I’ve always believed that Oscar Wilde’s last words were, “Either that wallpaper goes, or I do.” In fact, what he really said was, “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go,” and more to the point, these weren’t his last words.

Another myth exploded.

Who doesn’t like the idea of famous last words, though? We want people to go out in a memorable fashion, something more meaningful than “Oops!” or “I wonder if this is the glass with the poison.” We especially want this of famous people. So I was rather intrigued by a selection from the book Last Words of Notable People, created by MentalFloss, one of my favorite websites. They’ve got Bob Hope and Groucho Marx, among others. My favorite in this group is Glenn Miller, who is reported as saying, “Where the hell are the parachutes?”

Check out The Surprising Last Words of 11 Entertainers.