“At some point it will kill you, and it has. Three times, I have flatlined. … And they brought me back.” In a July 2023 interview with Bloomberg Law, the actor acknowledged he had a “relapse” at the airport but was back in recovery. He was also arrested on suspicion of public intoxication in Indiana in 2019.
John Cassavetes began his career as an actor in such films as Rosemary’s Baby. Considered a key American director of the later 20th century, films such as A Woman Under the Influence and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie were important influences on later directors. A founding member of the Grateful Dead, keyboardist Ron “Pigpen” McKernan was a blues purist whose role in the band diminished over time. As his drinking got worse and worse, liver damage forced him to stop touring. Alexander Godunov was famous for both his talents as a ballet dancer with the Bolshoi ballet and for defecting from the USSR in 1979 while on tour in the United States.
Vincent Jackson was a professional football player who played in the NFL for 12 seasons. He retired in 2018 after having spent two years on reserve for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers due to a weak knee. In 2021, he was found dead in his home at the age of 38 with no clear cause of death. AC/DC frontman Bon Scott died at the premature age of 33. The band was on the cusp of international stardom when he was found dead in his car on a cold day in London, in 1980.
He was 55 when he suffered a fatal heart attack in 2002. The 20-time All-Star New York Yankee stated that his drinking hurt him both professionally and personally. Mantle received a liver transplant because of hepatitis and cirrhosis. The operation was initially success, but the cancer had already spread.
- Holden’s heavy drinking began impacting his professional and personal life, including a drunk driving incident where he killed another driver.
- Doctors listed liver, kidney, and heart ailments all as causes, complicated by pneumonia and his continued drinking.
- The role earned him a Daytime Emmy award for outstanding lead actor in a drama series in 2016, per Christopher’s IMDb page.
- As Led Zeppelin scaled the heights of rock stardom, so did Bonham’s drinking.
- The 57-year-old musician joins a lengthy list of celebrities who have died as a result of substance addiction.
John Bonham
A successful British actor in films and television, Ian Hendry appeared in Get Carter and The Avengers. Turning to alcohol later in life, Hendry suffered a fatal a stomach hemorrhage in 1984. Click through this gallery to see which stars sadly died as a result of alcohol abuse. Former actor William Holden, whose golden years were during the 1950s, was a heavy drinker whose antics affected his professional and personal life. Female silent movie star Julia Burns and Barbara Payton are also just a few of the famous women who died of alcholism. Veronica Lake was an actress best known for her femme fatale film roles.
Barbara Payton
In 2010, Rafferty was put on life-support due to multiple organ failure, finally succumbing to liver failure at the age 63. A long-time alcoholic, Cassavetes passed from complications of cirrhosis of the liver in 1989, at the age of 59. A lifetime of alcoholism lead to his death duloxetine and alcohol from hepatitis and complications from drinking in 1995.
Unfortunately these personalities did not succeed in defeating their demon
A winner of both an Oscar and an Emmy for his acting, William Holden was a leading man in the 1950s, starring in such classics as Sunset Boulevard and The Bridge on the River Kwai. But soon his personal life was making more headlines than his acting. A notorious alcoholic, McCarthy died of acute hepatitis exacerbated by his drinking in 1957, at the age of 48. In 1959, under the treatment of a doctor in Canada, Flynn succumbed to a heart attack at the age of 50.
Her parents, both alcoholics themselves, took her in after her career ended, where the three spent much of their time drinking. List of famous people who died of alcoholism, listed bromide detox alphabetically with photos when available. This list of celebrities who died from alcoholism includes information like the victim’s hometown and other biographical information when available.
He got sober at that point but the anti-rejection medications given to organ transfer patients increase the risk of developing cancer. He announced that he had been diagnosed with throat cancer in 2011, and in 2012, he ultimately died of acute myeloid leukemia. He suffered a fatal, alcohol-related stomach hemorrhage on Christmas Day, 1946, at the age 66. And The Three Musketeers, Oliver Reed was notorious for both his womanizing and his drinking and was known for his binge drinking. In 1999, during the filming of Gladiator, Reed challenged a group of sailors to a drinking contest. Payton’s battles with substance abuse got her in trouble for check fraud and prostitution, and were her ultimate cause of death.
A model and early star of the silent era, Julia Bruns was called “America’s most beautiful girl”. She lived the Roaring Twenties to the fullest, before dying of alcohol sun rock strain poisoning in 1927 at the age of 32. Gene Clark was a gifted songwriter and singer, famous for co-founding the Byrds in 1965. He suffered from anxiety and other possible mental health problems, self-medicating himself with alcohol and drugs.
The cause of his death was a gastrointestinal hemorrhage, most likely the result of years of alcohol abuse. She quickly achieved mainstream success, but her career became blighted by legal troubles and substance abuse. Gram Parsons was a songwriter and musician known for both his solo work and as a member of the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers. Parsons’ “Cosmic American Music” influenced later generations of indie, alt-country and country rock artists. A dope user and a heavy drinker, in 1973 Parsons consumed copious amounts of alcohol, barbiturates, and morphine, then fell unconscious. British actress Yootha Joyce found success in her work on British television, appearing in such productions as Man About the House and George and Mildred.
Unfortunately many famous people’s lives have been cut short because of alcoholism, including actors, musicians and athletes. He had gone to sleep in his car after a night of heavy drinking and suffered from acute alcohol poisoning. Scott’s friends say that he was reckless with drugs and alcohol for years before his death. The singer sadly passed away at the age of 56 on September 4, 2023. Big Mama Thornton was a blues and R&B singer and songwriter, the first to record Leiber and Stoller’s “Hound Dog,” which was written for her. Thornton’s “Ball and Chain” was later made famous by Janis Joplin.
Doctors cited heart disease and cirrhosis of the liver as the main causes. Barbara Payton was once an aspiring actress whose promise was blighted by her problems with alcoholism and drug addiction. As the story goes, Reed, who was renowned for being a heavy drinker but who had apparently been off booze for months prior, got involved in a drinking match that ultimately killed him. English actor Oliver Reed died of a heart attack during a break from filming ‘Gladiator’ (2000). The ‘Sullivan’s Travels’ (1941) actress died in 1973 at the age of 50. The cause of her death was acute hepatitis and acute kidney injury.
