We’re in good company! Here’s just a preliminary list of famous people who have struggled with mental disorders. Even more are found in the same “Psychology Today” article for which Art Buchwald wrote an introduction.

H-Hospitalized
SA-Suicide Attempt
S-Suicide

Public Figures

Barbara Bush * Former First Lady
Gamet Coleman * Texas legislator H
Kitty Dukakis * Former First Lady of Massachusetts H
Thomas Eagleton * Lawyer, former U.S. Senator H
Lynn Rivers * U.S. Congresswoman
Sol Wachtler * Judge H
Phil Graham * Owner of the Washington Post
Abble Hoffman * Writer and political activist S
Robert McFarlane * Former National
Security Adviser SA, H

Athletes

Ilie Natase * Tennis player and politician
Jimmie Piersall * Baseball player and announcer
Muffin Spencer Devlin * Pro golfer H
Bert Yancey * Pro golfer H, SA

Scientists

Buzz Aldrin * Astronaut, second man to walk on the Moon H
Karl Paul Link * Chemist
Steven Hawking * Physicist, developed the Big Bang creation theory
Salvador Luria * Scientist of bacterial genetics, Nobel Laureate

Entertainers

Francis Ford Coppola * Director of The Godfather
Patty Duke * Actor on The Patty Duke Show SA
Linda Hamilton * Actor from The Terminator movies
Alvin Ailey * Dancer and choreographer
Dick Clark * Host of New Year’s Rockin’ Eve
Drew Barrymore * Movie actor and director SA, H

Writers

William Faulkner * “The Sound and the Fury” H
F. Scott Fitzgerald * “The Great Gatsby” H
Ernest Hemingway * “The Old Man and the Sea” H, S
Joseph Conrad * “Heart of Darkness” SA
Eugene O’Neill * “The Iceman Cometh” H, SA
Tennessee Williams * “A Streetcar Named Desire” H
Virginia Woolf * “A Room of One’s Own” H, S
Jules Feiffer * cartoonist for the New Yorker and the Village Voice

Composers/Musicians

Irving Berlin * “White Christmas” and “God Bless America”
Cole Porter * “Anything Goes”
Hector Berlioz * “Symphonie Fantastique”
Kurt Cobain * Former musician for the band Nirvana S
Sting * Formerly of The Police and now a solo performer
Tam Waits * Experimental, progressive musician
Brian Wilson * Former member of the Beach Boys
Axl Rose * Singer for rock band Guns n’ Roses
Ray Charles * Legendary R&B performer
Eric Clapton * Blues-rock musician H
Sheryl Crow * Rock musician
Sarah McLachlan * Pop singer and creator of Lilith Fair
Robert Schumann * German classical composer H, SA

Poets

T.S. Eliot * “The Wasteland”
Sylvia Plath * “The Bell Jar” S
Edgar Allen Poe * “The Raven” SA
Anne Sexton * “Live or Die” S
Walt Whitman * “Leaves of Grass” H, S

Artists

Vincent Van Gogh * Starry Night, Sunflowers H, S
Michelangelo * Renaissance painter of the Sistine Chapel ceiling and sculptor of David
Edvard Munch * The Scream H
Mark Rothko * Modern, color-block painting pioneer S