26 Celebs With Dark Pasts

That famous person you want to switch places with? Hold that thought.
26 Celebs With Dark Pasts

Celebrities seem to lead perfect lives. They have the big three Fs: fame, fortune, and free burritos at Chipotle. It's pretty easy to look up to them with admiration and envy, wishing you were them.

But sometimes, tinsel covers up misery. Even the biggest-deal celebs have skeletons in their huge walk-in closets -- they've done horrible things, or had horrible things happen to them. We've put together a list of people with bright lives, but a dark past.

We all know about Drew Barrymore partying WAY too soon and the Billy Joel thing just makes us shed a tear for the piano man. What we couldn’t believe was the HOSTAGE situation that Samuel L. Jackson was involved in with Martin Luther King Jr.’s FATHER. It’s a strange world, and apparently it only gets stranger (and darker?) at the top.

Keep scrolling for more can’t-look-away-schadenfreude-fuel that will make you go: hmm? Am I a bad person?

When Dylan McDermott from American Horror Story was five, his mom was shot dead by her gangster boyfriend, John Sponza. McDermott sought justice for y
Drew Barrymore took very young to the party lifestyle. She was drinking at nine years old, smoking pot at 10, and snorting cocaine at 12. By 13, she h
Billy Joel wrote his song Tomorrow is Today based on his suicide note. Joel tried to take his own life in 1970, when his affair with his drummer's w

Leighton Meester

Leighton Meester, who you've seen in Gossip Girl, was born in jail. Her mom was doing time for drug smuggling. CRACKED COM
Matthew Broderick collided with a Volvo in 1987, killing two women. He claims he doesn't remember that day, or why he was driving in the wrong lane. H
CRACKEDC COM Samuel L. Jackson led a protest in college that escalated badly. Police had to intervene when protesters took several faculty members hos
CRACKEDCON Pamela Anderson has revealed that she was molested by a female babysitter when she was six, raped at age 12, and gang- raped by her boyfrie

Jackie Coogan

CRACKED.CON When Jackie Coogan was 19, long before he became Uncle Fester, a close friend of his was murdered. Coogan was part of a mob that lynched t
Tyler Perry has described his childhood as a living hell. He was often beaten by his father, and several adults abused him sexually. CRACKED COM
CRACKEDcO Ludwig van Beethoven had a harsh childhood. His alcoholic father wanted Ludwig to become the next Mozart, and would force him to practice al

Charlie Chaplin

CRACKEDCON Charlie Chaplin married actress Lita Grey after he knocked her up and she refused to have an abortion. He was 35 and she was 16.
CRACKEDG COM Oprah Winfrey was beaten up regularly during her childhood. Sexually abused since age nine, at 14 she gave birth to a child, who died two

Abraham Lincoln

CRACKEDo COMT Abraham Lincoln lost his mother when he was nine, and his father left to find a new wife. Abe and his 11-year-old sister had to fend for
Albert Einstein gave his first wife a list of stipulations that he expected her to follow. Essentially, she was to be his maid and expect nothing in r

Punk’d

CRACKEDo COM Zach Braff, also known as J.D. from Scrubs, beat up a kid in 2005. Several teens sprayed fake paint on his Porsche as a prank for Punk'd.

Robert Downey Jr.

CRACKED COM Robert Downey Jr. got his first hit of weed from his own father when he was six years old. He's been addicted to drugs since age eight.

Keanu Reeves

Keanu Reeves' life is full of tragedy. His father left when he was three, and his best friend River Phoenix died from a drug overdose. His girlfriend
Tom Baker, of Doctor Who fame, had a very strained relationship with his wife's family to the point of attempting to murder his mother-in-law with gar
Charles S. Dutton, the sage groundskeeper who helps inspire Rudy in Rudy, went to prison for manslaughter at 17. It wouldn't be his last conviction.

Peter Yarrow

CRACKEDCON Peter Yarrow (center) is the Peter of the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary. He's also a convicted sex offender. He went to prison in the '70
Don King was convicted of manslaughter in 1967 for stomping an employee to death over an unpaid debt. CRACKED COM
Kiefer Sutherland has done a few short jail stints for driving under the influence. He also got in trouble for headbutting a fashion designer in 2009.
CRACKEDCON Chuck Berry had a considerable rap sheet. He was in jail for robbery and illegally transporting a year- old girl across state lines. In 199
Madonna was raped shortly after moving to New York City. A man said she could use his telephone- only to assault her at knifepoint once she was in his

Coco Chanel

Coco Chanel didn't just revolutionize fashion she was also a Nazi spy. Declassified documents identify her as a secret agent working for the Germans,
Joaquin Phoenix spent his early childhood in a sex cult called the Children of God. When the family left the group in 1978, they changed their last na
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