9. Judy Garland
Judy Garland became popular for her role as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, but she’d been a child star long before then. She had been on stage from the age of two, first appearing in vaudeville with her sisters.
Traveling around the country, performing at auditions, her singing soon caught the ear of a Hollywood scout. At 13, she was signed to MGM and as she appeared in more movies, the studio began to worry about her weight. To counter her teenage weight gain, the star was reportedly put on a regimen of diet pills and pep pills, then sleeping pills.
Enduring this regimen as a child performer did a number on Garland, and over the years, she blamed Hollywood and her momager for her addiction. Garland died of an accidental overdose of barbiturates in 1969; her dependency on drugs stemmed from the early exposure she had to drugs.
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