The Most Insane Celebrity Car Crashes

Nick Hogan, 2007

It's a stretch to call the son of wrestling legend Hulk Hogan a celebrity in his own right, but the 2007 crash of Nick Hogan's yellow Toyota Supra in Clearwater, Florida demonstrates the aura of invincibility that stars think they have. Hogan's hobby was illegal drift racing, and while he was driving to a local steakhouse with members of his pit crew, the car fishtailed across the road and crashed into a palm tree, destroying it. Nick got off relatively unscathed, but passenger John Graziano suffered brain injuries that made him a vegetable for life. Audiotapes of Hogan from jail made him look even crappier, as he tried to blame Graziano for the accident and his injuries.

Grace Kelly, 1982

A rare woman who lived up to her name, screen legend Grace Kelly became royalty after marrying Prince Rainier of Monaco. Typically, Grace had a driver, but one evening in 1982 she decided to drive her daughter Stephanie back to the palace in Monaco from their country home along the winding French mountain roads. A driver behind them saw the car begin to behave erratically, taking sharp turns and scraping against the mountainside. Kelly's automobile hit a hairpin curve called "Devil's Curse" at sixty miles per hour and careened over the edge, landing on its roof. The Princess suffered severe brain damage and lapsed into a coma, dying three days later (Stephanie survived). A CAT scan revealed that Grace Kelly may have suffered a stroke behind the wheel, which could have led to her impaired driving.

Jackson Pollock, 1956

Famed Impressionist painter Jackson Pollock became the toast of the art world with his sprawling splatter canvases, but the automobile accident that ended his life basically turned him into a reenactment of one. Pollock was driving his mistress and a friend to his home on Long Island. The painter was seriously intoxicated and barreled his Oldsmobile convertible with the top off right into a young oak tree. The car came to a stop but then the tree snapped back, launching the painter out of the top of the car and into the air. He impacted skull-first and died instantly.

Vince Neil, 1984

The hair metal lifestyle of the 1980s was defined by lots of drug use and irresponsible behavior, and sometimes that behavior can get a person killed. Motley Crue singer Vince Neil was a notorious party dog, and his Redondo Beach home was Ground Zero for debauchery. When the members of English metal group Hanoi Rocks came to party for a few days, it would change the band forever. Neil took Hanoi Rocks drummer Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley on a routine run to the liquor store for supplies in his high-end Italian De Tomaso Pantera. Drunk and high out of his mind, Vince lost control of the car and plowed into an oncoming car, killing Razzle and severely injuring the other car's passengers.

Jayne Mansfield, 1967

There were some prime hotties in the movie business in the late 1950s, but few had the sheer moxie of Jayne Mansfield. The Pennsylvania-born blonde bombshell posed nude for Playboy in 1955 and saw her career skyrocket, becoming one of Hollywood's most iconic sex symbols. But her life was cruelly cut short one night in 1967. After a nightclub appearance in Biloxi, Mississippi, Mansfield set out for New Orleans with her husband, their driver, and three of her children. At a little bit before 3:00 in the morning, their Buick Electra smashed at full speed into the back of a mosquito fogging truck. The car slid under the trailer's rear end, killing all three adults in the front seat. The top of Mansfield's head was severed, leaving behind an unforgettable visual of her famous blonde mane embedded in the windshield.

Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, 2002

No diss intended toward the other two members of TLC, but Left Eye was always the star of the group. Her oddball gimmick of wearing a wrapped condom as an eye patch probably dropped some hints that she wasn't exactly stable, and burning down the mansion she shared with boyfriend Andre Rison just sealed the deal. A month before her 31st birthday, Lopes was driving her Mitsubishi Montero Sport through the winding streets of Honduras when the car swerved off the road and smashed into a pair of trees, throwing her out the window and inflicting fatal head and neck trauma. Scarily, Lopes had been a passenger in another car accident just weeks before that saw a local child killed, and the singer was haunted by the experience until her own death.

Alan Pakula, 1998

Director Alan Pakula might not be as famous a name as some of the others on this list, but his automotive death is so freakish that it could have come from a "Final Destination" movie. Pakula, who directed '70s conspiracy classics like "All The President's Men," was driving his 1995 Volvo station wagon down the Long Island Expressway just outside of Melville when the car in front of him ran into a seven foot long metal pole and launched it through the air. The pole arced gracefully right through Pakula's windshield and struck him square in the middle of the forehead, knocking him unconscious. He lost control of the car, which swerved into a fence and crashed, killing him instantly.

Isadora Duncan, 1929

Death by motor vehicle isn't a new thing - this story takes place in the last days of the Roaring Twenties. Isadora Duncan was one of the greatest dancers of her era, famous for her naturalistic movement that stood in stark contrast to the regimented forms of ballet. Duncan left the United States to live throughout Europe, but her life was terminated at the age of 50 in one of the strangest accidents on this list. Duncan was riding shotgun in a sports car driven by a French-Italian mechanic when the flowing silk scarf she wore became entangled in the vehicle's rear wheel. It whipped her immediately out of the car's open roof and dashed her to the pavement, killing her instantly.