Why Celebrity Deaths (Seem to) Happen in Threes

For many, the news of the death of legendary wrestling personality Hulk Hogan on Thursday, July 24 confirmed a long-held superstition: celebrity deaths occur in threes. Hogan’s shocking demise from an apparent coronary event came within days of the drowning death of The Cosby Show actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner on July 20 and the passing of heavy metal icon Ozzy Osbourne on July 22. 

The so-called “three deaths” or “death comes in threes” theory isn’t reserved for Hollywood icons or media personalities. Anytime a community loses three of its own within a relatively short period of time, someone will attribute it to this phenomenon. Nevermind that someone dies in the United States every 11 seconds; when three people who have some sort of connection — celebrities, politicians, young people, car accident victims, etc. — die, our brains will, often subconsciously, link those deaths together into a pattern.

Reason for the rhyme

But why three deaths? Why don’t we group these occurrences into pairs, or groups of four? There are plenty of superstitions, cultural beliefs, and common tropes that include the number three. There’s the Holy Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the saying “third time’s the charm,” and even the patterns of threes in fairy tales (three bears, three wishes, three blind mice … you get the point).

According to experts, our ability to group these particular deaths into tragic trios while ignoring the other thousands of people who will die within the same time frame is called confirmation bias. Defined as the “tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one’s existing beliefs or theories,” confirmation bias, in this context, happens, perhaps, because we’ve heard that deaths come in threes over, and over, and over.

Is this proof?

Or maybe — just maybe — there’s a kernel of truth to the theory. As evidence, we present the following groups of celebrity deaths that occurred in close proximity and were attributed to the three-death rule … and it’s actually a pretty long list: 

• Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Ozzy Osbourne, and Hulk Hogan (July 20-24, 2025)
• Jimmy Buffett, Smashmouth lead singer Steve Harwell, and 70s singer Gary Wright (September 1-4, 2023)
• Glee actress Naya Rivera, actress Kelly Preston, and Regis Philbin (July 8-25, 2020)
• Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade, and The Goldbergs actor Jackson Odell (June 5-8, 2018)
• Alan Thicke, Carrie Fisher, and George Michael (December 13-27, 2016)
• Everybody Loves Raymond actress Doris Roberts, wrestler Chyna, and Prince (April 17-21, 2016)
• Lilly Pulitzer, Margaret Thatcher, and Annette Funicello (April 7-8, 2013)
• The Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek, All in the Family star Jean Stapleton, and James Gandolfini (May 20 – June 27, 2013)
• Ed McMahon, Michael Jackson, and Farrah Fawcett (June 23- 25, 2009)
• Spencer Tracy, Jayne Mansfield, and Vivien Leigh (June 10 – July 8, 1967)
• Lipton Tea founder Sir Thomas Lipton, New Jersey Senator Dwight Morrow, Thomas Edison (October 2-18, 1931)

We threw in that last example to show that although this version of the rule of three seems to have been occurring more often over the last 12 years or so, the phenomenon has made news since the earliest days of Hollywood. It’s just that in most cases, our generations wouldn’t recognize some of the names of the actors, producers, politicians, and musicians who died within days, weeks, or a month of two other famous-at-the-time folks. Consider the deaths of Cliff Arquette, Walter Brennan, and Jacqueline Susann in 1974; Dick Powell, Jack Carson, and Charles Laughton in 1963; Guy Kibbee, Eddie Arnold, and Louis Calhern in 1956; or Frank Morgan, Richard Dix, and Sam Wood in 1949.

So … is the phenomenon of celebrities dying three at a time due to a trick of the mind like confirmation bias? Is it simply an old wives’ tale or superstition? We’ll let you decide. 

Addendum

The death of Grammy-winning jazz musician Chuck Mangione last week may seem to throw a wrench into the death-comes-in-threes theory when added to the passings of Warner, Osbourne, and Hogan – unless it’s the beginning of another set of three celebrity deaths … which we hope it is not.

What Deathcare Professionals (and the Families You Serve) Can Learn From Celebrity Deaths 

The recent tragic drug-related death of 31-year-old One Direction singer Liam Payne has sparked a good bit of discussion on why fans of celebrities mourn them just as deeply as they would a deceased family member. The phenomenon of celebrity grief is very real, and for many of Payne’s young fans, this may be their first exposure to death and mourning. Deathcare professionals who understand the impact of this particular kind of loss will be better prepared to share this knowledge when a family questions why its happening to them or their children.

The validity of celebrity grief is just one lesson one can learn from the death of beloved celebrities. These high-profile passings — and often, their aftermath — can also help you to explain key concepts to the families you serve. Here are some examples of how you can use real celebrity situations to better your business and support survivors.

Prince: Don’t die without a will

Despite his vast and complicated collection of assets, musician Prince did not have either a will or an estate plan in place when he died in 2016 at the age of 57. As a result, the probate process for Prince’s $156 million estate took more than six years to settle through the court system. Prince died with no spouse or children, so his six half-siblings were named heirs. Three sold their stakes to a Primary Wave, a music publishing company, while the other three maintained their portions. The protracted probate process included equitably splitting Prince’s intellectual property (music catalog, likeness, name, etc.) rights, real estate, and $6 million in cash.

Lisa Marie Presley: Directors will go above and beyond to help, no matter what (or how long) it takes

As the only child of the King of Rock and Roll, Lisa Marie Presley would have been a celebrity even if she hadn’t had her own music career and married two very famous people (Michael Jackson and Nicholas Cage). Sadly, Lisa Marie died suddenly in January 2023 at the age of 54, but she left a lesson for deathcare in her posthumously-published memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown. In the book she describes her grief after her 27-year-old son Benjamin’s death from suicide. She also admits to keeping his unembalmed body in a coffin with dry ice for two months in a 55-degree-temp bedroom as she mourned his loss and decided where to bury him. Presley’s funeral director patiently guided and assisted her with these preparations, serving her slightly unusual needs until she was ready for her son’s final disposition.

Kobe Bryant: Put your intentions in writing and keep documents updated

Basketball phenom Kobe Bryant wasn’t just talented on the court; he was also a successful businessperson who understood the importance of creating a highly detailed estate plan. However, after his death in a helicopter accident in 2020, his family realized that he’d missed two important additions: He never added his youngest daughter, Capri, to his trust, and despite verbally committing many times to “take care of” his mom, he never explicitly spelled out his intentions in his official estate documents. 

Casey Kasem: It’s not enough to just say you want to be buried

The 2014 death of America’s DJ Casey Kasem from a dementia-related disease was tragic enough, but the drama his family created before and long after his passing was even worse. Kasem’s wife Jean and his children from a previous marriage took several of their contentions against one another to court, but while those proceedings were playing out, Jean quietly shipped Kasem’s body to Norway for burial in an unmarked grave. His children claim she did this just to spite them, and claimed Kasem had told them he wanted to be buried at Forest Lawn in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, there were no documents to prove this. Ten years later, Kasem’s daughter Kerri is still hoping she can one day have her father’s body transferred back to the states and properly memorialized with a marker.

Paul Walker: You’re never too young to pre-plan

Actor Paul Walker’s recurring roles in the Fast ‘n’ Furious movie franchise had helped him to amass a $25 million estate — all of which was inherited by his 15-year-old daughter upon Walker’s tragic death in 2020. Although he was only 40 years old when he died, Walker had already created a will that created a trust for his daughter and specifically outlined his wishes as to who should be his daughter’s legal guardian.