Shocking celebrity deaths

Elvis Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977): Presley is often regarded as one of the most important figures of 20th-century popular culture. He was one of the originators of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country and rhythm and blues. Journalist Tony Scherman writes that by early 1977, "Elvis Presley had become a grotesque caricature of his sleek, energetic former self. Hugely overweight, his mind dulled by the pharmacopoeia he daily ingested, he was barely able to pull himself through his abbreviated concerts." In his final days, Presley suffered from multiple ailments — glaucoma, high blood pressure, liver damage, and an enlarged colon, each aggravated, and possibly caused, by drug abuse. He was scheduled to fly out of Memphis on the evening of August 16, 1977, to begin another tour. That afternoon, 'The King' was discovered unresponsive on his bathroom floor. Attempts to revive him failed, and death was officially pronounced at 3:30 pm at Baptist Memorial Hospital. (Wikipedia)