17 Celebrities Who Survived Murder Attempts, Explained

On December 30, 1999, Liverpool native Michael Abram jumped the fence at George Harrison's Oxfordshire estate, carrying a large knife. He smashed a window and made his way inside, where Harrison and his wife, Olivia, confronted him. Abram began screaming at the ex-Beatle, who charged at him and tried to knock the knife out of his hand. Abram stabbed Harrison several times in the chest, then went after Olivia and tried to strangle her with a lamp cord. Police arrived and took Abram into custody. In court, Abram revealed he believed the Beatles were witches and he was on a mission from God to kill Harrison, whom he believed to be the Devil. The courts found Abram not guilty by reason of insanity and committed him. Harrison died less than two years later of cancer. The institution released Abram in 2002.

In 1996, obsessive stalker Ricardo Lopez sent a letter bomb to Icelandic pop singer Björk. Lopez, 21, had been infatuated with Björk for several years, writing a diary of over 800 pages devoted to her - which included dozens of references to suicide and murder. Upon learning she was in a relationship, Lopez reportedly snapped. He filmed over 20 hours of footage that consisted mostly of him ranting, then sent the singer a hollowed-out book with a bomb in the middle. Afterward, he shot himself on camera - while a Björk song played in the background. The police intercepted the bomb, which never reached the singer.

The British chef and TV star Gordon Ramsay is also a crusader against illegal shark fishing. As part of a BBC documentary - Gordon’s Shark Bait - he went to Costa Rica to uncover illicit shark fin trade. A gang, which authorities believe have ties to an illegal drug network, confronted Ramsay and poured gasoline on him and his film crew. The “thugs” then held the group at gunpoint and told Ramsay to stop filming the shark fishing crews - or else they’d be shot. Reportedly, local police recommended Ramsay and his crew leave Costa Rica.

In 2000, an unknown assailant shot rapper Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson - shortly before his ascent to fame - nine times outside his grandmother's house in Queens. Jackson spent 13 days in a hospital and the next five months recovering with wounds in his hand, arm, hip, both legs, chest, and left cheek. Neither Jackson nor police ever positively identified the shooter. Initially, police suspected Darryl “Hommo” Baum - Mike Tyson’s former bodyguard - as the shooter. The theory was local drug lord “Supreme” hired Baum to kill Jackson over a drug dispute. Three weeks after the attempted murder, an unknown assailant shot and killed Baum. Allegedly, Tyson offered someone $50,000 to take care of the parties responsible for Baum’s death. In 2005, rival rappers of Murder Inc. reportedly testified against Supreme for his involvement in the attempt on Jackson’s life.

Madonna had multiple encounters with stalker Robert Dewey Hoskins, but in 1996, he jumped the fence of her Hollywood Hills compound. Hoskins declared he would “either marry [the singer] or slash her throat.” One of her bodyguards shot him, and police took him into custody. Madonna wasn't home at the time but testified against him later. In 2012, Dewey escaped from a mental hospital in Los Angeles - where the courts sent him after an unrelated 2011 conviction - but authorities quickly captured and returned him.

Theresa Saldana was an on-the-rise actress who’d appeared in Raging Bull and the Beatles movie I Wanna Hold Your Hand. Arthur Richard Jackson, a 47-year-old drifter from Aberdeen, Scotland, flew across the world and illegally entered the US with a plan to find Saldana and kill her. Reportedly, he intended to join her in the afterlife - after the state executed him for her murder. In 1982, Jackson hired a private investigator to obtain Saldana’s mother’s phone number, then called her pretending to be Martin Scorsese, looking for Saldana herself. After Saldana’s mother unwittingly provided her daughter’s West Hollywood address, Jackson drove there and stabbed her 10 times with a hunting knife. Saldana survived, thanks to a deliveryman rushing to her rescue and pulling Jackson off her. She made a full recovery, and the courts committed Jackson to a mental institution, where he died in 2004. After her recovery, Saldana became a prominent advocate for victim’s rights and founded Victims for Victims. She also played herself in a TV movie about her attack.

In 2009, police arrested Chidi Uzomah Jr. - an ex-soldier turned stalker - when witnesses reported him for walking the halls of the E! studio. Reportedly, Uzomah was carrying a knife and looking for Ryan Seacrest - host of E! News and later American Idol. Police had apprehended him once prior for trying to get to Seacrest in Orange County and attacking one of his bodyguards. The courts sentenced 26-year-old Uzomah to two years in prison and ordered him to stay away from Seacrest for at least a decade.

Allegedly, a 45-year-old transient named David Merck attacked NCIS actress Pauley Perrette in November 2015. According to police, Perrette was walking in her LA neighborhood when Merck grabbed her by the arm and attempted to drag her away. She persuaded him to let her go, then called the police, who found Merck at a nearby 7-11. Merck - who had a preexisting criminal record - pleaded “not guilty” to felony assault charges. The courts found Merck unfit to stand trial and sent him to a mental facility. In 2018, the state facility released him.

In 1978, a sniper shot and paralyzed Hustler publisher and free speech crusader Larry Flynt. At the time of the shooting, Flynt was leaving a courthouse in Georgia, where he was on trial for obscenity. The shooter, white supremacist Joseph Paul Franklin, later admitted to the attack, claiming an interracial sex photo shoot in an issue of Hustler outraged him. Missouri law enforcement eventually arrested Franklin for shooting up a St. Louis synagogue. Franklin - a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic - claimed to have killed over two dozen people. The courts found him guilty and executed him in 2013. Reportedly, Flynt opposed the execution.

In 1976, unknown shooters attacked Bob Marley, his wife, and his manager two days before a concert Marley had helped organize to unite opposing political factions in Jamaica. The singer sustained minor wounds and played at the concert despite the shooting. Authorities never identified the assailants. Marley died in 1981, of cancer - which conspiracy theorists believe was a successful attempt on his life.

Garret Morris was a member of the original Saturday Night Live cast until 1980. In 1994, a mugger shot him in LA. Reportedly, two men approached Morris, who tried to fight off the attackers. Morris sustained wounds in the chest, arm, and stomach. Doctors performed about 10 operations on Morris, who had to drop out of his role on the TV series Martin because of the shooting.

Tupac Shakur survived the first attempt on his life, a 1994 shooting in the lobby of a recording studio in Manhattan. Shakur believed the attack was a set-up, as opposed to a robbery since the three shooters didn't take his Rolex. He accused rappers Notorious BIG and Puff Daddy of orchestrating the attack - which took place just before Shakur was due to receive a verdict for a sexual assault case he was facing. Later, in 1996, an unknown shooter killed Shakur in a Las Vegas drive-by. In 2011, shooter Dexter Isaac admitted to authorities former talent agent James Rosemond - AKA Jimmy Henchman - hired him to attack Shakur in 1994. He alleged no connection to the fatal shooting in 1996. Shakur's murder still remains unsolved.

On December 3, 1968, activist Valeria Solanas shot artist and filmmaker Andy Warhol. Reportedly, Solanas - who was the sole member of an organization she founded called Cutting Up Men - wanted Warhol to produce her play. Earlier on the day of the shooting, security removed Solanas from the Factory after allegedly trying to get her script back. She shot Warhol and art critic Mary Amaya when she saw Warhol on the street. Warhol sustained major physical and psychological injuries from the attack. As a result, he developed an intense fear of hospitals, which subsequently factored into his 1987 death. Although psychiatrists later diagnosed Solanas as schizophrenic, she pled guilty to the attack on Warhol and served three years in prison.

In 1969, following the alleged Hell's Angels stabbing of a man at the Altamont Free Concert, Jagger and the other Rolling Stones publicly pilloried the biker gang’s behavior and refused to ever hire them again. The Angels responded with a plan to storm Jagger's Long Island mansion - from the sea - and murder him. Armed, the gang allegedly got in a boat and sailed toward Jagger’s home. A storm sank the boat before they could reach the estate. The wreck didn’t injury any gang members, but they decided to call off the attack. The Angels denied culpability in the Altamont stabbing.

Jackie Chan was involved in a long-running feud with the Hong Kong triads - Chinese organized crime - that had infested the local film industry and routinely shook down producers for money. Reportedly, when Chan first came to America from Hong Kong, a triad sniper shot at him on the airport tarmac. In 2012, Chan said triad men armed with machetes later surrounded him when he was out to dinner. In response to the attacks, Chan armed himself with guns and grenades and hired muscle from mainland China. Eventually, he paid them off, and they left him alone.

In 2000, just two years into his NBA career, two men stabbed Paul Pierce 11 times in the face, neck, and back while he was trying to break up a fight at a Boston club. Despite needing surgery, Pierce appeared in all 82 Celtics games in the 2000-2001 season. Courts convicted William Ragland of attempted murder and Trevor Watson of assault. Ragland received up to a 10-year sentence, while Watson received a 1-year sentence as an accomplice.

In 2011, Junior Bradshaw and Kevin Liverpool scouted British soul singer Joss Stone’s house. Reportedly, they were armed with a sword, hammers, knives, gloves, rope, and masks with the intention to rob and behead her. Neighbors spotted their banged-up vehicle idling in her wealthy neighborhood and called the police, who searched the car's trunk and arrested the two men. British courts sentenced Liverpool - who organized the plan - to 10 years in prison. The courts sentenced Bradshaw, a diagnosed schizophrenic, to a psychiatric facility.