The Last Known Phone Calls These Celebs Made Before They Died

The following article contains mentions of suicide and substance abuse.

Some, if not most, parts of day to day life in the modern world are ordinary — mundane, simple things we tend to take for granted. Life can become a routine for everyone in every part of the social strata or wealth ladder, and that includes taking care of humdrum things like picking up the phone to make call, or grabbing it when it rings, all to communicate small pieces of information or to share experiences with a loved one or business associate.

It's often only after the fact these daily tasks become drenched in importance and extra meaning. If it's the "last" something someone does, it gains an air of poignancy and wistfulness that might not have been there before. A last meal or last words are a curious thing to think about, as are final phone calls. Here are some famous people whose final use of the telephone has been recorded into history, because they're well-known individuals, because what they said mattered, or because it was one of the last things they did — a humble, equalizing, and humanizing act capping off a grand or newsworthy life.

Whatever the origins of the "King of Pop" title may be, Michael Jackson sure fit the bill. In the 1980s, he was a record-selling and hit-making machine, moving more than 30 million copies of Thriller and churning out No. 1 singles like "Rock With You," "Billie Jean," "Beat It," and "Man in the Mirror." Jackson fell hard from his cultural pedestal in the '90s and 2000s, beleaguered by numerous allegations of child abuse and an appearance in a documentary where he dangled his baby son out of a window.

In 2009, Jackson staged a comeback, announcing a residency at London's O2 Arena. The shows never happened — Jackson died at the age of 50 on June 25, 2009. As reported by The New York Times, Jackson's personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, was held liable in the pop star's death, ruled guilty of involuntary manslaughter for overprescribing the singer powerful and addictive pain medications.

Jackson's family later filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the comeback concerts' promoter, AEG Live. As CNN noted, during the 2013 court proceedings, Jackson's 16-year-old son, Prince, testified that AEG executive Randy Phillips showed up at the family's home in Los Angeles and confronted Murray over Jackson. As CNN reported, "[Prince] called his father from the security guard shack telephone to let him know Phillips was there. His father asked him to offer Phillips food and drink." They didn't speak again — by the next morning, Michael Jackson was dead.

After the breakup of the Beatles, John Lennon's legacy was so secure that he could have disappeared forever to live in bliss with his wife, conceptual artist Yoko Ono. But he kept making music, such as landmark singles like "Power to the People," "Happy Xmas (War is Over)," "Instant Karma," and "Imagine." But shortly after releasing the covers collection Rock 'n' Roll in 1975, he retired for five years to be a stay-at-home dad, according to AllMusic.

But Lennon couldn't stay away from music forever, and in 1980, after signing a deal with Geffen Records, recorded Double Fantasy, a joint album co-credited to Ono. On the evening of December 7, 1980, according to The Sunday Post, Lennon called Mimi Smith, the aunt who'd raised him, at her home in Liverpool, England. Smith told writer Judith Simons in 1981 that on the call Lennon had been "witty, funny, bubbling over with excitement, coming over very soon," indicating that he planned to returned to the U.K. for the first time in a decade, perhaps for a concert tour in support of Double Fantasy.

The next day, Lennon was shot and killed outside his New York apartment building by Mark David Chapman. Lennon was 40.

A superstar who helped mass popularize rock n' roll in the 1950s with his swinging hips and undeniable swagger on songs like "Don't Be Cruel" and "Hound Dog," Elvis Presley had retreated into a casual life in the 1970s, spending most of his time hanging out at Graceland, his Memphis estate. There he surrounded himself with loyal employees and friends (the so-called "Memphis Mafia"), as his one-year marriage to Priscilla Presley had ended in divorce in 1973. According to Outsider, Elvis proposed to girlfriend Ginger Alden in January 1977. In the early morning hours of August 16, 1977, she was in a Graceland bedroom, with Elvis' only child, daughter Lisa Marie Presley, down the hall, according to Express.

Elvis had been up all night, per Elvis Daily, having attended a late night dental appointment and then consuming a slew of prescription drugs, and unable to sleep, headed to the bathroom with a book. That's where Elvis spent his final moments. After he was found unresponsive, he was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

According to author and Elvis compatriot Chris Hitchens, one of the rock star's last phone calls, placed on the day before he died, was to ex-wife Priscilla. "During that call, they'd argued over travel arrangements for Lisa Marie," Hitchens said (via Express). "It had been a tense conversation, but at least they were on speaking terms."

In the 2010s, when DJs became the new rock stars, lording over massive gatherings of dancers and revelers with their laptops full of irresistible beats and mixes, there were few as popular and famous as Avicii. The Swedish electronic dance musician born Tim Bergling told USA Today that he got his stage name from Avici, a name for Buddhist afterlife, and he scored some anthemic radio hits like "Levels" and "Wake Me Up," a No. 4 hit in 2013.

Offstage, Avicii suffered. According to Billboard, he was diagnosed with pancreatitis at age 21, which he attributed to heavy alcohol consumption, and in the next few years, his gallbladder and pancreas were surgically removed. While on vacation in Oman in April 2018, according to TMZ, Avicii died by suicide at the age of 28. "He could not go on any longer," the DJ's family said in a statement.

Struggling with a lot of issues, Avicii reached out to his relatives, via long-distance phone call, in the hours before his death. "The family was aware that Tim felt bad," a source close to the Berglings told Swedish site Stoppa Pressarna (via PopCulture). "The family realized that it was really bad and that one had to act." One of Avicii's relatives reportedly immediately boarded a plane to Oman, but by the time it landed, the musician was dead.

Charles Manson is among the most notorious criminals in American history, convincing a slew of impressionable young people, mostly women, that he was a supernatural figure and that they should kill for him to ignite a world-ending race war. For his major role in a 1969 murder spree, Manson received the death penalty, but when California banned capital punishment, according to Newsweek, his sentenced was commuted to life in prison. And so, Manson died a long time later, in November 2017, at the age of 83 in a prison in Bakersfield, California, not far from his permanent residence at Corcoran State Prison. 

Two days before his trip to the hospital where he would die, according to The Sun, Manson had a phone call with a man named Ben Gurecki, who purports to be the convicted killer's friend of more than 20 years. Manson delivered numerous, cryptic, and difficult to parse statements in the mostly one-sided conversation. "Not yet found just a dream of hearsay. Who's, what's, why's, for what?" Manson said, adding, "As soon as I get up, out, around me will become a team. The beast, a priest, midnight, and not as much as all. Nothing with everyone and everything over and gone to start backwards again and again to nowhere and nothing again." Just before the prison cut off the call, Manson said, "Love for all."

If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741.

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse and mental health, please contact SAMHSA's 24-hour National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).