Celebrities And Depression
June 9, 2008 by Alicia Sparks, Mental Health Notes
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
This post is part of Celebrity Health Week at the b5media Health & Wellness Channel. For more information about Celebrity Health Week posts here at Mental Health Notes, visit Introducing Celebrity Health Week: Celebrities And Mental Illness.
In this Celebrity Health Week post, we’ll take a look at some celebrities who have suffered from depression – or had, in the case of the deceased. We’ll look at actors and actresses, musicians, writers, political figures, and other well-known figures.
Please note that I am not an authority on celebrities and mental illness. For a celebrity to be on this list, either she or a spouse or reliable family member must have publicly discussed – verbally or otherwise – her mental illness, or, in the case of the deceased, professionals must have addressed it later on.
Many of the women from today’s earlier list of female celebrities and mental illness also make this list of celebrities and depression: Brooke Shields, Drew Barrymore, Halle Berry, Lorraine Bracco, Roseanne, Naomi Judd, Ashley Judd, Alanis Morissette, Natalie Cole, Marilyn Monroe, and Audrey Hepburn.
Read on for more.
Tipper Gore, wife of Al Gore and once a First Lady-hopeful, spoke publicly about her depression with CBS News an has advocated against stigma, including holding the first ever White House Conference on Mental Health.
Kitty Dukakis, wife of Michael Dukakis and another one-time First Lady-hopeful, struggled with drug and alcohol addiction and documented her battles with depression and her success with electroconvulsive therapy in her book Shock.
Mike Wallace, correspondent for 60 Minutes on CBS, has spoken publicly about his battles with depression, including a suicide attempt, through various outlets including 60 Minutes and Larry King Live, and has even advocated for the fight against depression before the Senate. Read this CBS interview with Mike Wallace.
Rod Steiger, actor famous for is Academy Award-winning role as a bigoted Mississippi cop in 1967’s In the Heat of the Night, struggled with depression and, in addition to sharing his own story, also narrated Depression: Voice of an Illness.
Terry Bradshaw, former Pittsburgh Steelers star quarterback, has spoken publicly about his depression as well as encouraged others who suffer from depression to seek help.
Tom Wolfe, well-known author, claims to have been able to write his character Charlotte Simmons so well because of going through depression himself.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, an important author in American history, battled depression and alcoholism.
Dick Cavett, former talk show host, openly discussed his bouts with depression (I’ve also read manic depression), praised electroconvulsive therapy in People, and was the subject of A Patient’s Perspective, a Depression and Related Affective Disorders Association film in 1993.
Buzz Aldrin, the astronaut who – hello! – walked on the moon with Neil Armstrong in 1969, battled depression and alcoholism. Read Psychology Today’s Buzz Aldrin: Down to Earth and TIME’s 10 Questions for Buzz Aldrin.
Frederic Chopin, often regarded as the greatest Polish composer (I absolutely love Nocturne and am, as a matter of fact, listening to it right now) battled depression before his death 1849.
Clara Barton, regarded as the “angel of Civil War battlefields” and founder of the American Red Cross, struggled with depression and reportedly considered suicide.
Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States and the one who issued a proclamation allowing my state to secede from Virginia, suffered from depression and “breakdowns,” all of which is documented in Joshua Wolf Shenk’s Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness.
Eugene O’Neill, famous playwright and Nobel Prize-winner, battled depression and alcoholism.
Tennessee Williams, another major American playwright, suffered from depression, alcoholism, and substance abuse, and never forgave his parents for allowing his sister to undergo a prefrontal lobotomy to treat mental agitation – it left her incapacitated for the remainder of her life.
Note that this is not a comprehensive list of celebrities who have battled depression; it’s merely a list of the celebrities for whom I’ve found information. If you know of any others – and can provide credible sources – feel free to leave them in the comments.
Stay tuned for information about male celebrities and mental illness, athletes and mental illness, and political figures and mental illness all this week!
Images: Newscom
Owen never spoke openly about his suicide attempt. In fact he has yet to speak about it at all, except a plea for privacy. He didn’t even go on interview circuits to promote his movie in an effort to avoid discussion of this very topic.
@ Jean – Thanks for chiming in! You’re right, Owen never spoke openly about his actual suicide attempt – as some of the other celebrities have publicly discussed and even written books about their struggles with mental illness – but Owen did speak pretty “openly about his recovery from a suicide attempt” in a magazine article that covered his appearance at a party a while back. (That’s why I was careful with the way I worded his part of this post.) The article quoted Owen as saying he was feeling and doing much better, as well as other party goers commenting that Owen had told them how much better he felt. It wasn’t something I could link to, as it was an actual print magazine; however, there are various reports out there online that quote Owen’s family as stating they believe he was dealing with mental health issues such as depression.
Celebrities and Depression[....]
Well this is a good post. All people have a right not or talk about their depression… But Owen never spoke on public as what I know.
@ Addiction Recovery Mississippi – Yes, as I commented above in response to Jean, Owen never went on record about the depression or reported suicide attempt, but friends were quoted in various magazine articles saying he’d spoken about how he was feeling after the reported suicide attempt/battle with depression. However, as this has caused a bit of confusion, I’ve removed Owen from the list.