On April 1, 1984, Marvin Gaye, an American musician who gained worldwide fame for his work with Motown Records, was shot and killed, on the day before his 45th birthday, by his father, Marvin Gay Sr., at their house in the Arlington Heights district of Los Angeles, California. Gaye was shot twice following an altercation with his father, after he intervened in an argument between his parents. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the California Hospital Medical Center. His father later pleaded no contest to a charge of voluntary manslaughter. Gaye’s filicide inspired several musical tributes over the years, including recollections of the incidents leading to his death. Gaye was given a burial plot at Forest Lawn Cemetery, and was later cremated and his ashes spread around the Pacific Ocean.
