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Famous Last Words

Sometimes the most memorable quotes are from deathbeds. Do you know who uttered these last words?

1. “Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him.”
   • Lionel Barrymore
   • Ethel Barrymore
   • John Barrymore

   John Barrymore, Actor, 1882-1942

2. “I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis.”
   • Humphrey Bogart
   • Frank Sinatra
   • Dean Martin
   • John Wayne

   Humphrey Bogart, Actor, 1889-1957

3. “Is it the Fourth?”
   • George Washington
   • John Adams
   • Thomas Jefferson
   • Benjamin Franklin

   Thomas Jefferson, U.S. Founding Father, 1743-1826

4. “Why are you weeping? Did you imagine that I was immortal?”
   • Napoleon Bonaparte
   • Louis XIV
   • Karl Marx
   • Mao Tse Tung

   Louis XIV, King of France, 1638-1715

   Said to his deathbed attendants.

5. “Now, now brothers, break it up. “Be cool, be calm.”
   • Malcolm X
   • Thomas Aquinas
   • Robert Kennedy
   • Martin Luther King, Jr.

   Malcolm X (Malcolm Little), Activitist and Minister, 1925-1965

   Said to men fighting at a rally at which he was speaking.

6. “Go on, get out. Last words are for fools who haven't said enough.”
   • Sigmund Freud
   • Marcel Proust
   • John Updike
   • Karl Marx

   Karl Marx, Philosopher, 1818-1883

7. “This isn't Hamlet, you know. It's not meant to go into the bloody ear.”
   • Alec Guinness
   • Laurence Olivier
   • Orson Welles
   • John Gielgud

   Laurence Olivier, Actor, 1907-1989

   Said to his nurse, who had spilled water on him.

8. “I have just had eighteen whiskeys in a row. I do believe that is a record.”
   • Dylan Thomas
   • Ernest Hemmingway
   • William Faulkner
   • Arthur Miller

   Dylan Thomas, Welsh Poet and Writer, 1914-1953

9. “Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something.”
   • John Wilkes Booth
   • Che Guevara
   • Pancho Villa
   • Robert E. Lee

   Pancho Villa (José Doroteo Arango Arámbula), Mexican Revolutionary, 1878-1923

10. “Freedom.”
    • Patrick Henry
    • William Wallace
    • Mahatma Gandhi
    • Nathan Hale

    William Wallace, Scottish Patriot, died 1305

11. “Friends, applaud. The comedy is over.”
    • Ludwig van Beethoven
    • Wolfang Amadeus Mozart
    • Johann Sebastian Bach
    • Franz Liszt

    Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer, 1770-1827

12. “God bless…God damn.”
    • Damon Runyon
    • James Thurber
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Dorothy Parker

    James Thurber, Writer and Cartoonist, 1894-1961

13. “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go.”
    • Oscar Wilde
    • Noel Coward
    • Quentin Crisp
    • Liberace

    Oscar Wilde, Irish Writer and Poet, 1854-1900

14. “Damn it, don’t you dare ask God to help me.”
    • Bette Davis
    • Joan Crawford
    • Talulah Bankhead
    • Totie Fields

    Joan Crawford, Actress, 1905-1977

    Said to her housekeeper, who had started praying aloud at her bedside.

15. “Die, my dear? Why, that's the last thing I'll do!”
    • Bob Hope
    • Jimmy Durante
    • Groucho Marx
    • Jack Benny

    Groucho Marx (Julius Henry Marx), Actor and Comedian, 1890-1977