15 Celebs Who Let Addiction Ruin Them

“[Substances] is God's way of saying you're making too much money” - humourist and Oscar winning actor, Robin Williams couldn't have nailed a phrase better for a man who saw himself turning to substances and alcohol to keep up in the world of glamour. Williams sought escape as do so many others who are engulfed by the razzle-dazzle. Hollywood is a story of beauty, it is a celebration of charm, it is a saga of success - but beyond the smokescreen, Hollywood is also a boulevard of broken dreams. There are those, who didn't quite make it and then there are those who made more than they could come to terms with. And, in these times of victories and failures, there's one thing that has forever remained persistent - the public gaze.

And not unjustly, being under a scanner round the clock - trying to maintain a metahuman image, projecting an aura of perfection - often got the better of these silver screen idols. As a result, they were frequently found pursuing refuge in substances and alcohol in the hope of coping with their overwhelming lifestyle. Undeniable as the connection is between accessibility and addiction, the famous even today choose to go catastrophically hand in hand with abuse, turning this opulent metropolis into a breeding underbelly of forbidden pleasures, ruined lives and warped careers. Here are 15 such celebrities who sadly let addiction ruin them.

15 Amy Winehouse

With five Grammy Awards for her 2006 album Back to Black and a plethora of life-defining songs including “Rehab”, “Valerie” and “Love is a Losing Game”, Amy Jade Winehouse died in 2011 at the tender age of 27 from alcohol poisoning. Her post-mortem reported her blood alcohol as 0.416% at the time of her death which is more than five times the legal limit. Amy's success as an artist was directly proportional to her trouble with substance abuse and law. The Philadelphia Inquirer once described the young artiste as, “She's only 24 with six Grammy nominations, crashing headfirst into success and despair, with a codependent husband in jail, exhibitionist parents with questionable judgment, and the paparazzi documenting her emotional and physical distress… ” In 2005, Amy underwent a phase of drinking, heavy drug abuse and weight loss. She admitted, in an interview, to being in manic depression or rather 'an alcoholic in denial'.

14 Lindsey Lohan

In January 2007, the Mean Girls star had her first tryst with rehab and she spent 30 days at the Wonderland Centre. In May that year, she was again arrested for drunk driving followed by another arrest in July for drug possession - and the saga continued for another seven years. Even after all this time, of being in and out of tabloids, courtrooms and jail, Lindsay Lohan's drug abuse of story refused to fade as did her addiction. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Lohan was quoted saying, “I didn't take Promises (rehab centre) seriously… I didn't really acknowledge that there could be an issue, that there would be. I was 21.” She also confessed that alcohol for her was 'a gateway to other things'. She said, “I never abused, but I tried cocaine with alcohol.”

13 Kurt Cobain

Kurt Cobain was all of 27 when an electrician, who was installing a security system in his house, found him dead in the greenhouse of his Seattle home. He had been missing for six days. There lay across his chest a 20-gauge shot gun with which the singer and songwriter had slain himself. According to reports, his body had been lying there for over two days. A high concentration of heroin and traces of Valium were detected in his bloodstream. Cobain's friends and family had been worried for years about his depression and chronic drug abuse. In 1980, at the age of 13, he had his first drug experience was with marijuana which continued even in his adult years. He was also prone to LSD, alcoholism and solvent abuse. Cobain reportedly had difficulty coping with his public image and the personal and professional pressures encircling himself and his musician wife, Courtney Love.

12 Heath Ledger

Just months after filming for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight, the 28-year-old Australian actor was found dead by his masseuse and housekeeper. Heath Ledger was lying naked at the foot of his bed with pills scattered all around him. A video of him snorting cocaine with a rolled-up bill was reportedly taped without his knowledge by a leading US entertainment channel, which has the actor confessing that he is a drug user before strangers. The clip, however, was not aired 'out of respect for the actor's family'. Numerous reports surfaced following his death claiming that Ledger refused to get help for his drug abuse. The New York Post quoted one his staff, saying, “He was partying, doing drugs - Michelle (Williams) didn't like the company he was keeping. She even gave him an ultimatum and threatened to take custody of their daughter.”

11 Britney Spears

American singer and actress Britney Spears lost track of her life back in February 2007 when she stayed in a drug rehabilitation facility in Antigua for less than a day, following which she shaved her head overnight triggering a huge media uproar. Four days later, she checked into rehab for the second time within one week. Days passed and Spears was back in the news for attacking a paparazzo car with an umbrella. In October that year, Spears was found spending the night in a parking lot after losing custody of her two sons to ex-husband Kevin Federline. In January 2008, Spears blew through a 30-pill prescription of amphetamines within 36 hours and locked herself in a bathroom with her youngest son as the time came to give up her kids. Spears has never been the same ever since.

10 Amanda Bynes

Amanda Bynes's life started spiralling out of her control back in April 2012, when the Nickelodeon star was arrested for driving under the influence in West Hollywood. This was immediately followed by an alleged hit-and-run linking Bynes. Ever since, she has been booked on numerous occasions for criminal possession of marijuana, reckless endangerment and so on, including one where she allegedly threw a bong out of her Manhattan apartment window. The latest of her rackets involve the 27-year-old setting off her pants on fire. Reportedly, Bynes took off her pants while trying to douse the flames. Recently, her parents have declared that she has been using drugs, is consumed by paranoia and has spent $1.2 million in just over a couple of months.

9 Macaulay Culkin

Macaulay Culkin made his way into our hearts as a child star with his adorable performances in Rocket Gibraltar and especially in Home Alone, which went on to become the highest grossing movie of that year. He became famous at 10, a millionaire at 12 and plunged head forward into drugs by the age of 24, becoming highly addicted to heroin. After his break-up with long-time girlfriend Mila Kunis, Culkin reportedly started spending $6,000 a month on drugs - he was buying 300 to 400 Vicodin and Percocet painkillers every 10 days at $5 per pill. And when the high was no longer enough, he was shooting up heroin and Oxycodone. In September 2004, he was arrested in Oklahoma City for being in possession of 17.3 grams of marijuana and two controlled substances, following which he was briefly jailed. He was released on a $4,000 bail.

8 Marilyn Monroe

The dream that was called Marilyn Monroe, chalked out life on her own terms until she became too good to be true. “Madness is genius,” believed the woman, “and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous and absolutely boring.” What necessarily followed was a prolonged period of depression, anxiety, insomnia, bipolar disorder and subsequent drug and alcohol dependence. After her divorce from writer Arthur Miller, she voluntarily entered a psychiatric facility but couldn't stick to it for long. When Monroe died at 36 of barbiturate overdose, her bedside table was found pouring with sedatives, soporifics, tranquilizers and sleeping pills. During her last couple of months, the star was reportedly consuming a great deal of amphetamines, morphine, sedative Librium and alcohol - particularly champagne, Sherry, vermouth and vodka. Her death was officially pronounced as probable suicide based on patterns of her being prone to mood swings and suicide ruminations.

7 Charlie Sheen

Notorious for his womanizing ways, the Two And A Half Men star also has a highly publicized and rocky history with drug and alcohol addiction. In 1990, Charlie Sheen first checked himself into rehab for alcohol addiction, quoting an intensive film schedule. The years that followed saw Sheen being booked for multiple charges of assault and involvement in prostitution rackets. In 1998, he suffered a stroke after overdosing on cocaine. He was reported as being in a serious condition even after his stomach was pumped. He was forced into rehab a couple of days later, which he tried to flee within hours of being brought in. 1,400 pounds-a-day drug binges, hundreds of women - Sheen didn't leave anything out even with the knowledge that he was HIV positive. He also confessed to spending over $US50,000 on prostitutes.

6 Jimi Hendrix

“Purple Haze in all my brain, lately things don't seem the same. Actin' funny but I don't know why” - well, we know why. When it came to drugs, Jimi Hendrix hardly left anything out. From LSD to marijuana to heroin and amphetamines, you name it and he had done it. And soon enough, he made his way to the 27 Club. In 1969, he was arrested for being in possession of heroin and just a year later he died of overdosing. His post-mortem reported that he had vomited in his sleep and chocked to death. In search of a good night's sleep, Hendrix had got hold of some Vesparax and ignorant of its half-tablet dosage, he took nine of them. Many who knew him have testified that his reckless mixing of drugs and alcohol often led to bursts of uncharacteristic, physical violence.

5 Kate Moss

Famous at 14, catwalk queen Kate Moss's life has always been spelled by drugs and pleasures of the flesh. Fashion writer Maureen Callahan's book Champagne Supernovas claims the supermodel would at a time take up to “three grams of cocaine in a session - between 20 or 30 big snorts - and down a bottle of vodka.” Throughout her career, stories of her wild ways and copious drug use have played an integral part. Her self-destructing lifestyle first showed signs of taking its toll back in 1997, when her two-packs-a-day smoking habit took centre stage. Her skin became dull and nicotine stains started appearing on her teeth. In 2000, health hazards started peaking and Moss landed in the hospital with a kidney infection. In 2005, she was dropped because of drug allegations from an H&M campaign that would have raked in four million pounds a year.

4 Elvis Presley

The king of rock and roll's weakness for prescription drugs began back in the early Sixties. And although, Elvis Presley had presumably tried marijuana and cocaine on more than one occasion, he reportedly felt far more at ease in the company of legal drugs. Faced with a punishing work schedule, Presley began using 'uppers' to get him going in the mornings and 'downers' to help him sleep at night. By the Seventies, the rockstar started heavily relying on these pills as a necessary equipment - he even had two reported near-fatal overdoses. When he visited doctors, he would almost invariably talk them into prescriptions, mostly for painkillers, even at the cost of faking symptoms for ailments he didn't have. When Presley dies, he had over 14 different prescribed medications in his body.

3 Lamar Odom

Lamar Odom's life hit rock bottom when he couldn't shake of his cocaine addiction. It not only took away his promising basketball career but also led to the demise of his marriage to Khloe Kardashian. The former NBA player's history with drugs has been long and torturous. During his career as a basketball player, he was suspended from the Los Angeles Clippers after testing positive for marijuana in 2001. In 2013, further tests showed Oxycontin in his system. In 2014, he was found unconscious in front of a brothel, three days before which he reportedly consumed 10 tablets of a herbal performance enhancer - a substitute for Viagra - and substantial amount of cocaine. All this while, Odom also had to battle extreme personal tragedies including the death of his son Jaden from sudden infant death syndrome; the murder of his cousin and the accidental death of a teen pedestrian hit by his SUV.

2 Philip Seymour Hoffman

The man won the Academy Award of Best Actor for his role in Capote, had another three Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor to his credits and was sober for 23 years before relapsing in 2013, just a year before his death. Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in the bathroom at 46, in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, with a needle in his left arm. According to reports, the police found 70 small bags of heroin, some used, others unopened and 20 syringes from his Manhattan apartment. His alleged dealer, who was taken into custody stated that Hoffman had a 'hard-core addiction and injected twice as much heroin a day as a typical addict.” In a 2006 interview, Hoffman had revealed of his addiction during his days at New York University, stating that he used “anything I could get my hands on. I liked it all.”

1 Misha Barton

She catapulted to fame with hit TV series, The OC, but soon enough teen sensation Misha Barton became the talk of tinsel town for all the wrong reasons. Her partying grew out of control as did her life. In 2007, Barton was arrested on suspicion of driving under influence, possession of marijuana and driving without a valid license. She was released a couple of hours later, on a $US10,000 bail. In 2009, she was sectioned for two weeks of psychiatric treatment 'for being a danger to herself'. This was followed by the actress being sued by her New York landlord in 2010 for refusing to pay a three-month rent amounting to $21,000. Barton still seems a long from getting her life back on track - in January this year, she was taken to the hospital for mental health evaluation by the police and firefighters after she was found screaming in her backyard.