Gripping Celebrity Biopics: Why We Keep Watching Them
Documentary films and miniseries are some of the best shows to watch on streaming channels. Celebrity biopics have become my favorites.
While the documentary genre has improved and become plentiful over the past couple of decades in films and miniseries, audiences are expecting a lot more than fluffy PR in biopics; though you can certainly still find some of that, too. Overall, the subject matter has become more rich and layered. There are some great stories out there.
Here are a few recurring themes I’ve spotted, being an avid fan of biographical documentaries……….
Tragedies make great stories: Just ask Shakespeare
William Shakespeare wrote the most famous celebrity bios ever — maybe a bit fictionalized or entirely made up — but they were tragedies.
As for more recently, here’s a few that Shakespeare would have appreciated……..
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (2020)
Michelle McNamara’s true-crime book I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer was the subject of this enthralling documentary miniseries. She’d died unexpectedly in 2016 while writing the book. Her husband, actor and comedian Patton Oswalt, made sure that the book got finished and published. McNamara was living the life of the murder detective — and the mystery book author. She’d become obsessed and determined to solve the crime.
She’d found out that the Golden State Killer was Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., a serial killer, serial rapist, burglar, and former police officer who committed at least 13 murders, more than 50 rapes, and over 100 burglaries in California between 1974 and 1986. McNamara died in her sleep during the spring of 2016, in her family’s Los Angeles home at the age of 46. According to an autopsy report, her death was attributed to the effects of multiple drugs, including Adderall, alprazolam (Xanax) and fentanyl. But her investigative methods had done the real work; these tactics were unconventional and put her in touch with key sources critical to uncovering the killer; which were used by law enforcement to get DeAngelo convicted and sentenced for the rest of his life without parole in 2020.
27: Gone Too Soon (2018)
If you’re a talented singer, songwriter, and musician, be very careful when you turn 27. An examination of the lives and deaths of the six most famous members of the ’27 Club’ — musicians who died at age 27 — show you what can happen living this lifestyle: Brian Jones drowned in his swimming pool; Jimi Hendrix aspirated his own vomit and died of asphyxia while intoxicated from barbiturates; Janis Joplin from a heroin overdose; Jim Morrison from congestive heart failure in a bathtub in Paris; Kurt Cobain from suicide; and Amy Winehouse from alcohol poisoning after binge drinking. The Jones and Morrison deaths have raised the most questions of how it all really happened.
Two other documentaries do a great job of digging into these tragic tales: Amy (2015). about Winehouse, and Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (2015). A good deal of suffering and turmoil had flooded their lives — and it’s the classic tale of those achieving that level of success, and those who fail to do so. But there’s another fatal scenario that was a regular occurrence and took a lot of lives until pop stars like Willy Nelson started putting their crews in motor coaches. You can make a long list of crashes by small private planes carrying musicians to their next show. One of the most tragic of all took place in 1959, the “day the music died.” That’s when Richie Valens (17 years old), Buddy Holly (22), the Big Bopper (J. P. Richardson) (28), and pilot Roger Peterson (21) died in a plane crash.
Overcoming odds: Standing up to challenges in a big way
This is the classic American tale — the man or woman who comes into the picture with no perks and usually a few disadvantages to overcome. Will they go from rags to riches? Will they be like Rocky Balboa, a poor small-time club fighter and loanshark debt collector, who somehow gets a shot at the world heavyweight championship held by Apollo Creed? In the end, it didn’t matter if he won or lost — our hearts were won over.
Rudy (1993)
This film starring Sean Astin as Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger depicted a real American hero — rising up from working at a steel mill with his father to going through the wringer to get into Notre Dame, where he would do anything to make the football team. Low grades kept him out of the Fighting Irish university. He had to go over to Holy Cross College, and after two years was accepted as a student at Notre Dame on his fourth try. From there he had to work his butt off to even be considered a member of the football team — putting in his time as a stadium groundskeeper.
Ruettiger actually only got to participate in three plays: a kickoff, an incomplete pass, and on the third play (the game’s final play), he sacked Georgia Tech quarterback Rudy Allen. Ruettiger was carried off the field by his teammates following the game, the first player in Notre Dame history to do so. He was the first in his family to go to college, and he inspired five of his younger brothers to earn college degrees. It would be impossible to watch the film’s end without crying.
They Call Me Magic (2022)
On November 7, 1991, world-famous point guard, the Los Angeles Laker’s Magic Johnson, appeared at a press conference to make an announcement. He’d tested positive for HIV. For me and many Magic Johnson fans, it was the worst day ever. But Johnson is still here, and has lived an amazing life.
The 2022 miniseries on Apple TV+, They Call Me Magic, takes viewers through his remarkable life — and how he’s been doing lately. How he and his wife, Cookie, have raised their kids. They’ve also been very involved with fund raising events for supporting those with HIV. Magic Johnson Enterprises has been a successful business, focusing on being a catalyst for fostering community and economic empowerment through ventures in entertainment, sports, and products and services focused on multicultural communities.
Magic likes the Apple TV+ miniseries much more than HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, which also came out last year. That one is more about the partying lifestyle he and teammates enjoyed until it stopped working for them.
Johnson was always adaptable to change. In Game 6 of the 1980 finals, he had 42 points and 15 rebounds in a title-clinching win against the Philadelphia 76ers. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had missed the game, having injured an ankle in the previous game, so Johnson took his place and jumped center, and did everything else necessary to get that many points and rebounds. After winning that national championship, the Lakers would win four more under Johnson’s leadership.
It was very hard for him to quit basketball after making the November 1991 announcement. He tried to keep playing but had to give it up. But he’s been overcoming the odds all these years later.
Taking away the happy ending: Even actors and other world-famous celebrities are vulnerable
The crushing of the happy ending took a poignant turn with Superman. On May 27, 1995, Christopher Reeve, the star of four hit Superman movies in the late 1970s and 1980s, had his life shattered. The strong actor, athlete, and avid horseman, was left paralyzed from the neck down after being thrown from his horse and breaking his neck. He’d been competing in an equestrian event in Virginia. He was bound to a wheelchair and ventilator for the rest of his life. Christopher Reeve: Hope in Motion, a 2007 documentary by his son, Matthew Reeve, explored Christopher’s struggle to regain mobility.
Three recent movies have gone down this heart-wrenching path.
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (2023)
Shown on Apple TV+ this documentary tells the story of the unknown actor from Canada becoming a massively popular US actor in the 1980s, only to later get a stunning diagnosis: Parkinson’s disease. The actor wouldn’t go public about it for several years, which became tied to a serious problem he had with drugs and alcohol. But it’s been all out in the open for years, and Fox continues to work and enjoy his wife, kids, and grandkids.
Val (2021)
“I’m your huckleberry,” was the mysterious remark made by Doc Holliday, played by Val Kilmer, in the 1993 film, Tombstone, soon before gunning down Johnny Ringo.
But Kilmer lost his ability to speak — until an AI voice simulator was designed for him. Throat cancer led him to chemotherapy sessions and a tracheostomy that meant his speaking voice was gone. Sonantic, an AI technology company based in London, developed a dubbing technique that he was able to use in Top Gun: Maverick (2022). The AI technology was able to mimic Kilmer’s voice very closely to the way he used to sound. It was like he could somehow come back to act with Tom Cruise.
The movie tracks Kilmer’s life, featuring footage that Kilmer shot by himself throughout his career, footage of his childhood, and home movies. His personal life is covered thoroughly along with his profession — the childhood death of his brother Wesley, his eight-year marriage to actress Joanne Whalley, and their children Mercedes and Jack, are explored. Kilmer is shown to still be at it — he may have lost his voice but he’s not going to give up living and doing his creative work, whatever way that might be delivered.
Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice (2019)
The life and career of legendary singer Linda Ronstadt is traced in this documentary from her childhood in Tucson through her decades-long career and to her retirement in 2011 due to what was first diagnosed as Parkinson’s disease in 2013. However, she later learned that she actually had a Parkinson’s-like disorder called progressive supranuclear palsy, according to The Today Show. The film is packed with concert footage from throughout her career, and interviews with many of her collaborators, friends, and family members — a few of them being prominent fellow artists.
When a singer like Ronstadt loses her ability to sing, it’s a Shakespearean tragedy. But you’ll get these moments while watching Fox, Kilmer, and Ronstadt — they’re not finished yet. What could be the next chapter in their stories?
Jon LeSage is a Southern California-based freelance writer.
