New York City: Where Famous Artist, Actors and Intellectuals Died

Leonard Bernstein announced his retirement from conducting on October 9, 1990. He died on October 14 in his New York apartment at The Dakota, 1 West 72nd Street Manhattan, New York of a heart attack brought on by mesothelioma at the age of 72.

Montgomery Clift died at 217 East 61st Street, Manhattan, New York City on July 23, 1966 of a heart attack at the age of 45.

Greta Garbo died at The Rogosin Institute in New York Hospital on 15 April 1990 as a result of pneumonia and renal failure, at the age of 84.

Rita Hayworth died from complications associated with Alzheimer’s disease after falling into a semicoma three months earlier at her home in an apartment in The San Remo building at 51 W 75th St, New York, NY 10023 with her daughter Princess Yasmin Aga Khan on May 14th, 1987, at the age of 68. Public discussion of Hayworth’s fight helped create greater awareness about Alzheimer’s disease, normalizing discussions and increase in federal funding for Alzheimer’s research. Today, the Rita Hayworth Gala benefits the Alzheimer’s Association every year in Chicago and New York City. Her daughter continues to be an advocate for funding and research of Alzheimer’s and raising awareness of early onset Alzheimer’s.

Langston Hughes died in the Stuyvesant Polyclinic at 135 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003 from complications after abdominal surgery related to prostate cancer on May 22, 1967 at the age of 66. His ashes are interred beneath a floor medallion in the center of the foyer in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. In 1981 Langston Hughes’ townhouse at 20 E 127th St New York, NY 10035 was given New York City Landmark status and 127th Street was renamed “Langston Hughes Place”. The following year Langston Hughes House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Eleanor Roosevelt died of resulting cardiac failure at her Manhattan home at 55 East 74th Street on the Upper East Side on November 7, 1962, at the age of 78.

Nikola Tesla died alone in room 3327 at the Hotel New Yorker at 481 8th Ave in New York on 7 January 1943, at the age of 86. His body was later discovered by Alice Monaghan, a maid at the hotel. She had entered Tesla’s room, ignoring the “do not disturb” sign that Tesla had placed on his door two days earlier to find him dead. Assistant medical examiner H.W. Wembley examined his corpse and ruled that the cause of Tesla’s death had been coronary thrombosis.

Tennessee Williams died on February 25, 1983 in his suite at the Hotel Elysée at 60 East 54th Street, New York at the age of 71. Chief Medical Examiner of New York City Elliot M. Gross reported that Williams had choked to death from inhaling the plastic cap of a bottle of the type used on bottles of nasal spray or eye solution.