Badmovies.org Forum

Bela Lugosi was addicted to morphine during the later years of his life. He drank a lot too.
Peter Lorre was also hooked on morphine.
Lon Chaney Jr. and John Carradine were infamous drinkers.

So who else?

Richard Burton.
Richard Harris.
Oliver Reed.
 
All famous for their heavy drinking.

Oh yeah- those guys drank like fish!

Also...
.Bogart (who was drinking buddies with Peter Lorre)
.Brodrick Crawford (who was drinking buddies with Lon Chaney Jr.)
. John Barrymore (who was drinking buddies with no one!)

Russell crow drinks a lot.

WC Fields was a notorious boozer.

Sam Peckinpah was into cocaine and it probably contributed to his death at age 59.

Stanley Fafara who played "Whitey" on Leave it to Beaver ended up having alcohol and drug problems.

Did you read Hellraisers?  

Don't forget WILLIAM HOLDEN, JACK HAWKINS, or JACK CASSIDY ... booze hounds.

RICHARD BURTON supposedly said that: "No man can drink me under the table... and only one woman."  (I think he meant LIZ TAYLOR).  

One time, a cop found RICHARD HARRIS laying in the gutter and asked what he was doing... RICHARD HARRIS replied he was waiting for his house to come by.  

Let's not forget BOBBY DRISCOLL who played in TREASURE ISLAND (1950) died at about 31 after a long slide into drug addiction...

More drinkers: PETER O'TOOLE, DAN DURYEA, BRUCE CABOT, JOHN WAYNE...  

Oddly enough that is the very book I was thinking of when I put their names down. The whole getting alcohol crystals scrapped off Burton's spine part did not sound fun.

1970s cultfilm actress Linda Haynes (Rolling Thunder, 1977) was addicted to drugs. After filming Brubaker with Robert Redford she left Hollywood in 1980 for good to overcome her addiction.
Vanity (The Last Dragon, 1985) was addicted to cocaine which caused her kidney failure in the mid 90s.

Margot Kidder suffered from drug addiction.  So did Carrie fisher.

Bill Cosby had drug issues even tho he  wasn't taking them. (I thought of putting a wink after that but it's not funny.)

Cameron Mitchell was a crazy drinker.
Louise Brooks drank like a fish.Alfalfa was a boozer.

It would probably be easier to make a list of Hollywood stars that didn't have problems with booze and / or drugs...

Yeah, that true. But this is Bad Movies- so it's our job to exploit s**t.
.John Agar.Got into fist fights with Lon Chaney Jr. and John Wayne! But he still married Shirley Temple!
Gotta give him credit! And he was neighbors and drinking buddies with Ed Wood before Ed died.

(https://i.imgur.com/CiCRor5.jpg) (https://lunapic.com)

Ed Wood drank anything. Mostly vodka, from what I  hear.

JOHN AGAR was an a-hole.  He slapped SHIRLEY TEMPLE around.  She was a real beauty as a young woman and like millions of men AGAR... what a turd.   :thumbdown:

As Tom Servo once put it (in Gamera Vs. Guiron), "Parts dried up, but he didn't."

Jan Michael Vincent.

Good one. His drinking (problem) was legendary in Hollywood.

Drew Barrymore. I think she started taking drugs at the age of 8 or 9.

Ernie Kovacs was an alcoholic who died while driving drunk. WC Fields was famously a habitual tippler. Anthony Hopkins and Richard Harris make the list. Kaley Cuoco is said to drink to excess. John Goodman was drunk and high through entire seasons of Roseanne.  Truly, substance abuse is endemic in the entertainment business.

Did anybody mention MONTGOMERY CLIFT?  Really liked the sauce after his car crash. 

How about JUDY GARLAND?   If there is an original "valley of the dolls" story, it might start with her, pills, and booze. 

And of course WALLACE BEERY.  Drunk and mean. 

Ben Affleck just finished his like, 4th stint in rehab.

Chris Farley died at like 33 of a cocaine/heroin mixture

River Phoenix passed early on at like 26 or 27. 

Philip Seymour Hoffman. Heroin + other stuff overdose.

We could (and probably should) separate this into three categories:

- 1) Casual Use: Actor uses drugs (including alcohol,) but it has little/no effect on their life/career.

- 2) Substantial Use: Actor uses drugs (including alcohol.) It does affect their life/career, but does not completely end their career/life. (e.g. They spend time in rehab, but still remain hire-able, & are able to preform well when hired.)

- 3) Debilitating Use: Actor uses drugs (including alcohol) to such an extent they have significant trouble getting good roles. The drug use has significant health effects, & may cause the actor's death.

There's probably some overlap here, but most classification systems have some overlap, & this will solve the "easier to make a list of Hollywood stars that didn't" issue FatFreddysCat mentioned.

Okay, I know this is gossip but it's also true. When I was in Austin in the early '00s Colin Farrell was in town at one point making a movie and he hung out with people I knew there, cruising Sixth Street and the scene, and as he cut a swath nightly through the local women, word got around that the man clearly had serious problems with alcohol and heroin to the point of passing out on floors and in chairs. If it was as bad as we all kept hearing, it's amazing he's still alive, so hopefully he's kicked that since. I'm glad because I kind of like him as an actor.

Strange how many famous people I used to see in Austin.

NICK ADAMS  

Jason Mewes, known for being Jay (of Jay and Silent Bob in Clerks, Mallrats and several others) had a well known prescription pill and heroin addiction in the late 90s and early 2000's.  Apparently has like 15 years sober now.

JONATHAN BRANDIS died in 2003 at age 27 by hanging himself; he had developed a drinking problem. 

Joan Crawford, Marilyn Monroe, Frances Farmer.
Robert Mitchum got busted for pot! In 1949!

Yes he did, and perhaps that's why I love ROBERT MITCHUM and it ain't HOLIDAY AFFAIR!  Or OUT OF THE PAST ...  

I once briefly dated a woman who said she was hit on by George Clooney (this would have been in the early 2000s). She said he was so drunk that he actually drooled on her blouse. Kinda took the romance out of it for her.