Hollywood is known for its celebrities, scandals and mysterious mishaps surrounding the government and the deaths of some of the biggest names in the industry. In fact, many celebrities who have died in Hollywood have two major things in common: they all died at the age of 27 and most of them allegedly passed due to drug overdoses or mysterious circumstances. As a result, the media has compiled an informal list known as the 27 Club, consisting of Hollywood’s biggest celebrities who eerily passed at this seemingly cursed age.
1. Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain was the lead singer of the famous 1987 rock band Nirvana. While it appears that he was living the dream life, Cobain struggled with alcohol and drug addiction as well as mental health issues throughout his career. On April 5, 1994, Cobain was found dead in his Seattle home. His death was later ruled a suicide by a gunshot wound to the head, and large amounts of heroin were found in his system along with a suicide note he had left behind. He addressed the note to an imaginary friend, writing that he didn’t have the passion for singing or songwriting anymore, and that it had been missing for a long time. Many people believe that Cobain’s death wasn’t a suicide at all, and that Cobain’s wife, Courtney Love, murdered him. Due to the large amount of heroin in his system, many believe that he wouldn’t have been strong enough to use a gun or write a suicide note. Furthermore, many believe that there were inconsistencies in the suicide note and that his handwriting didn’t look authentic.
2. Amy Winehouse
One of the more recent members of the 27 Club is Amy Winehouse who died on July 23, 2011, from alcohol poisoning. Winehouse had been addicted to drugs in her early 20s, up until the age of 24 when she steered away from drugs and turned to alcohol. It’s reported that Winehouse thought she was pregnant during the last few weeks of her life, and she tried to sober up in order to protect the pregnancy. However, when she was found dead, she had extremely high levels of alcohol in her system. Like Kurt Cobain, many people believe that Winehouse no longer desired a career in the spotlight.
3. Jimi Hendrix
Of these 5 famous musicians, Jimi Hendrix was the first to become a member of the 27 Club. Hendrix died from an alcohol and sleeping pill overdose on September 18, 1970. Many people believe that Hendrix’s death was not an accident and that his girlfriend at the time, Monika Dannemann, played a role in his death. Dannemann’s story was very inconsistent and constantly changing. One of Hendrix’s ex-girlfriends insisted that the case be reopened because she found Dannemann suspicious, but his death was still ruled as accidental.
4. Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin was one of the biggest rock-and-roll icons of the ‘60s, but Joplin sadly died in 1970 in her hotel room in Los Angeles due to an accidental overdose. She was on the verge of releasing one of the biggest albums of her career, titled “Pearl,” but was never able to to see the release of the album or all the success it brought with it.
5. Jim Morrison
Jim Morrison died in 1971 in his bathtub from what was believed to be heart failure. The French government never performed an autopsy, which many found to be suspicious. Consequently, many people believe that Morrison’s death wasn’t accidental. Like Jimi Hendrix, Morrison’s girlfriend didn’t have a clear account of what happened. Allegedly, there are claims that she put Morrison in a warm bath after noticing that he looked ill, and he ended up dying shortly afterward. However, Sam Bernet, a Paris nightclub manager and friend of Morrison’s, claims that Morrison died in one of Bernet’s bathroom stalls after a heroin overdose.
While some believe that the members of the 27 Club are connected somehow, astrologers have a different take. Astrologers believe they the untimely deaths of these celebrities can be tied to Saturn’s return. The planet takes 27 to 30 years to complete a full cycle; every 27 years the planet Saturn returns to the same exact spot it occupied when a person was born.
Astrologers believe that Saturn’s return is indicative of reaching true adulthood. Saturn’s return can test people and lead them down their true path in life. If we take their word for it, perhaps this is why musicians like Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse felt that it was time to leave the spotlight. Furthermore, because these musicians were already struggling with addiction and other mental health issues, their Saturn return cycle might’ve been too much for them to handle, causing them to turn to drugs and alcohol, ultimately leading to their deaths.
There’s also the outlandish theory that the members of the 27 Club sold their souls to the devil or the Illuminati for fame. While both theories are equally ridiculous, it is a strange coincidence that so many famous celebrities have died at the age of 27.
