Andy Warhol survived a shooting that damaged nine of his organs and put him in the hospital for two months in 1968, but it was a simple gallbladder surgery that led to his death on February 22, 1987.
Public DomainAndy Warhol was perhaps the most famous pop artist in American history.
Andy Warhol’s death in 1987 was a somber conclusion to a life marked by celebrity. He passed away unexpectedly at age 58 after what was meant to be a simple surgery.
Though Warhol had survived a life-altering shooting nearly two decades earlier, the physical and emotional toll it took on him would haunt him until the end. In February 1987, he was admitted to the hospital for what was supposed to be a routine gallbladder surgery. However, his fragile health — exacerbated by chronic dehydration, drug use, and the lingering effects of his previous injuries — made the procedure far riskier than anticipated.
Warhol seemed to be recovering well initially, but less than 48 hours after the operation, he was found unresponsive in his hospital bed. An autopsy revealed that his heart failed due to ventricular fibrillation, likely a result of the stress on his already weakened body.
The tragic event left the world mourning the loss of a man whose work became synonymous with American 1960s counterculture and iconography.
The Early Life And Fruitful Career Of Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol was born on August 6, 1928, in Pittsburgh to Rusyn immigrant parents from Czechoslovakia. As a child, Warhol developed rheumatic fever, and its lingering effects left him confined to bed for long periods of time. He spent these days drawing, taking photos, and making scrapbooks, hobbies that inspired his later career.
After graduating from high school in 1945, Warhol attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology to study commercial art and pictorial design. Upon earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts, he moved to New York City and found success as an illustrator for magazines and advertisements. He was particularly skilled at drawing footwear.
Public DomainAndy Warhol standing in front of his sculpture Brillo Boxes in 1968.
In the 1960s, Warhol skyrocketed to fame after exhibiting his painting Big Campbell’s Soup Can with Can Opener (Vegetable). Warhol found his niche in pop art, and he soon began rubbing shoulders with celebrities, musicians, and other artists.
Beginning in the late 1960s, Warhol opened up his New York art studio to the city’s youth, many of whom were involved in the counterculture of the period. The studio was nicknamed “The Factory” and hosted events for Warhol’s many muses, including Edie Sedgwick, Bob Dylan’s alleged lover.
It was at the Factory that Warhol met Valerie Solanas, who later shot him over a one-sided grudge. Though the incident didn’t directly lead to Andy Warhol’s death, it instilled a fear of hospitals in him that would have devastating consequences two decades later.
Valerie Solanas Takes A Fateful Shot
Social activist Valerie Solanas had visited the Factory several times in the mid-1960s. Although she wasn’t close friends with Andy Warhol, the two were acquaintances, and she appeared in one of his independently produced films.
In 1965, Solanas began appealing to Warhol to fund her various projects, including a play called Up Your Ass. After reviewing the script, Warhol was unimpressed and distanced himself from Solanas. Then, in 1967, Solanas wrote to Warhol asking for his involvement in her manuscript SCUM Manifesto (SCUM stood for “Society for Cutting Up Men”), which advocated for women to overthrow society and eliminate men completely. When he didn’t respond to her correspondences, she became paranoid that he would steal her ideas in his own work.
United Archives GmbH / Alamy Stock PhotoValerie Solanas, the radical feminist who shot Andy Warhol.
On June 3, 1968, Solanas shot Andy Warhol and art critic Mario Amaya at Warhol’s office in Union Square. While Amaya suffered only superficial wounds, Warhol was severely injured and had to spend the next two months in the hospital. Solanas turned herself in to the police and was later sentenced to three years in prison.
As a result of the shooting, Warhol was permanently disabled and had to wear a surgical corset to hold his organs in place. His work and his life were forever changed — and the incident ultimately contributed to Andy Warhol’s death in 1987.
How Andy Warhol Died Following A ‘Routine’ Gallbladder Surgery
In the years following the shooting, Andy Warhol became more reserved and focused his efforts away from controversial art and toward growing his businesses.
Although Warhol had explored themes of death in his earlier artworks, including an installation made entirely of newspaper clippings from fatal accidents and executions, his art took a darker turn after the shooting and often included gun motifs.
Warhol wrote in his diary on Nov. 16, 1978: “I said that I wasn’t creative since I was shot, because after that I stopped seeing creepy people.”
ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock PhotoAndy Warhol in October 1986, just four months before his death.
However, the biggest impact the incident had on Warhol was his transformation into a hypochondriac with a phobia of hospitals. Despite suffering from a variety of health problems, including serious issues with his gallbladder, Warhol often refused to see a doctor until his symptoms could not be ignored any longer.
Even after finally making an appointment with Bjorn Thorbjarnarson, a leading New York surgeon, to discuss his gallbladder in February 1987, Warhol told the doctor, “I will make you a rich man if you don’t operate on me,” as reported by The New York Times in 2017.
Unfortunately, Warhol would not be able to follow up on that promise, as Dr. Thorbjarnarson recommended immediate surgery, and for good reason. During the operation, Thorbjarnarson discovered that Warhol’s gallbladder was full of gangrene; it fell into pieces as it was extracted from the artist’s body.
Warhol survived the operation and even made several phone calls following the procedure. However, in the early morning hours of Feb. 22, a nurse discovered Warhol unresponsive in his hospital bed. An autopsy revealed that the artist died from ventricular fibrillation, a condition in which the heart quivers rather than beats, leading to a lack of blood flow and cardiac arrest.
Public DomainAndy Warhol’s grave in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
Following Andy Warhol’s death, the artist was buried at St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. A memorial service held for the artist on April 1 in Manhattan was attended by over 2,000 people, including Liza Minnelli, Calvin Klein, and Yoko Ono.
At the time, the public believed that Andy Warhol’s death was simply the result of a routine surgery gone wrong, but evaluations of Warhol’s physical condition that took place both in 1987 and 30 years later revealed the shocking details of the demise of one of America’s most celebrated artists.
What Really Caused Andy Warhol’s Death?
Despite the common belief that Andy Warhol was simply the unlucky recipient of a basic surgery, the truth is perhaps even more tragic.
According to Dr. Thorbjarnarson, Warhol had admitted to being chronically dehydrated and emaciated prior to the operation, likely as a result of the swallowing trouble he experienced after the shooting. Additionally, Warhol was a known drug user who had been taking speed daily for years, and he avoided doctor’s appointments whenever possible due to his phobia. These issues, coupled with the organ damage from the shooting, made an otherwise simple gallbladder operation incredibly dangerous.
New York PostThe New York Post reporting on Andy Warhol’s death.
During the surgery, Dr. Thorbjarnarson not only had to remove Warhol’s gangrenous gallbladder, but he also had to reconstruct the artist’s abdominal wall. The strain of the operation on an already stressed body caused Warhol’s heart to give out during recovery.
These findings were partially revealed at the time of Andy Warhol’s death and fully illuminated following the Warhol family’s civil suit against the hospital in 1991. His loved ones alleged improper care and negligence, particularly water intoxication, and received a settlement out of court for an undisclosed sum.
It was found that neither Warhol nor his family were aware of the serious risk of complications from the surgery. Tragically, for the artist, it was a nightmare come true.
After reading about Andy Warhol’s death, go inside the death of Joan Rivers following a routine endoscopy in 2014. Then, learn about the death of Steve McQueen after surgery to remove cancerous tumors.