Ian Curtis
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Ian Kevin Curtis (July 15, 1956 – May 18, 1980) was the vocalist, lyricist and occasional guitarist of the band Joy Division, which he helped form in 1977 in Manchester, England.
Death
The effects of his epilepsy and personal problems, such as an impending divorce from his wife, may have contributed to Curtis's suicide by hanging at the age of 23. According to the book Touching From A Distance, Curtis had taken an overdose of his epilepsy medication and ended up in hospital just over a month before his death. The book states that Bernard Sumner took him to a cemetery after he had left hospital to show him where he would have ended up had the overdose killed him. In the early hours of Sunday May 18th, in his kitchen having earlier seen Werner Herzog's movie Stroszek and listened to Iggy Pop's The Idiot, Curtis hanged himself.
Curtis was cremated and his ashes were buried in Macclesfield Cemetery. The inscription on his memorial stone, "Love Will Tear Us Apart", was chosen by Deborah Curtis, and is a reference to Joy Division's best-known song.
