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Kay Redfield Jamison
October18th, 1946
Jamison is an American psychologist and science writer who is herself
affected by manic depression, also known as bipolar disorder.
She
is currently Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine Works include:
·
"An Unquiet Mind" (autobiography), ISBN 0679763309
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"Manic-Depressive Illness" (with Frederick K. Goodwin) ISBN
0195039343
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"Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the
Artistic Temperament" (1993 (includes a study of Lord Byron, ISBN
068483183X
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"Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide", ISBN 0375701478
·
"Exuberance: The Passion for Life" (2004), ISBN 037540144X
Jamison is the recipient of the National Mental Health Association's
William Styron Award (1995), the American Suicide Foundation Research
Award (1996), the Community Mental Health Leadership Award (1999), and a
2001 MacArthur Fellowhip recipient. |
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Margaret Ruth Kidder
October 17, 1948,
Better known as Margot Kidder, is a Canadian actress, best known
for her role as Lois Lane in the 1978 movie and sequels.
She
is also known for having bipolar disorder which led to a widely
publicized breakdown in 1996. She is now an advocate of orthomolecular
medicine as a treatment for bipolar disorder. |
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Ozzy Osbourne (John Michael Osbourne)
December 3, 1948
Born
in Aston, a suburb of Birmingham, West Midlands, England, better known as
Ozzy Osbourne, was the lead singer of the rock band Black Sabbath
and later a popular solo artist. Osbourne has been married twice and is
father to five children: Jessica Hobbs and Louis Osbourne by first wife
Thelma; and Aimee, Kelly and Jack, by current wife Sharon . He is also a
football fan, supporting Aston.
Black
Sabbath met with swift and enduring success; their early records such as
their self-titled debut, Paranoid and Master of Reality in
particular are considered heavy metal canon, and selections from Ozzy's
Sabbath days have featured prominently in his solo performances. The
rigors of touring and financial success combined to lead some of the band
members to drug and alcohol abuse, including Osbourne. Nevertheless, the
group remained a steadily successful act for over eight years. Over the
duration, however, Iommi began to take the band's music in a more
progressive and experimental direction, to Osbourne's distaste. Osbourne
was kicked out of the group briefly after the band's 1976 effort
Technical Ecstasy, and Sabbath went so far as to begin writing and
recording with a new singer. Ozzy returned however, to record and tour
behind 1978's Never Say Die, after which he left the group again in
1979, to be replaced by Ronnie James Dio. Depressed, his drug and alcohol
abuse continued. He divorced his first wife, Thelma, and developed bipolar
disorder Undaunted, Osbourne attempted to launch a solo career, and met
with considerable success on his very first effort. |
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Phyllis Hyman
July 6, 1949 –
June 30, 1995
(actress, composer, other crew member)
Deep-voiced and statuesque, Phyllis Hyman sang with a life affirming
energy and emotional intensity found in few other female vocalists. Born
in Pittsburgh in 1949 (and raised in Philadelphia), her professional
career began in New York city where, during an engagement, she was spotted
by producer Norman Connors and contemporaries Jean Carne and Roberta Flack
among others. Phyllis was immediately offered a guest appearance on
Connors' 'You Are My Starship' album (1976), which included her classic
rendition of 'Betcha By Golly Wow' (previously a hit for The Stylistics in
the early 1970s).
Her irrational, self-destructive behavior was becoming common knowledge to
those inside the music industry, her friends and also her fans and on June
30th, 1995, only hours before a scheduled performance at the Apollo
Theatre in New York, Phyllis' lifeless body was found in her apartment
where all efforts to revive her failed. Her suicide, while shocking, was
not a surprise to many insiders |
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Thomas Alan Waits
December 7, 1949
Thomas Waits is an American composer, singer, musician and actor
In
the popular perception, however, he and his work remain mostly
characterised by his rocky voice, his strong personality and theatrical
presence on stage and the "late night smoky bars" humour of his texts
("I'd rather have a free bottle in front of me than a pre-frontal
lobotomy."). Waits has been reported as having bipolar disorder. In
essence, however, and despite his songs having been covered by famous
stars such as Bruce Springsteen and Rod Stewart, Waits remains a cult
performer, steadfastly outside the mainstream. |
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Jane Pauley
October 31, 1950
Born
in Indianapolis Jane Pauley is an American television news anchor and
journalist.
From
1976 to 1989, she was the co-host of The Today Show While not the
first female anchor of the show, she became a symbol for professional
women, more specifically female journalists, in the 1980s. She shared
anchor duties with Tom Brokaw and, later, Bryant Gumbel. In 1989, Pauley
was abruptly replaced with Deborah Norville in a highly-publicized
incident that led to accusations of ageism from Pauley, as she was
thirty-nine at the time and Norville was only thirty. Accusations later
surfaced that she was fired from her job because she refused to have a
facelift. Pauley took a sabbatical from journalism around this time.
She
hosted Dateline NBC from 1992 to 2003, when she announced her
retirement. In 2004, she returned to television in The Jane Pauley Show,
a syndicated chat show. On the show, she has discussed, at length, her
problems in dealing with bipolar disorder. Pauley is known for revealing
very little, if anything at all, on her private life, so the recent
revelation came as a surprise to much of America |
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Sting Gordon Matthew Sumner, CBE
October 2, 1951
Sting, is an English musician and formerly bassist and lead singer of
The Police
Sumner was born in Newcastle, England to Audrey and Ernie, a milkman. From
an early age, he knew that he wanted to be a musician. He attended the
University of Warwick in Coventry, but did not graduate. From 1971 to
1974, he attended Northern Counties Teacher Training College. He has a
brother, Phil, and two sisters, Anita and Angela.
Before playing music professionally, Sumner worked as a ditch digger and a
teacher of English. His first music gigs were wherever he could get a job.
He played with local jazz bands such as the Phoenix Jazzmen and Last
Exit. It is most likely that he gained his nickname while with the
Jazzmen. He once performed wearing a black and yellow striped jersey that
fellow band member Gordon Solomon had noted made him look like a bee, thus
he became Sting. He uses Sting almost exclusively, except on official
documents.
It is
unclear whether he was serious or (rather) not when he referred to himself
as "manic-depressive". He has written also a song entitled "Lithium
Sunset", which appears to refer to lithium carbonate, a treatment for the
disorder. According to some reports he did this because he wanted to help
people who really have this disease. |
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Peter Brian Gabriel
February 13, 1950
Born
in Cobham (Surrey), England,he is an English musician. He first came to
fame as a member of the progressive rock group Genesis, which he founded
as a student at Charterhouse School with bandmates Tony Banks, Anthony
Phillips, and Mike Rutherford.
Genesis quickly become one of the most talked-about bands in the UK,
largely due to Gabriel's flamboyant stage presence, which involved
numerous bizarre costume changes and comical, dreamlike stories told as
the introduction to each song. During "The Knife", a popular live song
from the Trespass album, Gabriel would perform a stunt that, two
decades later, became extremely common: stage diving. On one occasion he
broke a leg leaping into the crowd, but managed to climb back up onto the
stage and finish the performance.
It
has been reported that he suffers from bipolar disorder, but despite some
claims, he never confirmed this information |
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Margaux Hemingway
February 16, 1955 - July 2, 1996
Margaux was a film actress and model who appeared in several movies. She
was born in Portland, Oregon, the sister of actress Mariel Hemingway and
the granddaughter of writer Ernest Hemingway. She grew up on her
grandfather's farm in Ketchum, Idaho.
Hemingway was named for the famous Bordeaux vineyard Chateau Margaux; but
in later years, after giving up drinking alcohol, she spelled her name
Margot.
At
the age of only 41, Margaux Hemingway committed suicide in Santa Monica,
California on the anniversary of her grandfather's suicide. She was
interred in the Ketchum Cemetery |
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Linda Hamilton
September 26, 1956
Born
in Salisbury, Maryland Linda is an American movie actress .Linda Hamilton
is well known as the star of Terminator (and T2), Beauty
and the Beast, Dante's Peak and Point Last Seen. She was
diagnosed at a young age with bipolar disorder, but resisted treatment
until she was around 40 years old. In 1997 Linda Hamilton told interviewer
Luaine Lee, "I'm on anti-depressants now. I will be on them for the rest
of my life. It changed my world. There's depression, but also that extreme
brilliant high. My manic spells are manageable and are great -- my work
spaces where I'm doing so much. But what happens is then, all of a sudden,
you plunge because you've depleted yourself on such a level that one day
you wake up with a gigantic lump in your throat. And there it is. So I
would fall down
She
has bipolar disorder. She has a twin sister Leslie who helped with a cameo
in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. As she found that her performance as the
ferocious resistance fighter in T2 had typecast, she turned down a
role in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
Her
other movie credits include 1990 's Mr. Destiny with Jim Belushi
and Courteney Cox |
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Carrie Fisher
October 21, 1956
Carrie is an American actress and writer.
She
was born Carrie Frances Fisher in Beverly Hills, California, the
daughter of singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds. Her younger
brother is Todd Fisher. Her half-sisters are actress Joely Fisher and
actress Tricia Leigh Fisher, whose mother is actress Connie Stevens
Her
first movie appearance was in Shampoo (1975). In 1977, she played
Princess Leia in Star Wars Episode_IV:_A_New_Hope. It was a huge success
and made her famous in her own right. In a recent interview on public
radio she expressed some regret that she was known overwhelmingly for her
role as Princess Leia, and joked that she was afraid that if she became
senile she may begin to slip back into character.
Fisher's novel Postcards From the Edge, which was autobiographical
in the sense that she fictionalized things obviously from her real-life,
was published in 1987. It became a sensational bestseller and she won the
Los Angeles Pen Award for best first novel.
In
1990, Columbia Pictures released a movie version of Postcards From the
Edge, which was adapted for the screen by Fisher and starred Meryl
Streep, Shirley MacLaine and Dennis Quaid.
Fisher was married to musician Paul Simon (1983 -1984).
She
is the mother of Billie Catherine Lourd (born July 17, 1992, whose father
is CAA principal and agent, Bryan Lourd.
Sometime in the 1970s Carrie began cocaine use which eventually led to an
addiction. According to the Internet Movie Database, she had a serious
alcohol problem by 1980, and in 1985 suffered a drug overdose which
resulted in her entering rehab.
In
1997 Carrie was again hospitalized, this time, according to her mother, to
rebalance the medication she takes for bipolar disorder. Then in November
of 1998 she checked herself into a drug treatment program. According to
her publicist, "The combination of the prescribed medication required for
manic depression and the pain medication prescribed to her recently from
getting dental implants caused her to recognize the problem early on and
act immediately". |
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Jean Claude Van Damme
October 18, 1960
Born
Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg, he is a Belgian-born
action movie actor who's most known for martial arts films. His Belgian
background gave rise to the nickname "Muscles from Brussels".
Van
Damme has won a number of European karate championships. He has had
troubles with cocaine and is also reported to have experienced bipolar
disorder. He has been married five times, including two marriages with his
current wife Gladys Portugues.
In
1998, Van Damme and actor Chuck Zito engaged in a fistfight at a New York
city bar. Chuck Zito floored Van Damme with two punches.
In the
French-speaking world, Jean-Claude Van Damme is well-known for the
picturesque aphorisms that he delivers on a wide range of topics (personal
well-being, ecology, etc.) in a strange mixture of French and English. He
is especially well-known for his usage of the word aware (in
English). Lists of Van Damme quotes are compiled and available on the WWW |
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W. Axl Rose
February 6, 1962
Axl
Rose is an American hard rock singer and songwriter, born as William
Bruce Bailey in Lafayette, Indiana. According to his account, he had a
deeply troubled family life, with abuse at the hands of his father and
stepfather. His biological father, William Rose, left the family when Axl
was two. Then, after bringing in a member of LA Guns, Rose formed Guns N'
Roses around 1985.He was a savior, dedicated to pure, authentic anger. In
the '80s he burned holes in a culturally complacent country. |
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Kristy McNichols
September 11, 1962
Born
in Los Angeles, California.
It
wasn't always party time for the young actress, who won two Emmys and a
Golden Globe for her role as the teenaged Buddy on the acclaimed
television series "Family". In some ways, Dream Lover marks a
turning point in her career. In the world of Hollywood, where reputations
are hard to dispel, McNichol has suffered from bad press. Stories have
circulated detailing supposed petulant tantrums and erratic behavior. When
the actress became ill during the filming of her last movie, Just the
Way You Are, production was stopped for several months while she
recovered. The press speculated that the problem resulted from McNichol's
reported temper tantrums and/or heavy drug use.
"I'm
not a perfect person," she says very openly. "But it was none of that.
When you're young and work all your life, you never have time to stop and
find out what else there is aside from work, work, work and schedules.
There's going to come a point where you're running after this ball for so
long that you're just going to fall down because you're exhausted mentally
and physically. I just fell down and was exhausted from working, pushing
and striving. That's all it was. Since then I've learned to slow way down.
I don't work half as much. Now when I do work, I'm in perfect condition
and I'm really into working because I haven't been burnt out".
As
she talks about her past and the stories that plagued her, it becomes
obvious that the negative reports have wounded the actress and made her
wary. Yet at the same time, she seems to have gained some peace of mind
about her troubles and speaks of them without hesitation. |
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Kurt Cobain
February 20, 1967 - April 5, 1994
Kurt
Cobain was the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana, which
also included bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl.
Cobain was highly influential in popularizing what came to be termed
grunge music - a style that evolved in part as a reaction against the
perceived superficiality of 1980s stadium rock and over-the-top metal
bands (Hair Metal) with preened images and elaborate stage shows. His best
known song is "Smells Like Teen Spirit", which was often referred to by
the media as an anthem for Generation X. Among other well known Cobain
songs are "Lithium", "In Bloom", "Come As You Are", "Heart Shaped Box",
"All Apologies", and the highly controversial "Rape Me".
Throughout most of his adolescent life, Cobain had battled depression and
pain due to a chronic stomach condition. Because of stomach problems he
blamed on the stresses of performing, he self-medicated by use of heroin.
This use developed into an addiction, which he battled until he supposedly
committed suicide on April 5, 1994 at the age of 27. Cobain used a shotgun
he had purchased a week before from best friend Dylan Carlson, who was
rumored to be the inspiration for the song "In Bloom". His body was
discovered three days later in his home by an electrician who he had
commissioned to install security lighting. Toxicology experts have stated
that even though Cobain's tolerance level was extremely high, the amount
of heroin injected into his body would have been enough to kill him (225
mg, three times the lethal dosage for an addict, 75 times the lethal
dosage for a non-user). His death triggered several copycat suicides, and
the unclear circumstances surrounding it inspired a multitude of
conspiracy theories stemming from the investigations of detective Tom
Grant
Grant
was hired by Courtney Love following Cobain's disappearance from a
hospital in which he was recovering from an apparent suicide attempt, and
is now certain Cobain was murdered by Love. Filmmaker Nick Broomfield made
a documentary film on this theory entitled Kurt and Courtney.
In
his suicide note, Cobain quoted a lyric from Neil Young 's song "My My,
Hey Hey": "It's better to burn out than to fade away." Cobain's use of the
lyric had a profound impact on Young, who recorded portions of the
Sleeps With Angels album in Cobain's memory. The conspiracy theories
allege that the suicide note was actually a letter he was writing about
his intent to leave Nirvana, and the authenticity of the last four lines
has been questioned by many handwriting experts. Ironically, Kurt made a
film entitled Kurt Commits Bloody Suicide at age 15. Kurt also
wrote another suicide note for his fans and his imaginary friend from
childhood, "Boddah". His mother told Kurt that Boddah was drafted to
Vietnam along with Kurt's uncle in order to help Kurt's imagination.
Kurt
Cobain was cremated, with one third of his ashes scattered in a Buddhist
temple in New York, another third in the Wishkah River, Washington State,
and the rest in the possession of Courtney Love.
Many
attribute some of Cobain's extraordinary abilities (and his suicide) to
his being affected by bipolar disorder, commonly known as manic
depression. |
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David Gordon Strickland Jr.
October 14, 1969 - March 22, 1999
David
was an American actor. He was best known for his role as the boyish rock
music reporter Todd Stites in the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan
(starring Brooke Shields). He suffered from bipolar disorder and
committed suicide at the age of 29.
His
earlier TV roles during the 1990s include Dave's World, Roseanne,
Sister Sister and Mad World. He also co-starred in the film
Forces of Nature (starring Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock) which
had just opened in US cinemas at the time of his death.
Strickland had a history of drug and alcohol abuse. He was arrested in
October 1998 for the possession of cocaine, pleaded no contest in December
and was sentenced to 36 months probation and ordered into rehabilitation.
He was due in court on the day of his death for a progress report. |
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Eminem is the stage name of Marshall Bruce
Mathers III
October 17, 1972
Eminem is one of today's most controversial and popular hip hop musicians.
He is
perhaps best known for being one of the few successful white rappers in
the industry, not to mention one of the most critically acclaimed. He is
also infamous for the controversy surrounding many of his lyrics, which
are said by critics to be homophobic, misogynistic and excessively
violent. |
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Robert Boorstin
No Date of Birth Found
Robert Boorstin is a writer, and was a special assistant to Pres. Clinton
He was first diagnosed with the illness in July 1987 after having been
seriously depressed for over four years. During that time he made a number
of attempts to learn what was wrong with him, but he continued to be
tearful and often unable to get out of bed; and he called his parents
frequently for sympathy and support.
He
had his first manic episode, which resulted in his first admission to the
hospital. His symptoms of mania were sleeping only three to four hours a
night, getting speeding tickets for driving at 120 mph, frantic
socializing, and hypersexuality.
He
has been interviewed and advocates for bipolar disorder.
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