20 Most Dangerous Drunks in Old Hollywood

Old Hollywood  did not just hide drinking problems. It hid stars who got drunk, crashed cars, started fights, pulled weapons, attacked police, wrecked hotel rooms, and returned to work under studio protection. In 1957, Gail Russell drove her convertible through the front of a Los Angeles restaurant, and injured a janitor inside.

 By 1955, Lawrence Tyranny had reportedly been arrested 16 times with police records tied  to drunkenness, disorderly conduct, bar fights, and assault charges. In 1943, Francis Farmer threw an inkwell at a judge, knocked down one policeman, bruised another, and was carried out of court shouting. These are the 20 most dangerous drunks in old Hollywood.

One, Gail Russell. Paramount signed Gail Russell at 18. On set, her severe  stage fright became a problem and alcohol became her way to get through filming. By November 1953, the drinking had reached the police. Russell was jailed overnight after a drunk driving arrest. In January 1954, a Santa Monica court fined her $150 for drunkenness, ordered her to avoid alcohol and night spots for 2 years, and told her to get medical treatment.

 In February 1955, she hit another carrying a couple and their baby. The couple later sued her for $30,000 and settled out of court. The worst crash came at 4:00 a.m. on July 4th, 1957.  Russell drove her convertible into John’s restaurant at 8424 Beverly Boulevard and injured a janitor inside.

 She failed a sobriety test, missed a later court appearance, and was found at home passed out from drinking.  She was fined $420, given a 30-day suspended sentence,  and placed on 3 years probation. Russell died in 1961 at 36 with an empty vodka bottle beside her. Two, Brderick Crawford. Brderick Crawford won the Oscar for All the King’s Men in 1950.

 5 years later, he became Chief Dan Matthews in Highway Patrol,  a police drama about reckless drivers and road patrols. Offscreen, Crawford had his own driving record. In November 1952,  he spent several hours in jail after a drunk driving arrest in Los Angeles. During the highway patrol years, his drinking brought more DU stops and arrests.

 The irony became hard to hide. Crawford was playing a highway officer while losing the legal right to drive. His license was eventually suspended  and some driving scenes reportedly had to be staged, so he was not actually driving on public roads. The California Highway Patrol reportedly nicknamed him Old502 because 502 was the radio code for drunk driving. Three, Richard Harris.

 Richard Harris was the angry drunk of the British Irish Hellraiser Circle. He once boasted that he went out for a bottle of milk and stayed out on a five-day bender. In London and New York, his nights meant pubs, vodka, arguments, and fights.  When drunk, he was known to walk into the road and attack passing cars with his fists.

 In Rome, Harris took a film executive to a bar to prove he did not always start the brawls. A drunken American tourist threatened him across the  room. Harris ignored advice to leave it alone, took the man outside, and flattened him. His drinking also became violent  at home. His first wife, Elizabeth Reese Williams, later described him as a belligerent,  two-fisted drunk who smashed furniture and faces.

 Harris later admitted the marriage had been horrendous because he was out of control. Harris quit drinking in 1981 after a doctor warned him he had 18 months to live if he continued.  Four, Frank Sinatra. Frank Sinatra’s drinking was not only rat pack glamour. His wife Barbara later wrote that Jyn turned him mean and when she saw the gin bottle, she locked herself in her room.

In the fall of 1949, a married and very drunk Sinatra  left a Palm Springs party with an equally drunk Ava Gardner. They drove to Indo where  Sinatra pulled out two guns and shot at street lights. Gardner joined him and shot out the window of a hardware store.  Armed police brought them in and the studio paid to keep it quiet.

 During From Here to Eternity, Sinatra and Montgomery Clif arrived in Hawaii at 5:00 a.m. after drinking so heavily that both had passed out. Bert Lancaster later said he often had to put Sinatra Clifton and writer James Jones to bed after long drinking sessions. In September 1967, after two nights of heavy drinking and gambling  at the Sands Hotel, Sinatra smashed furniture, damaged the switchboard, drove a baggage cart through a plate  glass window, overturned Carl Cohen’s breakfast table, and tried to

hit him with a chair.  Cohen punched him in the mouth, and knocked the caps off his front teeth. Five. Francis Farmer. Francis Farmer’s public collapse began on October 19th, 1942 in Santa Monica. Police stopped her because her headlights were too bright under World War II blackout rules. She had no valid license,  was suspected of being drunk, and spent the night in jail.

 The court fined her $500 and gave her a $180day suspended  sentence. Farmer paid only half, then left for Mexico for an unfinished film project. There, she was reportedly charged with drunk and disorderly conduct and disturbing the piece. By January 1943, a  bench warrant had been issued for the unpaid fine. A studio hairdresser had also accused Farmer of hitting her in the face and dislocating her jaw on the set of I escaped from  the Gustapo.

 Police found Farmer at the Nickerbacher Hotel in Hollywood. She fought the arrest and was dragged through the lobby kicking and screaming. At the hearing, Farmer threw an inkwell at the judge. When asked about drinking, she said she put liquor in her milk, coffee, and orange juice. As officers removed her, she knocked down one policeman, bruised another, and was carried out shouting.

On January 21st, 1943, Farmer was transferred to the psychiatric ward of Los Angeles General Hospital. Six, Errol Flynn. By the late 1940s, Warner Brothers was losing patience with Errol Flynn’s drinking. During Silver River in 1948, Jack Warner complained that Flynn had repeatedly become incoherent from liquor.

 Flynn also drank at lunch and ruined takes with vodka-fueled off-color jokes when his back was to the camera. He found ways to drink while working. He liked Bloody Marys because they hit alcohol on set, and he reportedly injected oranges with vodka so he could eat them during breaks. In  bars, Flynn’s drinking often turned physical.

 He was once arrested on a drunk charge after stealing a policeman’s badge. In Australia, while drunk, he accepted a boxing challenge from Bud Riley, lasted three rounds, and was beaten so badly that he later said he could not eat for 3 days. By the 1950s, Flynn carried a small suitcase  labeled Flynn Enterprises.

 Inside was vodka, quinine water, glasses,  and a Bible. Seven. George C. Scott. George C. Scott called his heavy drinking an addiction. By 1971, Time was already writing about his broken noses from barroom brawls.  Scott said men challenged him because of his tough guy reputation. There’s always some guy who wants to take you apart.

 The worst stories came from Ava Gardner. She worked with Scott on John Houston’s The Bible in 1964,  and their relationship turned violent. Gardner later said that when Scott got drunk, he broke into her hotel rooms in Italy, London, and at the Beverly Hills  Hotel. In one drunken fight, Scott smashed bottles and threatened her with the broken glass.

Gardner said he attacked her while demanding that she marry him. Scott’s drinking also reached work. During one production, he smashed a dressing room. At another point, he was put under medical care to dry out. Eight. Robert Walker. Robert Walker’s drinking became public after Jennifer Jones left him for producer David O.

Selnik. Soon after the separation, Walker was arrested for drunk driving. He had been drinking in a bar, hit a truck with his Chrysler, then drove away. The arrest reached the newspapers. A jail photograph damaged the clean image he had built in Since You Went Away and the  clock. His second marriage also collapsed quickly.

 In 1948, Walker married Barbara Ford, daughter of director John Ford. The marriage lasted only months. Ford left because Walker became violent when he drank too much. Walker later spent time at the Meninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas. He returned to work and gave his  most famous performance as Bruno Anthony and Hitchcock Strangers on a Train.

 On August 28th,  1951, Walker’s housekeeper found him in an emotional state. His psychiatrist, Frederick Hacker, came to the house and gave him ammoarbital. Walker had allegedly been drinking and died that night at 32. Nine. Robert Mitchum. Robert Mitchum  drank scotch from a water glass with no ice and sipped it all day like coffee.

 Sydney Pollock saw the habit while directing him in the Ausa.  Mitchum also had a reputation as a hard-drinking hellraiser who got into fist fights. One barroom brawl reportedly ended with heavyweight  boxer Bernie Reynolds in the hospital. The clearest work scandal came during Blood Alley in 1955. Mitchum was hired for the lead opposite Lauren  McCall, then removed before filming.

 Later accounts claimed he had been drinking, raising hell, and had thrown the film’s transportation manager into San Francisco Bay. Mitchum denied the story. John Wayne took over the role himself. Another  drinking story involved producer David Oelsnik. Mitchum said he drank at least eight double scotches before visiting Selnick’s penthouse to discuss a doll’s house.

During the meeting, he relieved himself on Snick’s carpet. He did not get the part. 10. Ava  Gardner. After moving to Madrid in 1955, Ava Gardner became known for late nights, bull fighters, flamnco clubs, and heavy drinking. She was sometimes driven around by a chauffeur while drinking an entire thermos of gin  in the back of the car.

 Gardner was barred from the Ritz in Madrid after reportedly relieving herself in the hotel lobby while drunk. She was also banned from the St. Regis in New York after pouring  a drink down the trousers of the hotel’s owner. In Havana, Gardner met Fidel Castro at the Havana Hilton and drank Cuba Libres  with him. Later, she clashed with Marita Loren, Castro’s mistress and translator.

According to Loren, Gardner was drunk, accused her of hiding Castro, followed her into an elevator, and slapped her in the face. One of Castro’s bodyguards drew a gun during the confrontation. Castro decided Gardner had to leave. She died in London on January 25th, 1990 at 67. 11. Spencer  Tracy.

 Before MGM turned Spencer Tracy into a prestige star, he was already known in New York as a mean drunk. Barbara Leming’s Heppern biography says he stayed out all night drinking, visited brothel,  and was known among madams as a man who had once beaten up a woman at Lu’s. The behavior followed him west.

 A Golden Globes history piece says Tracy caused fights at the house of Francis and was once arrested after hitting a parked car in the alley. MGM fixer Howard Strickling  reportedly handled expenses connected to that world. The drinking also stopped productions. In June 1934, during Marie Galante, Tracy failed to report for work and was found virtually unconscious in his hotel room after  a two-week binge.

 Fox removed him from the payroll, sent him to a hospital, and he was sued for $125,000 for delaying the film.  At MGM, the problem continued. During riffraff in 1936, his drinking reportedly delayed filming for 10 days. When  Tracy showed up drunk again, Gene Harlo walked off the set and said she would not work until he was straightened out. 12.

 Oliver Reed. Oliver Reed built his reputation in pubs before he became a major British film star in 1964. He got into an argument at the Crazy Elephant nightclub in Leicester Square. Two men followed him into the toilet and attacked him with broken bottles. Reed needed 63 stitches in one  side of his face.

 The drinking stories kept growing. In the early 1970s, Steve McQueen came to London to discuss a film project.  Reed took him on an all-night pub crawl. McQueen later said Reed got so drunk that he threw up on him. Reed’s television appearances also became incidents. In 1975, on the Tonight Show, Shelley Winters poured whiskey over his head after his remarks about women’s liberation.

 Years later, he left Channel 4’s After Dark after arriving drunk and trying  to aggressively kiss writer Kate Millet. During Cutthroat Island in 1995, Reed arrived extremely drunk after already getting into trouble for a bar fight.  He was fired and replaced. On May 2nd, 1999, during a break from Gladiator, Reed drank with Royal Navy sailors in aa bar, collapsed, and died at 61.

13. Jack Pikford. Jack Pikford had a silent era reputation for drinking, drugs, gambling, affairs,  and protection from his sister Mary Pikford’s name. In 1920, he and his wife Olive Thomas went drinking  in Paris, returned to the Hotel Ritz around 3:00 a.m., and Thomas swallowed mercury by chloride, a poisonous  medication prescribed to Jack, and meant only for external use.

 French police investigated and ruled the death accidental. His later marriages were also described as abusive under alcoholism and drug use. Pickford died in Paris  in 1933 at 36 from illness linked to alcoholism. 14. Barbara Payton. Barbara Payton’s drinking helped turn a Warner Brothers beauty into a police blotter.

  In 1951, she was engaged to Francho Tone while still involved with Tom Neil. After a drunken night, Tone and Payton came home and found Neil there. A  fight followed and Tone ended up in the hospital with serious facial injuries. Payton turned the scandal into publicity. She visited Tone in white furs and dark glasses, posed for reporters, and reportedly brought him martinis and a thermos while he recovered.

 She married him soon after, left him within weeks, and went back to Neil. By the late 1950s, Payton was being arrested for bad checks, public drunkenness, and disorderly conduct. In 1963, she was arrested on Sunset Boulevard in a vice case. In February 1967, police found her passed out near  a dumpster in a Sunset Boulevard drugstore parking lot.

 Payton died 3 months later on May 8th, 1967  at 39. 15. Peter Oul. Peter Oul’s drinking was  a work problem before Hollywood made him famous. At the Bristol Old Vic, staff reportedly connected the theater bell to the corner pub by telephone so they could pull him back before performances.

 After Lawrence of Arabia, the stories grew larger. On his first American television appearance with Johnny Carson, Otul reportedly arrived so drunk that he broke his glasses,  cursed, and left after only a few minutes. One night, Otul took the young Michael Kane out for dinner. Cain later said he woke up in a strange flat with no memory of the weekend.

 They had been banned from the restaurant for life. In Ireland,  Otul and Peter Finch were refused more drinks after closing time. Otul tried to buy the pub on the spot and wrote a check. He returned sober the next day and tore it up. In 1976, Otul had most of his stomach  and his entire pancreas removed.

16. Richard Burton. Richard Burton’s drinking  became dangerous in hotel suites, dressing rooms, and film sets. By the 1960s,  his marriage to Elizabeth Taylor had become an alcohol-fueled public spectacle. Televisions were smashed. Hotel rooms were trashed. Their arguments followed them through Rome, Hollywood, and the gossip  press.

Studio chief Spyro Skorus later claimed that in one altercation,  Taylor ended up with two black eyes, an injured nose, and needed 22 days before she  could resume filming. Taylor publicly blamed the injuries on a car accident. Burton also became unpredictable at work.  Friends described him as an angry drinker.

 Sometimes he was so drunk he had to be hauled onto the set. During the Clansmen in 1974, Burton said he  drank two and a half to three bottles of vodka a day. Many scenes had to be filmed with him sitting or lying down because he could not reliably stand. Burton entered St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica after the shoot. He and Taylor divorced later in 1974.

17. Zaza Gabbor. Zaza Gabbor’s biggest police scandal began  in Beverly Hills on June 14th, 1989. She was driving her $215,000 Rolls-Royce Cornesh when motorcycle officer Paul Kramer stopped her for expired registration tags. Police found that her license had expired.  They also found an open flask of Jack Daniels in the car.

 While Kramer was checking the violations, Gabber drove away. He stopped her again. During the second confrontation, she slapped him across the face.  Gabber later claimed the officer had handled her roughly. Kramer said the slap was unprovoked. In September 1989, the jury convicted her of battery on a police officer, driving without a license, and possessing  an open container of alcohol.

 On October 25th, Judge Charles Rubin sentenced her to 3  days in jail, $12,937 in fines and restitution, $120 of community service, and a psychiatric evaluation. Gabbor served 3 days in jail in July 1990. 18. Lawrence Tyranny. Lawrence Tyranny became famous in 1945 as John Dillinger. Offscreen, the arrest record soon became longer than the resume.

 Between 1944 and 1951, Tyranny was arrested at least 12 times in  Los Angeles for brawling and drunkenness. One night, he ripped a public telephone off a bar wall. Another time, he hit a waiter in the face with a sugar bowl after the waiter refused to serve him more drinks. In another drunken incident, he tried to choke  a taxi driver.

 The jail terms followed. In May 1947,  he served 3 months for brawling. In 1951, he received 90 days after breaking a New York college student’s jaw in a barroom  fight. In 1952, he served 66 days in Chicago on drunk and disorderly charges.  In August 1953, he was arrested in New York after a fight with a barroom  pianist.

 In October 1958, police arrested him outside a Manhattan bar for resisting arrest  and assaulting two officers. Tierney later admitted, “I threw away about seven careers through drink.” 19. Mayo Method. Mayo Method was a Warner Brothers actress when she married Humphrey Bogart in 1938. Their marriage became more famous than her film career.

Both drank heavily and the press called them the battling Bogarts. Their Hollywood home was nicknamed  Sluggy Hollow. Neighbors reportedly heard breaking glass, shouted curses, and occasional gunfire. Methett  threw plants, crockery, and other objects at Bogart. In one fight, she stabbed him in the shoulder with a knife.

 In another, they reportedly  hit each other in the head with whiskey bottles. Actress Gloria Stewart remembered a dinner party where Methot drunkenly pulled out a pistol and threatened to shoot Bogart. Stuart also said she saw bruises on Methot’s face  and witnessed physical fights between the couple. After a wartime night of heavy drinking in Italy, Methot insisted on singing for John Houston and Bogart.

 The scene later inspired the drunken nightclub performance in Keargo. Bogart left the marriage in 1944. Methot died in Portland in 1951 at 47 with her death later attributed to acute alcoholism. 20.  William Holden. William Holden’s drinking did not usually create nightclub chaos. It became dangerous in cars, hotels, and empty rooms.

 The worst public case came  on July 26th, 1966 near Pisa, Italy. Holden was driving a Ferrari when it collided with another car.  The other driver, Valerio Giorgio Nolli, died after the crash. Italian authorities charged Holden  with manslaughter. Alcohol was part of the investigation, and the case ended with an 8-month suspended prison sentence.

  Holden later paid damages to Nobelli’s family. The drinking followed him through the rest of his life. Friends described him as a heavy alcoholic in his later years, and the damage became visible on screen. His final incident came in November 1981. Holden was alone in his Santa Monica  apartment, reportedly intoxicated, when he fell and struck his head on a bedside table.

 His body was found several days