Actors live their lives in the spotlight, and fans always love to find out more about their
favorite stars. Sometimes, however, the celebs we think we know can harbor dark and terrible
secrets. Here are the actors who have been accused of some truly disturbing crimes.
Back in the '70s, TV was lousy with detective shows. One of these was Baretta, which starred
former Little Rascal-turned-tough guy actor Robert Blake. Blake was best known for Baretta right up
until the 2000s, when he became embroiled in one of the most heavily-publicized trials of all time.
"Police have acknowledged that the actor Robert Blake
is considered a possible suspect in the murder of his wife."
On May 4th 2001, Blake and his wife Bonnie Lee Bakley dined out at an Italian restaurant in
Studio City, California. They left afterwards, but Blake had to go back in to retrieve a gun he'd
left inside. When he returned to the car where Bakley had been waiting, he discovered that she'd
been shot dead from a gunshot wound to the head. Blake was charged with murder, and his defense
team argued that any number of people other than the actor could've been responsible, such as one
of the many enemies Bakley had made in her days as the operator of a "lonely hearts" scheme.
Blake was later acquitted of all charges, but still had to face a civil case filed
by Bakley's family, who argued Blake was responsible for her death. In the end,
a jury found the actor liable, but he never did pay out the $30 million
judgment, as he'd spent the vast majority of his fortune on his expensive legal defense team.
Best-known for his roles in National Lampoon's Vacation and Independence Day,
Randy Quaid was once one of the hardest-working actors in Hollywood.
Today, however, his net worth is estimated to be negative $1 million,
and a lot of that has to do with the truly strange crimes the actor has committed.
Convinced that he was being pursued by so-called "star whackers" who were intent on killing him,
Quaid decided to go on the run. Unfortunately for him, he didn't
exactly succeed at keeping a low profile. He and his wife were accused of skipping
out on hotel bills and unlawfully squatting on a property they had sold years prior.
They were also accused of repeatedly failing to appear in court to address these issues.
They subsequently attempted to flee to Canada, but the country denied asylum to the couple,
in part due to their ongoing legal troubles. Both Quaid and his wife were eventually arrested
in October 2015, while trying to sneak back into the United States from Canada.
In 1987, Matthew Broderick was driving in Ireland, and crashed head-on with another car.
Two people died in the incident: Anna Gallagher and her mother,
Margaret Doherty. Broderick spent about a month in the hospital for his injuries,
but ultimately walked away from the accident with just a $175 fine.
Initially charged with reckless driving, this was later reduced to a charge of careless driving.
At the time, Gallagher's husband referred to the verdict as a travesty of justice.
Fifteen years after the crash, the New York Post reported that Broderick was
open to meeting with the family members of the accident victims, who seemed ready to
forgive and move on. Gallagher's brother and Doherty's son Martin told the Post:
"He didn't kill my mother and sister deliberately. There were
strong feelings at the time, but I have since forgiven him and feel no anger toward him."
A spokesperson for Broderick added:
"Matthew is willing to meet up with them. There is no ill will,
not any sort of anger. The family is seeking some sort of closure."
Unfortunately, it's unclear if the meeting ever took place, and Doherty told The Impartial
Reporter in 2012 that he had never ever had any contact with Broderick over the years.
The allegations of sexual misconduct against Bill Cosby date all the way back to the 1960s.
In recent years, more than 50 women have revealed their horrific experiences with the actor,
with many claiming to have been drugged by the once-beloved star of The Cosby Show.
In April 2018, the then-80-year-old Cosby was found guilty of three counts of sexual
assault against Andrea Constand during a retrial. The former Temple University
women's basketball director claimed Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in his home in 2004.
Cosby faced a maximum sentence of 10 years for each of the three charges,
but Judge Steven O'Neill opted to combine them, as they were all linked to a single
incident. Cosby was eventually ordered to pay a fine of $25,000 plus the prosecution's costs,
and was sentenced to three to 10 years in the Pennsylvania state prison system.
In late 2019, Cosby gave a phone interview to BlackPressUSA from his home at the SCI-Phoenix
facility, saying that he expects he'll serve the full 10 years. Parole boards generally
like to see convicted criminals express remorse for their actions before granting early release,
but Cosby says he won't do this, because he still doesn't believe he did anything wrong.
In 1995, after one of the most well-publicized trials in history,
former pro football player O.J. Simpson was found not guilty of murdering his ex-wife,
Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. In a subsequent civil trial, O.J. Simpson
was found guilty of their wrongful deaths and ordered to pay more than $33 million in damages.
Speaking to CNBC 20 years after the criminal trial, Goldman's sister, Kim,
said the civil suit was a victory, in that a jury had finally found O.J. liable for the
murders. But she also said the family had endured a decades-long battle to get Simpson to pay it.
With interest, that award totaled more than $40 million by 2014. Kim said:
"We've collected less than one percent of that."
The Goldmans did receive a relatively small portion of their award after a bankruptcy judge
gave them the rights to a ghost-authored book about the murders, which was titled, If I Did It.
Though O.J. claims he was not involved in the writing of the book, he was paid for it and
even conducted a promotional interview in which he recounted a hypothetical narrative of the murder.
Simpson was later convicted on a separate count of armed robbery, for which he was sentenced to
33 years in prison. He served nine before being released on parole in 2017, whereupon the Goldman
family expressed their disappointment with his release. Calling Simpson's nine years
behind bars a "reprieve" for the family, both Kim Goldman and her father vowed to continue
pursuing the civil settlement against Simpson in order to get some satisfaction of justice.
"We're a family that wanted justice. Simple as that."
Nicholas Brendon will forever be remembered for his turn as Xander Harris on Buffy the
Vampire Slayer. Since that show went off the air in 2003, Brendon has worked sporadically,
but it's his trouble with the law that has mostly kept him in the headlines.
In 2014, police in Idaho arrested and charged the actor with two misdemeanors, causing malicious
injury to property and resisting and obstructing officers. The incident occurred when police
tried to calm the apparently intoxicated Brendon after he caused a disturbance in a hotel lobby.
A few months later, police in Fort Lauderdale arrested the actor on grand theft and criminal
mischief charges over another hotel incident, in which Brendon refused to pay a huge food tab,
got drunk, and tore up his room, causing $450 worth of damages. Then, in September 2015,
Brendon was arrested for third degree robbery, criminal mischief, and obstruction of breathing,
he had allegedly choked his girlfriend in a hotel room in Upstate New York.
Brendon was involved in yet another domestic violence incident in 2017, when he attacked
his girlfriend after she tried to leave a hotel bar, grabbing her by her hair, pushing her to the
ground, and then holding a knife against her throat. In 2020, Brendon received a sentence
of three years of probation, and an order to attend a year-long domestic violence class.
Many ugly accusations came out of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's divorce,
and chief among them was Heard's claim that Depp had been both verbally and physically abusive.
In a video taken by Heard and released to TMZ, an allegedly intoxicated Depp can be
seen shouting at Heard and throwing a wine glass and bottle. Depp was never charged with assault,
though Heard was granted a temporary restraining order against him. Eventually, Heard agreed to
drop the order as part of a $7 million divorce settlement, which was to be donated to charity.
That wasn't the end of the story, though. In 2018, Heard wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post,
detailing her alleged experiences with domestic violence, and how her
career suffered because she stood up for herself. Citing how institutions
protect men accused of abuse, Heard said she paid dearly for speaking out against Depp,
claiming to have lost a sponsorship deal and a movie role as a result.
Depp responded by filing a $50 million defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife. The suit claimed:
"Ms. Heard is not a victim of domestic abuse, she is a perpetrator."
In February 2020, an audio recording was leaked that appeared to feature Heard admitting to
physically assaulting Depp. Depp's friend, Josh Rickman, also corroborated the actor's
story in court documents, citing emotional abuse on Heard's part, and claiming that she
once faked a bloody nose allegedly caused by Depp by pouring red nail polish onto a tissue.
Before he rose to fame, Mark Wahlberg was something of a notorious troublemaker,
and in 1986, he was given a civil rights injunction after two separate incidents in
which he had verbally abused and hurled rocks at an African-American schoolboy.
But this wasn't the end of Wahlberg's trouble with the law. On April 8th 1998,
Thanh Lam was getting out of his car when Wahlberg approached him, carrying a large wooden stick.
According to the police report, Wahlberg hurled racial epithets at Lam before knocking him
unconscious with the stick. The actor later boasted about the assault to the police.
It doesn't end there, though. Wahlberg next fled the scene and attacked another
Vietnamese man by punching him in the eye. After the police caught him again,
Wahlberg reportedly made several racial slurs about his victims.
In 2014, Wahlberg requested a pardon for his criminal behavior,
but later dropped the request after it spurred unwanted media attention about his past.
"You know, from the day I woke up in prison and realized the mistakes that I've made and the pain
that I caused people, I committed to turning my life around, which was not an easy thing to do."
In 2016, he expressed regret for applying for the pardon,
but conceded it did give him an opportunity to meet and apologize to one of his victims.
Mel Gibson
Nowadays, Mel Gibson seems to be back in the good graces of Hollywood, after a decade in exile
following several high-profile incidents, many of which involved criminal behavior.
Among others, these incidents included hurling anti-Semitic slurs at a cop during a DUI arrest,
and going on violent rants against his ex-wife, Oksana Grigorieva.
Out of all of the dirt that came to light, however, perhaps the most disturbing
allegation of all was Grigorieva's claim that Gibson had viciously assaulted her.
Gibson was accused of breaking her front teeth with a blow to the jaw, which glanced off of
Grigorieva and grazed the chin of their infant daughter, whom she was holding at the time.
Gibson later admitted to slapping Grigorieva, in what he called, quote, "an attempt to bring her
back to reality." Unsurprisingly, the pair finalized their divorce in 2011.
In all honesty, it would probably be easier to just list what Charlie Sheen hasn't been accused
of over the years. Some of the most disturbing incidents include assaulting his then-girlfriend
Brittany Ashland, physically and verbally abusing his ex-wife Denise Richards, assaulting his
ex-wife Brooke Mueller, and punching a female dental technician in the chest during an office
visit. As if all of that wasn't enough, he's also been accused of failing to disclose to
various women that he was HIV positive, despite maintaining a sexual relationship with them.
Radar Online reported that a woman who claimed to be Sheen's madam said he could have put as
many as 20 sex workers at risk because of his behavior. The madam said she had been in contact
with several panic-stricken workers uncertain about their health status thanks to Sheen,
and that he lied about disclosing he had HIV to his partners. The anonymous madam explained:
"He could have privately called and told the partners that he had HIV,
or he could have told me at some point and given me the opportunity to make an educated
decision from a point of full disclosure as to whether or not I wanted to do business with him!"
Peter Robbins may not be a household name, but his work will be familiar to many:
he was the voice of Charlie Brown in a number of TV specials and movies,
including A Charlie Brown Christmas, It's the Great Pumpkin, and Charlie Brown.
Unfortunately, Robbins' latter-day, off-screen troubles overshadowed his work on the screen.
In 2013, he was arrested for stalking an old girlfriend and harassing the surgeon who performed
her breast implant surgery. He received eight months in a residential drug treatment center
and five years probation. Robbins found himself in front of a judge again in 2015 for making threats
against the manager of the mobile home park where he lived, as well as for drinking alcohol
and removing his court-ordered GPS monitor. That added up to a whole heap of probation violations,
for which Robbins was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison. Upon his release,
Robbins spoke to San Diego's Fox 5 News about his state of mind prior to his conviction.
"Well, I know I was certainly mentally ill. And
I wish I had gotten treated earlier by professionals."
For a long time, Kevin Spacey was regarded as one of the greatest actors of his generation.
He won an Academy Award for his breakout role as a criminal mastermind in The Usual Suspects,
and received critical acclaim for his role as the chillingly evil serial killer known only as
John Doe in Se7en. A few years after that, he won another Oscar for his role in American Beauty, and
later gave an iconic performance as the devious politician Frank Underwood in House of Cards.
But then, in November 2017, Spacey got caught up in the Me Too movement,
when 15 men claimed that Spacey had committed various acts of sexual misconduct against them.
Among the worst accusations: Anthony Rapp told BuzzFeed that Spacey had forced himself on him
when Rapp was just 14; a bartender in England claimed that Spacey exposed himself to him;
and Harry Dreyfuss alleged that Spacey had once groped him.
Surprisingly, Spacey hasn't served any prison time for his crimes,
although he currently faces a number of criminal and civil cases. His career,
however, has taken a serious hit in recent years. Spacey was immediately blackballed by Hollywood,
fired from House of Cards, and cut out of the film All the Money in the World.
Christian Slater was one of the most prolific actors of the 1990s, starring in a wide number
of classics and cult favorites, including True Romance, Interview With a Vampire, and Robin Hood:
Prince of Thieves. But his impressive career was marred by a number of run-ins with the law.
In 2005, Christian Slater was arrested and charged with third-degree sexual abuse after
he allegedly groped a woman on the street. The charges were later dismissed by a judge,
but it was not the only time Slater saw the inside of a courtroom. He had previously been accused
of biting someone in the stomach, and served a three-month jail sentence in 1997 for allegedly
assaulting his then-girlfriend, Michelle Jonas, as well as a police officer. In 1989,
he was accused of leading police on a car chase and kicking an officer while attempting
to flee. For that incident, the actor had his license suspended and spent 10 days in jail.
In the 1990s, Amy Locane was one to watch. After a handful of TV roles as a teenager,
she broke out as good girl gone bad Allison Vernon-Williams in the camp classic Cry-Baby.
She then landed roles in a number of major Hollywood films of the era,
along with the part of Sandy Louise Harling, a regular character in the early days of hot
primetime soap Melrose Place. Her career cooled off somewhat in the 2000s, and it
wasn't until 2010 that Locane made headlines again, this time for all the wrong reasons.
Locane had gotten behind the wheel of her SUV with her blood alcohol level three
times the legal limit. After rear-ending another vehicle, Locane crashed into a car
turning into a driveway in Montgomery, New Jersey, immediately killing passenger
Helene Seeman and severely injuring the driver, Fred Seeman. In November 2012,
the actress was convicted of vehicular homicide, and later received a three-year prison sentence,
which was upped to five years after a review by the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office found it
to be too light. Locane was also found liable in a $4.8 million civil suit with the Seeman family.
Dimitri Diatchenko was mostly known for playing bit parts in TV, film,
and video games, usually as some kind of violent or villainous Russian. But a shocking revelation
in 2015 made it seem like one of his on-screen personas had spilled over into real life.
Despite his admirable career in Hollywood and beyond, Diatchenko is now most famous
for cooking and eating his ex-girlfriend's pet rabbit, all while sending her a series
of gruesome photographs of the event. Worse still, he threatened to do the exact same thing to her.
While a close friend claimed that it was actually a different rabbit that had been eaten,
that doesn't really make it okay. As it happened, Diatchenko pled guilty to the felony. Despite the
animal cruelty charge carrying a possible maximum sentence of five years behind bars,
however, Diatchenko was only sentenced to community service, and 48 hours of counseling.
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