Actresses Who Are Stuck In Prison For Years

It's more than a little ironic that actors are some of the most famous people on the planet, and that largely happens because the actor pretends to be somebody else: They put on a costume, reciting words someone else wrote in a realistic fashion, and present themselves as another person separate from themselves. But the real person behind the facade of performance does eventually come out. When that individual, known only to the world at large as an entertainer and for their myriad screen roles, commits heinous or even horrific crimes and ends up in prison, the collective fascination with them only intensifies. 

Perhaps it's hard for audiences to picture the face associated with a character they liked behind bars, or to comprehend the shift from the glitzy world of film and TV production into the often stark and punishing reality of prison life. Here are some women who made a name for themselves as actors and who then became notorious for crime. These are the female actors currently in prison, and who will probably be incarcerated for a very long time.

Skylar Deleon is most famous for the series of crimes she committed in 2004 that would lead to her spending the remainder of her life in prison. But a decade before those events, Deleon was an actor. Distinctly of the struggling variety, Deleon landed just one screen performance: She reportedly portrayed an unnamed child in a single 1994 episode of the children's action show "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers," a show already impacted by tragic death.

In November 2004, Deleon, along with associates John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Alonso Machain, answered Thomas and Jackie Hawks' ad, offering their yacht for sale in Newport Beach. The Hawks disappeared during a test sail, and after Deleon was arrested on money laundering charges over her supposition that she bought the yacht in cash, Machain explained to police that Deleon helped throw the couple overboard. In spring 2005, Deleon, her wife Jennifer Henderson, and both accomplices were among those arrested for the murder and boat theft conspiracy. After her murder conviction in 2009, Deleon was given a death sentence, and she awaits her eventual execution at the San Quentin State Prison.

Sometimes performing under the name Shannon Guess, Shannon Richardson appeared on TV here and there in the early 2010s. The actor played small and supporting roles in individual episodes of shows like "The Vampire Diaries" and "The Walking Dead," as well as the 2011 comedy "The Blind Side," not to be confused with the Sandra Bullock sports drama of the same name.

In 2013, Richardson purchased via the internet the ingredients necessary to make ricin, one of the deadliest poisons in the world. Richardson then wrote death threat letters to President Barack Obama, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Mark Glaze, the head of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and laced the notes with her homemade ricin. The letters were obtained by the FBI before they could reach their intended recipients, and Richardson was arrested. After failing to implicate her estranged husband for the crimes, who easily proved his innocence, Richardson was tried and found guilty on a count of possession of a toxin for use of a weapon. She was sentenced in 2014 to an 18-year term in federal prison.