Some injuries happened in battle, some came from illness, but either way, there were quite a few famous figures that you probably didn’t realize were missing a body part or two.
Frida Kahlo
Artist Frida Kahlo had to deal with pain for a lot of her life. Things became a lot worse for her in 1953, however, when gangrene developed in her right leg, and doctors were forced to amputate it. Everything below the knee was gone.
Kahlo was given a prosthetic leg to walk on instead, complete with a red leather boot and embroidery. It even had a tiny bell attached to it, because of course it did. Kahlo continued to paint and make public appearances whenever she could, although she did need some aid with walking.
Stonewall Jackson
The strange thing about military officer Stonewall Jackson was that it wasn’t enemy fire that cost him his arm. No, his own Confederate troops accidentally fired at him after they thought his group were Union soldiers, and they wounded him on May 2, 1863.
He was struck by several bullets. His left arm was damaged so badly, in fact, that it had to be removed near the shoulder, and Jackson stayed conscious through the whole procedure. He sadly caught pneumonia shortly after and died eight days after the procedure.
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt was someone who refused to stop working, even when she was seriously hurt. The French actress had suffered years of severe knee trouble and failed treatments that led to her right leg being amputated in 1915. She was already 70 by that point.
But she wasn’t the kind of person who was going to leave the stage, far from it. Bernhardt chose to adjust her performances so she could act while seated or leaning against furniture. She’d sometimes use carefully placed supports, and audiences still came to see her throughout.
Mordecai Brown
You wouldn’t think that a baseball legend like Mordecai Brown could be missing any body parts, but that’s exactly what happened. He was a young boy when he caught his right hand in machinery and lost most of his index finger. But apparently that wasn’t enough.
A separate accident left some of his remaining fingers bent and damaged. Turns out, these accidents actually worked in his favor, as they helped Brown pitch baseballs in unusual ways. He later entered the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Philip II of Macedon
An arrow would’ve been enough to end most people’s careers. Not King Philip II of Macedonia, though, he kept fighting through it all. He was shot in the right eye during the siege of Methone around 354 BC, although it’s unclear who exactly fired it.
What we do know is that Philip survived and permanently lost the eye, while refusing to step away from military life. He continued campaigning and led armies in person. He managed to expand Macedon into the strongest kingdom in Greece. Not bad for someone with one eye.
Hannibal
The reason behind general Hannibal’s missing eye has nothing to do with sword fights or arrows. It was actually worse, as it seems to have come from an infection while his army was moving through flooded marshes in Italy in 217 BC.
They’d made their way through standing water with very little sleep during the cold weather, and they’d spent long days on horseback. It’s no wonder he got sick. Hannibal’s eye became so badly inflamed that he eventually lost sight in it, and people around him had to help him track movement.
Tommy Lucchese
There was a time before Tommy Lucchese became a powerful New York mob figure, and that was when he worked in a factory. In 1919, Lucchese was involved in a machinery accident that severed his right index finger.
Police called him ‘Three Finger Brown’ as a result. Lucchese hated that nickname, obviously, but it didn’t seem to stop him from carrying out his business. He was able to drive, write, and run businesses like any other mob boss.
Ella Fitzgerald
Singer Ella Fitzgerald suffered health problems for quite a while, but they became way more serious in the early 1990s. Diabetes caused the circulation in her legs to get so bad that surgeons had to amputate them. Yes, both legs, below the knee.
She was already dealing with heart problems and poor eyesight by that time. It meant that her performing schedule had slowed quite a bit, and she spent much of her remaining time at home in Beverly Hills with family.
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Using a wheelchair was normal for socialite Zsa Zsa Gabor before January 2011. Then doctors had to remove most of her right leg. It all started after she broke her hip and underwent surgery, leading to an infection. Antibiotics didn’t clear it, and gangrene spread through the leg.
It got to the point where amputation was the safest option for her. She’d already experienced strokes and serious mobility problems before the amputation, so the limits on her daily life weren’t exactly new for her. It didn’t make them any easier, though.
Grover Cleveland
Major cancer surgery didn’t stop Grover Cleveland from serving as president in 1893. He didn’t want it to get in the newspapers, however, so the surgery took place aboard a yacht off the coast of New York. Surgeons removed a tumor and other body parts.
They took away five teeth, part of his upper-left jaw, and sections of his palate. It was hard to tell from looking at him, though, because no visible facial incision was made. Cleveland also wore a rubber prosthesis to fill the missing area and speak normally. Most Americans had no idea.
Sigmund Freud
You’d think that someone as smart as Sigmund Freud would know better than to smoke. Unfortunately not. The neurologist developed cancer in his mouth, leading to several surgeries that removed large sections of his upper jaw and palate.
Eating and speaking became difficult for him. To help Freud, dentists built him a complicated metal-and-rubber device that covered the opening, something he called ‘the monster.’ He clearly hated it.
James Doohan
James Doohan is most well-known for playing Scotty in Star Trek. But what most people don’t know is that he lost his right middle finger during World War II, right after the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944. A nervous Canadian sentry mistakenly fired at him in the dark.
One of the bullets struck his chest, and it was pure luck that it didn’t kill him. It was stopped by a silver cigarette case. Another of the bullets tore away his finger, and it’s something he often hid from the camera. He’d sometimes curl his fingers inward so nobody would notice.
King George VI
Things weren’t exactly going well for the health of King George VI of the United Kingdom by 1951. Years of heavy smoking only made it worse, and then doctors found a blockage in his left bronchus. They had to remove the whole lung.
But they didn’t perform the surgery at a hospital. That’d be too normal. No, George underwent the surgery inside Buckingham Palace, and the public didn’t even know about it until much later. He passed away five months after the surgery.
Justinian II
It’s one thing to lose a throne, it’s another to lose your nose while that happens. Justinian II of the Byzantine Empire knew all about that, as his enemies cut off his nose once they overthrew him. They sent him into exile.
People at that time believed a badly mutilated man was unfit to rule, and they were hoping his injuries would make people stop supporting him. It didn’t really work out that way, though, because Justinian escaped and marched back into Constantinople to take the throne again.
Béla II of Hungary
King Coloman of Hungary thought that a young boy named Béla II and Béla’s father, Álmos, would be after his place on the throne. So he had them blinded. Béla survived the procedure and stayed with monks. He later married Helena of Serbia and became king in 1131.
He was completely unable to read documents or identify visitors by sight. He couldn’t even move through the court alone and relied on Helena, as well as his trusted officials, to do much of the practical work. Béla still managed to last around a decade on the throne.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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