Kennedy - He Dies in Romeo And Juliet

When Mercutio exclaims "a plague on both your houses" as he dies in Romeo & Juliet, we well know what tragedy befalls them. But cursed bloodlines may not only be in the imagination of Shakespeare. The Kennedy curse is the most notorious, but have you heard what happened to the Hemingways? What about the Brandos? To find out, read our list of 10 famous family trees whose limbs were cut short.

Kennedy

We’re not sure whom Joseph Kennedy wronged, but his descendants seem to be paying for it. His eldest son, Joseph, Jr., died in combat in 1944 and his daughter Kathleen died in a plane crash in 1948. His second son, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1963, and John’s brother, Senator Robert Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968. In 1984, Robert Kennedy's son David died of a cocaine overdose. Another son, Michael, died in a skiing accident in 1997. And in 1999, JFK, Jr., his wife, Carolyn Bessette, and her sister died when the small plane he was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. Photo by Retna.

Onassis

This family saga is worthy of a Greek tragedy. One of the richest and most famous men in the world, Aristotle Onassis’ world came crashing in when his son, Alexandros, died in a plane crash in 1973. Yet his daughter Christina was perhaps the most tragic character in the family. Soon after her brother’s death, her mother committed suicide, which was closely followed by her father’s death in 1975 from pneumonia. She inherited a vast fortune, but pursued a decadent lifestyle and lost much of it. Each of her four marriages ended in divorce and her weight oscillated unhealthily until she died at age 37 in 1988, from a lethal combination of diet drugs and sleeping pills. Photo by Retna.

Grimaldi

Grace Kelly’s marriage to Prince Rainier III of Monaco in 1956 seemed like a fairy tale, but sadly it did not end happily ever after. In 1982, Princess Grace died in a mysterious car crash. Her youngest daughter, Stéphanie, who was in the car at the time, was haunted by the experience and spent much of her life jumping from one failed relationship to the next. The eldest daughter, Caroline, also had her fair share of suffering. Her second husband, Stefano Casiraghi, with whom she had three children, died in a speedboat racing accident in 1990; soon after her father's 2005 death, her third husband, Ernst August, Prince of Hanover, nearly died of pancreatitis. Photo by Retna.