Eddie Van Halen had an amazing gift that came with a curse. He could play guitar like no one else, but the demons inside his head were always there taunting him to do the most despicable things.
Hank Williams made a huge splash in the early country music scene. His life behind the music is equally as tragic as the subjects he wrote about, plagued with substance use and the highs and lows of fame. Many details come as a great surprise considering his immense legacy.
Thelma Todd was an unapologetic party girl with an insatiable desire for men who treated her wrong. Then, on December 16, 1935 her maid discovered her lifeless—and elegantly dressed—body curled up in her chocolate-colored Lincoln convertible. She was just 29 years old. It looked like a simple, tragic, accident—but, as they say in Hollywood, things are rarely what they seem.
Most of us know Paul Walker as the clean-cut, handsome, and likeable co-star of the high-octane Fast & Furious franchise. Also well documented is his bromance with acting buddy Vin Diesel and his charitable work. Somehow, Walker’s romantic life has more or less flown under the radar. As it turns out, Walker had a very good reason to keep his romances a secret.
Today, the name Lucille Ricksen is largely unknown to most people. However, in the early 1920s, her face appeared everywhere. Hollywood touted her as the newest rising star, and maybe she would have been, if the very industry that let her shine hadn’t worked her to the point where she couldn’t go on, snuffing out her light far too soon.
It only takes one look at Kirk Douglas's chiseled face to realize he was no ordinary Old Hollywood heartthrob. Douglas brought an intensity to the screen that no one else could match—but the real drama started when the cameras stopped rolling. From countless adulterous affairs to chilling accusations, it's hard to say whether Kirk Douglas was a hero or a villain.
Corey Haim could be a poster boy for child actors who fail to launch as adults. This innocent from Canada quickly reached the heights of Hollywood fame only to fall just as fast.
Ingrid Bergman was Hollywood’s saintly good girl—but nothing could be further from the truth. Her explosive affair with Roberto Rossellini turned an entire nation against her, and it quickly became the Hollywood scandal. But that was only the beginning. Even after her death, sordid secrets from Bergman’s naughty past kept surfacing—and they threatened to ruin her legacy forever.
James Cagney is an actor of contradictions. He made a Hollywood career out of playing murderous thugs, but what he really excelled at was singing and dancing. His rags-to-riches story is equal parts turbulent and bizarre—a life story that needs to be told.
An absolute titan of the music industry, Chuck Berry’s contribution to contemporary sound is indisputable. With a road to stardom equally decorated by success and controversy, the father of rock forces each of us to ask ourselves whether we can separate the art from the artist.
THE SHOT
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