Chester Bennington Quick Info | |
---|---|
Height | 5 ft 10 in |
Weight | 73 kg |
Date of Birth | March 20, 1976 |
Zodiac Sign | Pisces |
Date of Death |
July 20, 2017 |
Chester Bennington was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and occasional actor best known as the lead vocalist of Linkin Park. He also served as the lead vocalist of the bands Grey Daze, Dead by Sunrise, and Stone Temple Pilots. With Linkin Park, he worked on a number of albums which include Meteora, Hybrid Theory, A Thousand Suns, One More Light, Minutes to Midnight, The Hunting Party, and Living Things. Chester Bennington struggled with depression and substance abuse for most of his life and committed suicide on July 20, 2017. Credited by several publications as one of the greatest rock vocalists of his generation, Hit Parader magazine placed him at number #46 on their list of the “Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time” while Dan Weiss stated that Bennington “turned nu-metal universal”.
Born Name
Chester Charles Bennington
Nick Name
Chaz, Chazy Chaz, The Chemist
Age
Chester Bennington was born on March 20, 1976.
Died
Chester died at the age of 41 on July 20, 2017. He committed suicide by hanging himself at his home in Palos Verdes Estates, California.
Sun Sign
Pisces
Born Place
Phoenix, Arizona, United States
Residence
Palos Verdes Estates, California, United States
Nationality
Education
In his freshmen year, Chester got enrolled at Centennial High School. He later shifted to Greenway High School. It was at Greenway that he started his first band, Grey Daze.
He then decided to move to Washington High School to finally achieve high school graduation in 1994.
Occupation
Musician, Singer, Songwriter, Occasional Actor
Family
- Father – Lee Russell Bennington (Police officer focused especially on child abuse cases)
- Mother – Susan Elaine Johnson (Nurse)
- Siblings – Brian Bennington (Older Half-Brother) (Police Officer). He had two older half-sisters as well.
- Others – Chester Bennington (Paternal Grandfather), Marjorie John (Paternal Grandmother), Charles Henry Johnson (Maternal Grandfather), Anita Faye Wells (Maternal Grandmother)
Manager
Chester Bennington was represented by Beverly Hills-based talent management agency, The Collective.
Genre
Alternative metal, nu-metal, hard rock, alternative rock, electronic rock, heavy metal, pop-rock, and post-grunge
Instruments
Vocals
Labels
Machine Shop and Warner Bros. Records
Net Worth
According to CelebrityNetWorth.com, his net worth was $30 Million at the time of his death.
Build
Slim
Height
5 ft 10 in or 178 cm
Weight
73 kg or 161 lbs
Girlfriend / Spouse
Chester Bennington had dated –
- Elka Brand – Chester Bennington was reported to be in a relationship with Elka Brand in the mid-90s. She gave birth to his son, Jamie in May 1996. A decade later, he officially adopted his second son, Isaiah as well. Even after their separation, they remained on good terms and amicably raised their sons.
- Samantha Marie Olit (1996-2005) – Chester got married to his first wife Samantha Marie Olit in October 1996. They had been together for about a year by the time they got married. In April 2002, she gave birth to the couple’s first son, Draven Sebastian. The early success of his band, Linkin Park put a substantial strain on their marriage and they never recovered from it. They officially got divorced in 2005.
- Talinda Ann Bentley (2006-2017) – According to some sources, Chester started dating former Playboy model Talinda Ann Bentley towards the end of 2004. They had reportedly met through their mutual friend and musician, Ryan Shuck. They got married in 2006. In March 2006, she gave birth to their first son, Tyler Lee Bennington. In March 2011, she gave birth to twin daughters, Lila and Lily. Before he died in 2017, they were raising children from his previous relationships as well. Shortly after Chester’s suicide, Talinda’s Twitter account was hacked. The hacker then sent out a series of cruel tweets in which it alleged Talinda was cheating on Chester and passed derogatory remarks about him.
Race / Ethnicity
White
Chester had English, Welsh, Scottish and small traces of German ancestry. He was also of a distant Dutch descent.
Hair Color
Black
Eye Color
Dark Brown
Sexual Orientation
Straight
Distinctive Features
- Tattoos
- His love for oversized ear jewelry
Brand Endorsements
Among many, Linkin Park has partnered with –
- Mercedes (2017)
- Honda Civic
- MadeWorn
Best Known For
Having served as the lead vocalist of the popular metal band, Linkin Park, which has managed to sell more than 70 million records and has won 2 Grammy awards in the process.
First Album
Chester’s debut album with Linkin Park was Hybrid Theory, which was released in October 2000 and managed to reach the #2 spot on Billboard 200.
The debut album of his other band Dead by Sunrise was Out of Ashes, which was released in October 2009.
First Film
In 2006, Chester made his first film appearance in a minor role in the action thriller movie, Crank.
First TV Show
In 2000, Chester made his TV show debut in the series, Live! At the Fillmore.
Personal Trainer
Chester was a hardcore gym rat. He had to work out almost every day and used to spend around 2 to 3 hours in the gym, almost on daily basis. His daily workouts weren’t mainly limited to slogging in the gym and performing his favorite exercises such as squats, pushing the sled, deadlifts, and leg presses. He was into various forms of Pilates, spin classes as well.
His daily workout focused on building his total body strength and improving his stamina. His typical routine included exercises such as hammer curls, shoulder presses, kettlebell swings, Turkish get-ups and bear crawls with sled hitched to his body and animal-inspired movements. His trainer also used to work on his hand-to-eye coordination and his reflexes, so that he could dodge things thrown on stage by rowdy fans.
Even, when his band was traveling, he made sure that he was working out. He and Linkin Park bassist Dave Farrell used to set up push-ups and pull-ups contests on the side of the stage. Farrell often used to trump the pull-ups contests.
Chester Bennington Favorite Things
- Sport – Basketball
- NBA Team – Phoenix Suns
- Sad Song – Radiohead songs such as Karma Police, Faust Arp, and In Rainbows
- Movie Soundtrack – Big Empty by Stone Temple Pilots from the 1994 action movie, The Crow
- Club Anthem – In Da Club by 50 Cent
- Wedding Song – Give Me Your Name, which he had written for his other band Death by Sunrise
- Childhood Song – ABC by The Jackson 5
- Song Lyrics – You’re nobody until somebody loves you
- Linkin Park Song – Breaking the Habit
- NHL Team – Arizona Coyotes
- MLB Team – Arizona Diamondbacks
- NFL Team – Arizona Cardinals
Source – Men’s Fitness, ShortList, Wikipedia
Chester Bennington Facts
- The popular American music magazine Hit Parader placed him at the 46th spot in the list featuring Top 100 Heavy Metal Vocalists.
- Chester had a keen interest in music from a very young age and it was his dream to eventually join the rock band Stone Temple Pilots, which he finally got to accomplish in 2013.
- The trauma of his parents’ divorce (he was 11 at the time of divorce) pushed him towards alcohol and drug abuse, which included marijuana, LSD, cocaine, and methamphetamine.
- When his mother found out about his addiction problem, he was already 17 years old. She barred him from leaving the house.
- Before his music career took off, he used to work at Burger King joint.
- He was physically bullied while in high school. He was skinny and looked different, which made him a perfect target for the bullies.
- He has revealed that when he was 7 years old, he was sexually abused by an older male friend. The abuse continued till Chester was 13 years old as he remained silent because he felt people would assume he was gay or lying.
- The sexual abuse severely affected him as he experienced the urge to run away and kill people. He eventually told his father about the abuse but chose not to continue the case upon finding out that he was also sexually abused.
- Chester is credited for coming up with the “Linkin Park” name for their band. They had initially opted for Lincoln Park (which was the name of Park in Santa Monica) but when domain name lincolnpark.com proved to be too expensive, they went for Linkin Park.
- While performing in a show in Melbourne in October 2007, he broke his wrist while trying to jump off the platform. He performed the entire show with a broken wrist and later had to get 5 stitches.
- His last working job before becoming a popular singer was at a small Phoenix-based coffee shop called Bean Tree. He worked there as a coffee barista.
- He made a cameo appeared as Hollywood Park Guy in the 2009 action film Crank: High Voltage (alternately titled Crank 2: High Voltage), the sequel to the 2006 film Crank. The film stars Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Bai Ling, and others.
- Chester and his new bandmates struggled for some time to seal a record deal, before Jeff Blue, who was working as vice president of A&R at Warner Bros. helped Linkin Park sign a record contract with his company.
- In 2010, he was cast as Evan in the 3D horror film Saw 3D (also known as Saw: The Final Chapter), the 7th installment in the Saw film series. It stars Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell, Sean Patrick Flanery, and Cary Elwes.
- When he committed suicide, it was reported that he was deeply inflicted by the death of his close friend Chris Cornell, who had committed suicide in a similar way in May 2017. Also, it was Chris’s 53rd birthday on the day Chester committed suicide.
- Chester and Talinda were harassed by a cyberstalker, Devon Townsend for about a year. Townsend was eventually sentenced to 2 years in prison after he was found guilty of sending threatening emails and tampering with their email.