While the world awaits the results of the investigation of Whitney ?Houston?s death last Saturday I am reminded of two other iconic? beauties: Marilyn Monroe and Dorothy Dandridge.
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Their commonalities are painfully tragic. All were extraordinarily gifted and attractive. Each of them combined singing ?and acting at one time or another in their fabulous careers; all had? troubled marriages and to some extent endured either physical or ?mental abuse; and all sought relief through drugs and/or alcohol.? And they all died relatively young somewhere near Hollywood. ?Monroe, who was the sex symbol of the fifties, died in Brentwood? from an apparent overdose of barbiturates in 1962. She was 36.? Three years later, Dandridge was found dead in her West Hollywood ?home reportedly from an accidental overdose of drugs. She was 42.? Even if Houston?s death at 48 was not directly linked to drugs,? she had a past history of drug addiction, so much so that she was in? and out of rehab clinics trying to end the habitual usage of cocaine,? marijuana and alcohol.
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Why would three women, so gorgeous and talented, need to use? drugs to chase away the demons? What insecurities, anxieties, and? fears drove them to seek comfort or medication when they appeared to have the world on a string and with everything to live for? ?In Monroe?s case, it?s been said that she was really murdered,?and that her death was staged to make it appear it was suicide. That? she had a known dependence on drugs might have motivated her killers,? or perhaps, like Dandridge, she was merely doing what she always did? when she felt uncertain about the future, unsure of her abilities, and ?fearing her fading beauty and success.
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Sometimes the addiction for many performers, particularly women? whose fame and celebrity is based in part on their looks, becomes an ?acquired necessity, something to bolster their confidence, to assure her adoring fans that everything is all right, or to quiet the nerves? during a performance.
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Or, the addiction takes control, as it did so often with the? recently departed Etta James and most famously with the legendary? Billie Holiday.
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It is now being reported that Houston displayed ?erratic? behavior? during her final hours in public and had to be pulled away ?by her daughter. Those moments may have been the result of a ?psychotic episode or a recent bout with drugs. On that we can only ?speculate until the autopsy is completed.
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But it is undeniably true, as it was for Monroe, Dandridge,? James, and Holiday that Houston was a lovely diva with a peerless? voice and her death, like the others she now joins, only provides her ?with an eternal immortality. Her brief stay among us guarantees that? we ?will always love her.?
