved off the other competitors and rushed to his aid, but Zoricic had suffered severe head trauma. He was pronounced dead a short time later.

The incident sparked international calls for greater safety measures in ski cross and other high-speed winter sports, especially since Zoricic's death was the second high-profile skiing fatality in two months — freestyle skier Sarah Burke previously crashed and died during halfpipe training.

He tried to carefully reach up and grab the rope above where it was fraying, but it snapped before he could. He fell the long distance to the ground silently, landing with a thud. A doctor in the crowd tried to help, but it was no use — Yoshiyuki Takada was dead.

It later came to light that they only tested one of the four ropes to be used, and that they'd requested old ropes because new ropes caused the dancers to twist and turn too much. The company stopped performing the hanging outdoor dance after the tragedy, but has since added it back into their repertoire. (The photo above is an example from a more recent performance.)