American Horror Story: Here's How Andy Warhol Actually Died

It was revealed before the season premiere of American Horror Story: Cult that various real-life cult leaders would be appearing this season, all played by Evan Peters, who is starring in the season as Kai Anderson, leader of his own little murderous cult in small-town Michigan. The first of these real-life cult leaders made an appearance in the most recent episode, titled "Valerie Solanas Died For Your Sins: Scumbag," in the form of Andy Warhol, generally considered a leading figure in the pop art movement of the 1960s.

On AHS: Cult, Warhol is depicted as a condescending, pretentious man whose belittlement of would-be artist Valerie Solanas earns him a bullet wound to the abdomen when a spurned Solanas shows up at his New York City studio, The Factory, and shoots him at close range. Reports of Warhol's alleged misogyny are mixed, but in real life, Solanas did feel slighted by Warhol, shooting him in a fit of rage in 1968. AHS viewers have been wondering if Warhol survived that incident, since on the show he is only shown again as Solanas's hallucination.

Warhol did not, in fact, die from the Solanas shooting, but his injuries were life-threatening and they did change him permanently. Physically, Warhol had to wear a surgical corset for the rest of his life, while mentally, Warhol entered a new chapter in his life. The Factory scene ostensibly died off and Warhol led a much quieter life, doing mostly private portrait commissions instead of continuing to make pop art and movies.

Warhol died in 1987 at the age of 58 when he suffered a cardiac arrhythmia in his sleep following what was supposed to be routine gallbladder surgery. His family was awarded an undisclosed sum in a malpractice suit against New York Hospital for improper care, and in the 30 years since his death, Warhol's health has come to be regarded as much more complicated than doctors thought it was at the time.

According to a New York Times article from earlier this year, Warhol was sick for months before he finally had surgery. That, combined with his dehydration and malnutrition from not eating due to his gallbladder issues, plus the lingering effects from the 1968 gunshot, which damaged nine of his organs, made the surgery fairly high risk. Dr. John Ryan, a medical historian and retired surgeon, called it a "major, major surgery — not routine — in a very sick person."

Warhol is buried next to his parents in a suburb of Pittsburgh, where he grew up and attended college.