Urban Legends and campfire tales are always fun, but did you know that some of our favorite twisted tales actually have real-life counterparts? The original incidents may have had twists and embellishments added, but nonetheless, events matching the general description of various urban legends have indeed happened.

If you’ve ever been creeped out by a scary modern folktale, you might have reassured yourself that it’s completely made up. That’s not always the case. Here are ten famous urban legends and the true stories behind them.

10 Flashing Headlight Initiation

You’ve all probably heard this one before. It’s late at night, and a driver notices a car approaching from the opposite direction without its headlights on, so he flashes his lights to alert the other car. As he passes, the dark car makes a U-turn and begins following the Good Samaritan, and as soon as he stops, gang members exit and gun the driver down as a part of some twisted initiation.

This story has found its way not only across the Internet but into the local news as well, being issued as a warning from various news outlets and sheriff’s departments. So where did this account find its roots? Although not gang-related, someone did die after a car was signaled to put its lights on. In 1992 in Stockton, California, a school district employee by the name of Kelly Freed was shot after the driver of the car in which she was traveling, Will Fitts, gestured to a car next to them that did not have its lights on.

The occupants of the second car, 16-year-old Adrian Gutierrez and 15-year-old Carlos Ojeda, took the gesture as an insult, so Gutierrez shot at Fitts’s car. They chased Fitts and his passengers into the parking lot of a department store. Gutierrez then fired off another shot from the window of his car. As it happened, that shot hit Freed, piercing her lung and heart.^[1]

Some say this is where the story originated, while others say the tale was around long before that, but either way, the incident became a catalyst for the fire, and over the years, the urban legend has grown in both detail and scope.

9 Death By Wedgie

How many times have we heard this? “I heard about this guy who gave a dude an atomic wedgie so severe that it killed the kid!” According to legend, the underwear was pulled up so high and tight that it caused severe trauma to the rectum, which somehow lead to death. The true story, however, is a bit more interesting and makes a little more sense.

In 2013, Oklahoman Brad Lee Davis got into an argument with his stepfather, Denver St. Clair. As the argument grew more heated, Davis decided to handle things the old-fashioned way, by yanking his stepdad’s underwear up and then pulling it over his head. This move was the mythical atomic wedgie, not to be confused with a standard wedgie. As it happened, the elastic band of the underwear wrapped around Denver’s throat, cutting off his airway, and he suffocated.^[2]

In 2015, Davis pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the incident.

8 Tainted Halloween Candy

Halloween is a special night. It’s a night that allows our children a certain amount of freedom as we send them out the door, dressed in their scariest best, to torment the neighbors and gather goodies. Over the years, tales of tainted candy have emerged. Among the most famous is that of a child-hating miser who decides he’s had enough of the irritating little brats, so he pulls out a pack of straight razors and, one by one, inserts them into a group of apples. When the children knock on his door later that evening, he delivers them the tainted fruit. Later that night, as the kids bite into their spoils, they are stunned to find the surprise center. Some get off easy and simply chip a tooth, but others aren’t so fortunate, and the razors render them speechless, literally.

There are multiple stories circulating of objects embedded in Halloween treats, most of which turn out to be little more than pranks played by the children themselves, but the one thought to have started the tainted candy craze took place in Texas back in 1974, when a man named Ronald O’Bryan handed out Pixy Stix laced with cyanide to five children, one of whom was his own eight-year-old son. His motive? It would seem that O’Bryan had just taken out a life insurance policy on his kids.

Luckily, the poison was discovered before most of the children were harmed, but unfortunately, O’Bryan’s son died from ingesting it.^[3]

O’Bryan was sentenced to death (it was Texas after all) and was executed by lethal injection. The effects of his actions, however, were felt across the United States, planting thoughts into the minds of parents everywhere.

7 Cooked To Death In The Tanning Bed

No woman wants to look bad for a wedding, but sometimes, time slips past us. So, what is a woman to do when she needs to get tanned in a matter of three days, but the tanning salons have limits on how long she can stay in the bed? She goes around to as many salons as she can find, of course. In this story, a young lady facing a pasty complexion at a formal event hits up every tanning salon in town within a 36-hour period so that she can look her best on the big day, and it works! She attends the wedding browned and beautiful.

The next day, she wakes up not feeling so great, and she notices an odd, almost burned smell, so she decides to go see her doctor. After running a few tests, the doctor drops a bomb on her. All those visits to the tanning bed in such a short amount of time have cooked her internal organs. The girl now has less than a week before her body will shut down, and she will die.

The first thing we need to point out is that tanning beds don’t work this way. Tanning beds use UV light, and the story is more akin to microwaves, but that doesn’t mean tanning beds can’t be lethal. Tanning beds deliver two to 12 times the amount of UV radiation that one would get standing in the midday sun.

On May 24, 1989, Indiana native Patsy Campbell passed away due to burns inflicted after spending 25 minutes in a tanning bed 11 days earlier.^[4] It was, more or less, an accident, as Campbell was taking a drug to help treat psoriasis that made her more sensitive to light. Two days after her tanning session, she began to break out in blisters. The UV rays, combined with the medication, caused her to suffer burns on over 70 percent of her body. It was the first documented case of a fatality due to a tanning booth.

Others have suffered as well. In 2007, a woman in Australia, Clare Oliver, succumbed to the effects of melanoma, which she claimed was a direct result of over-tanning.

6 They Stole My Kidney

A man is away on a business trip. His meeting has gone well, and he has headed back to his hotel, where he decides to unwind with a few drinks down at the bar. While he is there, he meets a mysterious woman. They get to talking end eventually head back to the man’s room for a different kind of a nightcap. Things seem to be going great until the man blacks out. The next thing he knows, he is waking up in a bathtub filled with ice. He then notices a sharp pain in his back. He reaches around and feels a long scar. Finally, he manages to pull himself out and call 911. Paramedics arrive and discover someone has removed the man’s kidney.

It’s a sensational story of organ harvesting and the black market sales of body parts, but it isn’t completely without merit. The story itself has been circulating since the early 1990s, and many people attribute part of its origins to a Turkish man named Ahmet Koc, who, in 1989, claimed he had traveled to London for a job. Once there, he said he went for a medical check and was given what he believed to be an injection for a blood test but turned out to be a sedative. He woke up the next morning with a kidney missing. He was told not to worry and that he would be compensated for the missing organ.

As it turns out, Ahmet’s story was a little misleading. The truth was that he had agreed to sell the kidney but felt he was paid unfairly, so he concocted the “stolen organ” tale to get back at the doctors who had performed the surgery.^[5] At least three doctors were found guilty of medical misconduct, and Koc was left feeling a bit empty in more ways than one.

5 ‘Humans Can Lick, Too’

An absolutely unforgettable creepy campfire story is that of a dog that would lie at the side of the bed, and every time the girl sleeping there would hear a noise, she would reach her hand over to the canine. The dog would lick it, and, reassured that she was safe, the girl would drift back to sleep. When she woke up the next morning, she found the dog dead. Written on her mirror were the words, “Humans can lick, too.”

The true version of this story doesn’t involve a dog, but there is still an eerie similarity. In July 2014, a teenager in Ellesmere Port, England, began receiving texts from a young man, who said he was watching her. The texts began to grow more intense, and the man, who was eventually identified as Kyle Ravenscroft, even went so far as to tell her that he was in her house and that he was going to hang himself in the tree outside her window so that when she woke up the following morning, she would see his body swinging there.

Understandably shaken, the teen slept in her mother’s room that night. When they entered her room the next morning, they did not find a body in the tree. They did, however, find Ravenscroft hiding beneath the bed, where he had apparently slept all night. He was chased out of the house and eventually caught by local authorities.^[6]

4 Someone Is Living In The Attic

How about the story of a family who comes home from a trip to find that things in their home seem to be out of place. They write it off, but over the next few weeks, they start to notice other weird things—odd noises in the night, food that seems to go missing, and doors or windows left open. Then, one day, one of them goes into the attic to get something, and they discover a makeshift bed, a pile of rotting leftovers, and the remnants of a squatter. They call the authorities, but the unwanted guest is never found.

In 1922, in the small farming community of Hinterkaifeck, Germany, the Gruber family found themselves in this exact situation. It started when Andreas Gruber told a group of friends about a set of suspicious footprints in the snow. He said they came out of the forest and led up to the farmhouse, but there were no footprints leading away. Over the next few days, he noticed little things, odd objects around that he didn’t recognize, strange sounds in the attic at night, and even a set of keys that went missing.

Andreas never reported the suspicious activities to the police, which turned out to be a mistake. On March 31, Andreas, his wife Cazilia, their daughter Viktoria, and Viktoria’s daughter were lured into the barn one by one and murdered. The killer then made his way into the house and killed Viktoria’s son and the family maid. When the family was eventually reported missing, and authorities went to investigate, they found that the killer had continued living in the house for days before fleeing. He was never captured.^[7]

3 He’s In Your Back Seat

A woman pulls into a gas station and fills her tank up. She goes in and pays for her purchase and then walks back out, climbs into her car, and drives off. She hasn’t gone far when she sees another car quickly approaching from behind, its lights flashing frantically and the horn blasting. At first, she’s frightened, but as the car gets closer, it becomes apparent that the driver seems concerned, so she pulls over. The driver of the second car rushes over to her window and tells her he was trying to get her attention because he noticed something was wrong with her rear wheel. She gets out to look, and as they reach the back of the car, he tells her the faulty rear wheel was just a ruse and that the truth is that he saw someone climb into the back seat of her car while she was inside the gas station. Sure enough, there is a man ducked down in the floorboards. His intention was to kidnap or even kill the driver.

The true story is almost as frightening. On February 28, 2017, a woman from Kansas City, Missouri, called the police, saying she’d just escaped from a man who had kidnapped her. According to the report, the woman had been sitting in her own home when a strange girl burst through the front door, said the word “Megan,” and then turned around and left. The woman was shaken and completely confused. She went to the front office of the community where she lived and reported the odd occurrence. She then left with the intention of stopping by a nearby gas station, but almost immediately, she realized there was someone hiding in the back seat of her car. It was a man dressed in all black and wearing a ski mask.

She said the man claimed to have a gun, and, pressing something against the back of her head, he told her to drive and began giving her directions, eventually leading her to a remote location. While she drove, he wrapped cable around her hands. Once they arrived in front of a gate, he wrapped more cable around her neck and began assaulting her, beating the back of her head and cutting her arms and hands. Eventually, the man climbed out of the back seat and started toward her door. She threw the car into drive and took off, making it to a gas station, where she called the police.^[8] The man was never caught.

2 Body In The Bed

In this tale, a couple driving across the country decides to stop for the night in a small roadside motel. When they enter their room, they notice a rotten, musty smell. They investigate but find nothing. Trying to pass it off, they climb into bed, but the smell just seems to be getting stronger. Finally, they get up and push back the mattress of the bed. To their horror, they discover a corpse decaying in the bed frame.

You can’t get more on the nose than this one. In 2010, a woman by the name of Sony Millbrook was reported missing after relatives noticed she hadn’t picked up her kids from school. Millbrook, her children, and her boyfriend had been renting a room at the Budget Lodge in Memphis, Tennessee.

After several days without any word, staff members at the motel entered her room, boxed up her belongings, and claimed to clean the room. Police questioned the motel employees but didn’t take the investigation any further.

A couple of days later, the room was rented out. Over the next few weeks, it would be rented out three times. Occupants noticed an odd smell. A few even tried burning incense, and the staff attempted to cover the smell with fabric softener sheets shoved in ceiling tiles, but no one ever managed to put two and two together.

The body was finally discovered on March 15 under the mattress and box springs.^[9] Millbrook’s boyfriend, LaKeith Moody, who had also been missing, was eventually found driving Millbrook’s car. He was arrested, and the Memphis Police Department launched an internal investigation to see if any mistakes were made in handling of the case.

It makes one wonder if any of the families who stayed in the room were given a voucher for a free night.

1 Santa’s Stuck In The Chimney

The Christmas season is in full bloom, and a man decides he wants to surprise his family. He goes into town and rents a Santa costume. Then, on Christmas Eve night, he climbs up on the roof, makes his way to the chimney, and begins his decent. He wants to make a grand entrance, bursting through the opened fireplace and belting out “Ho Ho Ho,” but halfway down, he slips and becomes lodged. Stuck, and without anyone knowing his plan, the man remains there, his muffled cries going unheard. Days pass. The family reports their father missing, but little can be done. Then, one cold night, the mother goes to start a fire. She notices an odd odor, and the flue seems to be stuck. Upon further investigation, she finds her husband’s body still trapped inside.

This story was so popular it even managed to make its way into the 1984 movie Gremlins, and while there aren’t any known reports of a Santa stuck in a chimney, it doesn’t mean this one is completely without merit.

In 1986, a burglar got trapped while trying to enter a home down the chimney. Neighbors reported hearing someone yelling for help, but no one could figure out where it was coming from. Days passed, and workers in the area began to hear a tapping sound, but much like the yelling two days prior, they were unable to track down the origin of the sound. It wasn’t until the homeowner noticed a rotten smell four days later that the body was discovered.

Then, in 2015, a similar case was reported after a burglar in California managed to get himself stuck in a chimney while attempting to break into a home. Unaware of the would-be intruder, the homeowner started a fire. The thief began to scream, and the house filled with smoke. The homeowner called 911, and when the authorities arrived, the intruder appeared to still be alive. However, by the time they finally dismantled the chimney enough to remove him, he had succumbed to smoke inhalation.^[10]

These are just a few examples of the true stories behind some of our favorite urban legends, but there are plenty more out there. So the next time you’re sitting around with a group of friends, and someone begins telling a creepy story, just remember, there is a seed of truth in every myth.

I have been writing since the ripe old age of ten and was first published at 16. I also write, produce, and host a podcast called Real Strange that looks at weird tales that have taken place throughout history.

Sometimes construction projects can take a while to get done. And hey, that’s understandable—we’re talking about huge, complicated jobs that require a ton of skill and foresight to pull off properly. Starting them up, on the other hand, only takes a bit of money and some workers. What follows are ten famous structures that had the money, but not the skill and foresight—they’re “works in progress,” or, if you’d prefer, “colossal screw-ups.”

You’ve probably heard of Westminster Abbey. It’s one of the most famous and beautiful churches in the world—let alone England—and is by all accounts an architectural masterpiece. Surprisingly enough, however, it is not the mother church of Catholicism in the country—that honor belongs to Westminster Cathedral, which is literally right down the street from the Abbey. Another honor belonging to Westminster Cathedral? It’s never actually been completed.

Work is still ongoing, supposedly, but almost the entire interior is undecorated—leaving nothing but unfinished brickwork in its place. This is quite contrary to most Catholic churches, as anyone who’s ever been inside one can attest—and indeed, the Cathedral was (and is) supposed to look just as fancy as the rest. Work began in 1895, but apparently it’s been too expensive to finish decorating the mother church of literally all of England. And Wales.

The ‘German Stadium,’ as it’s called in English, broke ground in September of 1937 in Nuremberg, Germany. If you’re at all familiar with world history, that should probably raise a red flag.

Yes, the stadium was the brainchild of one Adolf Hitler, who wanted to build a gigantic, Roman-style arena for various nefarious purposes (including, but not limited to, hosting various Nazi rallies and replacing the Olympics with something called the Aryan Games). Thankfully, World War Two halted production before they could get any serious work done, and (also thankfully) the Nazis didn’t do so well in that. Thus the only remains of Deutsches Stadion are some crumbling pillars and walls from a test site, and a big lake in Nuremberg that filled in the former construction pit.

The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine is one of the largest Christian churches in the world, and an iconic feature of Manhattan in New York. By all means it should be considered a landmark, but officials in charge of that sort of thing are waiting until the building—which was started in 1892—is actually finished.

Construction on this thing has pretty much been a mess from the start—it’s been plagued by everything from financial woes to engineering problems to wars and fires, not to mention the fact that the designers switched up its whole architectural style a couple times (just for the hell of it, presumably). Church officials are still trying to figure out exactly how to finish this thing, but in the meantime it enjoys the affectionate nickname ‘Saint John the Unfinished.’

This one definitely fits into the realm of colossal screw-ups. The Super Power Building is to Scientology as the Vatican is to Catholicism, according to church leader David Miscavige. Work began in 1999 in Clearwater, Florida, and was estimated to take two years and $40 million. In 2003, work was abandoned for six years so that the church could re-plan the entire interior and solicit their followers for donations, despite the daily $250 fines it was getting for just sitting around. Work commenced in 2009, but the building has still never opened. Many followers left the church in disgust, having donated millions to the cause, and in January 2013 Luis and Rocio Garcia actually filed a lawsuit against the church for wasting their money.

The International Space Station (ISS) isn’t so much a building as it is a ‘modular structure,’ but it belongs on this list because it’s in a state of perpetual construction. Unlike most of the items here, the ISS kind of has to exist that way—and considering it’s operated and maintained by countries from all over the world, the fact that construction hasn’t fallen apart yet is actually pretty impressive. The first ‘component’ of the ISS, called Zarya, was launched into orbit in 1998, and the most recent one was added in 2011. Now, to be fair to the premise, the ISS was technically supposed to be ‘completed’ by 2005—but due to changes in technology and science, this date never really stood a chance. Hence, we have several new components scheduled to be attached over the next couple of years, and construction has been vaguely deemed ‘nearly halfway’ finished.

Not only is the Ajuda National Palace in Lisbon a famous tourist attraction, but it was also the official residence of the Portuguese royal family. That of all things, you’d think, would put it on the Portuguese builders’ priority list. Apparently not, though, because construction—which began in 1796—was never actually completed. Unfortunate finances and a series of wars led to the project being repeatedly adjusted and scaled back, but construction continued in spite of these setbacks all the way up until the Portuguese revolution in 1910, which abolished the monarchy. Currently, the half-finished palace functions as a museum.

If you’ve heard of Woodchester Mansion, it’s possibly because it’s been featured on a few ghost-hunter type TV shows under the presumption that it’s haunted. To be fair, a mental hospital was interested in setting up shop there at one point, and soldiers were stationed in the surrounding area during World War Two—but seeing as no one ever actually lived in the place, I’d take any rumors of ghosts with a grain of salt. No, the real reason Woodchester Mansion is famous is because it’s a hell of a shell of a house—an outer mansion with an almost completely unfinished inside. See, the guy who commissioned it, William Leigh, was kind of a perfectionist. An increasingly poor perfectionist, though—whenever he managed to get any money to have his mansion worked on, he always personally supervised construction and/or changed up the plans. So the half that’s built is built well, at least. The mansion is open to visitors, in case you ever wanted to see the inside of a house that only has an outside. Which, let’s be honest, sounds kind of awesome.

Like the poor Portuguese kings and queens who had to live in Ajuda Palace, the good parliamentarians of New Zealand have been working out of an unfinished building for over a century. Plans for the then-new headquarters were drawn up in 1911, and involved two stages of construction: one for the important chambers, and the other for the apparently-not-so-important chambers, like a library, and the Crown Law Office. The whole thing was supposed to take just two years, but they didn’t even get started until 1914, and they didn’t get the first stage done until 1922 (in fairness, there was a war going on at the time). In any case, the second stage of the official parliament buildings was never built—so it wasn’t ‘officially opened’ until 1995. It’s still not finished, technically speaking, but a different library/office building called the Beehive has been put up in the extra space. So at least they’ve got something.

Most of the items on this list, despite being incomplete, are still being used for something or other. But as promised, some of them are nothing more than useless, colossal screw-ups. Marble Hill falls into that latter category.

This nuclear plant in Indiana was started in 1977, and for about 7 years was all set to become a fully functioning, power-generating cornerstone of the nuclear power industry. Then, in 1984, after sinking $2.5 billion (with a ‘b’) into getting the reactors to about the halfway point, the company behind the project up and abandoned it—they simply couldn’t afford to continue. They ended up selling some of the equipment to recover a few million (not with a ‘b’) in lost costs. The plant’s been sitting half-finished ever since, although the company that owns it now is currently in the process of demolishing it.

Unlike Saint John’s Cathedral up there, the Sagrada Família church in Barcelona has received a lot of prestigious recognition—despite being a work in progress since 1882. Not only has it been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it’s also been visited by the Pope and proclaimed a basilica (which for churches is kind of like winning the Super Bowl). The Sagrada Família is the brainchild of the famous architect Antoni Gaudí, who spent most of his life building it up into the grotesque, nature-inspired work of art it is today. Tragically he passed away in 1926, after being hit by a tram. His masterpiece, at that point, was less than a quarter complete.

But it’s been carried on ever since, inspired by Gaudí’s vision, and funded almost exclusively by the millions of tourists who flock to it every year. Today, the Sagrada Família is more than halfway done, with an optimistic completion date of 2026—the centennial of Gaudí’s death. Barring that, the current head architect is confident that it will be finished “perhaps in less than a century.” So keep your calendar open.

If you like unfinished works of art and/or colossal screw-ups, MJ Alba urges you to check him out on Twitter @MattJAlba. If you want to help him get more followers than his brother, that would be pretty cool too.

It isn’t often that Broadway and pop culture meet. How many regular people do you know who can name three musicals on Broadway right now?

But these songs did the impossible. Thanks to great lyrics, catchy tunes, and some famous covers (mostly by Frank Sinatra), here are ten iconic songs most people don’t know started as show tunes.

Related: Top 10 Broadway Flops That Actually Aren’t That Bad

10 “We Need a Little Christmas”—Mame

One of the multiple Christmas songs you may not have known is from musicals, “We Need a Little Christmas,” takes the cake for most surprising. Sure, not everyone knows that “White Christmas” is from the Broadway musical of the same name, but even less know that “We Need a Little Christmas” actually originated with the Jerry Herman musical Mame.

Within the show, the song is sung when Mame Dennis, a New York City sophisticate, learns that her fortune has been lost in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. She sings to her nephew that they “need a little Christmas” in order to cheer up from the depressing thoughts of their next few years.

Now, it may be sung about needing to cheer up from holiday family parties with the in-laws.^[1]

9 “You’ll Never Walk Alone”—Carousel

One of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most controversial shows, Carousel is a sweeping epic love story between carousel barker Billy and mill worker Julie. “You’ll Never Walk Alone” is sung by Julie’s best friend, Nettie, after Julie learns her husband has killed himself. Despite this sad background, it is an uplifting tune about friendship and love that has exploded out of the musical theater world and into football games.

Liverpool Football Club adopted the song as its anthem after the success of a 1963 recording by local Liverpool group Gerry and the Pacemakers. The song’s title is the club motto and is even included on their coat of arms.

Since then, the song has become almost spiritual, with Elvis Presley recording a gospel version in 1967, which was used in support of COVID-19 doctors and nurses in 2020.^[2]

8 “My Funny Valentine”—Babes in Arms

No, Frank Sinatra didn’t write this song, though he certainly did popularize it.

Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart wrote “My Funny Valentine” for their 1937 musical Babes in Arms, a coming-of-age story about a group of teenagers who must put on a show to avoid being sent to a work farm (don’t question it, it was the ’30s.)

Though the lyrics seem clever on their own, as the singer (within the show, a girl named Billie) mocks their love’s bad looks but lets them know they shouldn’t “Change a hair for me / Not if you care for me,” affirming their true affection. As an added little bonus for those who know the show, Billie is singing to her crush, Valentine. That’s right, the song isn’t about Valentine’s Day, but an actual person with that name!

While other artists such as Harpo Marx, Elvis Costello, and Miles Davis have recorded the song, it was Sinatra’s version in 1955 that pushed “My Funny Valentine” into the public consciousness.^[3]

7 “I Feel Pretty”—West Side Story

Even though West Side Story is one of those musicals everyone seems to know, anyone who hasn’t actually sat down and seen the show or watched the movie may be surprised to learn that the classic little ditty “I Feel Pretty” is from the modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

From Sesame Street to Friends, the song has been featured or parodied in media for years, to the point where many people don’t know it originated with West Side Story. The simple lyrics “I feel pretty / Oh so pretty / I feel pretty and witty and bright” are enjoyable even out of the context of the show and are a popular choice for talent shows or choirs.

Composer Stephen Sondheim has said that “I Feel Pretty” is actually his least favorite of all the songs he’s written. According to him, not only does the song disrupt the dramatic momentum of the show, but he’s criticized himself for including lyrics that sound good but are not necessarily words that a young woman learning English would know.^[4]

6 “Edelweiss”—The Sound of Music

Most people have seen the classic 1965 movie musical The Sound of Music. But for those who haven’t, it may come as a shock to hear that the sweet song “Edelweiss” is from this Rogers and Hammerstein show.

In the context of the show, “Edelweiss” is sung by Captain von Trapp as a sentimental goodbye to his homeland of Austria, as he is being forced out by the impending Nazis. “Edelweiss” is a simple but sweet tune that does such a good job of sounding like an old Austrian folk song many people actually believe it is. There are even rumors that the song used to be the national anthem of Austria. This isn’t true. The song was written over 10 years after the end of World War II, and while the edelweiss flower is still a symbol of Austria, it’s only thanks to the musical.^[5]

5 “The Lady Is a Tramp”—Babes in Arms

This is the second song on this list to come from the 1937 musical Babes in Arms. Arguably even more famous than “My Funny Valentine,” “The Lady Is a Tramp” was made famous by Frank Sinatra’s recording in the 1950s.

The song inspired the title of Walt Disney’s The Lady and the Tramp and has been parodied by the Spice Girls, Glee, Star Trek, and more. It recently regained popularity thanks to Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s duet version in 2011, which topped charts in the UK and Japan.^[6]

4 “Total Eclipse of the Heart”

Okay, this one isn’t from a musical, but it was originally written for one.

Much has been said about the history of Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” Most famous, Meat Loaf openly complained that composer Jim Steinman had originally written the song for him, not Tyler. Steinman had previously written for Meat Loaf’s breakout hit album Bat Out of Hell, to great success. However, newfound fame did not treat Meat Loaf well, and Steinman was allegedly advised to leave Meat Loaf and find a new singer to write for.

So Steinman paired up with Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler, reusing one of his old songs that was meant for a musical version of Nosferatu. Though ultimately the musical never materialized, “Total Eclipse of the Heart” was originally meant to be a vampire love song. Steinman says, “If anyone listens to the lyrics, they’re really like vampire lines. It’s all about the darkness, the power of darkness, and love’s place in the dark.”

According to Tyler, that’s why the music video is shot in a gothic former asylum. They were trying to keep creepy vampire vibes within the song, even though it was no longer part of a larger plot.^[7]

3 “One Night in Bangkok”—Chess

“One Night in Bangkok” is particularly interesting because it really doesn’t work or make sense outside of the context of the show. But somehow, it still became a hit, even though the show didn’t.

Chess the musical started in 1984 as a concept album by Tim Rice and ABBA composers Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus. The plot revolves around a chess game during the Cold War, with a Soviet on one side and an American on the other. Unfortunately, when the show transferred to Broadway in 1988, it was a financial flop, losing $6.6 million.

However, one song broke through to the mainstream. “One Night in Bangkok” is a testament to the Thai city’s reputation as the place to be for nightlife and adventure (and chess). While the choruses describe Bangkok as exciting and inspiring, the Americans in the show claim the city is “muddy” and less interesting than a game of chess.

In a turn of events no one could have predicted, the single version of the song topped the charts in countries around the world, including South Africa, The Netherlands, Australia, and the United States. Interestingly, “One Night in Bangkok” is banned in Thailand itself, as it is deemed to “cause misunderstanding about Thai society and show disrespect towards Buddhism.”^[8]

2 “Send in the Clowns”—A Little Night Music

Often hailed as one of the saddest songs ever written, “Send in the Clowns” is a heartbreaking admission of being defeated by life. “Isn’t it rich / Aren’t we a pair” kicks off the number, which comes directly after the main character, Desiree, is rejected by the man who chased her throughout her youth. Now that she’s ready to settle down, her ex is already married with a child.

The forced joviality in the lyrics is part of what makes it so devastating. With everything lost, Desiree has to laugh at her folly and stupidity. If only she would have realized what she wanted years ago, back when she had the opportunity.

The clowns in the title and chorus do not refer to literal clowns. Composer Stephen Sondheim says that he meant it to be a theater reference meaning, “‘If the show isn’t going well, let’s send in the clowns’; in other words, ‘let’s do the jokes.’” Desiree asks where the clowns are now that everything has gone wrong. It ends with the line “Don’t bother / They’re here,” as Desiree and her ex have been the clowns the whole time for not seizing the moment when they had it.

The lyrics aren’t so specific that they only apply to the context of the show. Judy Collins’s recorded version hit the Billboard Top 100 for 11 weeks, and Frank Sinatra added it to his 1973 album Ol’ Blue Eyes Is Back. Since then, it has been used in media across the world, perhaps most famously in the 2019 blockbuster film Joker.^[9]

1 “Til There Was You”—The Music Man

Written by Meredith Willson for the 1957 musical The Music Man, “Til There Was You” skyrocketed to the public’s eye thanks to a chart-topping cover by The Beatles.

If you didn’t know that this tune was from a musical, don’t feel bad: Neither did Paul McCartney for a while. He grew up with the Peggy Lee cover of the song and has said that he had “no idea until much later” that it was from The Music Man, sung as a love ballad by the main character Marion. The Beatles’ recording helped cement the band as one that could appeal to all ages and genres, not just young girls.

Willson’s wife has said that the estate has received more money from The Beatles cover royalties than they have from the actual show itself!^[10]

Every song arises from a unique inspiration. Some are instant classics, while others find unexpected success or must overcome critics to reach an audience. Whether the song was written by someone else or the singer themselves, the inspiration is usually something personal. And many of us seek to learn what inspired the lyrics to some of our favorite songs.

Each of these ten songs has a story as distinctive as its tune.

Related: 10 James Bond Theme Songs That Never Were

10 “Over the Rainbow”

MGM executives initially cut “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz (1939) because they felt the opening Kansas scenes made the film too long and the song’s themes were too complex for its target audience: children. They also didn’t like Judy Garland singing in a barnyard. Generations of moviegoers can thank associate producer Arthur Freed for telling studio head Louis B. Mayer, “The song stays—or I go.” Mayer backed down, saying, “Let the boys have the damn song. Put it back in the picture. It can’t hurt.”

The melody came to composer Harold Arlen while driving down Sunset Boulevard. Later, when he and lyricist E.Y. Harburg were stuck for an ending, Ira Gershwin suggested the line, “Why, oh, why can’t I?” Why a question? Gershwin later explained, “Well, it was getting to be a long evening.”

“Over the Rainbow” won an Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song and became Garland’s signature number. Today, it tops the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 Greatest American Movie Music and was voted Song of the Century in 2000 by the National Endowment for the Arts.^[1]

9 “As Time Goes By”

Honored as #2 on AFI’s movie music list, “As Time Goes By” could have ended on the cutting room floor as well, despite its established popularity. Herman Hupfeld wrote it for a 1931 Broadway play, and Murray Burnett and Joan Alison featured it again in their 1940 anti-Nazi play Everybody Comes to Rick’s. Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Warner Bros. bought the rights to that play for the movie Casablanca (1942).

Filming was already completed when composer Max Steiner asked to replace “As Time Goes By” with a composition of his own that would earn him royalties. Producer Hal Wallis refused for his own financial reasons: Ilsa’s “Play it, Sam” scene could not be reshot because Ingrid Bergman was away on location and had cut her hair short for her next film, For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943).

Drummer Dooley Wilson did his own singing but faked Sam’s piano playing to match the live, off-camera performance of Jean-Vincent Plummer. When a musician’s strike prevented Wilson from recording a single in time for the film’s release, the studio re-issued Rudy Vallee’s 1931 version, which was again a hit. Steiner’s score was nominated for an Oscar, but the film’s unforgettable musical highlight was ineligible because it had not been composed directly for the screen.^[2]

8 “White Christmas”

As much as “White Christmas” resonated with the longing of American GIs and their loved ones during World War II, its own backstory is equally poignant. The song’s inspiration dates back to December 1937, when composer Irving Berlin, a Russian-born Jewish immigrant, was in Hollywood scoring films for 20th Century Fox while his wife, a devout Catholic, was home in New York City. Their separation over the holidays was particularly hard for Berlin because he was unable to accompany his wife on their annual visit to the grave of the couple’s infant son, who had died on Christmas Day in 1928.

Berlin tapped his personal pain to craft a secular holiday classic that touched anyone yearning for days that are “merry and bright.” Bing Crosby introduced “White Christmas” on a radio broadcast of the Kraft Music Hall on December 25, 1941. This Oscar-winning hit became the anchor of the movie Holiday Inn (1942) and inspired its own story in White Christmas (1954).^[3]

7 “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” demonstrates the value of a good rewrite. For the MGM musical Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), the team of Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane needed a song for Judy Garland’s character to comfort her little sister, played by Margaret O’Brien. According to Martin, he had a melody he liked but could not make it work, “so I played with it for two or three days and then threw it in the wastebasket.” Blane retrieved it and later recalled, “Thank the Lord we found it.”

But the song still needed serious help. The original lyrics began, “Have yourself a merry little Christmas. It may be your last. Next year, we may all be living in the past.” The verse became gloomier still. Garland protested, “‘If I sing that, little Margaret will cry, and they’ll think I’m a monster.” The revision used in the film struck a perfect balance between wistful and hopeful.

Garland’s single was a hit, and the song would be covered repeatedly, including by Frank Sinatra in 1947. For a second release ten years later, Sinatra asked the composers to make yet another change, saying, “The name of my album is A Jolly Christmas. Do you think you could jolly up that line for me?” So, in the Sinatra version, “From now on, we’ll have to muddle through somehow” became “Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.”^[4]

6 “Moon River”

Henry Mancini composed this haunting ballad for Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) with Audrey Hepburn’s limited vocal range in mind. Its simple, one-octave tune in the key of C was titled “Blue River” until lyricist Johnny Mercer recalled an earlier song by that name. To preserve the rhythm, he swapped “moon” for “blue,” both one-syllable words with the same vowel sound.

After a preview screening of the film, a Paramount studio executive reportedly said, “I love the picture, fellas, but the f***ing song has to go.” To which Hepburn replied, “Over my dead body!” The song stayed, won an Oscar, and today ranks #4 on the AFI list. Of its hundreds of covers, Hepburn’s version remained Mancini’s favorite.^[5]

5 Theme from Star Trek

In 1953, Gene Roddenberry left his job with the Los Angeles Police Department to become a freelance TV writer. He sold scripts to shows including Highway Patrol, Dr. Kildare, and Have Gun, Will Travel before developing his own project, Star Trek (1966–1969). He also wrote words to the series’ theme song that were never intended to be sung.

Seven weeks after composer Alexander Courage sent an instrumental version of the theme to the Library of Congress, Roddenberry submitted a second score with his own sappy lyrics handwritten underneath the notes. By exploiting a clause buried in the composer’s contract, Roddenberry guaranteed himself 50% of the royalties whenever the theme was used, even as an instrumental. Outraged at having his own payoff cut in half, Courage never worked on the show again as long as Roddenberry remained its executive producer.

In the book Inside Star Trek, Roddenberry is quoted as admitting that he thought at the time, “I have to get money somewhere. I’m sure not going to get it out of the profits of Star Trek.” He had no way of knowing at the time that Star Trek and its theme would live on for generations in syndication and movie adaptations.^[6]

4 “People”

Composer Jule Styne and lyricist Bob Merrill wrote more than fifty songs during the development of a Broadway musical about comedian Fanny Brice to be called A Very Special Person. Their first try at a title song evolved into “People,” and the show became Funny Girl. Styne wanted the little-known Barbra Streisand for the lead, even though she was not the star the producers had in mind. Looking back in 1977, Styne explained, “I wondered how I was going to get this little girl who was singing down in the Village in the show when they already had Anne Bancroft. So I wrote the toughest score. Only Barbra could sing it.” After Bancroft heard the music, she agreed.

During out-of-town tryouts, then-director Garson Kanin thought “People” wasn’t right for the character or the moment and wanted it cut. Then, Columbia’s release of it as a promotional single in January 1964 gave Streisand her first Top 40 hit. Before Funny Girl’s triumphant Broadway debut two months later, other songs and directors would come and go, but “People” remained and became a showstopper.^[7]

3 “Sympathy for the Devil”

The Rolling Stones’ 1968 album Beggars Banquet opens with “Sympathy for the Devil,” a blazing catalog of humankind’s record of inhumanity. Mick Jagger wrote both the words and music, inspired by a Soviet-era satirical novel and the political and social turmoil of the 1960s. As he stated in its music video, he had to “figure out if it was a samba or a goddam folk song.” Over the course of thirty takes, the tempo increased, African percussion instruments were added, and Keith Richards introduced the driving rhythm.

During the album’s recording session in the summer of 1968, a more historically significant change occurred. Jagger’s original version had the line, “I shouted out, ‘Who killed Kennedy?’” After Senator Robert F. Kennedy was also assassinated on June 6, Jagger magnified the song’s power by updating “Kennedy” to the plural.

At least as far back as 2006, the Stones dropped the entire “Kennedys” verse at a benefit concert for Bill Clinton’s 60th birthday, as captured in Martin Scorsese’s documentary Shine a Light (2008). When Jagger was asked about the omission after the film’s premiere, he replied coyly, “Did I leave that out? That song is so long, I always cut a verse. I guess it must’ve been that one.” The verse was also missing during the Stones 2024 tour.^[8]

2 “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”

When director George Roy Hill wanted a contemporary sound for his offbeat western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), he hired pop music duo Burt Bacharach and Hal David, known for hits like “Walk on By,” “What the World Needs Now is Love,” and “The Look of Love.” As a guide for scoring the playful Paul Newman-Katharine Ross bicycle sequence, Hill told them he had edited it to Simon and Garfunkel’s bouncy “The Fifty-Ninth Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy).” Bacharach contributed the tune and the title, saying later, “Even though [lyricist] Hal tried to change it, we never came up with a thing that felt as good.”

After Ray Stevens, best known for comedy songs, declined due to a project conflict, the song was offered to another client of Stevens’ agent, B.J. Thomas. The day the soundtrack was cut, Thomas had just come off tour with a bad case of laryngitis and struggled through five takes. Bacharach found Thomas’s raspy voice to be “authentic,” but studio executives deemed the song “too risky and unconventional.”

Two weeks later, in full voice, Thomas recorded the song for release. The single topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for four weeks. Bacharach and David took home an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song.^[9]

1 Theme from M*A*S*H

For his dark comedy film M*A*S*H (1970), director Robert Altman insisted that the background song during the fake suicide of despondent dentist “Painless” Waldowski be called “Suicide Is Painless” and that it be the “stupidest song ever written.” Noted movie composer Johnny Mandel recounted later that when he came up empty on the stupid requirement, Altman told him, “All is not lost. I’ve got a fifteen-year-old kid who’s a total idiot.” Young Mike Altman quickly cranked out four verses and a chorus, which Mandel set to music.

Altman liked the melody so much that he used it over the movie’s opening credits as well, and the instrumental version was also featured on the long-running TV series. The song hit #1 on the UK singles chart and was covered by artists as different as Marilyn Manson and the late jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal. During an appearance on The Tonight Show in 1981, the senior Altman told Johnny Carson he had been paid $70,000 to direct the film, but as of that time, his son had earned more than one million dollars for his half of the music royalties.^[10]

Festivals—a hectic schedule of your favorite bands playing live, a pilgrimage into the great outdoors, a chance to meet like-minded new friends, and a lifetime of memories. At least, that’s what promoters would have you believe. So what happens when these expectations are not a reality and the event is plunged into chaos?

SEE ALSO: 10 Frozen Timepieces That Marked Death And Disaster

These following disasters have left furious ticket holders demanding their money back and event organizers red-faced. What was supposed to be the time of their lives became a weekend of hell.

10 Fyre Festival
2017

Anyone who has had access to the Internet in the past couple of years would have heard about the disaster that was Fyre Festival. Located in the Bahamas, it was billed as the most luxurious festival in the world and promoted by the most elite models around the globe.

After paying between $1,200 and $100,000 each, ticket holders were promised flights from Miami, luxury accommodation on yachts, kayaking on the crystal clear waters, and performances from Major Lazer and Blink-182.

When attendees landed on the island, they soon found all they were promised was not coming to them. The accommodations were recycled refugee tents, the food was prepackaged sandwiches instead of gourmet meals, and no medical or event staff was on hand. There was also no cell phone or Internet service and no running water. The festival became the subject of a Netflix documentary, Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened.

Organizer Billy McFarland, then 26, pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to six years behind bars.^[1]

9 Woodstock
1999

To see headliners like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, and Joe Cocker, half a million people attended the Woodstock festival in 1969. Fast-forward 30 years, and it was a completely different scene as organizers tried to emulate the hippie era. Woodstock ’99, which took place in Rome, New York, was attended by 220,000 people and went wrong from the very beginning.

Organizers had failed to advise attendees to bring enough water, and the dehydrated crowds were met with a $4 charge for a single bottle. The Baltimore Sun reported, “More than 700 had been treated for heat exhaustion and dehydration.”

Crowd control was also a serious issue. Volunteer security was recruited from New York City. But as things became hostile, they ditched their posts and left the police dangerously outnumbered.

Then there was the problem with overcrowding as many were using fake passes to get through the gates. The Syracuse Post-Standard reported, “Security guards said they were confiscating fake passes at the rate of 50 an hour at just one gate.” Far from “peace, love, and happiness,” that was the final Woodstock event.^[2]

8 TomorrowWorld
2015

In 2015, international music festival TomorrowWorld in Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia, devolved into near-riots. Heavy rain turned the fields into a sinking mud pit, and organizers decided to limit transport services back to the surrounding areas which left thousands stranded.

Festivalgoers had two choices: either hike for about 8 kilometers (5 mi) or pay for an Uber that charged a surge price of five times the normal rate. Instead, many decided to sleep on the side of the road. They were not supplied with any food or water.

One attendee told Vice News that he managed to leave the event by sneaking onto a shuttle bus for event staff. He recalled, “By the time we flagged down that bus, we were up to over $100 pooled together to try to buy our way out. The rich and the lucky rode, the poor walked, and the poor and tired stopped wherever they could find open ground.”^[3]

The Belgium-founded festival will always be remembered for this post-apocalyptic atmosphere.

7 Bloc Festival
2012

To call Bloc Festival in 2012 “chaotic” might be an understatement. One of the largest electronic dance music festivals in the UK was shut down due to serious safety fears with overcrowding.

Police were sent to help safely evacuate the attendees at the Royal Victoria Docks venue. Many people still stood in the same queue they had been in for hours as they waited to get in. Disgruntled ticket holders had paid upward of $100 each to watch acts like Snoop Dogg and Orbital perform.

Bloc then began trending on Twitter for all the wrong reasons. People posted photos of attendees stuck behind crowd control barriers and held back by a huge police presence.

One tweet read, “Bloc is um a disaster right now. We’re in the middle of a car crash.” Another tweeted, “Scary, and very nearly led to injuries; all we were told was ‘move back’—where to exactly?”^[4]

After 2016, the founders shut down the annual festival and focused on building their own “super club” instead.

6 Glastonbury
1990 And 2005

It’s a wonder that organizers would allow the Glastonbury festival to descend into chaos after two decades of hosting it. But that’s exactly what happened in 1990. That year, the crowds should have remembered the event for headliners Sinead O’Connor and The Cure, but the risk of “near-asphyxiation” made the headlines instead.^[5]

More than 75,000 people were in attendance at the famous Pyramid Stage, causing a huge crush in the crowd. Bands even had to stop their sets as helicopters landed nearby to tend to the injured.

In 2005, people were at risk again. This time, it was due to 1.2 meters (4 ft) of water flooding the camping sites and performance area. Even the Acoustic Stage wasn’t safe as it was struck by lightning.

The flooding disaster led organizers to eventually fork out millions on a new drainage system before they returned two years later. Despite these bad experiences, Glastonbury is still considered one of the greatest music festivals in the world.

5 Isle Of Wight
2012

In 2011, the Isle of Wight festival promised an epic lineup featuring Tom Petty, Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen, Biffy Clyro, and more. Then came the heavy rain, which forced 600 people to sleep in their cars overnight as boats transporting them to the island could not dock due to the severe weather. Others were left gridlocked in traffic for more than 15 hours. Police even opened a local football club for people to take shelter through the night.

The following day, organizers told attendees that they should ditch their cars if they wanted a chance to make it to the festival. Speaking of the experience, one festivalgoer told Sky News, “We’ve gone through some highs and some lows, it’s been 14 hours, and we’re sleep-deprived. Fortunately, we’ve took a lot of food with us, but there were people there that had no food.”^[6]

She added, “There were people with kids, people with dogs, so we tried to remain in high spirits, but it’s been a long slog.”

4 Bestival
2008

Turning up to a festival, you can always expect some mud. But no one at Bestival in 2008 could have predicted how severe the conditions would become. The weather was so bad that year as thunder, lightning, rain, and gale-force winds ripped through the camping grounds.

Many had their tents submerged in the mud. The less fortunate had their camps completely blown away with their belongings. Even the main stages for the performances began to sink into the ground.

Despite the ongoing battle with a furious Mother Nature, Bestival attendees were looking forward to seeing headliner Amy Winehouse perform. That didn’t quite go as planned, either.

Arriving onstage 40 minutes late, Winehouse—who was battling drug and alcohol addiction at the time—staggered around the stage, swilled her drink, and cut the set short by performing for only 30 minutes. The soul singer was met with boos from the crowd.^[7]

Sadly in 2011, she died at age 27 due to alcohol poisoning.

3 Electric Daisy Carnival
2010

During the 1990s, Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) attracted many festivalgoers thanks to the rise in popular electronic dance music. The event began as a warehouse party held in Austin, San Bernardino, New York City, Los Angeles, and Puerto Rico.

Attendees depended on handouts, which would announce the exact location of the raves until it blew up into something much bigger. Word had leaked out that EDC was the hottest party in town. Unfortunately, that also attracted a lot of minors.

In 2010, the event at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was overwhelmed by the number of attendees under 18 years old. Heavy drugs were in use among the minors, and tragically, a 15-year-old girl died during the event.

Los Angeles forced EDC out of the area. The organizers stated, “Without an executed contract in place at this time, it has become impossible to guarantee to all of the fans and talent that EDC can be produced at this venue this year.” The event eventually found a new home in Las Vegas, and they hit a record attendance of 700,000 people in 2014.^[8]

2 Sled Island
2013

Sled Island festival in Calgary, Canada, has recovered well from its disastrous attempt in 2013. Acts including The Jesus and Mary Chain, Explosions in the Sky, Divine Fits, and Mac DeMarco were scheduled to appear alongside more than 250 other bands over the four-day weekend in June. That was until severe weather shut down the entire event.

On the second day of the festival, director Maud Salvi received mandatory evacuation orders due to rising floodwaters. The permits for the festival had been revoked, and the event organizers posted on their website: “In light of the current emergency situation, and in line with our commitment to the safety of festivalgoers, all remaining Sled Island festival events are canceled.”

Sled Island festival lost a fortune due to the cancellation. Ticket holders were offered refunds, which amounted to around $200,000. The festival came back the following year, proving that previous severe flooding wasn’t going to dampen their mood.^[9]

1 Powder Ridge Rock Festival
1970

Powder Ridge Rock Festival has become known as “the greatest rock concert that never happened.” Following the success of Woodstock, promoters were hoping to be the next big rock festival that people would flock to in the thousands. In 1970, more than 50,000 people were expected to arrive at Powder Ridge Rock Festival in Middlefield, Connecticut, to see rock royalty Fleetwood Mac and Janis Joplin.

Then, just one month before, the town of Middlefield rejected the application for the festival as local residents took legal action. In a time before the Internet, word did not get back to all attendees that the festival was canceled and 30,000 individuals showed up anyway.^[10]

There was no food, no music, and no water supply. But there were a lot of drug dealers. Doctors volunteered their services to help with the “drug crisis” that took place over the next few days as heavy hallucinogens were being used. By the end of the weekend and many bad drug trips later, the attendees eventually left Powder Ridge.

Cheish Merryweather is the founder of Crime Viral. A true crime and oddities fanatic. Twitter: @thecheish.

Every actor dreams of finally landing the “big role.” It’s the role that will make them stars, earn them millions of dollars, and finally get them those award nominations. Relatively few actors are lucky enough to ever land that role. That’s just the nature of the business. What’s more remarkable is that some actors do land that role and go on to resent it.

For some, those roles end up reminding the actors of bad times in their lives. Other actors later realize that those roles put them on a bad path. Of course, there are always actors who simply feel that their performances in those movies—or even the movies themselves—were simply never that good. For many reasons, these are some of the most notable actors who resent some of their most famous roles.

Related: 10 Things Famous Filmmakers Regret About Their Classic Movies

10 Burt Reynolds–Boogie Nights

After rising to superstardom in the 1970s and early ’80s, actor Burt Reynolds appeared in a series of box office bombs that tanked his name value. When up-and-coming director Paul Thomas Anderson offered Reynolds a role in his 1997 movie Boogie Nights, he essentially gave Reynolds a chance to prove he was still a star. Boogie Nights went on to be a massive hit, and Reynolds received the first and only Academy Award nomination of his career for his portrayal of the fictional porn director Jack Horner.

Yet Reynolds despised working on Boogie Nights and struggled to find anything nice to say about the film even after it earned him an Oscar nomination. Reynolds later said that he had little respect for Anderson and felt that the director was “full of himself.” Some of Reynold’s co-stars think that the actor was simply too out of touch to appreciate the film and understand why it was so successful.^[1]

9 Viola Davis–The Help

In The Help, Viola Davis plays an African-American maid working for a family in the Deep South during the 1960s. Davis’s work in the film garnered nearly universal critical praise and eventually netted Davis her first Best Actress Oscar nomination. Yet Davis describes The Help as one of those movies she regrets being in.

For Davis, the problem wasn’t director Tate Taylor or even her co-stars. Instead, Davis felt that the movie didn’t properly capture the “voices of the maids” and focused too much on the film’s other characters. Some critics at the time echoed Davis’s concerns. Even Abilene Cooper—the real-life maid that Davis’s character was inspired by—sued the producers of the movie over what she felt was an “embarrassing” adaptation of the story. ^[2]

8 Zac Efron–High School Musical

For some, the Disney Channel’s High School Musical movies invoke powerful memories of a time and place in their lives. For others, they invoke somewhat more embarrassing memories of a time and place in their lives. It turns out that High School Musical star Zac Efron belongs to the latter camp.

Efron says that he looks back at himself in the High School Musical films and wants to “kick that guy’s a** sometimes.” Efron goes on to say that those movies may have made him famous but that the kind of fame he received is “not a real thing” and that you can’t “share that with your friends.” This seems to be another case of a breakout role rocketing a young actor to success faster than they anticipated or enjoyed.^[3]

7 Crispin Glover–Back to the Future

Back to the Future is one of those generational hits that helped change the lives of nearly everyone involved with it. While director Robert Zemeckis and stars Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox have embraced the movie’s success, actor Crispin Glover has long been open about his disdain for Back to the Future and its eventual legacy.

Glover always had an issue with the movie’s ending and the ways it suggests the story’s main characters need to be rich to be happy. Glover’s disagreements with Zemeckis and writer Bob Gale over the issue contributed to his decision to not appear in Back to the Future Part II. Glover even sued the producers of that sequel over their attempts to replicate his likeness in the film. Glover later made amends with Zemeckis, though he is one of the only major living cast members from Back to the Future who wants little to do with the movie to this day.^[4]

6 Brad Pitt–Interview with the Vampire

After stealing the show through smaller roles in Thelma and Louise and True Romance, actor Brad Pitt was cast as the co-lead in a major adaptation of author Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire. That film went on to gross over $200 million and launch the career of child actress Kirsten Dunst. But if you’ve ever watched that movie and felt that Pitt seems strangely checked out of the whole thing…well, that’s probably because he was.

Pitt has described Interview with the Vampire as a “miserable” filming experience that required him to be abroad in the middle of winter in an old windowless studio for a prolonged period. At one point, he even asked one of the movie’s producers how much it would cost to just leave the production. When Pitt was informed that it would cost him around $40 million to get out of the movie, he decided to gut it out and finish the film.^[5]

5 Gene Hackman–Hoosiers

While Gene Hackman has starred in many memorable movies throughout his legendary career, few are as beloved as 1986’s Hoosiers. Considered to be one of the greatest sports movies ever made, Hoosiers is arguably best known for Hackman’s portrayal of a high school basketball coach named Norman Dale, who helps lead a ragtag group of students to unlikely success.

Interestingly, Hackman has always seen Hoosiers itself as an unlikely success. While filming, Hackman told co-star Dennis Hopper to save his money because “we’ll never work again after this film.” It’s not entirely clear why Hackman resents the movie so much, though those around him at the time recall that he was generally grumpy throughout the shoot and seemed to feel that the movie was a pandering mess that was destined to bomb.^[6]

4 George Clooney–Batman

Following the success of Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie, the role of Batman became one of the most coveted casting choices in Hollywood. Few were surprised when the producers of 1997’s Batman and Robin revealed that rising star George Clooney had agreed to play the caped crusader in the much-anticipated movie. Unfortunately for Clooney, that film ended up being a box-office disappointment and is widely regarded as one of the worst movies ever made. So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that Clooney doesn’t look back on the role as fondly as other Batman actors.

In fact, Clooney later apologized to Batman fans for his performance in the movie and said that he keeps a photo of himself as Batman around to remind himself to not choose roles solely for commercial reasons. Ouch.^[7]

3 Bill Murray–Groundhog Day

While a modest hit in its day, 1993’s Groundhog Day is now considered one of the best comedies ever made. There are times when it feels like the only person who doesn’t love Groundhog Day is the film’s famous leading man, Bill Murray.

While filming, Murray had a falling out with director—and longtime friend—Harold Ramis over disagreements regarding the film’s tone and messages. Things got so bad at one point that Murray reportedly only agreed to communicate with the movie’s producers via a sign language interpreter. Some theorize that Murray was simply in a bad place at that time and that this movie is a big painful reminder of those times. Regardless, it’s one of the few films in the actor’s legendary career that he never celebrates and rarely speaks about.^[8]

2 Christopher Plummer–The Sound of Music

1965’s The Sound of Music is one of the most successful and acclaimed movie musicals ever made. Yet star Christopher Plummer has rarely found a nice word to say about the picture during his long and illustrious acting career. In fact, in his autobiography, he referred to the movie as “The Sound of Mucus.”

Plummer’s resentment of the film seems to be based on his resentment for his character, Captain Georg von Trapp. Plummer says he quickly grew bored of playing the character and disagreed with some of the studio’s attempts to flesh out the role. Reportedly, Plummer’s boredom seemingly led to him showing up to the set drunk and otherwise enjoying his time away from the production of the movie a bit too much.^[9]

1 Alec Guinness–Star Wars

1977’s Star Wars may be one of the most successful pieces of entertainment ever made, but many people at the time of the movie’s release doubted its potential and saw it as another cheap sci-fi flick. Remarkably, Obi-Wan Kenobi actor Alec Guinness still looked at the film that way even after it became one of the biggest hits in movie history.

While Guinness was reportedly a professional while filming Star Wars, he wasn’t shy about letting everyone know that he thought the script was awful and that he only took the role for the money. According to a popular legend, a child once asked Guinness for his autograph and told the actor that he had already seen Star Wars 100 times. Guinness said he would only give the child an autograph if he agreed to never watch the movie again.^[10]

Throughout history, people have been known to change their identities for various reasons. The following women decided to disguise themselves as men to get ahead either in battle or in their careers.

They went on to achieve great things, whether that meant temporarily cross-dressing, adopting an alias, or impersonating a man for a long period of time until they reached their goals. This was often at great risk, too. Turns out it’s not such a man’s world after all.

10 Rena ‘Rusty’ Kanokogi

In 1959, Rusty Kanokogi entered the YMCA Judo Championship in Utica, New York. She cut her hair short, taped down her chest, and went on to win her fight. However, when she stepped up to collect her medal, the tournament organizer asked if she was a woman. When she replied “yes,” she was stripped her of the winning medal. Kanokogi said of the experience, “It instilled a feeling in me that no woman should have to go through this again.”^[1]

Her goal was for women’s judo to be considered an Olympic sport. In 1984, her dream began to come true at the Los Angeles Games when women’s judo became an exhibition sport. In 1988, when the Summer Olympics were held in Seoul, South Korea, it attained medal status.

Considered the mother of women’s judo, Kanokogi died from complications of cancer at age 74 in 2009. One year earlier, the Japanese government had awarded her the Order of the Rising Sun, Japan’s highest honor for a foreigner.

9 The Bronte Sisters

Sisters Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte published their collection of poetry Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell under male pseudonyms in 1846. The following year, the novel Wuthering Heights was published under Emily’s pen name, Ellis Bell. In 1847, Jane Eyre was also published under Charlotte’s pen name, Currer Bell, and Agnes Grey was published under Anne’s pen name, Acton Bell.

In the preface for the 1910 edition of Wuthering Heights (published posthumously following Emily’s death in 1848), Charlotte explained why the sisters decided to adopt male names for their published works. She said:

Averse to personal publicity, we veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because—without at that time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called “feminine”—we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice.^[2]

After receiving generous critical reviews for their work, the Bronte sisters began publishing under their own names. They remain some of the most important authors in the history of literature.

8 Joan Of Arc

Joan of Arc (aka “The Maid of Orleans”) was considered a heroine during her 19 years of life from 1412 to 1431. Born into a peasant family in northeast France, she believed that God had given her a mission to save France from its enemies and that Charles VII should be the rightful king. At age 16, she disguised herself as a man and journeyed across Chinon with her small band of followers.

She managed to convince Charles VII that she was a messenger from God and would see him installed as the ruler of France. Against the advice of his counsel, Charles VII granted Joan an army which she led to Orleans.

In 1430, as she attempted to defend Compiegne from an assault, Joan was thrown from her horse and held captive by the Burgundians. She was held on 70 charges, including dressing like a man and witchcraft. Following a signed confession, she was burned at the stake the very next year.^[3]

7 Anna Maria Lane

In 1776, Anna Maria Lane enlisted in the Continental Army. Typically, women joined as cooks, nurses, or laundry assistants. They did not enlist as soldiers. However, Lane desired to fight alongside her husband, John, so she disguised herself as a man. That way, she could serve in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.

Her real identity would easily have gone undetected as 18th-century soldiers did not bathe often and were known to sleep in their uniforms. Historian Joyce Henry confirmed:

As far as enlistment, there are no physicals when one enters the army in the 18th century. One must have front teeth and an operating thumb and forefinger so one may be able to reach in, grab a cartridge, tear off the paper, and be able to successfully load your musket.^[4]

During the Battle of Germantown near Philadelphia in 1777, Lane was wounded but she survived. It’s unknown when she was detected as a woman, most likely when she was injured. However, she successfully managed to stay by her husband’s side throughout the war.

Her bravery was rewarded with $100 a year for life in recognition of her service. She died in her mid-fifties on June 13, 1810.

6 Deborah Sampson

Deborah Sampson became the only woman to earn a full military pension for fighting during the American Revolutionary War. Formerly a teacher, she disguised herself as a man named Robert Shurtleff and joined the Patriot forces in 1782.^[5]

During her service, she led about 30 infantrymen on an expedition, successfully captured 15 men, dug trenches, and faced cannon fire. For almost two years, her real identity remained undetected until she became ill and was taken to the hospital unconscious.

In 1783, she received an honorable discharge and toured as a lecturer. She retold her experience while often dressed in her full military regalia. After her death in 1827 at 66 years old, her husband petitioned Congress for spousal support that would have been awarded to a female widow without question.

Congress agreed to give him spousal pay because there was “no other similar example of female heroism, fidelity and courage” like Sampson. However, her husband died before receiving any of the money.

5 Joanna Zubr

Polish soldier Joanna Zubr hid her identity from the soldiers who fought beside her in the Napoleonic Wars. In 1808, Zubr joined the army with her husband, Michal Zubr. She was eventually promoted to sergeant.

Their unit was later renamed the Greater Polish Division and took part in Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. During their retreat, she was separated from the division. But Zubr managed to escape Russian territory on her own and return to Poland safely.

Reunited with her husband, they were unable to return to Austrian-occupied and Russian-held parts of Poland. Instead, they settled in Wielun where she lived the rest of her days.

She became the first woman to receive the Virtuti Militari medal, the highest Polish military honor. This made her the first woman in history to receive an award for bravery in battle. In 1852, she died during a cholera epidemic at about 80 years old.^[6]

4 Maria Quiteria De Jesus

In 1822, Maria Quiteria ran away to join the troops in the Brazilian Army. She cut her hair, dressed in masculine clothes, and was able to avoid detection until her father—who had refused her request to join the army – discovered the truth. Despite her father’s knowledge, she did not abandon the army and her presence was welcomed by Major Silva y Castro due to her skill in the battle.^[7]

From October 1822 until June 1823, Maria Quiteria ambushed her enemies in the province of Bahia by luring them to a nearby camp where she would turn on them with her hidden bayonet. In August 1823, she was granted the rank of lieutenant by Emperor Pedro I—an unheard-of accolade for a woman.

In 1953, 100 years after her death, the Brazilian government hung a portrait of Maria Quiteria on the wall at their military headquarters as a national honor.

3 James Barry

Military surgeon James Barry served as an Inspector General in the British Army. He was in charge of the military hospitals and vastly improved conditions for patients during his career. Barry was also the first surgeon in South Africa to perform a Cesarean section in which both the mother and child survived.

Born Margaret Ann Bulkley, Barry’s real identity was only discovered after his death in 1865. As a maid prepared his body for the funeral, the sensational discovery was revealed. The British Army was so shocked that they blocked access to all Barry’s papers until the case was reopened by historian Isobel Rae in the 1950s.

One historical figure who was not a fan of Barry was Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. She wrote of her experience meeting the surgeon:

He kept me standing in the midst of quite a crowd of soldiers . . . every one of whom behaved like a gentleman while he behaved like a brute. After he was dead, I was told that [Barry] was a woman . . . I should say that [Barry] was the most hardened creature I ever met.^[8]

2 J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter author Joanne Rowling, known famously around the world as J.K. Rowling, revealed that she had decided while still unpublished to drop her first name from her books on wizardry and witchcraft to better appeal to a young male audience. Harry Potter went on to become the best-selling book series in history. The titles have been translated into over 60 languages.

In 2013, Rowling decided to switch to a male pen name again for her crime fiction novel The Cuckoo’s Calling. She wanted to “take my writing persona as far away as possible from me.” Rowling published the book under the name, Robert Galbraith, explaining, “I successfully channeled my inner bloke!”

Initially, editor David Shelley read it without knowing that Rowling was the author. Shelley later said, “I never would have thought a woman wrote that.” Galbraith’s identity did not stay secret for long because a friend of one of her lawyers leaked the news. Subsequently, the book became another literary hit for Rowling.^[9]

1 Kathrine Switzer

Runner Kathrine Switzer made history as the first woman to run the Boston Marathon in 1967. At that time, females were banned from competing. She had applied to compete in the race as a man. After it was discovered that a woman was running the 42-kilometer (26 mi) race, officials grabbed at her to try to stop her.

Switzer recalls:

Before I could react, he grabbed my shoulder and flung me back, screaming, “Get the hell out of my race, and give me those numbers!” Then he swiped down my front, trying to rip off my bib number, just as I leaped backward from him. I was so surprised and frightened that I slightly wet my pants and turned to run.

She added, “I knew if I quit, nobody would ever believe that women had the capability to run 26-plus miles. If I quit, everybody would say it was a publicity stunt. If I quit, it would set women’s sports back. My fear and humiliation turned to anger.”

In 1972, women were officially allowed to enter the marathon.^[10]

Cheish Merryweather is a true crime fan and an oddities fanatic. She can either be found at house parties telling everyone Charles Manson was only 157.48 centimeters (5’2″) or at home reading true crime magazines. Follow her on Twitter: @thecheish.

Doctors heal us and, if they are not sociopaths, do their best not to hurt us. But doctors work with us when our bodies are weakest. It is inevitable that, sometimes, a doctor’s intervention will kill rather than cure.

10King George V

Kings can usually count on the best of everything. The best food, the best castles, and the best medical treatment. That is why kings generally live longer lives than the peasants they rule over.

King George V of the United Kingdom was actually killed by his status. The king was already dying but not nearly swiftly enough to be convenient. Once he fell into a coma, it seemed that the monarch’s last breath would happen too late for the deadlines of the morning papers. This would result in the king’s passing being reported in the evening papers. To make sure the prestigious morning papers got the story instead, the king’s doctor, Lord Dawson, injected him with cocaine and morphine to speed up his death.

9President Garfield

Being President of the United States definitely takes its toll on health—the before and after photos of presidents show how it ages them. Even worse is the risk of assassination.

President Garfield was shot in 1881 by Charles Guiteau. The assassin’s bullet lodged behind the president’s pancreas but almost certainly was not fatal by itself. What seems to have killed the president was infection caused by his doctors.

Immediately after the shooting, they probed the wound to find the bullet with their fingers. Their unsterilized digits introduced germs that brought on a fever. They tried again and again to find the bullet, each time without sterilizing hands or tools, one doctor even puncturing the president’s liver with his finger. Eighty days after the shooting, the president succumbed to infection.

8Sigmund Freud

Not all famous people who die at the hands of their doctors are the victims of misconduct, ignorance, or malice. Sigmund Freud is often quoted as saying, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar,” but other times, a cigar is cause of oral cancer The psychiatrist was fond of his phallic nicotine delivery systems, smoking up to 20 a day.

For the last decades of his life Freud suffered from painful cancers of the mouth. When he came to the end of his life, Freud told his doctor how he wanted to exit the world—painlessly. At Freud’s request, his doctor eased his passing with injections of morphine.

7President Washington

Of all the medical terrors that may face us, a sore throat is probably not the first that comes to mind.

George Washington went out riding one day in the snow, dined without changing from his wet clothes, and the next day reported a sore throat. When an infection in the president’s throat swelled it uncomfortably, his doctor gave the preferred treatment of the times—he bled him. When this failed, a second doctor raised a blister on his throat to draw out liquids. Then he was bled again. Then an enema was given. Then he was forced to vomit. All these interventions weakened the president, allowing the infection to worsen.

Thanks to the tender ministrations of his doctors, Washington’s last words included: “Doctor, I die hard.”

6Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson was preparing for a new world tour when he suddenly died in 2009. The cause of his death was a powerful anesthetic, propofol.

You may have encountered propofol if you have had a general anesthetic. Jackson’s doctor was using it to treat the singer’s insomnia caused by the stress from the upcoming tour. Using propofol to get a night of sleep is like using an atom bomb to dig a vegetable patch. Sure, you will get the job done, but your cabbages will glow in the dark.

The doctor was sentenced to four years in prison for involuntary manslaughter and was released after two.

5Joan Rivers

The comedienne Joan Rivers was never shy about talking about her cosmetic surgery. She played on it in her routines, joking that “I wish I had a twin, so I could know what I’d look like without plastic surgery.” In 2014, she went into hospital for a routine operation. Complications arose, and she died. Many assumed that this was a case of those who live by the scalpel dying by the scalpel.

In fact, Rivers died after a botched examination of her throat, nothing to do with her devotion to plastic surgery. In 2016, Rivers’s doctors settled a malpractice suit and accepted responsibility for her death.

4Abraham Lincoln

Everyone knows what killed President Lincoln. While he was enjoying a trip to the theater, John Wilkes Booth shot him at point-blank range in the head. Even today, such a wound is likely to be deadly. Case closed?

Not quite. In the Civil War, many people had taken bullets to the brain and lived, so just because it was a dreadful wound does not mean it was a fatal one. It is possible that medical treatment rather than the gun finished off the president.

Doctor Charles Leale was in the theater at the time of the shooting and was the first to reach the president. He reported, “The coagula I easily removed and passed the little finger of my left hand through the perfectly smooth opening made by the ball.” Massive damage was done by the bullet but the probing of the wound, repeated later by other doctors, may have caused deadly blood loss.

3King Charles II

We have seen that position and power is no guarantee of flawless medical care. King Charles II of England suffered from an overabundance of doctors. Fourteen medics cared for him in his final days, and all wished to try their treatment on the king when the king suffered some sort of fit while shaving. The fit was only the beginning of his ordeal.

He was bled, blistered, bled again, given an emetic, had his head shaved and blistered, given an enema, and dressed with plasters made of pigeon droppings. That was only the first day of his treatment. Over the next few days, ever more blood was taken, and stranger remedies were tried.

The Merry Monarch died in pain but still found time for courtesy. When visitors were allowed to see him, he apologized: “You must pardon me, gentlemen, for being a most unconscionable time a-dying.”

2Edward Gibbon

Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is one of the masterpieces of historical writing. There is, however, a fact about the historian that is often left out of the history books. Gibbon suffered from a swelling of the testicles.

People today may laugh over the absurd tightness of skinny jeans, but they have nothing on the tightness of breaches in the 18th century. There was no disguising the ailment. Gibbon decided to have the illness dealt with. “If the business goes off smoothly, I shall be delivered of a small burden (it is almost as big as a small child).”

Four quarts of watery fluid were drained off in the first operation, which was repeated several times, each drawing out similar amounts. While these treatments relieved the painful and embarrassing condition, they also caused an infection that killed the man.

1Charles II Of Navarre

The second Charles II on this list suffered a bad death, even by the standards of a man known as Charles the Bad (a sobriquet he earned by playing the English and French against each other during the Hundred Years War and switching sides whenever it seemed advantageous).

When Charles fell ill, unable to use his arms and legs, his doctors took an unorthodox approach to curing him. They prescribed wrapping the monarch in brandy-soaked cloth. To give him the maximum exposure, the king was sewn into the cloths at night.

One night, the lady sewing him in had a length of thread left. Instead of cutting off the excess, she decided to burn it off with a candle. As anyone but the lady might have expected, the candle set the alcohol-impregnated bed aflame, killing the king. According to the chronicler Jean Froissart, the king lingered in agony for two weeks before dying, giving moralists a fitting end to the story of Charles the Bad.

Art conservation is meant to preserve the masterpieces of history for future generations, but sometimes, these well-intentioned efforts go horribly wrong. Whether due to a lack of expertise, rushed decisions, or sheer carelessness, some restoration attempts have left artworks unrecognizable or damaged beyond repair. These failures remind us that art conservation is as much an art as it is a science, requiring skill, patience, and respect for the original work.

This list counts down ten infamous art conservation disasters, highlighting the mistakes that turned cultural treasures into cautionary tales.

Related: Top 10 Weird Images in Renaissance Paintings

10 The Melting Murillo: The Immaculate Conception (Spain, 2020)

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables is a celebrated 17th-century masterpiece depicting the Virgin Mary. In 2020, a Spanish furniture restorer—who had no formal training in art conservation—was hired to clean the painting. The results were disastrous. After two failed attempts at “restoring” the Virgin Mary’s face, the work was left unrecognizable, resembling a blurry cartoonish figure rather than Murillo’s delicate artistry.

The incident sparked outrage and ridicule, with comparisons drawn to the infamous Ecce Homo restoration (which appears later on this list). Experts condemned the lack of oversight in Spain’s art restoration practices, where unregulated amateurs are often entrusted with valuable cultural artifacts. Murillo’s painting eventually required extensive professional restoration, but the event highlighted the ongoing risks of entrusting masterpieces to the wrong hands.^[1]

9 The Overwashed Sistine Chapel Ceiling (Italy, 1980s)

The Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelangelo in the early 16th century, is one of the most iconic works of Western art. Between 1980 and 1994, a massive restoration project aimed to clean centuries of grime and soot from the frescoes. While the results brought vibrant colors back to life, critics argue that the restoration stripped away some of Michelangelo’s original details, particularly his subtle shadowing techniques, known as chiaroscuro.

Some art historians claim that overzealous cleaning altered the masterpiece’s intended depth and texture. They also allege that the restoration team relied too heavily on chemical solvents, permanently damaging parts of the fresco. While the Vatican defends the project as a necessary effort to preserve Michelangelo’s work, the controversy remains a heated topic among art experts, demonstrating the thin line between preservation and destruction.^[2]

8 The Repainting of The Last Supper (Italy, 18th Century)

Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper is a Renaissance masterpiece, but it has suffered centuries of damage due to environmental factors and previous restoration attempts. The worst offender was an 18th-century effort by painter Giuseppe Mazza, who attempted to “fix” the fresco by painting over Leonardo’s original work.

Mazza used oil paints rather than tempera, which not only obscured Leonardo’s delicate brushwork but also caused further degradation of the fresco. The repainting was widely criticized and ultimately removed in subsequent restoration efforts, but the damage was irreversible. Modern techniques have since stabilized the painting, but much of Leonardo’s original genius is lost, leaving The Last Supper as a cautionary example of restoration gone wrong.^[3]

7 The Waxing of the Parthenon Sculptures (England, 1937)

In 1937, British Museum staff undertook a controversial cleaning project on the Parthenon Marbles (also known as the Elgin Marbles). Workers used wire brushes, abrasive tools, and even acid to strip away centuries of grime, believing they were restoring the sculptures to their original state. Instead, they removed valuable patina, leaving the surfaces irreparably damaged.

The cleaning was later described as a “calamity” by art historians, who argued that the Marbles’ historical integrity was compromised. The incident remains a sore point in debates over the Marbles’ ownership, with Greece citing the botched restoration as evidence of Britain’s inability to properly care for these ancient treasures.^[4]

6 The Darkened Rembrandt: The Night Watch (Netherlands, 1940s)

Rembrandt’s The Night Watch is a Dutch masterpiece, but a 1940s restoration attempt resulted in unintended damage. To “brighten” the painting, restorers applied a thick layer of varnish, which eventually darkened over time, obscuring much of the work’s detail.

When later efforts were made to remove the varnish, they caused abrasions to the painting’s surface, leading to further loss of Rembrandt’s original brushwork. The restoration efforts caused outrage among art lovers and highlighted the dangers of invasive techniques. Today, The Night Watch remains under close monitoring, with modern conservators using cutting-edge methods to prevent further damage.^[5]

5 The Frankenstein Mummy (Egypt, 19th Century)

In the 19th century, early Egyptologists attempted to conserve mummies using a variety of experimental techniques. One particularly disastrous example involved a mummy from the British Museum, which was treated with paraffin wax to stabilize its fragile wrappings. While the wax initially preserved the mummy, it later caused the linens to deteriorate, leaving parts of the artifact irreparably damaged.

The case exemplifies the trial-and-error approach of early conservation, where well-meaning but uninformed efforts often caused more harm than good. Today, conservators rely on non-invasive techniques, but the mistakes of the past serve as a reminder of the risks of experimenting on irreplaceable artifacts.^[5]

4 The “Cartoonish” St. George Statue (Spain, 2018)

In 2018, an attempt to restore a 16th-century wooden sculpture of St. George at the Church of San Miguel de Estella in Spain turned into a widely publicized disaster. The statue, depicting St. George slaying a dragon, was entrusted to a local crafts teacher lacking expertise in art restoration. The result was a garish transformation: the saint was repainted with bright pink cheeks, a flat expression, and an anachronistic color palette. The restoration obliterated the intricate details and historical layers of the original, sparking outrage among art historians and conservationists who lamented the irreversible damage to the centuries-old artifact.

The debacle highlighted the dangers of neglecting proper conservation protocols. Critics faulted the church and local authorities for failing to involve qualified professionals violating regulations for heritage preservation. The incident also reignited debates about protecting cultural artifacts, particularly in small communities with limited resources and awareness of conservation standards. Globally, the botched restoration attracted media attention and ridicule, with many comparing it to the infamous “Ecce Homo” fresco fiasco of 2012. While some hoped the uproar would spotlight the need for better funding and education in restoration practices, others mourned the loss of another irreplaceable piece of history to negligence.^[7]

3 The Flaking Vermeer: The Girl with the Pearl Earring (Netherlands, 1990s)

Johannes Vermeer’s The Girl with the Pearl Earring is one of the most beloved paintings in the world, but a restoration effort in the 1990s stirred controversy among art historians and conservators. The cleaning was intended to remove layers of varnish and grime that had accumulated over centuries, obscuring Vermeer’s luminous colors and delicate brushwork. While the cleaning did reveal the painting’s original brilliance, it also introduced new risks. Some experts claimed that micro-flaking appeared in certain areas, particularly around the girl’s face and the iconic pearl earring, due to the cleaning solvents used.

In addition, critics argued that the restoration may have stripped away layers of glaze that Vermeer himself applied, subtly altering the painting’s texture and depth. Although The Girl with the Pearl Earring remains a global icon, the restoration raised questions about the ethics of interventions that prioritize aesthetic appeal over historical integrity. This incident highlights the challenges of preserving fragile works while balancing the expectations of modern audiences and museums.^[8]

2 The “Potato Head” Jesus: Ecce Homo (Spain, 2012)

In 2012, a fresco of Jesus Christ, Ecce Homo, became an international sensation after an amateur restoration attempt went disastrously wrong. Painted by 19th-century artist Elías García Martínez, the fresco was a modest but revered depiction of Christ in the Sanctuary of Mercy church in Borja, Spain. Cecilia Giménez, a well-meaning but untrained parishioner in her 80s, attempted to restore the deteriorating work [LINK 9]. The result was a grotesque image with distorted proportions and what many described as a “Potato Head” or “Monkey Jesus.”

While the restoration was widely mocked, it unexpectedly transformed the small town of Borja into a tourist destination. Visitors flocked to see the botched fresco, and it became a symbol of both art-world cautionary tales and internet humor. Despite its comedic legacy, the incident sparked serious discussions about the risks of allowing unqualified individuals to work on significant cultural artifacts. Some experts have argued that the fresco could have been saved if professional intervention had been sought earlier, but now it is permanently altered—albeit with a new, peculiar charm.^[9]

1 The Ruined Rockefeller Picasso: Le Tricorne (USA, 2014)

Pablo Picasso’s Le Tricorne, a 1919 painted stage curtain, became the center of a controversial incident in 2014 when it was damaged during a move from New York’s Four Seasons Restaurant to the New York Historical Society. The curtain, measuring over 20 feet (6 meters) tall, had been a beloved fixture at the restaurant for decades, acting as both a decorative centerpiece and a symbol of modern art’s integration into public spaces. When the building’s management decided to move the piece to accommodate renovations, experts warned of the risks involved in transporting such a fragile artwork.

Those warnings proved prescient when Le Tricorne was torn during the transfer due to improper handling and inadequate equipment. The incident caused outrage in the art community, with critics accusing the movers and property owners of negligence. Although the curtain was eventually repaired, the damage was irreversible in certain areas, diminishing the artwork’s historical and cultural value. The controversy reignited debates about the responsibilities of private owners in safeguarding public treasures and highlighted the dangers of underestimating the complexities of moving large-scale, delicate artworks.^[10]

For many actors, getting into character means more than just memorizing lines; it requires immersing themselves completely in the role. Some actors take this process to remarkable extremes, adopting unconventional and sometimes controversial methods to embody their characters. Whether through physical transformation, intense psychological preparation, or bizarre routines, these actors go above and beyond to bring authenticity to their performances. Here are ten actors who took unique and often extreme approaches to prepare for their roles.

Related: 10 Actors Who Portrayed Real-Life Criminals to Perfection

10 Daniel Day-Lewis Refuses to Break Character on Set

Renowned for his dedication, Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the most intense method actors of his generation. Known for fully immersing himself in his characters, Day-Lewis famously refuses to break character during filming, even when the cameras aren’t rolling. For his Oscar-winning role in My Left Foot (1989), where he portrayed Christy Brown, a man with cerebral palsy, Day-Lewis stayed in character throughout filming. He insisted on using a wheelchair, had the crew feed him, and even let them carry him to avoid walking. His insistence on complete immersion allowed him to capture Brown’s struggle authentically, impressing audiences with his performance.

For Lincoln (2012), Day-Lewis took a similar approach, studying everything from Lincoln’s letters to his speeches and adopting the president’s voice on and off camera. He even requested that everyone, from cast and crew to extras, address him as “Mr. President.” His meticulous preparation included reading about Lincoln’s relationships and health, allowing him to embody the physical and mental toll of the Civil War on the leader’s life. Day-Lewis’s extreme dedication has earned him three Academy Awards and solidified his reputation as one of the most committed actors in the industry.^[1]

9 Heath Ledger Lived in Isolation for the Joker

Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008) is widely regarded as one of the most iconic performances of all time. To prepare for the role, Ledger locked himself in a hotel room for six weeks, isolating himself from the outside world to develop the character’s mindset. During this time, he kept a journal filled with disturbing images and phrases that reflected the Joker’s chaotic nature, helping him tap into the character’s psyche. The entries included lines like “I am an agent of chaos” and drawings of twisted smiles, which shaped his performance’s intensity and unpredictability.

Ledger’s preparation was intense and reportedly took a toll on his mental health. His efforts to embody the Joker extended beyond his hotel stay—on set, he continued experimenting with the character’s voice and mannerisms, even developing the iconic, sinister laugh that would define his portrayal. While some close to him worried about the psychological impact of such a dark role, Ledger’s commitment to his craft was evident, and his hauntingly memorable Joker earned him a posthumous Academy Award.^[2]

8 Christian Bale’s Extreme Physical Transformations

Christian Bale is known for undergoing drastic physical changes to embody his characters, often taking his transformations to an extreme level. For The Machinist (2004), Bale famously lost over 60 pounds (27.2 kg), surviving on a diet of water, coffee, and an apple or can of tuna each day. His gaunt, skeletal appearance shocked audiences and set a new bar for physical transformation, but Bale believed it was necessary to authentically portray the insomniac, mentally unwell protagonist. He reportedly dropped to just 120 pounds (54.4 kg), pushing his body to the brink of its limits.

After The Machinist, Bale quickly gained 100 pounds (45.4 kg) to play Batman in Batman Begins, bulking up to portray the superhero’s imposing physique. His willingness to undergo extreme body changes didn’t end there—he gained weight for American Hustle and then slimmed down again for The Fighter, proving his commitment to each role. Though such drastic weight changes come with health risks, Bale’s dedication to embodying his characters through physical transformation has earned him immense respect in Hollywood, even as it sparks concern from health experts.^[3]

7 Meryl Streep Learns Languages and Accents from Scratch

Meryl Streep is widely regarded as one of the most versatile actors in Hollywood, renowned for her ability to adapt to different accents and languages to bring authenticity to her roles. For her Oscar-winning performance in Sophie’s Choice (1982), Streep learned Polish and German, spending weeks with a coach to perfect her pronunciation. She even adopted a Polish accent in English, adding depth to her character’s background as a Holocaust survivor. The dedication to linguistic detail made her portrayal all the more convincing, deeply resonating with audiences and critics alike.

Streep has continued this rigorous approach in other films. For Out of Africa (1985), she studied Danish accents, and in The Iron Lady (2011), she spent countless hours perfecting Margaret Thatcher’s distinct tone and cadence. Each linguistic transformation reflects her dedication to fully immersing herself in her characters’ worlds, which has helped her create complex, layered performances. Streep’s meticulous attention to voice and accent is an example of her exceptional talent and adaptability as an actress, underscoring her status as one of Hollywood’s finest.^[4]

6 Jared Leto’s Method Acting for the Joker

Jared Leto’s approach to playing the Joker in Suicide Squad (2016) involved some of the most extreme and controversial method acting techniques. Known for diving headfirst into his characters, Leto sent bizarre and disturbing gifts to his co-stars to capture the Joker’s unpredictable personality. These “gifts” included a live rat for Margot Robbie, bullets for Will Smith, and even a dead pig for the entire cast. His goal was to make his presence on set feel as unsettling as the Joker himself, fostering an atmosphere of chaos.

But Leto’s method acting extended beyond gifts. He stayed in character off-camera, using the Joker’s voice and laugh and rarely breaking character, even during breaks. Some cast members were reportedly uncomfortable with his methods, and his performance sparked debate over the lengths actors should go to embody a role. Leto’s approach raised questions about the ethical boundaries of method acting, even though he argued it helped him understand the Joker’s chaotic mindset.^[5]

5 Shia LaBeouf Pulled Out His Own Tooth and Lived on the Streets

Shia LaBeouf’s commitment to method acting has taken him to extreme lengths, with his approach to character preparation bordering on dangerous. For Fury(2014), a World War II film, LaBeouf reportedly refused to shower for weeks, aiming to achieve a realistic look and feel of a soldier enduring wartime conditions. To further embody the character’s experience, he had his dentist pull out one of his teeth, creating a more authentic appearance of someone hardened by combat.

LaBeouf’s dedication didn’t stop with Fury. For The Tax Collector (2020), he reportedly spent time living on the streets and even joined members of street gangs to better understand his character’s environment. LaBeouf’s extreme methods have attracted both admiration and criticism, with some applauding his commitment to realism while others question whether such lengths are necessary. His approach reflects his unique perspective on acting, blurring the lines between fiction and reality to fully inhabit each role.^[6]

4 Natalie Portman’s Ballet Training for Black Swan

To prepare for her role in Black Swan, Natalie Portman underwent an intense year-long training regimen to portray a professional ballerina convincingly. She practiced ballet for five to eight hours a day, training with experienced dancers to understand the physical and mental discipline of the profession. Portman’s commitment to mastering the craft resulted in multiple injuries, including a dislocated rib, but she refused to let the pain interfere with her performance.

Portman’s preparation also included cross-training in swimming and weightlifting to build the stamina and strength required to perform on pointe. Her physical and emotional dedication to the role earned her critical acclaim and an Academy Award for Best Actress. Audiences and critics praised her transformation, which highlighted the grueling demands of ballet. Portman’s experience in Black Swan serves as a testament to the sacrifices actors make to bring their characters to life authentically.^[7]

3 Leonardo DiCaprio’s Survival Skills in The Revenant

Leonardo DiCaprio went to great lengths to bring authenticity to his role as frontiersman Hugh Glass in The Revenant (2015). To portray the character’s brutal survival journey, DiCaprio subjected himself to extreme conditions, sleeping inside animal carcasses and enduring frigid temperatures while filming in remote Canadian locations. He even ate raw bison liver for one scene, despite being a longtime vegetarian, which required overcoming his natural aversion to such an intense experience.

DiCaprio also learned basic survival skills, such as fire-starting, to make his portrayal more realistic. The challenging conditions pushed him physically and mentally, and his immersion in the harsh landscape allowed him to capture Glass’s struggle against the elements. DiCaprio’s performance in The Revenant earned him his first Academy Award, with audiences and critics alike recognizing the raw intensity he brought to the role. His willingness to endure these extreme conditions exemplifies the lengths some actors go to for authenticity.^[8]

2 Jim Carrey’s Intense Transformation for Man on the Moon

To portray comedian Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon (1999), Jim Carrey adopted an intense method acting approach, embodying Kaufman’s unpredictable personality both on and off set. Carrey stayed in character throughout production, channeling Kaufman’s eccentricity in ways that baffled the cast and crew. His immersion extended to portraying Kaufman’s abrasive alter ego, Tony Clifton, who would randomly appear and cause chaos on set, creating a surreal atmosphere that blurred the line between actor and character.

Carrey’s commitment to the role was so all-encompassing that a documentary, Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond (2017), was later released to show the behind-the-scenes of his extreme preparation. Carrey’s dedication was both a tribute to Kaufman’s unconventional life and a reflection of his own willingness to push the boundaries of acting. His immersive approach to Man on the Moon provided a fascinating glimpse into the world of method acting.^[9]

1 Lady Gaga Immerses Herself in Italian Culture for House of Gucci

For her role as Patrizia Reggiani in House of Gucci (2021), Lady Gaga took method acting to a cultural level, immersing herself in Italian language, customs, and fashion. She maintained an Italian accent for nine months, even when she wasn’t on set, to master Reggiani’s cadence and mannerisms. Gaga also delved into Italian pop culture, listening to Italian music, researching Reggiani’s real-life story, and studying her family background, hoping to capture the character’s motivations authentically.

Gaga’s dedication extended to wearing vintage Italian fashion and observing social norms from Reggiani’s era. The thorough preparation allowed her to fully embrace Reggiani’s persona, and her nuanced performance as a ruthless, ambitious woman received widespread acclaim. Lady Gaga’s cultural immersion and dedication to capturing Reggiani’s complexity is an example of how method acting can involve not only psychological preparation but also a profound understanding of a character’s cultural environment.^[10]