Wikipedia:
List of suicides
- Revisions and sourced additions are welcome.
| Suicide |
|---|
| History of suicide |
| List of suicides |
| Views on suicide |
| Medical | Cultural |
| Legal | Philosophical |
| Religious | Right to die |
| Suicide crisis |
| Intervention | Prevention |
| Crisis hotline | Suicide watch |
| Types of suicide |
| Suicide methods | Copycat suicide |
| Cult suicide | |
| Familicide | Forced suicide |
| Internet suicide | Mass suicide |
| Murder-suicide | Ritual suicide |
| Suicide attack | Suicide pact |
| Suicide by cop | Teenage suicide |
| Related phenomena |
| Parasuicide | Self-harm |
| Suicidal ideation | Suicide note |
The following are lists of notable people who intentionally terminated their own life, regardless of the circumstances. Suicides committed under duress are included. Deaths by accident or misadventure are excluded. Individuals who might or might not have died by their own hand, or whose intention to die is in dispute, but who are widely believed to have deliberately killed themselves, may be listed under Possible suicides.
Alphabetical
| Lists of people |
|---|
| By belief |
| By nationality |
| By occupation |
| By office held |
| By prize won |
A
- Johnny Ace (1954), singer, American singer, playing Russian Roulette
- Chris Acland (1996), British drummer (Lush), hanging
- Stanley Adams (1977), American character actor, gunshot to the head
- Robert Adams, Jr. (1906), congressman from Pennsylvania, shot himself after heavy losses in stock speculation
- Stuart Adamson (2001), Scottish singer (Big Country, Skids), hanging
- Chris Adkisson, a.k.a. Chris von Erich, (1991), professional wrestler, gunshot to the head
- Kerry Adkisson, a.k.a. Kerry von Erich, (1993), professional wrestler, gunshot wound to the chest
- Mike Adkisson, a.k.a. Mike von Erich, (1987), professional wrestler, overdosed on the tranquilizer Placidyl
- Neil Aggett (1982), South African worker's union leader; hanged in prison (murder is suspected by some)
- General Sergei Akhromeev (1991), Soviet military commander who led an unsuccessful coup against Mikhail Gorbachev
- Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1927), Japanese writer (author of Rashomon), barbital overdose
- Leandro Alem (1896), Argentine politician, founder of the Radical Civic Union
- Michael Alfonso, a.k.a. Mike Awesome (2007), professional wrestler, hanging
- Prince Alfred of Edinburgh (1899), member of the British Royal Family
- Salvador Allende (1973), president of Chile (elected 1970), and uncle of renowned author Isabel Allende; allegedly shot himself during a coup d'etat against his regime orchestrated by General Augusto Pinochet - some sources allege that he was killed
- Jeff Alm (1993), NFL player, killed himself following a car accident which killed his passenger
- Jason Altom (1998), Ph.D. student
- Jean Améry (1978), Austrian writer; overdose of sleeping pills
- Forrest Howard Anderson (1989), Governor of Montana
- Fridolin Anderwert (1880), Swiss Federal Councilor
- Aman Andom (1974), military ruler of Ethiopia; committed suicide to avoid his execution in an internal purge
- Gwili Andre (1959), Danish actress; self-immolation
- Roger Angleton (1998), brother of imprisoned Texas extortionist who admitted in his suicide note to killing his sister-in-law, socialite Doris Angleton
- Anson Jones (1858), doctor, businessman, congressman, and the last president of the Republic of Texas
- Mark Antony (30 BC), Roman politician and general
- Marshall Applewhite (1997), leader of Heaven's Gate religious cult
- Hubert Aquin (1977), Canadian author; gunshot
- Diane Arbus (1971), American photographer; barbiturate overdose and slashed wrists
- Reinaldo Arenas (1990), Cuban-American artist and writer
- Pedro Armendáriz, (1963), Mexican actor of both Mexican and hollywood's movies
- Edwin Armstrong (1954), U.S. inventor of FM radio; jumped from a 13th floor window believing FM was a failure
- Nikolas Asimos (1988), Greek rock musician; hanging
- George Ault (1948), American painter
- Albert Ayler (1970), American jazz saxophonist; jumped into New York City's East River
B
- James Robert Baker (1997), American writer
- Albert Ballin (1918), overdose of sleeping pills
- José Manuel Balmaceda (1891), President of Chile
- Isobel Barnett (1980), British TV personality
Don "Red" Barry (1980), actor (Adventures of Red Ryder)- Diana Barrymore (1960), U.S. actress, writer (Too Much, Too Soon)
- Gert Bastian (1992)
- J. Clifford Baxter (2002), Enron vice-chairman
- Thomas McKee Bayne (1894), U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania
- Scotty Beckett (1968), child actor, Our Gang films
- Charles Eugène Bedaux (1944), efficiency engineer charged with treason for collaboration with Vichy government
- Gertrude Bell (1926), archaeologist, writer, spy and administrator known as the "Uncrowned Queen of Iraq"
- Peter Bellamy (1991), English folk singer
- Ota Benga (1916), African Pygmy put on "display" in United States
- Walter Benjamin (1940), German cultural theorist
- Jill Bennett (1990), British film actress
- Chris Benoit (2007), Professional wrestler, murdered his wife and 7-year-old son and later hanged himself in his weight room
- Pierre Bérégovoy (1993), French Prime Minister, killed himself a month after losing a general election
- Hans Berger (1941), German physician and inventor of electroencephalography
- Ricky Berry (1989), NBA player for the Sacramento Kings
- John Berryman (1972), American poet, jumped from the Washington Avenue Bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Bruno Bettelheim (1990), American psychoanalist
- Georges Boulanger (1891), French politician and general
- Mary Kay Bergman (1999), American voice actress, shot herself in the head
- Robert Billings (1986), Canadian poet, drowned.
- Tadeusz Borowski (1951), Polish writer and concentration camp survivor, asphyxiation
- Tommy Boyce (1994), with Bobby Hart, songwriter for The Monkees
- Karin Boye (1941), Swedish poet
- Jonathan Brandis (2003), American actor, hung himself
- Cheyenne Brando (1995), daughter of Marlon Brando, hanged
- Eva Braun (1945), mistress and then wife of Adolf Hitler, cyanide
- Richard Brautigan (1984), American writer
- Herman Brood (2001), Dutch musician and painter
- Barry Brown (1978), actor and writer
- Oskar Brüsewitz (1976), East German cleric, committed self-immolation in protest of East Germany's persecution of Protestants
- Brutus (42 BC), Roman politician, assassin of Julius Caesar
- Eustace Budgell (1737), remembered because his death was discussed in a conversation between Samuel Johnson and his friend and biographer James Boswell
- Bernard Buffet (1999), French painter ('The Crucifixion')
- Rembrandt Bugatti (1916), Italian sculptor
- Dan Burros (1965), Jewish Neo-Nazi
C
- Andres Caicedo (1977), Colombian novelist; drug overdose
- Capucine (1990), French actress
- Arthur Edmund Carewe (1937), American actor; razor to the wrists
- Wallace Hume Carothers (1937), world renowned chemist, suffered chronic depression; killed himself in a hotel
- Don Carpenter (1995), American novelist, friend of Richard Brautigan
- Dora Carrington (1932), artist
- Kevin Carter (1994), award-winning South African photographer and member of the Bang-Bang Club
- Hugh Casey (1951), baseball player
- Joseph Daniel 'Danny' Casolaro (1991), journalist
- Adolphe Mouron Cassandre (1968), writer
- Gaius Cassius Longinus (42 BC), Roman politician, co-assassin of Julius Caesar
- Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh (1822), British politician
- Cato the younger (46 BC), Roman republican statesman
- Ugo Cavallero (1943), Italian Field Marshal
- Paul Celan (1970), Romanian poet
- Valerie Chacon (1982), wife of Bobby Chacon
- Iris Chang (2004), Chinese-American author
- Claude Chappe (1805), French inventor
- Thomas Chatterton (1770), English poet
- Leslie Cheung (2003), Hong Kong movie star and singer
- Vere Gordon Childe (1957), Australian archaeologist and historian, jumped off Govett's Leap in the Blue Mountains
- Seung-Hui Cho (2007) Perpetrator of the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre; shot himself shortly after killing 32 students.
- Vern Christie, (1991), Australian businessman, General Manager of the Commonwealth Bank
- Edwin Pearce Christy, (1862), American entertainer, founder of the Christy Minstrels
- Christine Chubbuck (1974), American television journalist, shot herself in the head on live TV after reading the news
- Chung Mong-hun (2003), Korean businessman, chairman of Hyundai Asan
- Diana Churchill (1963), UK social worker, eldest daughter of Sir Winston Churchill
- Jeremiah Clarke (1707), composer of Prince of Denmark's March (Trumpet Voluntary), shot himself
- Alasdair Clayre (1985), British academic, writer, broadcaster and singer, jumped in front of train
- Cleopatra (30 BC), Queen of Egypt, snake bite
- Charmian Clift (1969), Australian writer, wife of George Johnston
- Charles Clegg (1979), American author, photographer and railroad enthusiast
- Robert Clive (1774), British conqueror of India and founder of the Empire, cut throat with pen-knife
- Kurt Cobain (1994), Lead singer of the band Nirvana, gunshot to head (murder is speculated by some)
- Sid Collins (1977), radio voice of the Indianapolis 500, hanged himself after being diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
- Ray Combs (1996), former host of popular American game show Family Feud, used bedsheets to hang himself
- Pamela Courson (1974), long time girlfriend of Jim Morrison, unknown whether she accidentally or purposely overdosed
- Adam Couture, (1973), Former French politician and popular horse collector, used bed sheets to tie himself to horse and dragged across his 30 acre property
- F. W. S. Craig (1989), UK election expert
- Hart Crane (1932), American poet; jumped from a boat
- Darby Crash (1980), American songwriter, singer of the Germs
- René Crevel (1935), French writer, gassed himself
- Richard Croft (1818), obstetrician in attendance at Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales "triple obstetrical tragedy" shot himself
- Dennis Crosby (1991), actor, son of Bing Crosby
- Harry Crosby (1929), writer, publisher
- Lindsay Crosby (1989), actor, son of Bing Crosby
- Géza Csáth (
1919 ) , Hungarian writer - Andrew Cunanan (1997), killer of Gianni Versace and four others
- Will Cuppy (1949), American writer, humorist
- Ian Curtis (1980), English singer and songwriter (Joy Division)
- Adam Czerniakow (1943), Polish-Jewish head of the Warsaw Ghetto Judenrat, poisoned himself rather than hand over children for gassing.
D
- Stig Dagerman (1954), Swedish author
- Dalida (1987), French singer
- Dorothy Dandridge (1965), American singer and actress, first black woman nominated for Academy Award as Lead Actress for "Carmen Jones", death ruled suicide by overdose
- Monika Dannemann (1996), Girlfriend of Jimi Hendrix
- Bella Darvi (1971), actress of Polish parentage, gas
- Dazai Osamu (1948), Japanese novelist
- Guy Debord (1994), French philosopher, member of Situationist International
- Jeanine Deckers (1985), Belgian religious, known as The Singing Nun
- Albert Dekker (1968), American actor, accidental asphyxiation
- Delphine Delamare (1848), French woman, the basis for Flaubert's Madame Bovary
- Gilles Deleuze (1995), French philosopher, jumped from apartment window
- Brad Delp (2007), lead singer of Boston, asphyxiation by carbon monoxide
- Penelope Delta (1941), Greek author, ingested poison the same day the Germans invaded Athens
- Denice Denton (2006), University of California Chancellor, jumped from 42-story San Francisco apartment building
- Patrick Dewaere (1982), French actor
- Rudolf Diesel (1913), Inventor of the Diesel engine
- Dioxippus (336 BC?); Greek pankration fighter who nakedly defeated an armored, and armed, soldier of Alexander the Great; he was framed for theft, and forced into suicide, for his victory
- Dipendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev (2001), young King of Nepal, committed suicide after assassinating his father, King Birendra, and other members of the royal family
- Hugo Distler (1942), German composer, is believed to have committed suicide to avoid conscription into the German army
- Desmond Donnelly (1974), British politician who fitted into none of the parties he tried
- Terence Donovan (1996), English celebrity photographer
- Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado (1983), former president of Cuba
- Chris Doty (2006), Canadian filmmaker and playwright
- Nick Drake (1974), British singer-songwriter, overdose (possibly accidental though officially ruled a suicide) of the anti-depressant, tryptizol
- Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (1945), French novelist
- Dr. Jonathan Drummond-Webb (2004), American heart surgeon
- Micke Dubois (2005), Swedish comedian, hanged himself
- Thich Quang Duc (1963), self-immolation, Saigon
- Pete Duel (1971), American actor
- K. Sello Duiker (2005), South African author, hanged himself
- Davor Dujmović (1999), Yugoslavian-Roma actor
- James Dungy (2005), son of Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy
- Budd Dwyer (1987), American politician, shot himself on live television
E
- Jeanne Eagels (1929), American silent film actress
- George Eastman (1932), inventor of the Eastman Kodak Camera
- Richey Edwards (1995), member of the Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers, missing
- Peg Entwistle (1933), Welsh-born actress, jumped from the "Hollywood" sign
- Tom Evans (1983), Liverpudlian musician (Badfinger), suicide by hanging
- Merritt A. Edson (1955), Medal of Honor winner - Guadalcanal, gunshot
F
- Richard Farnsworth (2000), U.S. actor
- Justin Fashanu (1998), British footballer
- Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1982), German film director (often listed as a drug overdose)
- René Favaloro (2000), Argentinian doctor, creator of the coronary artery bypass surgery
- Paul Federn (1950), Austrian-American psychoanalist
- Andrea Feldman (1972), American actress, a Warhol superstar
- George Fiske (1918), American photographer
- Robert FitzRoy (1865), Governor-General of New Zealand, Royal Navy officer, Nephew of the Viscount Castlereagh
- Ed Flanders (1995), U.S. actor (St. Elsewhere}
John Gould Fletcher (1950), Pulitzer Prize winning poet- James V. Forrestal (1949), former U.S. Secretary of Defense who quoted Sophocles in his suicide note
- Dédé Fortin (2000), leader and singer of Québec band Les Colocs
- Vincent Foster, (1993), Deputy White House Counsel, still controversial
- Wade Frankum (1991), spree shooter of Strathfield Massacre
- Sigmund Freud (1939), founder of psychoanalysis (lethal dose of morphine)
- John Friedrich (1991), Australian businessman and fraudster
G
- Philip Gale (1998), former Scientologist, member of Church of the SubGenius, jumped out window of building at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Zviad Gamsakhurdia (1993), former president of the Eurasian country Georgia
- Ted Gärdestad (1997), Swedish pop musician
- Dave Garroway (1982), television host
- Romain Gary (1980), Russian-French novelist, film director and diplomat
- Danny Gatton (1994), American guitarist
- Michel Gauquelin (1991), French psychologist and astrology researcher
- Martha Gellhorn (1998), American author and war correspondent, self-poison
- Kostas Georgakis (1970), Geology student, committed suicide as a protest to the Greek military junta of 1967-1974
- Peter George (1966), author (Red Alert)
- Mark Gertler (1939), British artist
- Henri Giffard (1882), French aeronautical engineer
- Michael Gilden (2006), American actor, dwarf
- Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1935), American feminist and author (Herland & The Yellow Wallpaper)
- John Wayne Glover (2005), North Shore Granny Killer.
- Kurt Gödel (1978), German logician and mathematician (refused to eat any food)
- Joseph Goebbels (1945), German Nazi leader
- Hermann Göring (1946), German Nazi leader
- Julen Goikoetxea (2006), Spanish cyclist
- Fritha Goodey (2004), British actress
- Adam Lindsay Gordon (1870), Australian poet ("Life is mostly froth and bubble")
- Arshile Gorky (1948), Armenian painter, suicide by hanging
- Eddie Graham (1985), American professional wrestler
- Shauna Grant (1984), American adult film actress
- Spalding Gray (2004), American playwright, drowned in Atlantic after jumping off Staten Island Ferry
- Richard Greene (1983), boxing referee
- Peter Gregg (1980), race car driver, gunshot to head
- Robert von Greim (1945), German Air Marshal
- Louis-Gabriel Guillemain (1770), French violinist and composer
- Anton Gustafsson (2003), Swedish singer (Anton Maiden)
- Antonio Guzmán Fernández (1982), serving president of the Dominican Republic
H
- Clara Immerwahr Haber (1915) German chemical engineer, wife of Dr. Fritz Haber whose army pistol she used soon after the first use of gas in WWI
- Jerry Hadley (2007), American operatic tenor
- Kenneth Halliwell (1967), English writer, lover of Joe Orton whom he murdered before killing himself
- Mitch Halpern (2000), American boxing referee
- Pete Ham (1975), Welsh musician (Badfinger), suicide by hanging
- Rusty Hamer (1990), American former child actor (The Danny Thomas Show)
- Lois Hamilton (1999), American actress, model, author, aviatrix
- Tony Hancock (1968), British comedian
- Edward Allen Hannegan (1859), U.S. Congressman from Indiana
- Hannibal (182 BC), Carthaginian military commander
- Lewis Vernon Harcourt (1922), British politician who killed himself after knowledge of his attempted seduction of a 12 year old boy became public
- James Harden-Hickey (1898), U.S. eccentric who wrote a book about the appeal of suicide that also featured quotes on the subject from famous people; he chose an overdose of morphine
- Mary Hardy (1985), Australian TV personality (found dead in the bath and was presumed to have committed suicide)
- Eric Harris (1999), U.S. mass murderer, infamous for the Columbine High School Massacre shootings with Dylan Klebold
- Michael D. Harter (1896), U.S. Congressman from Ohio
- Brynn Hartman (1998), wife of actor Phil Hartman whom she murdered before turning the gun on herself
- Elizabeth Hartman (1987), U.S. actress who emulated a character in her film The Group who jumped from a window
- Arihiro Hase (1996), Japanese voice actor, best known for his role as Hikaru Ichijyo in the anime TV series Super Dimensional Fortress Macross
- Donny Hathaway (1979), American soul musician, best known for his duets with Roberta Flack; jumped from the 15th-floor window of his room in New York's Essex House
- Felix Hausdorff (1942), mathematician, committed suicide with his wife and sister-in-law in a concentration camp
- Phyllis Haver (1960), American actress of the silent film era, barbiturate overdose
- Benjamin Haydon (1846), British painter
- Jeanne Hébuterne (1920), painter, partner of Modigliani
- Sadegh Hedayat (1951), Iranian writer, gassed himself
- John Heddle (1989), British politician
- Ernest Hemingway (1961), American novelist, shotgun blast to the head
- Margaux Hemingway (1996), American actress and model; Ernest Hemingway's granddaughter
- Benjamin Hendrickson (2006), American actor (As The World Turns), gunshot wound to the head
- George Hennard (1991), American spree-killer (Luby's massacre)
- James Leo Herlihy (1993), U.S. novelist (Midnight Cowboy)
- Willard Hershberger (1940), Cincinnati Reds catcher, slashed wrists; only Major League Baseball player to commit suicide during a season
- Rudolf Hess (1987), Nazi leader
- Paul Hester (2005), Australian musician, drummer for Split Enz and Crowded House
- George W. Hill (1934), American film director
- Heinrich Himmler (1945), German SS leader
- Adolf Hitler (1945), Nazi Germany's leader
- Abbie Hoffman (1989), U.S. political activist and political demonstrator
- Don Hollenbeck (1954), CBS news anchor, inhalation of natural gas
- Hong Xiuquan (1864), Chinese leader of the Taiping Rebellion
- Doug Hopkins (1993), American musician, founding member of rock group Gin Blossoms, gunshot wound from a .38 pistol
- Elmyr de Hory (1976), Hungarian art forger
- Robert E. Howard (1936), American creator of "pulp" heroes Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja, shot himself in the head after learning that his mother was in a permanent coma
- Danton Hughes (2001), Australian sculptor, son of Time magazine art critic Robert Hughes, gassed himself at home
- Chuck Humphrey (1998), American Heaven's Gate cult member
- Suad Husni (2001) Egyptian actress, jumped off balcony
- Michael Hutchence (1997), lead singer of Australian rock band INXS. Hanged himself from his hotel room door with his leather belt.
- Phyllis Hyman (1995), American singer
- Jared High (1998), an early victim of bullying and clinical depression, took his life at age 13
- Robin Hyde (1939), New Zealand writer and poet, illness
I
- William Inge (1973), U.S. playwright (Picnic, Come Back, Little Sheba, Bus Stop, Splendor in the Grass)
- Judas Iscariot, hanged himself according to the Gospel of Matthew, though the apocryphical Gospel of Judas suggests, he was stoned to death by the apostles, and the Book of Acts suggests he died a violent death in a field he had bought
- Isocrates (338 BC), Greek rhetorician
- Juzo Itami (1997), Japanese actor and film director, leapt from the roof of his office building
J
- Cal Jammer (1995), Adult film star
- Alice de Janzé (1941), American heiress
- Vittorio Jano (1965), automobile design engineer
- Richard Jeni (2007), comedian, placed the barrel of a .38-caliber Colt Detective Special in his mouth and pulled the trigger
- Jim Jones (1978), leader of the Peoples Temple cult, died along with 914 of his followers in a mass murder-suicide at Jonestown, in northwestern Guyana
- Alex Jordan (1995), American adult film actress, hanged herself
- Timothy Jordan II (2005), The All-American Rejects' touring keyboardist
- Nafisa Joseph (2004), Femina India Universe 1997, Miss Universe 1997 semi-finalist and MTV VJ, hanged
- Luc Jouret (1994), homeopath, Belgian cult leader
- József Attila (1937), Hungarian poet (hit by a train, the fact that it was suicide was never proved and many people think it was an accident)
- Jung Da Bin (2007), South Korean Actress
K
- Aleksei Maksimovich Kaledin (1918), Cossack leader during the Russian Civil War
- Sarah Kane (1999), British playwright
- Kostas Karyotakis (1928), Greek poet, shot himself
- Yasunari Kawabata (1972), Japanese writer and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, gassed himself
- Kawakami Bizan (1908), Japanese novelist
- Brian Keith (1997), American actor (Family Affair)
- Dr. David Kelly (2003), British scientist, source of BBC story about the September Dossier
- Samuel Austin Kendall (1933), congressman from Pennsylvania, self inflicted gunshot wound in the House Office Building
- Preston King (1865), Senator from New York, leapt from ferryboat in New York Harbor
- James Arthur Kjelgaard (1959), Outdoorsman and American author of young adult literature.
- Dylan Klebold (1999), U.S. mass murderer, infamous for the Columbine High School Massacre shootings with Eric Harris
- Heinrich von Kleist (1811), German dramatist and poet
- Jochen Klepper (1942)
- Günther von Kluge (1944), German Field Marshal
- Fletcher Knebel (1993), U.S. novelist (Seven Days in May)
- William F. Knowland (1974), former Senate Majority Leader, self inflicted gunshot
- Sándor Kocsis (1979), Hungarian soccer player, killed himself in Barcelona after diagnosis of stomach cancer and leukemia
- Arthur Koestler (1983), journalist, novelist, political activist and social philosopher
- Sarah Kofman (1994), French philosopher
- Hannelore Kohl (2001), wife of German ex-chancellor Helmut Kohl
- Woo Bum-Kon (1982), spree killer, Uiryong, Korea
- Prince Fumimaro Konoe (1945), Japanese war criminal
- Alexandros Korizis (1941), Greek prime minister
- Jerzy Kosinski (1991), Polish-American author
- Philip Taylor Kramer (1995), rock musician (guitarist of Iron Butterfly) and physicist
- Louis Krages (2001), German race car driver and businessman (raced under the name of "John Winter")
- Friedrich Wilhelm Krüger (1945), Nazi official during WWII
- Friedrich Alfred Krupp (1902), German industrialist, committed suicide when his homosexuality was revealed.
L
- Alan Ladd (1964), U.S. film star, overdose of alcohol and pills, highly disputed for many years
Paul Lafargue (1911), son-in-law of Karl Marx, communist theorist and author of The Right to Be Lazy- Robert M. La Follette, Jr. (1953), Senator from Wisconsin
- Karen Lancaume (2005), French adult film star; overdose on sleeping pills
- Carole Landis (1948), American actress; overdose of Seconal
- James H. Lane (1866), Senator from Kansas, general in Civil War, shot himself after being charged with financial irregularities
- Hans Langsdorff (1939), captain of the Admiral Graf Spee
- Napoleon Lapathiotis (1944), Greek writer
- Florence Lawrence (1938), American film actress; poison
- George P. Lawrence (1917), representative from Massachusetts, jumped out of building to death due to stress caused by World War I
- Katherine Lawrence (2004), writer
- Lee Kyung Hae (2003), South Korean activist
- Marshall Ledbetter Jr. (2003), lone man of non-violent protest within an office in Tallahassee, FL capitol building in 1991
- Jon Lee (2002), drummer of the band Feeder
- Richie Lee (2001), vocalist with U.S. 90s alternative rock band Acetone
- Victoria Lee (1888), daughter of Emma Lee French
- Megan Leigh (1990), American erotic dancer and porn star
- Marc Lepine (1989), Canada's most prolific spree killer; self-inflicted gunshot
- Primo Levi (1987), Italian author and Auschwitz survivor
- Meriwether Lewis (1809), U.S. explorer with Clark; died in mysterious circumstances, either murder or suicide
- Robert Ley (1945), Nazi war criminal
- Max Linder, (1925), French actor
- Vachel Lindsay (1931), American poet, drank a bottle of Lysol
- Louis Lingg (1887), scheduled to be hanged for his alleged role in the Haymarket Square riot bomb, committed suicide by holding a lit stick of dynamite in his mouth
- Diane Linkletter (1969), daughter of Art Linkletter
- Friedrich List (1846), German economist
- Mikael Ljungberg (2004), Swedish wrestler, Olympic gold medalist
- Peter Llewelyn-Davies (1960), UK publisher who inspired J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan
- Ross Lockridge, Jr. (1948}, U.S. novelist, author of Raintree County, asphyxiation via car fumes
- Philip Loeb (1955), blacklisted American actor
- Mark Lombardi (2000), U.S. artist whose art described international white-collar crime networks; hanged himself in his Williamsburg, New York studio
- Jack London (1916), U.S. novelist (his doctor believed he had committed suicide by overdose of morphine and atropine, but his widow prevailed on a more senior doctor to ascribe the death to uremia, and had the body quickly cremated before an autopsy could be done)
- Terry Long (2005), former NFL player
- Hans Loritz (1946), concentration camp commandant at various times - Esterwegen, Dachau, Sachsenhausen
- Noah Lottick (1990), Scientologist, profiled in TIME article The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power
- Lorenz Lotmar (1980), Swiss writer
- Malcolm Lowry (1957), British writer
- Gang Lu (1991), Physics graduate student at the University of Iowa
- Gherasim Luca (1994), Romanian surrealist
- Lucan (65), Roman poet
- Ron Luciano (1995), baseball umpire
- J Anthony Lukas (1997), U.S. author and journalist
- Aleksandr Mikhailovich Lyapunov (