# What famous figures were you most surprised to discover were huge assholes? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 6, 2009, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109 "2009-04-06T05:46:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109/121 "2009-04-07T17:15:06Z")
Are the various people saying Andrew Jackson referring to his anti-Indian policy, or was there something else about him that was notably unpleasant? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109/122 "2009-04-07T17:18:40Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Are the various people saying Andrew Jackson referring to his anti-Indian policy, or was there something else about him that was notably unpleasant? What else do you need? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109/123 "2009-04-07T17:24:33Z")
Nothing, of course - it’s just that I always thought Jackson’s anti-Indian stuff was pretty common knowledge, so therefore I wouldn’t think anybody would be surprised to learn about it. Unless, I suppose, you learned about American history several decades when they glossed over a lot of that stuff in high school textbooks. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109/124 "2009-04-07T17:32:56Z")
I think that’s what they’re talking about. I learned about Jackson the Dick, not Jackson the Nice President, but my history teacher gave me the impression that most people only knew the latter. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109/125 "2009-04-07T17:43:02Z")
Moshe Dayan, the one-eyed general who was probably the world’s most recognized Israeli for three decades, had a famously complex personality. His “quirks” included sleeping with virtually every female soldier under his command, and pilfering archeological sites for his own private collection. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109/126 "2009-04-07T17:45:40Z")
So you’re saying maybe he was led around by his own “one-eyed general” a little too much? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109/127 "2009-04-07T17:46:11Z")
> [@HelloNinja](#): > > My father and step-mom both work in theater in Seattle (he does various backstage work and she does wardrobe), and my Dad was actually working on this show. He had some crazy stories about Quaid and his wife. They were completely out of control. More his wife than him. What were they doing? Badgering the actors or…? It has to be serious for that many actors to sign a statement against him. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109/128 "2009-04-07T17:51:48Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Moshe Dayan, the one-eyed general who was probably the world’s most recognized Israeli for three decades, had a famously complex personality. His “quirks” included sleeping with virtually every female soldier under his command, and pilfering archeological sites for his own private collection. 1. In his day was;nt that less of a quirk, more a privilege of command? 2. Enlightened man. I know when I sack a city/nation, the first place I would go to would be the museums. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109/129 "2009-04-07T17:55:08Z")
> [@sweeteviljesus](#): > > Hey, **AK84** , what about Benizir Bhutto? > > Rob Besides marrying that thief who… I don’t have the strenght to say it. She was incompetant, easily led about, had no business being PM, and incidentally she was about as democratic as Hienz Guderian. But from all I have read, people who worked with her always found it difficult to dislike her personally. She was warm and friendly. ---
**Author:** ![Sonnenstrahl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Sonnenstrahl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonnenstrahl)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109/130 "2009-04-07T19:57:18Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > Neither have I, and I’m no expert on the Black Death or that period of European history. Everything I’ve read about it in the last few years has tended to say “we think the Black Death was bubonic plague” but I’ve always interpreted “we think” to mean “while we’re pretty sure, we aren’t 100% sure.” > > The only reason I bring it up is because that disclaimer is very common, even if there are no commonly espoused alternate explanations. I was taught in a course that Black Death = bubonic plague was a myth that had been debunked years ago, but I never bothered to check it out. So I just did a quick search on JSTOR and found that Samuel K. Cohn Jr (a well-respected Italian renaissance historian) argued this view in 2002. I don’t know if it was just that my prof loved Cohn and translated “argued four years ago” as “debunked twenty years ago,” or if Cohn was just one in a long line of scholars, but I suspect that if I allowed myself to follow up more, I would be at it all day so I won’t. [Here](http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/108.5/br_105.html)’s a book review that outlines his argument. I don’t know if it’s limited by subscription as I’m writing this on campus and have access to most journals. \ ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109/131 "2009-04-07T20:27:34Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > …Media escorts used to have a “[Golden](http://www.salon.com/books/log/1999/10/27/dartboard/) [Dartboard](http://www.geocities.com/soHo/Gallery/5560/globe8.html)” award for the most obnoxious author they escorted during a publicity tour… My sister used to own a small bookstore and I remember a survey like that. British author Jeffrey Archer came out 'way ahead of the pack that year - a raging egomaniac and prima donna, by all accounts. I still like most of his work, though. The Master speaks on the Mahatma’s curious nocturnal habits: [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2521/did-mahatma-gandhi-sleep-with-virgins](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2521/did-mahatma-gandhi-sleep-with-virgins) Another vote for Frank Lloyd Wright, a visionary and very talented architect who was _also_ a raging egomaniac and prima donna, abandoning his wife and kids for another woman. Also a notorious skinflint. Thomas Jefferson was a brilliant man, no doubt, but he secretly funded an opposition newspaper when he was serving in Washington’s Cabinet and lied about it when he was caught, shared secret documents with French diplomats, and undercut Adams at every turn as “his” Vice President. And don’t get me started on the whole hypocrisy/Sally Hemings/slavery thing. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109/132 "2009-04-07T21:38:39Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Moshe Dayan, the one-eyed general who was probably the world’s most recognized Israeli for three decades, had a famously complex personality. His “quirks” included sleeping with virtually every female soldier under his command, and pilfering archeological sites for his own private collection. Heh, I learned when I was volunteering at Tel Dor that he was universaly hated by Israeli archeologists for his pilfering ways. ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109/133 "2009-04-07T21:43:03Z")
> [@magnusblitz](#): > > I was lucky enough to have an awesome teacher for AP American History (junior year of high school) who taught us straight-up that Jackson was a humongeous asshole. “If I could go back in time, I would go meet Andrew Jackson, and punch him in the face!” In which case General Jackson would undoubtedly have killed your AP history teacher where he stood, straight up or not. Jackson was the epitome of the western self-made gentleman of the early 19th century (the Jacksonian Era). He did not suffer fools (even if they taught high school history) or opposition lightly. His great failure is that he saw any political opponent as a personal enemy, someone to be destroyed and ruined, not some one to be persuaded. ---
**Author:** ![Tool\_of\_the\_Conspiracy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@Tool\_of\_the\_Conspiracy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tool_of_the_Conspiracy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109/134 "2009-04-07T21:47:03Z")
He’s not as famous as most of the others mentioned here, but I watched a program yesterday that said that Jack Tramiel, the founder of Commodore, was a crook. If a supplier became too dependent on Commodore’s business, he would delay paying them until they were nearly bankrupt, then buy them. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109/135 "2009-04-07T21:47:34Z")
Stan Getz. For a guy who could reach your soul with his sax, the guy was an incredibly huge asshole to everyone around him. It just doesn’t seem to go together. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109/136 "2009-04-07T22:18:11Z")
I read a biography of Stan Getz once, back when I used to play the sax. I think the main reason he was an asshole was because he was either drunk, or jonesing for heroin, **all the time.** Most of the great jazz musicians of that era had major problems with drugs and drinking but Stan Getz’s was very likely the worst of them all. He was very violent, would lash out at people physically, beat up his wives and girlfriends all the time, and once took his saxophone and smashed it against a tree until it was bent in half. He was a true Jekyll and Hyde type, and when he was drinking, or didn’t have access to heroin, he turned into a monster. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109/137 "2009-04-07T22:25:40Z")
Chuck Berry-I believe, he had a urine fetish, and was something of a slut. ---
**Author:** ![MickNickMaggies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/59ef9b/32.png) [@MickNickMaggies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MickNickMaggies)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109/138 "2009-04-07T22:37:02Z")
Personal experience: Susan Sontag was pretty bitchy and downright rude if you didn’t ask the ‘right’ questions. That could depend on whether or not she was being a novelist or journalist that day. Chaim Potok: a huge jerk. Conversely, Hillary Hahn and Mark Bowden are lovely. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109/139 "2009-04-07T22:37:20Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Chuck Berry-I believe, he had a urine fetish, and was something of a slut. The urine fetish makes him peculiar, and his sluttiness is pretty typical of his gender, but how does either make him an asshole? ---
**Author:** ![Ludy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Ludy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109/140 "2009-04-07T22:49:28Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > What were they doing? Badgering the actors or…? It has to be serious for that many actors to sign a statement against him. According to this [article](http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2004172263_webquaid08.html) he was physically and verbally abusive, missed a week of performances and blamed his behavior on his “process”. As someone who works in the industry there is something is very wrong with your process if a group that is composed of actors, looking out for the best interest of actors, will kick you out for it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-figures-were-you-most-surprised-to-discover-were-huge-assholes/492109.md?page=8)