Beethoven
There’s been many tragic and self-destructive souls to step in the ring of Professional Wrestling, but there’s not much to approach the tragedy of the Von Erich wrestling dynasty of Texas.
Fritz Von Erich, one of the great “heels” (bad guys) of the 60s and 70s, had six sons. His eldest, Jack, was killed at the age of seven due to accidental electrocution. The five younger boys all became wrestlers.
David Von Erich, nicknamed the “Yellow Rose of Texas”, died under what could be politely termed ‘mysterious circumstances’ while wrestling in Japan. The family maintains an untreated intestinal ailment killed him. Unofficially, the wrestling community believes it was a massive drug overdose, and that his best friend Bruiser Brody discovered his body and disposed of the evidence. David was 25.
Mike Von Erich, the middle brother, had numerous medical problems which took a toll on him. He was arrested on drunk driving and drug possession charges and, facing jail time, he left a suicide note, then snuck off into the woods, curled up in a sleeping bag, and overdosed on alcohol and pills. He was 23.
Chris Von Erich was the baby of the family. He idolized his father and brothers and desperately wanted to be a wrestler. But his asthma and small stature set him back, and he never achieved the success he craved. He was especially close to his brother Mike, and took Mike’s death hard. Chris shot himself in the head. He was 21.
Kerry Von Erich was arguably the superstar of the family. He had the look, athleticism, and charisma. He had a foot amputated after a motorcycle accident, and continued wrestling with a prosthesis, keeping it secret even through a two-year-stint in the WWF. He became addicted to pain killers after his accident and was arrested for drugs. Bret Hart says that Kerry began talking about how much he missed his brothers and that he wanted to join them. Shortly before he died, he made a last attempt to patch things up with his ex-wife; when that didn’t work out, Kerry shot himself in the heart. He was 33.
Kevin Von Erich is the last survivor of the talented Von Erich brothers. After Kerry’s suicide, their mother left Fritz, blaming him for what happened to their sons. Both parents are now dead. In interviews given after Kerry’s death, Kevin mournfully says that “All my life, I’ve been a big brother, and now I’m not even a brother.” Two of Kevin’s own sons, Ross and Marshall, are wrestlers now in Japan (Kerry’s daughter Lacey also had a brief career as a wrestler).
We got to work with Sandra Dee when she did Love Letters at a theater in Beverly Hills in about 1998 or so. She seemed quite fine - and her son came to see the show and it was amazing - he looked EXACTLY like his father! Almost freaky.
She seemed OK to us - drove to the theater from her house (just a few blocks away) in her Rolls Royce and seemed spry and fit and quite happy to find people cared enough to come see her appear in the show.
One funny memory - she had her typical Sandra Dee hair - quite high on her head (like in the 60’s) and the first night, she was afraid nobody would come see her and someone said it was sold out. So, curious to see a sold out theater, she went on stage and wanted to sneak a view to the audience.
She hid behind the side curtain and stuck her head out to get a look. So envision the audience suddenly start to see this blonde ball of hair slowly start to appear from the side, further and further, until finally Sandra could see the audience.
The stage manager was up in the booth and burst out laughing - saying it looked like a floating poodle mid-air with little eyes staring out at the people in the audience.
Although he’s probably not too well known outside of Canada (where he is still remembered as “the toughest guy (Ali) ever fought”), I’d nominate former heavyweight boxer George Chuvalo.
Woody Harrelson had a rough time. His Dad was a murderer and even murdered a judge after getting paroled.
Reading the bio of actress Jennifer O’Neill made my jaw drop. There’s too much to recount here, but the first three lines of her “trivia” section gives you a taste of it:
Married 9 times to 8 husbands, 3 children, 4 grandchildren, 9 miscarriages, 1 abortion.
Broke back and neck as youth when a horse she was riding fell on her.
Accidentally shot herself in the abdomen in 1983.
James Quarry who was the only brother of the Quarry family that did not take up boxing as a career, and ended up caretaker for his 3 brothers-- 2 of whom suffered from pugilistic dementia, and another that suffers from Parkinsons believe to have been caused by boxing as well. One brother took care of the entire family.
His brother Jerry Quarry, was a highly ranked heavyweight boxer, who fought both Ali and Frazer twice. Younger brother Mike Quarry was a ranked light-heavyweight contender. Bobby Quarry also fought professionally as a heavyweight.
Mike died in 1998, Jerry in 1999.
The Quarrys were from Bakersfield, CA, and were into amateur boxing at an early age. They were active from the late 60s through the late 70s.
I read the autobiography of Lauren Chapin, who played ‘Kitten’ on Father Knows Best. It was classic. Classic dysfunctional family = badly screwed up child. She had a terrible life, sexual abuse, alcohol, severe drug abuse, bad marriages, prostitution, numerous rehabs, relapse, institutionalized for a year, relapse - just heartbreaking, she hit every single mark. Until she found herself pregnant, and then found Jesus. Oh, it was just terrible! Not finding Jesus, her whole awful life, I think today she’s a minister of some sort. I’m glad she found peace.
Brett Butler had a hard time of it, HER autobiography was just gut-wrenching. She went into detail about how she was severely, systematically physically abused by a husband. She was seeing a doctor for something, and he saw how bruised she was, all over, from the neck down - he gasped in horror, he asked if she had been hit by a car. She said, no. My husband beats me… That stayed with me, and still does. Horrifying.
I think Michael Jackson and the Jackson family as a whole qualifies as being pretty tragic, if stories of what their Father did are true. And the unnecessary ridicule and meaningless legal and media battles he had to fight were right up there. The dude was very weird, no doubt in part due to the trauma he experienced, and then he was killed by his doctor who couldn’t/wouldn’t tell him no to all the meds he was taking. Not to mention his kids loved him dearly and listening to his daughter say that Michael was the best father in the world through tears was heartbreaking.
I wasn’t surprised in the slightest when Mackenzie Phillips revealed that she’s a survivor of father/daughter incest.
Rush drummer Neil Peart lost his first child, a 19-year-old daughter, in a car accident in 1997, and his first wife, her mother, to cancer 11 months later. He remarried a few years later and has a daughter by this marriage.
Roman Polanski deserves a mention. He was a child in the Krakow ghetto during WWII, his mother was killed in Auschwitz, his father deported to Mauthausen, he roamed the Polish countryside, witnessing and experiencing some horrible things. (His Wikipedia page mentions Nazi soldiers using him for target practice.) Even after the war he has to live through the Stalinist period behind the Iron Curtain.
Finally he gets into moviemaking, has some success, is allowed to move west, and has some *mega-*success (Chinatown, Rosemary’s Baby). He marries a beautiful actress, buys a nice house in Hollywood, they’re about to have their first child…and she’s brutally murdered by the Manson gang.
Of course, many people know Polanski because of the tragedy he inflicted on that 13 year old girl in 1977. Awful though that was, it doesn’t negate the stuff he had to live through before that.
The two daughters in Poltergeist had very tragic ends. Dominique Dunne was murdered at age 22 and Heather O’Rourke died from complications of septic shock at age 12.
Roy Orbison was the first to mind for me. As others touched on, he lost his wife in a motorbike accident, his two eldest sons to a house fire, and then right in the midst of his successful comeback bid, he died of a heart attack his early fifties.
Comedian Robert Schimmel.
He had a testicle removed at the age of 8 due to cancer.
His son died at the age of 11 from cancer.
In '98 he survived a heart attack, and then in 2000 was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
In 2010 he announced that he had Hep-C and advanced cirrhosis of the liver, all a result of a blood transfusion he got in the military.
Later in 2010 he was in a car accident (Bonus Tragic Detail: his daughter was driving) and he died from his injuries a few weeks later at the age of 60.
If this were a contest, I think you might have picked the winner … or maybe it would be more appropriate to call her the loser.
I read, and enjoyed, his book, “Cancer on $5 A Day”. I didn’t know he had died.
Dana Plato had a rough life after Different Strokes. And then her son committed suicide 11 years after her death. 
I also recall reading Erin Moran was (still is?) homeless.
Roman Polanski had a tough life. As a child he saw both of his parents taken away to concentration camps (father survived, mother didn’t), had to roam the Polish countryside stealing food, was used as target practice by German soldiers for fun, and was beaten so badly he required a steel plate in his head. As an adult his wife was brutally and senselessly murdered in his house while 8 and 1/2 months pregnant with his baby, along with three of his friends. Hard to imagine any of that.
ETA: as was already said by Rodgers01.
It is a sad case. Oddly enough, one of the Von Erich family members is an active member here.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8774525&postcount=195