Tony Curtis, Eddie Fisher, Gregory Isaacs and Greg Giraldo all had something in common: alcoholic-fueled success.
Sometimes, it takes an addict:
Actor Tony Curtis, dead from cardiac arrest at age 85. Curtis’s screen credits included “Houdini,” “The Boston Strangler,” “The Defiant Ones,” and two of my favorite movies ever, “The Great Race,” and “Spartacus.” Curtis, married six times, was scared into sobriety after almost dying in 1984 of liver cirrhosis, after which he went to the Betty Ford Center and, reportedly, stayed sober for the rest of his life. My appreciation goes out to him for having helped teach me that alcoholism can take form in countless ways, including those that pit addict v. addict: Curtis was infuriated over having to gnaw on a chicken leg 42 times in 42 retakes of one scene in “Some Like it Hot,” in which Marilyn Monroe was so drunk she couldn’t get her lines straight. When someone asked if he enjoyed making screen love to the movie goddess he snapped, “It’s like kissing Hitler.” Curtis couldn’t eat chicken for months.
Singer Eddie Fisher, dead from complications of hip surgery at age 82. Having been married five times, including to at least one alcoholic (Elizabeth Taylor; Debbie Reynolds and Connie Stevens were two of his other brides), is compelling evidence of addiction. He confirmed it in his 1981 autobiography (by which time he’d already been married and divorced four times), where he admitted to being addicted to cocaine and alcohol. He also acknowledged being a patient of New York’s Max Jacobson, M.D., known as “Dr. Feelgood” who (as Dr. Theodor Gilbert Morell did for Adolf Hitler) gave him “multi-vitamin” injections that included some “feel-good” drugs such as amphetamines. Fisher, who was at his peak in the early 1950s with dozens of songs that made the top 40 and four that reached number one, went under contract as Coca Cola’s spokesman for an unheard of $1 million at age 25 in 1953. Always remember, being a practicing alcoholic not only does not preclude one from becoming a multi-millionaire but may, because addicts take risks others do not, assist in creating such wealth (fleeting though it may be in many cases).
Reggae artist Gregory Isaacs, dead from lung cancer at age 59. He pioneered “lovers-rock” reggae and was a prolific record-maker, releasing at least 200 albums. He admitted he may or may not have invented this style of reggae, but he clearly popularized it and is considered by reggae producer Gary Himelfarb (aka Doctor Dread) to be one of the three geniuses in the reggae music business. Isaacs’ “serious” cocaine addiction contributed to around 50 arrests, mostly on drug- and gun-related charges, as well as “notorious” unreliability and the eventual deterioration of his voice. In a 2007 interview he said, “Drugs are a debasing weapon. It was the greatest college ever, but the most expensive school fee ever paid—the Cocaine High School. I learnt everything, and now I’ve put it on the side.”
So long too to comedian Greg Giraldo (regular on Comedy Central celebrity roasts and a judge on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing”), 44, of a drug overdose and former five-term U.S. Rep. Karen McCarthy (D-MO.) (who resigned amid allegations she had misused her staff and campaign funds for personal gain, in particular to attend the Grammy Awards), 63, of Alzheimer’s. McCarthy’s family said she had bipolar disorder, which “had gone undiagnosed for a decade.” So too, apparently, had her alcoholism—which she admitted to in March 2003, a day after she fell on an escalator in a House office building and cut her head. Note to her family: alcoholism mimics all of the personality disorders, including bipolar disorder. It may also contribute to Alzheimer’s. Note to other families: it can pay to diagnose alcoholism far earlier than is common, since only then do you have a chance to intervene, before it’s too late.