They Died Sad Deaths Far from Home Quiz

Answer: Wallpaper

The dying words of the ever-ready wit of Oscar Wilde are said to be comments about the wallpaper in the Hotel d'Alsace room where he lay dying. "This wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death: either it goes, or I do". Wilde was very well-known for his aesthetic sensibilities in art and clothing, so a tasteless wall-paper would have been a great source of annoyance to him, especially at such a pivotal moment!

Answer: Pont Alma tunnel entrance

Princess Diana's car was just heading into the Pont Alma tunnel (the Alma bridge tunnel), when the chauffeur lost control of the vehicle and it crashed. The rest, as they say, is history.

The other three bridges indicated do exist, but not with tunnels.

Answer: Lorraine

Dr. Martin Luther King was staying at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee where he had gone to show support for the strike by the city's black sanitary public works employees. He was a regular visitor to this motel whenever he and his team were in Memphis. After, on April 3 he made a reprise of his "I have been to the Mountaintop" address at the headquarters of the Church of God in Christ. That evening his flight back to Memphis was delayed because of bomb threat to his plane.

On the evening of 4th April, at 6.01 p.m., while he was taking a break, shots rang out and Dr. King was felled by the bullet fired by James Earl Ray.

Answer: Rome

John Keats spent the last year of his life living in Rome, where it was believed the climate would help his disease. He lived in a house just adjacent to the Spanish Steps, and there is a plaque commemorating that fact as you walk down to the magnificent Piazza di Spagna.

In his well-known poem "Ode to a Nightingale", Keats addresses his own death several times. When he hears the song of the nightingale, he says: "Now more than ever seems it rich to die, to cease upon the midnight with no pain, while thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad in such an ectasy." Also when thinking about how the song of the nightingale has been heard down the centuries, he speaks of his own troubles by saying "here where youth grows pale and spectre-thin and dies".

I often wonder what other towering works we might have had from John Keats had he lived at a time when tuberculosis was not a killer.

Answer: Errol Flynn

Flynn had gone to Vancouver for business reasons and was being driven to the airport by a friend. He complained of back and leg pain, and was taken to the apartment of another friend at 1310 Burnaby Street in Vancouver's West End. During this stay he apparently suffered a heart-attack. He was taken by ambulance to Vancouver General Hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival.

Much later, after closer looks at the cause of death and the symptoms surrounding it, it was more probably that Flynn died of a pulmonary embolism rather than from a heart attack. Whatever the cause of death, Flynn was a great and charismatic entertainer and his death was a loss for movie-goers around the world.

Answer: Yekaterinburg

The last dwelling place of the Romanov Royal family was in a relatively modest two storey country house in Yekaterinburg, a far cry from the splendid palaces of their autocratic reign.

The execution of the Tsar, the Tsarina, the Tsar's heir Alexei and their five daughters is seen by some as an unnecessary act of cruel murder, and by others as a precaution against there being any royal family left to restore to power. Whichever way you view it, it was an undignified way to die.

Answer: London

Jimi Hendrix died in the Samarkand Hotel in London, and is buried in Renton, Washington, U.S.A., where he was born. Plenty of controversy surrounded his unfortunate death, as is the case with many celebrities who are associated with drug-abuse.

However, Jimi Hendrix's talent was great enough for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to describe him as "arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music." Who can ever forget his rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner"?

Answer: David Carradine

David Carradine came from an acting family, with his father John being an accomplished actor. Eventually, while it is true that Carradine was found hanging naked from a rope in his hotel room closet, it turned out not to be suicide but erotic asphyxiation.

Unfortunately, photographs of Carradine's body were circulated on the Internet. It was hard for many people to square these graphic images against the beloved character played by Carradine in "Kung Fu".

Answer: Badly beheaded

Unfortunately Mary, Queen of Scots, was beheaded badly. While she was brave and dignified throughout her execution, the executioner proved to be boorish and incompetent in a profession where competence guarantees a quick death. Firstly he interrupted her during her final prayers when she was trying to compose herself, then secondly, he took more than one chop to sever her head from her body.

Answer: Hollywood

Smith was found dead in the Hotel Seminole, Hollywood, near Miami, Florida on 8 February, 2007. While CPR was performed on her for fifteen minutes, she did not survive. While she did die of drug intoxication, no illegal drugs were found in her system.

The drugs in question were combinations of anti-depressants, anti-anxiety, anti-convulsants and sedatives. The levels of these drugs within her system were not enough to cause death by themselves, but the combinations essentially led to an overdose.