Stars We've Lost To The Bottle
Fame can come at a cost and what many of these notable people have in common was a public face and an inability to cope with fame and money. Something else these stars have in common was that their flames burned out young, living hard lives and dying directly, or indirectly, due to their drinking.
Richard Burton
Richard Burton was a Welsh actor as famous for his personal life and hard living as he was for his acting. Married twice to Elizabeth Taylor, Burton's excessive drinking was legendary, as was his volatile relationship with Taylor. He suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in 1984 at the age of 58, and doctors blamed his drinking first and foremost.
Twentieth Century, Wikimedia Commons
Amy Winehouse
We all danced as Amy Winehouse's powerful voice sang "I don't wanna go to rehab," knowing full-well the problems the singer had behind the scenes. Early in the morning on July 23, 2011, she was laughing and watching TV happily. The next morning, her bodyguard saw her lying in bed at 10 am, not unusual.
When he checked on her again at 3 pm, she hadn't moved. Winehouse passed at 27 years old. The coroner's report showed her BAC was five times the driving limit.
Mickey Mantle
The 20-time All-Star New York Yankee stated that his drinking hurt him both professionally and personally. Mantle received a liver transplant because of hepatitis and cirrhosis. The operation was initially success, but the cancer had already spread. It claimed his life in 1995 at the age of 63.
New York Yankees, Wikimedia Commons
Veronica Lake
Veronica Lake, with her iconic peek-a-boo blonde hair, was particularly well-known for playing film noir femme fatales in the 1940s. In real life, her drinking, most likely a form of self-medication for her issues with mental illness, led to her end in 1973 at age 50.
Ryan Dunn
Ryan Dunn was known as one of the daredevil stars of MTV's Jackass. Well known for his addiction problems, drinking was just one piece of the puzzle. In 2011 Dunn was the driver of a car involved in a fatal car accident. His BAC was over twice the limit at the time. Neither Dunn nor his passenger survived. He was 34.
Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac was a writer and poet, famous as a key voice of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. His most successful work was his semi-autobiographical road novel, On the Road, which extensively explored what the Beats called "the derangement of the senses". And for Kerouac, nothing deranged quite like drinking.
In 1969, after one last night of drinking rye, Kerouac complained of stomach pains. Then he began vomiting blood. He passed the next day from a hemorrhage caused by cirrhosis, at the age of 47.
Billie Holiday
The singer Billie Holiday was a key influence in both jazz and popular music in the 1940s and 1950s, but this shining star lived a hard life. After a diagnosis of cirrhosis, she gave up drinking—but it's not always so simple. She fell off the wagon and was imprisoned for drug possession, dying in a New York hospital in 1959 at the age of 44.
Hank Williams
Legendary country singer and songwriter Hank Williams made his mark on both country music and rock and roll with such songs as "Your Cheatin' Heart," "Hey, Good Lookin'," and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry".
His hard-living lifestyle was his undoing, and we lost Williams in 1953 at the age 29 from hemorrhages brought on by his drinking.
Errol Flynn
Australian actor Errol Flynn was a legendary Hollywood figure, onscreen and off. Known for his swashbuckling adventure roles in movies like Captain Blood and The Adventures of Robin Hood, Flynn was equally famous for his wild personal life. But that lifestyle takes it toll.
In 1959, under the treatment of a doctor in Canada, Flynn succumbed to a heart attack at the age of 50. Doctors cited heart disease and cirrhosis of the liver as the main causes.
Photoplay, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Joseph McCarthy
US Senator Joseph McCarthy was infamous for the anti-Communist House Un-American Activities Committee hearings he led in the 1950s. Many targets of McCarthy were blacklisted from working in the government and in Hollywood.
A notorious alcoholic, McCarthy died of acute hepatitis exacerbated by his drinking in 1957, at the age of 48.
United Press, Wikimedia Commons
John Bonham
English drummer John Bonham was known as one of the most ferocious drummers in rock. Equally ferocious was his hard living, hard partying lifestyle. As Led Zeppelin scaled the heights of rock stardom, so did Bonham's drinking.
In 1980, on the day he died from asphyxiation from vomit at the age 32, Bonham had consumed 40 shots, including 16 at breakfast.
John Barrymore
Probably now known best as Drew Barrymore's grandfather, John Barrymore was a pioneer in early Hollywood. But the Barrymore family isn't only famous for acting; they were famous for putting them back, and John was no exception.
In 1942, at the age of 60, Barrymore collapsed, lapsed into a coma and never woke up. Doctors listed liver, kidney, and heart ailments all as causes, complicated by pneumonia and his continued drinking.
Oliver Reed
A respected actor and star of such films as Oliver! and The Three Musketeers, Oliver Reed was notorious for both his womanizing and his drinking and was known for his binge drinking. In 1999, during the filming of Gladiator, Reed challenged a group of sailors to a drinking contest.
Reed collapsed during the contest. He didn't survived the ambulance ride to the hospital. He was 61.
WC Fields
A famous comic actor during the 1930s, WC Fields' persona was one of a cranky, sarcastic sot. There was just one problem: His real-life drinking surpassed his comedic image, and as he spiralled downward, he found acting parts increasingly difficult to obtain.
He suffered a fatal, alcohol-related stomach hemorrhage on Christmas Day, 1946, at the age 66.
Silver Screen Collection, Getty Images
William Holden
A winner of both an Oscar and an Emmy for his acting, William Holden was a leading man in the 1950s, starring in such classics as Sunset Boulevard and The Bridge on the River Kwai. But soon his personal life was making more headlines than his acting.
Holden's heavy drinking began impacting his professional and personal life, including a drunk driving incident where he killed another driver. In 1981, at the age of 61, Holden had a few too many one last time, and slipped and hit his head. His body only found after several days.
Alexander Godunov
Alexander Godunov was famous for both his talents as a ballet dancer with the Bolshoi ballet and for defecting from the USSR in 1979 while on tour in the United States. He continued his career in the US, expanding his work from dancing to acting.
A lifetime of alcoholism lead to his death from hepatitis and complications from drinking in 1995. He was 45.
Ron Galella, Ltd., Getty Images
Michael Elphick
Michael Elphick was a well-known British character actor, known for roles in The Elephant Man and Gorky Park. His alcoholism prematurely aged him—he was known to put back two liters a day. He was 55 when he suffered a fatal heart attack in 2002.
Barbara Payton
Barbara Payton had a promising career in the 1940s, but her hard drinking led her to lose out on many roles and she later had legal problems over check fraud and prostitution. Her parents, both alcoholics themselves, took her in after her career ended, where the three spent much of their time drinking. She died of liver failure in 1967 at the age 39.
Silver Screen Collection, Getty Images
Gene Clark
Gene Clark was a gifted songwriter and singer, famous for co-founding the Byrds in 1965. He suffered from anxiety and other possible mental health problems, self-medicating himself with alcohol and drugs. After already having had part of his stomach removed, Clark passed in 1991 at the age of 46, only a few months after he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Byrds.
Ian Hendry
A successful British actor in films and television, Ian Hendry appeared in Get Carter and The Avengers. Turning to alcohol later in life, Hendry suffered a fatal a stomach hemorrhage in 1984. He was 53.
Woodlands Production Ltd, Wikipedia
Kevin Lloyd
A popular British television actor, Kevin Lloyd was fired from the series The Bill for constantly showing up intoxicated, unable to learn lines. He attended rehab—but he left the facility to go on a bender. He choked on his own vomit in 1998, at the age 49, just a week after he lost his job.
Julia Bruns
A model and early star of the silent era, Julia Bruns was called "America's most beautiful girl". But her life was anything but perfect. She lived the Roaring Twenties to the fullest, before dying of alcohol poisoning in 1927 at the age of 32.
The New York Times. Wikimedia Commons
Peter Cook
Peter Cook was a key figure in British comedy and satire in the 1960s, along with his comedy partner Dudley Moore, but despite his success, Cook's personal and professional lives were often marred by his heavy drinking. He suffered severe liver damage as the years went on, leading to his passing in 1995 at the age 57.
Friedman Abeles, Wikimedia Commons
Yootha Joyce
British actress Yootha Joyce found success in her work on British television, appearing in such productions as Man About the House and George and Mildred. She would reportedly consume a half bottle of brandy every day for ten years leading up to the day in 1980 when she succumbed to liver failure the age 53.
George Wilkes Archive, Getty Images
Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke was the drummer for the Byrds from 1965-1968. Hired as much for his looks as for his musical ability, by his own admission Clarke began drinking at age 14 and never stopped. By the late 1980s this had taken its toll on his health. Inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 as an original member of the Byrds, Clarke suffered liver failure due to cirrhosis at the age of 47.
Rob Croes, CC0, Wikimedia Commons
David Cassidy
David Cassidy was a teen idol on The Partridge Family in the early. He got D-U-Is in 2013, in 2014, and 2015. In 2017, he was hospitalized with liver and kidney failure at the age of 67. He never left. According to his daughter, Cassidy's last words were "So much wasted time."
Allan warren, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Verne Troyer
Verne Troyer is best-known as Mini-Me in the Austin Powers film series. Standing at 2 ft 8 in, Troyer began his career as a film stand-in for children, turning to comedic roles and finding stardom as Dr. Evil's diminutive clone in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.
He was admitted to rehab for drinking in 2018, but later that year passed. It was later ruled suicide from alcohol intoxication.
Bon Scott
Famous as the original lead singer for Australia’s AC/DC, the Scottish-born Bon Scott lived the rock and roll lifestyle. Being admitted to the hospital for an overdose in 1975 didn't stop him from excessive drinking and drug use. In 1980, Scott passed out in a friend's car, later dying in the hospital from acute alcohol poisoning at the age 33.
Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images
Thomas Kinkade
Thomas Kinkade was a popular painter of colorful, quaint, and idyllic subjects, achieving success in mass marketing prints of his work. Never a critical darling, Kinkade sold millions of prints of his work. In 2012 Kinkade ODed from a combination of drinking and diazepam at the age of 54.
Alan Ladd
A staple of film noir and Westerns, Alan Ladd enjoyed a great deal of success in the 1940s and 1950s in such film classics as The Blue Dahlia and Shane. Suffering from chronic insomnia, Ladd would induce sleep with sleeping pills and rye. In 1964, at the age 50, Ladd suffered a cerebral edema caused by an acute overdose of alcohol, barbiturates, and tranquilizers containing depressants.
Ron "Pigpen" McKernan
A founding member of the Grateful Dead, keyboardist Ron "Pigpen" McKernan was a blues purist whose role in the band diminished over time. As his drinking got worse and worse, liver damage forced him to stop touring.
After an attempt at sobriety, McKernan spent the last few months of his life eating little and consuming vast quantities of alcohol, dying in 1973 at the age of 27 from a gastrointestinal hemorrhage.
San Francisco Chronicle, Getty Images
John Cassavetes
John Cassavetes began his career as an actor in such films as Rosemary's Baby. Considered a key American director of the later 20th century, films such as A Woman Under the Influence and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie were important influences on later directors.
A long-time alcoholic, Cassavetes passed from complications of cirrhosis of the liver in 1989, at the age of 59.
James Jamerson
James Jamerson was the bassist on most of the Motown Records in the 1960s and early 1970s and is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential bass players in modern music history. Jamerson played on twenty-three Billboard Hot 100 number-one hits, as well as fifty-six R&B number-one hits. A long-time alcoholic, Jamerson died of cirrhosis of the liver, heart failure and pneumonia in 1983, at the of 47.
The Post and Courier, Wikipedia
Gerry Rafferty
Gerry Rafferty was a Scottish singer and musician, famous for such hits as "Stuck in the Middle with You" (as a member of Stealers Wheel) and "Baker Street". Born into a working-class family, Rafferty began drinking early in life, a habit that impacted his personal and professional lives.
In 2010, Rafferty was put on life-support due to multiple organ failure, finally succumbing to liver failure at the age 63.
Eddie Mallin, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons was a songwriter and musician known for both his solo work and as a member of the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers. Parsons' "Cosmic American Music" influenced later generations of indie, alt-country and country rock artists. A dope user and a heavy drinker, in 1973 Parsons consumed copious amounts of alcohol, barbiturates, and morphine, then fell unconscious. He never woke up. He was 16.
Reprise Records, Wikimedia Commons
Big Mama Thornton
Big Mama Thornton was a blues and R&B singer and songwriter, the first to record Leiber and Stoller's "Hound Dog," which was written for her. Thornton's "Ball and Chain" was later made famous by Janis Joplin. Her longstanding alcohol abuse led to her death in 1984 of liver failure at the age of 57.
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