'00s Stars Who Died In Bizarre Ways

The 2000s didn't finish up all that long ago, but enough time has passed that the first decade of the 21st century is ripe for assessment and analysis. There were multiple major cultural shifts throughout that 10-year period. Glitzy bubblegum pop music made a major comeback in the form of boy bands and divas, rap-rock and dark and heavy nu-metal conquered the rock side, and hip-hop made progressive strides. On television, reality and light documentary programming transfixed the nation, as did teen-oriented soap operas, animated series geared toward adults, and searing cable dramas. At the movies, it was all about action blockbusters and indie movies, all with their own millennium-laced flavor.

All those new and revived forms of entertainment generated lots of talented new stars and captivating celebrities. Many stuck around show business and continue to make good art well into the 2020s. Others saw their lives end far too soon, leaving the world to wonder what would've been. Here are some of the biggest names associated with the 2000s who not only died, but all at a relatively young age and of baffling, almost inexplicable ways well beyond the most common causes.

Following some childhood roles in the 1990s, Naya Rivera reemerged in the 2000s as a dynamic young actor. She popped up on 11 episodes of "The Bernie Mac Show" before landing her signature role in 2009: Santana Lopez in Fox's high school musical dramedy "Glee." The outwardly mean cheerleader was secretly romantic and vocally talented, and Rivera played her amazingly.

On July 8, 2020, Rivera and her 4-year-old son took a boat out onto Lake Piru in Ventura County, California. Three hours after they set off, her son was spotted alone and asleep in the craft, leading to a search-and-rescue effort for his mother. The actor's body was discovered five days later on the surface of an especially deep area of the lake. Rivera had drowned after going for a swim and had been pulled under at some point. The Ventura County Medical Examiner's investigation determined that the actor's remains had then become entangled in underwater plants before surfacing. Rivera was 33.

The music was dark, dreary, and unsettling, and the visuals were just as challenging for Slipknot. That's the way band co-founder Joey Jordison wanted it. The sludgy metal collective's members wore gross and gruesome masks with industrial jumpsuits and adopted numbers for stage names. Jordison, or No. 1, helped form Slipknot in the 1990s and lead them into broad commercial success in the 2000s with the albums "Iowa" and "All Hope is Gone."

While Jordison left the band he helped create in 2013, the official story at the time blamed the departure on "personal reasons," as The Guardian reported. A year later, Jordison divulged just how personal and tragic those reasons were: He couldn't drum at a professional or personal standard anymore because he'd lost a number of his motor functions to transverse myelitis. A rare variant of multiple sclerosis, the disease took from Jordison his ability to play music and walk, and an aggressive physical therapy program limited any more damage for a while. Nevertheless, complications from the disease killed Jordison in his sleep at the age of 46 in July 2021, another sad moment in the tragic real-life story of Slipknot.

Anne Heche paid her dues with a bunch of supporting roles in movies and on episodic television before she enjoyed a very big late 1990s, starring in "Donnie Brasco," "Volcano," "I Know What You Did Last Summer," and "Six Days Seven Nights" in rapid succession. In the 2000s, she became a reliable television mainstay, landing long stints on well-received hits of the era such as "Nip/Tuck," "Hung," and "Everwood," while also starring in her own network dramedy, "Men in Trees."

On the morning of August 5, 2022, Heche drove her Mini Cooper into a Los Angeles area apartment complex's garage. Heche fled the scene, and after nearly hitting a pedestrian on a sidewalk, she ran into a Jaguar and again drove away. Minutes later, Heche was involved in her third collision in less than 30 minutes when she crashed her vehicle into a single-family home in Los Angeles's Mar Vista area. About 60 firefighters responded to the scene to help rescue the actor, as the crash had quickly started a large fire that engulfed and destroyed the residence and the car. While under hospitalization for the injuries suffered in the final melee, Heche fell into a coma and was in extreme critical condition, diagnosed with severe burns and pulmonary and brain injuries. On August 12, Heche was pronounced brain dead, and she was removed from life support machines two days later. The actor was 53 years old.

As a highly sought-after collaborator to many of the 2000s most prominent R&B and hip-hop acts, Static Major helped create the sound of pop music in the first decade of the new millennium. He co-wrote "On the Hotline" for Pretty Ricky, "More Than a Woman," "Try Again," and "Rock the Boat" for Aaliyah," and "Lollipop" for Lil Wayne. That would be the biggest hit for Static Major as a performer, too — he's credited on the label for the tune, which hit No. 1 in 2008 and won the Grammy Award for best rap song.

While back in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, in February 2008, Static Major fell ill, and a doctor at Baptist Hospital East diagnosed the musician with myasthenia gravis. A very rare autoimmune condition almost always diagnosed in men over the age of 50, it breaks down the pathways that allow nerves and muscles to communicate. But that's what killed the musician born Stephen Garrett. While he was still being hospitalized for treatment for myasthenia gravis, a surgeon fitted a catheter into the rapper's neck, leading him to report immediate and severe pain far away from the insertion site, in his internal organs. An emergency X-ray discovered that the catheter had been improperly inserted. When a nurse removed the faulty line, Garrett passed out and never woke up. Attempts to revive him and restore vital signs failed, and Static Major died at the age of 33.

As a crucial participant in the neo-soul movement of the early 2000s, Angie Stone broke through with big hits that made audiences feel, such as "Brotha," "With I Didn't Miss You," and "No More Rain (In This Cloud)." Selling lots of records and getting nominated for Grammys was a long time coming for Stone. She'd been working in the music industry for decades, charting some minor hits in the early 1980s with the hip-hop-influenced funk trio the Sequence.

Stone and her band played a Mardi Gras show on February 28, 2025, in Mobile, Alabama, and then loaded into a Mercedes-made Sprinter van for the return trip home to Atlanta. Very early on March 1, the van's driver lost control 5 miles outside of Montgomery, Alabama, on a section of Interstate 65. The vehicle crashed, tipped over, and landed on its side. But then a semi-truck came along, and its driver, not seeing the wrecked van, ran into it. Eight van passengers were briefly treated for minor injuries at Baptist Medical Center South in Montgomery. The ninth person in the vehicle: Angie Stone, the accident's only fatal casualty. The singer was pronounced dead on the scene. She was 63.

While he started his career as a teenager on television shows in the mid-1980s — he appeared on "Highway to Heaven" and "Who's the Boss?" — it wasn't until the late 1990s, when Paul Walker became a star. Roles in "Pleasantville" and "Varsity Blues" set up Walker for A-list stardom in the 2000s, and he was the face of one of Hollywood's most enduring and lucrative franchises. He portrayed Brian O'Conner, police officer, federal agent, and enthusiast of extremely speedy automobiles, in six entries in the blockbuster "Fast and the Furious" saga.

Fast cars brought him fame and fortune, and they're also what killed the actor at the age of 40, in a tragic death Walker may have predicted. On November 30, 2013, Walker was riding in the passenger seat of a Porsche Carrera GT driven by associate Roger Rodas, who piloted the vehicle through a residential area of Los Angeles at speeds reaching at least 100 miles per hour. Rodas lost control, and the car spun, hit a curb, and then a tree and light pole. The Porsche continued to spin until it hit another tree. By that point, a fire had enveloped the car. Discovered in a defensive, shielding position, Walker endured a broken pelvis, jaw, collarbone, and other fractures, and he officially died of traumatic and thermal injuries, meaning the crash and fire were equally to blame.

In the 2000s, the independent film scene expanded to include Native American filmmakers telling screen stories about their experiences. That created more acting opportunities for Native American actors, such as Misty Upham, a member of the Blackfeet Nation. She earned acclaim for her performances in "Dreamkeeper," "Skins, and "Skinwalkers," and in 2009, she was nominated for best supporting female at the Independent Spirit Awards for "Frozen River."

Mental health and substance abuse issues affected Upham's life for many years, and she treated her profound anxiety with alcohol and prescription drugs. Between 2012 and 2014, Upham was institutionalized by force on four occasions by police in Auburn, Washington. In October 2014, two months after she nearly died by suicide, Upham was reported missing. Across the eight days it took for authorities to issue a press release and alert the public about the missing person, Upham's friends and relatives put a search together, and one member discovered the decomposed remains of the actor in a ravine. 

Upham was 32 years old, and according to a postmortem investigation by the King County Medical Examiner's Office, blows to the head and torso were the cause of death. That data, along with the discovery point of Upham's body, led to the thesis that the actor died from injuries suffered in a fall. Toxicology reports showed that Upham had been drinking heavily at the time of her death, but authorities were unable to determine if the fall was intentional or accidental.

After a variety of sitcom roles in the 1990s and breakout turns as Tai in "Clueless" and Daisy in "Girl Interrupted," Brittany Murphy became one of Hollywood's most consistent stars in the 2000s. She continued to portray Luanne Platter on "King of the Hill" and had leading roles in "8 Mile," "Just Married," "Uptown Girls," and "Little Black Book."

On December 20, 2009, Murphy's husband, Simon Monjack, discovered his wife in her bathroom, deceased. The Los Angeles County Coroner's office performed an autopsy and revealed not a cause, exactly, but the circumstances that led to the actor's death. "She was really sick with pneumonia, very anemic, and she was taking medication," Coroner Assistant Chief Ed Winter told People. Along with biological and pathological information, the investigation also revealed that 90 empty prescription containers had been found near Murphy, all made out to Monjack or one of his known aliases. Unmoved by the coroner's findings, Murphy's father pushed for his daughter's hair to be sampled, and the results showed that a high volume of 10 toxic metals were present in the late actor's system, including barium, an ingredient in rat poison. No further investigation was conducted, although five months after Murphy died, Monjack did too, in the same house and from the same official cause: pneumonia and anemia.

The story of Pantera has frequently turned tragic, but in the 1990s and 2000s, it was one of the most commercially successful thrash metal bands of all time. Following the band's split in 2003, drummer Vinnie Paul and his brother, guitarist Dimebag Darrell Abbott, started up a new band with a similar sound, Damageplan. Dimebag Darrell would spend what would be the final year of his life on Damageplan, recording its sole album and touring extensively.

It was at one of those shows where Dimebag Darrell was shockingly and tragically murdered. On December 8, 2004, Damageplan began its set at Columbus, Ohio, club Alrosa Villa. Only 90 seconds into the show, gunshots rang out, and they came from Nathan Gale, a discharged Marine with a history of mental health issues who was reportedly so upset about the end of Pantera that he assaulted that band's ex-guitarist. Dimebag Darrell, 38 years old, died as a result of his gunshot wounds, and so did attendee Nathan Bray, crew member Jeff Thompson, and venue worker Erin Halk. Police shot and killed Gale.

One of the most famous, likable, and influential figures in the long line of television nature show hosts, Steve Irwin was more than just "The Crocodile Hunter," as his 1996 to 2004 program proclaimed him to be. He was a zookeeper and expert on wild creatures from his native Australia who actually discovered an animal species and who was unafraid of virtually all animals.

Irwin produced and starred in a lot of documentary-style projects in the 2000s, and while making a project about underwater life in 2006 called "Ocean's Deadliest," he was snorkeling in Australia's Batt Reef. In a shallow area, he encountered a stingray, a species that generally leaves humans alone. This time, the sea creature felt threatened — potentially mistaking Irwin's shadow for a tiger shark, according to camera operator Justin Lyons — and attacked the animal handler, delivering several hundred strikes in a matter of seconds. That added up to a two-inch gash across Irwin's chest and punctured heart and lungs. He was pulled out of the water, an emergency medical team couldn't restore vital functions, and he was declared dead on the scene at age 44.

A versatile and prolific character actor, Johnny Lewis found plenty of work on network TV in the early 2000s. He landed supporting roles and lasting arcs on a number of hit shows of the era, including "Boston Public," "American Dreams, "Malcolm in the Middle," "Smallville," and "The O.C." A breakthrough role as Half-Sack on "Sons of Anarchy" didn't pan out because Lewis objected to the cable biker drama's extremely violent content.

After departing that series in 2009, Lewis was beset by legal issues, enduring a custody battle with a former partner and arrested multiple times on suspicion of assault. Those allegedly violent tendencies led to the actor's death in 2012. Following a stint in jail, Lewis rented a room at a creative retreat operated by 81-year-old Cathy Davis. Responding to a call of a woman screaming at the mansion, Los Angeles Police Department officers discovered Lewis dead in the driveway. After Davis's body was found, investigators put together a timeline of events. Lewis had seemingly killed Davis by way of strangulation and striking her with a blunt object and then tried to escape and either jumped or fell from the building, suffering fatal injuries in the process. The actor was 28.

After Texas-born Johnny Hardwick turned out a memorable performance at Los Angeles' the Laugh Factory in the mid-1990s, "King of the Hill" creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels hired the stand-up comedian to be on their primetime animated comedy's writing staff. Before long, he joined the cast, portraying conspiracy theory-spouting exterminator Dale Gribble for more than 250 episodes of the series. Hardwick kept portraying Dale long after "King of the Hill" ended in 2010, in a series of bits on his YouTube channel.

Hardwick lived in a home in Austin, Texas, which is where police discovered the body of the actor on August 8, 2023. Incited by a concerned associate to perform a wellness check, they found Hardwick on his back in his bathtub. He hadn't drowned, and he didn't die by suicide, but authorities can't speak to much more than that. Hardwick had been deceased for so long that his body had begun to decompose in standing water. That degraded biological material to the point where medical examiners couldn't conduct any meaningful tests. It's a mystery how Hardwick died at the age of 64.