Much like Frank Sinatra, who seemed to have known the end was upon him, so too did James Brown, the Hardest Working Man in Show Business. And the last words of Brown were unsettling and similar to those of Sinatra, in fact. On the morning of December 25, 2006 (yes, Christmas morning), Brown suffered congestive heart failure and, according to TV Guide, managed to gasp the words, “I’m going away tonight,” to his longtime friend and manager, Charles Bobbit. Bobbit initially didn’t believe Brown was in any real danger but quickly realized the severity of the situation when Brown slipped into unconsciousness, took a few more breaths, and then died.

Brown was 73 when he died, which, while hardly young, is a good decade less of life than many men can expect in modern America. However most men don’t spend decades of their lives pouring every ounce of energy (and sweat) they have into music performed live before countless fans, and don’t spend many long years abusing many different drugs, either. In the end, Brown’s heart had simply been put through too much to keep on beating along. For a frame of reference, despite being weak, confused, and near death in the final days of 2006, Brown was scheduled to play a New Year’s Eve show a few days later., reports The Guardian.

Despite becoming a real life princess, the life story of Diana, princess of Wales, was anything but a happily ever after tale. Instead, it was a life that commenced with an unhappy childhood in a broken home when she was just 7 years old, and one in which she was rejected by much of her new family after marriage (that’s the British Royal Family, to be clear). It was a life in which a husband’s affair led to a painfully public divorce, and a life cut short by tragedy.

And unbeknownst to many, Diana did not die immediately following the tragic car crash caused by and then quickly documented by paparazzi who were tailing her car. In the immediate aftermath of the car crash, Diana reportedly had time to look about and, in confusion, say, “My god, what happened?” as she saw the lifeless bodies of two other passengers in the vehicle, according to Oprah Daily. She then lost consciousness and quickly succumbed to death. 

The specific cause of Princess Diana’s death was a tear to a vein in the lungs caused by the trauma of the crash, doctors later found. It was a rare injury and, only adding to the tragedy, one that could have been avoided had Diana worn a seatbelt.

The similarities between the lives and deaths of John Belushi and Chris Farley are so striking as to be unsettling; it’s almost as if these two men’s lives followed the same script, merely with a few ad libbed moments and a 15-year separation between them. Like Belushi, Farley cut his teeth in comedy at the famed Second City Theater in Chicago (via The Second City) and then went on to national and even international fame thanks to his years as a cast member on “Saturday Night Live” in the 1990s. Like Belushi, Farley had starring roles in several films that are unlikely to ever be forgotten, such as the successful comedy “Tommy Boy.“

And like Belushi, Farley was just 33 when he died in despair and alone following a major drug overdose. His last known words are almost a word-for-word re-hashing of Belushi’s, too. According to Silver Lining Recovery, Farley’s last words spoken to another person were, “Don’t leave me.” Tragically, these words were spoken to a reported sex worker who, before she did indeed leave him to die alone in his Chicago apartment, stole his watch and took pictures of the actor and comedian as he lay on the floor, near to death.

Farley was found to have alcohol, cocaine, morphine, and marijuana in his system when he died. Compounding the sorrow is the fact that, just a few months before his death, Farley had been in a rehab program.

Everything about legendary fashion designer Coco Chanel was larger than life, right down to her last words. At least, everything about Chanel was larger than life once she came into her own in the early decades of the 20th century. At birth, she was named Gabrielle Chanel, and she was born to parents living in near abject poverty. Chanel pulled herself up by her bootstraps, using her wit, charm, and her undeniable ability as a designer and businesswoman to launch an empire that would include clothes, accessories, perfumes, and more, according to The Guardian.

By the time of her death in 1971, the 87-year-old Chanel was a household name — in fact, she was more a brand than an individual by then, her legacy entirely secure. Chanel clearly knew when the end was imminent, although according to The New York Times, she did not seem to be in ill health despite her very advanced age. True to her character, her final words were a flourish that topped off an amazing — if controversial — life. On January 10, 1971, Chanel reportedly said to her maid Celine, “You see, this is how you die.” And shortly thereafter she did just that, her bed becoming a deathbed.

Legendary singer Bob Marley was only 36 years old when he died in 1981, a fact that is hard to believe when one considers the outsized impact the man had on music and on culture at large. What’s less surprising is that his last known words, spoken to his son Ziggy, were sage and sorrowful, uttered shortly before succumbing to complications of a malignant form of melanoma that, over the course of half a decade, spread from one of his toes throughout his entire body. The cancer that killed Marley may well have been treated had he allowed the amputation of his toe, but in keeping with his Rastafarian faith, he forbid such an operation, according to Smooth Radio.

And also in keeping with the type of messaging he had espoused his whole life, Marley’s last words to Ziggy were, “Money can’t buy life.” One can speculate that he meant money cannot buy the treatment needed to sustain life, but more likely Marley meant money cannot bring happiness and fulfillment in life, only a life well lived can do that.