In a new memoir entitled "By Some Miracle I Made it Out of There" Tom Sizemore tells all about his rise to fame from having nothing, and the way he almost threw it all away with his crippling drug addiction.
The 51-year-old actor was once renowned for playing tough as nails characters in films like "Heat," "Saving Private Ryan," "Natural Born Killers" and "Black Hawk Down". More recently Sizemore was known for being a participant on VH1's "Celebrity Rehab".
The actor has been sober for four years and openly discussed his addiction with Billy Bush from "Access Hollywood".
"Cocaine, heroin and crystal meth are the three most intense, life-destroying drugs," Sizemore said. "Meth - it's the worst one. It's sneaky. It doesn't feel like it's doing much to you in the beginning and then it's got you in a grip of addiction."
Part of what makes Sizemore's story so interesting is the bluntness with which he tells it. He doesn't sugar coat any of the sordid details of his past. Some readers may find the memoir a little too forthcoming when Sizemore discusses his sexual exploits and excessive drug use.
Sizemore grew up with very modest means and when he became famous he suddenly went from having nothing to having everything. Years later his drug addiction would cause him to lose everything.
"I was a guy who'd come from very little and risen to the top," Sizemore said. "I'd had the multi-million dollar house, the Porsche, the restaurant I partially owned with Robert DeNiro. And now I had absolutely nothing."
In 2003, Sizemore was convicted of harassing, annoying and physically abusing his former girlfriend, famed Hollywood Madame Heidi Fleiss. Shortly afterward Sizemore would seek help for his drug addiction.
The memoir is at its heart a redemption story as Sizemore attempts to regain at least a portion of what he had lost according to the Huffington Post.
In the end Sizemore regrets that he ever became the kind of man whose exploits were written in the tabloids.
"I've led an interesting life, but I can't tell you what I'd give to be the guy you didn't know anything about," Sizemore writes.
