List of entertainers who died during a performance

Through history, many entertainers have died while performing live or while recording a performance. The following list excludes deaths involving stunt persons, as they are listed separately.

17th century

• 1673: • Molière, the French actor and playwright, who suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis, died after being seized by a violent coughing fit while playing the title role in his play Le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid). However, he did not die on stage — as he was able to finish the play — but died a few minutes later at his home. The superstition that green brings bad luck to actors is said to originate from the colour of the clothing he was wearing at the time of his death.

19th century

• 1817: • An actor known as Mr. Cummins died on stage while playing the part of Dumont in The Tragedy of Jane Shore by Nicholas Rowe), at the Leeds Theatre in Hunslet. He died of "ossification of the heart" (aortic stenosis) on 20 June having uttered his final words from the play "May such befall me at my latest hour ...". • 1829: • Sam Patch, an American daredevil, died in Rochester, New York, during a jump into the High Falls of the Genesee River. He had successfully leapt into High Falls one week previously. • 1844: • Dancer Clara Vestris Webster's dress caught fire during The Revolt of the Harem at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Webster was badly burned and died three days later. • 1861: • The four Gale sisters were a team of British ballerinas who were appearing at Philadelphia's Continental Theater. They were among eight dancers who died when Zelia Gale's gauze dress caught on fire from a gas tube. The deadly flames spread to the other three sisters Hannah, Ruth, and Adeline when they tried to rescue their sibling. • 1872: • Lion tamer Thomas Macarte, known as Massarti the Lion Tamer, who had previously lost an arm when attacked by one of the lions, entered the lion's cage for a performance with a travelling menagerie in Bolton market on 3 January. Attacked by the lions, he attempted to fight them off with his sword and a pistol loaded with blanks but they overcame him. Although other members of the show eventually forced the animals back into an inner cage they dragged Macarte with them. Eventually rescued, he died on the way to the hospital. • 1873: • The actress Matilda Pascaly died from injuries suffered on stage while playing the part of an angel in Don Juan de Maraña. Stagehands mishandled her wires and sent her crashing upside down into a wall. • 1882: • The actress Annie Von Behren died during a performance of Si Slocum at Cincinnati's Coliseum when a firearm wielded by her castmate, Frank Frayne, accidentally discharged, shooting her in the head. • 1888: • Frederick Federici had a heart attack as he descended through a trap door just after singing his last note as Mephistopheles in Gounod's opera Faust) at the Princess Theatre) in Melbourne. • 1897: • Operatic bass Armand Castelmary died onstage at New York City's Metropolitan Opera House) during a performance of Friedrich von Flotow's Martha). The audience, believing his collapse to be a stroke of brilliant acting, rewarded him with a loud ovation as the curtain was lowered.

List of entertainers who died during a performance