Suicide Is Painless Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jumping off the "Hollywood" sign

Peg Entwistle was born in Wales, emigrated to America and became an actress on Broadway then to the mecca of Hollywood. It is believed that she sprang to her death from the letter 'H'. Her suicide note is cryptic: "I am afraid, I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain." She appeared in only one Hollywood film with a supporting role in "Thirteen Women" that starred Myrna Loy and Irene Dunne.

She was married in 1927 to Robert Keith and became the step-mother to Brian Keith, the actor. Hollywood fund raisers for suicide prevention are done in memory of her. A musical based on the tragedy of Peg Entwistle has been produced and there are rumors that her story may be filmed.

Answer: Socrates

Very little is known about Socrates except what Plato and Xenophon wrote about him. He may have received a basic Greek education but he chose either not to write or did not master the art. He married Xanthippe who bore him three sons and whose name became a synonym for a nagging wife.

He made a modest living as a stone mason. Legend has it that he served with distinction in the military. His heritage, preserved mostly by Plato, merits him with being the father of western philosophy.

Answer: Eva Braun

Eva Braun became the official photographer of the Nazi party. She met Adolf Hitler in 1932 and remained with him until their deaths. Although insider Nazis knew of the relationship, it was not known to the German public. They had separate bedrooms but with a connective passage between. Braun often felt that the Fuhrer neglected her and made two suicide attempts, both believed to be attention-seeking.

As the Third Reich collapsed , both Braun and Hitler took cyanide in the Berlin bunker and Hitler added a bullet to his brain.

Answer: Courtney Love

There are almost as many theories about the death of Cobain as the John F. Kennedy death. The evidence seems strongly to point to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Courtney Love stuck with Cobain through his previous suicide attempts and worked to get him treatment, even though she has had drug issues herself.

She has continued to work as a musician for her group "Hole" and has had a film career that led to several awards and nominations for her role in "The People vs. Larry Flynt" (1996).

Answer: Drug overdose

Although Williams had a history of alcohol and drug abuse, none were found in his system during the autopsy. Williams had been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. Many persons with Parkinson's also have Lewy Body Dementia, a disease that may cause hallucinations, cognitive issues, sleeplessness, attention deficits, and depression, all of which were observations on his last few days.

It is possible that some of the prescription drugs he was routinely taking may have been contributing factors.

Answer: Shot out of a cannon

On August 20, 2005, at a funeral paid for by Johnny Depp (who had played Thompson in a film), Thompson's ashes were shot out of a cannon. It was a media event. Present were 280 people that reads like the royalty of politics, show business, and journalism including John Kerry, George McGovern, Ed Bradley, Charlie Rose, Jack Nicholson, John Cusack, Bill Murray, Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn, Josh Hartnett, Lyle Lovett, John Oates, David Amram, and Ralph Steadman.

The canister containing his ashes included fireworks and the playing of Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man." The cannon was placed atop a 153-foot tower. YouTube has the funeral but has a shaky camera and it seems too dark to make out much of anything but there is calliope of unnamed voices.

Answer: Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway's family was in denial and claimed that it was not a suicide but an accident, but one does not clean a shotgun by placing the muzzle in the mouth. Hemingway won both the Pulitzer and the Nobel for his short novel "The Old Man and the Sea" (1953) although it was more for his body of work.

He was ill and had under gone treatments including shock therapy. Suicide ran in his family.

Answer: Jumped from the Staten Island Ferry

In 2001, Gray suffered injuries in a car crash. He was in the back seat and lurched forward hitting the back of his wife's head and leaving him with serious brain injury. Gray, who had battled depression and bipolar tendencies before, also had a broken hip and his right leg was immobilized. Surgeons removed dozens of bone fragments from his frontal cortex. Gray was in chronic pain and sought many therapies for relief.

But the thought of suicide remained a constant. Some thought that his persistence on suicide was Gray's way of gathering material for a new monologue. On January 11, 2004 he surrendered himself to the waters somewhere between Manhattan and Staten Island.

Answer: Loaded her pockets with stones and rocks

In the late 1920s Woolf had great success with her novels "Mrs. Dalloway" (1925)
"To the Lighthouse" (1927), and "Orlando" (1928). Her later works were not that well received. After the activity of and effort of completing a literary work, she would often fall into depression. She was a member of the Bloomsbury Group,
an intellectual group of the some of the finest minds in England. Disappointed in losing her home to the London blitz and the failure of her last literary efforts, she took an overcoat that she stuffed with stones and walked into the River Ouse. Her body was not found for three weeks.

Answer: Suicide

Priscilla Griner, wife of the proprietor of the inn, gave conflicting accounts of what she heard or seen. When her remarks were picked up by the press, they were laced with speculation and embellishment.

The Natchez Trace that Lewis was following to Washington was a lawless unpatrolled area where robbery and murder were common.

Lewis was suicidal and had to be restrained at least once on his journey.

Lewis was near a ruinous financial situation. He believed that Thomas Jefferson had lost confidence in him. He was a heavy user of alcohol and opium. He had to borrow money to travel to Washington from Saint Louis. Many scholars have probed the murder or suicide issue and the majority have come down on suicide.