171 Bizarre Phobias of Famous People

• Seagulls
• Stage Fright

• Cats

•The Dark – needed people around and awake during the night
• Storms (mainly thunder and lightning) – saw a slave struck and killed by lightning only a few feet in front of him

•Needles – becomes faint if he has to get a blood test

•Flying

•Chicken eggs – The egg yolk he explained would breathe and spill yellow liquid
• Sex
• Heights
• Authority
• Being arrested and placed in jail

•Dentists – So fearful it took 8 trips to the dentist to finish a root canal treatment
• Cats
• Blades – would not allow a barber to shave him – if a barber came close he would scream

• Fear of being touched or touching another

• Being buried alive

• Flying
• Ceiling fans

• Rabbits – had to run out of a Texas hotel due to the Easter display that had several bunny mascots

• Anthropophobia – fear of people
• Women – sexually abused as a child by his father

• Being buried alive

• Dogs

• Fear of the number 621 – His birthday
• Flying

• Blood

• Snakes
• Large reptiles

• Stage fright

• Antique furniture – he is very anxious if he is in a room with furniture that is dated back before 1850
• Bright colors
• Clowns
• Live theater
• British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli’s hair – he knows there are mites and dust there
• Komodo dragons

•Cotton – cannot touch it without having anxiety
•Wool

•Flying

•Agoraphobia – only going outside with wife or others
• Crowds
• Anxiety

• Germs – she cleaned her doorknobs in her home so much that the paint was removed

• Water

• Being boring – he is afraid the media and his fans will think he is boring

•Flying

•Being alone in a pool
• Sharks
• Indoor plants

• Porcelain dolls

• Disorder – Items must be color-coded and his clothing must match his furniture
• Frogs
• Birds – afraid he will be in a public place and be attacked by birds mainly pigeons

• Flying
• A wizard stealing his urine – during a time he suffered from emotional problems and drug addiction

• Clowns

• Small spaces
•Private planes
• Getting stuck in an elevator – had a panic attack stuck on the 38th floor in an elevator

• Balloons – She feels like the movement of balloons is out of control

• Heights

• Shopping malls

• Clowns
• Losing his movie career
• Yellowstone volcano – it could go off anytime
• Being mobbed by fans – will not use the London Underground

• Flying

• Germs – shaking hands makes him anxious
• Falling down stairs/slopes

• Giraffes – their long necks freak him out
• Owls

• Water

• Agoraphobia – afraid to go outside alone

• Tennis balls – must leave the room if tennis comes on the television

• Flying

• Flying

• Buried alive – wanted his heart removed at the time of death so he would not be buried alive

• Spiders

•Heights

•Dogs – during his attacks on villages, he would tell his men to kill all dogs and cats
• Cats

•Flying

• Being buried alive – he created a bell that could be placed in a coffin to ring if the person was alive
• Dogs
• Pork – refused to eat due to being afraid of being poisoned
• Fire

• Sun
• Daylight

• Dirt – cleans her room every night to ensure there is no dirt

• Water

• Germs – will not shake hands
• Dirt

• The dark – uses a night light
• Dentists

•Cats

•Cats
• Fire

• Fear of flying
• Fear of snakes

• Spiders
• Clowns

• Thanking the wrong city on stage

• Responsibility
• Failure
• Turning 50

• Lifts
• Sharks
• Her health
• Bones – will not eat chicken legs as her teeth might touch a bone
• The dark
• Monsters – worried there are monsters hiding under her bed
• Elevators
• Enclosed spaces
• Being trapped with no way to escape

• His legacy – how he would be remembered

• Flying – more claustrophobic than actually the fear of flying

• Needles

• Germs

• Slippery teeth – she only brushes 3 times each week
• Dolphins

• Flying

• Spiders
• Snakes
• Sharks
• Dying unloved
• His mother

• Public spaces – shopping malls bring on anxiety
• Open spaces

• Pruney fingers – wears gloves in the pool so she does not have to feel pruney fingers

• Germs – would not sleep in the same bed two nights in a row

•Raccoons – while sitting outdoors a raccoon came up to her and stared at her and did not move – she stood up and barked at it to scare it away

• Holes – she is afraid of what might be in the small holes in a pancake

• Dust in a cup
• Butterflies

• Flying – no matter the distance he would only travel by train or vehicles

• Belly Buttons – She is even afraid of her own belly button and must use a mitten to wash it while screaming

• Being touched
• Hearing others making sounds with their mouth like chewing and slurping

• The dark – she believes evil lurks in the darkness

• Being alone in the dark

• Talking food – food talking on commercials make her leave the room like the California Raisins

• Spiders – Kim has to get rid of them

• Items that buzz

• Cats

• Cats

• Cows

• Spoons

• Flying – brought his own parachute on flights

• Getting impregnated by an alien and giving birth
• World Apocalypse

• Snakes – Scarlett Johansson said he cried when they brought out snakes during a scene of We Bought a Zoo

• The dark – she is afraid of what she can’t see
• Dry paper – she cannot read a script without having a cup of water to dip her fingers in to turn pages
• Flying
• Germs

• Choking – when he cuts an avocado and sees the seed he envisions the seed getting lodged in his windpipe

• Long flights
• Heights

• Germs – chose to wear a mask at all times when not at home
• Dogs
• Flying

• Thunder and lightning

• Sleeping naked – has a dream will wake up in front of the police
• Afraid the house will catch fire – during sex, lights must be on and underwear at his ankles

• Revolving doors
• Tunnels

• Disappointing those she loved
• Losing her mind
• Stage fright

• Agoraphobia – had cork walls to keep out sounds and thick curtains that stayed shut

•Helicopters

• Being buried alive

• Flying – he does take planes but feels like defying gravity is terrifying

• Butterflies – as a child, a butterfly or large moth was on the gate to her home, she would climb over the fence instead of going near the gate
• The sudden death of family or friends

• Escalators – In 2011, she refused to use a moving staircase that was part of the red carpet

• Cats – would get on furniture and stay until someone removed the feline

• Snakes

• Germs – would not shake hands
• Jewelry

• Water

• Pigs

• Rats

• Balloons
• Chewing gum – her grandmother would save chewed gum and stick it places which brought on the fear. No one is allowed to chew gum on her set.

• Mirrors
• Can’t watch herself on television – she turns the television or she leaves the room

• Fear of being touched

• Clowns – asked for a no clown clause to be placed in his contract for Fear Factor and since the producers would not add the clause, he chose to forget the gig
• Long second toes

• Getting a haircut

•Beans – even though he was a vegetarian he would not touch or eat beans and forbid his followers from doing so

• Bullying
• Being ostracized

• Being buried alive – ordered that his body was to lay untouched for 2 days after his death to ensure he was dead

• Public Speaking

• Dentists – believes dental equipment carries disease

• Spiders

• Heights
• Water
• Guns

• Hospitals – so afraid that if he were admitted he would never be released

• Toilets – afraid something will come out of it

• The dark – must have a light on to go to sleep
• Driving
• Clowns
• Getting stabbed
• Fame
• Horses
• Getting shot
• Dating
• Death threats
• Buying a house
• HIV – people want him to bite them and he is afraid they might have a needle and stab him

•Insects – servants had to check rooms for bugs before he would enter
• Agoraphobia – preferred staying indoors
• Crossing bridges

• Fish – had a panic attack when in water and small fish were swimming around her feet

• Germs – would bump elbows instead of shaking hands
• Stage fright

• Heights

•Grasshoppers – The fear came from childhood when bullies would throw these insects at him
• Ekbom’s Syndrome – a condition that caused him to feel and even see bugs crawling on his body

• Water

• Chickens

• Guns
• Ferns
• Traveling by train

•Cemeteries – when shooting Buffy the Vampire in a cemetery she would break down crying
• Being buried alive

• Cockroaches
• Birds

• Elevators
• Heights

• Writer’s block
• Angry spirits
• Evil cars
• Larger than life rats

• Clowns
• Heights
• Holes
• Bees

• Hand injuries – will not put his hand outside of a car window while riding

• Furniture that has feet
• Cats
• Insects

• Dolphins

• Flying – after a plane crash that killed his assistant and bodyguard

• Going bald

• Flying – tried hypnosis to cure his fear

• The dark

• Owls – will not even watch Harry Potter as there is an owl in the movie

• Social anxiety
• Public speaking – would say he was ill when invited to give a speech
• Talking about himself – even in his own autobiography, he was worried he was talking about himself too much

• Barbers

• Serious illness

• Cars
• Loneliness – due to being bullied as a child
• Flying
• Technology

• Confined spaces

• Heights (acrophobia)
• Sharp objects (aichmphobia)
• Aliens
• Fear of a place that was not Manhattan
• Peanut butter – that would stick to the roof of his mouth
• Spiders

• Public Speaking

• Mice

• Burial and exhumation – inscribed on his gravestone “Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare, To dig the dust enclosed here. Blessed be the man that spares these stones, And cursed be he that moves my bones
• Dogs

• Water

• Heights