Thelma Todd, The Infamous Death Of Hollywood’s Earliest Beauty Queen
Wikimedia CommonsFamous dead celebrity Thelma Todd was found dead inside her car at the garage of her supposed lover in 1935.
Actress Thelma Todd was one of Hollywood’s earliest comedy queens and she starred in roughly 100 movies during her lifetime. Though her sudden death in 1935 was ruled a suicide, her demise has since evolved into Hollywood lore.
Thelma Todd was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1906. She was bright and ambitious and had plans to become a schoolteacher, but she was also beautiful and, at the behest of her mother, participated in beauty contests. Her time on the beauty pageant circuit proved fruitful when she won Miss Massachusetts in 1925.
Later, Todd caught the eye of Hollywood scouts who encouraged her to join the Paramount School for Junior Stars hosted by the Paramount Movie Studio. Soon, she was starring in the silent comedies of Hollywood.
Getty ImagesRoland West mourns Thelma Todd after her famous celebrity death in 1935.
She successfully transitioned to “talkie” pictures co-starring alongside the Marx Brothers in movies like Monkey Business (1931) and Horse Feathers (1932). But her rising stardom halted with her tragic death.
Todd’s body was reportedly found on Dec. 16, 1935, by her longtime maid, Mae Whitehead. Whitehead found the famous dead celebrity slumped in the front seat of her car inside the garage of Roland West, her longtime business partner and sometimes lover.
Whitehead later told police that the actress was unresponsive and had blood around her nose. The cause of her death was eventually declared as carbon monoxide poisoning because there were no signs of violence found at the scene — and yet, there was still plenty of reason for the police to suspect foul play was involved.
Getty ImagesAs is the case with many famous dead people, Todd’s sudden death remains largely mysterious.
According to the Los Angeles Times, police arrested two men who were discovered to have sent extortion notes and threatening telephone calls to Todd in the months before her death.
Police were also wary of her precarious entanglement with West, who ran a café with the actress and his ex-wife Jewel Carmen, who had reportedly threatened Todd when the café began to lose business.
But perhaps the most suspicious aspect of this famous death was Todd’s tumultuous relationship with infamous mobster Lucky Luciano, who allegedly beat her and got her hooked on amphetamines.
Diners at Todd’s café claimed that they overheard the couple fighting because Luciano wanted to open a casino inside the café and when the actress replied “over my dead body,” he allegedly responded, “that can be arranged.”
Authorities also briefly suspected none other than Todd’s own mother and ex-husband in connection to her death. Though the truth around her famous celebrity death may never be revealed, perhaps the real tragedy is that Todd had so many untrustworthy people in her life.
