# Stars Who Had No Friends? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 5, 2021, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947 "2021-10-05T20:45:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2021, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947/41 "2021-10-07T20:23:45Z")
I get the idea that Lon Chaney didn’t have any friends. He did his make-up, showed up for work, then went home. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2021, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947/42 "2021-10-07T20:52:56Z")
Those Centauri suns are just dim bulbs, bragging and hoping for attention. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947/43 "2021-10-08T01:41:41Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > those Centauri suns are just dim bulbs, bragging and hoping for attention. And then there’s old [Barnard’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnard%27s_Star), even more of a loner than the Sun. He’s just zipping by as fast as he can, not even waving hello. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947/44 "2021-10-08T01:56:40Z")
Warren Zevon was famously hard to get along with. He managed a few quasi-friendships with literary types like Stephen King, and pther musicians who respected him, but I don’t think he had any really close friendships. Billy Bob Thornton was a sort-of-friend, who shared pretty bad OCD which gave them something in common. It seems that every time someone got close to him, he’d do something to alienate them. Especially when he wad a raging drunk. He spent most of his time in his apartment, reading. Apparently he had rows of bookshelves like a library. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947/45 "2021-10-08T02:09:39Z")
It’s possible that the person who didn’t have visitors requested that people not visit them there. ---
**Author:** ![eunoia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eunoia/32/97_2.png) [@eunoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eunoia)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947/46 "2021-10-08T02:33:39Z")
From what I understand, she attributed her difficulty forming relationships to laziness and a predeliction for staying home and watching TV. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947/47 "2021-10-08T03:36:33Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > I have a hard time picturing **William Shatner** having friends. I believe Shatner has alienated all of his _Star Trek_ costars. Even Leonard Nimoy, his closest friend on the cast, had stopped speaking to him the last five years of his life. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947/48 "2021-10-08T11:04:57Z")
> [@eunoia](#): > > From what I understand, she attributed her difficulty forming relationships to laziness and a predeliction for staying home and watching TV. Well played! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947/49 "2021-10-08T17:41:42Z")
> [@MortSahlFan](#): > > She vanted to be alone 🙂 > [@](#): > > - **I never said, “I want to be alone.” I only said, "I want to be _let_ alone! There is all the difference.** > - Quoted in John Bainbridge, _Garbo_ (1955); as the Russian ballerina Grusinskaya in _[Grand Hotel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Hotel_(film))_ (1932), Garbo had said “I want to be alone.” These words had become associated with Garbo herself in the public imagination. > **[Greta Garbo - Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Greta_Garbo)** > [@](#): > > In one letter, penned to Viertel in 1937 during a trip to Sweden, Garbo claims: “I go nowhere, see no one.” She adds that she did the same when in Hollywood, and pleads with her old friend to rescue her. “It is hard and sad to be alone, but sometimes it’s even more difficult to be with someone … When we are here on Earth it would be so much more kind if for this short time we would be forever strong and young. I wonder why God preferred it this way … somewhere in this world are a few beings who do not have it as we have, of that I am certain. And if I would stop making film I could go and see if I could find out a little about it.” > **[‘I go nowhere, I see no one’: Garbo letters reveal lonely life of film icon](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/oct/05/garbo-letters-for-sale-echo-lonely-life-of-film-icon)** > > The star told her closest friend of her isolation in a series of notes that are now up for auction ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947/50 "2021-10-08T21:08:13Z")
After seeing some of the recent documentaries about Britney Spears, not only does she have no friends but the conservatorship wouldn’t allow her to make any. All of her boyfriends (including her ex-husband) were either back-up dancers or managers. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947/51 "2021-10-08T21:29:31Z")
Garbo – “I want to be alone.” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/tojjWQvlPN8/hqdefault.jpg "garbo: "i want to be alone!"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tojjWQvlPN8) ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947/52 "2021-10-08T21:55:44Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Frank Zappa claimed in interviews to have no friends, only employees. Almost - he had TWO categories, family and employees. He talked about loving his family, but does indeed to seem to have been an occasionally standoffish dad and his extracurricular activities with groupies seems to have been a constant gnawing pain on his wife. To the point where she arguably sublimated that into conflict with her own children. I pretty much agree with you that he was dysfunctional in his own self-contained way. Oddly he doesn’t seem to have been a huge prick - few people hated him. Rather he just did what he wanted and devil take the hindmost. David Crosby had friends because he was charismatic, but burned through them because by his own account he was a gigantic asshole. Judging by the recent documentary on him James Brown had zero friends. A couple of mentors/people he respected early in life and plenty of sycophants at all times. But no friends. He seems to have been as difficult as he was talented. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2021, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947/53 "2021-10-08T22:13:03Z")
Reading the Wiki page of Miro’s band, The Nuns, it struck me that the band’s founding member and co-vocalist Jeff Olener _also_ died alone, “after many years of seclusion”, in 2014, or a few years after Miro. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2021, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947/54 "2021-10-09T02:31:47Z")
Francis Bavier retired from acting in 1972 after her run as Aunt Bee in _The Andy Griffith Show._ She lived the rest of her life as a recluse in Siler City NC until her death in 1989. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2021, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947/55 "2021-10-09T03:01:25Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Almost - he had TWO categories, family and employees. He talked about loving his family, but does indeed to seem to have been an occasionally standoffish dad and his extracurricular activities with groupies seems to have been a constant gnawing pain on his wife. To the point where she arguably sublimated that into conflict with her own children. I pretty much agree with you that he was dysfunctional in his own self-contained way. Oddly he doesn’t seem to have been a huge prick - few people hated him. Rather he just did what he wanted and devil take the hindmost. That was _very_ well put, especially as regards Gail. I would say that while few people may have hated him, I suspect that very few liked him. In my utterly unqualified opinion he was a narcissist and misanthrope. And yet I _love_ nearly all of his recordings from 1966 through 1974. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2021, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947/56 "2021-10-09T07:42:41Z")
Just yesterday, I watched a documentary on the _ **Five-0** _ reunion a few years back. All of the cast members who were interviewed had nothing but nice things to say about Jack. He may have been a very private person in real life, but he certainly had friends who loved him. On the other hand, judging from Nick Tosches’ biography of Dean Martin, it would seem the singer could never reveal his true self to anyone—not his drinking buddies, not his partners in comedy, and not even his wives and many girlfriends. Other than his parents, whom he loved deeply, the only people he really cared about were his children, and he was devastated when his son was killed while flying an F-4 Phantom. From that, Dean never recovered. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2021, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947/57 "2021-10-09T08:50:26Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > On the other hand, judging from Nick Tosches’ biography of Dean Martin, it would seem the singer could never reveal his true self to anyone—not his drinking buddies, not his partners in comedy, and not even his wives and many girlfriends. Other than his parents, whom he loved deeply, the only people he really cared about were his children, and he was devastated when his son was killed while flying an F-4 Phantom. From that, Dean never recovered. I don’t know how true it is, but in the HBO production of _The Rat Pack_ (1998), Dean Martin is portrayed as a lonely individual. Oh, he may be a friendly piano player in the piano bar, or a host joking on the stage of The Sands with Sinatra and the rest, but after the show, he’s back in his hotel room, alone, and getting some sleep; while Sinatra and the rest of the Pack are drinking and carousing all night. Like I said, I don’t know how true the HBO film is, but if true, it was a side of Dean Martin that I could never have imagined existed. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2021, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947/58 "2021-10-09T09:36:15Z")
At one point in the book, Dean is being interviewed in his hotel room (which he seldom left) during a long gig. He looks out the window and says “Is that rain? I haven’t seen rain in six months!”. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2021, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947/59 "2021-10-09T13:50:19Z")
Is that more of a commentary on how rare rain is in Las Vegas than a comment on how reclusive Dean Martin is? ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2021, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947/60 "2021-10-09T14:17:53Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > I don’t know how true it is, but in the HBO production of _The Rat Pack_ (1998), Dean Martin is portrayed as a lonely individual. Oh, he may be a friendly piano player in the piano bar, or a host joking on the stage of The Sands with Sinatra and the rest, but after the show, he’s back in his hotel room, alone, and getting some sleep; while Sinatra and the rest of the Pack are drinking and carousing all night. Like I said, I don’t know how true the HBO film is, but if true, it was a side of Dean Martin that I could never have imagined existed. It’s a sad commentary on American society that somebody who wishes to take care of himself by getting proper sleep is portrayed as a lonely person. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stars-who-had-no-friends/951947.md?page=4)