The secrets of Andy Warhol’s death

Despite the world’s shock over his death, Andy Warhol actually suffered from many health problems throughout his life

Gallbladder

Andy Warhol’s family suffered from a history of gallbladder illness. In 1928, his father Orenja, had his gallbladder removed. And less than 12 hours after a routine gallbladder removal, Warhol passed away from complications.  

Chorea 

At the age of eight, Warhol came down with a rare disease known as chorea, or St. Vitus’ dance, characterized by involuntary movement, disturbed gait, grimacing, and hypotonia, or abnormally low muscle tone.

Originally, Warhol was diagnosed with rheumatic fever. At the time, before antibiotics, approximately 10 percent of cases of rheumatic fever worsened and became chorea. Warhol stayed in bed for about ten weeks. When he finally returned to school, he had a relapse of the illness on the first day and returned to bed.

Skin

Blotchy skin is a common symptom of chorea. By the time Warhol became famous, in the early 1960s, the blotches had gone away, but they marked his face in adolescence and early adulthood, and he had bad skin his entire life.

He wrote: ‘I had another skin problem, too—I lost all my pigment when I was eight years old. Another name people used to call me was “Spot”.

‘About 20 years ago I went to Georgette Klinger’s Skin Clinic and Georgette turned me down. It was before she had a men’s department and she discriminated against me.’

Drug Use

Warhol also had a huge drug problem. His New York City studio, the Factory was the hip hangout for amphetamine (speed) users.

In particular, Warhol was addicted to Obetrol, marketed today as Adderall, a fairly common drug used to treat ADHD. He took a daily dose throughout his life. 

Shooting

In June 1968, he was shot at close range by Valerie Solanas, a radical feminist writer. For the rest of his life he wore a corset that held his bowels together where his ruined abdominal muscles could no longer.

Hypochondria 

He also worried about ‘catching’ cancer, his fluctuating weight, colds that he was convinced presaged pneumonia, about brain tumors and strokes, blood pressure and blackouts. 

In the last years of his life, Warhol worried most about AIDS, and carefully avoided those (even close friends or ex-lovers) whom he knew to be suffering from the ‘magic disease’.