Famous Couples Who Died Close Together: Did They Die of a Broken Heart?
Over the years, there have been several couples who have been together for decades and died just months apart. While the most famous example is probably Johnny Cash, who passed about four months after his wife, June Carter Cash, who died in 2003, Dolly Parton and her longtime husband, Carl, are a more recent example.
Parton’s death on August 25, 2026, came just 17 months after she lost Carl Dean, her husband of nearly 59 years. Parton had opened up about the difficulty of moving forward without her husband and how she had been experiencing some health issues months before her death. She ultimately died at 80 years old after a brief battle with cancer.
While dying of a broken heart doesn’t seem like a real thing, it is actually a real medical condition. Broken-heart syndrome, also called takotsubo cardiomyopathy or stress cardiomyopathy, can develop after intense emotional or physical stress, including the death of a loved one. While we can’t say for sure that’s what happened to these couples, they did die within months, or sometimes years, of each other.
Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash
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Johnny Cash and June Carter married on March 1, 1968, after Cash proposed during a performance in London, Ontario. Their 35-year marriage survived some tough times, including time on the road and his struggles with addiction. They also created some unforgettable music together, including “Jackson” and “If I Were a Carpenter.”
June died on May 15, 2003, at age 73, after she developed complications following surgery to replace a heart valve. Johnny was already in poor health when he lost her. Cash continued recording, but died on September 12, 2003, at age 71. His manager said complications from diabetes eventually led to respiratory failure.
Dolly Parton & Carl Dean
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Dolly Parton met Carl Dean outside Nashville’s Wishy Washy Laundromat in 1964, on the day she moved to the city at age 18. They married on May 30, 1966, in a small ceremony in Ringgold, Georgia. Dean stayed almost entirely out of the spotlight while Parton became one of the most recognizable entertainers in the world. He died in Nashville on March 3, 2025, at age 82.
“I truly believe that I’m going to see him again someday,” she told the Associated Press a few months after his death. She said she still saw him in her memories and admitted that making new plans without him was the hardest part. Parton died at age 80 on August 25, 2026, at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville. Her publicist said she had faced a brief battle with cancer.
Kirk Douglas & Anne Buydens
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Kirk Douglas met Anne Buydens in Paris in 1953. He was filming Act of Love, and she was working in publicity. They married the following year and remained together for more than 65 years. They raised two sons, established the Douglas Foundation, and published their book Kirk and Anne: Letters of Love, Laughter, and a Lifetime in Hollywood in 2017. Kirk once said he might not have survived without Anne’s instincts and business sense.
Kirk died on February 5, 2020, at age 103. Anne died at their Beverly Hills home on April 29, 2021, six days after turning 102. Her death came nearly 15 months after Kirk’s, and no cause was provided.
Bob Newhart & Ginnie Newhart
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Comedian Buddy Hackett arranged a blind date between Bob Newhart and Virginia “Ginnie” Quinn in 1962. They quickly hit it off, and Bob and Ginnie married on January 12, 1963, raised four children, and celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary shortly before her death.
Ginnie was the one to suggest the famous ending of Newhart, in which Bob’s Vermont innkeeper wakes up beside Suzanne Pleshette, his wife from The Bob Newhart Show, revealing that the entire second series had been a dream.
Ginnie died on April 23, 2023, at age 82, following a long illness. Bob told People she was the family’s “rock” and said they missed her terribly. Bob died on July 18, 2024, at age 94 after a series of short illnesses.
Anne Meara & Jerry Stiller
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Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller died almost five years apart, but after 61 years of marriage and a lifetime spent working side by side, their story deserves a mention as well. The two met in 1953, married the following year, and became the comedy team, Stiller & Meara. Their routines about married life helped make them regulars on The Ed Sullivan Show, but both later built successful acting careers. Their children, Amy and Ben Stiller, also became actors.
Meara died on May 23, 2015, at age 85. Then Jerry died from natural causes on May 11, 2020, at age 92. Their relationship was explored in the 2025 documentary Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost, directed by their son Ben.
Remind 
Hollywoods Golden Couples
February 2022
Gaze back at the classic romances of old Hollywood, both onscreen and off.
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