Andy Dick?
Michael O’Hare, whose mental illness became so severe during the filming of Babylon 5 that he had to be written out of the show.
And about which JMS had taken a vow of secrecy, swearing to take it to his grave. But O’Hare said that wouldn’t be necessary, just to wait until after he passed. The man really didn’t deserve all the crap he got for that performance. Now a whole bunch of us feel really guilty and ashamed.
23 posts, and no mention of Keith Moon? 
In addition to Peter Green, Fleetwood Mac guitarist Danny Kirwin suffered from depression.
And while he was never treated or diagnosed, guitarist Jeremy Spencer had some minor issues due to drugs. He left his hotel room the afternoon before a show and never came back, finally emerging in a religious commune.
Fry also attempted suicide a year or so back. I don’t know if it was the first time.
Wealth, drugs, alcohol, and serious mental illness. It’s amazing the poor guy lived as long as he did.
Spalding Gray?
Or Ginger Baker? Finishing his recent documentary, “Beware of Mr. Baker” was quite a challenge because he was such a horrible person - and was totally aware of this.
Kristen Hersh of Throwing Muses, etc. has spoken extensively and written a book about her own battle with bipolar disorder.
One of my relatives, who’s a huge XTC fan and also has a child on the autistic spectrum, says that their song “Senses Working Overtime” is Asperger Syndrome defined, and I’ve seen speculation elsewhere that he quite likely has it. While autism is not a mental illness, it can be a co-morbid condition with any of them, especially anxiety disorders which was why Partridge was unable to perform onstage.
Donny Osmond has also described having anxiety issues.
He joined the Children of God, which believed that young children should engage in drug use and sexual activity. River Phoenix was raised in it too.
Not to mention GG Allin, Darby Crash, Bob Stinson, Ozzy Osbourne, Courtney Love, Axl Rose, Scott Weiland, and any member of Club 27.
The actor Rex Harrison was married to a woman from 1962-1971 who was a talented actress in her own right, named Rachel Roberts (once Oscar nominated). For lack of a more precise term, she was a nutjob, alcoholic and out of control. She took her own life in 1980.
Their fights were legendary. I read a description of one on the set of Doctor Dolittle that got so loud it actually agitated the seals and made them unable to film the scene they were needed in. (Rex Harrison doesn’t seem to have been mentally ill, but was one of the most loathed men in show business for his narcissism and general bad attitude.)
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What’s weird about his case is that his wife is not only just as crazy as he is but their craziness and delusions are apparently in perfect sync.
I miss Randy- such a great actor.
A classic case of folie à deux. I miss him, too.
Some time ago I read Showman, David Thomson’s biography of legendary Hollywood producer David O. Selznick and while the book makes no medical or psychiatric diagnosises, it’s evident that mental disorders ran rampant throughout the Selznick family tree. David was likely bipolar, a condition that was made worse by his overuse of Benzedrine, and a gambling addict. His brother Myron, an agent who developed the business blueprint Hollywood would follow after the collapse of the studio system, was an alcoholic who drank himself to death at age 45. There was also another brother, Howard, who was either borderline mentally disabled or suffered from some type of mental illness that kept him out of public view.
The problem with thread like these, however, is most of us are not doctors or psychiatrists. We can only base our conclusions on what we’ve read on Wikipedia or some other general information sources, biographical depictions (which could be unreliable), or our own first-hand personal experience.
Truman Capote has long been believed to have been a sociopath, and as for Judy Garland, I remember reading a biography of her in the early 1990s and thinking that much of it could have been written about Axl Rose. :eek:
Kurt Cobain had an official diagnosis of major depressive disorder, and may have carried other diagnoses I’m unaware of, not to mention that anyone who takes his own life without being in a lot of physical misery must be in terrible psychic pain.
Didn’t one of his sister’s children commit suicide? mental disorders seem to have familial connections.
As far as Rex Harrison being a narcissist, there is something called “Narcissistic Personality Disorder.” Loathe as I am to armchair diagnose people, all I’m saying is, it exists. It’s also possible to be pretty full of yourself without being mentally ill.
Everything I’ve read about Marilyn Monroe suggests that Borderline PD could be on the money, but again, I don’t know her, and IANAD. I have had the frustrating experience of dealing with people with this diagnosis, though, and they can just make you want to smack them. A lot of them were mildly abused as children, and emotionally neglected, and crave attention like they’re starving, so they pull all kinds of stunts to get it, but then at the last minute, when you try to give them attention, they jump out of the way-- they want you to force it on them so they can play some sort of game that they didn’t manipulate you into it, is all I can figure. As for Marilyn Monroe, people who knew her seem to describe her as “needy” a lot, and they can’t mean that she didn’t have clothes or enough to eat. “Needy” is a very good way to describe Borderlines.
I wish I could remember where I saw it but there was documentary featuring Harrison rehearsing for a play. I don’t know what play it was but it was Harrison was not shy about questioning his director’s instructions about how he should say his lines. Still, at least in the clip, Harrison was not nasty or insulting–just a bit patronizing. He always had an artistic reason to support his objections and was partially intent on teaching the younger director on how the scene should be done. I could see how doing this probably drove many of his directors crazy even if Harrison did have many years of experience behind him.
Yes, her son jumped off a hotel balcony. He was adopted which can carry with it its own set of issues.