How Did Salvador Dali Die?
Salvador Dali died on 23 January 1989 in Figueres, Spain, of heart failure, aged 84. His last years were marked by grief after Gala's death, a fire that badly burned him, and a slow decline.
He was buried, on his own orders, in a crypt beneath the stage of his own museum.
Here is how the showman's life ended, and the strange thing they found when they dug him up again.
The death at a glance
Died: 23 January 1989, in Figueres.
Age: 84.
Cause: heart failure.
Before that: a 1984 bedroom fire left him badly burned.
Buried: in a crypt under his Theatre Museum.
Gala's death broke him
When Gala died in 1982, the engine of Dali's life stopped.
She had been his wife, model and manager for half a century. Without her he grew frail and depressed, stopped eating properly, and shut himself away in the castle he had bought her at Pubol.
The fire
In 1984 a fire broke out in his bedroom at Pubol, reportedly after an electrical fault with his call bell.
Dali suffered serious burns and had to be rescued. He never fully recovered, and moved to a tower next to his museum in Figueres for his final years.
His final years and the crypt
Weak and reclusive, Dali declined until his heart gave out in January 1989.
He had planned his resting place with typical showmanship: a crypt under the stage of his Theatre Museum in Figueres. Visitors walk directly over his grave every day, which is exactly how he wanted it.
The moustache that outlived him
The strangest twist came in 2017. Dali's body was exhumed for a paternity case, after a woman claimed to be his daughter.
The embalmer who opened the coffin reported that Dali's waxed moustache was still perfectly in place, frozen at the ten past ten angle he always wore. The DNA test, by the way, proved the woman was not his child. The moustache has its own story: Salvador Dali's mustache.
FAQ about how Dali died
How did Dali die? Heart failure, in 1989, at the age of 84.
Where did he die? Figueres, in Catalonia, Spain.
Was he burned in a fire? Yes, in a 1984 fire in his bedroom at Pubol.
Where is he buried? In a crypt under his own museum in Figueres.
Did his moustache survive? Yes, it was found intact when his body was exhumed in 2017.
Still posing in the coffin
When they opened his grave nearly thirty years on, the famous moustache was still there, set at ten past ten.
Even in death, Dali kept the look. The full life behind it is in Salvador Dali: The Complete Story, with more surprising facts about him.