99 Fun Facts About Famous Last Words

Which queen apologised to her executioner for stepping on his foot on the way to the scaffold?

Marie Antoinette said 'Pardonnez-moi, monsieur. Je ne l'ai pas fait exprès', 'I did not do it on purpose', on 16 October 1793; her most quoted line, 'Let them eat cake', she never said.

Which former British Prime Minister is said to have declared 'I'm bored with it all' before slipping into a coma in 1965?

Winston Churchill reportedly said it to his son-in-law Christopher Soames after his last stroke, then sank into a coma; he died on 24 January 1965, the anniversary of his father's death.

Which Irish wit reportedly said near death, 'My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death'?

Oscar Wilde, weeks before he died at the Hôtel d'Alsace in Paris on 30 November 1900; the popular short version is 'Either this wallpaper goes, or I do.'

Which revolutionary thinker, dying in London in 1883, supposedly snapped 'Last words are for fools who haven't said enough'?

Karl Marx supposedly snapped it at his housekeeper, though Engels, who called that afternoon, wrote only that Marx was left alone for two minutes and found in his armchair, peacefully gone.

Which Spanish surrealist reportedly asked 'Where is my clock?' just before his death?

Salvador Dalí painted the melting watches of The Persistence of Memory, which is why the line stuck to him, though where the story began is unclear.

Which playwright, born in a Broadway hotel room in 1888, died in a Boston hotel room in 1953, cursing the symmetry?

Eugene O'Neill whispered that he had known it: born in a hotel room and dying in one. He had asked that Long Day's Journey into Night stay sealed for 25 years, but his widow had it published in 1956.

Which tech founder's last words, 'Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow', were revealed in a eulogy by his sister, novelist Mona Simpson?

Steve Jobs looked at his family and then over their shoulders past them, his sister said. Mona Simpson had not met her brother, who was adopted as a baby, until she was 25.

Which German writer reportedly asked for 'more light', 'Mehr Licht', on his Weimar deathbed in 1832?

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and the full request was to open the bedroom shutter so more light could come in, which posterity trimmed to two words. He had finished Faust Part Two only months before.

Which poet's reported last words in 1886 were 'I must go in, for the fog is rising'?

Emily Dickinson had already said goodbye in a note to her cousins that read only 'Called back'; her niece later had those two words carved on her gravestone in Amherst.

Which film director reportedly said 'One never knows the ending' in his final days in 1980?

Alfred Hitchcock reportedly added that one has to die to know what happens after death, 'although Catholics have their hopes'; he was raised by strict Catholic parents and schooled by Jesuits.

Which US president, who died in 1799, left ''Tis well' as his last recorded words?

George Washington had just made his secretary Tobias Lear promise that his body would not go into the vault until days after his death; when Lear said he understood, he answered ''Tis well'.

Which emperor, dying in exile, reportedly murmured 'France, the army, head of the army, Josephine'?

Napoleon Bonaparte died on St Helena in 1821, his last thoughts running to country, career and the wife he had divorced for want of an heir; Josephine had died seven years earlier.

Which studio founder, who died in 1966, left young actor Kurt Russell's name among his last written notes?

Walt Disney scrawled 'Kirt Russell' in red pencil at the foot of a list of television projects; Russell, then a teenage Disney actor, was later shown the page and says he never learned why.

Which French philosopher, asked on his deathbed to renounce Satan, supposedly replied 'Now is not the time for making new enemies'?

Voltaire always gets the credit, though the attribution is disputed. He did refuse to retract his attacks on the Church, so friends had to bury him in secret at an abbey in Champagne.

Which Union general said 'They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance' moments before a sharpshooter killed him?

John Sedgwick was teasing soldiers who ducked at Spotsylvania on 9 May 1864, telling them he was ashamed of them; seconds later a bullet struck him below the left eye.

Which 21-year-old spy, hanged by the British in 1776, reportedly regretted having 'but one life to give for my country'?

Nathan Hale was a Yale graduate and schoolteacher; the line echoes Addison's play Cato, a favourite of his college circle, and it was friends who credited it to him afterwards.

'Woe, I think I'm turning into a god', joked which dying Roman emperor, mocking the custom of deifying dead rulers?

Vespasian, in AD 79, who then insisted an emperor should die on his feet and collapsed trying to stand. The builder of the Colosseum had a famously dry sense of humour.

Per Plato, Socrates' last words asked Crito to pay Asclepius a debt of what?

A cock was the offering the sick made to Asclepius, the god of medicine; Socrates asks Crito to pay it as the hemlock takes hold, which some read as him calling death a cure.

Which composer, dying in Vienna in March 1827, greeted a publisher's gift of twelve bottles of wine with 'Pity, pity, too late'?

Ludwig van Beethoven said it on hearing that the wine from his publisher Schott had arrived, his last recorded words. Schubert, a torchbearer at his funeral, died twenty months later.

Which president reportedly died on 4 July 1826 saying 'Thomas Jefferson survives', hours after Jefferson's own death?

John Adams died on the Declaration's fiftieth anniversary, about five hours after Jefferson; the one relative known to be at his bedside caught only the words 'Thomas Jefferson'.

'Such is life' were the reported last words of which Australian bushranger before his hanging in 1880?

Ned Kelly, hanged at Melbourne Gaol on 11 November 1880; the words are traditional, and one contemporary account has him sighing 'Ah well, I suppose it has come to this.'

Which naturalist declared on his deathbed in 1882, 'I am not in the least afraid to die'?

Charles Darwin, who died at Down House in Kent on 19 April 1882 and was buried in Westminster Abbey; his family recorded the remark and rejected later deathbed-conversion tales.

Which chief's dying words in 1890 are said to have called life 'a flash of a firefly in the night'?

Crowfoot, chief of the Siksika (Blackfoot), died on 25 April 1890; the speech credited to him closely matches one in H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines, down to the breath in winter.

'It's a long time since I drank champagne' were the last words of which Russian playwright in 1904?

Anton Chekhov told his doctor in German, 'Ich sterbe', then took a glass of champagne, smiled at his wife Olga, said the line, drained the glass and lay down on his side.

'It's very beautiful over there' were the reported last words of which American inventor in 1931?

Thomas Edison is said to have spoken on waking from a coma. His son had test tubes by the bed sealed, and one, labelled as his last breath, went to Henry Ford and is still shown in Ford's museum.

Which novelist reportedly said before dying in 1977, 'A certain butterfly is already on the wing'?

Vladimir Nabokov was a serious butterfly scientist as well as a novelist: in the 1940s he was the de facto curator of lepidoptery at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Which musician, who died in 1981, has long been credited with the last words 'Money can't buy life'?

Bob Marley is quoted everywhere as saying it, but his son Ziggy calls the story untrue: his father's parting words to him were 'On your way up, take me up. On your way down, don't let me down.'

Which revolutionary, facing execution in Bolivia in 1967, reportedly said 'Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man'?

Che Guevara was shot by Sergeant Mario Terán at La Higuera on 9 October 1967. His body was shown to the press, then buried in a secret grave that was found only in 1997, when he was reburied in Cuba.

Which crooner said 'That was a great game of golf, fellas' moments before a fatal heart attack in 1977?

Bing Crosby and his partner had just won their round at La Moraleja, near Madrid, by a single stroke on 14 October 1977; he collapsed about 20 yards from the clubhouse door.

'This is no way to live' were the reported last words of which cigar-waving comedian in August 1977?

Groucho Marx died at 86 after two months in hospital with pneumonia; his family never told him that his brother Gummo had died that April, for fear the news would weaken him further.

Which singer's reported final words in 1998 were 'I'm losing'?

Frank Sinatra was being treated for a heart attack at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles on 14 May 1998; his wife Barbara urged him to 'fight', and that was his answer.

Which entertainer, asked where to bury him, said 'Surprise me' shortly before dying in 2003?

Bob Hope gave the answer to his wife Dolores two months after turning 100. He was laid to rest at the San Fernando Mission, where she joined him in 2011, aged 102.

Todd Beamer's 'Let's roll' were the last words heard on his phone call from which hijacked plane on 9/11?

United 93 had taken off late, so its passengers learned by phone of the other attacks and fought back; it crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the only one of the four planes not to reach its target.

Which queen of England is said to have died in 1603 lamenting, 'All my possessions for a moment of time'?

Elizabeth I, who died at Richmond Palace on 24 March 1603 after 44 years on the throne; the lament is traditional rather than documented.

Which French revolutionary reportedly told his executioner in 1794, 'Show my head to the people, it is worth seeing'?

Georges Danton went to the guillotine on 5 April 1794. When Robespierre fell that July, a deputy shouted that Danton's blood was choking him, and he snapped: 'Cowards! Why didn't you defend him?'

Which American statesman grumbled on his deathbed in 1790, 'A dying man can do nothing easy'?

Benjamin Franklin, who died in Philadelphia on 17 April 1790, aged 84; his daughter Sarah had suggested he shift to a more comfortable position so he could breathe more easily.

Which composer's reported last words in 1791 were 'The taste of death is upon my lips'?

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who died in Vienna on 5 December 1791, aged 35, leaving his Requiem unfinished; Süssmayr completed the score for his widow Constanze.

Which Romantic poet, dying in Rome in 1821, said 'I can feel the daisies growing over me'?

John Keats said it to his friend Joseph Severn in the rooms by the Spanish Steps where he died at 25. He asked for a gravestone with no name, only 'Here lies One whose Name was writ in Water'.

Which American novelist's last words in 1910 were a request to his daughter Clara: 'Give me my glasses'?

Mark Twain was too weak to talk, so he wrote the request in pencil. He died at Stormfield, Connecticut, on 21 April 1910 as Halley's Comet returned, having predicted he would 'go out with it'.

Which Russian novelist, dying at a railway station in 1910, reportedly asked how the peasants die?

Leo Tolstoy, who had fled Yasnaya Polyana days earlier at 82 and fell ill at Astapovo station, where he died on 20 November 1910 (7 November, Old Style).

Which philosopher's last words in 1951 were 'Tell them I've had a wonderful life'?

Ludwig Wittgenstein said it to Joan Bevan, his doctor's wife, in whose Cambridge home he had chosen to die rather than in a hospital; a friend called the remark 'mysterious and strangely moving'.

'Goodnight my kitten' were the last words of which American author before he took his own life in 1961?

Ernest Hemingway said it to his wife Mary at their home in Ketchum, Idaho, and shot himself the next morning; she told the press it was an accident and confirmed the truth only five years later.

Which Beatle's final message, relayed by his wife and son, said the search for God cannot wait and 'love one another'?

George Harrison died of cancer in Los Angeles on 29 November 2001, aged 58. Olivia and Dhani issued the message, and the family later scattered his ashes in the Ganges and Yamuna, following Hindu tradition.

Gary Oldman's 2016 Brit Awards tribute quoted which late star on music as 'my doorway of perception'?

David Bowie spoke the words in 1999, in his address to graduates of Boston's Berklee College of Music; after Oldman quoted them at the Brits, they were widely reported as his last.

Which Greek mathematician is said to have told the Roman soldier who killed him at Syracuse, 'Do not disturb my circles'?

Archimedes was bent over a diagram in the dust when Syracuse fell, around 212 BC, and the Roman general Marcellus was distressed at his death; the famous line itself appears in no ancient account.

Which English king is said to have died in 1547 crying 'All is lost: monks, monks, monks!'?

Henry VIII had shut down England's monasteries between 1536 and 1540 and taken their lands, which is why a deathbed haunted by monks made such a good story.

Which Frenchman reportedly said 'Tomorrow, at sunrise, I shall no longer be here' in 1566?

Nostradamus is alleged to have told his secretary Jean de Chavigny so on the evening of 1 July 1566, and was reportedly found dead beside his bed the next morning; for once his prophecy was precise.

Which hotelier's reported final wisdom in 1979 was 'Leave the shower curtain on the inside of the tub'?

Conrad Hilton went to Cisco, Texas, in 1919 to buy a bank; when the deal fell through he bought the Mobley Hotel instead, and his chain grew from it.

Which dancer reportedly cried 'Farewell, my friends, I go to glory!' before a fatal car accident in 1927?

Isadora Duncan's long scarf caught in a wheel of the open car in Nice. Mary Desti, the friend who reported the line, later admitted the real words were 'I am off to love', which she found embarrassing.

Which Roman's reported last words, 'You too, my child?', were in Greek, not Shakespeare's Latin?

Julius Caesar died on 15 March 44 BC. Suetonius thought he fell without a word and only reports that some said he spoke to Brutus in Greek; 'Et tu, Brute?' is Shakespeare's Latin, sixteen centuries later.

Which Roman emperor, Trajan's successor, is said to have written a deathbed poem asking his soul where it was going?

Hadrian is said to have composed 'Animula vagula blandula' as he lay dying in AD 138, telling his soul its joking was over. The Senate would have denied him divine honours had Antoninus Pius not insisted.

Which Lord Chancellor, beheaded in 1535, died 'the King's good servant, and God's first'?

Thomas More was beheaded on Tower Hill on 6 July 1535 for refusing the Oath of Supremacy; four centuries later, in 1935, the Catholic Church declared him a saint.

Which courtier, beheaded in 1618, urged his hesitating axeman to 'Strike, man, strike!'?

Walter Raleigh asked to see the axe and called it 'a sharp medicine, but a physician for all diseases'; when the headsman hesitated, he asked him, 'What dost thou fear?'

Which English king is said to have cried 'Treason! treason!' as his troops deserted him at Bosworth Field?

Richard III, killed at Bosworth on 22 August 1485, the last English king to die in battle; his remains were found under a Leicester car park in 2012.

Which actress did the dying Charles II reportedly beg his brother not to let starve in 1685?

Nell Gwyn was the 'poor Nelly' of the plea, and James II obeyed it, paying most of her debts and granting her a pension; Charles also apologised for being 'an unconscionable time dying'.

Which duke paid executioner Jack Ketch six guineas in 1685 not to 'hack me'?

The Duke of Monmouth, beheaded on Tower Hill on 15 July 1685 after his failed rebellion against James II; the nervous Ketch needed several blows, and the botched execution became notorious.

Which big-league catcher, later a wartime American spy, reportedly asked a nurse in 1972, 'How did the Mets do today'?

Moe Berg caught in the majors for 15 seasons, then joined the wartime OSS, which sent him to learn what Germany's atomic scientists were up to; a nurse recalled his question, and the Mets had won.

Which economist left his last Sunday supper in 1790 saying 'I believe we must adjourn this meeting to some other place'?

Adam Smith said it to the friends who dined with him every Sunday in Edinburgh and died six days later; that week he had two of them burn sixteen volumes of his manuscripts.

Which Prime Minister reportedly died in 1806 craving 'one of Bellamy's veal pies'?

Pitt the Younger, who died at Putney on 23 January 1806, aged 46; Bellamy's was the Commons caterer, and the more dignified 'Oh, my country! how I leave my country!' is also recorded.

Which British admiral murmured 'Thank God, I have done my duty' as he lay dying below decks in battle?

Horatio Nelson was carried below on HMS Victory at Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. 'Kiss me, Hardy', to his flag captain, came earlier; his chaplain recorded the very last words as 'God and my country'.

Which Confederate general died in 1863 saying 'Let us cross over the river and rest'?

Stonewall Jackson, shot by his own pickets at Chancellorsville on 2 May 1863; his left arm was amputated and he died of pneumonia eight days later at Guinea Station.

Which president, dying of throat cancer in 1885, gave the one-word last request 'Water'?

Ulysses S. Grant died at Mount McGregor, New York, on 23 July 1885, days after finishing the memoirs he wrote to clear his debts; they earned his widow about $450,000.

Which American writer's reported last words in 1849 were 'Lord, help my poor soul'?

Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore on 7 October 1849, four days after being found delirious in clothes that were not his own; the words come from his doctor, whose accounts historians treat with caution.

Which novelist told her sister Cassandra in 1817, 'I want nothing but death'?

Jane Austen died in Winchester on 18 July 1817, aged 41. Cassandra had asked whether she wanted anything, and set down the answer in a letter to their niece Fanny Knight.

Asked in 1868 to forgive his enemies, which country's dying prime minister reportedly replied, 'I have had them all shot'?

Spain's Ramón María Narváez, the general known as 'El Espadón de Loja', died in office in April 1868; five months later a revolution drove his queen, Isabella II, from the throne.

Which assassin's dying message in 1865 was 'Tell my mother I died for my country'?

John Wilkes Booth was shot in a burning Virginia tobacco barn by Sergeant Boston Corbett. Paralysed, he asked for his hands to be raised to his face and murmured, 'Useless, useless.'

Which woman said 'Please don't let me fall' at her 1865 hanging for the Lincoln conspiracy?

Mary Surratt, hanged at the Washington Arsenal on 7 July 1865, the first woman executed by the United States federal government; her boarding house had hosted the conspirators.

Lincoln was laughing at a line from which play when he was shot at Ford's Theatre?

Our American Cousin, Tom Taylor's comedy: the assassin, an actor who knew the play, timed his shot to the laugh at 'you sockdologizing old man-trap'. Lincoln had just told his wife that Clara Harris 'won't think anything about it'.

Custer's last message at Little Bighorn told which officer to hurry with ammunition packs?

Frederick Benteen got the order from the bugler John Martin as a scribbled note: 'Benteen. Come on. Big village. Be quick. Bring packs.' He never reached Custer, whose five companies were wiped out.

Which member of Scott's polar party left the tent in 1912 saying 'I am just going outside and may be some time'?

Lawrence Oates, crippled by frostbite, walked into a blizzard on what was probably his 32nd birthday, 17 March 1912, so as not to slow his companions; Scott's diary recorded the words.

Which actor reportedly said 'That guy's gotta stop, he'll see us' moments before his fatal 1955 crash?

James Dean was driving his Porsche 550 Spyder, nicknamed 'Little Bastard', to a race in Salinas; his mechanic Rolf Wütherich, who had just told him to slow down, survived the crash.

James W. Rodgers asked for a bulletproof vest as his last request before a firing squad in which US state in 1960?

Utah shot Rodgers on 30 March 1960; asked again at the end, he said he had already given his last request, 'a bulletproof vest'. No American faced a firing squad again for 17 years.

Which criminal's 1977 last words before a firing squad were simply 'Let's do it!'?

Gary Gilmore was shot on 17 January 1977, the first person executed in the United States in almost ten years; adman Dan Wieden credits the line as the spark for Nike's 'Just Do It'.

Which mobster's feverish 1935 deathbed ramblings were taken down by a police stenographer?

Dutch Schultz, shot in a Newark chophouse on 23 October 1935; he babbled for hours about 'French-Canadian bean soup', and William S. Burroughs later turned the transcript into the screenplay The Last Words of Dutch Schultz.

Which Yankees legend's reported last words in 1999 were 'I'll finally get to see Marilyn'?

Joe DiMaggio was married to Marilyn Monroe for nine months in 1954. After her death he had roses sent to her crypt three times a week for 20 years and never remarried; his lawyer reported the line.

Which singer's reported last words in 1977 were 'I'm going to the bathroom to read'?

Elvis Presley, to his girlfriend Ginger Alden on 16 August 1977; she found him hours later on the bathroom floor at Graceland.

Which physicist's reported last words in 1988 were 'I'd hate to die twice, it's so boring'?

Richard Feynman surfaced from a coma to say it, in one biographer's telling; another gives 'This dying is boring'. He had refused the dialysis that might have bought him a few more months.

Which aviator's last known radio message in 1937 was 'We are running on line north and south'?

Amelia Earhart sent it on 2 July 1937 while searching for tiny Howland Island, where the Coast Guard cutter Itasca was waiting to guide her in by radio; she was never seen again.

Which science-fiction author's reported last words in 1946 were 'Go away, I'm all right'?

H. G. Wells had already drafted something grander: in a 1941 preface to The War in the Air he said his epitaph should read, 'I told you so. You damned fools.'

Which pioneering woman MP asked her gathered family in 1964, 'Am I dying or is this my birthday'?

Nancy Astor, the first woman to take a seat in the Commons, woke to find her children round the bed, which is what prompted the question; she was 17 days short of 85.

Which silent-film comic, told 'May the Lord have mercy on your soul', reportedly replied 'Why not, it belongs to Him'?

Charlie Chaplin died in Switzerland on Christmas Day 1977, aged 88. The following March his coffin was dug up and held for ransom; it was recovered and reburied in a vault of reinforced concrete.

Which woman, shot by a firing squad during the First World War, reportedly said 'It is unbelievable'?

Mata Hari, the dancer convicted of spying for Germany, refused a blindfold and reportedly blew a kiss to the French firing squad at Vincennes in October 1917.

Which author's final written request to his wife in 1963 asked for 100 micrograms of LSD, injected?

Aldous Huxley, unable to speak from laryngeal cancer, wrote the note and his wife Laura injected him on 22 November 1963; his death was overshadowed because JFK was shot the same day.

Which Irish republican, author of The Riddle of the Sands, told his 1922 firing squad to take 'a step or two' closer?

Erskine Childers was shot by the Irish Free State on 24 November 1922 after shaking hands with the firing squad; his son, also Erskine, became President of Ireland half a century later.

Producer Charles Frohman called death a 'beautiful adventure' as the Lusitania sank, echoing a line from which play?

Peter Pan: Frohman had staged J. M. Barrie's play on Broadway in 1905, and Barrie's original line is 'To die will be an awfully big adventure.'

JFK's last words, 'No, you certainly can't', answered which passenger in the motorcade?

Nellie Connally, the Texas First Lady, had turned in her seat to say 'Mr President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you', seconds before the shots on 22 November 1963.

Which accused assassin asked for 'the American Civil Liberties Union' shortly before being shot in 1963?

Lee Harvey Oswald, shot by Jack Ruby in the basement of Dallas police headquarters on 24 November 1963, on live television during a jail transfer.

Which president reportedly died in 1901 saying 'Goodbye, all, goodbye, it is God's way'?

William McKinley was shot by the anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo and at first seemed to be recovering; then gangrene set in, and he died eight days after the shooting.

Which president's last words, in 1945, were 'I have a terrific headache'?

Franklin D. Roosevelt, sitting for Elizabeth Shoumatoff's portrait at Warm Springs, Georgia, on 12 April 1945; the 'Unfinished Portrait' was left incomplete and went on display at the Little White House there.

'Roger, go at throttle up' was the last transmission of which Challenger astronaut?

Francis 'Dick' Scobee, the commander; the shuttle broke apart 73 seconds into its 28 January 1986 flight, and pilot Michael Smith's 'Uh-oh' was caught on the cockpit recorder.

Minutes before the 1967 Apollo 1 fire, which astronaut asked how they would reach the Moon if they couldn't talk between buildings?

Gus Grissom, and the faulty radio was the least of it: fire swept the sealed capsule during a launch-pad test, killing Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. He had been the second American in space.

Which British king's last words in 1936 were 'God damn you!' to a nurse?

George V, at Sandringham on 20 January 1936; his physician Lord Dawson hastened the end with morphine and cocaine so the death would make the morning Times rather than the evening papers.

Queen Victoria's reported last word, 'Bertie', was her name for whom?

Edward VII, born Albert Edward, was Bertie to the family. Victoria had blamed him for his father's death and kept him away from state business through almost 60 years as her heir.

Which swashbuckling star reportedly said in 1959, 'I've had a hell of a lot of fun'?

Errol Flynn, star of The Adventures of Robin Hood, was short of money and had flown to Vancouver to lease out his yacht, Zaca; he died there of a heart attack on 14 October 1959, aged 50.

Which actor's final tweet in 2015 ended with the sign-off 'LLAP'?

Leonard Nimoy died on 27 February 2015, days after tweeting that life is like a garden whose perfect moments can be had but not preserved, except in memory; LLAP is Spock's 'Live long and prosper'.

Steve Irwin's last words, 'I'm dying', came after the barb of which animal pierced his heart on the Great Barrier Reef?

A stingray, while filming a documentary called, grimly, Ocean's Deadliest. Stingray deaths are extraordinarily rare; the barb struck his chest as he swam over the animal in 2006.

Michael Jackson's reported last words, 'More milk', were a request for which drug in 2009?

Propofol, the white anaesthetic he called 'milk'; Jackson died on 25 June 2009, and his physician Conrad Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2011.

Executed in 1995, Thomas Grasso wanted the press to know his last meal lacked which item?

SpaghettiOs were on his order, but the kitchen sent plain spaghetti, so he used his final statement to complain: 'I did not get my SpaghettiOs, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this.'

Which Australian PM said 'I know this beach like the back of my hand' before vanishing?

Harold Holt, who swam into heavy surf at Cheviot Beach, Victoria, on 17 December 1967 and was never found; a Melbourne swimming pool was later named after him.