A quick scan of this site alone is enough to tell us that if there's one thing that's a common element among cultures, it's the universal enjoyment of sharing a ghost story. Whether or not you actually believe in ghosts yourself, there are very few people who can say that they haven't experienced some kind of supernatural or unexplained phenomena firsthand. Whether they saw strange lights in the sky, heard footsteps where there was no one, or experienced something altogether stranger, everyone has their story.
It is a natural human trait to try to make sense of the unknown, to give it a familiarity, to understand it. So often, sightings that could be explained away as mists or birds or other completely natural phenomena are explained as ghosts. People love to share their ghost stories, and it seems that celebrities are no different. Here are ten celebrities who have had offscreen brushes with the unknown.
10. Fairuza Balk
Fairuza Balk has a pop culture association with the occult. She played Dorothy Gale in 1985's Return to Oz, which was a (terrifying) sequel to The Wizard of Oz. She also played a witch in The Craft and was arguably the best character in the movie. Fairuza practices Wicca, also known as Pagan Witchcraft, but she is absolutely not of the dark persuasion.
On the popular television show Celebrity Ghost Stories, Fairuza tells the story of staying in a rented house and waking up to hear footsteps outside her room. She initially thought the footsteps belonged to her companion in the house but soon discovered that no one was walking in the hall. Together, Fairuza and her companion crept down the hall to the kitchen to see hanging pots and pans swinging violently in the kitchen and a sinister shape, like a coil of dark smoke, taking form inside the house. Witch or not, Fairuza was terrified.
When questioned by the actor and her companion, the owners of the house admitted that they had previously rented the house to a couple who had been horribly murdered there.
9. Joan Rivers
The late Joan Rivers was known for her quick-wittedness and sharp tongue even more than she was known for her youthful glamour and plastic surgery. Her New York apartment itself was worthy of a lot of screen time and was simply amazing. When she died in 2014, she left a hole in showbiz that her daughter Melissa has since being trying to fill.
Joan told the story of going to visit a new apartment back in the 1980s. She had just been widowed, and she was using all of her money to renovate the run-down apartment.
Popping into the unfinished apartment at nighttime just to check it out, Joan was stymied when her dog refused to go in. Joan suddenly realized that the temperature inside the apartment was much colder than anywhere else on that warm summer night. Noticing that the walls seemed to have been covered with strange writings, Joan questioned the elevator operator, who commented that perhaps it was a particular ghost known to him, Mrs. Spencer, the niece of J.P. Morgan.
Joan then started showing the former owner respect, pleading for her to let her have the apartment and leaving her flowers. They became friends of a sort, and if Joan is to be believed, they communicated regularly.
8. Joan Collins
Joan Collins is 84 years old and has packed a lot into those 84 years—writing as a columnist, authoring many books, and also working as an actress. She is currently on her fifth marriage and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. She even released a UK Top 10 record in 1963.
It can therefore be assumed that the lady would know what's what when it comes to supernatural phenomena. She's been around the block; she's nobody's fool. It might be fair to assume that she would be quite skeptical in the face of "paranormal activity." So for Joan Collins to have been "terrified" of a ghost is pretty significant stuff. She doesn't seem to be the type who scares easily.
