The Girls Aloud star has just been admitted to rehab but even at her peak she'd struggle to match this legendary lot.
1. William Holden
Hollywood golden boy-turned-grade A booze hound, Holden killed a pedestrian while driving under the influence in Europe. His drinking escalated while shooting The Wild Bunch with Sam Peckinpah (see below). Died in 1981 aged 63 when he hit his head on a coffee table following a heavy session.
2. Sam Peckinpah
When he wasn’t shoveling down cocaine, Western legend Peckinpah liked nothing better than to retire to bed with a bottle of 120-proof Yugoslavian slivovitz and his revolver. So drunk during the shooting of Convoy that friend James Coburn had to take the helm, he died of massive heart failure in 1984 aged 59.
3. Richard Burton
The heir to Olivier’s throne, Burton kept a four-storey liquor trolley in his bedroom. Claiming that: “when I played drunks I had to remain sober because I didn’t know how to play them when I was drunk”, the extent of his problem was underlined by a cameo appearance in Lee Majors’ The Fall Guy. Died in 1984 aged 59.
4. Lee Marvin
A decorated Marine, Marvin’s reputation for hardness was eclipsed only by his legendary drinking. Besides getting hammered on the set of Point Blank to give John Boorman more time to set up a shot, he was regularly to be found in the company of good time boys Reed and Robert Shaw. Died in 1987 aged 63.
5. Trevor Howard
That nice young man who romanced Celia Johnson in Brief Encounter was, in fact, a world champion drinker with a gut like a leather bucket. In his later years, drinking so impaired Howard’s script selection that he appeared in The Last Remake Of Beau Geste but turned down Don Siegel and Robert Aldrich. Died in 1987 aged 71.
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