Top 10 Famous People with Schizophrenia

The Top Ten

Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh (March 30, 1853 to July 29, 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter and is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings. Most of these were completed... read more

Vincent van Gogh is often thought to have had schizophrenia. This remarkable artist lived in a time when schizophrenia had not been identified as a disorder, but many medical experts believe that he suffered from it. He experienced unstable mood swings and had a very eccentric personality, leading to a posthumous hypothesis by 150 doctors that he had the condition. Van Gogh had recurring psychotic episodes in the last two years of his life and, at the age of 37, he committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest.

Vincent van Gogh once tried to murder Paul Gauguin, then felt guilty for scaring him away and cut off part of his own ear. He then placed it in an envelope and sent it to a barmaid living nearby. Van Gogh was a very troubled person.
Syd Barrett

Roger Keith Barrett was an English musician, composer, singer, songwriter, and painter. He was a founding member of the band Pink Floyd and served as their original lead singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter. Barrett is also credited with naming the band and was influential in the early psychedelic... read more

Syd Barrett left the band in 1968 amid many stories of mental illness and hard drug abuse. He eventually suffered a severe burnout and cut out all social aspects of his life, living in constant isolation. Over time, Barrett stopped contributing to music and avoided discussions about his past with Pink Floyd.
John Nash

John Forbes Nash Jr. was an American mathematician who made fundamental contributions to game theory, differential geometry, and the study of partial differential equations. He was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1994. Nash's life was portrayed in the 2001 film A Beautiful Mind... read more

John Nash was a Nobel laureate in Economics and a Nobel Prize-winning mathematician. His life story was portrayed in the book and movie "A Beautiful Mind," which I greatly admire. He suffered from delusions of persecution later in his career, believing that government agents were after him.
Brian Wilson

Brian Douglas Wilson (1942-2025) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer best known for being the multi-tasking leader and co-founder of the Beach Boys. He essentially blended upbeat three-chord rock with layered classical harmonies to build a globally recognized California... read more

Brian Wilson had a tumultuous childhood, which led to years of battling drug and alcohol abuse and mental illness. After his father died in 1973, his addiction and illness worsened, and he spent nearly two years secluded in the chauffeur's quarters of his home, sleeping, abusing alcohol and drugs, overeating, and engaging in self-destructive behavior.
He attempted to drive his vehicle off a cliff and, at another time, demanded to be buried in a grave he had dug in his backyard. His voice deteriorated significantly due to the mass consumption of alcohol, cocaine, and chain-smoking. Wilson also experienced auditory hallucinations and has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He revived his career in the 1990s and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. He was honored by the Kennedy Center in 2007 for lifetime achievement.
James Gordon

James Beck Gordon, often known as Jim Gordon, was an American musician, songwriter, and convicted murderer. He was a popular session drummer in the late 1960s and 1970s. Gordon was the drummer for the blues rock supergroup Derek and the Dominos.... read more

Many consider him one of the greatest drummers of all time during the golden years of rock and roll (1960s - 1970s). James Gordon was an American recording artist, musician, songwriter, and a Grammy Award winner.
In 1983, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia following the murder of his mother. At the trial, the court accepted that he had acute schizophrenia, but he was not allowed to use an insanity defense due to changes in California law resulting from the Insanity Defense Reform Act. He was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison.
Gordon was eligible for parole in 1992, but parole has been denied several times. At a 2005 hearing, he claimed his mother was still alive. In 2014, he declined to attend his hearing and was denied parole until 2018. An L.A. attorney stated at the hearing that Gordon was still "seriously psychologically incapacitated" and "a danger when he was not taking his medication." He is serving his sentence at the California Medical Facility, a medical and psychiatric prison in Vacaville, California.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher, cultural critic, poet, and Latin and Greek scholar whose work has exerted a profound influence on Western philosophy and modern intellectual history. He is best known for his concepts such as the will to power, the Übermensch, and the declaration... read more
Roger Waters

George Roger Waters is an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. He is best known as the co-founder, secondary lead vocalist, and bassist of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. Waters was also the band's principal lyricist and conceptual leader through much of its most influential... read more
Veronica Lake

Veronica Lake, born Constance Frances Marie Ockelman on November 14, 1922, and died on July 7, 1973, was an American actress of film, stage, and television. She gained fame in the 1940s for her roles in film noir, including This Gun for Hire and The Blue Dahlia.... read more

This famous Hollywood actress of the 1940s, known as Veronica Lake, was famous for her performances in movies, television, and on stage. She is widely remembered for her role in Sullivan's Travels and her roles alongside Alan Ladd during the 1940s. Her career flourished early on but experienced a decline due to alcoholism and mental illness. She had a troubled childhood, and according to her mother, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Eduard Einstein

Eduard Einstein (28 July 1910 to 25 October 1965) was born in Zürich, Switzerland. He was the second son of physicist Albert Einstein and his first wife, Mileva Marić.
In 1914, Albert Einstein and his family moved to Berlin. Shortly thereafter, the couple separated, and Marić returned to Zürich... read more

Eduard Einstein was the son of Albert Einstein and suffered from schizophrenia. He was diagnosed at the age of 25. After the onset of his illness, he told his father that he hated him, and Albert never saw him again for the rest of his life. Prior to his illness, Eduard was a great student and very musically talented. He struggled with his mental illness for the remainder of his life and died of a stroke at age 55.
Roger Kynard

Roger Kynard, also known as Roky Erickson, was an American singer, songwriter, harmonica player, and guitarist from Texas. He was a founding member of the 13th Floor Elevators, pioneers of psychedelic rock.
In 1968, while performing at HemisFair, he began speaking incoherently and was subsequently diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He was sent to a psychiatric hospital in Houston, where he involuntarily received electroconvulsive therapy.

The Newcomers

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Bud Powell
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Joan Barry

The Contenders

Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac (March 12, 1922 - October 21, 1969), born Jean-Louis Kérouac, was an American novelist and poet of French-Canadian descent. He sometimes referred to himself as Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac... read more
Peter Green

Peter Green was a British blues rock guitarist. As the founder of Fleetwood Mac, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Green was known for his emotive playing style and wrote several of the band's early hits, including Albatross and Black Magic Woman.

Peter Green was a guitarist for Fleetwood Mac. He played lead in Barden's band, Peter B's Looners, in 1966. After a three-month stint, he had the opportunity to fill in for Eric Clapton in John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers for three gigs. Upon Clapton's permanent departure shortly after, Green was hired full-time.
Green has been institutionalized in the past for psychological problems and underwent electroconvulsive therapy. In 1977, he was arrested for threatening his accountant, Clifford Davis, with a rifle.
Tom Harrell

Tom Harrell is a renowned American jazz trumpeter and composer. He has a disability that affects his life off-stage and suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. On stage, he stands away from the microphone, off to the side, with his head bowed and hands clutching his trumpet.
Valerie Solanas
Philip K. Dick
Halsey

Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, known by her stage name Halsey, is an American singer and songwriter. She was born on September 29, 1994, in New Jersey. She began her music career by releasing songs on SoundCloud and gained popularity with hits like Bad at Love and Now or Never.
Eminem

Eminem, born Marshall Bruce Mathers III, is an American rapper, actor, and music producer born on October 17, 1972, in St. Joseph, Missouri. Eminem has sold over 220 million records, making him the best-selling hip-hop artist of all time. In addition to his solo career, he was a member of D12 and (with... read more
Louis Wain

He was a famous English artist known for his passion for drawing cats. As his condition progressed, his drawings became more psychedelic, to the point that they no longer clearly represented cats and instead resembled fractals. Many people believe that this kind of artwork is a sign of schizophrenia, though the timeline of these artworks is not well-documented.
There are many theories about why Wain's mental health deteriorated, with some suggesting that he had schizophrenia. One theory posits a link between toxoplasmosis - a parasite present in infected cats - and schizophrenia, which might be relevant given Wain's fondness for cats. However, this has not been conclusively proven. Nevertheless, his art is considered a valuable resource for psychology students.
Zelda Fitzgerald
Nadezhda Alliluyeva

Nadezhda Alliluyeva was the second wife of Joseph Stalin. Her marriage to Stalin was very strained. By 1932, she had become disillusioned with Stalin's policies of collectivization and the resulting famine. Her daughter, Svetlana, described her as hysterical, and Vyacheslav Molotov said she was also psychopathic. All of this eventually led to her suicide on November 9, 1932.
Clara Bow

Clara Gordon Bow (July 29, 1905 - September 27, 1965) was an American actress who achieved fame during the silent film era of the 1920s and later transitioned successfully to sound films after 1927. Her portrayal of a spirited shopgirl in the film It earned her international recognition and the nickname... read more
Nancy Spungen
Robert Schumann
Parveen Babi
Christian VII of Denmark