Comments on: Where did it all go wrong?

Question: Where did it all go wrong?

ChazB — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 06:32:46 -0800

Are there any confirmed and documented cases of famous people that have lost everything for one reason or another and ended up broke, alone, and homeless?

Guns 'n' Roses' Sweet Child o' Mine just played on the radio here at work and it got some of us talking about how great they were. I make a joke about how poor, crazy Axl Rose was going to end up either dead in a hotel room full of hookers and blow, or broke and homeless wandering the streets of LA singing for spare change. It made me wonder if anything like this has ever happened before.

By: Robot Johnny

Robot Johnny — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 06:35:02 -0800

Save Screech's House

By: dobbs

dobbs — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 06:40:57 -0800

I would think it's happened many times. The first example I can think of is Red Foxx, who I remember was asking for cash handouts (literally hat in hand) after going bankrupt due to not paying his income tax. Don't know if he was actually homeless, but broke and alone... certainly appeared that way.

By: krark

krark — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 06:42:30 -0800

J.R. Richard was one of the best pitchers in baseball in the late 1970s. He got a blood clot in his pitching arm in 1980, a year where he got off to a fantastic start and started the All-Star Game. A month later, he had a stroke and never appeared in the major leagues again. By 1994, he was living under a bridge. Here's a Sporting News article on his tragedy.

By: Atreides

Atreides — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 06:45:12 -0800

The last years of Thomas Paine's life weren't very fun for him.

By: La Cieca

La Cieca — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 06:47:07 -0800

Horace and "Baby Doe" Tabor.

By: cobaltnine

cobaltnine — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 06:47:48 -0800

Tesla wasn't homeless, but he was living out of a hotel.
"Tesla died of heart failure alone in the New Yorker Hotel.... Despite selling his AC electricity patents, Tesla was essentially destitute and died with significant debts."
(cf Wikipedia.)

In the same vein, architech Louis Kahn died in a bathroom in the Philadelphia train station 'with significant debts' as well.

By: about_time

about_time — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 06:48:31 -0800

Joe Gilliam, football player

By: CunningLinguist

CunningLinguist — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 06:49:42 -0800

Gary Coleman went from TV star to bankruptcy and working as a mall security guard.

By: Julnyes

Julnyes — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 06:54:07 -0800

Zora Neale Hurston - author who died penniless in Florida and was buried in an unmarked grave.

By: Alison

Alison — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 06:55:39 -0800

Billie Holiday was arrested on her deathbed for drug posession. She died with 70 cents in her bank account.

By: misozaki

misozaki — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:03:14 -0800

Mozart.

By: paulsc

paulsc — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:06:28 -0800

Some people have the courage and foresight to plan it that way, according to Plutarch:

"...When he saw that his laws had taken root in the minds of the Spartans, Lycurgus called an assembly of the people and told them that everything was going well so far, but one more thing -- of the greatest importance -- remained to be done. What that was, he could not tell them until after he had consulted the oracle at Delphi again. Before he left on this journey, Lycurgus made the kings, the senate, and the people of Sparta swear to obey his laws and not to change anything until he returned.

Lycurgus was now at the age where life is still tolerable, but may be left without regret. After leaving Sparta, he stopped eating and quietly disappeared -- leaving the Spartans forever bound by their oath to keep things as he had left them."

By: Jofus

Jofus — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:12:04 -0800

Hmm....Adam Ant? Maybe? Kind of?

By: jessenoonan

jessenoonan — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:22:20 -0800

Marie Provost was a winner
that became a doggie's dinner.

Doesn't quite fit your request, but it's a good song.

By: chunking express

chunking express — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:30:49 -0800

A lot of the early blues singers died destitute. Bessie Smith had an unmarked grave till Janis Joplin bought a tombstone for her.

By: hermitosis

hermitosis — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:33:38 -0800

The death of Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer

By: orange swan

orange swan — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:38:31 -0800

There are quite a few famous people who wound up penniless, but usually they don't wind up homeless because someone helps them.

Dorothy Parker had practically no income before she died and her friends chipped in to cover her living expenses again and again. Marlene Dietrich also had no money left and the City of Paris paid her rent because Paris hadn't forgotten her efforts during WWII.

By: markcholden

markcholden — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:39:56 -0800

It almost happened to Margot Kidder (the original Lois Lane) thanks to bipolar disorder.

By: Lame_username

Lame_username — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:45:15 -0800

There are so many boxers that meet this description that it would pain me to list them all. Leon Spinks springs to mind immediately.

By: mckenney

mckenney — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:46:17 -0800

Chuck Negron, lead singer of Three Dog Night ended up homeless and on Skid Row because of a drug addiction.

Thank you, Behind the Music.

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:47:55 -0800

The lure of celebrity is such that there will usually be someone willing to house and exploit you. Or if you're old, some young gun who was influenced by you and is ready to freshen you up and employ you again.

Jean Seberg died penniless and alone in the back of a car. It wasn't a steady decline - in her intoxicated state she was preyed upon by a host of hangers on until one took control, sold her house and took her money. He moved her into a small appartment where one night she went missing. She was found a week later just round the corner in the back of a Renault, dead from an apparent barbituate overdose.

By: bugbread

bugbread — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:55:35 -0800

Corey Haim was reduced to trying to sell his teeth and hair on ebay.

By: baltimore

baltimore — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 07:57:47 -0800

Jan-Michael Vincent

By: NYCinephile

NYCinephile — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 08:21:43 -0800

Hollywood Babylon and Rotten will point you to more stories, as well.

By: orange swan

orange swan — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 08:29:30 -0800

Dana Plato (Kimberley on "Diff'rent Strokes") died of a drug overdose in a Winnebago.

By: orange swan

orange swan — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 08:34:01 -0800

Bonnie Prince Charlie was exiled, sick, obese, and povert-stricken in his old age.

By: Iridic

Iridic — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 08:49:10 -0800

Actually, Mozart's death was not quite as pathetic as Amadeus suggested:

"With the success of The Magic Flute and a newly granted yearly stipend, Mozart was just beginning to become financially stable when his illness brought an end to his life and career at the age of thirty-six. He was buried, like most Viennese in those days by the decree of Emperor Joseph, in a common grave, the exact location of which remains unknown."

By: ND¢

ND¢ — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 08:58:03 -0800

Okay let's go for the "Diff'rent Strokes" trifecta. Todd Bridges' autobiography: "My Life: From Childhood Star to Prison Bitch" is due out in September 2006. He will probably talk about some of this:

After the series ended in 1986, Bridges found himself in a situation not uncommon to child celebrities. He was only 21, yet his run on "Diff'rent Strokes" left him feeling like a washed-up veteran... Bridges soon descended rapidly into a life of drugs and crime. A series of arrests for petty crimes culminated with a 1989 incident where Bridges was charged with shooting a drug dealer in a South Central L.A. crack house after a four day cocaine binge. Bridges was jailed and held on $2 million dollars bail... Johnnie Cochran defended Bridges and he was acquitted of the shooting. Bridges was arrested again in 1993 for possession of methamphetamines and a firearm, but the actor insists he has been clean and sober since that time.

By: Rash

Rash — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 09:05:44 -0800

Marvin Gaye suppossedly had less than a $100 in his bank account when his dad shot him. No doubt he had other resources, like Gene Kelly, who lost everything when his house burned down in 1983. I imagine there's many cases like his where famous people lost everything but didn't wind up broke, alone, and homeless, so I'll go away now.

By: kuppajava

kuppajava — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 09:11:59 -0800

Edgar Allan Poe

By: Fuzzy Monster

Fuzzy Monster — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 09:21:05 -0800

There are so many boxers that meet this description that it would pain me to list them all.

Likewise with Jazz musicians. Chet Baker comes immediately to mind.

By: TedW

TedW — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 10:17:41 -0800

Ira Hayes (immortalized by Johhny Cash)

Bobby Driscoll

It seems that substance abuse is a common theme in these stories.

By: Taken Outtacontext

Taken Outtacontext — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 10:32:05 -0800

Fatty Arbuckle and dare I say, O.J. Simpson (who some would say hasn't lost enough).

By: drstein

drstein — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 10:50:34 -0800

Steven Adler was getting pretty close. seems the guy had a stroke. He's still alive and still playing drums, but has speech issues.

Also: What Ever Happened To..

By: Zed_Lopez

Zed_Lopez — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 10:59:26 -0800

Oscar Wilde

By: ibmcginty

ibmcginty — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 12:54:06 -0800

Two more jazz giants with mental health & substance abuse issues:

Jaco Pastorius, bassist.

Saxophonist Charlie "Parker died while watching Tommy Dorsey on television in the suite at the Stanhope Hotel belonging to his friend and patroness Nica de Koenigswarter. Though the official cause of death was pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer, his death was doubtlessly hastened by his drug and alcohol abuse. The 34-year-old Parker was so haggard that the coroner mistakenly estimated Parker's age to be between 50 and 60."

I've heard that, whatever Chet Baker's probelms-- and they were severe-- he wasn't quite homeless and broken at the end. Am open to being proven wrong.

There's that famous email forward about all the Declaration of Independence signers who wound up having a hard time of it, dunno how verified they are.

By: ND¢

ND¢ — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 12:57:35 -0800

They are apparently somewhat verified.

By: Rash

Rash — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 15:09:25 -0800

I was thinking of Jaco too, ibmcginty, but by my reading of his story he wasn't broke and homeless, just really screwed up.

By: the cuban

the cuban — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 06:05:20 -0800

Simon Dee, sort of.