Read facts you never knew about Mae West:
Facts: Hedy Lamarr
Read facts you never knew about Hedy Lamarr: Hedy’s favorite actresses growing up were Norma Talmadge, Gloria Swanson and Alice White. Her first husband Fritz Mandl reportedly tried to buy up all the copies of her film Ecstacy, so that nobody would see the nude- and sex scenes. He was unsuccessful and even Benito Mussolini …
Facts: Joan Crawford
Read facts you never knew about Joan Crawford: She never liked the name Joan Crawford. Her childhood nickname was ‘Billie’ and she preferred to be called that in private. Joan was a major germaphobe, who washed her hands every ten minutes and immediately wiped off everything guests in her home had touched. Whenever she stayed …
Facts: Rock Hudson
Read facts you never knew about Rock Hudson: Rock took 5 screen tests at different studios before signing with Universal. His screen test for Twentieth Century Fox was so bad, that the studio showed it to young actors for decades as an example of how bad you can start out and still become a star …
Facts: Bette Davis
Read facts you never knew about Bette Davis: Bette had been a decorated Girl Scout as a child and even became a Girl Scout leader as an adult, despite her busy career. Bette was so close to her mother Ruth and sister Bobby that they called themselves the ‘three musketeers’ and they lived with or …
Facts: Spencer Tracy
Read facts you never knew about Spencer Tracy: Spencer attended no fewer than six high schools. He considered going into the priesthood as a teenager. He attributed this to the Catholic schools he attended and he always held the occupation in high regard. He became lifelong friends with fellow actor Pat O’Brien when they were …
Facts: Audrey Hepburn
Read facts you never knew about Audrey Hepburn: Audrey was fluent in English, Dutch, Spanish, French and Italian. Which gave her a great advantage both as an actress and a humanitarian. She was raised bilingually; speaking English and Dutch, which resulted in her unique accent. Her mother changed Audrey’s first name to Edda during the …
Facts: Lucille Ball
Read facts you never knew about Lucille Ball: Lucille suffered from ornithophobia, the fear of birds. She felt it came from seeing birds on the windowsill when she was told of her father’s death at the age of four.
Facts: Doris Day
Read facts you never knew about Doris Day: All of Doris’ grandparents were German immigrants. Her mother had named her after silent film star Doris Kenyon. Coincidentally, Doris would become Kenyon’s neighbor while living in Beverly Hills in the seventies. She had two brothers: her older brother Richard died before she was born. Although Doris …
Facts: Jean Harlow
Read facts you never knew about Jean Harlow: Jean’s mother is seen as the original ‘stage mother’, the modern phrase for a woman who vicariously lives out her own dreams of stardom through her child. Jean was photographed nude at the age of 17 by photographer Edward Bower Hesser in Griffith Park in 1928. She …
Facts: Paul Newman
Read facts you never knew about Paul Newman: Paul’s father was Ashkenazi Jewish and the son of immigrants from Hungary and Poland. His mother was from an ethnic Slovak family in Hungary. He was so ashamed of his debut in the failed costume drama The Silver Chalice that he took out an ad in Variety …
Facts: Marlene Dietrich
Read facts you never knew about Marlene Dietrich: Marlene used to call her daughter ‘the child’ and shaved years off her age for publicity purposes, causing her daughter much confusion as to what her actual age was. She was the first German actress to be nominated for an Academy Award. Marlene and director Joseph von …
Facts: Laurence Olivier
Read facts you never knew about Laurence Olivier: Laurence’s role models as a young actor were Douglas Fairbanks and John Barrymore. When Laurence had to go to college he told his father he did not want to go. He was going to follow his brother and become a rubber planter in India. Although his father …
Facts: Ava Gardner
Read facts you never knew about Ava Gardner: Ava’s oldest brother Raymond was killed when a rifle shell exploded when he was only sixteen months old. When she was a teenager she had a big crush on future co-star Clark Gable. When she came to Hollywood the only two books she had read were the …
Facts: Frank Sinatra
Read facts you never knew about Frank Sinatra: Frank’s eardrum was punctured at birth, causing some hearing problems. This worsened when he got older and suffered age-related intermittent hearing problems, something he was very sensitive about. Frank learned music by ear and he never learned how to read music. It is said that the character …
Facts: James Stewart
Read facts you never knew about James Stewart: James was head male cheerleader at Princeton. He never took an acting lesson and felt that people could learn more when they were working than when they were studying the craft. He sent the Best Actor Oscar he won in 1940 to his father, who displayed it …
Facts: Katharine Hepburn
Read facts you never knew about Katharine Hepburn: Katharine was a natural red head. As a child, Katharine cut her hair off, wore boys’ clothes and made people call her Jimmy. When Katharine was growing up, it was normal in the Hepburn household to take ice-cold baths or showers daily. She continued to do this …
Facts: Greta Garbo
Read facts you never knew about Greta Garbo: Greta got her first job at the age of six selling newspapers Her school records show that she was a ‘fair’ but lazy student, who was always daydreaming. The only subject that interested her was History. Greta is known as a timeless beauty, but not everything came …
Facts: Marlon Brando
Read facts you never knew about Marlon Brando: When Marlon was a kid, everybody called him Bud. Close friends and family would continue to do so throughout his life. He was close friends with Wally Cox, who he had known since childhood. He took Wally’s sudden death at 48 very hard. He got a part …
Facts: Judy Garland
Read facts you never knew about Judy Garland: Judy was less than 5ft. tall She was put on a constant diet by her mother and MGM as a teenager. She later stated that that was what she remembered most about those days. She felt that her biggest hit, Over The Rainbow, was symbolic of her …