Celebrities slain by admirers and your everyday average folks
The name of the album 'Aladdin Sane,' released in 1973, is a pun on "A Lad Insane," which is regarded as representing the split personality of the Aladdin Sane character and Bowie's mixed feelings of touring and stardom at the time. However, it's also suggested that the title refers to Bowie's older half-brother, Terry Burns, who suffered from schizophrenia. Burns killed himself in January 1985, several years after the pair had lost contact with each other.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's father, Gustav Schwarzenegger (1907–1972), was a member of the Nazi party; he voluntary applied for membership in 1938. However, there is no evidence that he was a war criminal, nor that Schwarzenegger senior belonged to any paramilitary unit.
Rihanna, born Robyn Rihanna Fenty, once sued her father, Ronald Fenty, to stop him allegedly capitalizing on her name. In 2017, he founded a company, Fenty Entertainment, and claimed it was affiliated with his famous daughter. Not so, she countered, and filed a lawsuit against her father's use of "Fenty."
In 2011, Oprah Winfrey revealed that she has a half-sister whom her mother, Vernita, had hidden from her for years. The sister, named Patricia, had been given up for adoption in 1963.
Nicolas Cage's birth name is Nicolas Kim Coppola. That surname sounds familiar, doesn't it? That's because his uncle is famed director Francis Ford Coppola. Furthermore, Cage, Sofia Coppola, and Jason Schwartzman are first cousins.
For nearly 40 years Jack Nicholson believed that his mother, June, was his sister and that his grandmother, Ethel May, was his mother. June had a baby out of wedlock, and such was the stigma attached to this back in 1937 that she pretended to be young Jack's sister. Her mother and father meanwhile would act as Nicholson's parents. The actor only found out about the charade in 1974.
On June 21, 1991, Charlize Theron's father Charles, an alcoholic, threatened both teenaged Charlize and her mother, Gerda, while drunk, physically attacking her mom and firing a gun at both of them. Gerda retrieved her own handgun, shot back and killed him. The shooting was legally deemed to have been in self-defense, and no charges were leveled against her.
Kevin Spacey's public and professional downfall is well documented. But while Spacey has declined to talk about his father, Thomas Geoffrey Fowler, his siblings have not been so reticent. Randy Fowler, Spacey's older brother, has said his father was a neo-Nazi who sexually abused him during his childhood.
Did you know Jackie Chan's mother was an opium smuggler and his father was a spy? Neither did he. In his younger days, dad Charles Chan was a secret agent for the nationalist guard and fled to Hong Kong after Mao Zedong took power in 1949. Lee-Lee Chan, meanwhile, resorted to illegal substance dealing to haul herself out of extreme poverty.
Tobey Maguire's dad once robbed a bank! The 'Spider-Man' actor was born into a poor family. To make ends meet, his father, Vincent, made a rash decision to carry out a heist. He was subsequently jailed for 24 months after being caught just two hours after the raid.
For years, Liv Tyler thought singer Todd Rundgren was her biological father. After all, she'd been born Liv Rundgren, so it made sense, right? Wrong! In 1988, when she was 11 years old, Liv was told by her mom, Babe Buell, that in fact Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler was her real dad.
Joaquin Phoenix was born Joaquin Rafael Bottom in Puerto Rico. His mom and dad, John Lee and Arlyn, were members of the Children of God Christian missionary group, now classified as a cult, into which Joaquin was delivered. Later, however, his parents grew disillusioned with their nomadic lifestyle and the increasingly sinister practices of the cult. They returned to the United States, where the family changed their last name to Phoenix, after the mythical bird that rises from its own ashes.
Singer, songwriter, and actor Bobby Darin believed his mother, Nina, was his elder sister after he was born out of wedlock. Instead, he grew up thinking that his maternal grandmother was his real mom. Nina eventually told her son the truth, but refused to identify the singer's biological father.
Sources: (CNN) (Independent) (The Sun) (Los Angeles Times)
See also: Truth or tabloid? How well do you know these celebs?
Of all Marlon Brando's eight children, it's Cheyenne and Christian's lives that are most closely associated with the actor's turbulent and often controversial lifestyle. In 1990, Christian shot his sister Cheyenne's boyfriend, Dag Drollet. Christian served time in prison for the killing and was released in 1996. In 2008, he died of pneumonia. Cheyenne tragically ended up taking her own life in 1995 due to a struggle with mental illness.
Mariah Carey's sister Alison has led a troubled life far removed from her more glamorous and successful younger sibling. She's been arrested for prostitution, is HIV-positive, and has recently made allegations that their mother let strangers abuse her when she was 10 years old.
One quarter of the ABBA line up, Anni-Frid Lyngstad was born in Norway in November 1945 to a Norwegian mother and a German father, Alfred Hasse, whom she never knew. For many years Lyngstad assumed her father had died during the war. However in 1977 her half-brother, Peter Hasse, read a biography about the singer, then at the height of her fame with the Swedish super group. He realized she could be his father's daughter—his half-sister—and a few months later Lyngstad met Hasse in Stockholm for the first time.
Curtis James Jackson III, better known as 50 Cent, lost his mother, Sabrina, when he was just eight years old after she died in a fire.
On February 9, 1967, Dylan McDermott's mother, Diane, was shot and killed at home in what police originally ruled as an accident. However, new evidence unearthed many years later suggested that she'd been murdered by her partner, John Sponza. McDermott had the file reopened even though Sponza himself had died in 1972.
Elvis Presley—indeed, the whole Presley family—rarely talked about his identical twin brother, Jesse Garon Presley, delivered 35 minutes before him, stillborn. Jesse Garon is buried in the Presley family plot at the late singer's Graceland, Memphis, home. Pictured is Elvis aged three.
Jason Sudeikis found out during a 2012 episode of 'Who Do You Think You Are?' that his great-grandfather, Stanley, was a bigamist and had two separate families.
How well do you know your favorite celebrity? Despite their high profiles and publicity-rich personas, you'd be surprised at how many famous faces have family secrets.
Click through this gallery and be surprised by these star revelations.
A difficult childhood and a turbulent personal life followed Richard Pryor into adulthood. He was raised in a brothel, sexually abused at age seven, and expelled from school at 14. Alcoholism and substance abuse plagued his later years. In 1980, he tried to kill himself. Six years later, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. But all the time he managed to make people laugh.
Sofia Vergara's younger brother Julio has struggled with addiction issues for many years. He was even deported from the United States after 30 substance abuse-related arrests.
Revealing celebrity family secrets
Things you didn't know about the stars
CELEBRITY Society
How well do you know your favorite celebrity? Despite their high profiles and publicity-rich personas, you'd be surprised at how many famous faces have family secrets.
Click through this gallery and be surprised by these star revelations.