Celebrity Hall of Shame: Posthumously Tarnished Celebrities

by HBSmith_Critic | created - 26 Apr 2023 | updated - 2 months ago | Public

Government

1. Andrew Jackson 2. Ted Kennedy 3. Richard Nixon 4. Ronald Reagan 5. John Conyers

Law enforcement

1. Charles Joseph “GI Joe” Gliniewicz

Internet and content creators

1. Justin Carmical

Potential entries

1. Angus Cloud 2. Patrick Swayze 3. Simon Monjack

1. Jimmy Savile

Self | When Louis Met... Jimmy

Jimmy Savile was born on October 31, 1926 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for When Louis Met... Jimmy (2000), Ferry Cross the Mersey (1964) and Go Go Mania (1965). He died on October 29, 2011 in Roundhay, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, UK.

DJ, radio personality , television personality, and philanthropist

1. 1926—2011

2. Savile's legacy was permanently abolished in 2012.

2. Richard Nixon

Soundtrack | Frost/Nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. He was a member of the Republican Party who previously served as a representative and senator from California and was the 36th vice president from 1953 to 1961. His five years in the White House saw ...

3. Ronald Reagan

Actor | Kings Row

Ronald Reagan had quite a prolific career, having catapulted from a Warner Bros. contract player and television star, into serving as president of the Screen Actors Guild, the governorship of California (1967-1975), and lastly, two terms as President of the United States (1981-1989).

Ronald Wilson ...

4. Mike Wallace

Self | 60 Minutes

Mike Wallace was born on May 9, 1918 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. He was a producer and actor, known for 60 Minutes (1968), The Sword and the Dragon (1956) and The Big Surprise (1955). He was married to Mary Yates, Lorraine Perigord, Buff Cobb and Norma Kaphan. He died on April 7, 2012 in New ...

Journalist, game show host, actor, and media personality

1918–2012

5. Elie Wiesel

Writer | L'aube

Elie Wiesel was born on September 30, 1928 in the Kingdom of Romania and emigrated after WWII to the United States. Wiesel is famous as a writer and human rights activist. He is a survivor of the Holocaust and his books often deal with this subject. In 1985 Wiesel was awarded the Congressional Gold...

Writer, professor, political activist, and Nobel laureate

6. David Hamilton

Director | Laura, les ombres de l'été

David Hamilton was born on April 15, 1933 in London, England, UK. He was a director and writer, known for Laura (1979), Bilitis (1977) and A Summer in Saint Tropez (1983). He was married to Mona Kristensen and Gertrude. He died on November 25, 2016 in Paris, France.

Photographer, author, and filmmaker

Died on November 25, 2016

7. Hugh Hefner

Actor | Miss March

Hugh Hefner was born on April 9, 1926 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a producer and actor, known for Miss March (2009), Hop (2011) and Beverly Hills Cop II (1987). He was married to Crystal Hefner, Kimberley Conrad and Mildred Williams. He died on September 27, 2017 in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles,...

Businessman and magazine publisher

1. Died on September 27, 2017.

2. 2022

8. Jim Brown

Actor | Mars Attacks!

Often mentioned as the greatest player in NFL history, this ruggedly handsome African American fullback for the Cleveland Browns first appeared on movie screens in the western Rio Conchos (1964), followed by a strong supporting role as convict commando "Jefferson" in the terrific WWII action film ...

Football fullback, civil rights activist, and actor

May 18, 2023

9. Wilt Chamberlain

Actor | Conan the Destroyer

Wilton Norman Chamberlain was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Olivia Ruth (Johnson), a domestic worker, and William Chamberlain, a welder, custodian, and handyman. Wilt didn't come from a race of giants as many thought. Both his parents were no bigger than 5-9, but as a young boy he began a ...

Professional athlete

Sexual assault allegation by Cassandra Peterson (2021)

10. Pablo Picasso

Art_department | Something's Gotta Give

Pablo Picasso, one of the most recognized figures of 20th century art, who co-created such styles as Cubism and Surrealism, was also among most innovative, influential, and prolific artists of all time.

He was born Pablo Ruiz Picasso on October 6, 1881, in Malaga, Spain. He was the first child of ...

Artist

11. Louis B. Mayer

Producer | The Great Secret

Mayer was born Lazar Meir in the Ukraine and grew up in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada after his parents fled Russian oppression in 1886. He had a brutal childhood, raised in poverty and suffering physical and emotional abuse from his nearly-illiterate peddler father. In the early 1890s, he ...

• Film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios

• Louis B. Mayer, Harry Cohn, Darryl F. Zanuck, Arthur Freed, and Harvey Weinstein

12. Harry Cohn

It Happened One Night

He was crude, uneducated, foul and, even on his best behavior, abrasive. No major studio executive of the so-called "Golden Age" was more loathed (although at times the dictatorial Samuel Goldwyn and the hard-nosed Jack L. Warner came close) than Harry Cohn.

Born in the middle of 5 children to ...

• Co-founder, president, and production director of Columbia Pictures in Hollywood

• Louis B. Mayer, Harry Cohn, Darryl F. Zanuck, Arthur Freed, and Harvey Weinstein

13. Darryl F. Zanuck

Producer | The Longest Day

One of the kingpins of Hollywood's studio system, Zanuck was the offspring of the ill-fated marriage of the alcoholic night clerk in Wahoo, Nebraska's only hotel and the hotel owner's daughter. Both parents had abandoned him by the time he was 13. At 15, he joined the U.S. Army, and he fought in ...

• Film producer

• Louis B. Mayer, Harry Cohn, Darryl F. Zanuck, Arthur Freed, and Harvey Weinstein

14. Arthur Freed

Producer | An American in Paris

Producer, songwriter and author, brother to Ralph Freed, Walter and Ruth Freed. He was educated at the Phillips Exeter Academy, and became associated with Gus Edwards musical acts. He performed in vaudeville with Louis Silvers, with whom he wrote revues for New York restaurants. During World War I,...

• Lyricist and film producer

• Louis B. Mayer, Harry Cohn, Darryl F. Zanuck, Arthur Freed, and Harvey Weinstein

15. Don Simpson

Producer | Days of Thunder

Mr. Simpson was an extravagant movie producer whose blockbusters Flashdance (1983), Beverly Hills Cop (1984), and Top Gun (1986) helped define the pop culture of the 1980s. Mr. Simpson teamed with Jerry Bruckheimer in 1983 to produce these hits. In 1985 and 1988, the duo were named producers of the...

Film producer, screenwriter, and actor

16. Elia Kazan

Director | On the Waterfront

Known for his creative stage direction, Elia Kazan was born Elias Kazantzoglou on September 7, 1909 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey). Noted for drawing out the best dramatic performances from his actors, he directed 21 actors to Oscar nominations, resulting in nine wins. He ...

Film and theatere director, screenwriter, producer, and actor

1909–2003

October 20, 2017

17. Ivan Reitman

Producer | Up in the Air

Canadian producer and director Ivan Reitman created many of American cinema's most successful and best loved feature film comedies and worked with Hollywood's acting elite. Reitman produced such hits as the ground-breaking sensation National Lampoon's National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), which ...

Film director

18. Clark Gable

Actor | It Happened One Night

William Clark Gable was born on February 1, 1901 in Cadiz, Ohio, to Adeline (Hershelman) and William Henry Gable, an oil-well driller. He was of German, Irish, and Swiss-German descent. When he was seven months old, his mother died, and his father sent him to live with his maternal aunt and uncle ...

Actor

19. Errol Flynn

Actor | The Adventures of Robin Hood

Errol Flynn was born to parents Theodore Flynn, a respected biologist, and Marrelle Young, an adventurous young woman. Young Flynn was a rambunctious child who could be counted on to find trouble. Errol managed to have himself thrown out of every school in which he was enrolled. In his late teens ...

Actor

1909–1959

20. Jerry Lewis

Actor | The Nutty Professor

Jerry Lewis (born March 16, 1926 - August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team ...

Comedian, actor, filmmaker, and singer

1. 1931–2017

2. August 20, 2017

3. 2022

21. Kirk Douglas

Actor | The Final Countdown

Cleft-chinned, steely-eyed and virile star of international cinema who rose from being "the ragman's son" (the name of his best-selling 1988 autobiography) to become a bona fide superstar, Kirk Douglas, also known as Issur Danielovitch Demsky, was born on December 9, 1916 in Amsterdam, New York. ...

Actor and filmmaker

1. 1944—2008

2. The rape of actress Natalie Wood by Kirk Douglas occurred in the summer of 1955.

3. Wood's alleged rape was first publicized in Suzanne Finstad's 2001 biography of the actress, though Finstad never named the offender.

4. Kirk Douglas died on February 8, 2020.

5. In the 2021 memoir Little Sister: My Investigation Into the Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood, Lana Wood alleged Douglas was her sister's assailant.

22. Matthew Perry

Actor | Friends

Matthew Perry was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, to Suzanne Marie (Langford), a Canadian journalist, and John Bennett Perry, an American actor. His ancestry includes English, Irish, German, Swiss-German, and French-Canadian.

Perry was raised in Ottawa, Ontario, where he became a top-ranked ...

Actor

1969–2023

23. Paul Walker

Actor | The Fast and the Furious

Paul William Walker IV was born in Glendale, California. He grew up together with his brothers, Caleb and Cody, and sisters, Ashlie and Amie. Their parents, Paul William Walker III, a sewer contractor, and Cheryl (Crabtree) Walker, a model, separated around September 2004. His grandfather, William ...

Actor

Died on November 30, 2013

Paul Walker had a history of grooming teenage girls into inappropriate relationships dating back to his late twenties and early thirties.

24. Ahmet Ertegun

Soundtrack | Angel Heart

Ahmet Ertegun was born on July 31, 1923 in Istanbul, Turkey. He was a producer and composer, known for Angel Heart (1987), My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006) and Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987). He was married to Ioana (Mica) Maria Banu Grecianu and Jan Holm. He died on December 14, 2006 in New ...

Businessman, songwriter, record executive, and philanthropist

25. Kim Fowley

Soundtrack | American Graffiti

Kim Fowley was born on July 21, 1939 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for American Graffiti (1973), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and RocknRolla (2008). He was married to Kara Wright and Cynthia Helen "Cindy" Wheelon. He died on January 15, 2015 in Los Angeles, ...

Music producer

26. Dee Dee Warwick

Soundtrack | Charley Varrick

One of the most powerful soul singers of all time, Dee Dee Warwick was born Delia Warrick on September 25, 1942, in Newark Heights, New Jersey, into a musical family with its roots steeped in gospel music. Her mother, Arthur Lee Drinkard Warrick, was a founding member of the acclaimed Drinkard ...

Singer

1. 1961–2008

2. Allegations were released in the 2018 documentary film Whitney.

27. John Phillips

Soundtrack | Cocktail

John Phillips was born on August 30, 1935 in Parris Island, South Carolina, USA. He was a composer and producer, known for Cocktail (1988), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) and The Rock (1996). He was married to Farnaz Arasteh, Geneviève Waïte, Michelle Phillips and Suzy Phillips-January. He died ...

Singer and musician

1. 1960–2001

2. Allegations against him were released in 2009.

28. Nico

Soundtrack | Allegiant

Model and singer Nico was born in Cologne, Germany in 1938. She was a part of the Andy Warhol "scene" in the 1960s. A member of The Velvet Underground experimental rock band (with John Cale), circa 1967, she made several solo albums during the 1970s. A heroin addict for the latter part of her life,...

Singer, songwriter, model, and actress



Recently Viewed