7 FAMOUS PEOPLE WHO HIT BOTTOM — AND BOUNCED BACK

Charlize Theron

Black Cloud: It was a succession of beyond-bad-luck stories for the stunning young South African. When Charlize was a 15-year-old farm girl, she watched her mother kill her abusive dad in self-defense. She moved to Manhattan to pursue a career in dance, but her knees blew out, pronto — and with them, her future as a ballerina. At 19, the neophyte actress was living in an L.A. dive, subsisting on stale rolls ripped off from restaurants. Final indignity: after begging mom for cash to stave off starvation, a Hollywood bank refused to cash her way-out-of-town $500 check. "You don't understand — please," she unsuccessfully begged the teller. So she freaked — a screaming, flailing temper tantrum in front of the lunchtime crowd. It was her biggest and most rapt audience to date.

Silver Lining: Little did she know, it was also her first successful audition. Talent manager John Crosby, waiting to use an ATM, was captivated by the gorgeous, if high-strung, young woman. "If you're interested, I'll represent you," he told her. As Theron later explained to Oprah, "If I hadn't been in the bank that day, I honestly don't think I'd be here right now." A few months of acting classes later, she landed her first screen role. Ok, it was in Children of the Corn III, but still.

Liam Neeson

Black Cloud: At an age when most lead actors are edging into supporting gigs, the Irish thesp seemed to be pulling off something truly unique in 2009: a late-career transformation into an action star. His down-and-dirty revenge flick Taken shocked pundits by earning a quarter of a billion dollars; Neeson was finally muscling onto the box office A-list. Then, tragedy: his wife Natasha Richardson died of a freak head injury skiing the beginner's slope at a Canadian resort. Paparazzi photos from the time show the face of a broken man.

Silver Lining: "Her death was never real [to me]. It still kind of isn't," Neeson told 60 Minutes earlier this year. But he survived — and thrived — by throwing his full energies into his career and raising his two young sons. Now Neeson is at the peak of his bankability. "I'm 61 years of age, man," he says. "Going around fighting all these guys...I feel a bit embarrassed." Taken 2, Unknownand Non-stop were worldwide hits, earning Neeson a $20 million payday forTaken 3. And many believe the kick-ass authority he brings to roles displays more than just the gifts of a skilled actor — it's the work of a man who has known devastating sorrow and channeled it into performances of ferocity and passion.

Michael C. Hall

Black Cloud: It was a turn of events as disturbing as Dexter itself. In 2010, while Michael C. Hall, lovable serial-killer lead of Showtime's pitch-black hit, was in the midst of filming season four, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. The news had an eerie resonance for the actor, then 38: his own father had died of prostate cancer at age 39.

Silver Lining: Hall kept his diagnosis a secret from his coworkers, and started an aggressive months-long regimen of radiation and chemotherapy the day after shooting wrapped. The treatment sent his cancer into full remission, and he not only was able to start season 5 of Dexter on schedule — and keep the large cast and crew gainfully employed. Hall says he"probably would have kept it quiet had the awards shows not come up, and I felt obliged to explain my lack of eyebrows."What's next for the guy whose two big-time roles — a good-hearted killing machine and repressed mortician (on Six Feet Under) — were all about corpses? "I can't seem to get away from dead bodies," Hall admitted recently. "Even if it's my own."

Giuseppe Verdi

Black Cloud: The great Italian composer fell into an abyss in 1840, at 27. His second opera had been a resounding flop, closing on opening night. Far worse: over the past two years, his beloved wife and both infant children had died, victims of cholera. Despondent, Verdi because a recluse, reading trashy Victorian novels and writing not a note. He planned to give up composing altogether. When a producer sent him the text for a proposed new Biblical opera, Nabucco, he threw it on the table in disgust.

Silver Lining: Call it divine inspiration or good fortune. But as the composer later recalled, "The roll of paper opened out; and without knowing quite how, I found myself staring at the page in front of me and my eyes fell on this line: 'Va pensiero sull'ali dorati.'" (Translated: "Fly, thought, on the golden wings.") The words — the opening of a chorus of exiled Hebrew slaves — gave Verdi a jolt: he saw the number as a metaphor for his nation's patriots, struggling to free themselves from Austrian rule. He started writing obsessively. Nabuccoproved to be a smash, and Verdi went on to become Italy's most celebrated composer, writing works like Aida and Rigoletto. "Va, pensiero," meanwhile, is a melody everybody in Italy knows by heart; in 2008, an Italian senator proposed making it the national anthem.

Walt Disney

Black Cloud: Early on in his career, Disney proved to be a sputtering, crashing business dud. In 1923, at age 20, Disney started the Laugh-o-Grams company — an animation studio supplying shorts to Kansas City movie theaters. Always the visionary, he embarked on groundbreaking and vastly expensive projects like a combo live action and cartoon flick called Alice's Wonderland. (Spoiler: It was no wonderland.) Big Walt lacked the financial acumen to back up his high-octane creativity. He soon found himself virtually homeless, sleeping in his office (where he befriended a tame mouse) and taking showers at the train station. Just a year after opening his doors, he was forced to declare bankruptcy.

Silver Lining: Obviously, Disney didn't let the setback knock him down. He spent his last dollars on a bus ticket, headed out to Hollywood and started the company that bears his name. Oh, and he created a slightly obnoxious little cartoon character named Mickey, based on that office mouse. He always claimed that his Laugh-o-Grams experience, painful as it was, laid the groundwork for his later success, and helped him avoid catastrophic mistakes. We're still not sure who to blame for Epcot Center.

Tim Allen

Black Cloud: "Bottom" doesn't get much lower than a cell in a state penitentiary. But that's where Tim Allen found himself in the early '90s when, after a hard-partying youth, he was arrested at the Kalamazoo airport with over 650 grams of cocaine. Allen later admitted he had all the makings of a "really good" drug dealer. But clearly it was time to find a new profession.

Silver Lining: Trying to survive his stint in the big house better then most of the cast members of Oz (binge watch it on Netflix!), Allen played to his strengths. When approached for "dates" he'd make the local neo-Nazis laugh. He put on comedy shows for other inmates, and even made the orneriest prison guards chuckle by using a picture of Nixon as a target in his cell toilet. Observing his fellow prisoners, he developed his signature "tool guy" persona. After he emerged from his 28-month term, a friend dared him to stand up on an open mic night at a Detroit-area comedy club. Allen was an instant hit, and went on to star in the hit Home Improvement, and beguile kiddies as the voice of Buzz Lightyear. "Sometimes you have to hit bottom," Allen later told a reporter, "to know where to go."

Jon Hamm

Black Cloud: True, getting shot down on a TV dating show isn't a tragedy to match illness, death or prison time. But for a young waiter/actor hoping to strut his leading-man stuff, it hurt. Hamm was in his mid-twenties in 1995 when he was a contestant on The Big Date, a c-level Love Connection rip-off. With his floppy hair and surfer dude clothes, the future Mad Men star he didn't impress bachelorette Mary, despite promising "fabulous food, a little fabulous conversation, ending with a fabulous foot massage for an evening of total fabulosity." Instead she picked Mark, a creepy self-proclaimed "stunt man" who promised he would "take her home later and show her my flexibility."

Silver Lining: After watching the show with clenched teeth, Hamm cut his hair, got a nice suit and some attitude and eventually became the People"Sexiest Man Alive" (circa 2008) we know and love today. When Mary found out who she burned years later, she told reporters "I don't really know who he is and have never seen the show. I have found love since and I wouldn't trade him for a thousand Jon Hamms."

Sweet celebs who married awful people

Love is blind, and sometimes it's also deaf, dumb, delusional, and in denial. That's the only way we can really explain how these otherwise delightful stars wound up tying the knot with alleged cheaters, gold diggers, control freaks, and not-so-better halves. 

Sure, there are two sides to every story, but the court of public opinion seems to have made up its mind about these famous musicians, actors, comedians, models, and more. 

Find out which celebs have recovered from their dark and twisted romances and who is still battling to escape with some peace and closure.

Sandra Bullock is beloved by most movie-going audiences, so when she got teary thanking then-husband Jesse James at the 2010 Oscars, we all rooted for them. That also made it hurt twice as much when news broke that James allegedly cheated on America's sweetheart. He didn't just cheat, though—he cheated with a slew of women, at least one of whom had no issue rocking Nazi regalia. That may not have bothered James, though. He's reportedly been linked to Nazi-related art for quite a while, and some very unsettling photos of him in Nazi gear went public. Sources told Us Weekly that James is "into history…The swastika deal is to scare people. It's part of biker culture."

Bullock kicked him to the curb and told People (via the New York Daily News), "The photo shocked me and made me sad. This was stupid, this was ignorant. Racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, homophobia, anything Nazi and a boatload of other things have no place in my life."

Paul McCartney's marriage to Heather Mills didn't seem terrible—until they divorced. The couple was married for less than six years before finalizing the divorce in March 2008. Justice Hugh Bennett, who presided over the split, wasn't impressed with Mills' efforts to snag $250 million from the former Beatle.

"I am driven to the conclusion that much of her evidence, both written and oral, was not just inconsistent and inaccurate but also less than candid," Bennett wrote in his ruling (via People), noting that her requests for $400,000 annually for private flights, $80,000 for wine, and $250,000 for clothes were "ridiculous…unreasonable, indeed exorbitant."

As recently as March 2015, Mills was still insulting McCartney, despite being awarded $48.6 million in the divorce settlement. She told U.K.'s The Late Late Show that McCartney was irrelevant, saying "No, they're not [interested in McCartney]…When I go down the street, I get kids coming up to me—half of them don't even know who he is—that's why he's got to do songs with Rihanna and Kanye West, so people remember." She added, "When I go down the street, it's 'Oh my God, you're a ski-racer' or 'You help the animals.' You know, I own the biggest vegan company in the world. This is just someone I fell in love with who to me was a normal guy that happened to write a few cool songs in the '60s and a few in the '70s. Like everybody that's a partner—you fall in love, you get married, you sometimes then go, 'Oh my God, this is completely wrong,' you wake up, and you move on."

Mariah Carey's first marriage to record exec Tommy Mottola was the stuff of Lifetime movies: rich, powerful, and allegedly very controlling. Vanity Fair reported that Mottola, who was married with kids when he met Carey, often dished to his colleagues about his intimate life with Carey. Even worse, he allegedly wouldn't let her leave their mansion alone and employed security guards to follow her 24/7—even to the bathroom. He also allegedly dictated Carey's entire life, even telling her when to sit and stand. Mottola was also accused of sabotaging her 2001 album and film, Glitter (2001).

Though he denied any abusive behavior, he wrote in his memoir (excerpted by Billboard) that the relationship was "absolutely wrong and inappropriate" and that he is "truly sorry for any discomfort or pain that all of my good intentions inevitably caused her, and most of all for the scars it left on my two oldest children." Sure he is, but that still hasn't stopped him from talking about Mimi every chance he gets.

Before Kanye West, Kris Humphries, and Reggie Bush, Kim Kardashian married Damon Thomas. Kardashian was 19 when they eloped in 2000, and by February 2004 they'd split. Court documents obtained by Daily Mail paint a terrifying picture of the marriage. Kardashian accused Thomas, who was 10 years her senior, of "poisoning" her against her friends and family, urging her to drop out of college. She also claimed he was violent and slammed her into walls, pulled her hair, and punched her in the face. Kardashian alleges that Thomas encouraged her to get plastic surgery in order to become "perfect."

He denied the claims to In Touch Weekly and alleged that Kardashian was trying to get more money out of him in their divorce settlement, claiming she cheated on him with Jennifer Lopez's second husband, Cris Judd.

Jennifer Lopez's first husband, Ojani Noa, probably seemed like a nice guy at the time, but once she became famous after they divorced, he reportedly tried selling her out. He dished about their relationship on Million Dollar Matchmaker in September 2016, complaining that she "chose her career" over their marriage. (It seems to have worked out pretty well for her, no?)

That was only the most recent of Noa's offenses. In 2006, Lopez sued him to prevent him from publishing a tell-all book about their relationship, alleging that it violated a confidentiality agreement. A year later, Noa was issued a permanent injunction forbidding him from "criticizing, denigrating, casting in a negative light or otherwise disparaging" his iconic ex. He was also forced to pay La Lopez about $545,000 and give her all hard copies and materials related to the book he'd been trying to sell, according to The New York Times.

In 2015, Noa reportedly tried to release an intimate video featuring Lopez that was filmed during their brief marriage

Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband, Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, seemed to capitalize on her December 2016 death as much as he could. According to The Hollywood Reporter, von Anhalt made much of his speech at her memorial service about Hollywood and about himself, even admitting that he met her because he paid a photo agency $5,000 to snap him with a star to establish himself as a celebrity—and that star was Gabor. He also used his platform to call Elizabeth Taylor fat when she was wheelchair-ridden at the end of her life, because, you know, he's classy.

How This Transgender Woman Impregnated Her Transgender Husband, Twice

The importance of growing up in a supportive and caring family can never be overstated. I mean, your early life forms the basis of pretty much everything in your later life, and so having a nurturing family, no matter how unconventional or otherwise, they may be, is invaluable.

Now, Bianca and Nick Bowser may seem like any other ordinary married couple. I mean, they have two children whom they adore and are the picture of a happy, loving and typical family.

Except they’re not so typical – Bianca and Nick are both transgender and will one day have to tell their two sons that it was their father, rather than their mother, who gave birth to them. And that’s not the extent of it – they will then have to learn that it was their mother who impregnated their father.

The couple, who are from Kentucky, married back in 2011 and say that they have no intentions of hiding their identities from their sons, Kai, six, and Pax, four.

“I mean, that’s when we tell them sometimes men have babies, and sometimes mommies can’t have babies,” Nick told ABC News. “We’re telling them the truth, and I think that’s the most important thing, and in a way that they can understand.”

Bianca, who is completely in sync with her husband’s views on the matter, says: “It’s always something that I have looked forward to, telling our children. It’s nothing we are ashamed of so I have no dread telling our children where we came from or how we previously lived our lives.”

“We will tell them when they are ready when they start asking questions about me being pregnant and about the old family pictures they may see of me dressed as a girl and Bianca as a boy,” Nick added.

“As they get older they will understand more. We feel being honest with them from an early age will preserve the relationship we currently have with them.”

The pair both grew up feeling different and eventually realized it was because they were living as the wrong gender.

Both Bianca and Nick knew from a very young age that their true gender didn’t match with the one they were raised in.

“At five, there was a moment when I was playing with other classmates that I felt different,” Bianca recalled. “I didn’t fit in with other boys. I didn’t like sports or masculine games. I had a really hard time growing up.”

Over a decade ago, Bianca started transitioning so that she could finally live as a woman. And in 2003, the mom-of-two underwent breast augmentation and laser hair removal. Because she’d had no reconstructive surgery, she was able to impregnate her husband.

Nick began living as a man soon after he turned 20. He also didn’t have the easiest time growing up as he felt sure he was supposed to live life as a man but was treated by everyone as though he were a girl.

“I first came out as a lesbian at 17 and I thought that solved my problems. As a child, I wanted to dress as a boy and do boys things but I wasn’t able to. I thought all lesbians thought the same as I did,” he explained.

“It wasn’t until I was 20 that I discovered I could change my sex and be comfortable with who I was. I met transgender people and I finally figured out what would make me happy, which was not being a lesbian but being a guy.”

Nick also did not undergo surgery to modify his reproductive organs and so was able to fall pregnant with their sons after meeting Bianca in 2009 and deciding to start a family.

“Being pregnant was extremely difficult for me,” he recalled. “I don’t regret the decision to carry the children but at the same time, my brain and body were fighting. My body had turned into the ultimate version of female and my brain was telling me, ‘you’re not female, you’re male’. When I looked in the mirror, it was a constant battle for the nine months I was pregnant each time.”

It’s pretty incredible that despite how unconventional a couple Bianca and Nick Bowser are, they were able to realize their dream of starting a family with very few complications.

We wish the Bowser family all the luck in the world and hope that prejudice directed at families like theirs will, one day, become a thing of the past.

Four-Day Vacation Offers Guests “Unlimited” Sex, Drugs And Women

Aside from the grinches and the naysayers among us, everyone loves a good vacation. Vacations are supposed to be a time of fun, relaxation and living it up in the sun. They're a time to have a break away from the hard grind of your daily life, and to bond with your friends and family. Or if you're bold enough, it's a time you can spend entirely on your own, well away from the loud and overbearing ways of the people you see in your day-to-day life.

Of course there are plenty of vacations that people go on with the sole purpose of getting hammered, high on various drugs and to get laid. However, this type of behavior has never been encouraged (not officially anyway) by agencies that organize these sorts of vacations.

That is, until now...

Have you ever heard of a travel company which sells vacations that shamelessly create itineraries allowing people to indulge in all their sexual desires?

Do you know anyone who'd be willing to take part in such a vacation? Perhaps you yourself are willing to compromise your reputation for less than a week with booze and prostitutes. If so, take note, because it's about to get a whole lot more outrageous, and for some people, incredibly tempting.

Good Girls Company have organized an unprecedented four-day retreat (November 24th-27th) for 30 people, called "Sex Island" on a remote island off the coast of Cartagena in Colombia.

The raunchy Colombian vacation guarantees their guests unlimited access to alcohol and drugs. Incredibly, it has also promised potential guests "unlimited sex" provided by the 60 prostitutes that have been hired for the adult retreat.

News of the sex vacation has garnered a very polarizing reception from the general public and on the internet.

Needless to say, there are a lot of people who welcome the revolutionary and undeniably liberating kind of vacation that Good Girls Company is offering. However, upon their release, the company's promotional videos have received a serious amount of backlash, so much so that they were flagged and even taken off YouTube.

And that's because while prostitution is legal in the South American country, pimping is not. And, well, it's pretty difficult to get around the fact that the 60 prostitutes are being managed by the company, and were hired for the sole purpose of having sex with their clients.

The sexually suggestive videos feature yacht parties in which young men are surrounded by a number of bikini-clad women. And promotional messages flash up on the screen: "unlimited sex included" and "drug friendly" being two examples.

And according to the itinerary, they will be encouraged to take part in a sex session on the first day. On the second day each guest will be allowed 30 minutes alone with 16 prostitutes at once, and on the final two days a luxury yacht party has been planned, with plenty of hot, young women to go around.

The organizers of the trip have included this additional information in order to further pique the interest of potential guests:

All the girls serve to please and make you feel like a king. If you have any special desires or fantasies, inform the host or the girls and they will make sure to fulfil them.

All our girls are tested and free of any sexual diseases. There is a strict condom usage policy, and we have an unlimited amount of condoms.

While "Sex Island" clearly isn't the most conventional vacation package, if you're thinking the entire trip will be a drunken and disorderly mess, well, Good Girls Company have even thrown in transport to and from the airport as part of the deal.

Too convenient to turn down? Well, if you want a spot on the trip, you'd better hurry because as of now there are only seven tickets left.

10 Actors Who Are Legitimate Tough Guys

We acknowledge that it takes a lot of discipline to achieve proficiency in the martial arts, we de-emphasize the mere fact of formal training and focus instead on actors who may not have training but showed exceptional courage in real-life situations.

10. Sir Christopher Lee

Sir Christopher Lee (1922-2015) holds the Guinness World Record for most film acting roles, having appeared in more than 240 movies since his debut in 1946. He played major villain roles, such as Count Dracula in the Hammer Horror movies, Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Francisco Scaremonge in The Man with the Golden Gun, and the Middle-Earth wizard Saruman in The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) and The Hobbit Trilogies (2012-2014).

Although some researchers later refuted claims that he served during World War II in the British SAS and SOE, there was never any need to embellish his service record because he served meritoriously in North Africa and Italy as an RAF pilot officer. He even took time off in the middle of war to climb the dangerous volcano Mount Vesuvius, which erupted only days after he had climbed it.

9. Mickey Rourke

Mickey Rourke started off as a boxer after graduating from high school in 1971, winning his first match as a bantamweight boxer at the age of 12. He trained at the 5th Street Gym in Miami Beach and joined the Police Athletic League.

He left amateur boxing in 1973, with a record of 27 wins and only 3 losses. He went into acting and, during the 1980s, he appeared in several films, including Diner (1982), Rumble Fish (1983) and Angel Heart (1987).

He returned to boxing in 1991 to start a professional career, but retired in 1994, undefeated in eight fights. He resumed his acting career and won a Golden Globe in 2009, a BAFTA award, and a nomination for an Academy Award for his role in The Wrestler (2008). He also appeared in Iron Man 2 (2010) and The Expendables (2010).

8. Danny Trejo

 Danny Trejo had a very rough upbringing. He wanted to become a professional boxer but ended up becoming an addict and spent 10 years in prison for crimes. While serving his sentence in San Quentin, he honed his boxing skills.

After leaving prison and completing a rehabilitation program, he was offered a minor role in the movie Runaway Train (1985). However, the screenwriter, who had known him at San Quentin and was aware of boxing skills, hired him to train the actors for the action scenes.

While training Eric Roberts for his role, the director noticed him and offered him a more prominent role. The role gave him the exposure he needed to start an acting career and, because of his tough appearance, he quickly became the go-to actor for hardened roles.

7. Dolph Lundgren

Swedish actor Hans “Dolph” Lundgren is a mixed martial arts expert who holds a third dan back belt in Kyokushin Karate and was the former European Karate champion (1980-1981). He holds a degree in chemical engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm) and a master’s degree in the same disciple from the University of Sydney.

He met actress Grace Jones in Sydney and came to the U.S. in 1983 after being awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. But he left MIT and joined Jones in NYC where he worked as a bouncer at The Limelight, a Manhattan nightclub. Jones helped him to obtain a minor role in the James Bond movie A View to a Kill (1985).

He got his breakthrough when he landed the role of Ivan Drago in Rocky IV (1985). He went on to star in several films, portraying tough fighting characters.

6. Steve Buscemi 

Steve Buscemi worked for some years as a firefighter in the 1980s before he became a successful actor. He has been portrayed more often in movies as a spineless villain than a tough guy, but it turns out that the real-life Buscemi is a hero. He showed courage and selflessness when he volunteered to work with his former firefighter colleagues in NYC after the 9/11 attacks. He spent more than 12 hours daily for several days helping with rescue efforts under dangerous conditions.

Many people were not aware of Buscemi’s involvement in the efforts to rescue people trapped in debris and rubble after the terrorist attacks only because he avoided talking to the media about it. When he was later asked why he joined the firefighters and risked his health and life in the forefront of rescue efforts, he answered that he only wanted to help his “brothers.”

5. Sean Bean

Sean Bean, best known for his role as Ned Stark in Game of Thrones, has the reputation of being a tough guy in real life. In 2012, while hanging out at a bar in London, someone made a smutty comment about his date. Bean confronted the man who left and returned later. He tried to stab Bean with a shard of glass, but he blocked it with his forearm.

Bean later walked calmly into the bar and asked for the first aid kit. He dressed up his wound and returned to his drink although the bar workers offered to call an ambulance. However, Bean would not have his night ruined by something as ordinary as a gash in the arm. The bar workers said they were not surprised by his reaction. He was a regular at the bar and they already knew he was a tough guy.

4. Ronda Rousey

 Judo and mixed martial arts practitioner Ronda Rousey became the UFC Bantamweight Champion in February 2013 after joining from Strikeforce and went on an epic run with the belt. Before becoming a professional MMA fighter she had won a gold medal at the 2004 World Junior Judo Championship in Budapest. She became the first U.S. female athlete to win an Olympic medal in judo when she won a bronze at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

She made her amateur debut in mixed martial arts in 2010 and never lost a fight until she lost to Holly Holm in November 2015.

She made her film debut in 2014 in The Expendables 3 (2014) and later appeared in Furious 7 (2015).

3. Michael Jai White

Michael Jai White is a native of Brooklyn, who made his debut in Toxic Avenger II. He is as much a tough guy in real life as he is on screen. He holds black belts in seven karate disciplines, including Shotokan, Taekwondo, Tang Soo Do, Goju Ryu, and Kyokushin. He has won more than 25 martial arts titles, including the North American and U.S. Open titles.

He starred as Al Simmons in Spawn (1997) and played the role of Marcus Williams in Why Did I Get Married? (2007) and Why Did I Get Married Too? (2010). He also appeared in Mortal Kombat: Legacy as Jax Briggs, and portrayed Mike Tyson in the HBO movie Tyson (1995). All in all, he’s every bit as tough as he looks on-screen. He became an actor after the war and appeared in more than 40 movies between 1948 and 1969. 

2. Audie Leon Murphy

Before his acting career, Audie Leon Murphy (1925-1971) served in the U.S. Army and saw action in North Africa, Italy and France. After being initially rejected for enlistment in 1941, he finally joined the Army in 1942, at the age of 17, and went on to become one of the most decorated combat soldiers of World War II, receiving practically every available U.S. Army award for valor.

He received the Medal of Honor at the age of 19 after he climbed alone into a burning tank and exchanged machine gun fire with a company of German troops, while his company retreated.

He became an actor after the war and appeared in more than 40 movies between 1948 and 1969.

1. James Doohan

James Doohan, who played Scotty in the Star Trek series, served with the Canadian Armed Forces during World War II. He was nicknamed the “Craziest Pilot in the Canadian Air Force” for his wild aerial antics, although he flew only as an artillery spotter and was actually never a member of the Air Force. Doohan once performed a dangerous stunt in a Taylorcraft Auster Mark IV, which involved meandering through a line of telephone poles only because someone dared him.

He served with the 14th Field Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and participated in the D-Day landing at Normandy. He killed two Nazi snipers while leading his platoon up the mined beaches, but later came under “friendly fire” and got shot six times. He lost the middle finger of his right hand as a result. Doohan took care to hide the amputation on the Star Trek TV series.