Good Morning America - Death of Beach Boys Drummer, 12/83

From December of 1983, here is a Good Morning America story on the tragic drowning of Dennis Wilson, drummer for the Beach Boys. Taped from WAKC, Ch. 23, Akron, OH.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Beach
• Boys
• drummer
• drowning
• December
• 1983
• Good
• Morning
• American
• Ray
• Glasser

[wetigaz]

"a drowning accident"... as if something went wrong whilst he was drowning

[harvey1954]

83 was a really crap year with Dennis dying at the start and Karen Carpenter dying near the end. Both were California acts that played drums and sang and played with brothers.

[WayneKotke]

Good Morning America, was it really necessary to show the body being wheeled away on a gurney? Talk about poor taste!

[spacepatrolman]

@wetigaz David hartman is kind of uncoardinated and has accidents on the set knocking over lamps

[JCFullard]

I saw them perform shortly after this, it was my first concert when I was a kid & all the years later I still love their music.

[Jody07984]

Could the pick a more unflattering picture?

[webster1251]

A sad precursor to Carl's early death a decade later. I wish the good performers would stop killing themselves.... (exclude Carl from this point). Dennis' loss was great but Carl's signaled the end of the Beach Boys.

[Aldebaron9]

@tommyrock69 too bad his "solo" effort was kinda.... well.... not the best.... no offense to my fave. Beach Boy. Charlie's buddy.

[Aldebaron9]

I drove by Marina Del Ray a couple of hours later after spending the day at Venice. I wondered what all the traffic was about. It was said that he bumped his head on the bottom of the or a boat. That was the rumor around the south bay that day. I was living in .... ummm, the Lomita area then... ya know... around.... ummm.... Nar-bone street........ I mean, ya know... below Rolling Hills, etc...

[scarface12347]

it wasn't like he drowned like people normally do. when the divers found him on the bottom he was in the fetal position, almost like he was sleeping.

[cbarrett34]

@GentleBen02 good point, very true. however, the friends boat was docked at the same slip that dennis' old boat, "The Harmony" was docked at and Dennis was diving to pick up things he had thrown off his old boat when he was pissed off or drunk or whatever. Things that had been at the bottom of the ocean there for quite awhile, even though the water was only around 13 feet deep. He was just free diving, holding his breath, which is pretty dangerous even if you're not drunk.

[GentleBen02]

@cbarrett34 that wasn't his boat he was diving off of. The boat he was diving off of belonged to a friend of his. Dennis' boat was repossessed before this incident.