If it’s a story that ends up at the corner of Hollywood and True Crime, then it’s an episode of HOLLYWOODLAND, the show that explores the lives of our most celebrated actors and actresses through the true crimes that have impacted them. Hosted and produced by award-winning podcaster Jake Brennan, creator of DISGRACELAND, HOLLYWOODLAND is the first true spin-off of DISGRACELAND and is produced similarly with edge-of-your-seat storytelling and gripping, immersive sound design by the folks at Double Elvis.
Marilyn Monroe (Part 1): Who killed Marilyn? JFK? RFK? The KKK? Probable Suicide and a Conspiracy Theory That Won’t Quit
Marilyn Monroe is one if not the greatest Hollywood stars of all time. She rose from orphan to icon by creating an on screen character America could not peel their eyes away from.
Marilyn Monroe (Part 2): The Three Deaths of an Iconic American Actress
The conspiracy theories surrounding Marilyn Monroe’s death in 1962 continue to entertain the imaginations of those obsessed with celebrity and scandal.
River Phoenix: Religious Cults, Street Kids, Speedballs, and Viper Rooms
River Phoenix was a once-in-a-generation talent. In the 1980s, a decade known for artifice and excess, he brought raw acting chops to performances in Stand by Me, Running on Empty, and My Own Private Idaho.
Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle: Underground Brothels, Hush Money, Bootlegged Booze, and the Making of Hollywood’s Greatest Scandal
One of Hollywood’s greatest scandals involved underground brothels, studio hush money, bootlegged alcohol, a dead actress, and the most famous silent-era star you’ve never heard of: Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle.
John Holmes: Big Units, Freebase Briefcases, Four on the Floor, and the Wonderland Murders
John Holmes unexpectedly found fame in the 1970s with a freakishly large appendage that proved a gateway into the burgeoning adult entertainment industry.
Bruce Lee: Fists of Fury, the Death Touch, Murder Suspect #1, and Hollywood’s Ultimate Outsider
Bruce Lee got into so much trouble as a kid in Hong Kong that his parents banished him to the place of his birth: America. There he found all kinds of new trouble to get into. He upset kung fu traditionalists with his revolutionary style of fighting.
George Reeves: Elusive Truth, Absent Justice, and the American Way...Hollywood Style
Superman may be more powerful than a locomotive, but George Reeves, the actor who famously portrayed the Man of Steel on TV in the 1950s, was very much a mortal man. Did George Reeves really take his own life in June 1959, as the official report stated?
Dennis Hopper: Dynamite, Cocaine, Cheating Death, Subverting Hollywood, and Life on the Fringe
Dennis Hopper revolutionized American cinema by bringing the counterculture to the mainstream with his 1969 film Easy Rider. But he also lived his life in tandem with his art, on the fringes of society and sanity.
Natalie Wood: Secrets, Prophecies, Pills, and When the Wrong Dreams Come True
Natalie Wood was one of the most loved child stars of the silver screen in the mid-20th century, and the rare celebrity who was able to transition gracefully into grown-up roles all while maintaining an air of dignity and grace. She acted alongside Orson Welles, James Dean, Warren Beatty, and Bette Davis, and many of her roles remain iconic decades later.
Lana Turner: The Preeminent Pinup Girl, the King of Los Angeles, and the Death of Johnny Stompanato
As captivating as actress Lana Turner was on screen, her personal life off screen was more dramatic than any movie could hope to be. Her father, turning up dead over a poker pot. Her co-star, Sean Connery, throwing down with pre-Bond panache when her boyfriend threatened to beat her up.
The Misfits: Car Wrecks, Heart Attacks, Marilyn Monroe, and One of Hollywood’s Most Cursed Films
Glenn Danzig named his punk band after one of the most cursed Hollywood films of all time. The Misfits was where actor Montgomery Clift, permanently disfigured from a car accident, tried in vain to restart his stalled career. The director, John Huston, lost the film’s entire production budget at a craps table. The lead actor, Clark Gable, suffered a heart attack the day after shooting ended and died ten days later. But was there any truth to the rumor that Gable was driven to an early grave not because of a grueling shoot or poor health, but by his demanding co-star, Marilyn Monroe?
John Huston: A Duel, a Fatal Car Crash, and Living Hand to Mouth
Director John Huston lived the adventurous life that was frequently depicted in his movies. As a young man, he was made an honorary lieutenant in the Mexican army. He was nearly shot during a poker game and challenged to a duel in the middle of the street. His thrill-seeking antics soon turned fatal, when he accidentally struck and killed a woman with his car while driving down Sunset Boulevard. He ran off to London to lay low, but soon found himself with no job, no money, no prospects–and no choice but to live on the streets and beg for change.
Alex Rocco: A Mob Murder, a Boston Gang War, and Leaving Winter Hill for the Corleones
Organized crime. A brutal assault that kicked off a gang war. Car bombs. The brazen assassination of a mob boss in broad daylight. These things all happened in Francis Ford Coppola’s groundbreaking film The Godfather – but first they happened in the real life of Alex Rocco, one-time Boston gang member turned Hollywood character actor whose star turn as Moe Greene in the classic mobster epic is one of the most improbable career shifts in movie history.
David Lynch: A Brutal Murder, a Corrupt Small Town, and the Secret Origins of Twin Peaks
In 1908, a girl was brutally murdered in a small town in upstate New York. The town was seemingly idyllic, but beneath the surface, it was crawling with prostitution, orgies, deceit, and corruption. It was fueled by a political machine so powerful it could cover up not just one but multiple murders. The truth behind the murder of Hazel Drew was meant to remain unsolvable. Just like the television show it inspired over 80 years later.
Jane Fonda: Hailed for Heroism, Accused of Treason, and Targeted by the President
Jane Fonda was so beloved that she was once named the fourth most admired woman in the world. She was also so hated that her face was used for target practice in urinals at military bases across the country. This all stemmed from a ten-day tour she took of North Vietnam in 1972, a trip that would forever cement her as either a patriot or a traitor in the eyes of a divided nation. And put her in the crosshairs of the President of the United States.
Brandon Lee: Hungry Ghosts, Cursed Movies, and a Goth Masterpiece
Haunted by the legacy of his superstar father. Haunted by an old family curse. Brandon Lee tried to outrun his past, but it came after him all the same. It was said that his father, Bruce Lee, was taken by that family curse at just 32 years old. And that it then followed Brandon, when he was 28, to the set of The Crow, a cross between a superhero blockbuster and a brooding art film that was all goth. The shoot was plagued by injury, electrocution, storms, fires, and car crashes – and culminated in tragedy when a prop gun fired a real bullet.
Humphrey Bogart: Mob Assassins, Rat Packs, and the Downfall of Murder, Inc.
Murder for hire. Murder for business. Murder for profit. In the 1940s, a crew called Murder, Inc. protected the interests of the Commission, a collective of American gangsters who banded together to run the American underworld like a legit business. Murder, Inc. thugs shot, stabbed, and strangled upwards of 1,000 snitches who dared rat on the mob. But the mob never bargained that their chief executive executor would himself turn rat. Or that the story of their downfall would be laid out for all to see on the big screen – pursued and prosecuted by Humphrey Bogart, who proved what it really takes to be a tough guy.
Jodie Foster: A Teenage Star-Turn, a Deranged Stalker, and the Attempted Assassination of Ronald Reagan
After being nominated for an Academy Award for her role as a child prostitute in the 1976 film Taxi Driver, Jodi Foster gave up acting to go to college. It was there that her Oscar-caliber performance made her the target of a deranged stalker. That stalker, John Hinckley Jr., was obsessed with Jodie Foster. He wrote her letters and called her on the phone. He was convinced she needed to be saved and that he was the one to do it. And in 1981, in Washington, D.C., Jodie Foster was the unknowing inspiration for and motive behind Hinckley’s attempted assassination of a sitting American President.
Bill Murray: Airport Drug Busts, Backstage Brawls, and Crashing Elvis’s Burial
Before Bill Murray was busting ghosts and living in a loop of deja vu, he was a drug-dealing premed student with a knack for comedy. When he was caught with five bricks of pot at the airport, his career in medicine came crashing down, forcing him to make a living with his smart mouth. His obsession to rise above “medium talent” brought him to volatile blows with musicians, fellow actors, and even himself. Yet in his cockiest moments and most despairing lows, the universe always found a way to show Bill Murray he still had a lot to learn.
Joan Crawford: Stag Films, Dead Presidents, and No Wire Hangers
Joan Crawford once threatened the director of the FBI when she wanted an old stag film destroyed. She accepted an Oscar that wasn’t hers for the sole purpose to get revenge on her co-star. She wrote her daughter out of her will, before she knew the kid was about to permanently ruin her legacy. But how did she wind up at a party with Richard Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover, and Lyndon Johnson – on the eve of the Kennedy assassination? And why did some the answer to that question was murder?
Sigourney Weaver: A Goddess, Beasts and Demons, and Paying Tribute from Death Row
In classic ‘80s films like Ghostbusters and Aliens, Sigourney Weaver battled beasts and demons. But to one particular inmate on death row in Georgia, Sigourney Weaver battled beasts and demons in real life as well. To Alexander Williams, a convicted murderer, she was a goddess, a divine being sent to this earth to do battle with evil. He worshiped her from the floor of his prison cell. And as his day of reckoning drew closer, he waited for glimmers of hope that his goddess would send in hopes that his fate would be altered.
Johnny Depp: Homemade Bombs, Bootleg Quaaludes, and Unsolved Disappearances
Johnny Depp prefers the shadows to the limelight, whether he’s building a bomb with Hunter S. Thompson in the Rocky Mountains, or downing bootleg quaaludes laced with arsenic. After emerging as the leading art flick actor of the 1990s, prodding paparazzi’s desire to paint him as a “novelty boy” often drove him to outbursts that ended in arrests, wrecked hotel rooms, and a miffed Kate Moss and Roger Daltrey. Yet even with camera flashes constantly lighting up his private life, plenty of mysteries still surround Johnny Depp…including the unsolved disappearance of his former Viper Room co-owner – who went missing just days before he was supposed to testify against Johnny in court.
Roman Polanski: Nazis, Murder, and Life on the Lam
As a child, Roman Polanski escaped from a Krakow ghetto on the day the Nazis took his father to a concentration camp. As a new filmmaker, he became the toast of young Hollywood with his 1968 horror masterpiece, Rosemary’s Baby. But after the brutal murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, at the hands of the Manson family, Polanski unraveled. He wound up committing a heinous crime that caused him to escape yet again – this time fleeing the country when an angry judge was ready to throw the book at him.
Jayne Mansfield: Nude Scenes, Satan’s Slave, and a Gruesome Death
Whether she was filming Hollywood’s first major nude scenes, or posing against a backdrop of Satanic skulls and pentagrams, Jayne Mansfield lived for exhibitionism. As a leading sexpot of the 1950s, Jayne was a genius, a bombshell, and a mother in an industry that demanded women be single, dumb, and blonde. When people whispered that Jayne lived in Marilyn Monroe’s shadow, she fled to the Church of Satan and started dancing in the shadows with its founder, Anton LaVey. Her final headlines sensationalized how she lost her head in a car crash and blamed her death on a Satanic curse — but even decades after that fatal road trip, there’s still plenty about Jayne that still warrants showing off.
Hugh Grant: Sex on the Sunset Strip, Assault with a Non-Deadly Weapon, and Cracking Open
Hugh Grant infamously almost tanked his budding movie career when he was caught with a sex worker on the Sunset Strip. He was arrested a second time when he assaulted paparazzi outside his house…with a Tupperware container full of baked beans. But perhaps most shocking of all, he wore a wire to interview a tabloid reporter and wound up cracking open a phone-hacking case that implicated both the London police and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Marlon Brando: A Fake Kidnapping Gone Wrong, Jungle Madness, and a Dead Boyfriend
Marlon Brando once broke a paparazzo’s jaw with one punch. He hired private investigators to find his son when a fake kidnapping went horribly wrong. He nearly sank an already doomed film shoot all by himself when he arrived in the Philippines overweight, underprepared, and demanding millions of dollars. And at the very moment he was trying to resuscitate his career, he found himself desperately trying to resuscitate his daughter’s dead boyfriend in his own living room.
Mel Gibson: Sin, Salvation, and Staring Down the Barrel of a Gun
Mel Gibson is the explosive action star who plunged straight into Mad Max’s Wasteland and straight into insanity. Molded by a violent childhood and an early taste for alcohol, his reputation as a thrill-hungry lunatic extends from movie sets to the director’s chair, where he’s unflinchingly recreated scene of bone-crushing torture and human sacrifice. His ability to fly off the handle at a moment’s notice made him Hollywood’s most in-demand actor for playing wildcards and antiheroes. That is, until life imitated art, and Mel was caught spitting slurs and playing the supervillain in real life.
Anna Nicole Smith: Methadone, a Murder Plot, and a Fate Like Marilyn’s
Anna Nicole Smith transcended the laws of celebrity. She was a blond sexpot who was famous for being famous, and that was reason enough for pop culture. People around the world recognized her Marilyn Monroe-esque curves filled out Guess jeans, and her squeaky baby speaking voice on The Anna Nicole Show. In the early 2000s, the FBI investigated her regarding an alleged hit she organized to take out her 60-year-old “stepson.” But when Anna Nicole and her grown son Daniel died under eerily sudden — and similar — circumstances, people started to wonder if the feds were barking up the wrong bombshell.
Will Smith: Fist Fights, Jail Cells, and the Slap Heard Round the World
In 1989, shortly after winning his first Grammy Award, at just 20 years old, Will Smith was arrested and charged with assault after a brawl at a popular Philadelphia radio station left one man nearly blind. It nearly ended his career just as things were getting started. But Will Smith overcame this challenge, and so many others, to become one of the most successful actors in Hollywood. That is, until decades later, at the 2022 Academy Awards ceremony, when trouble once again bubbled to the surface.
Carrie Fisher: Acid in the Desert, Snakes in the Amazon, and More Postcards from the Edge
Carrie Fisher once dropped acid in the desert with Paul Simon. She did ayahuasca in the Amazon jungle, where she was attacked by a giant snake that may or may not have been real. She did so much cocaine that legendary partyman John Belushi told her to ease up. Her mood swings were such a dramatic part of her personality that she gave them their own names. And her personality was so galvanizing that it became an avatar for real-life resistance fighters.
Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom, Sophia Coppola, and the Bling Ring
In the early 2010s, a group of burglars ransacked Hollywood homes like the city was their personal shopping mall. No celebrity was safe from their sticky fingers: Not Lindsay Lohan, not Orlando Bloom, and especially not Paris Hilton, who perhaps lost the most luxury loot of anyone. The thieves pocketed over $3 million dollars’ worth of custom couture, cocaine, and cold hard cash before they were caught. And when “The Bling Ring” finally traded their designer digs for orange jumpsuits, the world learned the most shocking aspect of the entire case: They were only teenagers.
James Dean: A Death Foretold, a Gruesome Publicity Stunt, and a Haunted Car
James Dean died in a high-speed car crash at the age of 24, but his legend lives on. Fan clubs held monthly memorial services and wrote movie studios begging for relics of their patron saint. Professional illusionists swore they could resurrect his body. Rumors that Dean survived the deadly crash were spurred on and in some cases planted, by a film studio with a financial stake in keeping his memory alive. The car that killed him had a grisly afterlife of its own, taking two more lives before mysteriously disappearing forever.
Chris Farley: Raging Bulls, Insatiable Appetites, Dead Comics, and a Four-Day Plunge off the Edge
Everything about Chris Farley was larger than life. His comedy, his laughs, the risks he took in front of a live studio audience – they were all bigger than anyone else’s. So were his appetites. Not just for performance, but for life. He plowed through a plate glass window, 15 stories above downtown Chicago. He was kicked out of college for burning down a girl’s house. He disappeared with two Playboy models in Los Angeles and woke up the next morning in Hawaii. And he modeled his career on an iconic dead comedian – even following the comic’s path, straight to an early grave.
Richard Pryor: Stabbing, Shooting, F***ing, Burning, and Freebasing
Richard Pryor was one of the funniest people who ever lived. He elevated stand-up comedy to an art form. But the real life that informed his stand-up – a life of pool halls, brothels, stabbings, shootings, and lots and lots of cocaine – was a source of constant pain. A pain that he managed with a freebase habit so out of control it nearly killed him before he was even 40 years old.
Dwayne Johnson: A Teenage Jewel Thief, a Heel Turn Betrayal, and Raising the People’s Eyebrow
Long before he raised the People’s Eyebrow, dropped the People’s Elbow, and laid the smackdown on the candyass world of Hollywood, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson ran a jewelry theft ring in Waikiki. He and his peers worked the posh shopping district, snatching and grabbing whatever they could get their hands on and then pawning their haul for cold, hard cash. As a result, he was arrested nearly ten times before he turned 17 years old. But perhaps the only thing more insane than that story is the story of how Dwayne Johnson transcended a life of petty street crime to become one of the biggest cultural icons of the 21st century.
Patty Hearst: Brainwashing, Cyanide Bullets, and an Heiress-Turned-Terrorist
Before Patty Hearst appeared as an actress in John Waters movies, she captivated America on the silver screen as a hostage terrorized by the Symbionese Liberation Army. When the newspaper heiress was kidnapped by the radical organization in 1974, the country sympathized with her plight. But after just a few months, the SLA’s guns weren’t pointing at Patty anymore; suddenly, Patty was firing her own weapons during fistfights and bank robberies as a member of the same terrorist group that once kept her locked in a closet. In court, Patty claimed she was brainwashed and that she played along for her own safety. It’s true that Patty Hearst gave the performance of a lifetime — but we still don’t know which part of her life was the performance.
Charlie Chaplin: Japanese Assassins, Murder on a Yacht, and a Stolen Corpse
Charlie Chaplin was a wanted man. Not just by moviegoing audiences that made him one of the biggest stars of the silent and talkie eras. And not just by governments who questioned his politics. He was nearly murdered by a jealous lover, and was likely the intended target of a homicide aboard the yacht of the wealthiest man in America. He survived numerous attempts on his life, only to be targeted by a cabal of Japanese assassins who wanted him dead. And when he did die, Charlie Chaplin remained in high demand. Just ask the guy who dug up his corpse and held it for ransom.
John Belushi: Punk Rock Riots, Chicago Street Brawls, and Missions from God
John Belushi may have been one of the funniest comedians of his generation, but wasn’t just a funny guy. He was a rock star. He partied with the Stones, fronted a world-class band of R&B legends, and was responsible for a punk rock riot in Rockefeller Center. He drew the ire of street gangs in Chicago, attempted to steal a boat with his blues brother, and performed one of his final episodes of Saturday Night Live on death’s door. Everything was heightened. The stakes. The laughs. The sensory overload of lights, camera, action. He worked hard, and played harder. And when it all came to a crashing halt in a Hollywood bungalow, one question remained: Was John Belushi’s death the result of foul play?
Bob Crane: Sex, Lies, Videotape, and Murder
On the surface, the star of one of the most popular television series of the 1960s was a squeaky-clean symbol of America’s innocence. But Hogan’s Heroes’ Bob Crane lived a secret double life that very few people knew about. His custom-built pornographic paradises were hidden behind the closed doors of his dressing room and apartment. He was obsessed with extra-marital sexual exploits, and he documented them with cutting-edge technology. The joy he received from making people smile was matched only by his need to fill his darkest desires…a need that would end in murder.
Danny Trejo: A Prison Riot, the Gas Chamber, and Becoming Fear
Danny Trejo holds the record for most on-screen deaths by an actor. His go-to role is the bad guy – the baddest guy. The guy you do not mess with. And for the first 25 years of his life, he was that guy in real life. He led a life of violence and drugs that landed him in just about every hardcore prison in California, including Folsom and San Quentin. On the inside, he ran the gym, the drugs, and protection rackets. And then one day, the tables turned and Danny Trejo was the one who needed protection. After the dust settled on a bloody prison riot, Trejo found himself staring down the death penalty.
Lucille Ball: Gun Wounds, Refugees, and the Redhead Who Survived the Red Scare
Lucille Ball might have been a natural boundary-pusher, but America's top TV comedienne had some ‘splaining to do when a damning news broadcast unveiled her former ties to the Communist Party. The hysteria of the Red Scare threatened to bury this redhead at the bottom of the Hollywood blacklist overnight. Even when America put rampant McCarthyism to rest, the United States government kept watching Lucille Ball – and we’re not talking about I Love Lucy reruns.
Drew Barrymore: Curses, Corpses, and a Coked-Up Child Star in the Club
Drew Barrymore spent her childhood charming audiences on movie screens and cramming cocaine up her nose at the most exclusive clubs in the country. Her breakout role as Gertie in E.T.: The Extraterrestrial rocketed her to such far-reaching fame at a young age that she became a regular at Studio 54 when she was only 7 years old. Her early taste for unchaperoned nightlife would lure her into other addictions, nearly nixing her film career before Drew reached high school. As Drew’s grandfather and father before her already proved, no one acts – or parties – quite like a Barrymore. No one crashes and burns quite like a Barrymore, either.
Charlie Sheen: Tiger Blood, Porn Stars, and the High-Priest Vatican Assassin Warlock
Not one but two of Charlie Sheen’s Mercedes were found crashed into a ravine off Mulholland Drive on separate occasions. By that point, he was working on running his career off the road for a second or third time, in a haze of alcohol, cocaine, $30,000 one-night stands, awkward dinner dates with porn stars and his ex-wife, livestream rants, LAPD house raids, and a triumphant ascent to a Beverly Hills rooftop with a machete and a bottle of red liquid labeled “Tiger Blood.” And that’s only part of the story.
Armie Hammer: Dirty Texts, Bloodthirsty Fetishes, and a Cannibal Kink
With his chiseled jawline and matinee idol good looks, Armie Hammer could have been another leading man like Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt. But Armie Hammer was not most movie stars. He wasn't even most people. On the surface, his life was perfectly curated and appeared picture-perfect, with no major public scandals or dirt-digging by the press. But his increasingly bizarre appearances in interviews and on social media, not to mention leaked videos and texts, led to shocking revelations about what was really going on behind closed doors. And what was going on was more wild than the untamed dreams of a Hollywood screenwriter.
Robin Williams: A Manic Mind at Breakneck Speed, an Addiction to Laughter, and the Devil’s Dandruff
Robin Williams’ manic mind moved at such a breakneck speed that cocaine had the opposite effect than it had on most other people: it slowed him down. Robin’s primary addiction, however, wasn’t cocaine. He was addicted to the dopamine rush of being on a stage, where he could let his mind run wild with free association, and be rewarded with uproarious laughter. He was addicted to proving himself as a dramatic actor, even if that meant attempting to trigger his own mental breakdown by running in place for hours. And when he died tragically at the age of 63, the cause of his death was surprisingly not what anyone suspected. It still isn’t.
The Dating Game Killer: Persuasion, Charm, and a Depraved Murderer at Large
Rodney Alcala, a/k/a The Dating Game Killer, was a depraved murderer who eluded authorities for years. He hid his true identity behind charm and persuasion. He worked as a summer camp counselor while on the lam for the savage assault of an eight-year-old girl. He convinced his parole officer to let him take a vacation to the other side of the country, where he proceeded to commit another of his many murders. While New Yorkers were watching their backs for the Son of Sam in the summer of ’77, he killed again. And at the height of his killing spree, he managed to star in one of the creepiest moments in Hollywood history as a contestant on a popular television game show.
Sharon Tate Pt. 2: Rape, Drugs, and Murdering New Hollywood
Sharon Tate’s entanglement with Charles Manson and her husband, filmmaker Roman Polanski, as well as her involvement in some of the long-rumored hedonistic events at her home on Cielo Drive put her at the center of a counter-narrative that explosively disrupts the supposed motive for the Manson family murders. Was Sharon Tate blissfully ignorant of the darkness that had been bubbling beneath Hollywood’s shiny veneer for years? Or is there more to this story than we’ve been told in the past?
Sharon Tate Pt 1: Dangerous Company
Sharon Tate was a sophisticated beauty who literally stopped traffic when she walked down the street. She began her movie career when America was becoming sexually liberated, and despite the ease with which she was made a sex symbol, she aspired to be respected as a serious actress. Decades later, however, she is perhaps best-remembered as one of the victims found brutally murdered at her Cielo Drive home, the one she shared with her husband, director Roman Polanski. Sharon and Roman welcomed regular guests to that home, including Sharon’s friend, Mama Cass Elliot, who was at the center of the Manson murders and whose actions may be why the motive for the murders that America has come to accept as fact, is actually false.
Woody Harrelson: Contract Killers, JFK Conspiracies, and Fathers & Sons
One of Hollywood’s most eclectic and unpredictable actors, Woody Harrelson has played a hayseed barback, a streetball hustler, a natural born killer, a true detective, and so many more. But his most profound and difficult role might be his real-life role: the son of an infamous contract killer. Woody’s father, Charles Harrelson, was sent to prison for the assassination of a federal judge, only after he had been the subject of one of the largest federal manhunts in U.S. history – a manhunt that ended with a six-hour standoff with authorities during which he confessed to the assassination of JFK.
Judy Garland: Seconals, Benzedrine, and Dexedrine…Oh My
With a few clicks of their ruby slippers, MGM made 16-year-old Judy Garland a box office giant, but their strict rules nearly killed her in the process. The studio’s strict diet of chicken soup, uppers, and downers set up teenage Judy for a life fraught with addiction, malnutrition, extreme health complications, and regular visits to rehab. Even years after Judy severed ties with the MGM, the effects of her highly-regulated adolescence creeped into her career, literally poisoning her life — and her liver. A star was born when Judy filmed The Wizard of Oz, but by her late forties, that same star was in rapid decline.
Sean Penn: A Prison Escape, the Night Stalker, and Madonna’s True Blue Bad Boy
In the summer of 1985, Sean Penn’s marriage to preeminent material girl Madonna was an epochal moment for ‘80s-era Hollywood. The bad boy from Bad Boys and the boy-toy pop superstar blissfully brought together the worlds of movies and music on a Malibu bluff overlooking the Pacific. But their subsequent attempt to make a movie together was anything but blissful. A wild film shoot in China would lead to even wilder things, like the time Sean dangled a photographer upside-down from a ninth-story balcony. Or the time he escaped a prison in Macau and had to have a pardon from the government negotiated by a former member of the Beatles. Or the time he spent in an American prison, where he found himself passing notes with a fellow inmate down the hall…one who happened to be one of the most notorious serial killers in history.
Winona Ryder: Drowning, Designer Theft, and a Deadly Kidnapping
Between beatnik parents, an LSD guru godfather, and an unconventional upbringing in Northern California, it’s not surprising that Winona Ryder became America’s endearing weirdo in the 1990s. Her noir starpower shined from an early age in movies like Beetlejuice, Heathers, and Edward Scissorhands, but her penchant for dark roles would lead her towards crime in real life. The only thing weirder than Winona’s $5,000 shoplifting spree and the kidnapping of a girl from her own hometown is how the two stories unexpectedly intertwine.
Lindsay Lohan: Morgues, Ankle Bracelets, and an Addiction to Chaos
Lindsay Lohan’s arrest record is overcrowded with charges involving theft, cocaine, and the transportation of narcotics. The one-time Disney queen bee shattered her Mercedes and her good girl reputation with back-to-back DUIs when her career was at its peak. After appearing in court 20 times in the span of five years, Lindsay’s acting opportunities downgraded from Mean Girls-level blockbusters to meager microbudget art films, including a career-low role that paid her $100 a day to perform alongside porn stars.
Robert Downey Jr.: Running on Empty, Rock Bottom, and Ironclad Resolve
The man who would be Iron Man was once an uninsurable, unreliable actor who lived many years at the bottom in a haze of drugs and alcohol. His transformation into the highest-paid actor in Hollywood is truly one of the most remarkable stories in the City of Angels.
The Black Dahlia (Elizabeth Short): A Gruesome Murder, a Corrupt Police Department, and an Unsolvable Mystery
In January 1947, the mutilated body of 22-year old Elizabeth Short was found, literally cut in half, in a vacant lot in Los Angeles. Even though hundreds of suspects were investigated and dozens of confessions were made, her murder remains unsolved to this day. In the years since, the case has gotten warm and cold again. Speculation into motive and method has been endless. And the deeper you look, the murkier the case becomes. It’s a case populated by drunks and junkies, syphilitic ex-cons and petty thieves, kingpins of organized crime, and the most corrupt police officers to ever wear a badge. And it still continues to this day.
Robert Mitchum: Reefer Madness, a Daring Escape from a Chain Gang, and Not Giving a Damn
Robert Mitchum was famously busted for marijuana in the 1940s before his career really had taken off. Not so famously is how he managed to save his legacy, and his life: with the unlikely help of one of the most powerful men in the world.
Tim Allen: Cocaine in Kalamazoo, Life in Prison, and Flipping for the Feds
Before he was headed to infinity and beyond, Tim Allen was headed to life in prison for a low-level drug deal in Michigan. This is the story about how his first career ended in a life-changing bust, and what he had to do in order to survive and find a way out.
Brittany Murphy: Pills, Paranoia, and Poison
The only thing more shocking than Brittany Murphy’s untimely death at the age of 32 was what happened next: more unexpected deaths, rumors of poisoning, and even murder.
Poltergeist Curse: Paranormal Activity, a Plane Crash, and Murder
Four different actors from the 1980s horror franchise Poltergeist died within a 6-year span. Dominique Dunne was murdered. Julian Beck succumbed to stomach cancer. Will Sampson suffered from a degenerative disease. And Heather O’Rourke’s death, at the age of 12, was deemed “distinctly unusual.” Was it an eerie coincidence...or something more sinister?
Sal Mineo: Street Gangs, Ouija Boards, and Unabashed Pride
James Dean’s co-star in Rebel without a Cause was an early trailblazer for the LGBTQ+ community in Hollywood. Over the years he was harassed, heckled, and had his life threatened – just for being himself. When he was mysteriously murdered at the age of 37, the 15-month investigation exposed just how deep intolerance ran in the hearts and minds of many, despite Sal’s efforts to the contrary.
Gianni Versace: Sly Stallone, Madonna, Elton John, a Serial Killer, and the Death of the Sun King
Gianni Versace was a runway iconoclast who outfitted the likes of Madonna, Demi Moore, Prince, Sylvester Stallone, and Don Johnson. He lived like Louis XIV and counted Princess Di and Elton John among his friends. He was plagued by rumors of ties to the Calabrian mafia and a secret health diagnosis. Those rumors continued to persist long after he was gunned down by a serial killer who had been on the lam after murdering four other men in three states.
Jack Nicholson: Hidden Drugs, Road Rage, and a Shocking Crime
In some of Hollywood’s best-loved movies, Jack Nicholson played jokers, sailors, inmates – even the Devil himself. But he never played by the rules. He allegedly mooned a crowd of thousands at a basketball game. His bedroom kinks were laid bare in the papers. He fought the MPAA and the LAPD. And in 1994, he attempted to establish his own set of rules when he attacked an idling Mercedes-Benz with a two-iron.
Phil Hartman: Blackmail, an Attempted Presidential Assassination, and a Murder-Suicide
Before he was deemed “the Glue” by his castmates at Saturday Night Live, Phil Hartman worked as a rock ‘n roll roadie and a graphic designer. He created album covers for the bands Poco and America, as well as the logo for Crosby, Stills & Nash. He did those things as a card-carrying member of the peace and love movement. A movement that was infamously disrupted by the Manson family, a ragtag group of hippies gone evil that just so happened to include one of his former friends from high school. A friend who would later attempt to assassinate an American president. A friend who helped steer sunny California into an age of darkness. A darkness that, for Phil Hartman, led to secrets, blackmail, guns, and ultimately, a murder-suicide.
Dorothy Stratten: A Playboy Pinup, a Private Investigator, and a Chilling Murder
From Dairy Queen counter girl to Playboy pinup to murder victim – in just two years. Hugh Hefner called her the next Marilyn Monroe. A major Hollywood director wrote a role in his new film just for her, confident that she would make the leap from centerfold to starlet. But all of that was cut short on August 14, 1980, when a private investigator stumbled upon a brutal murder scene that shook the entertainment industry to its core.
Benedict Cumberbatch: Lost in the Himalayas, Stopping a Mugging in London, and a Kidnapping in South Africa
Long before he played a world-famous detective, a comic book superhero, or one of literature’s most famous dragons, Benedict Cumberbatch was robbed by a group of thieves in South Africa, who bound him up and threw him in the trunk of a car…and then drove him to what he thought would be an early death.
Robert Blake: Child Actors, Killer Roles, and the Murder of Bonny Lee Bakley
Robert Blake was a former child actor and tough-talking TV cop. He was also a tough customer. He talked like a mobster, lived like a cowboy, and was intimately familiar with the rougher side of life. That rough side of life caught up with him in 2001, when he was charged with murder when his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, was found shot dead in the front seat of Blake’s Dodge Stealth. Depending on who you talk to, Robert Blake was either rightfully acquitted…or managed to escape justice.
Harrison Ford: Smashing Bottles, Slinging Weed, and Partying with the Stones
If someone had told Harrison Ford the odds early on, about his chances of making it as an actor in Hollywood, he may have given up. But he wasn’t an odds kinda guy. He was a guy who did what he had to do to make it. Sometimes that meant swinging a hammer and working as a carpenter on the houses of James Caan and Joan Didion. Other times he found work touring with the Doors as the band’s photographer. He even dealt a little weed on the side to people like Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas. But whether he was pulling focus on an elusive Jim Morrison, tearing ass through Petaluma in an old Chevy, or navigating a hunk of junk through an asteroid field, never tell him the odds. Harrison Ford made his own luck.
Sharon Stone: Basic Instincts, Baring It All, and the Butcher of Montreal
In a single year, Sharon Stone was nominated for awards for both Best Actress and Worst Actress – for the same role. She launched a million sexual awakenings with one quick display in Basic Instinct. Her performance in that film was so vivid that it inspired stalkers to track her down. It may have even served as the inspiration for one fan to commit murder, cannibalism, and necrophilia.
Paul Newman: Fast Cars, Cold Beers, and Forgotten Memories
Paul Newman didn’t race cars to outrun his demons. His past was easily kept at bay, like the World War II memories he didn’t want to think about. But like many actors of his generation, the Brando generation, Paul Newman wanted to act like he wasn’t acting. And to do that, he had to tap into real emotions. Forgotten memories. Demons and all. Or so said the Method school of acting. So he dug deep and faced his demons–but not before one of those fast cars of his drove him through a hedgerow, a red light, and an altercation with a cop that nearly sent his career off the road before it really began.
Al Pacino: Good and Evil, Attempted Robbery, and the Role of a Lifetime
The death of a neighborhood friend, an attempted robbery that almost went horribly wrong, good vs. evil, and the road not taken: this is the Al Pacino origin story. It all culminates in the role of a lifetime. Not Michael Corleone. Not a role on stage or screen. The most important role of Al Pacino’s young life played out in front of a couple of detectives and a district attorney.
