Anyone Can Die/Real Life


 * The world death rate seems to be holding steady at 100%.
 * Not only can anyone die, but everyone and everything as we know it will.
 * CelebreCaust '09 has claimed an unusually high number of big names (in no particular order), with the deaths of Michael Jackson (acute propofol intoxication; ruled involuntary manslaughter), Natasha Richardson (brain injury), David Carradine (accidental strangulation), Billy Mays (heart attack), John Hughes (heart attack) and Brittany Murphy (likely a drug overdose combined with an eating disorder) coming out of nowhere. Plus, two very young sports stars killed in car accidents—the baseball pitcher, Nick Adenhart, was killed the same night he started a game.
 * Also, Kim Peek (heart attack), the Real Life inspiration for Rain Man; Farrah Fawcett (colon cancer); Patrick Swayze (pancreatic cancer); Ed McMahon; Bea Arthur; Ricardo Montalban; and James 'The Rev' Sullivan of Avenged Sevenfold.
 * Vocalist and bassist Peter Steele, former addict, atheist and iconoclast. Finally came clean, switched to a healthier lifestyle, found himself some faith and started recording a new album. Boom, dies from a heart attack on April 14, 2010.
 * FBI counter-terrorism expert John P. O'Neill, who investigated the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, was called back to investigate Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda's plan for another attack on American soil. Just 19 days before 9/11, O'Neill stated that Al-Qaeda would, "Try to finish the job." O'Neill was killed in his office in the World Trade Center in the September 11th attacks.
 * William Henry Harrison became the first president of the united states to die in office, just one month after taking the oath, in 1841. Nobody had given much thought to what to do if the president dies; so John Tyler, his vice-president, just up-and-declared himself president. For the rest of his presidency, his opponents would bitterly call him "his accidency".
 * Auto racing, especially in its early history, is synonymous with this trope. Doesn't matter your skill level (otherwise Ayrton Senna and Dale Earnhardt would still be around), or your safety equipment, you can die if just one thing goes horribly wrong. Then again, this isn't too surprising, considering the speeds some series reach (Formula One and Le Mans get up over 200 MPH, for example).
 * How bad was it in the early days? As Jackie Stewart put it, in the sixties and seventies, if you raced for five years, you had a two in three chance of dying, because, back then, safety was basically nonexistent
 * In indy crashes driver deaths were common until safety became a priority. However, even with all the safety modern technology could provide, Dan Wheldon was killed in October 2011, when his head slammed into the catch fence, causing non-survivable injuries.
 * Special mention also has to go to Motorcycle racing, as it's impossible to have as much safety as one would get in a racing car (as there is nothing around the rider except the firesuit, helmet, and any padding under the suit) the chance that a crash will cause serious injury or death is much higher than it is in, say, an Indy car.
 * Horse-back riding also follows this trope, due to the nature of the horse as a prey animal with a mind of its own. You could be the best rider in the world, you could have ridden for 20 years. But make one mistake or have one freak occurence nearby that scares your horse (even a horse known to be 'bombproof' can freak out if, for example, an animal runs between its legs), and you could be seriously injured or killed.
 * Operation Entebbe an Israeli counter-terrorist hostage-rescue mission which resulted in the death of dozens of enemy soldiers and the rescue of nearly ever hostage. Only one friendly soldier was killed and it was from a lucky sniper shot, outside the building being assaulted. It just so happens that the commando killed was Yonatan Netanyahu, the most decorated soldier on the team, and the commander.
 * If the name sounds familiar, there's a reason; Yoni Netanyahu's younger brother, Binyamin, is currently the Prime Minister of Israel.