Most Successful Person To Turn Weird

The death of Michael Jackson today started a discussion at the end of Happy Hour regarding who is the most successful person (in their field) who accomplished an awful lot, only to turn weird and do some ridiculous stuff.

I say Jackson might be the biggest since Howard Hughes died.

Somebody suggested Mike Tyson but I think he was already weird but it only really came out once he achieved success and his talent started to fade.

How about Amy Winehouse?

Tom Cruise?

Bobby Fisher? (edited because I initially said Eddie, meaning Bobby)

Let's hear what you think?

 

Marlon Brando.

 

I have to think the big three are Michael Jackson, Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor. I can't think of anyone else in that league.

Bobby Fischer was batshit crazy, but he was always batshit crazy. It just got more pronounced when he became more famous.

 

Pope John Paul II. That guy went all kinds of crazy when they placed that freaky hat on his dome.

 

Have to agree. But off the top of my head, I'll nominate Phil Spector. Oh, and that OJ guy.

 

H. Ross Perot.

 

J.D. Salinger

 

Spector was always a flake. Brian Wilson is a better example (minus the killing) along those lines.

And I like Caligula in this contest.

 

Just because they killed somebody, it doesn't qualify them for the list.

OJ is a murderer who winged out a little after being ostracized by most of the civilized world. I don't know enough about Spector but. .. .

 

I wouldn't put Elizabeth Taylor in the same category as Jacko or Brando. She's definitely odd, but I think a good bit of her going off the rails can be attributed to drugs/alcohol.

 

Some good ones listed already.

Truman Capote started out as a major, important writer and became a prissy freak who babbled inanely on talk shows.

Orson Welles?

I actually would put Ralph Nader in this category.