Jon Hamm of Mad Men was Depressed

Before landing his break-out role as Don Draper on Mad Men—hardly a happy-go-lucky character—actor Jon Hamm experienced tragedy and depression of his own. Hamm opened up to The Guardian about his past, explaining how he lost his mother to cancer when he was just 10 years old and went on to suffer from chronic depression. "To lose a parent at 10—which is young, though not unprecedented—it means you understand, at a very early age, what permanence is," he said. Ten years later, while he was in college he lost his father. "I struggled with chronic depression," he said. "I did do therapy and antidepressants for a brief period, which helped me. Which is what therapy does: It gives you another perspective when you are so lost in your own spiral, your own bullshit. It helps. And honestly? Antidepressants help!"