There are so many actors who lead troubled lives that I just had to do some digging around for some samples.

Here's what I found:

Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen
What happened to baby Michelle? These girls probably weighed more when they were on Full House than they do now. Mary-Kate seems to be the more troubled of the two, at least according to public knowledge. She has suffered from anorexia and drug abuse and it has been said that she could have been responsible for supplying Heath Ledger with the drugs that killed him.

Tom Sizemore
Tom starred in Saving Private Ryan and Natural Born Killers among many other movies. He is known as a Hollywood hot head as he's very difficult to work with on set. He has been caught abusing his wife, Heidi Fleiss and has been arrested on drug charges. He was caught trying to beat a drug test while using a prosthetic rather than his own anatomy to urinate into the cup. He's been in and out of prison and he has twin infant sons. It is difficult for Sizemore to land any more starring roles in film as his drug problem is constantly interfering with his success.

Mickey Rourke
Mickey was also involved in domestic violence against his wife. Rourke was charged with spousal abuse in 1994. This is scary since Rourke was a boxer for years before he stopped in 1995. He has brain damage from boxing which makes him dizzy when he's tired. He tried to commit suicide in 1998. He experienced many stressors and deaths in his immediate family. Here's a quote, "For 12 years I was alone, I had lost everything. The three people closest to me - my brother, my grandmother and my ex-wife - were no longer there. I had no real friends. I saw a few girls, Russian strippers mostly, but I wasn't looking for a girlfriend. My wife's name was tattooed on my arm. She was the love of my life".

Christian Bale
Talk about an actor who gets absorbed into his role completely. I am a huge fan of Christian's, but he's going to kill himself faster than Mary-Kate and Ashley. Have you seen him in The Machinist? There was absolutely nothing to him but his skeleton and skin. He gained weight and muscle since, but his body is once again skin and bone for the movie The Fighter. There is no way he's not completely malnourished from starving himself then gorging on unhealthy food to boost back up. At this rate, he won't be pretty for much longer.

Robert Downey Jr.
Robert has been arrested numerous times due his drug habit and was even fired off the set of Ally McBeal for being arrested twice. Robert claims that this period is when he hit an all time low and is not pleased with his acting performance on the show. He was addicted to drugs since he was eight years old and made many trips in and out of rehab until he finally succeeded in 2001.

These are just a few examples out of thousands of actors who have lead troubled lives. Many actors abuse alcohol and drugs. It makes you wonder if it's the limelight, the money, peer pressure or stress. Could it be that people with addictive personalities are more likely to pursue an acting career? There are so many factors involved and so many unique cases that this is difficult to determine. According to William H. Macy, "Nobody became an actor because he had a good childhood". Having a difficult home life as a child may have created the need for many actors to escape reality. Acting may not be enough for some actors to escape emotional pain. Perhaps this is when drugs become more appealing.