16 People Who Killed Their Careers In Seconds!
16.
Aaron Hernandez Sports stars come and go, and many go as a
result of scandals.
Many of these range from drug and alcohol abuse to spousal and domestic abuse, but such
is not the case for Aaron Hernandez.
The famed New England Patriots Tight End was set to become one of the all-time greats before
it all came crashing down in 2013 when Hernandez was charged with first degree murder.
A friend of his, named Odin Lloyd, was found just over a mile from Hernandez’s house,
dead as a result of multiple gunshot wounds.
Incredibly, this was not even the first time Hernandez had been sought in connection with
a murder.
The previous year he’d been accused of a double homicide.
However, the 2013 murder charge stuck, and the former football star was sentenced to
life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Sadly, five days after he was acquitted of the double murder, Hernandez was found dead
in his cell.
His death was ruled a suicide and he left no suicide note.
His unexpected death left many unanswered question for his friends and family as he
was not deemed suicidal at the time.
15.
Michael Richards For those who are old enough to remember Michael
Richards before his...incident...it seemed pretty absurd that the beloved actor who portrayed
arguably the funniest character on one of the funniest television shows ever made would
do something which would set so many people against him.
However, that’s exactly what happened.
In 2006 while performing a stand up comedy set at the Laugh Factory, Richards had a bizarre
breakdown on stage which saw him spewing racial slurs at audience members.
It all started when a pair of black audience members began heckling Richards.
Though this is definitely not good behavior, there was no call for what came next.
Richards responded by shouting “F- you, (n-word)!” as well as other racially charged
obscenities.
Afterward, Richard issued an apology and dropped out of the spotlight for quite some time.
It’s only now that he is beginning to make a comeback.
14.
Mel Gibson Few celebrity meltdowns were as prolific as
the one which took top-of-the-A-list actor Mel Gibson and cast him down so far that he
had to go into hiding for nearly a decade.
The incident took place in 2006, but was really the culmination of a lifetime of alcohol and
drug abuse.
After being stopped by a police officer who suspected Gibson of driving intoxicated, Gibson
began spewing obscenities including “F-ing Jews...Jews are responsible for all of the
wars in the world” and asking the officer “Are you a jew?”.
The officer who stopped Gibson was in fact Jewish, and elected to arrest Gibson.
The subsequent fallout led to Gibson issuing repeated apologies and seeking rehabilitation.
Nevertheless, the actor’s career has never been the same.
Now, more than a decade later, he is finally beginning to seek the spotlight once again,
having gotten sober and cleaned up his act.
13.
Tila Tequila Thien Nguyen, better known by her stage name
“Tila Tequila”, has been a controversial figure for pretty much the entirety of her
fame.
She began her career after becoming the most popular person on the social network MySpace,
and then subsequently increased it by hosting MTV’s A Shot at Love, as well as taking
on modeling and a music career.
She also released two sex tapes, including one produced by high-profile adult entertainment
company Vivid.
The fallout for Tila came not at these releases, however, but when she began to express some
fairly strange opinions to the public.
She released an article on her website titled “I Sympathize With Htlr: Part I”, as
well as posting images of herself posing in a Nzi uniform in front of Holocst site
Aschwtz.
These and other continued demonstrations of highly questionable ideas have pretty much
ended any chance at a mainstream career in the spotlight which she might still have had.
12.
Lindsay Lohan Ruining a successful, budding career with
drugs and alcohol is basically a tale as old as time at this point.
However, it’s always a bit of a shock when it happens to someone as ubiquitously beloved
as a former Disney girl.
Not many would have suspected that the former Parent Trap and Mean Girls star Lindsay Lohan
would turn to the darker side of wealth and fame, but it happens to the best of them.
Balancing her demanding career with drugs and alcohol seemed a manageable way to combat
stress at first, but the lifestyle quickly took hold of Lohan, and before she knew it
she was an addict who succumbed to frequent bouts of insanity in front of the camera.
This led to several instances of Lohan stepping away from her public lifestyle whether to
attend rehab or just to get away from the limelight, and her career took a nosedive
after report after report of her substance abuse came to light.
11.
Paul Reubens It can be hard to quantify exactly how famous
Paul Reubens was at the height of Pee-wee Herman.
Pee-wee was a paragon of morality for the children his show reached - a shining example
of how to behave and act.
On top of that, he was funny.
Really funny.
The Pee-wee Herman show and movies were extremely successful, and parents loved the positive
example he set.
That’s why it was all the more disturbing when he fell from grace.
Arrested for masturbating in an adult movie theater in 1991, America was shocked to learn
that Reubens had a darker side.
The sexual nature of the arrest pretty much shattered his sterling reputation, and cast
serious doubt on his character in general.
After the arrest, Reubens retreated from the public eye for a number of years, resurfacing
in the late ‘90s and attempting a comeback.
However, he was arrested again in 2002 under suspicion of child pornography possession,
and this put the nail in his career’s coffin for nearly 15 years.
Reubens seems to have cleaned up his act in the time since the second arrest, and recently
released a new Pee-wee Herman movie.
10.
Rob Lowe Many actors who are now hugely famous have
scandals in their past, but few set the tone for such incidents in the way that Rob Lowe
did.
Lowe was largely considered to be one of the biggest names in Hollywood in the ‘80s,
but it all came to a screeching halt when a sex tape leaked in 1988.
Although having such private moments in the hands of the public can be difficult enough,
Lowe’s partner in the tape was just 16 years old.
Though the age of consent in Georgia was 14 at the time, it was still illegal to film
sex with a person of that age.
Another portion of the sex tape became one of the first celebrity sex tapes to be sold
commercially.
This controversy caused Lowe’s career to essentially take a nosedive, and for quite
some time the scandal followed him wherever he went.
Lowe has since gone on to mock his own behavior on Saturday Night Live on multiple occasions,
and considers the incident far behind him now.
9.
Gary Busey Few people personify insanity in the eyes
of the public better than Gary Busey.
He’s most often seen now as the butt of his own joke - portraying himself in cameo
appearances where he does something crazy.
But many people alive today don’t know that there’s actually a sad reason behind his
behavior, and it’s not what you might think.
Rather than being damaged by drugs and alcohol as so many stars are, Busey suffered a traumatic
brain injury in 1988 when he was injured in a motorcycle accident.
The then-famous actor was not wearing a helmet, and at the time doctors evaluated his condition
as severe.
The lasting effects of his injuries have become obvious since then - with even Busey himself
describing his behavior as erratic and unfiltered.
He has not been taken seriously on or off set since the incident despite having more
than 150 screen credits to his name.
8.
Brandy If you were an adult or even a teenager in
the ‘90s, you know who Brandy is.
It’s that simple - to say she was a household name is to sell her fame short by at least
a few notches.
With both a successful music career and a budding film career under her belt, it seemed
that Brandy could do no wrong.
That was, at least, until she was involved in a fatal collision in 2006.
The incident, for which Brandy was responsible, cost the life of a 38 year old woman.
Brandy was not convicted of any criminal wrongdoing due to lack of evidence, but was sued multiple
times by family members for the wrongful death of the woman Brandy struck, and her settlements
out of court cost the singer millions.
Brandy has since not returned to her former celebrity, making only small appearances and
roles in TV shows and movies.
7.
Howard Dean The curious case of Howard Dean’s bid for
the presidency in 2004 is a great example of just how fickle the internet age can be.
While giving a public address in support of his campaign, Dean got a little too excited
and let out an infamous sound which became known as the “Dean Scream”.
The clip was rebroadcast by the media over and over, as well as played millions of times
on the internet, and it essentially made Dean the laughing stock of the election.
His chances at the office of president evaporated virtually overnight, and he has not been taken
seriously in politics since.
6.
Ashlee Simpson Few things can ruin a singer’s career quite
like being found out for lip syncing.
Ashlee Simpson is essentially the personification of how not to handle a lip syncing incident,
and her infamous Saturday Night Live clip has been viewed millions of times on the internet.
While performing on SNL in 2004, Simpson ended her first song, a performance of her hit single
Pieces of Me, and set up to perform her second song.
However, as her band began to play, her vocals for Pieces of Me began to play again, revealing
that she’d in fact lip synced the track.
Not knowing what to do, Simpson broke out into a strange dance she later described as
a “hoedown”, and instantly ruined her credibility.
She later admitted that she “made a complete fool of herself”, and has not matched the
height of her fame before the incident since.
5.
Lance Armstrong Using substances to enhance performance of
an athlete is not uncommon, and many former greats have been discovered to have taken
such drugs.
However, America was shocked in a way which can only be described as that in the wake
of extreme betrayal when golden boy Lance Armstrong confessed to having used performance
enhancing drugs during much of his career.
Though he’d faced such accusations before, in 2012 Armstrong faced a direct accusation
of not only using the drugs himself but helping to provide them for other athletes.
The charge was brought by the USADA, or the United States Anti-Doping Agency, one of the
most prominent organizations in the fight against performance enhancing drugs in professional
sports.
In a public interview with Oprah in 2013, Armstrong finally admitted that the accusations
were true.
All of his sponsors dropped him as a result, and the estimates of his losses have been
as high as $75 million.
4.
Paula Deen It’s always a shock when people you’d
never suspect of harboring a single bad thought are found out to actually have some pretty
nasty ones tucked away.
Paula Deen, a formerly beloved TV chef and homemaker on a similar level as Martha Stewart
faced quite a bit of bad press in 2013, when she was a target of a lawsuit claiming she’d
made racial and sexual remarks against Lisa Jackson.
The lawsuit claimed that Deen had made derogatory remarks about blacks in the presence of Jackson,
and also claimed that Deen had admitted to planning a wedding which would feature a Southern
Plantation theme, complete with black male servers.
Deen later admitted to usage of the n-word and issued a public apology in regards to
the incident.
The lawsuit against Deen was dismissed, but her reputation will likely be tarnished for
a long time to come.
3.
Katt Williams Another comedian who has fallen out of public
affection as a result of an incident at a live show is Katt Williams.
The formerly hugely successful black comedian was involved in an incident in 2011 which
marred his reputation possibly beyond repair.
When he was heckled by a Mexican audience member, Williams responded with “so if you
love Mexico, b----, get the f--- over there!” Williams subsequently offered no apology regarding
his remarks, and in fact stood behind them.
Further legal troubles in the years since, including arrests for assaults, burglaries,
and thefts have served to ensure that most large brands won’t touch Williams.
2.
Tiger Woods If we can compare golf to basketball, Tiger
Woods is the Michael Jordan of the sport.
In every sport, there is a single individual who just dominates it so thoroughly that their
name becomes household to those who never even watch the sport.
Tiger Woods is that guy for golf.
However, his sterling reputation came to a screeching halt in 2009 when news broke that
Woods had been frequently involved in an extramarital affair with nightclub manager Rachel Uchitel.
Just two days later, Woods tore out of his driveway at 2:30 in the morning and hit a
fire hydrant as well as several hedges and a tree.
Woods suffered minor injuries and was ticketed for careless driving.
Woods then released a statement taking responsibility for the accident.
That seemed to be the end of it, but Woods was forced to admit to infidelity less than
a week later, and the fallout which happened as a result of the admission brought to light
more than a dozen women who claimed they’d had sex with Woods outside of his marriage.
The affairs are estimated to have cost Woods somewhere between $5 and $12 billion in endorsements
and settlements.
1.
Charlie Sheen Oh...where to begin with Charlie Sheen?
At this point, the man’s legacy is that of a coke-fueled maniac, and that’s for
pretty good reason.
The longtime actor has had frequent bouts with substance abuse, including an overdose
way back in 1998, but none of that comes even close to the epic nuclear fallout which was
his dismissal from his hit TV show Two and a Half Men.
After repeated complaints about the actor’s substance abuse, Sheen was finally let go
in March of 2011.
Afterward, Charlie suffered what can only be described as a very public meltdown, with
clips of him spewing extremely nonsensical remarks and coining his now-famous catchphrase
“Winning!”.
Sheen also claimed that he was a warlock who possessed tiger blood, and Adonis DNA.
The clips are now the stuff of legend, though Sheen has since appeared to quit drugs for
good and is now looking much healthier.