“Give me my glasses.”
Too weak to talk, the writer and humorist wrote down these words on some paper as he was dying, a request for his glasses so he could better see his daughter Clara. Mark Twain died of a heart attack at his mansion house Stormfield in Redding Connecticut, he was 74 years old.
“This isn’t Hamlet, you know. It’s not meant to go in the bloody ear.”
Laurence Olivier couldn’t resist a Shakespeare reference among his last words, when he rebuked a nurse for accidentally spilling juice on his ear. The 82 year old actor and director died at his home in the village of Ashurst from cancer and kidney failure.
“Come, come, no weakness! Let’s be a man to the last! Now, I shall go to sleep.”
These are said to be the deathbed words of the Romantic poet and satirist, who is perhaps best remembered for writing the epic poem Don Juan. Lord Byron had been fighting in Greece for the country’s independence, when he succumbed to fever in the town of Missolonghi and died at the age of 36.
“Hold it! Hold it! Don’t get excited. Let’s cool it, brothers.”
According to some reports, these were the final words of Malcolm X who was assassinated by three gunmen in Manhattan’s Audubon Ballroom. The 39 year old human rights activist and revolutionary was shot 21 times and taken to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital but was pronounced dead shortly after arriving.
“Where the hell are the parachutes?”
The iconic trombonist and musician was boarding a flight to take him from England to France, when he jokingly spoke these ironic last words to Colonel Baesell. Glenn Miller’s plane was lost over the English Channel, the exact cause of the disappearance remains a mystery, and no wreckage was ever found.
“I’ve had eighteen straight whiskies. I think that’s the record!”
Just days before his death, Dylan Thomas a heavy drinker boasted about a drinking binge he’d been on at the White Horse tavern in New York. Following this, the 39 year old poet and writer became severely ill with a chest illness and slipped into a coma. He was taken to hospital but died days later – the official cause of death was pneumonia.
“I think I’ll be more comfortable.”
According to some reports, these were the last words of the comedian and actor – asking a nurse to change his position in bed, just before suffering a fatal heart attack. Lou Costello died in Doctors Hospital Beverly Hills, he was aged 52.
“Leave me alone, I’m fine”
These were Barry White’s dying words, stoically spoken to a nurse in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles. The iconic singer and songwriter died from kidney failure at the age of 58.
“Is it not meningitis?”
These were reportedly the last words of the novelist and poet, most well known for writing Little Women, who wrongly believed she was ill with meningitis.
Louisa May Alcott was 55 years of age when she suffered a stroke and lost consciousness, she remained in this state until her death three days later.
“Fuck you”
Tupac Shakur was shot four times in a drive by shooting in Paradise Nevada. Mortally wounded, this was his reply when a police officer asked him ‘Who shot you?’
The legendary rapper was taken to hospital and put on life support, but died of internal bleeding from his gunshot wounds. He was aged 25.
