Home » Latest » Celebrity » Tragic Details About The Cast Of That 70s Show

Tragic Details About The Cast Of That 70s Show

2

InfoSearched 49 0 Celebrity

8.2

SaveSavedRemoved 1

Behind the laughs of Point Place, “That ’70s Show” left a trail of real-life heartbreak that outlasted its eight-season run.

Fox’s basement-set sitcom turned Topher Grace, Laura Prepon, Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, Danny Masterson and Wilmer Valderrama into household names between 1998 and 2006. But away from the cameras, the cast has weathered addiction, sudden death, a felony rape case and childhood trauma that predates the show entirely. Here’s what actually happened to the people behind Eric, Donna, Kelso, Jackie, Hyde and Fez once the theme song stopped playing.

• Lisa Robin Kelly, who played Laurie Forman, died in August 2013 at age 43 from multiple drug intoxication at a California rehab facility after years of substance abuse battles and legal trouble that got her written off the show.
• Danny Masterson (Hyde) was charged by the Los Angeles County District Attorney in June 2020 with three counts of rape by force or fear tied to incidents between 2001 and 2003, a case that got him dropped from Netflix’s “The Ranch.”
• Recurring guest star Tanya Roberts, who played Midge Pinciotti, died in January 2021 after a urinary tract infection developed into sepsis.

Lisa Robin Kelly’s Downward Spiral

Kelly originated the role of Eric’s wild older sister Laurie for the show’s first four seasons before production replaced her — first temporarily with Christina Moore, then permanently — as her personal life unraveled. Her struggles with alcohol and drugs led to a string of arrests, including a domestic violence incident, and by the time she checked into a Los Angeles-area rehab facility in the summer of 2013, she had already cycled through multiple stints in treatment. On August 15, 2013, Kelly died there at age 43; the coroner ruled the cause multiple drug intoxication. She was one of the first “That ’70s Show” cast members whose story reminded fans just how dark the years after Point Place had gotten for some of the ensemble, a theme explored further in That ’70s Show’s Cast Has Really Transformed.

The Danny Masterson Case

Masterson’s Steven Hyde was the show’s sardonic conscience for eight seasons, but his post-“’70s Show” career collapsed under a criminal case that predates his television fame. In June 2020, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office formally charged him with three counts of rape by force or fear, stemming from allegations by three women covering incidents between 2001 and 2003. The charges immediately cost him work: Netflix removed him from “The Ranch,” where he had been starring opposite Ashton Kutcher and Sam Elliott. Masterson has denied the allegations, and the case has continued to move through the courts.

Three counts, three accusers, incidents dating back to 2001 — the charges that ended Danny Masterson’s run on “The Ranch” almost overnight.

Tanya Roberts’ Sudden Loss

Roberts wasn’t a series regular, but her turn as Donna’s mother, Midge Pinciotti, made her a fixture in the show’s early seasons and a familiar face to fans long before “Charlie’s Angels” or her Bond-girl fame came up in tributes. In January 2021, Roberts was hospitalized after collapsing at home; what began as a urinary tract infection progressed into sepsis, and she died days later. Her death landed as one of several gut-punches for the extended “’70s Show” family in a short span, alongside the losses of Kelly and, separately, cast members’ own health scares documented in The Best Guest Stars On That ’70s Show.

Ashton Kutcher’s Childhood Before the Cameras

Kutcher’s Michael Kelso persona was all charm and dim-witted bravado, but the actor has spoken candidly about a far heavier home life growing up in Iowa. His identical twin brother, Michael Kutcher, was born with cerebral palsy and later needed a heart transplant, a medical crisis Ashton has described shaping his own outlook on fame and fragility long before Fox ever came calling. That backstory rarely made the tabloids during the show’s original run, but it’s become one of the more sobering footnotes to the cast’s public history.

Other Health Scares and Fallout

Beyond the headline tragedies, the wider ensemble has dealt with its share of scares and setbacks in the years since the finale — from public controversies to relationship breakdowns that played out in tabloids well past 2006. None of it erased the show’s legacy, but it did complicate the nostalgia that usually surrounds a hit sitcom’s reunion cycle.

Masterson’s case remains the one still working through the courts as of early 2022, and it’s the storyline most likely to keep generating headlines — not reruns of Kelso’s antics, but pretrial filings tied to charges that go back two decades before anyone ever set foot in the Forman basement.