Gloria Grahame shot to stardom after appearing in the Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life. Yet if her name isn’t as well known today, maybe that’s because this ingénue never got a happy holiday ending—far from it.

In 1952, Veronica Lake fled LA in a fit of madness. She never returned. Decades later, Hollywood had forgotten all about the former star—that is, until a journalist tracked her down. What he found shocked him to the core.

Born into an acting dynasty, Natasha Richardson lived the sort of golden life that so many can only dream of. She had all you could desire: the career, the fame, and the man. However, the most beautiful things are often the most fragile. At the height of her career, Richardson lost everything, leaving only tragedy and heartbreak in her wake.

Fans knew Carole Lombard as the “screwball queen” and the “profane angel,” but when she wasn’t providing the laughs on screen she was living the glamorous high life, engaging in behind-the-scenes scandals as racy as any of her contemporaries. Sadly, a tragic accident took her far too soon—but even though she lived to just 33, her story is as jaw-dropping as it gets.

Since Fred Rogers first stepped out into the world, he noticed a profound lack of enriching children’s entertainment, especially in the budding medium of television. Taking this as his calling, he created a series almost entirely from his own mind, teaching children how to overcome life’s greatest struggles. Against the fear and uncertainty of the world, he provided a much-needed comfort—making his loss all the more heartbreaking.

Paul Simon once sang, “I am a rock, I am an island”—and he wasn’t lying. Simon’s songwriting brilliance is as complicated as the man himself. Beneath the chart-topping, era-defining music, he was a minefield of neuroses: obsessed with control, wracked with self-doubt, and locked in one of music’s most outrageous feuds with his angel-voiced partner, Art Garfunkel. Behind the hits lay a trail of controversy, failed love affairs, wild, substance-fueled nights with Princess Leia, and a genius who couldn’t stop unraveling.