Hollywood's Secret Affairs: 10 Scandalous Star Romances from Cinema's Golden Age
This article is an excerpt
from RUSC Member's Area
It is easy to think that celebrity affairs are a recent phenomenon, but the truth is that these kinds of dalliances have been going on since Adam & Eve.
Here's a short list of some of the most famous Hollywood affairs during cinema's golden age, which very much overlapped with the golden age of radio.
Cary Grant and Sophia Loren
While Cary Grant was married to actress and writer Betsy Drake, he and Sophia Loren began an affair that lived up to the title of the 1957 movie they were filming in Spain: "The Pride and the Passion." A year later, Grant and Loren co-starred in "Houseboat" - originally based on a script by Grant's wife - but by then the affair was over and Loren had married Carlo Ponti.
Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni
Both were married when they met - Catherine Deneuve to photographer David Bailey; Marcello Mastroianni to actress Flora Carabella - but the relationship lasted from 1971 to 1975. Their daughter, actress and singer Chiara Mastroianni, was born in 1972. As she tells it, "I only saw my parents together on screen."
Joan Crawford and Clark Gable
"It was like an electric current went through my body ... my knees buckled," Joan Crawford said of meeting Clark Gable. While making 1931's "Possessed," they had what came to be known as "the affair that nearly burned Hollywood down." Gable was recently married to a Texas socialite, and Crawford had a high-profile marriage to Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Clark Gable and Loretta Young
In 1935, after he and Joan Crawford had cooled it, Clark Gable had an affair with Loretta Young, who became pregnant and then slipped away to England to avoid a scandal. Young sent her baby daughter to an orphanage until she was 19 months old. After that, she took the girl back and claimed she had adopted the child as an infant.
Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy
Katherine Hepburn said she fell in love with Spencer Tracy the first time she met him when they made 1941's "Woman of the Year." Tracy, a Catholic, would never divorce his wife, but the relationship between the frequent co-stars lasted more than 25 years, until his death in 1967.
Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal
Patricia Neal was 21 and Gary Cooper was 46 when they began an affair during the shooting of 1949's "The Fountainhead." This was no casual fling - one night, after Cooper saw Neal kiss Kirk Douglas, he slapped her across the face. Word of the affair caused serious tension between Cooper and his wife "Rocky," who sent a telegram demanding that he end it immediately.
Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly
Gary Cooper was still married when he hooked up with Grace Kelly while filming 1952's "High Noon." By then he had turned 50; his on-screen wife was just 22.
Steve McQueen and Mamie Van Doren
Mamie Van Doren wasn't yet divorced from bandleader Ray Anthony in 1959 when she first became involved with Steve McQueen, then star of the TV western "Wanted: Dead or Alive." Nor had McQueen split with his wife, actress and singer Neile Adams.
Gloria Swanson and Joseph P. Kennedy
It began in 1927 when Gloria Swanson approached Joseph Kennedy for financial advice. Soon JFK's father and the Hollywood screen goddess were embarked on a three-year affair that took place in far-flung locations from Palm Beach to Paris. (Swanson's then-husband was a French aristocrat.)
Sean Connery and Raquel Welch
In 1966, while married to actress Diane Cilento (Paul Newman's co-star in "Hombre"), Sean Connery got together with Raquel Welch, who starred that year in both "Fantastic Voyage" and "One Million Years B.C." Then again, the original 007 has been linked with actresses ranging from Lana Wood (Natalie's sister) to Jill St. John. Not to mention - in 1957 - Lana Turner!
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