Not your standard celebrity, but John McAfee was a hell of a trip.
Danny Trejo has a pretty interesting story starting off with drug addiction and criminal record, and got into acting when he showed up as a sponsor for a fellow cocain recovery addict on a movie set. They saw Trejo and cast him as an extra.
Runaway Train... great movie!
Dean Winters. You probably know him best as "Mayhem" in the insurance commercials, but he's been in all sorts of things from the Terminator TV show, Brooklyn 99, and 30 Rock to John Wick.
Anyway, his biography is STUNNING.
https://www.nickiswift.com/1536099/allstate-mayhem-actor-dean-winters-sad-truth/
"his troubles started in 2009, after an untreated bacterial infection caused his fever to skyrocket. Instead of heeding his warning sign, Winters delayed treatment. Eventually, he decided to go for a visit to his doctor's office, only to collapse and go into cardiac arrest. "I was afraid to go to St. Vincent's, so I went to my doctor's office on Central Park West, where I collapsed," said Winters. " I was turning black, and my whole head was swelling up." The "Oz" star also revealed that he was clinically dead and had to be resuscitated. Unfortunately, Winters called the ICU his home for nearly a month.
"I went septic due to an illness that I had as a kid and it caught up with me," shared Winters with the outlet. "I was dead in the back of an ambulance, and the great doctors at Lenox Hill Hospital brought me back to life after around four-and-a-half minutes," he continued. Unfortunately, Winters was confused about exactly what happened for two months after waking because doctors try to avoid triggering patients into feeling upset and overwhelmed. However, he eventually realized just how serious the situation was for him.
Winters had several fingers and toes amputated after contracting a secondary ailment during his recovery. According to Page Six, Winters contracted gangrene, a type of tissue death usually caused by inadequate blood flow to the area, and required the amputation of two toes. Winters also lost a portion of one of his thumbs. Fortunately, after undergoing 10 surgeries and skin grafts, Winters was soon able to return to work with a little help. "For the ['30 Rock'] season finale, I had casts on both arms, and another on my foot, which was kept off-camera," said Winters, who also landed his contract with Allstate after his medical ordeal.
"I haven't taken a step since 2009 without being in pain," Winters told the outlet in November 2021. "I've got neuropathy on, you know, on a whole different level where I can't feel my hands and my feet. But if I stepped on a pebble, it's like I go through the roof." Winters also revealed that his recurrent surgeries were one of the reasons he wasn't keen on signing with Allstate at first. However, they talked him into it. "Allstate was relentless," said Winters. "It's crazy if you look in the Webster dictionary, the Old English definition of the word 'mayhem' is 'one with amputations.'"
I really love Burt Munro's story
What's the arc? I read the wiki article and can't figure it out.
Oh they made a movie about him called The world's fastest Indian it's absolutely worth a watch if you haven't seen it
Yeah, looks interesting, but what is the arc of his life (OP's question)?
Looks like a guy who wanted to go fast and then did...
He was an old pensioner in New Zealand and spent his days modifying and old Indian scout motorcycle. He melted down scrap and casted his own parts. There was no place in New Zealand flat enough and long enough for him to really see how fast his bike would go. He got a lot of support from the locals to raise money and was able to make the journey to the United States to go to Death Valley, where he and his old motorcycle were underestimated by all. But he crushed the land speed records (in his category) which may still be unbroken today. He was infectiously likeable and a really unexpected god of speed, the ultimate underdog
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