4. Robert Downey Jr. - Drug Possession
Though many of us
do remember Robert Downey Jr.'s legal difficulties throughout the 1990s, it's worth dredging up again given how he has endeared himself to a whole new generation of people with his outstanding portrayal of Tony Stark in the Iron Man franchise. Downey was arrested countless times in the late 90s for cocaine, heroin, marijuana and weapon offences, at which point he explained that his father had caused him to become first addicted to drugs at the age of eight. Downey eventually served a year's custodial sentence in the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, before seeming to get back on top with a highly-praised role in TV show Ally McBeal. However, more drug-related arrests followed, and he was suddenly fired from the show, while his high-risk nature meant that Woody Allen later wouldn't be able to get him insured for Melinda and Melinda, and had to recast the part. Downey slowly but surely clawed his way back to the top - with the help of Mel Gibson, who helped pay his insurance on The Singing Detective - and when Iron Man hit it big, his resurrection as Hollywood star extraordinaire was complete.