DO CELEBRITY DEATHS REALLY COME IN THREES?

By Ryan Helfenbein

For years, people have joked – or solemnly sworn – that celebrity deaths come in threes. That belief got fresh fuel recently with the sudden and shocking death of wrestling legend Hulk Hogan on Thursday, July 24, from what appeared to be a coronary event. Just days before, on July 20, The Cosby Show actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner reportedly passed while swimming, and on July 22, heavy metal icon Ozzy Osbourne passed away. Three well-known names. Three deaths. One eerie pattern.

The “death comes in threes” phenomenon isn’t new, and it isn’t exclusive to celebrities. Anytime three people connected by a common thread – local leaders, classmates, crash victims – pass away within a short time, someone inevitably mentions it. Statistically, someone in the U.S. dies every 11 seconds, but our minds naturally look for patterns. When three familiar names leave us in quick succession, we connect the dots, even if there’s no real reason to.

So why threes? Why not twos or fives? Our culture has long given special meaning to the number three: think of the Holy Trinity, “third time’s the charm,” and all the fairy tales that include three bears, three wishes, or three blind mice. Psychologists call our tendency to notice these threes – and ignore all the unrelated deaths happening around the same time – confirmation bias. Once we’ve heard the “celebrity deaths come in threes” theory a few times, we subconsciously start scanning for it.

Still, the pattern can seem spooky. Over the years, we’ve seen plenty of trio deaths that seemed oddly timed:

• Jimmy Buffett, Steve Harwell (Smash Mouth), and Gary Wright (Sept. 1–4, 2023)
• Naya Rivera, Kelly Preston, and Regis Philbin (July 8–25, 2020)
• Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade, and Jackson Odell (June 5–8, 2018)
• Alan Thicke, Carrie Fisher, and George Michael (Dec. 13–27, 2016)
• And going way back: Spencer Tracy, Jayne Mansfield, and Vivien Leigh (June–July 1967)

The list goes on. Even in the early days of pop culture, folks were noting these eerie groupings. Maybe we’re just better at remembering and sharing them now with social media fueling every twist of celebrity news.

But of course, life isn’t always neat. Just last week, jazz great Chuck Mangione passed away – throwing a curveball into the Hogan, Osbourne, and Warner trio. Does this break the rule? Or is it the start of the next set of three?

In the end, maybe the “rule of threes” is just a curious mix of cultural storytelling, psychology, and coincidence. Or maybe – just maybe – there’s something to it. I’ll let you decide. But for now, let’s just hope no one else joins that list anytime soon.

Ryan, owner, supervising mortician and preplanning counselor at Lasting Tributes on Bestgate Road in Annapolis, offers area residents solutions to high-cost funerals. He can be contacted at 410-897-4852 or [email protected].