Famous People Who Committed Suicide a to z

Marcus Antonius is best known as the Roman general who was a lover of Cleopatra. The two committed suicde after their defeat by Octavian.

Marshall Herff Applewhite was the leader of the Heaven's Gate religious group. He was a self-proclaimed prophet. He died in the group's mass suicide in 1997.

Photographer Diane Arbus's distinctive portraits showed the world how crazy (and beautiful) New Yorkers were in the 1950s and '60s. She was married to actor Allan Arbus.

Chris Benoit was a popular professional wrestler who, in 2007, killed his wife and son and then committed suicide.

Isabella Blow was a British fashion director and style icon known for wearing flamboyant hats, many by designer Philip Treacy.

Charles Boyer was an Oscar-nominated French actor of stage, film and television with a career that spanned almost six decades.

Eva Braun was the mistress and later the wife of Adolf Hitler. Braun and Hitler killed themselves on April 30, 1945, the day after their wedding—an decided alternative to falling into the hands of enemy troops.

As queen of ancient Egypt, Cleopatra is one of the most famous female rulers in history. The stories surrounding Cleopatra's tragic life inspired a Shakespeare play.

A talented, troubled grunge performer, Kurt Cobain became a rock legend with his band Nirvana in the 1990s and committed suicide at his Seattle home in 1994.

The music of British singer-songwriter Nick Drake wasn't a hit during his lifetime, but his albums Fruit Tree and Pink Moon have gained fans over the years.

Antonio Guzmán Fernández was president of the Dominican Republic from 1978 to 1982, helping to stabilize the economy and demilitarize the government.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a prominent American sociologist, writer and lecturer, best known for her semi-autobiographical short story The Yellow Wallpaper.

Joseph Goebbels was minister of propaganda for the German Third Reich under Adolf Hitler. He presented a favorable image of the Nazi regime to the Germans.

Hermann Göring was a leader of the Nazi Party. He was condemned to hang as a war criminal in 1946 but took his own life instead.

Actor, playwright and screenwriter Spalding Gray wrote and performed his own roles in Monster in a Box and Gray’s Anatomy; both became feature films.

Henry VII was a 13th century German king and son of Frederick II, who was Holy Roman emperor.

Heinrich Himmler was commander of Hitler's Schutzstaffel, and later of the Gestapo in Nazi Germany. After World War II, he committed suicide to escape capture.

Adolf Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. He initiated World War II and oversaw fascist policies that resulted in millions of deaths.

Actor Richard Jeni was best known as a popular stand-up comedian, appearing often on television comedy shows, including a few of his own HBO comedy specials.

Jim Jones was best known as the cult leader of the Peoples Temple who led over 900 followers in a mass suicide via cyanide-laced punch known as the Jonestown Massacre.

Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012, before shooting himself.

Mindy McCready was best known for her hit country music album Ten Thousand Angels, as well as for her ongoing personal struggles. At the age of 37, she was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Alexander McQueen was a London-based, English fashion designer who was head designer of the Louis Vuitton Givenchy fashion line, before starting his own line.

Roh Moo-hyun was a lawyer and human rights activist who was the president of South Korea from 2003-'08.

As Roman emperor, Nero’s reign was lavish and tyrannical. He killed his mother, persecuted Christians and is said to have "fiddled while Rome burned."

Organized crime figure Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti was a member of Al Capone’s Chicago gang, and the front man for Capone’s empire when Capone was imprisoned.

Deborah Jeane Palfrey was the leader of a large Washington-based prostitution ring and became known as the D.C. Madame.

Sylvia Plath was a gifted, troubled poet, known for the confessional style of her work. She wrote the novel The Bell Jar.

Dana Plato was a child actress on the television show Diff'rent Strokes. She fell into drug addiction and died of an overdose in 1999.

Melvin Purvis was the FBI agent responsible for bringing several notorious criminals to justice, among them outlaws John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd.

Jiang Qing was the wife of Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse-tung and implemented policies during the country’s Cultural Revolution.

Uruguayan writer Horacio Quiroga penned short stories inspired by the jungle before committing suicide in 1937. Anaconda is considered his greatest work.

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was one of German's most popular generals during World War II, and gained his enemies' respect with his victories as commander of the Afrika Korps. Implicated in a plot to overthrow Hitler, Rommel took his life in 1944.

Russian-born painter Mark Rothko was a pioneer of the Abstract Expressionist movement during the mid-20th century.

English film director Tony Scott was best known for his first box-office success, Top Gun, as well as later films like True Romance and Enemy of the State. He was the brother of  Ridley Scott, also a famed producer and director.

Poet Anne Sexton wrote the collections To Bedlam and Part Way Back, as well as Live or Die, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize. She committed suicide in 1974.

Pytor Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer best known for his popular ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker.

A counterculture icon, Hunter S. Thompson was an American journalist best known for writing 1971's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and creating "Gonzo journalism."

Irish republican and rebel Wolfe Tone led a French military force to Ireland during the insurrection of 1798.

Jack Unterweger was an Austrian serial killer who murdered several women before committing suicide in 1994.

Vincent van Gogh is considered the greatest Dutch painter after Rembrandt, although he remained poor and virtually unknown throughout his life.

Hervé Villechaize was a French actor best known for playing Tattoo on the 1970s television show Fantasy Island.

David Foster Wallace was a writer known for his dense short stories, magazine articles and novels, most notably the 1,200-page Infinite Jest.

Dan White assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay rights activist, in 1978.

Ann Woodward was an American socialite best known as a murder suspect for the death of her husband who had planned to divorce her. She was never convicted of the crime.

English Writer Virginia Woolf became famous for her nonlinear prose style, especially noted in her novels Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse.

Stefan Zweig was an Austrian writer and novelist popular in the 1920s and 1930s.