20 Swift and Brutal Celebrity Downfalls No One Saw Coming

1.

Conor McGregor. He wasn’t everyone’s superstar. Ask people from Ireland and they’ll tell you they hate his guts. Still, while he was a controversial and cantankerous figure, he was mostly inoffensive on his meteoric rise. Blew through contenders like paper, destroyed the greatest featherweight ever with one punch, and his ego got out of control. He got brought back down to earth by Nate Diaz, adjusted his approach, and went up a division to dethrone the lightweight champ.

First simultaneous double champion. Conormania was IN. Everyone was raving about him. Highest-selling PPV star in MMA, celebrity appearances… if you thought of combat sports from 2015 to 2017, you thought of the name Conor McGregor. All that box office success drove him to a matchup with Floyd Mayweather. Months of back-and-forth trash talk as Conor was known for but as the talk progressed it felt like Conor was losing a step. It seemed like all the wit and charm he had on the rise was eroding. Then came the fight, and it was the usual spectacle of a Conor performance, but Floyd destroyed his aura of being untouchable. At the same time, Conor got exactly what he always dreamed of: more money than any human should have. This money led to a sense of invincibility.

He flew halfway around the world to throw a dolly at the bus of his rival Khabib with a pack of Irish gangsters. The glass from the window the dolly smashed injured several fighters in that bus. He was arrested but got off easy. Money. The Khabib fight was the biggest in his career. Two years of layoff, returning to face an unstoppable juggernaut. The press conferences were packed with vitriol and pure bile rather than the typical tongue-in-cheek charm. It was uncharacteristic - or rather, it was the mask coming off at last. He got humiliated badly, and everything went wild. Cocaine. Sexual assault scandals, whether true or not. Alcohol. He started his own whiskey brand. Apparently, it’s garbage, but don’t take it from me. Take it from the old man he sucker punched in a bar for refusing to drink it. u/DrJonesPHD62

2.

I would have to say Whitney Houston. I suspect many people here were either not alive or too young to remember how insanely big Houston was. She was literally the biggest female artist in the world and one of the biggest artists, and this was before social media. She holds the record for having 7 consecutive number-one singles on the Billboard Top 100, record sales of over 200 million, and a host of awards including 28 Guinness World Records.

The only other artist that could stand shoulder to shoulder with Whitney in regard to success would be Michael Jackson. However, between 2000 - 2005 her entire career and life completely disintegrated. Her marriage to Bobby Brown, her addiction to crack, and the car crash that was her own reality TV show utterly destroyed her career. She attempted a comeback in 2009/10 by doing a world tour but it was painful to watch, to say the least. She was unable to hit high notes, she no longer had the range she had, and many performances were canceled, I think it was one in Australia which was an utter car crash.
She made the audience wait for hours and when she did appear she simply couldn't sing. Pretty much everyone booed her and she gtfo in a very short time. The general consensus was her tour was a major flop. She tried to come back a couple of times afterwards but she never got even close to her former glory. I have never seen somebody who arguably was the world's biggest artist fall so hard and fast as Whitney Houston. u/GhostRiders

3.

Kevin Spacey getting revealed to be a predator, using his sexuality as an excuse, getting fired from his projects and then posting an insane super-villain-level youtube video as Frank Underwood basically blaming the viewers for being complicit. u/soysaucesausage

4.

Jared Fogle (the Subway guy). The things discovered about him are quite disturbing. Prison is an appropriate place for him. u/Skirt_Thin

5.

Tila Tequila going from bisexual reality TV vixen to N*zi was pretty astonishing. u/MsCellophane

6.

Aaron Hernandez. Played tight end for the New England Patriots. Fresh off a new contract. Killed his friend, found guilty, then took his own life during the appeal. u/c_c_c_combobreaker

7.

Bill Cosby. He was America's favorite Dad, stand up comic, had several very successful TV shows, spokesman at colleges....then almost overnight, he's just a dirty creepy guy who spikes your drink so he can get some. u/Eponarose

8.

Mark Salling. The guy who played Puck in Glee. Maybe not the BIGGEST star. But he was a fan favorite on a huge show. Got caught with Child P***ography, Pleaded Guilty, then Hung himself. u/SuperSaiyanBen

9.

I think of Chris Farley. His SNL career started in 92(?), and his real break came with Tommy Boy in '94. Dead by '98 at 33 years old. Horribly addicted to drugs, alcohol, food, and other impulse-related stuff probably. Probably gained 100 lbs in his 6 year run. OD'd on a "speedball" (as everyone seems to) Everybody of that era claims he was the funniest guy they've ever known, and most of them talk about being frustrated both by his lack of any self-worth (despite how beloved he was), and a feeling of "inevitability" about his early demise.
Obviously, Chris wasn't destructive like some of the other scumbags mentioned on this thing. He was simply self-destructive. People like to compare him to John Belushi. They had pretty much the same self-destructive trajectories, both fat dudes, both highly energetic performers. But as people, I think they were very different. I think he's more comparable to Robin Williams. They both had this like insatiable need to make people laugh, and they both had this super-human energy. By all accounts, Chris, like Robin, was an incredibly sweet and sensitive person in private life. Apparently, he'd spend a lot of time volunteering at children's hospitals in Madison Wisconsin, and he didn't even talk about it. I've heard a million takes on Farley, and it's always heartbreaking (and telling that 25 years later, people still talk about it and can't get over it). u/conradbirdiebird

10.

Kurt Cobain. Formed Nirvana in '87, and went from playing record store gigs and dive bars in the late 80's to putting out Nevermind, a record that knocked Michael Jackson out of the #1 spot in Jan of '92. Back then, something like that was unheard of and considered impossible in the industry. For the next couple of years, Nirvana was arguably one of the biggest and most popular rock bands in the world, but Cobain was already thinking of ways to essentially sabotage the band's popularity because he was so uncomfortable with how famous they got while dealing with his own inner demons and drug addiction.

They performed at the Reading Festival in '92 in what many consider one of the great live rock performances of all time. Put out their second major studio album, In Utero in Feb of '93, which went to #1 instantly despite the record company originally thinking it was 'unreleasable' and some major retailers refusing to sell it due to the album art and the song 'R*pe Me'. Performed their iconic MTV Unplugged set in November of '93, despite Cobain being in the heavy throes of heroin addiction and them not knowing if he'd be able to perform until showtime. In March of '94 he intentionally OD'd in Rome while on a European Tour.

Came back home, went to rehab for a couple of days, hopped the fence, and a week later he blew his head off with a shotgun. Nirvana has sold over 75 million records worldwide despite only being a band for less than 7 years, and only releasing essentially 2 major label albums (Nevermind & In Utero), 1 indie album (Bleach), 1 album of b sides (Incesticide), the MTV Unplugged album and a 'greatest hits' album (Nirvana). I'd say that qualifies as a pretty destructive downward spiral, especially considering their ascent was so rapid as well. u/[deleted]

11.

Chris Benoit. I may not be a wrestling fan anymore, but what a sad tragedy. u/AussieJonesNoelzy

12.

Amanda Bynes. Went from the girl next door cast in every teen movie to a conservatorship and addiction issues. u/Kmammy

13.

OJ Simpson. I remember being in 5th grade and our teacher stopped class to let us listen to the verdict on the radio. We were only 10 but the whole class knew about the trail and what happened. u/quickblur

14.

TJ Miller. Called a bomb threat on a train he was on when he was rejected by someone he was trying to flirt with. u/Cashim

15.

Has everyone forgotten Charlie Sheen? Did #winning stop winning? What about Tiger Blood and a bevy of adult film stars? u/jaredearle

16.

Rosanne did one of the fastest disappearing act that I can think of. u/Aggravating_Dot_5217

17.

Britney Spears. She then proceeded to get royally screwed over by the courts and essentially became her father's slave until recently. u/Alexastria

18.

Will Smith went to winning the oscar to be a meme in the same night. u/jackn3

19.

Bam Margera for me. He looks horrible now, like his dad but worse. Wouldn't be surprised if I wake up one morning and he's dead. u/True_Egg_5685

20.

Jussie Smollett. I think his prime motivation was that fame wasn’t enough for him. He wanted to become a symbol, too. And what’s a more positive symbol then standing against racism? I mean, just look at his “I’m still a victim” attitude and the literal “I’m not suicidal” ravings he made as he was being sentenced to jail. He already thinks he’s a symbol because of what he did. u/PenguinGunner