Ian Curtis

On May 18, 1980, Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis died at the age of 23 by suicide from hanging.

What Happened?
On the evening of 17 May 1980, Curtis asked Deborah to drop her impending divorce proceedings; she replied that he would likely have changed his mind by the following morning, and then—mindful of his previous suicide attempt and also concerned his state of anxiety and frustration may drive Curtis into an epileptic fit—offered to spend the night in his company. Deborah then drove to her parents' home to inform them of her intentions. When she returned to his house at 77 Barton Street in Macclesfield, Cheshire, his demeanour had changed, and he informed his wife of his intentions to spend the night alone, first making her promise not to return to the house before he had taken his scheduled 10 a.m. train to Manchester to rendezvous with his bandmates.

In the early hours of the next morning, Curtis ended his life by hanging himself in his kitchen. He was 23 years old. Deborah found his body soon after; he had used the kitchen's washing line to hang himself, having written a note to Deborah in which he declared his love for her despite his recent affair with Honoré. In her biography, Touching from a Distance, Deborah recalls finding her husband's body and initially thinking that he was still alive before noticing the washing line around his neck. According to Tony Wilson, Curtis spent the few hours before his suicide watching Werner Herzog's 1977 film Stroszek and listening to Iggy Pop's 1977 album The Idiot. His wife recollected that he had taken photographs of their wedding and their baby daughter off the walls, apparently to view them as he composed his suicide note.

At the time of his suicide, Joy Division were on the eve of their debut North American tour, and Deborah has stated Curtis had viewed this upcoming tour with extreme trepidation, not only because of his extreme fear of flying (he had wanted to travel by ship), but because he had also expressed deep concerns as to how American audiences would react to his epilepsy. Deborah has also claimed that Curtis had confided in her on several occasions that he held no desire to live past his early twenties. He had furthermore expressed to both Deborah and Honoré his deep concerns as to his medical condition being likely to kill him, in addition to receiving mockery from the band's audiences, and that this mockery would only increase from the band's impending American audiences on their upcoming tour.

According to Lindsay Reade, the wife of the manager of Factory Records, Curtis had informed her shortly before his death of his belief that, with his epilepsy, he could no longer perform live with the band. In addition, he had claimed that with the impending release of Closer, he believed the band had hit an artistic pinnacle. Wilson later said that Curtis likely saw his act of suicide as somewhat altruistic.

In a 2007 interview with The Guardian, Stephen Morris expressed regret that nobody had realised during Curtis' life the distress he was in, even though it was evident in his lyrics. In a 2013 Guardian interview, Genesis P-Orridge spoke about being the last person Curtis spoke to before his death. Bassist Peter Hook reflected on the tragedy of the timing of Curtis' death, just before what might have been a breakthrough to fame. Hook also claimed that, prior to the release of the 2007 documentary Joy Division, a specialist in epilepsy had viewed the combination of drugs Curtis had been prescribed for his condition and expressed concerns about its safety.

Curtis' body was cremated at Macclesfield Crematorium on 23 May 1980, and his ashes were buried at Macclesfield Cemetery. A memorial stone, inscribed with "Ian Curtis 18 – 5 – 80" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart", was placed above his ashes. This memorial stone was stolen in mid-2008. A replacement, bearing the same inscription, was placed in the same location. A central “mowing” stone used to hold floral tributes was reported stolen from the grave in the summer of 2019.