Is Roz’s Story About Lupe Velez True?

Lupe Vélez is likely a familiar name to sitcom fans who grew up in the ’90s, as «Frasier» isn’t the only show to make a reference to the urban legend connected to her death. In «The Simpsons» episode «Homer’s Phobia,» John (John Waters) takes the family on a tour of Springfield’s most «ludicrously tragic» places. During it, he points out the store where Vélez allegedly bought the toilet she drowned in, to their delight.

In reality, Vélez’s career wasn’t faltering when she passed away. The circumstances behind her suicide continue to be a topic of debate — biographer Michelle Vogel believes Vélez had untreated bipolar disorder. She also may have despaired when her attempt at convincing Ramond to marry her for love failed, whether or not he was the biological father of her child, a topic that has also been posthumously debated. But whatever the reason for her choice, the actress was actually found at the scene of her death just as she wished to be  — calmly composed and in bed. This was confirmed when The Huffington Post ran rediscovered crime scene photos in 2013. Vogel has also pointed out that the pill Vélez took, Seconal, was a highly powerful barbiturate, and an overdose the magnitude of which Vélez took would have rendered her dead within a matter of minutes.

Hopefully, future audiences will rediscover Vélez’s prodigious comedic gifts through her films, which continue to shine decades after Anger’s book got the ball rolling on an urban legend that refuses to flicker out, no matter how untrue it is.

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