Celebrity suicides

Hours before Michael Hutchence was found dead in his hotel room in Sydney, he placed a call to TV actress Paula Yates, the mother of his love child Tiger Lily. Michael was disconsolate. He wanted Paula to come to Australia because he could not bear not to see his daughter Tiger Lily. Paula had just come from a British court where she and former husband Sir Bob Geldof where engaged in child custody case over their three daughters. Paula said she could not come at that very moment. She and Michael had to wait for a few more weeks before they could see each other. Paula had said that Bob is making her life difficult; that each time she’d wanted to travel, she had to ask Bob’s permission if she could bring their three children with her. In that same conversation before Michael’s death, Michael told Paula that he would call Bob and would beg him to allow Paula and the children to go to Australia. It never happened. Michael was found dead at his hotel room with a belt tied around his neck. Some say, it was a suicide. Others speculate that the death was autoerotic asphyxiation. That was in November 1997. Three years later Paula died at her house in London. It was another case of an apparent suicide. And Tiger Lily is now with Bob Geldof, along with the other daughters Paula left behind.

Michael Hutchence is the former lead singer of the Australian band INXS. Michael is just one of those whom you might call a victim of celebrity suicide. River Phoenix; Elvis Presley; musician Freddie Prinze; Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols; Kurt Cobain, lead singer for Nirvana; Ray Combs, former host of Family Feud; Dorothy Dandridge, American singer and actress who was the first black woman to be nominated for Academy Award as lead actress for Carmen Jones; Ernest Hemingway; Margaux Hemingway; Abbie Hoffman, US political activist and political demonstrator; Marilyn Monroe; Christina Onassis; Sylvia Plath, American poet, author and essayist who gassed herself in the kitchen oven; actress Lupe Vélez; Judy Garland; Virginia Woolf, who drowned herself in a river; Christine Chubbuck, US news reader who shot herself in the head on live TV after reading the news; Jimi Hendrix; Janis Joplim; Jim Morrison; George Eastman, who wrote before he died in March 14, 1932, "To my friends: My work is done. Why wait?," were suicide victims.

Why do celebrities commit suicide? George Sanders, an actor wrote in his suicide note: "Dear World: I am leaving because I am bored. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool."

In 1994, just days after Kurt Cobain shot himself, writer John Updike was asked to comment on the suicide and describe the spiritual crises of rock stars. "I think all of mankind operates in the shadow of spiritual crisis," Updike said. "Rock stars. They’re simply middle-class kids whose dreams have come true too soon, and maybe because they’re very reckless and self-infatuated, they’re trying to become angels. That was certainly the feeling you had in the late ’60s and early ’70s, when so many of the real stars just went down like rockets: Joplin, Hendrix and others."

And the effect of suicide to the audience is great such that one doctor cautioned about the contagion factor in suicide. One suicide in Japan in 1933 by a 19-year-old student, Kiyoko Matsumoto, who jumped into the crater of a volcano, inspired almost 300 children into doing a similar act.

Celebrity suicides usually hyped in media have "copycat effect." One theory says that a suicidal person may read a story about a celebrity suicide and think, "if a person with fame and fortune cannot endure life, why should I?." For example, the story of Marilyn Monroe has lasting impact than the story of an ordinary man on the street.

And Michael Hutchence’s memory still lingers. Michael joined INXS when the band was yet known as the Farriss Brothers. That was in the ‘70s. The Farriss Brothers was later changed to INXS before releasing an album also entitled INXS. A follow-up album entitled Underneath the Colours became a big-hit in its native Australia. A third album, Shabooh Shabooh earned for the group its first taste of success in America. A cut from the album The One Thing landed in the Top 30 in music charts. The fourth album, Swing, sealed its popularity worldwide. And Michael with his MTVish looks was becoming more popular. He was also dating fellow Australian singer Kylie Minogue, model and actress Helena Christensen and Paula Yates, among others. A 1987 album entitled Kick produced the hits New Sensation, Never Tear Us Apart, Devil Inside, I Need You Tonight.

INXS is a major force in Australian popular music. And throughout its 25-year musical career, INXs is credited with over 30 million albums sold worldwide. It has also performed for over 4,000 live shows for over 25 million people in almost 50 countries including the landmark concert at Wembley Stadium in London where it played to a sold-out audience of 72,000 people.

After a few years of hiatus resulting from the death of Michael, INXS resurrected to international prominence when in 2004, a new reality TV program entitled Rock Star INXS featured a contest to find a new lead for the band. The search which debuted on CBS in July last year, culminated with the selection of Canadian J.D. Fortune. J.D. was selected from 15 finalists who prevailed among thousands of contestants.

INXS with J.D. Fortune as lead singer will stage a concert in Manila billed INXS Switch Tour at the Araneta Coliseum on Aug. 15. Mig Ayesa, the Filipino runner-up in the Rock Star INXS search, is a special guest in the concert. Switch is also the group’s new album featuring the band’s new lead singer, J.D. Fortune. INXS members are Tim Farriss, Andrew Farriss, Kirk Penguilly, Garry Gary Beers, and Jon Farriss.

Tickets to the INXS concert are available at SM Ticketnet outlets (911-5555).