Whitney Houston and Five Other Singers Silenced by Cocaine

Coroner's report shows diva's death was caused, in part, by the same drug that felled a pair a 1980s heavy-metal star and a "Super Freak," among others

By Joal Ryan Mar 23, 2012 10:00 AMTags
Whitney Houston BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images

As the coroner's report made official Thursday, Whitney Houston's sudden death at age 48 was the result of an accidental drowning caused by heart disease and the old devil cocaine.

Here are five other singers whose passings were linked to the drug:

1. David Ruffin: From a crack house to a limo to a hospital. That was the tragic route the iconic Temptations lead ("My Girl," "Ain't Too Proud to Beg") took on a fateful night in Philadelphia in 1991. Pronounced dead at the hospital, Ruffin was 50

2. Layne Staley: The Alice in Chains star was dead for two weeks from an overdose of cocaine and heroin before his body was found in his Seattle home in 2002. He was 34. His grunge-era contemporary, Blind Melon's Shannon Hoon, succumbed to a cocaine overdose in 1995. 

3. Rick James: The "Super Freak" legend's cocaine problem was so notorious it landed him in prison. In 2004, officials determined that no less than nine drugs, including cocaine, were contributing factors to the heart attack that felled James in his sleep at age 56. 

4. Bobby Hatfield: "Acute cocaine intoxication" was blamed for triggering the fatal 2003 heart attack that struck the "Unchained Melody" crooner at a Michigan hotel just before a scheduled Righteous Brothers concert. He was 63.

5. Kevin DuBrow: In 2006, the hurricane-strength vocalist and his band, Quiet Riot ("Cum on Feel the Noize"), released an album called Rehab. A year later, DuBrow died at age 52 in his Las Vegas home of what authorities determined was an accidental cocaine overdose.   

PHOTOS: Whitney Houston: A Life