Curated playlist
People with mood disorders
- Henry VIIIHenry VIII broke England from Rome after the pope would not annul his first marriage.
- Marilyn MonroeAn unimpressed studio head signed Marilyn Monroe specifically to keep her away from a rival studio.
- Winston ChurchillWinston Churchill escaped a prisoner-of-war camp in Pretoria by hiding on freight trains. It made him famous.
- Tom HardyTom Hardy put on 42 pounds to play the English prisoner Charles Bronson. Bronson sent him his shaved-off mustache.
- Gwyneth PaltrowGwyneth Paltrow won the lead in Emma with a perfect Texas accent. The director said it sold him.
- Diana, Princess of WalesAn estimated 2.5 billion people watched the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales. The broadcast reached more than 200 countries. In the United Kingdom the audience peaked at 32.1 million, one of the highest figures ever recorded there. In…
- Philip V of SpainA singer performed every night to calm Philip V of Spain. Farinelli's arias eased the king's manic depression.
- Samuel JohnsonSamuel Johnson told his publishers he could write an English dictionary in three years, and it took eight.
- Buzz AldrinBuzz Aldrin's first words on the Moon were "Beautiful view." Years later he was selling used cars.
- Alanis MorissetteAlanis Morissette recorded a demo cassette in August 1989 and sent it to Geffen Records. The tape has never been heard. It was stolen, along with other records, in a burglary of the label's headquarters in October 1989. Whatever it held is…
- Hayden PanettiereHayden Panettiere was eleven months old when she first appeared on screen, in a 1990 advertisement for a Playskool toy train. That commercial was the start of a working life that now spans several decades. How does an infant in commercials…
- Robbie WilliamsRobbie Williams walked onto a stage at Knebworth on the 1st of August 2003 and faced a crowd of 125,000 people. He then did it again on the 2nd and the 3rd. Three consecutive nights, with that many people each time, made it the biggest…
- Hideaki AnnoHideaki Anno wrote his own experiences of depression into the characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
- Chester BenningtonChester Bennington left his own birthday party early to record an audition. That audition opened the way to Linkin Park, and with it a place among the most recognizable rock voices of the 2000s. Yet the same singer fought a pain that he…
- Robin WilliamsRobin Williams was voted "Most Likely Not to Succeed" by his high school classmates in 1969.
- James Dallas Egbert IIIA Michigan State student vanished in 1979, and a Dungeons & Dragons theory made national news.
- Dolores O'RiordanDolores O'Riordan was twelve years old on her first day at Laurel Hill Coláiste in Limerick. She stood in front of her new classmates and announced, "My name is Dolores O'Riordan and I'm going to be a rock star". Then she stood on her…
- Chris CornellChris Cornell was born Christopher John Boyle, and the voice he grew into covered nearly four octaves, from C2 to A5. Critic Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote that as the voice climbed, it could meet hard-rock turbulence with, at the…
- Seung-Hui ChoSeung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded 17 others at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, on the 16th of April 2007. It was the deadliest school shooting in United States history. At the time, it was also the deadliest mass shooting…
- Kid CudiKid Cudi was born Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi in Cleveland on the 30th of January 1984. One day, while he was working at the BAPE store in New York, Kanye West came in and bought a few jackets. Cudi had forgotten to remove a security sensor…
- Jonathan DavisKorn singer Jonathan Davis was a coroner's assistant at sixteen. He also worked as a professional embalmer.
- Mark David ChapmanMark David Chapman, who killed John Lennon, was once a beloved summer camp counselor nicknamed "Nemo."
- MorrisseySteven Patrick Morrissey, known to the world as Morrissey, once led a tour of Manchester for the Oxford Road Show in 1985. Late in that tour he reached the secondary school he had attended. He described it in harsh terms and closed with a…
- Aafia SiddiquiOn the evening of the 17th of July 2008, police in the Afghan city of Ghazni noticed a woman crouching on the ground outside the provincial governor's compound. She held two small bags at her side, and a young boy stood with her. The…