Over the years we have witnessed the rise and and fall of many celebrities. Some have bowed out gracefully, like Rick Moranis, who respectably quit acting to raise his kids following his wife’s death. Conversely, there are those who have razed their careers to the ground through drug and/or alcohol abuse, sex scandals, felonies or even just downright stupidity. Here are a few of these intriguing characters who had it all but p*ssed it away.
Charlie Sheen
Carlos Irwin Estévez or Charlie Sheen, as he is better known, went from being the highest paid actor on television to a complete joke in a matter of a few years. The 50-year-old actor was drawing $US1.8 million per episode while working on the sitcom Two and a Half Men before being fired for numerous reasons, including his drug use and anti-Semitic comments about series creator Chuck Lorre. This dismissal resulted in a highly publicized meltdown in which Sheen made bizarre statements about himself on television and radio interviews. Apart from calling himself a warlock and an F-18, the actor has said he has tiger blood, is on a drug called Charlie Sheen, and is “bi-winning” (when asked if he was bi-polar).
Here’s an interview he did in 2011:
Natalia Kills and Willy Moon
English singer and actress Teddy Sinclair, who used to go by the name Natalia Kills, and her husband Willy Moon were featured on Season 2 of New Zealand’s version of The X-Factor as judges and mentors. Everything was going fine until the first live show, in which Kills berated contestant Joe Irvine for allegedly copying her husband. Just to be clear, Irvine was dressed in a fairly simple suit and sported a common haircut at the time. She went on to say she found his performance “artistically atrocious”, and Moon added to the slew of insults, making a bizarre comment likening Irvine to fictional murderer Norman bates dressing up in his mother’s clothing. Needless to say these comments were met with much criticism by the public, resulting in both Kills and Moon being fired the very next day. The pair later took to Twitter to issue apologies to Irvine, but it was too little, too late. Watch the action below.
Ian Watkins
“Sex, drugs, and rock & roll” is the credo of many rockstars, but Ian Watkins took the sex bit to an unforgiveable level. The former lead singer of Lostprophets pleaded guilty to 13 child sex offences in 2013 and was slapped with a 35-year sentence. To make matters worse, these offences include the attempted rape of a baby. The mothers of the two children Watkins abused were jailed 14 and 17 years for their part in his appalling acts.
Lindsay Lohan
Of course this list isn’t complete without Linsday Lohan. The once endearing starlet who started gaining fame through her performances in movies like The Parent Trap, Freaky Friday and Mean Girls went on a downward spiral fuelled by drugs and booze. Unfortunately for her, this painful decline was well-documented by the media, making any attempt at a comeback extremely trying. For a good number of years, Lohan was caught in a vicious cycle involving rehab, court, and jail. Most recently the actress was in the news for filing a lawsuit against Rockstar Games on the grounds that the game’s Lacey Jonas character was an “unequivocal” reference to her. Perhaps her vast experiences in court will come in handy here.
