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Beautiful Actresses Who Died in Car Crashes

In Hollywood history, there is a plethora of beautiful Hollywood actresses that die in fatal car crashes. Some actresses die right there on the scene, while others die from complications because of the accidents. Also, some of these actresses start in the entertainment industry. Young burgeoning stars with promising careers ahead of them, while others retire in careers that are already behind them. However, all of them died tragically. Join Facts Verse as we explore beautiful actresses who died in car crashes.

Jill Banner

The first actress we’ll be taking a look at is Jill Banner. Jill Banner was born on November 8, 1946. She makes her debut while she’s young, with Sid Haig and Lon Chaney, Jr. in the campy exploitation, Spider Baby. The film boasts the pedigree of B-movie director Jack Hill, who becomes famous for the features Coffy and Switchblade Sisters. Sadly, Spider Baby couldn’t be released for many years due to legal issues with the rights. However, the film has subsequently been made available and has developed a cult following for its unique humor. Jill played the film’s titular Spider Baby: part baby, part spider.

At some point, Jill was involved in a romantic relationship with Marlon Brando. She gives up her acting career to instead work in New Mexico real estate during the mid-1970s. She decides to return to Hollywood in the early 1980s with the intention of writing scripts. Jill never makes it to Hollywood that second time, as she dies in a fatal car accident on the way. She was hit by a truck while driving on the Ventura Freeway and was thrown from the vehicle. She died at the hospital on August 7, 1982. At the time of her death, Jill was 35 years old.

Lisa Banes

Lisa Banes represents a more recent actress that passes away in a fatal car accident. It is when she appears in the film Gone Girl just beforehand. A driver on a scooter in Manhattan kills the actress. The culprit flies the scene until he catches it several weeks later, thanks to posters around the area.

After Lisa was hit, she was in the hospital unconscious for ten days before eventually passing away. Despite never achieving immense success, Lisa had a long career behind her at the time of her death. She had studied acting at the Julliard School in Manhattan during the 1970s, and subsequently became a force on the stage to be reckoned with. She could be seen in many off-Broadway productions during the early half of the 1980s before finally making her debut on Broadway in 1988 with Neil Simon’s Rumors.

If Lisa’s stage performances validated her artistically, it was her later film and television appearances that helped her pay the bills. Lisa began appearing on television more and more during the 1990s, including on The Trials of Rosie O’Neill. Lisa’s turn in Gone Girl represented a fairly big role for the actress. She could also be seen in more recent television programs, such as Royal Pains and The Orville. The actress had been living in Los Angeles at the time of her death, though she was in New York visiting some of her friends.

Judy Tyler

Judy Tyler was close to achieving the fame that she had long since desired in Hollywood when she was killed in a fatal car accident. The actress was born on October 9. 1932, and her parents were involved in show business. They allowed Judy to quit school to start modeling at the age of only 15, and she was dancing in Manhattan nightclubs by the time she was 18. She was also taking acting classes.

Judy got a role on The Howdy Doody Show in 1952, though left in 1955 to act in the Broadway musical Pipe Dream. Adapted by Rodgers and Hammerstein, the musical took it’s inspiration from the John Steinbeck story of the same name. Judy’s appearance in the musical found her on the cover of Life magazine in the mid-1950s, where she was featured in an article about up-and-coming Broadway stars.

In 1957, Judy appeared as Elvis Presley’s love interest in his third feature film. That film was Jailhouse Rock. Judy had initially been living in New York City, but had driven out to California with her husband to take part in the filming of the Elvis feature. On the way back to New York City, she and her husband got into a fatal car wreck. In addition to Judy, her husband and all of their pets also died in the accident. After Judy’s death, Elvis refused to watch Jailhouse Rock.

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Grace Kelly

The next actress we’ll be taking a look at wasn’t just a Hollywood star, but a legitimate princess! Grace Kelly was known as the Princess of Monaco before her unfortunate death, where she passed away in a car accident. The accident was caused by a cerebral vascular incident that Grace had suffered while driving the car, causing her to temporarily lose control. The doctors said that Grace likely would’ve been fine if she hadn’t been behind the wheel of the car when the incident occurred.

Grace’s daughter had also been in the car but thankfully survived. It was her testimony that allowed the police to put together what had happened, as Grace’s daughter claimed her mother had been complaining of a severe headache just before the accident. Sadly, Grace wasn’t quite as lucky as her daughter and passed away at the age of 52.

Jayne Mansfield

Jayne Mansfield was a popular actress that had positioned herself as a naughtier alternative to Marilyn Monroe. The two were contemporaries, and Marilyn took great ire whenever Jayne was around aping her style. Jayne’s desire to best Marilyn even saw her take on President John F. Kennedy as a romantic conquest just to make the blonde star jealous.

If Jayne Mansfield was good at mimicking her more successful contemporary, she was arguably a little bit too good. Like Marilyn Monroe, Jayne ended up dying well before her time in a tragic way. For Jayne, this tragedy came in the form of a car accident.

Jayne was already a wife and mother when she arrived in Hollywood at the age of 21. She subsequently found stardom fast, perhaps thanks to her willingness to use her sex appeal to her advantage. The actress was a progressive figure sexually, and she created a good deal of controversy whenever she decided to flash her breasts at the paparazzi. Some of the actress’s big roles included her turns in 1956’s  The Girl Can’t Help It and 1960’s Too Hot to Handle.

The car accident that killed Jayne Mansfield occurred on Jane 29, 1967. There were two other adults besides Jane in the car, and Jane’s three children were sleeping in the back seat. All three adults died when the car slammed into the back of a semi-truck, but the three children survived. The children survived because they were too low to be impacted.

Linda Lovelace

Linda Lovelace had lived an incredibly tragic life, but she had managed to turn much of her poor fortune around before her death in 1984. The actress had gained notoriety by appearing in the film Deep Throat, which became the first pornographic film to gain mainstream acceptance. The actress later claimed that she had been forced into performing in the film at the behest of her abusive husband, and turned her back on the porn industry in her later years.

Deep Throat had been released in 1972, and Linda ended up passing away just over a decade later. The cause of her death was a fatal car accident that occurred in Colorado. She was rushed to the hospital, though she passed away the same night. At the time of her death, Linda was 53 years old. Her two children and second husband were by her side.

June Preisser

June Preisser was born on June 26, 1920, in New Orleans. She was one of six children, and she and her siblings’ became vaudeville performers at an early age. June became the most popular of her siblings in the act, and was subsequently hired by MGM to start appearing in films.

Some of June’s early roles saw her acting alongside an equally young Mickey Rooney. Sadly, June didn’t end up having the same decades-long career in the industry that Mickey did. June continued performing in films into her early 20s before eventually deciding to call it quits after the number of roles that she was being offered started decreasing.

June lived the life of a normal woman with her son in Florida until 1984, when she and her son both died in a car accident. The accident occurred on September 19, and she was 64.

Peggy Moran

Peggy Moran was an actress that appeared in a variety of B movies for Warner Bros. during the 1940s. She ended up retiring from acting after marrying director Henry Koster in 1942, though a bust of the actress subsequently appeared in each one of Henry’s films. The actress lived a long and normal life with Henry and her two sons before Henry’s death in 1988. Peggy subsequently passed away herself, dying in a car crash in 2002. At the time, she was 84.

Janet Gaynor

Finally, actress Janet Gaynor died as a result of a fatal car crash in 1982. Though Janet didn’t die instantly, she ended up passing away later due to injuries that she had sustained. At the time of the A Star Is Born actress’s death, she was 77.

The aforementioned beautiful actresses certainly aren’t the only gorgeous stars that died before their time in fatal car crashes. Comment down below to share if there’s a beautiful actress that you think should’ve been included in this video or if you were saddened to learn about these ones. As always, like this video to show your support, and subscribe and hit the notification bell if you’d like to be among the first to know when more Facts Verse videos are on their way!

Written by Alex Carson

Alex Carson is a seasoned writer and cultural historian with a passion for the vibrant and transformative decades of the 1960s and 1970s. With a background in journalism and a deep love for music, film, and politics, Alex brings a unique perspective to the ever-evolving landscape of entertainment.

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