Offscreen, he wasn’t much better; he once downed 21 shots of tequila before diving into the sea when he heard of a reported shark sighting. Even from early on in his acting career, O’Toole enjoyed his fair share of the bottle. During the filming of Lawrence of Arabia, his wild drinking sprees in the city of Beirut, Lebanon, were stuff of legend, and he was reportedly drunk for the duration of the filming of the 1964 classic, Becket.

• Alexander Godunov was famous for both his talents as a ballet dancer with the Bolshoi ballet and for defecting from the USSR in 1979 while on tour in the United States.
• These statistics do not imply that women should become complacent because they are relatively protected against substance use disorders.
• Gene Clark was a gifted songwriter and singer, famous for co-founding the Byrds in 1965.
• I don’t want to go into details, but I drank a lot and it was daily – I mean nightly.
• Thankfully, the star celebrated 11 years of sobriety in April 2019.

Celebrities Who Have Opened Up About Getting Sober

A long-time alcoholic, Cassavetes passed from complications of cirrhosis of the liver in 1989, at the age of 59. John Cassavetes began his career as an actor in such films as Rosemary’s Baby. Considered a key American director of the later 20th century, films such as A Woman Under the Influence and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie were important influences on later directors. After an attempt at sobriety, McKernan spent the actors who are alcoholics last few months of his life eating little and consuming vast quantities of alcohol, dying in 1973 at the age of 27 from a gastrointestinal hemorrhage.

John Legend pities ‘sad’ Kanye West after bizarre mashed potatoes diss: ‘He’s gone completely left’

• That’s why there are so many celebrities with depression and anxiety.
• Taylor’s commitment to her recovery was a testament to her strength and resilience.
• An alcohol use disorder is a treatable condition and taking the first step to ask for professional help can be one of the most rewarding things a person can do for himself or herself.
• Today, he’s best known for his role as Iron Man and as a symbol of resilience and redemption.

King has described his addiction as a way of coping with the pressures of his success, as well as the trauma of a near-fatal car accident in 1999. Many have had to seek inpatient addiction treatment or risk ruining their careers and their lives. Eventually, drinking became a crutch, and McGraw felt completely unable to perform without it. Identifying the excuses behind his drinking habits and resolving past trauma helped him to get sober before the start of a 2008 tour – one he later described as the hardest of his life. Famous as the original lead singer for Australia’s AC/DC, the Scottish-born Bon Scott lived the rock and roll lifestyle.

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Outwardly, rich and famous people seem to be living their best lives. In reality, we see only what the media shows us, the outward façade of a celebrity’s life. Dig a little under the surface and you’ll find a long list of famous alcoholics and drug addicts.

proudly sober celebrities who say quitting alcohol changed their lives

Below are 10 celebrities who struggled with alcoholism and found recovery. Robert Downey Jr. struggled with drug abuse from a young age and even ended up in the slammer in 1999 after he failed to take court-ordered drug tests for a alcoholism symptoms cocaine possession charge from 1996. Elton John has been sober for more than 30 years following alcohol and drug addiction, which included cocaine. Drew Barrymore infamously frequented Studio 54 as a child star and consequently had easy access to drugs and alcohol. ‘If I continued it, I was really going to sabotage my whole life,’ Cooper told GQ in 2013. Cooper got sober at 29 years old and has now been a teetotal celebrity for 19 years.