"Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" was a stark, unflinching reality TV show that documented
stars' struggles with addictions. Sadly, a number of the cast members have since died,
many as a direct result of their illness or continued drug use.
Here are the stars from the show who have passed away.
In June 1978, "Grease" hit movie theaters and became the highest-grossing movie of the year,
with Jeff Conaway co-starring as 1950s high school bad boy Kenickie.
Three months later, "Taxi" premiered on ABC, featuring Conaway as Bobby Wheeler,
a cab driver and wannabe actor. Conaway left "Taxi" after three seasons, due in
part to drug use. He was cut from an episode after being discovered in his dressing room,
too intoxicated to perform. He was eventually let go from the show.
Conaway continued to work consistently for the next
30 years, but mostly in B-movies and guest-star gigs.
In the mid-2000s, Conaway re-emerged on VH1,
appearing on the network's weight loss competition "Celebrity Fit Club" in 2006,
but he departed after three episodes and an on-screen breakdown. In 2008, the same
year that he reportedly threatened members of the band Oasis with a knife, he returned to
VH1 for "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" to seek treatment for substance abuse issues.
Two years later, Conaway fell down a flight of stairs, enduring a brain hemorrhage and numerous
broken bones. He attempted to wean himself off of the painkillers to which he'd become addicted
after another, earlier surgery. In May 2011, Conaway was found unresponsive in his home,
with strong indications that the actor had overdosed on painkillers.
After two weeks of hospitalization, Conaway was taken off of life support and died at age 60.
One of the most popular wrestlers in the WWE enterprise during its late '90s and early 2000s,
Joanie Laurer went by the ring name of Chyna and helped make women's professional wrestling
a popular form of sports entertainment.
Nicknamed "the 9th Wonder of the World," she became the only woman to win WWE's
Intercontinental Championship. She won the Women's Championship, too, before leaving wrestling
altogether to pursue big-screen stardom. That didn't really pan out, but Laurer found plenty
of work in the emerging genre of reality TV, appearing in numerous shows, including
"Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" — in hopes of getting a problem with alcohol under control.
According to Fox News, Laurer was found deceased in her home in Redondo Beach California in April
2016 by her manager, Anthony Anzaldo. Per a report issued by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner,
Lauer died after consuming a fatal mixture of alcohol,
Valium, opioid-based painkillers, and sleeping pills. Laurer was 46 years old.
As an actor in raunchy movies, a music video "vixen," and celebrity strongly associated with
the world of big-haired 1980s glam metal, Tawny Kitaen made a name for herself as a
provocative sex symbol. She appeared scantily clad on the covers of albums by the popular
hard-rock band Ratt, then solidified her spot in hair metal history when she cartwheeled and
writhed on top of cars in the video for Whitesnake's #1 hit "Here I Go Again."
Kitaen appeared in the clip for the band's follow-up smash, "Is This Love," and later
married Whitesnake singer David Coverdale. The marriage didn't last, and Kitaen later coupled
with baseball player Chuck Finley, who divorced the model after accusing her of domestic violence.
In 2008, Kitaen appeared on "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew",
which followed a stay at a residential treatment center to beat a cocaine habit. In 2019,
per Radar, Kitaen was arrested for driving under the influence, and her case was set to go before a
judge in May 2021. Kitaean died in Newport Beach, California, that same month. The actor was 59.
Rodney King became famous across the United States not for something that he did,
but for what was videotaped happening to him at the hands of the police.
In March 1991, King was pulled over by California Highway Patrol officers for
speeding. He later admitted that he was avoiding police because
he'd been driving while intoxicated and was on probation for a robbery offense.
But instead of being taken into custody peacefully, the responding officers
savagely beat the unarmed King as he laid in the street, suffering serious injuries an incident
captured on videotape. In April 1992, a jury acquitted the officers on every major offense,
leading countless, frustrated residents of Los Angeles to riot. As the third day of
unrest charged on, King memorably appeared on TV, and on the verge of tears, implored:
"I just want to say, you know: Can we all get along? Can we- can we get along?"
Sixteen years later, King appeared on TV once more, this time as part of the 2008 cast of
"Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew," seeking help for his years-long struggle with alcohol abuse.
In June 2012, King's body was discovered in the swimming pool of his home in Rialto, California.
According to the San Bernardino County Coroner, King drowned to death after entering a state of
drug and alcohol-induced delirium. The coroner posited that he had either jumped into the pool or
fallen in while impaired by the alcohol, cocaine, and PCP found in his body. He was 47 years old.
When Nikki McKibbin popped up on the first season of "American Idol" in 2002,
she struck the image of a rock star, with her colorful clothes and spiky pink hair.
Voice-wise, McKibbin was a bluesy, soulful rocker in the vein of Melissa Etheridge and Janis Joplin,
whose songs she performed during her "American Idol" stint. She finished in third place,
behind Justin Guarini and champ Kelly Clarkson. Successfully thrust into the spotlight, McKibbin
released two albums, a self-titled collection in 2006, and the follow-up "Unleashed" a year later.
After those back-to-back records, McKibbin made headlines for a different reason,
when she joined the cast of "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" in 2008. McKibbin told People
that she believes she became addicted to the painkillers prescribed after numerous
surgeries to correct herniated discs in her back. During the show, McKibbin discussed the
abuse she endured as a child, as well as the then-recent loss of her mother to addiction,
and went through an unpleasant detoxification process from prescribed anti-anxiety medications.
In late October 2020, McKibbin suffered a brain aneurysm. Four days later,
per The New York Times, she was taken off of life support in the Arlington,
Texas, hospital where she was being treated and died. McKibbin was only 42 years old.
In 1996, Mindy McCready was one of the biggest rising stars in country music,
releasing the two million-selling "Ten Thousand Angels". Her follow-up albums saw diminishing
returns, and by the mid-2000s, McCready's personal issues made multiple tabloid headlines.
In 2004, she was arrested for using a fraudulent prescription to acquire painkillers,
and a few months later, was arrested for drunk driving. Not long after, People reported that she
was hospitalized after her boyfriend broke into her house and attacked her. She made
headlines again when she revealed a years-long affair with baseball player Roger Clemens.
After multiple suicide attempts, she agreed to be a part of Season Three of "Celebrity Rehab
with Dr. Drew," with stated addictions to alcohol and the painkiller oxycontin.
After her time on the show, McCready's life remained troubled. She violated a custody
agreement by skipping town with her son, and in early 2013, was admitted to a rehab
facility in Arkansas. Shortly after her release, McCready committed suicide on February 17, 2013.
A handful of bands from Seattle revolutionized rock music in the '90s with their
industry-changing "grunge" sound. One of the chief groups among them being Alice In Chains.
As the band's original bassist, Mike Starr was a big part of defining the band's sound, playing
on the group's first two big releases, "Facelift" and "Sap" before being fired over his drug use in
1993. Alice In Chains went dormant in 1996 after lead singer Layne Staley overdosed and retreated
into private life. Staley died after a long period of heroin addiction in 2002, and Starr is likely
the last person to see him alive when both were in the throes of drug abuse. Starr explained the
reasons for his own addiction struggles during his stint on "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew":
"I wanna kill the pain inside me. Because medicine doesn't do it."
After checking out of "Celebrity Rehab," Starr was arrested in Salt Lake City in February 2011
on a drug charge and for missing a sentencing on another drug-related offense from 2003.
A few weeks later, Starr's body was discovered in his Utah home. Per the musician's roommate,
he'd been using methadone and anxiety medicines prior to his death at the age of 44.
Joey Kovar lived so much of his adult life for all the world to see on reality
television. In the 2008 Hollywood-set season of MTV's "The Real World,"
Kovar proved to be a fascinating individual, an ex-bodybuilder who wanted to be an actor,
trying to move beyond a past that included abuse and addiction.
His flirtation with castmate Brianna Taylor got sidelined when Kovar suffered a relapse
and started drinking again, leaving the show for long periods of time to focus on his recovery.
He came back to the show once more in the season finale and cast reunion,
where he announced that he'd been sober for 10 months. However, less than a year later,
Kovar sought more intensive treatment and joined the Season Three cast of "Celebrity
Rehab with Dr. Drew" in 2009 in order to battle his persisting addictions.
According to TMZ, in August 2012, Kovar was found dead in a friend's home in Chicago,
Illinois. Authorities pronounced him dead at the scene at the age of 29.
The Cook County Medical Examiner later ruled that the death was the result of opiate intoxication.
As an actor with numerous credits that include small parts on '90s shows like "7th Heaven,"
Jason Davis's face might not be immediately recognizable, but his voice is very familiar
to people of a certain age. On four seasons of the Disney-produced Saturday morning cartoon "Recess"
— as well as in various direct-to-video spinoffs and a feature film — Davis played Mikey Blumberg,
an excellent athlete and deep thinker who did a little poetry, ballet, and opera on the side.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Davis was the grandson of Marvin Davis, a Denver oilman who
became a Hollywood executive when he bought 20th Century Fox. Jason Davis' grandmother, Barbara,
became a prominent philanthropist, and the whole clan was raised in a life of wealth and luxury.
Despite this seemingly charmed upbringing, Jason Davis also suffered from addiction.
To help himself and others, he helped found an organization called Cure Addiction Now
and appeared on "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" in 2010 to seek treatment for an addiction to
opioids. The actor died in February 2020. The cause of death, according to the Los
Angeles Medical Examiner, was an accidental and fatal overdose of the painkiller fentanyl.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse and mental health,
please contact SAMHSA's 24-hour National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357)
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts,
please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).