“I read about the evils of drinking. So I gave up reading.” - Henny Youngman

Lee Marvin was also reputed to like a drink. One story claimed that he started banging on the door of a house very late one night. The lady of the house answered the door. Mr Marvin demanded to know what the lady was doing living in his house! The lady replied that Mr. Marvin had sold it to her 6 months earlier. Mr. Marvin replied: Well where have I been living for the last 6 months????

A classic line by WC Fields was, in one of his films, when he was told: 'Quit drinking so much! One day you are going to drown in a Vat of whisky!' His reply?: 'Drown in a Vat of whisky, eh? Death, where is thy sting?!'. Priceless.

I don't care who drank or got drunk or smashed. I still like Bogie and Errol Flynn and Tracy.

My dearly departed Dad caught the tail end of WWII in the Navy. He had sailed around the world. Errol Flynn had a sail boat and would sail to Europe and who knows where. While being docked somewhere near Africa and some Arab nations, my dad and a few buddies found Errols boat had docked nearby. They went to his boat and started singing in harmony and Errol invited them on his boat where they ate, told stories and got drunk as skunks.

In spite of the drinking, they gave us great performances. And we loved them.

W.C. Fields said: It was a woman who drove me to drink and I never had pleasure to thank her for it.

William Holden and David Janssen are two of my favorite old Hollywood drinkers.

I think an alcoholic is an alcoholic is an alcoholic, regardless of which one drank more.

Foster Brooks gave up drinking in 1964 and played a drunk for most of his career, he was awesome.

The more I read about stars the less I think fame is not always a gift.

Lol "Who put lemonade in my lemonade"😋

Richard Burton was one actor whose life and career were destroyed by alcohol. Dead in his 50s, he was once considered the successor to Laurence Olivier. Had Burton kicked his dependency he might have earned a knighthood and had a career equal to Olivier's. Marrying Elizabeth Taylor probably didn't help either.

My 10th grade high school English Comp. teacher had a poster hung in his classroom of W.C. Fields with the caption/quote: "I never drink water, that's the stuff that rusts pipes." I've never forgot that quote which I found hilarious for so many reasons.

In a doctor's waiting room many years ago, I saw a poster on the wall warning of the hazards of alcoholism. It featured a quote from W.C. Fields: 'Reminds me of when we were lost in the wilds of Afghanistan some years ago. We had lost our corkscrew, and had to exist for several days on food and water.'

We all know the problems of boozing it...but, my parents, who lived long, born before the 1920’s, they had FUN! They were always dancing, hiring bands, gambling, and laughing, laughing, laughing all the time! By today’s standards, they would be arrested. People today, in the age of social media, are very anti social. They seem sad, mad, don’t have fun, and seem pretty miserable, and don’t have a lot of intimacy.

The old Hollywood guys partied harder and still were better than new H wood "Stars". Errol Flynn was the man.

Even drunk they were 100 better than today's cast of fools.

Errol was terrific. Raoul Walsh said, " He could be charming, but if he had a drop too much of champagne, he could be terrible. "

Drinking was considered glamorous, adult, and chic back in the day. In the Thin Man movies, Nick & Nora drank like fish.

You forgot Burton. The best "always drunk" actor to ever make it to Hollywood stardom.

Otis Campbell, best drunk ever.

THESE WERE VERY GOOD ACTORS DRUNK OR SOBER ❤️

You need to get Oliver Reed on next time and O'Toole's drinking buddy Richard Harris. They had some tales to tell.

Peter O'Toole and Richard Harris had a lot of drinking stories together. Oliver Reed could apparently drink anyone under the table

W.C.Fields claimed he was getting fit using parallel bars in his living room...'Gin down one side of the room, Whiskey down the other...'

I understand certain guests on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" (paging Judy Garland and Shelley Winters!) were deliberately "tanked-up," and "over served" backstage, to provide "memorable moments" in the guest chair. Carson himself was, for a long time, considered a mean, unpredictable drunk. Ed Mcmahon drank heavily, and joked about it, but remained a sweetheart.

The Golden age lasted from the roaring twenties until the early eighties , everything went down hill after that !

Errol Flynn died in 1959 1 year before I was born in my city of Vancouver BC Canada 🇨🇦. The penthouse apartment he died still exists on 1310 Burnaby Street in downtown Vancouver !

You forgot Gail Russell (the Unseen, Angel and the Badman, Calcutta) who never should have been a movie actress due to being a nervous and shy person. She died from liver damage attributed to "acute and chronic alcoholism" at only 36.

A few years after "The Golden Era", but in the late 50s - early 60s Broderick Crawford could probably have drank all of them under the table.

"He put it on..... backwards" OMyGosh!!!! LMBO!! That's just not right. 🤣

When it came to drinking Peter O'Toole and Richard Harris were great drinking buddies and many a legend was created by them both. However, both admitted that they both were not in the same league as the great Oliver Reed. Reed died whilst filming the movie Gladiator. They were filming in Malta and after filming one day, Oliver went to a pub and proceeded to drink himself to death. Apparently the publican was absolutely astonished that one person could drink so much beer and spirits in one sitting but alas it did kill him. Fortunately, they had enough scenes from him to finish the movie.

Lee Marvin was legendary for his drinking. Same with Oliver Reed.

If narcissism were alcohol most of my coworkers would probably be fired.

At least most of them made it into their senior years, unlike the kids today in Hollywood that seldom make it out of their late twenties because of drugs.

John Barrymore, Lon Chaney Jr., and Bing Crosby could have also made this list.

I think we should add Dick Van Dyke to the list. The guy is still alive (95), but he was a raging alcoholic for many years.

Surprising that when mentioning Peter O'Toole they left out Richard Harris and Richard Burton. Burton was particularly notorious!!

I don't care - Humphrey Bogart and Spencer Tracy are my two favourite film actors of all time!

Drinking gives me a headache. I’ll take a sweet tea and a fatty.

And it's even worse today - only it's with drugs now. Yet the public takes every celebrity opinion as some kind of holy nugget of wisdom. Go figure.

The boozy diva and hard-partying bad boy image has waned over the decades, but the quality of work that these people put on the screen is a testament to their incredible talent and stamina.

Lon Chaney Jr, Wayne Morris, MacDonald Carey, John Ireland should be added to the list

How about Richard Burton and John Barrymore?

How could these people function and work if they were drinking so much all the time? If I have one beer I am looped and then fall asleep LOL!

Poor sweet Montgomery Clift after his accident ❤

A relation of mine saw Richard Harris and (I think) Peter O'Toole on a plane from England to Paris France years ago. He said they were knocking back the booze to beat the band. He reckoned they must have has at least 10-12 shots each

Alcohol is a cheap way to have fun until you can’t control it ...

You need to do a video regarding "Drunk Politicians "

Flynn was a character. At one point things got so bad with his drinking Errol was warned by the studio if he continued drinking they would cancel his contract. So what he did was to bring bags of oranges 🍊 to the set and eat them all day long....he had injected them with vodka...lol.

That last story about Peter O'Toole and his finger was hilarious.

There’s a pretty good book called “Hellraisers” about this very thing. It covers Richard Burton, Peter O’Toole, Oliver Reed, And Richard Harris.

I remember in Sydney, Australia on my lunch break, watching the yang tanks pulling up to let out the politicians, to attend the Memorial Service for Errol; Flynn at St. Andrews Church next to Sydney Town Hall. I loved watching his movies, of this great Australian. I was 17 years old at the time.

"I don't have a drinking problem, cept' when I can't get a drink" Tom Waits.

You mentioned him in passing in the Errol Flynn bit - David Niven was a legendary drinker who only scaled it back when his Second wife tried to follow him and developed a nasty drink problem. If you want someone who wasn't a drunk in the true sense, but liked a drink and was rarely seen without one, at least until the early 70's was Jimmy Stewart. Because he had a great tolerance for alcohol and drink just made him more him - maybe went a bit sentimental - he was often the guy that made sure his actor friends got home safely. Frank Morgan - not an out and out star, but a respected character actor - was famous for his "bar in a suitcase" and liked to have a couple of drinks before he went on set. Mostly a pleasant drunk, that didn't mean you could cross him - he had a bit of a temper when drunk and could pull some nasty pranks on people. Not classical era, but a discussion on actor drinkers would not be complete without talking about Graham Chapman. The Monty Python member was an astonishing drinker and and interestingly, a trained doctor. He himself said it was student parties when he was studying from his medical degree that "tipped me over the edge" in his own words. A story - commonly believed to be true - about him is that he was told on a flight that he'd be thrown off if he didn't calm down. He complied, but he was still a bit noisy and it was obvious that he was a bit well-oiled. About an hour into the flight, a passenger complained of breathing difficulty and the crew asked for a doctor to help. Chapman immediately jumped up - this is a guy that had been sharing loudly dirty jokes with his travelling companions just before the announcements - and managed to calm down and treat the fellow passenger, who had an existing heart condition and a panic attack together. He went back to his seat, was quiet for about ten minutes, then started being silly again.

I would rather drink with those actors than those of today..they be great company and great stories..

I love the golden era of Hollywood, but it might have been easier to list the ones that weren't drunks

Dean Martin and Major Nelson on I Dream Of Jennie

LOL , the one about Peter O'Toole jut cracked me up.... Humm, too funny !

Hmmm..... Who's gonna tell Frank Sinatra & crew the bar is closed? Not me -- eat, drink, & be merry, Mr. Sinatra! 😉🤭

A Irishman goes to a bar and sits alone and orders three glasses of beer. He does this over the corse of several weeks. Finally the waitress asked why. He says these beers are for me a my two brothers, one lives in America and one in Australian, when I drink I fell like we’re together again. A month does by and he begins to order two beers and sit alone. Finally the waitress asked. Did something happen to one or you brothers. He says, no Las , me brothers are fine, I quit Drinking.

Back in those days everybody drank... But... They all were the #1 Best actors and gave good performances everytime... They were the "Pros"... Thanks for the memories...🙏♥️💜💙

Peter O'Toole was perfectly casted in the lead of Allen Swan. If you haven't seen it, make sure you do, you could die laughing.

A few ounces of Cabernet went well with this video. Cheers!

Great video, thank you for posting - a few more notable mentions, Oliver Reed, Richard Burton, Richard Harris ... it's a long list.

Live Fast, Die Young seemed to be the life motto in Hollywood.

Was surprised to hear that Humphrey Bogart had an alcohol problem. At least he covered it well.

sadly William Holden should be on this list too, my old hollywood hero knew how to drink a lot even died during a longsome bing weekend in his appartement in november 1981. He tried treatment several times an even was sober for several years in the 70s unfortunatly he fell off the wagon again

No. Celebrity drinking back then was only the beginning. As time went on.....and eras changed.... celebrities mixed drinking along with doing drugs. A lot of celebrities died from D and A.

“How insane the levels of hedonism and reckless abandon got during that golden age” I have to say it looked fun and alluring. I think we are all built differently, some of us just need a bit more hedonism than others 😂 I can drink like a fish and smoke like a chimney if the inclination takes me. I have bouts of hedonism mixed with healthy eating and exercise. I like the balance haha

One of the greatest WAS the greatest: Jackie Gleason. He was a professional drinker... when he built his round (like a spaceship) home he had many bars, all fully stocked all the time. He would go to Toots Shor's Bar in NYC in the fifties and sixties every day before noon and stay there all day- and often through the night. He also smoked 4 packs of cigarettes a day, but he lived until 71. Pretty good stretch for a guy born in 1916!

W.C. Fields once said, "Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water." No wonder he stocked up.

How about Elizabeth Taylor, Lucille Ball, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Lana Turner, Dolores Hope, Maureen Stapleton, Elaine Stritch and silent screen queen, Mary Pickford? All apparently mean and mega-mouthy when sauced-up. But then again, all these gals had some serious ahem......"man problems!" 😉

What's your source for Clara Bow "often" leaving bars with married men?

You failed to mention William Holden

Tracy was ALSO a good-catholic who couldn’t leave his wife for his mistress LOL ... abusive , terrible father yeah nice guy

Louie Pheters ( the town drunk on Gunsmoke ) was a genuine alcoholc, and type cast for the part.

Old movie and TV shows are the best. These actors were real people with real problems but they still loved the country that gave them the opportunity to become stars.

My dad was an attorney for many wrestling stars back in the 50's and 60's in the Los Angeles area. He would throw BBQ's for his wrestling clients and I remember as a kid, about 6 or 7 seeing Gorgeous George, the Destroyer (without a mask) Freddie Blassie and many more, and they drank beer and whiskey until the sun came up. And there were no problems, no fighting, just everyone having a good time drinking. They smoked, drank beer and had a lot of girls running around. Of course I always had an early bed time, but it was interesting to see these guys as good friends and real difference on KTLA channel 5.

I think Bogart had a wood chip fly into his upper lip area. It was taken out, but the mouth was slightly numb in that area. Hence the way he would talk.

….So many amazing people with great talent & we have no idea how they suffered in their private lives. > I kind of prefer - not to know…

Other than Peter O'Toole who lived to eighty one, none of the other stars lived past their 50's or 60's. I was born in the early 50's, we had a bar in our home and most people smoked. The ceiling of the room with the bar often looked like smog of an LA skyline. Times were different.

At five foot eight, Bogart must have had his lunch handed to him many times if he got in a fight.

It wasn't just celebrities. Alcoholism ran rampant in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. If you'd lived through that era, you'd understand why.

Everyone partied harder than the kids today.

So little was known back then about the damage of Alcohol . I believe society has slowly evolved . cheers

hahaha I'm sure they had so much stress. So many people would die to become celebrities, but we don't know their hardships.

What a way to have your life labeled as a Drunk !!!

These are incredibly sad stories.

" We feel sorry for those who get up in the morning and don't drink , because that's the the best your gonna feel for the rest of the day " ~ Frank Sinatra 1966 😂😂😂🤣

Yes, by all means, it was THIS video that stopped me from starting a life of boozing. Thank god I found my way here so I could re-think my ways. .... lol

Richard Burton has to be #1. OJ Simpson said that Burton was so drunk he couldn't even move in a movie they did together back in the 70s. But despite it Simpson was still in awe of Burton's ability to command a scene with his voice alone and had the utmost respect for him.

Inspite of all the boozing they gave the most amazing performances ever,talk about functioning alcoholics….here you are…!!

And yet, most of them died of cancer from smoking.....

I'm glad Bud Abbott didn't end up on this list. He was a heavy drinker but it was because he had epilepsy and drinking reduces the number of seizures.

And Sean Flynn ( son of Errol) wanted nothin of that,since he became a photo journalist and adventurer . Sadly MIA 1970 on his last report tour .

Flynn wasn't a good human being, but he sure looked good while he was being a bad one.

He put the finger on backwards! Hahahaha

Dean Martin said, “ I feel sorry for those who don’t drink, because when they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all day.”