In the wake of Owen Wilson’s attempted suicide last week, mental_floss has a surprisingly long list of celebrities who have suicide attempts in their past, but then turned their lives around.
Some of these cases you may have heard of; others will surprise you. Link
Halle Berry – admitted to Parade magazine that, distraught over her failed marriage to baseball star David Justice, she tried to end her life by carbon monoxide poisoning.
Nadia Comaneci – while she denied it for years, the gymnastics legend was so stressed out (due to several factors, including her parents’ divorce) that she tried to end her life by drinking bleach just two years after her 1976 Olympics success.
Richard Pryor – later admitted that the fire that injured him while free-basing cocaine in June 1980 was really a suicide attempt.
Some of these cases you may have heard of; others will surprise you. Link
As far as happy, successful people wanting to kill themselves, Edwin Arlington Robinson said it best:
WHENEVER Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich—yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.
I'm pretty sure there is a significant history of depression in comedians, but hey they're celebrities so they clearly don't require any sympathy or have problems like ordinary people.
I believe that for the most part, these dumb things stars do are from being drowned in cash, and being so idolized by thousands of fans.
Why can't we just like them in their movies without trying to pick apart and exam their entire lives?
I find it strange how people who liked Tom Cruise and saw all his movies now refuse because they think he's nuts.
If you think like I do, then do your part and don't click on the news articles about these stories.
Sorry for the rant, I just get really annoyed when I see Brittany Spears in the headlines over other crucial world changing events.
-Justin