Artists only want appreciation for their work but sadly, many of them are way ahead of their times. It’s only after they pass away that people see their true worth and give them the credit and praise they deserve. We’ll share over 50 celebrities who became famous only after their death with you in this article.
Herman Melville
Melville found some success at the start of his career but his popularity went away quickly. He then took a job as a customs inspector on the New York docks to ensure a steady income. It wasn’t until after his death that his books became known as great literary achievements.
Vivian Maier
Today, people are obsessed with Vivian Maier’s photography, but her work was very low-key when she was alive. Even her closest friends had no clue about her remarkable skill for capturing candid moments of strangers, and her incredible photographs were praised only after she passed away.
Oscar Wilde
Some of Oscar Wilde’s plays, including The Importance of Being Earnest, became fan favorites really quickly. But sadly, he ended up dealing with lots of legal battles during his later years because of his homosexuality, which even led to a two-year prison sentence!
For his final years, he went to France, where he lived as a broke man in exile. His writings, like The Picture of Dorian Gray, were initially overlooked and criticized as they apparently had immoral themes.
But after his death, things took an unexpected turn, and he became really famous.
H.P. Lovecraft
While he was alive, Lovecraft was a reclusive and self-conscious writer who struggled to make a living from his stories, which mostly appeared in pulp magazines. Most people didn’t recognize him, but a small group of writers in the horror genre appreciated his work. As time went on, more people came to admire him, and he became a significant figure in horror literature. This recognition led to the creation of a subgenre called Lovecraftian Horror. Today, his works, including Cthulhu, are a major part of pop culture, appearing in everything from anime and films to music, video games, and tabletop games.
Edgar Allan Poe
People didn’t appreciate Edgar Allan Poe fully when he was alive, but he later became so popular that he even had a major influence on writers like Lovecraft. Poe’s work combines horror and beauty in a way we’ve never seen before, and this sort of perfect combination is rarely seen in the genre. He spent most of his adult life struggling with poverty, making ends meet by writing for journals and periodicals. This earned him a reputation as a sharp literary critic, but only within a small circle. The only piece that brought him real success during his life was The Raven.
After his death, however, his poetry and short stories gained a lot of popularity, especially in France, before spreading worldwide. Poe is also credited with creating the detective fiction genre, even though he never labeled it as such.
Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei is a name most of us recognize today, but during his lifetime, he faced censorship and was even forced to take back his scientific beliefs.
While Gregor Mendel is known as the “father of modern genetics,” Galileo has been referred to as the “father of science” by prominent figures like Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein for his work in astronomy, engineering, and physics.
Unfortunately, the church labeled much of his research as heresy and suppressed it during his lifetime. But after his death, his once-banned writings were slowly released, letting his remarkable discoveries finally make their mark on science.
Emily Dickinson
While she wrote a lot of poetry, only a few of Emily Dickinson’s poems were published during her lifetime, and they were often edited or published anonymously as she kept most of her work private.
After her death, her sister Lavinia found about 1,800 poems and worked tirelessly to publish them. It took some time, but from 1890 to 1945, different edited collections of her poetry came out. But it wasn’t until 1955 that her complete works were published, and she became one of America’s greatest poets!
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was well-known in his time as a highly respected organist, but his compositions were seen as too complex for many listeners.
His music mainly appealed to other musicians who were interested in pushing musical limits. Over time, though, people began to appreciate his work more. By the early 19th century, Bach became more famous as a composer, especially after a performance of St. Matthew Passion, his sacred oratorio, in 1829, and now he is celebrated as one of the most phenomenal composers in history.
Vincent Van Gogh
During his lifetime, Vincent Van Gogh created about 2,100 works in a little over ten years, but he only sold one painting while he was alive. He was seen as an outsider and considered unstable, partly because of the infamous incident with his ear. Sadly, at the age of 37, he took his own life, but this tragic passing, combined with his dramatic life, helped create the image of the ‘tortured artist’ and made him famous.
Gregor Mendel
Gregor Mendel, a 19th-century European scientist and friar, showed that science and religion can work harmoniously together. He loved plants and animals and studying them. He spent a lot of time carefully crossbreeding them to discover how traits are inherited.
Scientists overlooked his work during his lifetime as it didn’t align with their beliefs. But, when researchers took another look at Mendel’s work in the 1900s they were shocked to know he was right and since then, his work became the foundation of genetics as we know it today.
Franz Kafka
Kafka’s writing dealt with existential themes and dry humor, but people didn’t realize the worth of his works until he passed away. He didn’t finish most of his pieces and The Metamorphosis is one of the only few he completed. His friend Max Brod published a lot of his work, but a bunch is still missing, and there’s a lot of interest in finding lost letters and manuscripts.
Anne Frank
Anne Frank died at just 15 in a German concentration camp, but her diary has become one of the most famous books ever written. Between 1942 and 1944, Anne documented her life in hiding with her family before they were captured and sent to Auschwitz. Her father, the only family member to survive WWII, found and published her diary.
In those pages, Anne shared her dreams of becoming a journalist. Though her life was sadly cut extremely short due to the horrific Holocaust, her diary has helped her become one of the most significant non-fiction writers in history.
Henry Darger
Henry Darger, known for his unique ‘outsider art,’ was a reclusive artist who was thought of as mentally challenged. He passed away in 1973, but his unconventional art and writings gained recognition in the 1990s. His fantasy manuscripts are among the most astonishing works ever found.
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau is a world-famous philosopher whose political ideas influenced leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and Leo Tolstoy. During his life, he earned little from his work in a pencil factory and occasional lectures. And after his wife’s death, Thoreau even struggled with alcoholism.
Today, he is celebrated for his distinct style and unique views on nature.
Alfred Wegener
Alfred Wegener was a scientist, geologist, and meteorologist who made significant discoveries in his field, but he was only appreciated decades after his death when hard evidence confirmed his theories. Critics now view his research on continents as groundbreaking.
El Greco
If you’re looking for another painter, architect and sculptor who was way ahead of his time, El Greco is your guy. People ridiculed him a lot as his art was unconventional. But, by the time the 20th century rolled in, they started seeing his work as phenomenal and innovative.
John Keats
John Keats is considered one of the greatest poets, though he was largely ignored by critics during his lifetime. He passed away at just 25, with little recognition for his work. His poetry, known for its pure style and vivid imagery, is now regarded as some of the finest in literary history.
Nick Drake
Nick Drake took his own life in 1974 before his albums, which later became highly influential, were released. He struggled with depression and lack of popularity, and he did not live to see fans go crazy over his music.
Johannes Vermeer
Unfortunately, Johannes Vermeer’s talent went unnoticed for centuries. During his life time, he was only famous within his city but things changed when the 19th century rolled in. His paintings, which beautifully capture middle-class life, began to get the praise and attention they deserved. Vermeer died in 1675 under significant financial strain, but his work is now known as some of the finest in art history.
Stieg Larsson
Stieg Larsson is famous for the blockbuster trilogy The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. Though Larsson was known in Sweden as a journalist and editor, his literary fame came posthumously. He passed away suddenly in 2004 before any of his detective novels were published. Since then, his trilogy has sold over 73 million copies worldwide, and its popularity shows no signs of fading.
Jane Austen
Jane Austen’s novels were cherished, but she wasn’t very famous during her life. At that time, novels were often considered trivial entertainment. Since her father was a clergyman, Austen decided to publish her books anonymously. Her first novel, Sense and Sensibility, was published under the name “A Lady.”
However, Austen was recognized among literary circles. Her final publisher, John Murray, also worked with Sir Walter Scott, a major poet and novelist of the time. After Austen’s death, her brother Henry published Persuasion and Northanger Abbey and revealed that she was the author.
By the mid-19th century, Austen’s novels were admired by literary elites and were even included in popular education and school reading lists as early as 1838. Today, Austen’s works enjoy a huge following, inspiring a range of sequels, prequels, and adaptations. The 1940 film Pride and Prejudice and the 2004 Bollywood-style film Bride and Prejudice are just a few examples. On November 5, 2019, BBC News included Pride and Prejudice in its list of the 100 most influential novels.
Jeff Buckley
Jeff Buckley, famous for his powerful rendition of “Hallelujah,” tragically passed away before the song was officially released. His posthumous albums quickly became hits, and fans mourned the loss of his incredible talent. Apart from Hallelujah, even his unfinished recordings are played repeatedly by many.
James Dean
James Dean, the ultimate ‘bad boy’ of Hollywood, had a career that was all too short. He died with only one movie released and two others in the works. Today, he’s famous as a major star of the Golden Age of Hollywood, with Rebel Without a Cause often listed among the must-see films.
Robert Johnson
Robert Johnson was a blues musician and songwriter whos mark on music can’t be denied. Even though he recorded just a few songs in the 1930s, he gained tonnes of fans as his lyrics were powerful and his voice was soulful and full of emotions.
Johnson was a bit of a wanderer, and he was even found performing on street corners or in small, lively spots known as juke joints.
Tragically, Johnson’s life was cut short at the age of 27. His passing wasn’t widely reported at the time, and he remained relatively unknown until 1961. That’s when musicologist Alan Lomax introduced his music to a broader audience by releasing a collection called King of the Delta Blues. This helped bring Johnson’s work into the spotlight, and later releases in 1970 and 1990 only added to his growing reputation.
Musicians like Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, and Robert Plant have all said that Johnson had a big influence on their music. Clapton, in particular, was inspired by Johnson’s “Cross Road Blues” when he wrote “Crossroads” with his band Cream.
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee, a martial arts icon, was known to a limited audience while he was alive. Now, he’s admired around the world and remains a major influence and idol in many countries.
Chris McCandless
Chris McCandless loved exploring, probably because he lived a nomadic lifestyle while growing up. After he graduated from Emory University in 1990, he set out on a journey across North America, eventually hitchhiking all the way to Alaska in 1992. Along the way, he documented his travels and took many photos, including some self-portraits on undeveloped film. To get by, he picked up a few jobs here and there to cover his basic needs, like food and supplies.
A group of hunters in September 1992 discovered McCandless’s body in an abandoned bus where he had been staying. He had passed away two weeks earlier. Before he died, he took a final self-portrait, holding a note that read, “I have had a happy life and thank the Lord. Goodbye, and may God bless all!” That bus, known as Bus 142, has since become a popular destination for hikers who are inspired by McCandless’s story.
His story was also later turned into a non-fiction book called Into the Wild, which inspired a movie released in 2007. If you’re interested, you can watch the movie on Paramount+.
Israel Kamakawiwo’ole
Israel Kamakawiwo’ole was a beloved Hawaiian musician, songwriter, singer and activist. During his life, he wasn’t widely known outside of Hawaii, but he was happy and content with his music and the life he led. Israel’s ukulele skills and his beautiful song medleys, like “Somewhere Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World,” are what made him stand out.
In 1997, Israel passed away from respiratory failure at the Queen’s Medical Center. After his death, he became even more famous.
He became a true legend, with a bronze statue in his honor at the Waianae Neighborhood Community Center on Oʻahu, and many people have come here to pay their respects. His iconic song has been featured in countless movies and TV shows, and the music video on YouTube has over a billion views. The song also made history by staying at the top of the Billboard World Digital Songs Chart for 185 weeks, making it the longest-running number-one hit.
Nostradamus
Michel de Nostredame, better known as Nostradamus, was a French apothecary and a well-known seer. He published collections of prophecies that have gained him widespread fame over the centuries.
Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath experienced a bit of fame during her lifetime, but it wasn’t until after her tragic and successful suicide attempt that she truly became well-known. Nearly 20 years after her death, a collection of her poems was published, earning her the Pulitzer Prize.
Edith Holden
It’s believed that Edith Holden never intended to publish her manuscript of notes. But, after she passed away by drowning, her notes were published as a book titled The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady. This book quickly made her a household name.
Ed Wood
Some of you might know Ed Wood as “the worst movie director of all time,” but his story is more interesting than that title suggests.
In the 1950s, Ed Wood directed a mix of crime, science fiction, and horror films. Some of his titles include Jail Bait, Glen or Glenda, Bride of the Monster, Night of the Ghouls, Plan 9 from Outer Space, and The Sinister Urge.
Wood’s films are known for their campy style, awkward directing, technical mistakes, poor-quality stock footage, messy dialogue, and bizarre stories.
He struggled a lot with alcoholism and eventually passed away at 54, and most of his work was forgotten. But things changed quickly when a book called The Golden Turkey Awards labeled him “The Worst Director of All Time.” This revived interest in both Wood and his movies.
During his life, Wood wrote over 80 novels, and many of his films are now in the public domain because the copyrights weren’t renewed. His legacy even inspired a Tim Burton movie starring Johnny Depp, which brought his story to a wider audience. While Ed Wood is still remembered as the worst director, there’s a certain appeal to the campiness of his films.
John Kennedy Toole
John Kennedy Toole took his own life at the age of 31, likely because he couldn’t get his manuscript published. After his death, his mother made sure his work saw the light of day. His comic novel A Confederacy of Dunces was posthumously published and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1981.
Zora Neale Hurston
Zora Neale Hurston faced criticism during her life for the Southern Black vernacular used in her writing. Some people even thought the characters she created were caricatures. But after her death, there was a renewed interest in her work and this brought in a lot of popularity for her.
Kate Chopin
Kate Chopin was an American author who lived from 1850 to 1904. In the 1890s, she wrote two novels and about a hundred short stories. Most of her stories are set in Louisiana and focus on the lives of thoughtful, intelligent women.
Although many of her works were published while she was alive, it wasn’t until years after her death that she was recognized as a leading author of her time. Today, Kate Chopin is seen as an important early feminist writer.
Eva Cassidy
Eva Cassidy thought she was just a regular singer and guitarist from America as she didn’t have a lot of fans while she was alive. But, three years after her death, her music started going viral and fans became obsessed with her.
Kurt Cobain
Many people loved Kurt Cobain, the frontman of the band Nirvana, while he was alive and rocking on. However, his struggles with medication, his divorce, and his tragic death made him even more famous. These factors led to a huge surge in the sales of his records.
John Lennon
John Lennon was a member of The Beatles, so it’s no surprise that he was very popular during his lifetime. But, after someone murdered him, his fame skyrocketed even more, and he was even honored posthumously with a place in the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Claude Monet
As one of the starters of the Impressionism movement, Claude Monet was yet another painter whos work only became loved after he died.
Amedeo Modigliani
People started loving Italian-Jewish artist Amedeo Modigliani after his death, and he became highly sought after in the art world. In 2015, one of his fans bought his work for over $170 million, and someone else bought another piece for $157 million three years later.
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne was a key figure in transitioning art from the 19th to the 20th century and he became popular posthumously for his role in bridging the gap between the different art styles of those two centuries.
Georges-Pierre Seurat
Georges-Pierre Seurat’s painting techniques are unlike any we’ve seen before, and he is a leading artist of the Post-Impressionist movement. It’s really sad that he didn’t get a lot of attention when he was alive, but today, he is known as a trendsetter in the art world.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who lived from 1864 to 1901, did not gain much fame or appreciation during his life. He passed away, and then his mother and art dealer started promoting his work, and people became instant fans of it.
Bradley Nowell
Bradley Nowell, the lead singer of the band Sublime, was a young and influential figure in music. In 1997, Sublime was one of the biggest rock acts, but Nowell died from a heroin overdose in May 1996, just before the band’s final album was released. At his death, Sublime was regionally popular but had not yet achieved major success. In December 2023, Nowell’s son, Jakob, who was a baby when his father died, joined Sublime as the new frontman and performed with the band at Coachella in April 2024.
Wilfred Owen
When World War I started, many famous European writers portrayed the war in a patriotic and romantic way. However, as the war carried on, it gave rise to a new wave of writers (many of them being veterans) who began to show the harsh realities of the conflict. Wilfred Owen was one of these influential World War I poets. Sadly, he was killed in 1918, just before the war ended, and his mother received the news of his death as the end of the fighting was being announced. His powerful war poems, including the well-known “Dulce Et Decorum Est,” gained recognition in the 1960s, and Owen is now celebrated as one of the great modern English poets.
Paul Thek
Paul Thek was a sculptor, painter, and installation artist who gained some attention and praise before he moved to Europe in the 1960s. When he returned to New York in 1976, he found that his support had faded, and he lived in poverty and obscurity until his death from an AIDS-related illness in 1988 at age 54. After his death, Thek’s work gained renewed recognition and is now featured in major art installations and exhibitions all over the world.
Tim Hardin
Singer-songwriter Tim Hardin was known for his music and even performed at the Woodstock festival. However, he struggled with a heroin addiction and died in 1980 at 39, largely unknown at the time. His songs, like “Reason to Believe,” and “If I Were a Carpenter,” became famous only when they were covered by other artists, including Bob Dylan, who admired Hardin’s work.
However, in 2013, a tribute album called Reason to Believe sparked renewed interest in Hardin’s music from a new generation.
Jackson C. Frank
The folk singer-songwriter from the 1960s, Jackson C. Frank, is often overlooked despite his influential work. He released just one album in 1965 and spent much of his later life struggling with homelessness, addiction, and mental illness. He passed away in 1999.
It was only after his death that his album gained a broader following, with many well-known musicians who had known Frank covering his songs and praising his influence.
Arthur Russell
Arthur Russell loved playing the cello, singing, and composing, and he worked with many artists but didn’t release much original music during his life. He passed away from AIDS in 1992, and his longtime partner found a vast collection of both finished and unfinished work in his small New York City apartment. In the 2000s, this material was released through various re-releases, compilations, and albums. This led to what The New Yorker’s Lucy Schiller called “The Word-of-Mouth Resurgence of Arthur Russell.”
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet opera “Carmen” didn’t get the fame he hoped for in his life and when he passed away from a heart attack in 1875 at age 36,he believed it would fail like his other works. He never knew that “Carmen” would become one of the most beloved and influential operas in history.
Julia Margaret Cameron
The British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron began her photography journey when she was pretty old, in her late 40s. And then, over the next dozen years, she created a spectacular collection of portraits. Though her work was criticized for its “soft” focus and rough quality during her life, she was later appreciated for transforming close-up photography and is now recognized as a pioneering innovator in the field.
Mikhail Bulgakov
Satire and comedy were the highlights of Russian writer and doctor Mikhail Bulgakov’s writings and plays.
Some people liked his works during his lifetime, but his writings were often censored or banned by Soviet authorities, and he was banned from publishing in the 1930s. His most famous work, The Master and Margarita, which critics call as one of the great satirical novels of the 20th century, was published much later in 1966 in a censored version, along with other works that had been suppressed by Stalin’s regime.
Bill Hicks
Fellow comedians and dedicated stand-up fans loved comedian Bill Hicks. However, he became widely popular only after his death from cancer at age 32 in 1994. His controversial works, which often criticized government, religion, and popular culture, made people adore him. Hicks was even ranked as the 13th greatest stand-up comedian of all time by Rolling Stone in 2017.
William Shakespeare
By the time he died in 1616, Shakespeare was retired, his plays were rarely performed, and many of his key works were still unpublished. It wasn’t until two of his friends worked to publish a complete collection of his plays that he became the legendary figure we know today. Their effort helped make Shakespeare one of the most renowned literary figures ever.
