August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987
Andy Warhol was born to Slovak immigrants as Andrew Warhola on August 6, 1928, on 73 Orr Street in Soho, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was a successful illustrator for advertisements in the 1950s, but it wasn’t until the early 1960’s that he became world-famous for his silk-screens featuring Campbell’s Soup cans. After he bought his first camera in 1963, he made a series of movies and eventually launched his own celeb-magazine, called Interview. He was the producer and designer of the first album of the Velvet Underground & Nico.
By now everyone in the world knows that Andy coined that whole “15 minutes” thing. He should have put a copyright on it.
Psycho Valerie Solanas shot him three times in the chest on June 3, 1968. She was in one of his movies a long time before, and wanted Andy to make a film of a screenplay she wrote, which has a name that cannot be mentioned here. Andy was rushed to Columbus Hospital and was at one point pronounced clinically dead. Two months later he was released. Valerie Solanas was the only member of SCUM, the Society For Cutting Up Men. She turned herself in the day after she shot Warhol and spent 3 years in prison. Solanas died on April 26, 1988 of pneumonia.
One of Andy Warhol’s last public appearances was in Italy, when he attended the opening of the exhibition of his Last Supper Series on January 22, 1987. Suffering from a gall bladder infection, he returned to the United States. In the days to follow, Warhol went to see Linda Li of Li Chiropractic Healing Arts Clinic for a massage, which didn’t do his gall bladder any good. Because of the severe pain he experienced following the massage, Warhol consulted with Dr. Linda Burke on Saturday, February 14, 1987. He got a sonogram that indicated that the gall bladder was enlarged.
On February 19th, Warhol went to see his physician Dr. Denton S. Cox to get a second sonogram, which showed similar results.
Andy was living at 57 East 66th Street, in Manhattan.
Here is his house,
and there is now a plaque honoring Andy Warhol, in the front of it.
Even though hospitals really freaked Warhol in a big bad way, he checked into the New York Hospital on Friday, February 20 under the name of Bob Robert.
He knew his Blue Cross number by heart. Surgery was performed the next day, from 8:45 am to 12:10 pm (EST). After the surgery, Warhol spent 3 hours in a recovery room, then he was taken to a private room, which was located on the 12th floor of Baker Pavilion. He watched television during the evening and called one of his dearest friends, Paige Powell.
At 4 am on February 22nd, Warhol’s blood pressure was recorded as ‘stable.’
At 5:45 am, Warhol turned blue and his pulse had weakened. His private nurse could not wake him, and she called for assistance. The hospital staff tried for 45 minutes to resuscitate him. They even tried to insert a tube down his windpipe but had difficulty because rigor mortis had started. Andy Warhol was pronounced dead at 6:21 am on February 22, 1987. He was 58 years old.
An open-casket ceremony was held at Thomas P. Kunsak Funeral Home in Pittsburgh. Warhol’s was solid bronze with gold plated rails and white upholstery. He was wearing a black cashmere suit, colourful paisley tie, a platinum wig, and sunglasses. He was holding a small prayer book and a red rose. The funeral service was held at the Holy Ghost Byzantine Catholic Church. The coffin was covered with white roses and asparagus ferns. After the funeral service, the coffin was driven to St. John Divine Cemetery in Bethel Park.
At the grave site, the priest said a brief prayer and sprinkled holy water three times over the casket. Before it was lowered, Paige Powell dropped a copy of Interview magazine, an Interview t-shirt, and a bottle of Estee Lauder perfume into the grave. His tombstone was a marble stone with Warhol’s name and dates of birth and death.
Find a Death friend Sarah Martin sends in this terrific picture of Andy’s grave. Thanks Sarah!
A memorial service was held on April 1, 1987 at Manhattan’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Bridget Berlin read passages from the Scriptures and Yoko Ono talked about her friendship with Andy. Mourners in attendance were Roy Lichtenstein, Keith Haring, Liza Minnelli and Don Johnson among others.
After the memorial, the attendees had lunch at the Diamond Horseshoe.
Useless information: One of Andy’s earlier stars was Mary Woronov. She starred in Chelsea Girls.
Personally, I loved her in Rock and Roll High School, one of my all time favorite flicks. Rest in peace, Joey Ramone. Mary played Miss Togar, the principal of the school. I always thought she looked like Tim Curry’s mother. She was also in the terrific film Scenes from a Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills, with Rebecca Schaeffer. I met Mary in 2000. She was doing a talk here in London. She was really funny, and I asked her about her scenes in Class Struggle. To my surprise, she got pissed off, and said that most of her good scenes were cut, because she wasn’t a big enough name in it, referring to her co-star Jacqueline Bisset. When I asked Mary about Rebecca, she got genuinely sad, and just said that she was a really nice girl. Mary did sign a picture for me.
In his book, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, Andy wrote about death: “I don’t believe in it, because you’re not around to know that it’s happened. I can’t say anything about it because I’m not prepared for it.”
They had an auction of Andy’s stuff after he died. People were paying oodles for every piece of crap he owned. The cookie jar collection got most of the attention, but then there were those silk screens of that damn soup can. Warhol’s diaries were published, and everyone in the New York scene were clamoring to get to the index – to see (mostly) if they made it in, and (secondly) if Andy was nasty about them.
There is a Warhol Museum in his native Pittsburgh. Inside it, is Andy’s dog, Cecil, who is now preserved through taxidermy. Find a Death friend Sarah Martin infiltrated the tight security to snap Cecil for us all to enjoy.
Thanks, Sarah – I’ve seen stuffed pets before, but it really does seem like this one shows personality in it’s eyes. Usually they just looked like stuffed animals.
Mostly by Mark from Holland, me, and some pics by Stacey Weinstein of NYC. Thanks, you guys.
Andy was buried in a casket, not a coffin. There is a very big difference and the terminology is not interchangeable.
Amazing article! Love the knod to Rock n Roll High School, a favorite of mine. At times I find myself singing the theme song for no reason at all.
When I worked for “The Bank to the Stars”, a co-worker invited me to a house party, with 2 collage girls from the east coast who were nieces of of the owner. The house was film producer Lester Persky’s place at 935 Bel Air Road, on the view side of the street.
I’ve been to some “fancy” places (Top? a 1920’s Beverly Hills estate on 120 acres, where I lived for a month. Previous tenant – George Harrison) so I’ve been around. Lester’s place was “jaw-dropping”; “Old School” glamour times ten. Raised up off the street with an enormous oval flagstone front “parking lot”, the house was a 1940’s dream, stuffed with Warhol’s, Lichtenstein’s, Hockney’s, etc., with a view to “knock your socks off”.
The four of us were sitting outside, when I pointed out to one of the girls that the pool looked like it was painted by Hockney, with its “comma like” squiggles. She directed my attention to the wall behind her, which I hadn’t noticed, with an enormous painting by Hockney signed “To Lester, Love David” & said “yes, the pool was painted by Hockney”! Seriously, I’ve never seen a place like that in my life. The art alone, at today’s values? Guessing, one hundred million dollars wouldn’t be far off the mark.
From what I’ve read, glad never met Lester. If you were famous (or a pretty boy) Lester was your “best friend” if not, you were a peon to be verbally abused. Lester was part of the gay NY art scene & knew EVERYONE, including Warhol. Lester was Truman Capote’s host on his last visit where he died in LA:
Halfway down, just above photo of Truman with “Big Mama” Slim Hayward (later Slim Keith).
https://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/on-having-met-mr-capote-2/
Bad photo example of Lester’s “social swimming”:
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/ron-galella-andy-warhol-truman-capote-and-lester-persky-attend-steve-rubells-birthday-party-at-studio-54-new-york-december-2
Trivia Note: It’s my understanding from reading, that because Warhol used acrylic paints, which are essentially made either with or from plastics, that the painting are “unstable” & degrading. Warhol’s “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn”, one of his most famous series, just sold for $195 million. Hope the “experts” have figured out a way to preserve the paintings.
Andy IS an ICON for more reason’s than the Press ever gave him , Andy was ahead of his time.
Andy is buried two stones up from my father- in-law and brother-in-law so I pitch a stone every time I go by and say “I wonder what you’d think knowing you’d be buried here Andy”. His parents have been here since the 1950’s so I know he was here before he died. It’s not a bad place but???
The earth cam website has a pair of web cams showing Andy’s grave. One is color for daytime and the second is a night vision cam. His grave is only a few miles from my home.