Cocaine's Nazi Ties Moved Mirren to Quit

Helen Mirren stopped using cocaine because of a Nazi war criminal. “I loved coke," says the Academy Award-winning actress. "I never did a lot, just a little bit at parties.” And she gave it up after learning that Klaus Barbie was living off cocaine proceeds while hiding out in South America in the 1980s, the Guardian reports.

“All the cards fell into place, and I saw how my little sniff of cocaine at a party had an absolute direct route to this f---ing horrible man in South America,” recalled Mirren, who says she never used cocaine again. “Until that moment I had never grasped the full horrifying structure of what brings coke to our parties in Britain.” (More cocaine stories.)