From the doting to the plain cuckoo, Ramona Depares rounds up the most famous fathers who secured their spot in the limelight, some of them for better reasons than others.

Ivan the Terrible beat up his pregnant daughter-in-law and killed his son, clinching the title of possibly worst dad ever.

Let’s face it, some make better dads than others. When you’re Joe Public, not famous in any way, your fatherhood-related messes tend to remain beautifully anonymous, as do your successes, of course.

But when your name is an integral part of the world’s historical annals, then you can wave goodbye to the luxury of anonymity.

If you’re even slightly famous, whether you deserve the golden award for Dad of the Year or whether you’re more likely to get thrown in jail with the key never to be seen again, there is a good chance that your private affairs will wind up paparazzi’d or YouTube’d – everybody’s business.

But this was the case even before the age of social media and paparazzi camping out in your back garden.

Take Ivan the Terrible, for instance. Most of us know him as one of the greatest Moscovite monarchs, earning the title of ‘terrible’ mostly because of his never-erring strategy for war and politics. But it goes further than that.

Whatever the reason, it somehow led Ryan O’Neal to believe he was being a great dad by encouraging his daughter Tatum to snort cocaine to lose weight

Ivan, according to legend, once decided that he didn’t much fancy what his (pregnant) daughter-in-law was wearing.

The natural reaction to this, of course, was to give her a good beating. Rather understandably, Ivan’s son (also called Ivan) did not think much of this course of action and proceeded to make his disapproval rather obvious.

At which point his doting dad whacked him on the head in a fit of rage. When Ivan Jnr dropped dead, the verdict was announced to be “death by accident”.

Perhaps Ivan the Terrible found inspiration in Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor of Rome. Back in the day, Christianity didn’t quite have the same meaning it does today, and Constantine figured that it’s just fine to have his eldest son, Crispus, executed.

Rumours of an illicit relationship with his step-mother (whom Constantine also executed) abounded, but somehow murder still seems to be a tad of an over-reaction.

Closer to our times, Bing Crosby is synonymous with a host of feel-good movies and songs.

After all, he is the voice behind classics such as White Christmas, the face behind Road to Bali and all the other ‘Road to’ movies... But he’s certainly getting no fatherly award.

The reality behind that smiling face, however, was reputed to be a brute of a man who called his less-than-slim son Gary a “lard ass” and who hit him with his golf clubs. His two other sons, Lyndsay and Dennis, eventually committed suicide, with their scarred childhoods contributing more than a little to this decision, according to Gary’s memoir.

Whether the suicide was really a direct consequence of a childhood that Gary described as full of harshness and punishments, no one can say. One thing is for sure, Crosby’s parenting skills would have had the child abuse authorities cracking down on him before you could say White Christmas.

Singer Marvin Gaye’s father (also called Marvin) has to have the award to end all awards. He wound up shooting his son and killing him when the latter got involved in his dad’s argument with his mother.

Then there’s actress Tatum O’Neal’s father. What is it with these parents to famous children who seem to take it upon themselves to ruin their offspring’s life? Is it jealousy? Over-compensating?

Whatever the reason, it somehow led actor Ryan O’Neal to believe he was being a great dad by encouraging his daughter Tatum to snort cocaine to lose weight. Her brother Griffin, on the other hand, had his teeth knocked out by dad.

Honorary mentions go to Michael Jackson (dangling your newborn out of the window is not the way to go), Woody Allen (we love your films but hooking up with your step-daughter is just not on, sorry) and Jessica Simpson’s father (discussing your daughter’s Double D’s is never a good idea).

Happily, the world is not such a dismal place that we can’t find their counterparts – fantastic dads, who earned their place on our list for all the right reasons, abound, starting with royal counsellor Thomas Moore, quite possibly one of the first pioneers for female equality and education on the continent.

In a 16th-century England that certainly didn’t place too much value on schooling for girls, he gave his three daughters the same classical education as his son.

Equally loving was Nicholas II of Russia, him whose wife and son were saddled with the mysterious attentions of Rasputin. His concern for his son Alexei’s condition was so great that he allowed his wife to fall under the influence of the infamous faith healer, hoping that the last resort would cure his haemophilia. We all know how that ended, in what was possibly the most costly consequence to fatherly worry ever.

Back to our times, US President Barack Obama, gave his two daughters a very public declaration of love both in Obama’s book, Of Thee I Sing, and in a letter to Parade magazine. In both, Obama describes how his two daughters give him the greatest joy and how they became the most important people in his life.

May all fathers experience this joy on their special day.