Top 20 Dark Truths About Classic Hollywood Actors

Actress Merle Oberon was incredibly talented, and widely known for her beauty. Unfortunately, like her contemporaries, Oberon’s image and background were seemingly under intense scrutiny and control by her home studio. However, it was eventually revealed that Oberon, who we now know was born in India, was also massaging the details of her own background. That included concealing her ethnicity as a mixed race woman. She chose to stay quiet about her identity, reportedly to avoid Hollywood’s racism. It wasn’t until after she passed away that the truth of her parentage and heritage ultimately came to light.

For all the joy and tap dancing, making “Singin' in the Rain” was no picnic. It takes a lot of pain to create that much fun on screen. In fact, Debbie Reynolds would later liken it to childbirth. It didn’t help that her male lead, dancer-actor-director extraordinaire Gene Kelly, was horrific to her on set. He criticized her dancing at every turn, and she was left in tears. It didn’t end with the dancing, either. When the actor, who was two decades her senior, unexpectedly tongue kissed her during a scene, she was left feeling shaken. Even Kelly apparently acknowledged his behavior later, reportedly saying it was a wonder Reynolds still spoke to him.

By all accounts, the making of this 1961 Western was a grueling experience for all involved. But sadly, what happened to its three leads has enhanced “The Misfits”’ reputation as a “cursed” movie. At the time, Marilyn Monroe’s personal life was not in the best place, and both she and Montgomery Clift were dealing with substance use disorder. Clark Gable, for his part, passed away days after shooting was completed. Monroe would pass the next year, and Clift would only make three more movies (one of which came out posthumously) before his death at the age of 45. Despite this, many modern critics cite “The Misfits” as career-best work for the three stars.

Many of us have our own insecurities about our physical appearance, and celebrities are no exception. Especially the women who have societal expectations on them that men often don’t have to deal with in the same way. And these expectations and insecurities can sometimes lead to rather extreme measures being taken to attempt to enhance one’s appearance. An example of which is Joan Crawford removing her teeth. No, she didn’t take them all out, but in her early 20s, she did remove some of her back molars in an effort to accentuate her cheekbones.

The cast of this misbegotten 1956 epic starring John Wayne as the titular conqueror, Genghis Khan, faced tragedy. Indeed, a little under half the artists who worked on “The Conqueror” developed some form of cancer. Wayne, co-stars such as Susan Hayward and Agnes Moorehead, director Dick Powell, and many others would eventually pass away as a result of the disease. Many attribute this abnormally large number to the movie being filmed near where extensive nuclear tests had taken place in Utah. Whether it was radiation or any number of complicating factors, the story is a heartbreaking one.

Studio stars were beholden to a very strict set of rules and regulations. If they wanted to work, their lives were basically at the mercy of the studio. Few knew this better than Judy Garland. Much has been made of her time at MGM, when she — and possibly Mickey Rooney — were allegedly fed pills that would contribute to their substance use disorders. But there’s more. Garland’s pregnancy in 1941 reportedly angered studio chiefs, but it also troubled her domineering mother, Ethel. Together, Ethel and the studio had Garland terminate the pregnancy. Garland would endure a similar scenario only two years later, after becoming pregnant by actor Tyrone Power.

When it was first built in 1923, the Hollywood Sign was just a promotional tool for a new real estate development in the growing industry town. Its now-mythical status may sadly have been helped along by a troubling event. Peg Entwistle was a successful stage actress who eventually ended up in Hollywood for a play, and went on to try her hand at films. She made “Thirteen Women,” which would end up being a posthumous release, as well as her first and only movie credit. Edits reportedly left most of her performance on the cutting room floor, and RKO cut ties with her. In 1932, she made her way atop the “H” of the Hollywoodland Sign and sadly took her own life.

Although he was in many movies, George Reeves found his biggest success on television. For six seasons, the actor portrayed the dual role of Clark Kent and Superman in “Adventures of Superman.” Unfortunately, Reeves passed away in 1959 due to a gunshot wound. Though it was ruled as self-inflicted, the presence of things like mysterious bruises and extra bullets at the scene sent rumors swirling. Different theories spread to explain the death that pinned the blame on everyone from his fiancée to the husband of a lover. The case, and its puzzling circumstances, have been fodder for true crime enthusiasts ever since. It remains one of classic Hollywood’s biggest mysteries.

Glamorous MGM star Lana Turner was no stranger to publicity, but the 1958 murder of her abusive lover, Johnny Stompanato, brought the media scrutiny to new heights. During a violent argument between the two, Turner’s daughter Cheryl Crane killed Stompanato in what was ruled an act of justifiable homicide. The ensuing trial and media circus was the stuff of Hollywood melodrama. It was all made especially poisonous because Turner’s emotional testimony didn’t do much to quell suspicions she committed the crime and was letting her daughter take the fall. Despite vicious gossip, the two never wavered from the official version of events.

Stories of backstage debauchery fueled the national scandal involving Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, who was accused of the assault and manslaughter of star Virginia Rappe. The young silent film actress passed away in 1921 of a ruptured bladder and peritonitis mere days after becoming sick at a soirée of his. The illness was alleged to have been a result of an attack by the comedian. After three trials, Arbuckle was exonerated, but the public’s perception of him was irrevocably changed. The circumstances surrounding Rappe’s death became obscured by rumor, many of which were popularized in Kenneth Anger’s highly exaggerated book, “Hollywood Babylon.”

Shirley Temple was one of the great child stars in the history of Hollywood. She was also the target of an assassination attempt when she was young. The perpetrator of the attempt was a sad and emotionally distraught woman who’d lost her daughter - supposedly at the same time that Temple was born. In her sorrow, the woman came to believe that Temple had stolen her daughter’s soul and that targeting her would release it from her. The woman took out a gun during a live performance, but was stopped before she could fire it. It’s a sad story all around, that thankfully ended without any physical harm to Temple. Later in life, the star was vocal about her experience with a predatory MGM producer.

Known for his roles in such films as “A Place in the Sun” and “From Here to Eternity,” Montgomery Clift was a big Hollywood star in the late 40s and 50s - until a car accident changed his life. Clift was filming “Raintree County” when, following a dinner party at co-star Elizabeth Taylor’s house, Clift crashed his car into a telephone pole. Thankfully, Taylor arrived to help save his life. The accident required plastic surgery and two months of recovery before the actor could finish the film. Besides the changes to his appearance, the accident led to Clift turning to substances to dull the pain. He continued to make movies, but he was never really the same until he died at 45.

The comedy duo of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy brought joy and laughter to so many people throughout the first half of the 20th century. But one person who wasn’t laughing was Vera Shuvalova. Shuvalova was Laurel’s third wife and the recipient of some very scary threats from the beloved comic performer. Supposedly, Laurel had a problem with alcohol and needless to say he wasn’t a friendly drunk. When the couple divorced, Shuvalova made some very serious accusations. Claiming that her husband had threatened her with a gun and had even dug a grave in their backyard, telling her that he was going to bury her alive. Nothing funny about that.

Joan Crawford is widely regarded as one of the Old Hollywood greats. But her daughter Christina Crawford’s memoirs, namely “Mommie Dearest,” painted a distressing picture of life behind the scenes. In it, Joan was described as someone with alcohol use disorder who was violent and overall abusive. As you can imagine, the book and its claims were a lightning rod for controversy upon publication. The rest of Joan Crawford’s daughters and several of her Hollywood contemporaries, including foe Bette Davis, denied the allegations. Through all the criticism, controversy, and anger, however, Christina Crawford has stood by her story.

John Huston’s path to becoming one of the greatest directors of all time began in 1941 with his directorial debut, “The Maltese Falcon.” However, prior to getting his shot at directing, Huston spent the beginning and the end of the 1930s as a writer in Hollywood. What about the middle years? Well, Huston spent those wandering around Europe following the death of actress Tosca Roulien. A death that he caused while driving intoxicated - although somehow a coroner’s jury did exonerate Huston of any blame. There was a rumor that Clark Gable was the one that killed Roulien and Huston was paid to take the fall. But given that Gable was elsewhere filming a movie at the time, the rumor doesn’t appear to have legs.

A number of famous actors dealt with stuttering as children, including - as fans of “The Big Bang Theory” know - James Earl Jones. But while people may be familiar with many of Marilyn Monroe’s life troubles, did you know that she too stuttered growing up? Many biographies have covered this fact and Monroe herself talked about it in interviews. It got so bad at times that she, like other stutterers, was so scared and embarrassed that she basically stopped talking for extended periods. How exactly it started is obviously up for debate, but many biographers have attributed it to the trauma of living with her mother, who lived with schizophrenia, and her childhood in and out of foster care and orphanages.

Marlon Brando and Rita Moreno were first acquainted in 1954, like often happens in Hollywood, they started dating. There’s no denying Brando’s brilliance as one of the greatest actors of all time. However, when it came to women, Moreno called him “a bad guy.” Besides the lying and cheating and bursts of rage, Moreno also revealed that Brando made plans for her to terminate a pregnancy while they were together, though it was dangerously performed and could’ve ended in disaster for her. It was all too much for the young actress, who has also been open about how the relationship led to her almost taking her life.

Besides a small, uncredited role in 1950, Tippi Hedren made her big screen debut in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 film “The Birds” and followed it up the next year in Hitchcock’s ”Marnie.” You’d think that after having such success with such a great director that the two would’ve worked together again. But they never did. Although it wasn’t because Hitchcock didn’t like Hedren, but rather because he liked her too much. The great director became obsessed with Hedren and her time on both films was filled with emotional and mental mistreatment and unwanted advances from Hitchcock. From isolating her from the rest of the cast by forbidding any of them to talk to her to demanding she be sexually available to him, which she refused.

Charlie Chaplin made over 80 movies. That’s a lot. However, it pales in comparison to the number of people he slept with - a number that he claimed was over 2000. And while we don’t know the ages of all of them, the ones we do know make us, shall we say, uncomfortable. He married his first wife, Mildred Harris in 1918 - Chaplin was 29 and Harris was only 16. Chaplin felt forced into marrying his second wife Lita Grey when the 35-year-old icon discovered that the 16-year-old-Grey was pregnant. In 1943, At the age of 54, Chaplin married for the fourth and last time. His wife, Oona O'Neill was 18, but the couple would have 8 kids and remain together until Chaplin’s passing in 1977.

Soap opera actress Judy Lewis’s life sounds like the script from an episode of afternoon television. But it isn’t. Lewis’ mother was actress Loretta Young and her biological father was Clark Gable. However, Gable was married at the time. So, attempting to avoid a scandal, Young hid her pregnancy and placed her baby into orphanages when she was born. After 19 months, Young “adopted” her daughter back, but her stunning resemblance to Gable meant that most of Hollywood knew the truth. Young even had a 7-year-old Lewis get her ears pinned back in order to try and hide the similarities. Eventually, Young admitted the truth to her daughter and claimed that she wasn’t conceived consensually.