Despite being famous, even celebrities can go missing from time to time. In the public eye one day and gone the next, some celebs disappear from the spotlight and never return.
Gone but not forgotten, here are a few celebs that vanished, most never to be seen again.
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain attained some sort of legendary status after he ended his life in 1994. But what most people don’t know is that the Nirvana lead singer went missing several days before his death. It was that bad because his wife employed the services of a private investigator to track him down.
Where he went, and what he did in that period, no one would ever know.
Harold Holt
On December 17th, 1967 Australian prime minister Harold Holt went to the beach for “a quick swim before lunch” and never returned. Whether he drowned and his body was never recovered, no one knows.
His strange disappearance led to wild conspiracy theories and speculations. Some say he was a Chinese spy that faked his death while others say he was killed by the CIA for trying to pull Australia from Vietnam.
But investigations prove he had overestimated his swimming abilities and was caught up in a rip.
Bison Dele
Bison Dele was an NBA star that retired at the peak of his career. On July 6th 2002, he sailed to Tahiti alongside his girlfriend Serena Karlan, his brother Miles Dabord and skipper Bertrand Saldo.
Miles was the only person who was seen after that voyage and many people believed he killed the other three. He was arrested two months while he was trying to buy gold by impersonating Dele.
No one ever found out the real story as Miles overdosed on insulin after he was released on bail.
Connie Converse
Connie Converse was an unknown singer-songwriter before her disappearance. Burdened with the lack of success in her career, Converse quit music in 1961. And in 1974, she packed her belongings, told her loved ones she was starting life afresh, and left in her car – never to be seen or heard from aJimgain.
Ironically, Connie’s music became successful, three decades after she went missing.
Jim Sullivan
Jim Sullivan was a singer-songwriter and guitarist who was a few moments away from stardom . He was talented and his two albums attest to it.
In 1969, Sullivan made an album titled UFO where he sang about leaving his family and being abuducted by aliens. In March 1975, his car with his belongings was found abandoned at a ranch in New Mexico. No trace of him was ever found – was Jim Sullivan abducted by aliens or was he murdered? No one seems to know.
Barbara Newhall Follett
Barbara published two critically acclaimed novels as a teenager. She would have a great writer if she hadn’t disappeared.
In December 1939 at the age of 25, Barbara walked out of her troubling marriage and apartment and hasn’t been seen since.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Antoine was an award-winning writer of French origin. He is famous for Le Petit Prince, a popular children’s book.
In addition to his successful writing career, he was a pilot. During World War II, he served in the French Air Force despite his advanced age and deteriorating health and often performed crazy stunts, to the dismay of his colleagues.
He disappeared on July 31st, 1944 on a reconnaissance mission. The wreckage of his plane was found in 2000 but his body was never recovered.
Jim Thompson
Thailand’s silk industry has Jim Thompson to thank for revitalizing the sector. Jim Thompson was a former government agent under OSS (now known as CIA), turned businessman. He moved to Thailand and started Thai Silk what would be the best Silk company in the world.
In 1967 at the peak of his success, Jim mysteriously vanished on a biking trip. As a former government agent and a businessman, he obviously made enemies and any one of them could have taken him out.
John Bigham, 7th Earl of Lucan
John Bigham, 7th Earl of Lucan alias Lord Lucan was an Irish autocrat who disappeared in 1967 after he was to be arrested for murder.
After a failed marriage and a bitter custody battle ( which he lost), Lucan resorted to harassing his wife to get custody of their three kids. Things didn’t work too well in his favor and he decided to just kill his wife. Only that instead of his wife, the children’s nanny was bludgeoned to death.
Glenn Miller
Glenn Miller was a successful musician before and after he enlisted in the army to fight in World War II. Glenn did what he did best, formed a military band that went around performing for troop members. In fact, his band Glenn Miller and His Orchestra is one of the most successful big bands in the 20th century.
Miller went missing in December 1944 on a flight to France. Although his body was not recovered, official investigations showed that Miller’s plane crashed into the sea.
Dorothy Arnold
Dorothy’s disappearance remains one of the most unsettling mysteries in the US. The 25-year-old Dorothy Arnold was a wealthy socialite and an aspiring writer when she disappeared.
She left her house in excellent spirits to buy a dress for her sister’s party and was supposed to meet her mother for lunch later that day – an appointment she never kept.
There were several theories on what might have happened to the heiress, including a botched abortion, suicide, and a murder plot involving her then-boyfriend. But nothing was ever found regarding her disappearance.
Joe Pichler
The Beethoven series was very popular in the 90s and Joe Pichler played the role of Brennan Newton as a child.
In 2006, the promising actor went missing and hasn’t been found to date. His car was found at a bridge and a suicide note was found at his apartment which led to suspicions that he jumped to his death. But his family insisted that there was a foul play and he would never take his life.
Jean Spangler
Jean Spangler was an American starlet with bit parts in several Hollywood movies in the late 40s.
She became famous in 1949, not for her acting prowess but for her disappearance. The actress left her home one evening after informing her sister-in-law she was going to meet her ex-husband before going for a movie shoot. Her disappearance led to wild speculations – with many saying she died from a failed abortion.
Sean Flynn
With a successful actor for a father looming over him, Sean tried to carve his path. So after several flopped films, Sean Flynn, son of Errol Flynn became a photojournalist. He was sent to Vietnam where the chilling photos he took showed the horrors of war.
On April 10th, 1970, he and a fellow journalist Dana Stone went on a mission and never returned. It was obvious they met an awful fate.
Michael Rockefeller
Michael Rockefeller was the adventurous son of Nelson Rockefeller ( who was the former governor of New York and fomer vice president of the US), the great-grandson of famous businessman John D Rockefeller.
His love for adventures took him to the Asmat region of Netherlands New Guinea. A place he sadly went missing. He was presumed to have died from drowning but there have been contradicting evidence he might have been eaten by the cannibals living in the region.
Daniel Lind Lagerlöf
Daniel is a Swedish director, screenwriter, and producer. In October 2011, the producer visited the Tjurpannan nature reserve in search of a filming location for his new film.
It is rumored that he was swept to the sea near cliffs outside Tanumshede in Bohuslän after he was caught on the slippery rock. To date, his body has not been found.
Scott Smith
Scott Smith was a member of the popular Canadian rock band Loverboy. The band was pretty famous in the 80s. Scott was the band’s bassist and he also co-wrote some of their hit songs.
Scott was sailing his boat with his friends when a large boat swept him overboard on November 30, 2000. Every attempt made to look for him proved abortive and his body was never found.
Thomas Hale Boggs Sr
Hale Boggs was an American politician and member of the Warren Commission( a commission set up to investigate the assassination of John F Kennedy).
The twin-engine plane Boggs was traveling on to a fundraising event in Alaska mysteriously disappeared. The wreckage of the plane nor the bodies of Boggs and the people he was traveling with, were ever found.
Richey Edwards
Richey Edwards was a punk musician who doubled as a lyricist and rhythm guitarist of the rock band Manic Preachers. Edwards’ eccentricity and his extreme stunts endeared him to his fans.
When Richey first went missing in 1995, people thought it was another of his publicity stunts. After he was presumed dead, people again speculated he took his life since his car was found close to a bridge known for suicide jumps. But his family and close friends swore that despite his history of self-harm, Edwards would never take his life.
Amelia Earhart
If you are not already familiar with the story of Amelia Earhart – let’s tell you l about one of the greatest aviators of her time. Amelia was the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, she set so many records in the American aviation industry.
She disappeared in 1937 when she went on a global flight. There are rumors her plane vanished but naval ships continued to receive radio transmissions days after her plane landed on a small island in the Pacific.
