What we see in the public character of a person is not always who he is when he finds himself alone. Hollywood comics come to mind.

Let’s start with Robin Williams whom we laughed at for years as one of the best funnymen of all time.

Behind his hilarity, Williams was addicted to alcohol and cocaine in the late ’70s and early ’80s until another funnyman, John Belushi died in 1982 of a drug overdose. Belushi’s death frightened Williams into sobriety, but he started heavy drinking again in 2003 until he checked himself into a rehabilitation center three years later. In 2014, he checked himself into an alcohol treatment facility again.

His publicist reported that he was suffering from severe depression before his death. Williams was diagnosed with a disease that causes paranoia, anxiety, delusions and memory loss. Rather than reveal to his beloved fans his private struggles, the man whose lighthearted view of life that made us laugh at ourselves with his great one-liners, took his own life in 2014.

Chris Farley was another comic who was addicted to alcohol and drugs for most of his life. Fans of “Saturday Night Live” loved his outrageous antics on the late night TV program, but he was suspended from the show several times and sent to rehab centers without success. Farley sought treatment for his weight problem and drug abuse 17 times until his body succumbed to a mixture of cocaine and morphine in 1997. “Don’t leave me,” were reportedly the last words he spoke to a prostitute who left him lying on the floor. Christopher Farley was just 33 years old.

Famous comic of stage and screen, Richard Pryor lived a life filled with tragedy and chaos. He was sexually abused when he was seven years old and expelled from school when he was 14. Pryor was married seven times to five different women and had seven children with six different women. In 1977, after years of heavy smoking and drinking, he had a heart attack at age 36. In June of 1980, following a bout of drug induced psychosis, he poured 151 proof rum on his body and lit himself on fire. He ran down the street like a human torch before he was helped by police. He suffered second and third degree burns.

In 1990, Pryor had a second heart attack and underwent triple bypass surgery a year later. Then in 2004, he struggled to speak from a condition diagnosed as multiple sclerosis. One year later, he suffered a third heart attack that ended his life. Twelve years after his death, Rolling Stone ranked Richard Pryor first on their list of the greatest stand-up comics of all time.

The dark side of well-known personalities is not restricted to the comic world. It’s been reported that one out of 20 American homes owns a painting from artist, Thomas Kinkade, known as “the painter of light.” His artwork depicts beautiful scenes of country villages, deep woods trails, and rolling landscapes. In every painting, his brush draws attention to aspects of light, whether it be the sun streaming through the trees or from inside the windows of meadow side cottages. He was so adept with his brush strokes, it appears to the eye that actual sunlight or candlelight emanates from the brilliance of his bucolic scenes.

Despite his overwhelming commercial success, many high-end art critics ridiculed his work as excessively sentimental and one referred to Kinkade as “the chocolate box artist.” Despite the reluctance to include his paintings in prestigious art museums, Kinkade made millions from the public’s love for his work.

When he wasn’t painting at his outdoor studio in the mountains of California, he was a public nuisance. He often heckled and cursed other artists. The man who brushed Bible verse numbers at the bottom of his paintings had several alcohol related incidents. While at the Disneyland Hotel, he urinated on a figure of Winnie the Pooh. During a show in Las Vegas, he shouted drunken insults at the performers until he was calmed down by his mother and in June 2010, he was convicted of drunken driving in California.

“The painter of light,” who had created such beautiful scenes of natural serenity and whose net worth today is $70 million, died from a heavy dose of alcohol and pain medicine in June 2012 at age 54.

American actor Ethan Hawke said, “When you start becoming really successful, the demons start to tempt you - the demons of vanity and self - importance, into drug abuse, the feelings of fraudulence. But it’s also a thrill. That’s what I found weird.”

Just the other day, I was having a drink at local bar while my girlfriend and I waited to be seated for dinner. One young man who appeared to have had too many beers and with a mouth loud enough for everyone in the restaurant to hear began to make fun of some people he knew from his job. He kept zinging one line of mockery after another reminding me of how comedian Don Rickles used to get people to laugh by insulting them.

As patrons around the bar laughed at his jokes, I took notice that the woman this guy was with seemed to be forcing an uncomfortable smile each time he threw out another chuckle. I wondered if she knew what we didn’t know, that he was that person we all see his funny side in public, but then he battles his inner demons in private.

From entertainment stars to regular Joes on bar stools, a psychological pattern of this ironic behavior certainly exists. Whether famous or not, they light up our world until they go home and then become afraid of the dark.

Rich Strack can be reached at richiesadie11@gmail.com