Richard Pryor was a comedy truthteller who busted on taboos about race, language and sexuality, but what made Pryor so raw and honest was also the source of his troubled and tumultuous personal life.
A talented singer, Janis Joplin breaks through rock 'n' roll's glass ceiling in the mid 1960s; a serious alcohol addiction and on-again off-again dalliances with heroin tragically cost Janis her life at the age of 27.
Soul music legend Marvin Gaye's life was cut short a day before his 45th birthday on April 1, 1984, when he was shot and killed by his own father in their family home in Los Angeles.
In the mid 1990s, the infamous East Coast/West Coast hip-hop rivalry is in full swing.
On Aug. 5, 1962, silver screen legend Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her home in Brentwood, Calif., from an apparent suicide.
Andy Warhol was the target of a bizarre assassination attempt at the height of his fame.
