When people become famous, they often start living lives of excess that they aren’t
psychologically prepared to deal with.
Many stars turn to alcoholism after becoming famous, whether as a result of performance
anxiety or some other issue that may or may not have anything to do with success itself.
There are numerous stars that have passed away from alcoholism over the years, and we’ll
be looking at the most tragic tales in this video!
Join Facts Verse as we take a look at celebrities who died from alcohol.
Barbara Payton The first star we’ll be taking a look at
is Barbara Payton, whose tale involves one of the most tragic deaths from alcoholism
in Hollywood history!
Not everyone will recognize the name, Barbara Payton, as she wasn't as big of a star as
some other celebrities.
However, that wasn’t for lack of trying.
At the height of Barbara’s fame, she was a notable film star that could be seen socializing
with such superstars as Gary Cooper, Gregory Peck, and Frank Sinatra.
Sadly, it turned out that the actress wasn’t fit to handle her success.
Barbara was born in 1927 and exhibited a streak of rebellion from a young age.
At the age of only 15, she ran away from her comfortable life at home to marry her boyfriend,
who was a man by the name of William Hodge.
Not long after the two eloped, Barbara was tracked down by her parents and brought back
home.
Several years later, Barbara married for a second time, this time to a man by the name
of John Payton.
John Payton was an Air Force Captain, and the two moved to California after getting
married.
The two had a child, after which point Barbara took the child and ran off to Hollywood with
hopes of becoming a movie star.
Barbara was a beautiful young woman, and it wasn't hard for her to get attention in Hollywood.
However, she was perhaps a little bit too willing to use her sexuality to get ahead.
Barbara signed with Universal and started finding some success, around which time she
became involved with comedian Bob Hope.
Bob set Barbara up in her own apartment, and the two partook in an affair.
Bob was married at the time, and when Universal found out about the affair, they decided to
fire Barbara out of fear that the affair was going to hurt Bob's image.
Bob was the bigger star, and Barbara found herself out of work.
After following Bob Hope around for a period of time and begging him for money to no avail,
other work thankfully came Barbara’s way.
She appeared in a 1949 film by the name of Trapped, which was fairly successful.
Her appearance in the film secured her a role alongside James Cagney in 1950’s Kiss Tomorrow
Goodbye.
The following year, she appeared alongside Gary Cooper in the film Dallas and Gregory
Peck in the film Only the Valiant.
She could also be seen in nightclubs hanging out with such superstars as Lana Turner and
Frank Sinatra.
Arguably, the burgeoning celebrity cared more about partying than she did about performing,
which didn’t prove a sustainable outlook.
Barbara enjoyed sleeping around in Hollywood, whether to further her career or just to pass
the time.
She continued the habit of sleeping around after becoming involved with actor Franchot
Tone.
While dating Franchot, Barbara started an affair with a boxer.
When Franchot found out, he started a fistfight with him that ended up putting Franchot in
a coma!
Barbara had developed a habit of heavy drinking during her time in Hollywood, and things had
gotten pretty bad by the 1950s.
Barbara found herself out of work in the entertainment industry and moved to Chicago to start up
a prostitution ring with a fellow ex-actress.
When the police busted up their ring, Barbara narrowly escaped incarceration.
Barbara’s business partner was put in prison, forcing Barbara to continue working as a prostitute
alone.
Alone on the streets, Barbara lived for several years as a drug-addicted prostitute before
dying at the age of only 39.
At the height of her desperation, she had returned to the home of her parents.
She collapsed on the floor of her parents’ bathroom in 1967, and was said to have died
in the arms of her mother.
At the time of her death, Barbara looked nothing like her former self.
She weighed 200 pounds, and her face had been bloated from years of alcohol abuse.
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Veronica Lake Unlike Barbara Payton, Veronica Lake got to
experience legitimate Hollywood stardom over the course of her career.
However, that doesn’t make her eventual demise from alcoholism and schizophrenia much
less tragic.
During Veronica’s final years, she was holed up in her home, believing that the government
was spying on her.
This came after the actress’s iconic appearances in films such as This Gun for Hire and The
Hour Before Dawn.
She had been one of the biggest names in Hollywood during the 1940s, but her career suffered
alongside her personal life in the 1950s.
During the 1950s, Veronica began suffering from schizophrenia.
This schizophrenia was made worse by the fact that the actress was a very heavy drinker.
She died in 1973, at the age of only 50.
She had only appeared in a small handful of films since 1952 and had lived her final years
in a state of alcohol addiction and loneliness.
After her death, Veronica's family financially struggled to bury her.
Her estranged son reportedly had to take out a loan to fly to where his mother's body was
located, and she was then cremated.
Some claim that her ashes were sold to fans.
Billie Holiday Hollywood actors and actresses certainly have
a propensity for becoming addicted to alcohol, but their counterparts in the music industry
often outdo them.
One musician that could've likely out-drunk every one of her contemporaries in Hollywood
was jazz singer Billie Holiday.
Billie was addicted to alcohol and sex, as well as a variety of illicit substances.
She used her success to fund her partying but tried her best not to let her various
habits affect her artistic output.
Still, she couldn’t stop the negative health effects that her many years of partying were
taking on her body.
Billie had started out on the music scene as a nightclub singer before finding some
success and dropping out of high school.
She started drinking at an early age and turned to opium after being introduced by a partner.
Billie ended up passing away in the late 1950s after being admitted to the hospital with
both liver and heart disease.
Though the actress had been able to hold it together for a good deal of her career, the
final years of her life saw her on a downward spiral.
The singer had reportedly quit drinking soon before her death on the advice of her doctor,
but it was too late.
Richard Burton Richard Burton is another Hollywood star that
ended up meeting his end at the hands of alcoholism.
Besides acting, Richard was perhaps equally well known for being romantically involved
with actress Elizabeth Taylor.
The two starred together in the box-office failure Cleopatra, and their relationship
didn’t prove healthy for either of them.
Richard hated being a Hollywood actor, preferring to be on the stage.
Arguably, he also hated Elizabeth Taylor.
Both his Hollywood career and his marriage to Elizabeth inspired the actor to drink,
and the habit eventually killed him.
For a time, Richard was able to continue performing successfully while drinking as many as four
bottles of hard alcohol a day.
This was during the 1970s when he starred in such films as the Hollywood adaptation
of the controversial play Equus.
Richard Burton died at the age of only 58 after suffering from cirrhosis of the liver
for a number of years.
He famously underwent a surgical operation to alleviate some back pain that he was experiencing,
only for the doctors to find that there was crystallized alcohol formed on his spine.
Despite his poor health, the actor continued to drink until his 1984 death, which was officially
caused by a brain hemorrhage.
Mickey Mantle Mickey Mantle may be recognized as one of
the greatest baseball players of all time, but he was tormented by alcoholism.
The athlete turned to the bottle soon after the start of his career due to the death of
his father.
He continued drinking throughout the duration of his fame before dying in 1995 from declining
health related to his years of consumption.
Although Mickey was apparently plagued by demons during his career, those who knew him
said he was always kind and considerate to even his lowliest teammate.
Hank Williams Back in the days when country music actually
meant something, the country music scene was notorious for being filled with depressed
and alcoholic singer-songwriters.
Perhaps the most iconic depressed and alcoholic singer-songwriter that ever graced the country
music scene was Hank Williams, who became the archetype that many followed.
While his alcoholism made him appear authentic to both his contemporaries and his audience,
it ended up killing him.
Hank died at the age of only 29 in 1953.
He was being driven to a New Year's Day performance in Ohio and had mixed alcohol with various
illicit substances.
While fame and success can bring with it plenty of good qualities, there seems to be something
about becoming a celebrity that makes people more likely to turn to alcoholism.
Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that many celebrities have died from
alcoholism, or did you think that their fame made them immune to such things?
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