Some celebrities have a knack for predicting death. Tupac Shakur famously rapped, “I been shot and murdered, can tell you how it happened word for word,” and once said, “Best case, in a cemetery” when asked where he saw himself in the future. He wasn’t alone in thinking the Grim Reaper had a schedule for them. But not every prediction lands. A surprising number of celebs expected their own early exits and… didn’t make it happen. These stars learned firsthand that even when the future looks incredibly bleak, there’s always hope.
Robbie Williams
Robbie Williams’ biopic Better Man hit movie theaters in 2024, covering the highs and lows of his life. Williams once admitted he “didn’t care” if his drug addiction killed him. “I still had my demons at 31,” he wrote. Relapses brought pain, and the death of Heath Ledger made him think, “I’m next.” By the “grace of God, or dumb luck,” as he puts it, Williams survived. His story shows how close the edge can be and how much persistence, therapy, and self-awareness matter. Better Man doesn’t shy away from the dark times, but it also celebrates a life that made it through. In 2025, he is preparing to release his new album, Britpop.
Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish once feared she wouldn’t reach 17. On The Gayle King Grammy Special, she admitted, “I don’t want to be too dark, but I genuinely didn’t think I’d make it to 17.” Alone in a hotel, she pictured her own death. “The only thing I can say is patience. I had patience with myself. I didn’t take that last step. I waited. Things fade,” she later told Vogue. Fame at a young age amplified her fears, but Eilish proved her younger self wrong and is still here today. In 2025, she’s keeping busy with Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour.
Drew Barrymore
We’ve all heard her horrifiying stories. Before her romcom fame, Drew Barrymore’s childhood was pretty dark. By 12, the E.T. actress was addicted to cocaine, and at 13, she hit her lowest point, spending a year and a half institutionalized. “I don’t know how I ended up here but I will never lose sight of how lucky I am,” she told The Sun. Her teenage self feared she wouldn’t make it past 25. Speaking with The Guardian, Barrymore admitted, “I really had a fear that I was going to die at 25.” Now at 50, with a great career, she proves those early predictions wrong.
Michael C. Hall
Death has followed Michael C. Hall both on and off-screen. Playing morbid roles in TV shows like Dexter probably didn’t help, and losing his father to cancer before turning 40 made Hall obsess over mortality. “I think I’ve been preoccupied since I was 11, and my father died, with the idea of the age 39: would I live that long? What would that be like?” he told The New York Times. Diagnosed with cancer himself in 2010, Hall survived, hitting 47 and realizing, “Wait, I’m 47.” In 2025, Hall continues to play the beloved serial killer that made him famous in Dexter: Resurrection.
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie has survived what even she calls her “heavier darker times.” On 60 Minutes, she admitted, “I went through heavy darker times and I survived them. I didn’t die young, so I’m very lucky.” Her past included heroin, alcohol, and self-harm, but those struggles shaped the work she does today as a U.N. ambassador and mother of six. “If you would have asked me as a teenager if I could have been anybody’s mom, or of any use to the UN or write a book, I would have said absolutely not,” she told The Guardian. In 2025, she’ll play Maxine Walker in Alice Winocour’s Couture.
Mickey Rourke
Before The Wrestler brought him back, Mickey Rourke was struggling to survive. “I lost everything, the wife, the house, my friends, my name in the business,” he told The Guardian. He was paying $500 a month for an apartment with his dogs and relying on friends for food. Rourke even considered ending it all: “I kept thinking if I made it look like an accident then it couldn’t be a sin, right?” But his dog Beau Jack saved him. “Who’s going to take care of him if I’m not here?” Now Rourke is still standing and very much alive. In 2025, he appeared in Celebrity Big Brother UK and has at least seven films in production.
Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus knew her 27th birthday carried a lot of weight. The so-called “27 Club” had claimed Jimi Hendrix, Amy Winehouse, and other music legends, and Cyrus realized she could easily follow that path. Speaking with Zane Lowe on Apple Music, she said, “27 to me was a year that I really had to protect myself. That actually really made me want to get sober because we’ve lost so many icons at 27.” In Rolling Stone, she added, “I got to pull my [expletive] together before I’m 27… I didn’t want to join that club.” By November 2019, she was sober and proving her prediction wrong. In 2025, she appeared in Something Beautiful, a musical film and visual album.
Demi Lovato
Demi Lovato once believed they wouldn’t make it past 21. “I lived fast and I was going to die young,” they told American Way Magazine in 2016. Mental health struggles, addiction, and an eating disorder made that prediction feel real at the time. In a conversation with Dr. Phil, Lovato advised anyone feeling trapped by dark thoughts: “Hold on… Every single person on this planet is worth life.” A near-fatal overdose in 2018 tested that advice, but today, at 29, Lovato says, “I’m so proud of the person that I am… I never have to live that life again.” In 2025, you can catch her in Stephanie Laing’s Tow, where she plays Nova.
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda never imagined turning 30. “I assumed I wouldn’t live very long and that I would die lonely and an addict of some sort,” she told People in 2017. Losing her mother at 12 shaped that fear, but Fonda refused to let it define her. On The Guardian, she explained, “Living a whole, good life doesn’t just happen — it requires intention…it’s not what happens to you, it’s what you do with it.” Now an octogenarian still working and still protesting for causes she believes in, Fonda proves that early predictions of doom don’t have to come true. At 87, she’s still very active in the film industry.
Paul Mescal
Paul Mescal, 28, says he’s “convinced” he won’t live long. Working on Gladiator II and Richard Linklater’s Merrily We Roll Along, filmed over 20 years and due to finish in 2042, he still plans to be “settled” with a spouse and kids by then. He told reporters, “I’ve always been convinced that I’m not going to live a long life.” He called it a “gut feeling” and added, “I’m also afraid of death.” But he’s still here.
