America is fascinated with it’s celebrities.  It’s also fascinated with the paranormal.  It seemed only natural that I should throw something together to merge the two obsessions.  The Bio channel has been cashing in on it’s new show “Celebrity Ghost Stories,” but while entertaining, the featured celebrities aren’t quite A-listers.  So I’ve  assembled this little inventory of haunted celebrities, and celebrities who have passed on but reported to still be hanging around.
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HEATH LEDGER AND MICHELLE WILLIAMS – since his untimely death in 2008 Heath Ledger seems to have found a way to come back to his ex Michelle Williams.  One night Michelle was awoken to the sounds of furniture moving around the room.  She saw a shadowy figure that looked like Heath.  Another time Michelle says he visited and apologized for not being there to help raise their daughter, Matilda.

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NEVE CAMPBELL – The Scream star bought a house that had been owned by a woman who was murdered in 1991. She reported paranormal activity including doors slamming, windows banging open, and ashtrays flying off shelves.  The specter of the woman has been seen by Campbell and visitors on many occasions.  Neve says she grew accustomed to the spirit, “After a while it felt normal. I'd pass her in the hallway and casually wish her good morning.”

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ADELE – The phenomenal British songstress paid £7 million for a home in Sussex that had once been a convent.  Immediately after moving in Adele said she was creeped out by the place.  She told friends about hearing bangings late at night.  She was  so freaked out she moved in her female bodyguard so she wouldn’t be alone in the mansion, and hired additional security personnel.

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LUCILLE BALL – Lucy seemed to have been loved by those living and dead.  During her life she managed to keep her encounters with the supernatural relatively quiet. At one time she had grown tired of being known as a comedy queen, until she was visited in a dream by her dead friend Carol Lombard, who convinced her to keep going.  Lucy’s spirit is said to frequent her old Beverly Hills home, where furniture moves and windows are found broken with no explanation, and shouting sounds have been traced to the attic.  Lucy is also believed to hang around the Paramount Studios building where DesiLu’s production offices were located.  Security guards have reported seeing a woman wandering the upper levels and smelling old flowers and perfume.

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JOE HILL – The son of horror writer Stephen King has came into his own, publishing several novels of his own.  One of his works was picked up for a television pilot. While the show never got picked up, Joe’s return trip from shooting the pilot in Pittsburg led him to spend the night in the Bethleham Hotel.  The hotel’s room 932 is supposedly haunted.  Visitors can by the “Room With a Boo” package that includes spending the night in the spooked room.  The night Hill visited the room was booked and he was given room 832, directly below it.  Even so Hill woke up in the middle of the night as terrified as he’d ever been.  He was certain something was sitting on the edge of his bed and was paralyzed, unable to lift his head to see who, or what was there.  He was able to scream, quite loudly, which caused a lot of thumping from the room above to be heard.  Perhaps there were residual haunting effects from the room above experienced by Stephen King’s son that night.

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MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY – Alright, alright, alright.  When Matthew McConaughey moved into his Hollywood home he and his dog spent the first night, where else, in a tent.  He awoke to the sounds of furniture moving and other weird noises.  McConaughey grabbed a baseball bat and went off to investigate, in his birthday suit.  The actor is convinced the noises he heard that night were caused by the apparition he has seen several times since then, whom he calls Madame Blue.  When talking about Madame Blue he often says the two of them get along famously, and he thinks it may be because of his constant nudity at home.

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ANNA NICOLE SMITH – The Texas native and former Playmate has paranormal tales circulating from both sides of the grave.  During her life, Anna Nicole talked about an incubus that used to visit her in an apartment she once lived in.  She claimed she thought it was her boyfriend until she woke up one day and it wasn’t.  At first Smith was freaked out by it, but came to terms with it saying, “Well, you know what? He’s never hurt me and he just gave me some amazing sex so I have no problem.” And Anna Nicole isn’t the only celebrity to have encountered such a spirit.  Lucy Liu has also talked about being visited by an incubus.
After her death from an accidental overdose in 2007 Smith’s ghost has been spotted at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Florida where she passed away.  To discourage tourists seeking to exploit the room she died in, the hotel has since renumbered the rooms so that room 607 can’t be found.

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DAN AYKROYD AND MAMA CASS – One of the writers and stars of the Ghostbusters films has had his own real life encounters with the paranormal.  Aykroyd, who lives in the home once owned by Mama Cass Elliot of the Mamas and the Papas, is sure the singer is still lingering around.  “I'm sure it's Mama Cass because you get the feeling it's a big ghost.”  Gym equipment and jewelry moves around mysteriously.  Aykroyd says she once crawled into bed with him.  He says he rolled over and nuzzled up to whatever it was and went back to sleep.  

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NICOLAS CAGE – Actor  Nic Cage owned one of the most notoriously haunted properties in the country.  The LaLaurie House in New Orleans has a haunted past that goes back to the 1930s and a socialite named Madame Delphine LaLaurie.  Madame LaLaurie was well known for the elaborate parties she hosted in the home, as well as her dark side.  She is said to have mistreated, abused, and  some say even murdered slaves.  During the time he owned the home, Cage never slept there.  Over the years countless witnesses have reported ghostly goings on there. For more info on the LaLaurie House’s haunted history visit this link.
Perhaps Cage’s reluctance to spend the night at the LaLaurie House and possibly encounter it’s ghosts stems from an experience he had at an earlier age while staying at the home of his uncle, Francis Ford Coppola.  Nic’s room was in the attic.  One night he saw the black silhouette of a woman with big hair appeared.  At first he thought it was his aunt, but as it approached he realized he didn’t know what it was.  He screamed and threw a pillow at it, and it disappeared.

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SHARON TATE – The horrific murder of actress Sharon Tate and several guests at her home by the Manson Family is a dark stain on American culture.  In August of 1969 Tate, the pregnant wife of director Roman Polanski, was stabbed to death repeatedly by followers of Charles Manson.  Eerily, just days before the murders, Sharon confided to friends that she had seen her own ghost.  If you’ve read my blog on dopplegangers you’ll know this is commonly seen as an omen of impending death.  The encounter started while she was in bed and saw what she believed was the ghost of the home’s previous owner, Paul Burn, who had shot himself there following the breakup of his marriage to actress Jean Harlow.  Terrified, Tate fled downstairs only to be confronted with her own ghost.  She saw herself tied to a pillar with her throat cut, in the same position her body would be found days later.

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JIM MORRISON – The Lizard King died in Paris but some would have it that his ghost is still hanging around a Mexican restaurant on Santa Monica Boulevard.  The restaurant was once a recording studio The  Doors used as a workshop.  A manager there reports lights mysteriously going on and off and the door handle to the bathroom, which was where the recording booth once was, jingles by itself.  A chef added that someone was brought in to do a sort of spiritual cleansing but was unsuccessful, telling the owners that whatever was there wasn’t leaving.

An interesting photo is out there, supposedly taken in 1997 at the French cemetery where Morrison is buried.  It shows ‘rock hisrorian’ Brad Meisner and what appears to be the spirit of Morrison in the background.  Experts who have analyzed the photo say it shows no signs of manipulation.  You decide.



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TORI SPELLING AND FARRAH FAWCETT – After the death of her father, super-producer Aaron Spelling, actress Tori Spelling had psychic John Edward attempt to contact him.  Instead her late neighbor, Farah Fawcett came through.  She asked that Tori pass along very specific messages to her family.   

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ORSON WELLS – The genius behind Citizen Kane and responsible for the ensuing real-life panic when his “War of the Worlds” was broadcasted on the radio and thought to be actual news bulletins reporting a Martian invasion is said to still hang around his favorite haunt.  His apparition has been seen at what was his favorite restaurant during his life,  Sweet Lady Jane’s in Los Angeles, sitting at the table he preferred.  The smells of his brandy and cigars are also said to sometimes be present.   

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JOHN LENNON – Shot and killed by Mark David Chapman in 1980 in New York, the spirit of John Lennon has reportedly touched those who were close to him since his death.  His son Julian believes it was the spirit of his father at work when in Australia working on a film, he was handed  a white feather by an Aboriginal elder during a ceremony.  Lennon told his son before his death that if he died, to look for a white feather.  Fellow Beatle Paul McCartney also believes Lennon visited the studio where his former bandmates were recording of one of his songs.  A white peacock wondered in and McCartney is sure it was Lennon (although it belonged to a neighbor).  When they finished the recording they decided to throw some backmasking on the end, recording themselves backwards and sounding like gibberish when played forward, all except for one part.  See video below:










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