The public's fascination with celebrities can be all-encompassing: the most intimate, granular details of their personal and professional lives are sought after and pored over by fans and recalled in exacting fashion by biographers and media outlets. Sometimes, that need for information even extends beyond the lives of celebrities. The how and why of a media figure's final days and death are the subjects of numerous books and documentaries, which often extend their research to the most intimate and morbid element of a celebrity's demise: the autopsy report. Such reports, which typically occur at the request of a family member or if the individual dies unexpectedly, provide a scientific breakdown of the subject's physical state in the hopes of providing an answer to the cause of death.
In most cases, the autopsy report confirms what was already known about the celebrity's passing. But others reveal secrets that the public, and in some cases, the celebrities themselves, may not have known. Following is a list of tragic details revealed to the public about famous figures through their autopsy reports.