Characters who self-destruct

Many fine crime novels (and other novels!) focus on characters who self-destruct, in one way or another. The way in which self-destructive impulses are charted often gives a clear idea of a writer's quality. I think, for instance, of Ruth Rendell's brilliant depiction of the illiterate Eunice Parchman in that fine book A Judgment in Stone.

I've just watched a movie which portrays a real-life character with a self-destructive impulse quite brilliantly. This was The Life and Death of Peter...