Who were the most troubled Hollywood stars of all time?

Gene Tierney had a lot going on

Not really Hollywood, I suppose, but DL turned me on to Jo Ann Castle - a fun mess

I always felt bad for Dana Plato. Before she died (allegedly suicide) she went on Stern and claimed she was sober for awhile and he let his callers rip into her. Sad.

r3, that was very sad. She seemed sweet but lost. Her son later also died by his own hand.

Charlie Sheen

Frances Farmer

Michael Jackson

Margaux Hemingway

Margot Kidder

Barbara Peyton — from studio contract star to $5-a-fuck hooker on Hollywood Boulevard. Her "autobiography" is like something out of John Waters.

[quote]“Today I live in a rat-infested apartment with not a bean to my name and I drink too much Rose wine. I don't like what the scale tells me. The little money I do accumulate to pay the rent comes from old residuals, poetry and favors to men. I love the Negro race and will accept money only from Negroes. Does it all sound depressing to you? Queasy? Well, I'm not ashamed.”

She was in her thirties but looked 60 when she croaked.

Frances Farmer lived quite a life

Drew Barrymore

Judy Garland

Lindsay Lohan

Corey Haim

Veronica Lake

Barbara LaMarr

Olive Thomas and Jack Pickford

Wallace Reid (very sad)

Barbara Payton (already mentioned, but wow)

Lupe Velez

Carole Landis

Laird Cregar

Gloria Grahame

Scotty Beckett

Laurence Harvey

Vivien Leigh.

Miss Judy Garland. Can’t believe it took 13 entries to get to that holy mess.

^ooops, apologies R9. You named Garland already.

Susan Cabot

R14 Many of us have R9 blocked

Peter Crawford

Lawson was the most troubled AND the most trouble.

Gail Russell

Judy looked 60 when she was 40

Gail Russell.

Inger Stevens.Jean Seberg

Monty Clift

R20 I don't think she did. She was around 40 on her TV show, and she certainly didn't look 60 on that.

Alan Ladd

How you do'in, MARILYN ?

Drunk Spencer Tracy

Pier Angeli

Armie....

James Dean.

John Barrymore

Helen Morgan

John Gilbert

Frances Farmer, Judy Garland, Monty Clift, Michael Jackson, Billie Holliday, Elvis. Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Vivian Leigh, Spencer Tracy, Joan Crawford- come to mind

I haven’t mentioned anyone living because they can turn their lives around-

James Dean wasn’t screwed up - just self obsessed and he died in a horrible accident. Brando perhaps. His life was pretty messy.

More on the fabulous Barbara Payton — from $10,000/week at a studio to turning tricks for $5:

[quote]Her resulting autobiography, I Am Not Ashamed, became a cult classic, legendary for its lurid depiction of 1950s Hollywood. Once Bob Hope’s mistress (a relationship that got her fired by Universal), Payton was infamous for her alleged flings with Gary Cooper, Guy Madison, Gregory Peck, Howard Hughes, Errol Flynn, John Ireland, George Raft, Marlon Brando, and Lloyd Bridges.

[quote]From the time he set eyes on her winning a Charleston contest at the Sunset Strip nightclub Mocambo, debonair movie star Franchot Tone was enraptured with Payton. His ex-wife Joan Crawford, now wise to Payton’s reputation, told him, according to O’Dowd, “If I were you, Mister, I’d leave that cheap little chippie alone. She has the morals of a common tart.”

[quote]By the early 1960s, Payton had gone from a high-end sex worker in Chicago, entertaining johns with fellow former starlet Lila Leeds, to a heroin addict living in horrific conditions on Sunset Boulevard, less than a mile from the clubs she used to command. One former friend told O’Dowd about finding her walking in the rain on Sunset Boulevard, filthy and disheveled—bloated, her front teeth knocked out—but still with the bearing of a movie star.

[quote]In February 1967, Payton was found near a dumpster in the Thrifty Drug Store parking lot on Sunset Boulevard, passed out. Her liver failing, she was eventually sent home to her parents in San Diego, and died on May 8, 1967, at the age of 39. “How, or why, had I fallen?” she asked rhetorically years before. “What had happened? Yet, somehow, I wasn’t ashamed. It was in the cards. I played them as best I could.”

To her great credit, Barbara knew where to find the boys and the booze.

Who can play Barbara? Who will be able to walk "in the rain on Sunset Boulevard, filthy and disheveled—bloated, her front teeth knocked out—but still with the bearing of a movie star." Smells like awards to me.

Andrea Risenborough

Lisa Rinna. And I’m just the dame to prove it!

R17 meant Peter Lawson. Don’t type when your bedridden with Covid.

Do you mean Peter Lawford, r37?

R38 yeah. That’s him.

Brynn Hartman.

40 entries and no Brad Fucking Renfro yet?

Tatum O'Neal; Amanda Bynes; Whitney Houston; Bridget Fonda.; Charlie Sheen...

[quote]Who can play Barbara? Who will be able to walk "in the rain on Sunset Boulevard, filthy and disheveled—bloated, her front teeth knocked out—but still with the bearing of a movie star." Smells like awards to me.

Must she be played by a white actress? (Asking for a friend.)

Clara Bow

Madonna R43.

Carole Landis

Tom Neal

G.

Correct answer is Lawrence Tierney. Dude was a mess.

James Murray, an instant star at the tail end of the silent era (King Vidor's "The Crowd") and early talkies who self-destructed almost as soon as he hit his peak.

The story goes, "Vidor found a much heavier and unkempt Murray panhandling on the street and offered to buy him a drink. Vidor then offered Murray the lead role in Our Daily Bread, provided Murray pull himself together. Murray rejected the offer and reportedly stated, "Just because I stop you on the street and try to borrow a buck you think you can tell me what to do. As far as I am concerned, you know what you can do with your lousy part."

A little over a year later, unemployable and playing unbilled bit roles and extras he jumped off a pier into the Hudson River and drowned. Yikes!

[quote] James Dean wasn’t screwed up - just self obsessed and he died in a horrible accident.

He was molested by his pastor from age 11, did that make him messed up or just self-obsessed?

R51 Anyway the thread title says "troubled".

Montgomery Clift. The beautiful loser.

Anybody that gets off on having cigarettes put out on them is displaying a symptom of much deeper issues.

James Dean was fucked up.

I thought Monty had cigarette burns not James Dean…