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1 / 15 photos Famous Recluses
For three decades, Sly Stone— one of popular music's most dynamic stars— lived in almost complete seclusion, occasionally emerging for guest spots during friends' live shows, until his "back from oblivion" profile in Vanity Fair magazine in 2007.
In the 1950s the beautiful Swedish actress bought an apartment in New York City, where she lived for the rest of her life, hardly venturing out, refusing all interviews. Bette Davis once said of her: "I cannot analyze this woman's acting. I only know that no one else so effectively worked in front of a camera."
Greta Garbo
Syd Barrett (front) was often called "the most famous recluse in rock," and it's hard to argue with the tag. A founding member of Pink Floyd, Barrett gradually succumbed to mental illness and drugs, and for the last decades of his life lived as a recluse. He died of pancreatic cancer in 2006.
Page was the pin-up girl of the 1950s, as well as the most recognizable fetish model (boots, leather, whips, the works) of the era. She was something of a recluse late in life -- attributed to a number of factors, including a 1979 diagnosis of schizophrenia.
Bettie Page
Filmmaker Howard Hughes is probably remembered today more for his eccentric behavior and reclusiveness late in life than his technical genius and badass, maverick persona. In his final years he lived in a curtained penthouse at the Desert Inn hotel in Vegas - one of five casino hotels he owned.
Howard Hughes
Phenomenally talented, occasionally controversial, and hardly seen in public, the former Fugees singer/songwriter Lauryn Hill is a genuine creative force. Her influence (Alicia Keys, John Legend, and others readily sing her praises) or the fascination she still generates in literally millions of music fans can't be denied.
(WireImage)Lauryn Hill
Actress Doris Day was one of the biggest stars in the world in the 1950s and '60s, but effectively dropped out of sight in recent years, and reportedly lives alone on a ranch in rural California. She was awarded an Oscar for lifetime achievement in film in 1989— but skipped the Oscars ceremony that year, and the award was bestowed in absentia.
Doris Day
One of the greatest blues-rock guitarists of all time, Peter Green founded Fleetwood Mac in 1967. Drug abuse and schizophrenia were major plagues in his life for decades, and he spent much of the 1980s living alone. In 2009 he fronted a band called Peter Green and Friends.
Singer with the Swedish superstar pop act, Abba, Agnetha Faltskog retreated from the public eye in the late 1980s, living for years on a remote island off the coast of Sweden. She was seen at the 2008 Stockholm premiere of the movie Mama Mia!, but is still intensely limelight-shy.
Genius, chess champion, Holocaust denier, and all-around enigma, Bobby Fischer largely disappeared from public view in the 1980s, occasionally popping up to utter something outlandish, and ultimately renouncing his American citizenship.
Bobby Fischer
Frontman for what one of the greatest rock bands of its era, Axl Rose retreated into semi-seclusion for years in the 1990s, verbally sparring with his old Guns N' Roses band mates and working on Chinese Democracy, an album he hoped would cement his reputation as a songwriter and producer to be reckoned with. (It didn't.)
Emily Dickinson, 'the Belle of Amherst,' published few poems during her lifetime, but since her death is regarded as a great and unique American artist. For years, she lived as a recluse — albeit an active recluse, maintaining correspondence with friends and other literary types — in her hometown of Amherst, Mass.
Emily Dickinson
The driving creative force behind the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson famously retreated to his bedroom for several years in the early 1970s. He eventually sought and received treatment for bipolar disorder, and gradually returned to making music, including live performances.
Brian Wilson
Perhaps Harper Lee, who retired from the public eye after the publication and enormous success of her only novel, 1960's To Kill A Mockingbird, isn't so much a recluse as simply and genuinely a private person. For 50 years she's led a quiet life in Alabama, shunning requests for interviews.
Harper Lee
A Canadian pianist renowned as perhaps the 20th-century's greatest interpreter of Johann Sebastian Bach's music, Glenn Gould had more than his fair share of eccentricities. He was once arrested in Florida, mistaken for a vagrant, and shunned personal contact in his later life.
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