Old Hollywood stars seem to have the reputation of being classier and more refined than our current batch of celebrities. I'm here to help remind you that these people were probably even messier and more debauched than modern stars in the '00s paparazzi era and the '10s social media age—they just had film studios covering up their dirty little secrets, time (literally over half a century) for their scandals to blow over, and no social media to spread their exploits at the press of a button. Don't let all those black and white headshots featuring strategic lighting and shadows emphasizing bone structures or sepia images of coiffed hairstyles, trench coats, and pointy bras surrounded by the haze of cigarette smoke fool you.
![]( "Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton at the 1967 BAFTA Awards")
Disclaimer: While some of these affairs are just messy, others are tragic and appalling. This post may contain details that are triggering for some.
![]( "Gary Cooper & Lupe Vélez (1920s)")
Lupe Vélez & Gary Cooper• Vélez and Cooper began their tumultuous two-year love affair while filming
The Wolf Song (1929)
• At the time, Vélez being typecast as hot-tempered "exotic" temptresses in films and her notorious volatile temper and jealous exploits in her personal life helped cultivate her "Mexican Spitfire" image with the media
• Cooper was a Republican thot with a tragic hairline who aged like most conservative white men from Montana do and who made a habit out of sleeping with his costars; while Vélez's contributions to the film industry are often overlooked, Cooper managed to be known as one of the ~Greats of old Hollywood despite his messy personal life and questionable endeavors
•
During some of their fights, Vélez would chase Cooper around with a knife and she once slashed him severely enough that he required stitches• Vélez acquired a pet parrot during their affair who would call her future husband Johnny Weissmuller "Gary"
• Weismuller admitted that there were many times when he had to "persuade" Vélez to return home from Cooper's house
• Vélez would inflict scratches, bruises, and love-bites on Cooper during their fights and "passionate lovemaking"
• During their time together, Cooper also had brief flings with Marlene Dietrich and Carole Lombard while filming
Morocco (1930) and
I Take This Woman (1931) respectively
• Cooper was bisexual and lived on and off with homosexual actor Anderson Lawler; Vélez told gossip columnist Hedda Hopper that during their affair, whenever Cooper would come home after seeing Lawler, she would pull down his pants and sniff for Lawler's cologne
•
By the time the affair ended in mid-1931, Cooper had lost 45 pounds and was suffering from nervous exhaustion so the studio ordered him to take a vacation; a devastated and angry Vélez showed up at the train station and shot a pistol at him• This couple is literally the reason why I decided to make this ~series so they deserve the first spot even if this post isn't in any particular order
• After their split, Cooper spent a year abroad where he had an affair with the married Countess Dorothy di Frasso at her Villa in Rome
• Vélez claimed Cooper "has the biggest organ in Hollywood but not the ass to push it in well", however, despite being mediocre in bed, Cooper had affairs with most of his female costars, including: Marlene Dietrich, Carole Lombard, Ingrid Bergman, Patricia Neal, and Grace Kelly
![]( "Ingrid Bergman & Roberto Rossellini (1952)")
Ingrid Bergman & Roberto Rossellini• A great admirer of Rossellini's work, Bergman wrote to the Italian director to suggest working on a film together
•
Despite both being married, Bergman and Rossellini began an affair during the filming of Stromboli (1950), which led to Bergman becoming pregnant with Rossellini's child•
After the news broke of their affair, Bergman was denounced by the Roman Catholic Church and the US Senate, and she left her husband and daughter to return to Italy• Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, upset that her rival, Louella Parsons, got the scoop first, launched a smear campaign against Bergman for carrying a married man's child despite also having her own family
• Due to the negative publicity surrounding their affair, Bergman was forced to work in Europe for years, and although she did have a successful comeback working for a Hollywood studio with
Anastasia (1956), a role which garnered her a second Academy Award, she did not film in Hollywood again until 1969
•
A week after she gave birth to the their son, Roberto Ingmar, Bergman divorced her husband and married Rossellini in Mexico• While living in Europe, Rossellini and Bergman had twin daughters in June 1952 named Isotta Ingrid and Isabella
• The couple's marriage ended after Rossellini had an affair with Sonali Das Gupta (who was also married) in 1957 while filming in India; Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indian Prime Minister at the time who had invited Rossellini to the country asked him to leave following the scandal
• Rossellini married Sonali Das Gupta in 1957 (he was 51, she was 27) after he and Bergman divorced, and they remained married until his death in 1977, though they did separate in 1973 when Rossellini left Das Gupta for a younger woman
• Five years after Bergman's death, Gregory Peck admitted that they had had an affair during the making of Alfred Hitchcock's
Spellbound (1945)
![]( "Vivien Leigh & Laurence Olivier (1937)")
Vivien Leigh & Laurence Olivier•
While both were still married, Leigh and Olivier began an affair during the filming of Fire Over England (1937)• Because their respective spouses refused to grant them divorces, Leigh and Olivier tried to keep their relationship from public view, though they began living together
• In 1940, Olivier's wife Jill Esmond agreed to divorce Olivier, and she was granted custody of their son; Leigh Holman, Leigh's husband, also agreed to a divorce, and he was granted custody of their daughter
• Leigh and Olivier married on August 31, 1940 in a Californian ceremony attended by their hosts, Ronald and Benita Colman, and witnesses, Katharine Hepburn and Garson Kanin
•
Leigh suffered from bipolar disorder (then known as "manic depression") and Olivier recalled that sometime after the end of World War II, Leigh calmly told him she was no longer in love with him, though she loved him like a brother; Olivier didn't know it at the time but Leigh's abrupt declaration was a signal of her bipolar disorder, and the two began having affairs until the end of their marriage in 1960• Olivier later recalled, "I couldn't help myself with Vivien. No man could. I hated myself for cheating on Jill, but then I had cheated before, but this was something different. This wasn't just out of lust. This was love that I really didn't ask for but was drawn into"
• In his autobiography, Marlon Brando stated that while he was attracted to Leigh during the filming of
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), he didn't seduce her out of respect for her husband Olivier because Brando found him to be such a "nice guy"
![]( "Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton (1964)")
Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton• Probably the most well-known affair on this list involves the queen of diamonds Elizabeth Taylor and king of foot-in-mouth syndrome Richard Burton
•
Taylor and Burton began their affair while filming Cleopatra (1963) while they were both still married• According to Taylor, her first impression of Burton was that he was "rather full of himself"
• Biographer Hollis Alpert notes that when the two first met while taking publicity photos, Burton said, "Has anyone ever told you that you're a very pretty girl?" with Taylor later recalling, "I said to myself,
Oy gevalt, here's the great lover, the great wit, the great intellectual of Wales, and he comes out with a line like that"
• Melvyn Bragg, another biographer, claims Burton didn't like Taylor at first because he saw her as another celebrity with no acting talent and nicknamed her "Miss Tits", though Burton later changed his mind after Taylor soothed him after he forgot his lines during their first scene together
• The Vatican condemned the couple for "erotic vagrancy" after the two were spotted together on a yacht by paparazzi, confirming their extramarital affair
•
Eleven days after her husband Eddie Fisher granted her a divorce, Taylor and Burton married in Montreal, with Taylor saying, "I'm so happy you can't believe it. This marriage will last forever"•
Taylor and Burton divorced in 1974 but married for the second time sixteen months after their divorce; they permanently separated and divorced in 1976• Taylor was married to Eddie Fisher at the time of her affair with Burton; Fisher was a friend of her previous husband, Mark Todd, and the husband of her then-best friend Debbie Reynolds, and Taylor and Fisher married not long after Todd died in a plane crash
• Fisher allegedly found out about his wife's affair after Burton answered her phone; Fisher demanded to know what Burton was doing at her home and Burton eloquently replied, "What do you think I'm doing?" and "I'm fucking your wife"
• Burton, articulate and sensitive as ever, was quoted as saying: "At thirty-four [Taylor] is an extremely beautiful woman, lavishly endowed by nature with a few flaws in the masterpiece: She has an insipid double chin, her legs are too short and she has a slight potbelly. She has a wonderful bosom, though"
![]( "Beverly Aadland & Errol Flynn (1959)")
Beverly Aadland & Errol Flynn• Although Flynn and his third wife, Patrice Wymore, separated due to his alcohol and drug addictions, they remained married until his death
• Flynn was over thirty years older than Aadland when they began their affair in 1957; at the time, Flynn was way past his prime and was facing financial difficulties, and he was also ugly and bloated
• In her memoir,
The Big Love (1961),
Aadland's mother claims she arranged for her daughter to work for Flynn and eventually become his lover, and that Aadland and Flynn's sexual relationship began when she was 15 and he was 48• Flynn was 50 when he died in 1959 and Aadland was only 17
•
According to Aadland, Flynn raped her but she forgave him and, after falling in love with him, they began dating for two years before his death in 1959• Aadland went public in 1996 and said that prior to Flynn's death, there had been plans to marry (their engagement was announced at her 17th birthday party) and have children (he reversed his vasectomy)
•
Aadland referred to her relationship with Flynn as a "game"; Flynn arranged to have her arrested on bogus charges in France, and he would pretend to beat Aadland in public and she would put ketchup on herself to simulate blood so they could enjoy the hysterical reaction of the people around them• Flynn literally said, "I like my whiskey old and my women young"
• The phrase "In Like Flynn" stems from his acquittal of his 1942 trial for the statutory rape of two underage girls
• Flynn met his second wife, who was working at a snack counter in a courthouse, at one of his rape trials
• At one point Flynn had six separate STDs
![]( "Bela Lugosi & his Clara Bow painting (1930s)")
Clara Bow & Bela Lugosi• Bow and Lugosi began their turbulent love affair in the late 1920s
• Bow met Lugosi, who didn't speak any English, backstage in Los Angeles after his performance in the stage production of
Dracula•
In 1929, Lugosi married Beatrice Weeks, a wealthy widow, who filed for divorce four months after their wedding, citing Bow as the "other woman", which became a huge scandal in Hollywood• At the time, Bow was disliked by many in the film and media industries for not conforming to traditional stereotypes and not being "ladylike"; Bow was notoriously open about her poor upbringing, troubled childhood with her mentally ill mother, and "engagements" (her euphemism for sexual encounters) with leading men and directors
• Lugosi is said to have shown off some scratches on his body in which he bragged were inflicted by Bow during their "engagements" together
•
After their affair ended, Lugosi commissioned a friend and artist to paint a nude portrait of Bow in 1929 as a memento of their short time together; the painting was displayed in each of his homes until his death, and his next two wives had the privilege of living with the infamous painting for the duration of their marriages• The painting, which maybe looked like Bow if you squinted hard enough, sold for $30,000 at an auction in 2013
• Bow allegedly interrupted her own pool party to take her friends to see Lugosi in
Dracula and was so excited to see the play and meet him that she just put a mink coat over her swimsuit
![]( "Katharine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy (1942)")
Katharine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy•
Although Tracy remained married to his wife, Louise Treadwill, until his death in 1967, the couple actually became estranged in the 1930s• During their marriage, Tracy had affairs with Loretta Young in 1933 to 1934, Joan Crawford in 1937, Ingrid Bergman in 1941, and allegedly with Judy Garland in 1936 when she was just 14
•
Tracy and Hepburn began their lifelong relationship in 1941 while making Woman of the Year, and they remained together until his death twenty-six years later• Although it was an open secret in Hollywood, MGM helped hide their relationship from the public to avoid a scandal (and because Tracy wanted to keep the secret from his wife)
• The couple were careful not to be seen together in public and maintained separate residencies until shortly before Tracy died
•
Tracy told Joan Fontaine, "I can get a divorce whenever I want to, but my wife and Kate like things just as they are", while Treadwill said, "I will be Mrs. Spencer Tracy until the day I die"; Hepburn did not interfere and did not fight for marriage• Hepburn took care of Tracy, who was an alcoholic and suffered from depression; several people described how Hepburn mothered and obeyed him, and Tracy was wholly dependent on her
• Hepburn did not attend Tracy's funeral out of respect for his family, and she only began discussing their relationship after his wife's death in 1983
• Tracy allegedly had an affair with Gene Tierney in 1952 while with Hepburn
• Hepburn never watched
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) because it was Tracy's last film
• Hepburn and Tracy made nine films together, and together they were an extremely popular and profitable pair in film
![]( "Dorothy Dandridge & Otto Preminger (1950s)")
Dorothy Dandridge & Otto Preminger• Dandridge and Preminger began their four-year affair during the production of
Carmen Jones (1954)
•
During their time together, Preminger began advising Dandridge on her career and demanded she only accept starring roles; Dandridge later admitted she regretted following Preminger's advice because she stopped receiving offers for parts after she kept declining them due to Preminger's influence• Dandridge was pursued for the role of Tuptim in
The King and I (1956) but Preminger advised her to reject the offer since she wouldn't be the star and, allegedly, because the character was a slave
•
Dandridge became pregnant with Preminger's child but was forced to have an abortion by the studio• After realizing Preminger would not leave his wife to marry her, Dandridge ended their affair
• After successfully landing the title role in
Carmen Jones, Dandridge became anxious about her ability to do the role of Carmen justice and when Preminger was told by her agent that Dandridge was backing out of the project, Preminger drove to her apartment to reassure her and assuage her fears; the two began their affair shortly after
![]( "Ava Gardner & Frank Sinatra (1952)")
Ava Gardner & Frank Sinatra•
Despite having many affairs during his marriage with his first wife, Nancy Barbato, Sinatra's affair with Gardner was the one that finally led to their divorce•
Gossip columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons each wrote scathing pieces about Sinatra, and he was blasted by the Hollywood establishment, the Roman Catholic Church, and his fans for leaving his wife for Gardner, a noted "femme fatale"• When the couple first got together, Sinatra's career was at its lowest point and Gardner often had to lend him money to buy presents for his children; after Sinatra went broke in 1951, Gardner paid for his plane tickets so he could accompany her to Africa while she filmed
Mogambo (1953)
• Gardner used her influence to get Sinatra cast in
From Here to Eternity (1953), which helped revitalize his acting and singing careers, and earned him an Academy Award
• Gardner and Sinatra were married in 1951 but their marriage was turbulent with many well-publicized altercations; the couple separated in 1953 and Gardner filed for divorce the following year but the divorce was not settled until 1957
• During their marriage, Gardner became pregnant twice but was forced by the studio to abort both pregnancies because, according to her autobiography, "MGM had all sorts of penalty causes about their stars having babies"
• After their divorce, Sinatra and Gardner remained good friends and, in her autobiography, Gardner named Sinatra as the love of her life
• During their courtship, Sinatra bought Gardner a Corgi puppy for her birthday; for the rest of her life, Gardner always had a Corgi with her
• Sinatra allegedly kept a picture of Gardner on his mirror long after their relationship ended
![]( "Mrs. Lang leaving hospital after a visit (1951)")
Joan Bennett & Jennings Lang•
Bennett's film producer husband, Walter Wanger, suspected his wife and her agent of twelve years, Jennings Lang, were having an affair so he hired a detective who shadowed Bennett for months and confirmed his suspicions•
On December 13, 1951, Wanger followed and waited for his wife while she had a meeting with Lang and when Lang walked Bennett to her convertible and chatted with her, Wanger went up to them and shot Lang twice and wounded him; one bullet hit Lang's right thigh, near the hip, and the other penetrated his groin• This all conveniently took place right across of a police station so when they heard the shots, the police took Wanger into custody, where he was booked, fingerprinted, and thoroughly questioned
• Bennett denied the affair and blamed the stress of Wanger's financial setbacks involving film productions as the reason why her husband shot Lang
• After briefly going with a "temporary insanity" defense, Wanger was later sentenced to four months in prison by a jury
• Although Wanger was typically able to bounce back and produce more successful films, Bennett's acting career suffered greatly due to the scandal; Bennett once said, "I might as well have pulled the trigger myself"
• Bennett and Wanger remained married until 1965
• The Wangers and Langs often went on double-dates and were close friends
• During this time, Wanger's career was declining and he was still recovering, financially and reputation-wise, from producing
Joan of Arc (1948), which starred Ingrid Bergman; the news of Bergman's extramarital affair with Italian director Roberto Rossellini offended the
definitely not hypocritical American audience, who boycotted the film, and
Joan of Arc was a blow to Wanger
• In his biography, David Niven claims Wanger stalked Errol Flynn and threatened to kill him because he believed Flynn was also having an affair with Bennett
SOURCES: Vélez & Cooper
1,
2,
3,
4&
5 | Bergman & Rossellini
1,
2&
3 | Leigh & Olivier
1,
2,
3&
4 | Taylor & Burton
1,
2,
3,
4&
5 | Aadland & Flynn
1,
2,
3,
4,
5&
6 | Bow & Lugosi
1,
2,
3&
4 | Hepburn & Tracy
1,
2,
3&
4 | Dandridge & Preminger
1,
2,
3&
4 | Gardner & Sinatra
1,
2,
3&
4 | Bennett & Lang
1,
2,
3,
4,
5&
6
