2. Rita Hayworth

Poor Rita Hayworth. She is not a fraud, but people never really knew the real her. It’s not her fault that the film industry made it next to impossible for women to become stars unless they were white. Born Margarita Carmen Cansino, Hayworth came up as a Spanish dancer. When she turned to acting, she got a number of “exotic” roles, but the studios felt she could never go further with her real name and look. Therefore, the actress changed her name to Rita Hayworth, dyed her hair red, and got electrolysis to change her hairline. The rest is history.

1. River Phoenix

River Phoenix was one of Hollywood’s purist souls, or at least that’s what everyone thought. He was an activist and he was kind. He ate ethically and loved animals. But, behind closed doors, Phoenix was also said to be a rampant heroin user. On Gus Van Sant‘s film, My Own Private Idaho, Phoenix reportedly took the role research seriously, trying heroin for the first time. A production assistant on the film said, “It did not take him long to go from, you know, a casual user to having an intense drug problem.” While some family members suggest that Phoenix was clean, many of his friends say otherwise. Although the night of his overdose may have been accidental, the path to that night had been paved with a lot of trial runs.

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