by Mike SpohrBuzzFeedBuzzFeed Staff 1. Dolly Parton is famous for her upbeat attitude and positivity, but her life hasn't been all roses and hit records. One sad example: Dolly struggled with infertility because of endometriosis and had a hysterectomy in the early '80s that permanently prevented her from having children. Afterward, she suffered from depression and even contemplated suicide. "It was an awful time for me," she told reporters in 2008. 20th Century Fox / Getty Images Dolly said she always thought she'd have children, and while it never happened, she still thinks of herself as a mother. She's close to her nieces and nephews, and told Today in 2021, "I didn't have children because I believed that God didn't mean for me to have kids so everybody's kids could be mine, so I could do things like Imagination Library." (The Imagination Library is a nonprofit program she founded that mails free, age-appropriate books every month to children from birth to age five). "I would have been a great mother, I think. I would probably have given up everything else," she told the Guardian. "I think a big part of my whole success is the fact that I was free to work." Gareth Davies / Getty Images 2. If you're old enough (like me) to remember when Keanu Reeves first made a splash, he was known as a class clown turned goofball in movies like Parenthood and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. In the 21st century, though, he has become more known as the melancholic man of few words in dark action films like the John Wick series. The reason for the change? Well, it likely, in part, has to do with a pair of tragedies he experienced around the turn of the century. In 1999, Reeves and his girlfriend at the time, Jennifer Syme, were expecting a daughter they named Ava Archer Syme-Reeves. Sadly, the baby was stillborn at eight months, a heartbreak Reeves almost never talked about publicly at the time. A little over a year later, in a twist that Hollywood executives would probably veto in a script for being too damn bleak, Syme died in a car accident at just age 28. Reeves was among her pallbearers, and she was buried next to their daughter. Michael Ochs Archives In an interview to promote the third John Wick film, Keanu connected his role as Wick to his own life. "With any character," he told The Guardian, "the way I think about it is, you have the role on the page, you have the vision of the director, and you have your life experience," he says. For Keanu, that life experience included his losses. "I thought it was one of the foundations of the role for John Wick. I love his grief." He added, "Grief and loss, those are things that don't ever go away. They stay with you... It's always with you, but like an ebb and flow." Axelle/Bauer-Griffin / FilmMagic 3. Alanis Morissette hit it big in the '90s thanks to the album Jagged Little Pill, which was packed with emotionally charged songs like "You Oughta Know" (which might be the best angry breakup song of all time). But what most fans didn't know then - and many still don't - is that much of the emotion in the album came from real trauma she carried silently for years. In the 2021 documentary Jagged, Alanis Morissette revealed she was sexually abused repeatedly as a teenager. Prior to her emerging as a grungy alt-rocker with Jagged Little Pill, Morissette was a teen star in Canada and was constantly approached by men in the music industry much older than her. Tim Roney / Getty Images Alanis said in the film, "It was a lot of shame around having any kind of victimization of any kind, and it took me years in therapy to even admit that there had been any kind of victimization at my part. I'd always say, 'I was consenting,' then I'd be reminded, hey, you were 15. You're not consenting at 15. Now, I'm like, oh, yeah, they're all pedophiles. All statutory rape." Jeremy Chan / Getty Images 4. This next one isn't about just one star, but an entire cast and crew. In the '80s the Steven Spielberg-produced Poltergeist films were incredibly popular - and scary - but the scariest thing about it likely was that so many cast members died that rumors spread the production was cursed. Just five months after the release of the first film, 22-year-old Dominique Dunne, who played the family's teenage daughter, was tragically murdered by an abusive boyfriend. Then, only a few months after the release of Poltergeist II, 60-year-old Julian Beck, who played Kane in the film, died. His costar in the film, Will Sampson, 53, died less than 18 months later. Universal Finally, after filming was completed on Poltergeist III, 12-year-old Heather O'Rourke, who played the family's youngest daughter, Carol Anne, unexpectedly died of cardiac arrest caused by a bowel defect. Oliver Robbins, who played her character's brother Robbie, reflected in an interview: "Heather was like a sister to me. We played on the set, we talked about life - as much as you could at 9 years old. She was a wonderful sweet girl, and losing