Paul Walker lives life in the fast lane. He thinks life’s either a daring adventure or nothing at all. But danger has a domino effect. There’s always someone in the passenger seat. And sometimes, for the young, fast and free, that penny can take a whil...

You’ve seen Rock Hudson play cowboys, lovers, fighters, heroes. Always so wholesome. Always beating the bad guys. And always getting the girl. But his greatest role of all? That’s been Rock Hudson, all along. Because it’s all an act. And it al...

People don't buy the way Bruce Lee died. The man who could do the one-inch punch died during a nap because something went wrong in his brain?! But it's the truth. And Bruce Lee the man might be dead, but Bruce Lee the icon? He's never be...

Errol Flynn was a Golden Age star in full Technicolor. But he lived like his characters – fast, free, with danger always close, morals out of sight and a girl on his arm. And that doesn’t tend to have happy endings. For anyone. Because the glo...

Everyone knows Carrie Fisher. Or at least they think they do. But they make the same mistake the villains in Star Wars do. The ones who see her as a pretty face and an empty head. They’re under-estimating Carrie. But Carrie won’t be taken advantage of,...

Edie Sedgwick’s the original it girl. The first to be famous for fame’s own sake. And an image that will forever live on. Her act doesn’t end when the reels stopped rolling. It can’t. Because that’s what makes her. But it’s what breaks her too…WARNI...

Philip Seymour Hoffman isn’t your usual Hollywood star. Some actors do charisma and charm. They radiate confidence. They lead. And the audience follows. But Philip just doesn’t want to. He wants something more interesting. Because between the matinée i...

Of course you know Judy Garland. The voice, the smile. Her biggest film, The Wizard of Oz. How she sings Somewhere Over the Rainbow. But you don’t know her like she is towards the end. How she looks, how she sounds. The people around her, the strangers...

Speed. That’s how James Dean tries to forget. About the older men. About the dreams where his mother appears and stays, just out of reach. With speed, he blurs the edges. Cuts so close to death that he can almost reach out and touch it. Until one day, ...

When you think about Corey Haim, you think of all the things he’s been. Shy kid, heart-throb, manipulator, junkie. But a dear friend and a son too. A half-forgotten child star, when everyone should’ve known him. Because, “In Hollywood, we put people on...

Before John Belushi died, he was always talking about Brando. Maybe he related to his characters. The guy who’s fucking up, but doesn’t mean to. Because Belushi’s story is all about the kid who could have been a contender but ended up broken and beaten...

You might not know River Phoenix. But the Hollywood you know now wouldn’t exist without him. He’s many things in his life. An activist. Musician. An object of teen adoration. And that’s before he appears on screen. But, despite all that, he’s known for...

Stallone. It’s not even a real name. Really, it’s a brand. Blue-collar grit. Brawn over brain. An American dream. But what if that isn’t you? What if you don’t have a choice about it? Because this is the story of Sage Stallone, not Sylvester. The story...

There are no happy endings with Sharon Tate. No logic. This story is many things: the death of a young woman; the murder of a film star, a wife and a daughter.But it’s so much more, too. It’s madness come to La La Land. A cult leader gone crazy. It’s ...

When Cory Monteith’s story goes public, people are shocked. To most of us, his death is… unbelievable. But that’s not the truth. The truth will force people in Hollywood to have difficult conversations. About addiction. About addicts. About stereotypes...

When Robin Williams dies, you remember a connection. One that first forms in an empty mansion outside Detroit, and then reaches through the screen, big and small, into houses all over the world. President Barack Obama says what Robin meant to him. And ...

For Brittany Murphy, Hollywood’s a hall of mirrors. There’s a different Brittany wherever she looks. For some she’s a comic sidekick, for others a screen siren. Is she on the rise or washed-up?  Under-appreciated or over-promoted?...

There’s stuff you know about Chadwick Boseman – what he’s done as Black Panther, how good he was as James Brown in one biopic, as baseball hero Jackie Robinson in another, as judge Thurgood Marshall in his most recent. He’s different for the roles he p...

WARNING: this episode contains references to suicide.It’s not true to say there’s never been anyone like Marilyn Monroe. There’s always been movie stars. There’s been blonde ones. Ones with bodies that half the world wants to stare at and the other ...

When you see the news, his face stays with you. Heath Ledger as the Joker. Smeared in white grease paint, a slash of red across the mouth, a shock of dark blue around the eyes. When you take on a part so completely, it’s hard to get out. Things merge. ...

With a new episode every Tuesday, Death of a Film Star takes you inside the worlds of those superstars who make us believe in the greatest tales ever told – how they transformed themselves, how they made their roles real, the price they paid for giving...