1 Kaley Cuoco
The Big Bang Theory actress Kaley Cuoco completely crushed the bottom of her leg during a horseback riding incident in October of 2010. She went into emergency surgery following the accident, knowing there was a chance that she might lose her lower leg. “I had a fr*ak accident,” Cuoco told Ellen DeGeneres. “It was the end of my lesson. I had been jumping all day. At the end of the lesson, my horse spooked and I wasn’t really expecting it and I fell off. I was actually getting up but my horse was still kind of spooking. He was in the corner trying to get away from me. He leaped over me and landed on my leg.” She described the sound of her breaking bones as resembling crunching leaves. Surgeons inserted two steel bars in her leg to stabilize the shattered bone, leaving 2 scars. One just above the ankle bone on the outside of her leg, where the bone had protruded, and another, much longer surgical scar, running up the front of her leg from just above the foot. “The good thing about that is I know when it’s going to rain. I literally feel like I’m 110 years old ‘the storms are coming’,” she says.
2 Tina Fey
The large, thin scar on Tina Fey’s face came at the hands of a vicious attacker. Fey, who was just five at the time, was playing in the front yard of her Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, home when she was attacked by a stranger and violently slashed across the face with a knife. The attacker was never found. The comedian did not let it deter her dreams. “I proceeded unaware of it. I was a very confident little kid. It’s really almost like I’m kind of able to forget about it until I was on-camera.” says Fey, whose scenes are often shot from the right side, “Then it became a thing of ‘Oh, I guess we should use this side’ or whatever. Everybody’s got a better side.”
3 Seal
The scars that mark Nigerian born singer Seal have long been rumored to be anything from the result of a tribal scarification rite to self-mutilation. The truth was revealed by Seal himself in a Rolling Stone interview. Seal told how as a child, he suffered from Discoid Lupus Erythematosus (DLE), a serious skin disease which causes inflammation, lesions, scarring, and permanent hair loss. After years of treatment and surgery, Seal’s condition is now in remission and he has learned to love his scars.
4 Joaquin Phoenix
The scar between Joaquin Phoenix’s lip and the nose is obvious. It practically had second billing in Gladiator. Many people assume that Joaquin Phoenix’s scar resulted from the surgical correction of a cleft palate, but Phoenix was actually born this way. His prominent scar was formed in utero as a mild form of cleft palate called a microform cleft. He refers to it as “Merely a birthmark”.
5 Queen Latifah
The two-inch scar that sits just under Queen Latifah’s hairline has been there the majority of her life. How did she get the scar? “Playing tag with my brother,” she said. “I tripped over the telephone cord and hit my head on the corner of the bathroom wall. I got three stitches. Then I fell on my grandmother’s steps and busted it open again. I was three. I was a clumsy child. I’d never cover it up, it gives my face character.”
6 Parminder Nagra
At the age of seven, Parminder Nagra (star of ER, Alcatraz and The Blacklist) suffered a burn that resulted in the scar shown in her 2002 breakout role in the internationally acclaimed film Bend It Like Beckham. While preparing a meal, a gas stove set her trousers alight. She was taken into the bathroom by an uncle and immersed in cold water. However, when the trouser fabric was removed, it took skin with it, resulting in a large scar on her right leg. The story was included in the film to explain the burn of Parminder’s character. Although finding a decent picture of it online has turned out to be nearly impossible for me.
7 Michael K. Williams
Michael K. Williams is an American actor best known for his portrayal of Omar Little on the HBO drama series The Wire, and of Albert “Chalky” White on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. Williams is well known for his large facial scar, which he received during a bar fight. On his 25th birthday, Williams was involved in a bar fight between his friends and another group of men. His face and neck were sliced with a razor and nearly killed him. The scar led to his being offered roles as a thug in music videos. He eventually embraced the scar, citing Seal’s scarred face as an inspiration. His scar became his signature and earned him photo shoots with noted photographers like David LaChapelle.
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8 Catherine Zeta-Jones
When a little girl, Catherine Zeta-Jones contracted a virus that prevented her from breathing normally, and doctors were forced to perform the tracheotomy surgery. The surgery left a scar on Catherine’s neck. She could have the scar removed with a surgical procedure that involves sanding scar tissue, using a tool that wears the old scar tissue away. It’s a simple procedure, which requires only local anesthesia. But Catherine considers the scar a reminder of a life-changing event. She said, “Makeup artists are always trying to cover it up, but I don’t want to hide it. I wouldn’t be here today if I didn’t have this scar.”
9 Padma Lakshmi
Actress and former host of Top Chef Padma Lakshmi has a large scar on her right arm. In 1984, when she was 14 years old, Lakshmi was in a car accident in Malibu, California. Her arm was shattered and her right hip was fractured. The injury to her right arm required surgery, which left a 7-inch scar between her elbow and shoulder. After surgery, she regained use of both her arm and hip. The incident took place on a Sunday afternoon as Lakshmi was being driven home from a Hindu temple in Malibu. She remembers a flash of orange, looking over to see the large car upon her. She describes the event in the April 2001 edition of Vogue, saying, “Being in a car crash was like an exhilarating hallucination, an unbelievable moment that oddly remains one of the most beautiful images in my memory.”, which is a very lovely way to describe something so horrific.
10 Sharon Stone
Sharon Stone’s dramatic neck scar is one of the largest to be routinely concealed in publicity pics due to make-up and airbrushing. Nonetheless, the mark on her neck has made her one of the most popular celebrities with scars in Hollywood. Her scar on her neck is from a childhood accident. She was riding a horse and she ran into a taut clothes line which ripped her neck open. It is the only celebrity scar to merit its own website. Although SharonStonesScar.com is no longer online, it had a long life in internet years.