Top 10 People Who Tragically Died While Doing Their Job

Top 10 People Who Famously Died While Doing Their Job

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Top 10 Famous People Who Tragically Died While Performing

These are the people who lost their lives doing what they were meant to do. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’re counting down our picks for the top 10 people who famously died while doing their job. For this list, we’re focusing on the men and women who passed away as a result of side effects, dangers or accidents that were directly related to their jobs.

Canadian freestyle skiing gold medalist Sarah Burke had immense talent, drive and personality. She was one of two women to compete against male skiers during the 2001 US Freeskiing Open and openly supported the addition of a women’s skiing division to the 2005 X-Games. In 2012, after landing a stunt during training, Burke fell and hit her head, causing her to go into cardiac arrest and damaging her neck. Although Burke made it to a hospital, she died of her injuries nine days later. After her passing, she was inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame, remembered as a great athlete and a pioneer.

Brandon Lee was an actor and martial artist with natural ability like his famous father, Bruce Lee. After making several small TV and movie appearances, he was able to get the leading role in the dark action film The Crow. In 1993, during filming of an action scene where Lee’s character was to be shot, the prop gun wasn’t checked properly. A bullet from a dummy round struck his abdomen and he died from his injuries hours later. Through the use of stunt doubles and special effects, they finished filming The Crow and dedicated the movie to Brandon Lee’s memory.

Formula 1 racing is a thrilling but dangerous sport that’s claimed the lives of greats like Gilles Villeneuve in terrible crashes. Another great, Ayrton Senna, a Brazilian racecar driver who won three F1 world championships and the Monaco Grand Prix six times, also lost his life on the track. While racing in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, Senna tried to take a turn, but his car went straight into a concrete wall. Upon impact, pieces of the wheel went through Senna’s helmet, causing massive head trauma from which he couldn’t recover. On the day of his funeral, it was said that around 3 million people flooded Sao Paulo to say goodbye to the racing legend.

#7: Vladimir Komarov

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During the ‘60s Space Race between the USSR and the U.S., Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was chosen to fly the Soyuz 1 spacecraft. Despite a series of unmanned test flights going awry, the Soviet space program was confident he would succeed. On the morning of April 23, 1967, Soviet sources announced that Soyuz 1 launch had been successful. However, later that day, it was revealed that upon re-entry from space, the main parachute on the Soyuz 1 had failed, leading Komarov to crash into earth. After his death, the Soviets worked on building safer rockets, aiming to avoid the tragedy that took their fallen cosmonaut.

In 2002, journalist Daniel Pearl was investigating a story for the Wall Street Journal in Pakistan when he was contacted to interview a Muslim extremist. But the meeting was a setup and when Pearl arrived, he was kidnapped by terrorists. The terrorists made several demands to the U.S. as they held him for over a week. But, after nine days, he was beheaded on camera. The journalist is remembered through the Daniel Pearl foundation, the 2007 film “A Mighty Heart” and the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act signed by president Obama in 2010, which aims to protect the freedoms of journalists around the world.

Marie Curie was a scientist who earned her PhD in a time when higher education was virtually unavailable to women in her home country of Poland. As if that weren’t impressive enough, in the course of her research, she helped discover new elements, define the term radioactivity and became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. Unfortunately, Curie’s close exposure to radioactive substances without protective materials gave her aplastic anemia, a disease that damaged her bone marrow and lead to her death in 1934 at the age of 66. Curie’s end may’ve been tragic, but her contributions to the field and the path she paved for women in science will never be forgotten.

In January of 1986, NASA launched the space shuttle Challenger on a mission to deploy satellites and carry payloads to assorted orbits. But less than two minutes into the launch, tragedy struck. The cold weather conditions caused critical hardware within the shuttle to fail and release fuel from the internal gas tank, triggering an explosion that made the ship break apart. Although the seven crew members were believed to have survived the initial incident, they did not survive the impact into the water. The disaster was the most fatal space incident in NASA’s history to that point. Sadly, that loss of life was matched 17 years later by the 2003 Columbia space shuttle disaster.

#3: 9/11 First Responders

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When terrorists flew two hijacked planes into the Twin Towers in New York City on September 11th, 2001, a group of men and women stepped forward to save people from the wreckage. These first responders battled fires, thick smoke and shifting rubble. Over the course of the rescue attempts, over 400 firefighters, police officers and paramedics lost their lives. Years later, programs like the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation act, named after a first responder who suffered negative health effects following September 11th, were created to provide medical aid and financial assistance to the brave men and women who risked their lives that day.

#2: John F. Kennedy

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The 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy was known for a multitude of policies including tasking NASA with putting a man on the moon and creating the Peace Corps. On November 22, 1963, the president was travelling in a motorcade in Dallas when gunshots erupted in the middle of the crowd. The bullets struck JFK in the head and the neck, and he was pronounced dead only a couple of hours later. In the years since, countless conspiracy theories have tried to explain the Kennedy assassination, but we know only one thing for sure: President Kennedy gave his life for his country. Before we name our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. - Richard Weiss, Slalom Kayaker Drowned in a Kayaking Accident in 1997 - Amelia Earhart, Aviator Disappeared Mid-Flight in 1937 - Elizabeth Fleischman, X-Ray Pioneer Killed from X-Ray Exposure in 1905

Steve Irwin, also known as “The Crocodile Hunter,” was a beloved zoologist, TV star and father. His documentary work captured the imaginations of people all over the world and showed us the true beauty and ferocity of nature. While filming a nature documentary in the water in 2006, Irwin was attacked by a stingray and stabbed in the chest multiple times. He was rushed to a boat to receive CPR, but the injuries to his heart and lungs were too severe and he died before reaching shore. Steve Irwin may be gone, but his legacy lives on in the hearts of his fans and through the work of his family, who follow in his footsteps.