Tragic Real Life Stories Marathon #3 - Classic Cinema

mo larry and curly were just a few funny fellows who grew up in the school of hard knocks unfortunately for them the knox didn't stop coming after they hit it big in show business here's a look at the tragic true life story of the men known as the three stooges moses horwitz better known to fans as moe howard was the group's fearless leader he was born in a small jewish community outside of brooklyn the second youngest of five brothers he had shoulder-length pair and was ruthlessly picked on for it so one day he decided to give his locks a big chop the result was the famous bowl cut he became known for long before the beatles made it cool moses survived the bullying in grade school but he dropped out of high school after just two months as he was far more interested in something else show biz he would stand outside the local theater waiting for someone to buy him a 10 cent ticket when he'd get in he'd stand at the top of the balcony chin on the railing dreaming about becoming an actor one day he hustled at the theater running errands and doing odd jobs until he got his own gig performing in blackface at minstrel shows along the mississippi river in 1922 mo and his brother samuel aka shemp linked up with ted healy and brought their boyhood jostling to vaudeville larry fein was born louis feinberg to russian jewish parents in philadelphia one day he was playing with his father's jewelry tools and saw what he thought was a refreshing cool drink but it was actually a bottle of acid used to check the authenticity of gold he picked it up to take a sip but his father slapped the bottle away burning the boy's forearm in the process he needed a skin graft for the burn and his doctors had him take up violent lessons as a way to strengthen it he took to the violin unbelievably well and even ended up playing professionally in addition to his musical pursuits he also became a lightweight boxer in 1925 larry was playing a musical comedy act in chicago and he came across ted healy who happened to be playing the same venue and got a look at larry's show larry's bit was good enough that healy invited him to become one of his stooges joining mo and shemp what formed was a lasting friendship between mo and larry that lasted for the next half century as for healy he gave the stooges their start though he had a major falling out with shem who eventually parted ways with the rest of the stooges when shemp left the stooges moe's brother jerome who went by jerry was brought in to try out the problem was he didn't look very funny he had brownish red hair and a handlebar mustache and ted healey didn't think people would laugh at him it also didn't help that his own brother didn't think he had any talent whatsoever but jerry was determined so he shaved his head bald right in front of the guys he reportedly said boy do i look girly healy thought he heard him say curly and the name stuck the silly and lovable curly went on to become almost everybody's favorite stooge his legacy would live on for decades to come his on-the-ground shoulder spinning may have inspired break dancing and his backward shuffle bounce walk may have even inspired michael jackson's moonwalk after all the hits jabs and slaps the three stooges endured it would be miraculous if they didn't come away with some serious injuries but miracles didn't happen [Applause] in moe's autobiography i stooged to conquer he revealed that he often got hurt during filming and once broke three ribs he wrote as rough a character as i seemed to be in pictures and as tough as i came across i was hurt in our films more often than either larry or curly or any other member of the cast mo also revealed that the origin of the stooge's violence stemmed from a live performance in 1925 in brooklyn mo told ted healy that his brother shemp was in the audience so healey called shemp to the stage who wouldn't drop the pair he was eating while on stage shemp offered the pair to healy but he refused grabbing it and smashing it over the newcomer's head this became a recurring bit and shemp became part of the team most famous two-fingered eye poke also arose thanks to shem the two were playing cards and when shem suspected larry of cheating he jumped up and poked him in both eyes moe thought the whole thing was hilarious so he worked it into the act harry cohn the co-founder of columbia pictures was a bit of a monarch in fact he reportedly modeled his office after that of italian dictator benito mussolini his tyrannical reputation extended to his awful treatment to the three stooges after first signing them in 1934 cohen had the trio sign new contracts every year convincing them that the shorts department was on its last legs but that was only half true over the years shorts were going slowly the way of the dodo as tv and feature length films took over but colombia wouldn't close its shorts department for decades we are more on stride and true and we'll do our yell for you in the meantime the stooges were making the studio big bucks while colombia was only paying each of them a maximum of twenty thousand dollars per year the studio was raking it in but the stooges never saw viewership numbers so they had no idea how popular they really were to make matters worse the stooges manager harry rahm was ripping them off he also had a cozy relationship with cone in 2008 moe's daughter joan told the new york times that her dad grew up poor and that he didn't know how to fight for what he and the stooges were worth as she put it my dad was fearful he didn't want to rock the boat he didn't have the confidence to sit down with harry cone and say we need more money the three stooges brand of comedy was inspired by eastern european yiddish archetypes the schlemiel the schlamazel and the persecutor curly was the childish and clumsy schlemiel larry the unlucky schlemonzel and mo the abusive persecutor even though he was just as stupid this made the stooges part of a long tradition of jewish comedy and while they never explicitly drew attention to their culture or tradition in their act save for the odd yiddish phrase or two they did make two important exceptions in 1940 while adolf hitler was carrying out the holocaust the stooges made you nancy spy starring moe's mo hailstone a goofy imitation of hitler this was the first film to be released that featured an american comedian imitating the german chancellor beating out charlie chaplin's a great dictator by less than a year then in 1941 this dude just came out with a sequel i'll never heil again thereby forever influencing the world of american political satire let them kill each other and you and i will share the world everybody loved curly but he struggled in his personal life he was known for reckless partying hardcore drinking and falling for women who weren't good for him all those hits to the head surely didn't help either by the mid-1940s his health was visibly declining he wasn't getting his lines right he lost weight and he just didn't look healthy moe asked harry cohen to give curly some time off to recover but the colombia boss wouldn't allow it while on set in 1946 curly suffered a brutal stroke though he was able to recover when he was healthy he appeared in the 1947 three stooges short hold that lion which would be his last film it was the only time that the three howard brothers appeared in a short together curley's health continued to seriously decline as he had more strokes mo took it upon himself to be his brother's caretaker but curly wasn't long for this world on january 18 1952 he died at the tragically young age of 48. jules white a director on several three stooges shorts could never forget what curly said to him on his last day on set g jules i guess i'll never be able to make the children laugh again while the three stooges rocketed off into stardom original stew shemp was off doing his own thing after falling out with ted healy and he was doing well and happy on his own but when his brother curly died moe pleaded with him to rejoin the stooges moe also had to convince colombia to bring shem back colombia and shemp eventually agreed to a deal although chem had to forego half of his paycheck to do so chimp's return was successful albeit short-lived on november 22nd 1955 he was in a taxi on his way home from a boxing match he was in the middle of a joke smoking a cigar when he teetered over and fell onto his buddy al winston's lap it had a heart attack and died at the age of 60 just three years after his brother curly's passing by the end of the 1950s columbia pictures needed to adapt or die in 1957 the studio was the only one in town that still had a shorts department they decided to close it as the winds of tv and feature films were sweeping through with the closure of the shorts department came the decision to let the three stooges go after 23 years of blood sweat and tears that's right they just laid them off without so much as a thank you or tribute if that didn't sting enough think about how moe must have felt when he got back to the office to say goodbye to his colleagues and security guards blocked him from entering complete and total disrespect was all colombia had to offer but that wasn't the last we'd hear from mo after the breakup with colombia the three stooges found new ways to stay on the air columbia syndicated their shorts to local and national tv which not only put more money in the remaining stooges pockets but also made their material more popular than ever before as new fans emerged the stooges started to cash in on merchandising but there was just one problem who could replace curly a couple of guys named joe joe besser and curly joe dorita ended up filling the role but most fans don't feel they quite stacked up to the original stooges nevertheless in the 60s the stooges managed to churn out feature-length films 41 wraparound segments and a cartoon series in 1969 they even started shooting a pilot for a proposed travel tv show called kook's tour alas a tragic event in 1970 prevented any footage from ever being shot just like his comedy brothers larry fein had a hard personal life he squandered a lot of his dough on gambling which meant that he and his family spent a lot of time living in hotels in 1961 his son john died in a car crash at the age of 24. six years later his wife mabel died as well he heard the news just before he was about to take the stage for a gig in rhode island and his castmates covered for him when he was too distraught to go on in 1970 when the stooges were in the midst of planning kook's tour larry had a stroke that paralyzed the left side of his body and put him in a wheelchair five years later he had another stroke and died at the age of 73 meanwhile mo is still trying to keep the three stooges alive even after larry died moe signed longtime stooge co-star emil sitka to a deal but it wasn't meant to be three weeks after larry's passing mo succumbed to lung cancer and with that came the end of one of the most fascinating and influential acts to ever grace american screens remember us that's how we made our living for 50 consecutive years yeah we got scars to prove it and i still got a few of the aches and pains yeah it's been off the air for years but our gang also known as the little rascals holds a special place in the hearts of many americans one of the most memorable characters was froggy a cranky little boy with a croaking voice reminiscent of a frog this is his tragic story beginning in 1922 movie fans were entertained with a new series of comedy shorts featuring ragamuffin children our gang the brainchild of producer hal roach the our gang series broke new ground by showing black and white kids playing together something that wasn't always popular at the height of the jim crow era though the series still traded in some racial stereotypes when our gang lampooned the kkk in 1923 it faced swift backlash from southern theater owners despite this the series proved to be a big hit the series faced one big issue though because it starred children the filmmakers had to constantly find new stars as the old ones grew up after roach sold the franchise to mgm in 1938 the studio began auditioning new kids to appear in the our gang films and in 1940 they found a potential star billy lachlan born in 1932 to doting parents charlotte and robert billy lachlan grew up with strabismus also known as crossties which is a condition in which one's eyes are unable to line up as a result he wore thick glasses and was subject to intense bullying to give him a boost of confidence billy's mother signed him up for acting classes and bought him a popeye puppet while playing with the puppet billy began developing a deep gravelly popeye voice and it was this voice that would prove to be his ticket to stardom while performing at one of his drama classes billy used his popeye voice and was overheard by an mgm talent scout who thought it would be a perfect gimmick for one of the our gang films this is the happiest day of my life after a test screen and a positive public reaction who thought that lachlan's gravelly voice was funny billy was signed to a term contract for our gang at just seven years old lachlan made his debut with the gang in 1940 in the short film the new pupil according to alcatron in the new pupil billy lachlan's character was named harold but his guttural voice quickly led to his renaming since the gang thought their new member's voice sounded more like a frog than it did popeye they started calling him froggy because the voice was so incongruous with the sight of a small boy some fans suspected that it was an adult voice that was just over dubbed in the studio but in fact it was billy's own popeye impression and the filmmakers put it to good use having froggy speak only occasionally to heighten the effect rather than wear it out a perfect example is in the short waldo's last stand where the cast spins the whole film trying to get him to buy some lemonade even secretly turning heaters on him in an attempt to make him thirsty finally at the end he delivers a single punch line to bring the house down i don't have no money and besides it's too hot in here unfortunately for billy lachlan he joined our gang when it was in its final stretch once hal roach gave our gang over to mgm the quality of the show suffered immensely as a result of declining audience interest mgm ended up canceling our gang in 1944 between 1940 and 1944 billy lachlan appeared in roughly 30 r-gang short films ironically one of his most famous was the very last r gang film ever made dancing romeo which centered around froggy's infatuation with a dancer named marilyn and which allowed froggy to speak the final line in our gang history after mgm canceled our gang in 1944 billy lachlan appeared in just one feature film before he decided to conclude his acting career in 1944 lachlan had a cameo in the movie johnny doesn't live here anymore the only time he appeared on screen outside the r gang films and one of the only times he ever used his actual voice for a role don't you have a bathroom of your own yeah but with my pop two brother-in-laws and assists in high school my kids ain't got a chance after johnny doesn't live here anymore he auditioned for a few more roles before he decided he'd had enough and told his parents that he wanted to leave his acting career behind according to purple clover lachlan left acting in order to have a normal adolescence and even took up a paper route unfortunately the young man's wish to have a normal adolescence ended up being tragically short-lived on august 31st 1948 while billy lachlan and his friend john wilbrand were delivering newspapers on lachlan's new motor scooter near la puente california they were hit by a speeding truck while they were making a u-turn according to definition.org lachlan's parents had gifted the motor scooter to him just two weeks before the accident while wilbran survived with minor injuries at the age of 16 lachlan became the youngest out of any of the other r-gang actors to pass away sadly he wasn't the only our gang member to meet an early tragic end carl dean switzer who played alfalfa was fatally shot at the age of 31 during an argument with an acquaintance over 50 dollars additionally robert hutchins who played weezer perished in an airplane accident during military training at the age of 19. and norman cheney who played chubby also passed away young at the age of 22 after an operation though many of the our gang actors led long and fulfilling lives the loss of froggy and the others is a sad footnote to the beloved series still fans can take solace in the fact that though the stars may be gone their laughs live on he was born moses harry horwitz to lithuanian jewish parents in brooklyn new york but though he called himself harry the world came to know him as mo howard the unofficial leader of the legendary three stooges mo caught the acting bug early after regularly playing hooky from grade school to watch plays he dropped out of high school after just two months and began singing in saloons for money along with his brother sam better known to three stooges fans as shem their father quickly put a stop to that but it wasn't long before mo got his big break in show business as part of comedian ted healey's act shemp joined the act as well and shortly after they became a trio with the addition of former boxer lewis feinberg who took on the stage name larry fine and with that the three stooges were born later to be joined by moe's brother curly yet appearances aren't always what they seemed in the nearly 200 short films the three stooges filmed for columbia pictures the character of mo was a bit of an angry bully who frequently smacked punched or kicked his fellow stooges when he wasn't poking them in the eyes in real life though it was mo himself who took the brunt of the damage while filming those sequences in his autobiography i stooged to conquer he wrote as rough a character as i seemed to be in pictures and as tough as i came across i was heard in our films more often than either larry or curly or any other member of the cast props might go wrong set pieces break a move was mistimed over the years most suffered a fractured ankle cracked ribs concussions and more all to make the public laugh in reality mo was actually beloved by his friends and family as a caring kind generous and thoughtful man quiet in his personal life mo collected coins and stamps and dabbled in ceramics he loved to care for plants including vegetables in his prolific victory garden during world war ii he also served as an air raid warden during the war and he and the family would invite soldiers home for home-cooked meals and entertainment beyond that the three stooges toured extensively during the war mo wrote in his autobiography that on one trip alone quote we played every army navy and air force installation from maine to pensacola he also donated time and money to a number of charities and assisted other performers who were down on their luck and though he was reportedly not a very demonstrative man by nature he was actually a hopeless romantic who wrote hundreds of love poems to his wife helen over the nearly 50 years they were married heck he was even known to play santa claus for hospitalized children sadly in 1946 moe's brother curly the baby of the family suffered a severe stroke as his physical and mental health deteriorated mo took over his care refusing to institutionalize his brother regardless of the severity of curly situation most saw to it that his baby brother was cared for in a series of nursing homes rather than locked away in an asylum which was common at the time curly died in 1952 at the age of 48. just three years later shemp also passed away at the age of 60. with the three stooges essentially over mo who had done well with investments over his career moved into real estate though he continued to occasionally cameo on tv shows or in movies finally though the inevitable came and in 1975 he passed away from lung cancer at the age of 77 just three months after larry fein's death and tragically just one month before he would have celebrated his 50th anniversary with his wife helen moe was survived by his wife and two children and a legion of fans who continue to honor the legacy of the greatest stooge who ever lived jackie gleason is remembered as one of the most iconic stars of the 20th century but underneath his jocular smiling public demeanor he dealt with considerable inner turmoil these are the tragic details about jackie gleason jackie gleason was born on february 26 1916 to parents herbert walter gleason and may macy kelly who hailed from county cork in ireland curiously enough while gleason was born herbert john gleeson he was baptized as john herbert gleason the nickname jackie was given to him by his mother and it stuck gleeson grew up in bushwick brooklyn which was a very impoverished area at the time according to gleeson's website young jackie knew that he wanted to be an actor from the age of six when his father used to take him to see matinee silent films and vaudeville performances unfortunately the theater visits would be the only good memory that gleeson would have of his father herbert gleeson would walk out on his family when jackie was only nine years old jackie gleason never saw his father again unfortunately herbert gleason's abandonment wasn't the only tragedy that would befall the gleason family jackie gleason actually had an older brother named clement who was a frail and sickly child this led to the boy dying of spinal meningitis when young jackie was only three once jackie's father walked out his mother maisie became even more protective of jackie gleason would later recall how his desperate mother kept him inside at all times as a child telling an interviewer i could never go out on the street and play with the other kids i used to watch them with my face pressed against the window i think that's how i developed my poor soul look between her oldest son's death and her husband's abandonment macy gleason couldn't bear to lose her last family member sadly gleason's mother died at the age of 50 leaving the 19 year old gleason alone homeless and with only 36 cents in his pocket the gleason family had always been poor but after his mother's death jackie was utterly destitute he needed money and he needed it soon as noted by me tv gleeson's then girlfriend's parents did offer to take him in but gleason turned them down he managed to get a roommate in the city and started taking whatever work he could find first he worked some minor gigs as a carnival barker and a daredevil driver then as an mc in a brooklyn club but what really helped gleeson's career was playing various gigs in some of the seedier nightclubs across new york new jersey and pennsylvania according to entertainment weekly gleeson flopped badly in standup still he did better as a table hopping comic which let him interact directly with an audience these entertainment gigs eventually attracted the attention of talent agents who could land him small movie roles and later parts in broadway musical comedies by the time he was 34 gleeson had earned his own tv variety show the jackie gleason show before taking the role of legendary pool player minnesota fats in a classic movie the hustler gleeson learned to play pool in real life as noted by film historian dina de monbro when gleason was still a boy he often tried to pick up odd jobs around his brooklyn neighborhood to earn extra money to bring home to his mother as they were living in abject poverty they needed whatever money they could make between the two of them the 12 year old jackie managed to find work in a pool hall where his job was racking up balls for neighborhood tufts who came into play while working in the pool hall gleason learned to play the game himself and managed to become quite the pool hustler at a very young age when it came to filming the hustler gleason didn't need any stunt doubles to do those trick pool shots they were all gleason himself and director robert rossen always positioned the camera to show off gleeson's excellent pool skills to the audience over his lifetime jackie gleason had three wives the first was a dancer genevieve halford with whom gleason had his two daughters geraldine and linda although gleason and halford were legally married for 34 years their relationship was extremely fraught halford hoped to have a normal comfortable family life but gleason was far more interested in going out with friends drinking and partying the two of them separated and reconciled multiple times over according to the south florida sun sentinel during one of their separations gleason also carried on a relationship with another dancer named marilyn taylor he wanted to marry taylor but halford was a devout catholic and refused a divorce marilyn taylor went on to marry someone else halford eventually came around and divorced gleason in 1970. only 10 days after his divorce from genevieve halford gleeson married a country club secretary named beverly mckittrick whom he had met in 1968 however in 1973 gleason learned that the widowed marilyn taylor had moved to miami he quickly filed for divorce from mckittrick and married taylor once the divorce was finalized taylor and gleason remained married for the rest of gleeson's life jackie gleason was an extremely heavy drinker and a hard partier in his day in fact gleeson's parties could get so out of control that one of his hotels had to soundproof his suite to prevent the rest of the guests from being disturbed by gleeson's partying and when he had been hitting the bottle particularly hard he wasn't noted as being a fun or affable drunk but has been described as petty mean-spirited and nasty gleeson was also known to drink while he was at work and on set as noted by gleeson's biographer william henry iii jackie gleason seldom spent much time with his family during the holidays apparently he would only spend about half an hour with his wife genevieve halford and young daughters on christmas before going out to celebrate the day with his drinking buddies gleeson's alcoholism and carousing certainly seemed to be what really threw a wrench in his first marriage leading to several separations and reconciliations before the ultimate divorce gleason was a brilliant performer but he wasn't exactly the easiest person to work with gleason always had high salary demands and outrageous prerequisites like having the longest limousine apparently gleason even insisted that cbs move his show to miami so he could golf year round he wasn't any better when performing either gleason an outstanding improviser hated rehearsing feeling that he and his co-stars would give better reactions if they didn't seem so practiced his honeymooners cast loathed gleason's methods and were forced to rehearse without him as noted by fame 10 co-star joyce randolph admitted that she would quote break out into cold sweats right before filming this was because gleeson often wouldn't read the script until the day of the show and sometimes wouldn't even give it to his co-stars until hours before they were supposed to go on gleason's drinking was also a huge problem on set he was known to show up either drunk or openly drinking while working and the cast and crew could never be sure what his temperament might be gleeson's drinking caused him to have abrupt mood swings charming and pleasant one minute and screaming an offense offensive the next you're gonna do the mambo you're gonna do the mama but it's gonna be on the moon he might have been a showbiz genius but gleeson probably didn't make as many memorable shows or movies as he could have just because others in the industry found him so exasperated jackie gleason and art carney as ralph cramden and ed norton of the honeymooners are among the most iconic duos in 20th century television however despite their off the charts chemistry together on screen the two actors didn't actually get along well in real life one reason why the two disliked one another was the speculation that gleeson felt threatened by carney's comedic talents and prominent acting career according to the morning call gleason at one point told actor orson wells just how insecure he really was regarding his co-star saying it's like on my show when they laugh at my subordinate art carny that dirty so-and-so i smile on the outside but you should see my insides in return art kearney was said to dislike gleason's lack of professionalism and refusal to take the craft of acting seriously mr kramer hey there after the honeymooners ended in 1956 carney and gleeson swore they would never work together again ultimately they broke that promise but the two didn't work together until 1985 for the crime comedy tv movie izzy and mo the iconic cartoon show the flintstones was obviously very heavily influenced by the honeymooners nothing was blatantly stolen from the honeymooners but the lead characters mannerisms and personalities were too i'd like to ignore both shows featured a heavyset loudmouthed husband with a dim-witted best friend who regularly came up with ludicrous get rich quick schemes that were always squashed by their more prudent wives both the husband and the best friend characters were also avid bowlers and belonged to a men's club whose members wore ridiculous looking animal hats you haven't forgotten our date tonight have you dear but will my baby sweetheart tonight deserve a little bowling thing the flintstones was so similar to the honeymooners that gleason at one point considered suing hannah barbera but his publicist ultimately talked him out of it saying do you want to go down in history as the man who killed fred flintstone gleason backed off incidentally the flintstones would go on to last much longer than the honeymooners while the honeymooners ended after 39 episodes the flintstones had multiple seasons and spawned several spin-offs tv specials and movies by the mid 80s jackie gleason's health was on the decline and he thought he was done making movies but director gary marshall had other ideas marshall was dead set on gleason starring in his latest film nothing in common gleason was to star alongside tom hanks playing hank's bad tempered self-absorbed curmudgeonly father gleeson was reluctant to take on the role fearing the strain that doing another movie might put on his health but then marshall reminded gleason that his last theatrical film credit was smokey and the bandit 3 in 1983 a film widely regarded as awful and with highly negative reviews marshall needled gleason suggesting that he might want to reconsider letting that be the last movie on his record that was enough for gleeson he might have been in poor health but he said yes to appearing in nothing in common which was officially his final film released in 1986. it received mixed reviews overall but gleason's performance was met with praise from critics the movie has a 57 rating on rotten tomatoes certainly an improvement over smokey and the bandit 3. jackie gleason died on june 24 1987 at the premature age of 71. gleeson had been suffering from multiple health issues for years but kept it a secret from the public nevertheless his years of hard partying voracious alcohol consumption and extravagant eating inevitably caught up with him although gleason had always been overweight his lifestyle choices led to vein inflammation diabetes and hemorrhoids however the ultimate cause of gleeson's death was colon cancer although he tried to keep his condition private it became obvious to many that gleason was seriously ill as time went on even gleason himself couldn't ignore the fact that the end was probably coming soon a year before his death he privately admitted to one of his daughters quote i won't be around much longer in an interview with gleason's stepson craig horwich horwick fondly recalled his stepfather he wanted to be at the head of the table with as many people and all the wonderful food and fun that came with it but then he also had a great pleasure of reading and listening to music and solitude gleeson will be remembered as a complicated often problematic and volatile person but his legacy is a brilliant performer with legendary achievements will live on lucille ball is considered one of comedy's greatest legends forever synonymous with her six season 50 sitcom i love lucy co-starring her real-life husband desi arnaz but the actress didn't exactly have an easygoing life here's the tragic real-life story of lucille ball lucille ball was born on august 6 1911 in western new york the daughter of desiree hunt and her husband henry ball according to lucille's autobiography love lucy the family relocated to montana where henry was working as a telephone company lineman not long after the family left for michigan when the future star was about three paul remembered her father as a wonderful guy and also claims she got her sense of humor and love of slapstick comedy from him she adored her father but the same year they moved to the suburbs of detroit he came down with a case of the flu her mother was pregnant with lucille's younger brother at the time and incredibly stressed about her husband so she would tie lucille up in the yard with a dog leash to keep her under control wall wrote every time somebody would pass by on the sidewalk i'd beg to be released unfortunately for henry before he had a chance to recover a storm suddenly hit their neighborhood as a telephone lineman he continued to climb poles and sleet and snow working hard to keep communication open his illness got worse and eventually turned into typhoid fever ball recalls that he died not long after the storm on february 28 1915. according to charles hyam who wrote the real life of lucille ball the whole family had to go into quarantine when ball's father was diagnosed with the disease he wrote this rejection and forced isolation had a deep effect on lucille contributing to her paranoid feelings of rejection later in life and perhaps inspiring a desire to make people accept and love her a desire that consumes all entertainers after her father's untimely passing lucille ball's mother eventually remarried settling down with a man named ed peterson the family along with lucille's grandparents moved into a three-bedroom house in celeron new york paul writes that her grandparents were short on money but they helped the family feel whole unfortunately tragedy would soon strike yet again on the future comedian's 16th birthday she recalls her grandfather fred coming home with a mysterious object wrapped in brown paper that turned out to be a 22 caliber rifle her brother freddie couldn't wait to try it out their stepfather placed tin cans as targets in their backyard inviting their neighbors cleo johanna and warner over to play as well as johanna picked up the gun warner's mother called him home frightening the girl and causing her to accidentally shoot warner instead he was rushed to the hospital where it was discovered that the bullet had struck warner in the spine severing the cord while ed offered to pay the medical bills warner's family filed a lawsuit and won ball wrote they took our house the furnishings that dede had brought so laboriously on time week after week the insurance everything my grandfather never worked again the heart went out of him it ruined celerone for us it destroyed our life together there there's no denying that lucille ball is a comedy icon she won numerous accolades including golden globes the cecil b demille award and the lifetime achievement award in comedy at the american comedy awards it's clear that ball made her mark on television for countless generations to come oddly enough however the actress almost gave up early on in her career according to the los angeles times when ball was still a teenager pushing for her big break on broadway her drama teacher told her to give up leaving school shortly after ball simply kept gunning for an opportunity enrolling in the john murray anderson dramatic school in new york while she was in a few very small roles on broadway her career really started when she turned to modeling with her face appearing on billboards and magazines and in store ads she became an incredibly recognizable figure finally in 1933 she turned her sites to hollywood her teacher's advice seemed to stick with ball for years to come she once told rolling stone in a 1983 interview i am not funny my writers were funny my directors were funny the situations were funny what i am is brave do you think they could make a glamour girl out of me sure says right here we work miracles ball met desi arnaz on a movie set in 1940 and she later told the los angeles times that she felt it was true love from the very beginning they eloped after just six months but the cracks started showing quickly ball was left mentally exhausted due to arnez's infidelity and drinking so much that it may have contributed to two miscarriages that she suffered in 1944 after being married for four years the pair separated albeit briefly the pair soon reunited both professionally and romantically and they approached cbs with an idea based on some of the work they've done together premiering on cbs in october of 1951 i love lucy was a smash hit mainly due to the adorable on-screen couple that was lucy mcgillicuddy ricardo played by ball and ricky ricardo played by harness the show's success helped keep the couple together but arnez's old habits reappeared and even other cast members noticed keith thibodeaux who played little ricky told people magazine i can see why their marriage didn't make it desi was a really great guy when he wasn't drinking but as kids we'd definitely stay away from him when he was drunk paul would frequently call her friends for help and advice in the middle of the night if desi got too heavy into his drinking and a couple eventually divorced in 1960. speaking with the los angeles times ball later said of desi he was like jekyll and hyde it was always the same boos and broads despite their frequent problems the couple still did have some happiness obviously their show was very successful and the two also had a son and a daughter together it'll help our vibrations lucy what don't you like the way i vibrate ball would later call her children her proudest achievement ball's marriage to arnez dramatically changed her personality she was once carefree and full of spirit but people started to notice that she seemed paranoid and suspicious of everyone speaking with people magazine the actress's longtime friend lillian briggs winograd said she had a lousy situation with desi's carousing and gambling for 18 years she wanted out of hollywood because everyone was always saying poor lucy ball was most likely fed up with the pity too and the entire situation rubbed off on those around her actor richard burton who appeared on here's lucy wrote in his autobiography she's a monster of staggering charmlessness she is a tired old woman and lives entirely on that weekly show i loathe her today but now i also pity her keith thibodeaux echoed a similar sentiment telling people that ball's temper was legendary and people knew to avoid her when she was having a rough day in the end after her divorce from arnez it seemed like ball finally found some clarity she actually helped other actresses with their relationships offering advice from her own experiences when i love lucy was on the air the sitcom completely captivated the country the los angeles times wrote the show was so popular that it literally stopped the nation every monday night from 9 p.m to 9 30 p.m many stores would even shut down before the show started knowing that they wouldn't have any customers while it was airing i love lucy finally came to an end in 1957 lucille ball later decided to resurrect her familiar character in 1968 sequel show here's lucy starring her two kids in part to kickstart their own careers once that was accomplished she decided it was time to retire lucy in 1974 and try her hand at hollywood again that same year ball filmed her final feature film maim an adaptation of a broadway musical reviewers ripped her to shreds jerry hermann who composed the broadway hits even told publications how disappointed he was with ball's betrayal of the lead role she mostly laid low after the failure of maine but she decided to return to tv with life with lucy in 1986. it too was a flop however with ball at age 75 and her headache long gone the character didn't strike the right chord with audiences her character was stuck the way she always was or they could have made her much more interesting life with lucy only lasted 13 episodes paul and arnez's second child desi jr unfortunately took after his father when it came to his bad boy reputation he claims that he thought he fell in love at the age of 13 and he was a father by 15. however taking after his father when it came to womanizing wasn't the only problem that desi junior had lucille ball seemed to have as many issues with her son as she had with her husband desi junior knew his father had issues with addiction and he followed the same dark path with drugs ultimately he finally checked himself into rehab looking back on this dark period in his life desi junior thinks he succeeded in rehab due to his mother and father speaking with closer weekly he said both my mother and my father were invited to come with me and they did they were very supportive and i think they were helped tremendously by what happened to me despite a tumultuous marriage ball and arnez maintained a connection even after their divorce finalized in 1960 the pair seemed to flourish after parting ways even with one another their daughter later said that getting divorced was the best thing that ever happened to both of them and that the duo actually became more friendly towards each other after they split up ball later married gary morton and arnez married edith mack hirsch but it was evident to everyone that these two exes genuinely still cherished one another according to desi lou the story of lucille ball and desi arnaz desi's last words to his former wife before he died in 1986 were i love you too honey good luck with your show lucille ball died just a few years later in 1989. when she did paula stewart to friend of ball's second husband gary morton recalls morton telling her that he assumed lucille was happy now since she was with desi again in april of 1989 lucille ball suffered a heart attack at the age of 77 and went through over seven hours of surgery to help her recover the doctors who treated her were worried about the severity of the heart attack and ball's age but we're optimistic she would recover entertainers comedians and fans all expressed their sentiment that ball would pull through tragically even with well-wishers calling praying and sending letters the icon of comedy did not recover from her operation on wednesday april 26 1989 a week after she checked into the cedar sinai medical center lucille ball died of a ruptured abdominal aorta the hospital released a statement expressing their sorrow and indicating that they had no way to prevent balls passing speaking with people magazine after her passing ball's friend michael stern said her private nurse said that she went to bed that tuesday night feeling good knowing that the world loved her god gave her that extra time so she would know that she was still loved i think she needed that considering all the tragedy uncertainty and difficulties that lucille ball endured over her life it's certain that the tv icon would be radiating to know that to this day the world still loves lucy too few child stars have ever achieved the level of celebrity that shirley temple had nicknamed little miss miracle shirley temple's work helped carry american audiences through the great depression but behind the stardom shirley temple experienced financial strain and a troubled marriage born on april 23 1928 shirley jane temple was just three years old when her mother gertrude perceptive of temple's burgeoning talent signed her up for dance lessons but the decision wasn't entirely selfless gertrude herself had wanted to become a dancer and was intent on her daughter succeeding where she had failed it was at the dance school that temple was discovered by producers from educational films corporation despite the name the shorts made by the film distribution company were oriented more toward the comedic than instructional in 1932 temple was cast in a series of shorts called baby burlesques where children played the satirized roles of adults temple's first speaking role occurs in the second baby burlesque short titled war babies where temple plays an exotic dancer as toddlers and diapers oggle her her first on-screen kiss came when temple was just five years old according to the atlantic the set of baby burlesques wasn't the kindest place for children if anyone misbehaved they were sent to sit on a block of ice in a black sound booth temple wrote in her autobiography that she didn't think that the black box did any permanent damage to her psyche however temple would later tell an interviewer that the lesson she took away from the black box was simple wasted time is wasted money shirley temple's roles in baby burlesque caught the eye of fox film corporation which would later merge with 20th century pictures in 1935 to create 20th century fox songwriter jake gourney is credited for bringing temple to 20th century fox after seeing an episode of frolics of youth another multi-part series produced by educational pictures that temple appeared in gourney was struck when he saw temple entertaining fans in a movie theater lobby as he left the screening he was so charmed by her that he promptly arranged for temple to audition for the film stand up and cheer in december 1933. she quickly got the part and was signed to a two-week guaranteed contract worth 150 dollars per week by the end of the month her contract had been given a year extension as well as an option for seven years stand-up and cheer which came out in 1934 was temple's first major motion picture and by the end of the year she'd been given a starring role in little miss marker as well she appeared in a number of other films in 1934 but the musical bright eyes is considered to be the film that made her a star right eyes was written specifically for temple and in it she sang what became her most popular song on the good ship lollipop see that that's mistletoe between 1935 and 1938 shirley temple was hollywood's top box office attraction beating out stars such as bing crosby and clark gable her film curly top which came out in july 1935 made 1.1 million dollars at the box office according to the bbc temple is even credited with keeping 20th century fox from bankruptcy especially due to the success of the film bright eyes in the midst of the great depression president franklin d roosevelt even credited her with raising people's spirits referring to temple as little miss miracle temple appeared in at least three movies a year between 1935 and 1938 sometimes upwards of eight often playing an orphan whose optimism was reassuring to audiences during a time of economic turmoil and uncertainty john f kassin author of the little girl who fought the great depression wrote this about temple's films they were not meant to change the world but to summon the emotional resources simply to persevere in it temple's popularity led to many products being created in her name and likeness temple themed merchandise included raincoats dresses and accessories there was also a shirley temple doll made by the ideal novelty and toy company according to collectors weekly the doll was officially announced in october 1934 and came outfitted in a polka dot address similar to the one worn by temple and stand up and cheer in 1935 the shirley temple doll accounted for almost one third of all doll sales even though it cost three times as much as unlicensed dolls her iconic hairstyle was also imitated by many and while there are conflicting accounts of the drink's origin the shirley temple drink is also named after the child star but funnily enough temple herself wasn't a fan of the drink saying that it was too sweet for her taste temple also turned down many offers to license her name for the mocktail noting that she doesn't like the idea of cocktails even non-alcoholic ones for children by 1935 temple was making a thousand dollars a week just for merchandising and by 1936 her royalties from licensing exceeded two hundred thousand dollars despite the fact that shirley temple was making a great deal of money she didn't end up seeing much of it after temple had signed her studio contract in 1934 her father george became her manager and although he fought repeatedly for pay increases it was more for his benefit than his daughters by the end of 1935 temple's salary was 2 500 per week and in 1936 it rose to 50 000 per movie according to the atlantic in 1938 at 307 thousand fourteen dollars temple was making more money in a year than anyone else in hollywood other than louis b mayer one of the co-founders of mgm but when temple was 22 she discovered that even though she had earned over 3 million dollars she reportedly had only forty four thousand dollars in her account with the spending of her parents and her father's mismanagement of her wealth temple was left with a fraction of the fortune she had earned but despite everything temple later wrote i felt neither disappointment nor anger shirley temple was regularly treated poorly during her film career during the 1932 film runt page temple got an ear infection and had to have her eardrum lanced at a hospital and despite her mother's pleading the producer insisted that temple be at the studio in the morning or she would be replaced according to the atlantic temple also had to frequently fend off advances from men during her first visit to mgm the producer arthur freed reportedly unzipped his fly in front of temple producer david o selznick also literally chased a terrified temple who was 17 at the time around an office furthermore in 1939 a woman tried to assassinate temple because she believed the actress had stolen her daughter's soul temple was also plagued by various rumors such as that her hair wasn't real or that she wasn't really a child some even claimed that her teeth had been filed to appear more like baby teeth often fans would pull on her hair to check if it were a wig or not temple herself wished that she had been able to wear a wig since her real hair warranted nightly rituals that included a weekly vinegar rinse that caused her eyes to burn 99. the rumor that she wasn't actually a child was so widespread that the vatican sent father silvio masanti to investigate temple's true age shirley temple's popularity began to wane as she grew up and matured according to the atlantic temple had already started to age out of commercial viability at just 12 years old after one of her movies the bluebird did poorly at the box office in 1940 fox dropped her contract and although she signed with mgm she never made another hit like the ones from her childhood during this time temple started going to school again in los angeles and began to focus on a non-celebrity life as she continued her schooling temple continued to appear in various films throughout the 1940s such as that hagen girl and the bachelor and the bobby soxer but despite receiving critical praise none were box off his successes her final film a kiss for corliss came out in 1949 and it also received a lukewarm reception temple had married fellow actor john agar in 1945 hoping that he could protect her from the muddled life of hollywood but instead agar turned out to be a violent alcoholic who only added to temple's troubles they divorced a few years later in 1949 which just added to her adult image finding it more and more difficult to land major roles temple stepped away from the big screen after shirley temple married charles alden black and they moved to washington dc for his career temple started working as a republican fundraiser in 1967 temple turned her full attention to politics and entered the congressional race in california although she ultimately lost her political career was only just beginning temple was a lifelong member of the republican party and campaigned for richard nixon in 1968. temple served as a united states ambassador to the united nations from 1969 to 1970 under president nixon president gerald ford also appointed temple as the united states ambassador to ghana from 1974 to 1976. her political work continued when in 1976 temple became the first woman to be united states chief of protocol at the state department serving until 1977 under president ford in 1988 temple was given the first honorary title of foreign service officer in recognition of her work as a diplomat temple also worked alongside her former co-star ronald reagan with whom she had starred in 1947's that hagen girl as a foreign affairs officer expert while he was president i wish i'd never heard of you ever since you've been here things have changed at the time when shirley temple was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1972 the disease was rarely talked about especially in public celebrities at the time also frequently hid their illnesses from the public but temple sought to dispel the stigma and shame around breast cancer so when she underwent a mastectomy she spoke to reporters directly from her hospital bed as the new york times reported while she was recovering in the hospital temple explained to reporters how a cancerous lump had been discovered in her left breast and that the breast had to be removed as a result not only was it uncommon for a celebrity to be as candid about their illness and its treatment the openness with which temple discussed her breast cancer diagnosis was also aimed at providing information to women that doctors at the time weren't necessarily giving at the time informed consent also wasn't common and many women who thought they were just having a biopsy would wake up to find that they'd undergone a radical mastectomy according to a 1972 medical document this was because doctors at the time assumed the entire burden of deciding how patients with breast cancer should be treated but as temple advocated for self-examination she became an outspoken advocate for women's agency in regards to their health shirley temple was appreciated across political party lines and in 1998 president clinton awarded her the kennedy center honors in recognition of her years of diplomatic service after her work in politics temple went on to serve on the board of directors for a number of organizations not limited to bank of america the walt disney company and the national wildlife federation in 2006 she was also awarded the screen actors guild lifetime achievement award even though temple's film career lasted a relatively brief 20 years she made an unforgettable impression her husband charles black had died the year before so their son accompanied her to the awards ceremony temple didn't distinguish much between her entertainment career and her political career during her life flaming once that she thought politicians were just like actors and for her the years she spent in social service were just as enjoyable as her years in hollywood on february 10 2014 shirley temple died from pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease copd at the age of 85. she was survived by her three children and millions of fans around the globe not every mouseketeer retained their cherubic image after leaving the mickey mouse club here are tragic details about the original mickey mouse club cast one would think that the sons of famed actor mickey rooney would be a huge pull for the fledgling mickey mouse club in fact rooney himself once claimed that mickey mouse was even named for him after he met walt disney's kit there is no documentation to back up rooney's unlikely claim but it is a fact that rooney's sons mickey jr and tim were hired to appear on the mickey mouse club based on their talents the twosome were quite good at acting dancing and singing but neither of them survived on the mickey mouse club for very long so why did they end up leaving according to several reports the young brothers were fired after getting into trouble on the disney lot more specifically the boys were apparently fooling around in the ink and paint department the very room where mostly women artists supplied magnificent colors to disney's cartoons and movies nobody was around when mickey junior and tim snuck in and began switching the paint around by pouring it into the wrong colored cans they were immediately fired oh yeah that was at the reunion the reunion there's mickey and there's me although each pursued other careers their father became estranged from them claiming elder abuse by his family rooney senior left nothing to any of his eight children when he died in 2014. nine-year-old paul peterson was a mouseketeer who was fired after just three weeks with the mickey mouse club show in 2017 peterson told the courier and press that one day casting crew member lee travers teased the boy relentlessly calling him mouse a nickname he knew peterson hated peterson finally retaliated i said don't call me that fatso and punched him in the stomach at that moment most unfortunately walt disney himself was standing in the room and witnessed the whole thing according to peterson disney called him into his office that same day and fired him on the spot though he later noted he's able to laugh about the incident now luckily for peterson he went on to become a teen idol his biggest role was as jeff on the donna reed show from 1958 to 1966 but when the show ended the young actor was at a loss as hollywood turned its back on thankfully peterson had a deep love of music and the talent to back it up to fall back on his debut album lollipops and roses arrived in 1962. most importantly paul peterson founded a minor consideration a support group that helps young actors establish boundaries in the workplace and gives them guidance for what happens after the footlights fade he still works to advocate for the rights and safety of child actors to this day johnny crawford son of renowned television editor robert crawford became a mouseketeer at age nine well jimmy i thought the mouseketeers would like to meet my brother bobby who's the second best spencer in the world within a year however the talented actor had moved on and appeared in shows like crossroads the lone ranger the loretta young show sheriff of cochise and whirlybirds today though johnny crawford is best remembered as mark the son of rancher lucas mccain in the rifleman the show was a hit and the two stars had chemistry but mark mccain's innocence came a bit undone when crawford appeared nude in the 1973 movie the naked eight produced by hugh hefner and co-starring victoria principal the film starred crawford as the ape who appears on a road trip being taken by some insecure teens to meet a couple of girls on the way after the film's premiere crawford also made news as the first man to appear completely nude in playboy magazine and then went on to found the johnny crawford orchestra and other projects as of 2020 john was unfortunately suffering from alzheimer's disease and having trouble meeting his medical bills thankfully his friend and fellow former mouseketeer paul peterson set up a gofundme campaign to help cover his expenses london-born doreen tracy was among the original mouseketeers and was so good she appeared in the walt disney film westward ho the wagons in 1956. doreen i think it's called the weather house she also appeared on the donna reed show before embarking on a tour of performances for the military during the vietnam war fellow mouseketeer tommy cole later told the sun that doreen was affectionately nicknamed quote ardoto by the mickey mouse club cast and was famous for always having a smile for everyone unfortunately the self-proclaimed quote black sheep of disney was still on company time when she posed nude in 1976. the nude photos of tracy appeared in the december issue of gallery magazine in which the actress wore nothing but her mouse ears from the mickey mouse club after the magazine came out disney naturally took umbrage and fired tracy over the photos years later in her 2001 autobiography confessions of a mouseketeer tracy openly expressed her regret at posing for the photos you get caught up in your own ego not paying attention not seeing the full repercussions that was enough for disney which welcomed the performer back with open arms and even invited her to appear in a mouseketeer reunion in 2015. the reunion was doreen's last public appearance on television she died in 2018 after a battle with cancer little karen pendleton was just nine years old when she got the job as mouseketeer on the mickey mouse club although her father was a movie set designer pendleton herself had no experience in acting when she landed the game she did however know how to tap dance and that was enough to make her a hit on the show often introducing cartoons for viewers to watch and her talents were genuine leading to roles in disney's westward hove wagons and the magical world of disney in 1956 when karen's contract expired in 1959 disney tried to keep her on but her father decided it was best to decline the offer back in the real world the girl was teased by her classmates for her time on the show pendleton ultimately married and began a family giving birth to a daughter in 1973 a decade later tragedy struck as pendleton was in a car accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down still pendleton overcame the hardships went on to earn a master's degree and became an advocate for the disabled community she appeared at several mouseketeer reunions before she passed away in 2019 the canadian-born darlene gillespie appeared on the mickey mouse club for three seasons and developed a rivalry with fellow mouseketeer annette unicello over who could be the show's top female star hi there i'm back although funicello won out with her own illustrious career gillespie did go on to appear in several television shows notably national velvet and dr kildare in 1962. she also released some albums for disney as well as her own country music record under the name of darlene valentine but gillespie's personal life also became fraught with complications beginning with two divorces in 1968 and 1983 then in 1998 gillespie was convicted on a dozen counts for various crimes including securities fraud mail fraud and perjury she was sentenced the following year to two years in prison but maintained her innocence throughout the ordeal by 2011 after various other legal issues she was a retired nurse living quietly in california dennis day appeared on the mickey mouse club show for two years before dropping into obscurity after pairing up with his partner ernest caswell in the mid-1970s and appearing as a guest on a 1980 mouseketeer reunion show day relocated to oregon there he did small acting jobs at living history performances and developed a successful line of jams and jellies with his partner then in 2018 day was reported missing by his partner after nine months of investigation his former live-in handyman was arrested along with two other women in connection with day's murder although the surviving performers have continued to appear in public there have only been two official reunions for disney's original mouseketeers the first one in 1980 featured 31 of the original 39 mouseketeers in a television special singer paul williams hosted the show which included song and dance numbers by noted mouseketeer annette funicello and the others a special series of film montages also portrayed mouseketeers bobby burgess darlene gillespie cubby o'brien and sharon baird performing alongside footage of their younger selves in 2015 a second reunion was held during disney's d23 expo hosted by lorraine santoli author of the official mickey mouse club book seven remaining mouseketeers including sherry alvaroni sharon baird bobby burgess tommy cole darlene gillespie cubby o'brien and doreen tracy were in attendance as of today eight of the original mouseketeers are still with us which means another reunion could be on the horizon the specters of racism drug abuse and untimely death are just a few of the demons that haunted the young actors who portrayed our gang also known as the little rascals these are the tragic details of the troubled lives of the lovable child stars in segregated 1920s and 1930s america our gang was revolutionary in promoting an image of racial harmony white children and black children played and laughed together free from the complicated adult world in a 2015 interview with npr julia lee author of our gang a racial history of the little rascals said this is the height of jim crow you have the ku klux klan undergoing a period of resurgence you have lynchings going around across the country and so race relations were at an incredible low and yet you have the series that's so popular that shows black and white children playing together as if there's no such thing as race at all nevertheless the idea of a racially mixed cast of children interacting as equals was offensive in much of the country especially in the south according to lee protest and angry letters decrying the prevalence of black children in the films were common one early short 1922's lodge night was particularly sticky that film finds a gang poking fun at the ku klux klan an unthinkable act in states where the racist organization still wielded political power despite producer hal roach's approach to casting many of the our gang's shorts are rife with racial stereotypes humor rooted in minstrelsy informs much of the comedy of the little rascals and in 1971 the popular series faced a backlash spurred on by the civil rights movement ultimately some of the more objectionable material was removed for television broadcast aside from producer hal roach the man most responsible for making our gang a runaway success was senior director robert f mcgowan a former denver firefighter mcgowan moved to california in 1913 with dreams of working in the film industry by 1922 the director was hard at work on the argan comedies responsible for casting mcgowan along with co-director tom mcnamara assembled a troop of stock characters that would serve as the formula for the series for the entirety of its run our gang was at its best under mcgowan who directed the series from 1922-1933 although he had an affinity for kids and was unnatural at coaxing hilarious natural performances from his young cast the job took a toll on the director so he took a break under the direction of mcgowan's nephew anthony mack the comedies declined in quality mcgowan was soon back at the helm of our gang but the advent of sound would present him with new challenges [Music] he left the series in 1933 returning for one last our gang short to 1936 although they were among the biggest stars of their day the little rascals saw virtually none of the wealth they generated during their tv revival with no contractual accommodations made for residual payments or image licensing in the pre-television 1930s most of the argan kids were financially shut out as adults george spanky mcfarland worked tirelessly on behalf of himself in the cast to secure payment for the use of their images but to no avail all right for the greatest show in town i mean the greatest show in the whole world despite his frustration mcfarland took a philosophical stance on the lack of residuals he told the authors of the 1977 book our gang the life and times of the little rascals i have no regrets even though it was a job we had a pretty good time making those comedies as a kid i had most everything i wanted and we had a good life when it was over it was over only one year old when cast by hal roach allen farina hoskins appeared in 105 r-gang comedies between 1922 and 1931 more than any other cast member literally growing up on film hoskins was for a time our gang's most popular actor by the end of his tenure he was earning 350 dollars per week much more than his cast mates although he was not our gang's first black child actor that honor goes to ernie sunshine sammy morrison he was hollywood's first black child star clad in a baggy shirt covered in patches with hair knotted in a cluster of pigtails farina's image was rooted in racist stereotypes hoskins aged out of our gang at 11 replaced by matthew stymie beard as hoskins grew up the press of the day was particularly cruel julia lee author of our gang a racial history of the little rascals writes at the end of the child star's career was viewed as a quote form of death and one newspaper callously wrote oskins is no longer cute so he can't scrabble a dime out of hollywood on july 26 1980 alan hoskins died of cancer at the age of 59. he had served in world war ii and had been inducted into the black filmmakers hall of fame beloved for his off-key singing and ever-present cowlick carl alfalfa switzer remains a favorite of little rascals fans while visiting relatives in california with their family six-year-old carl and older brother harold caught the eye of producer how roach after an impromptu performance of their musical act in the studio's commissary the brothers joined the famed kitty troupe outshining lead george spanky mcfarland alfalfa quickly became a troop star however when the cameras were off switzer was nothing like his affable alter ego apparently he was a bully with a penchant for practical jokes often terrorizing the young cast and not just with his off-key voice [Music] despite being a featured our gang performer little is known about bobby weezer hutchins only eight when he left the series the nature of his departure has long been a topic of speculation among our gang fans what is known is that hutchins's parents were intent on his becoming a star perhaps mistreating him in the process often cast as little brother to jackie cooper hutchins was distant between takes in an interview featured in the 1984 tv documentary r gang inside the clubhouse cooper revealed how hutchins's parents created a barrier between their son and the rest of the kids he was to be left alone i guess it was his father was going to make him a star or something it obviously never happened like it did for spanky and some of the other kids on may 17 1945 army air corps cadet bobby hutchins died when his b-26 marauder collided with another aircraft during his final training exercise he was only 20 years old although the kids came and went the one constant of our gang was their beloved four-legged pal pd however kenai viewers will notice that there were actually several different dogs portraying the canine rascal over the years handled by dog trainer harry lucine the first pete the pup was a black and white pitbull named pal the wonder dog pal's distinguishing feature a marking resembling a partial circle around his right eye was filled in with dye to make a continuous ring the distinctive ring would make powell one of the most recognized animal actors of his day not only was powell famous but he was rich powell's contract with hal roach made him our gang's second highest paid actor sadly powell's days as petey were numbered an unknown assailant likely someone with a grudge against lucine poisoned pal in 1930. naturally the rascals were crushed by the news powell was replaced by one of his offspring the new pd was a literal mirror image of pal necessitating the migration of the famous ring to the other eye the dog played the role of pete the pup until 1932 when harry lucine was fired in the decades since our gang ceased production hundreds of imposters claiming to be former rascals have attempted to dupe an unwitting public one of the earliest was a man named jack bothwell who claimed to have portrayed a non-existent character named freckles in the 1950s bothwell managed to scam his way onto the popular tv game show to tell the truth and over the next few years i played in nine of the famous our gang comedies you may remember me as freckles the hoaxer continued his rascal's rules for years making personal appearances and doing the talk show circuit until his death in 1967. the most famous our gang imposter was bill english english an amiable and well-liked grocery bagger from arizona convinced the producers of the abc news program 2020 that he was the original buckwheat the fake buckwheat was outed by none other than george spanky mcfarland who informed abc that billy thomas the only actor to ever portray the beloved rascal had passed away in 1980. mcfarland confronted a virtually incoherent english on the tabloid news show at current affair well i don't i don't want to say anything to him except the man is uh he is he is not who he says he is but the hoaxer refused to back away from his claims 2020 later apologized for the segment which resulted in the ouster of a producer and legal action from the thomas estate billy laughlin was a late addition to our gang nicknamed froggy for his comically guttural and raspy voice he joined the troop in 1940 for 29 of the mgm shorts laughlin with his blonde bowl cut and coke bottle glasses provided the late era rascal shorts with some of their few truly funny moments for star wars spanky and alfalfa struggled to bring the laughs as they neared obviously uncomfortable adolescence froggy had to simply open his mouth for instant comedic gold i don't have no money and besides it's too hot in here when a stint with the rascals was over loflin made an appearance in the 1944 romantic comedy johnny doesn't live here anymore uncredited in the role laughlin uses his natural voice for the first and only time on film someone stole my soap who are you jerry malone and someone stole my soap following johnny doesn't live here anymore 12 year old laughlin left show business permanently in august 1948 laughlin was killed when the motorized scooter he was riding with a friend collided with an oncoming truck he was only 16 years old after leaving our gang at 13 carl alfalfa switzer struggled to recapture the success and fame the how roach comedies had brought him at first switzer's show business career seemed bright but it peaked in 1942 with a part in the comedy there's one born every minute only bit parts and low-budget cereals followed switzer made his final film appearance in the defiant ones directed by stanley kramer however by this time switzer was earning his living far from the glitz and glamour of hollywood working as a bartender a fishing and big game hunting guide and a dog breeder switzer's former fame was little more than a bitter memory by the end of the decade his luck was running out in 1958 an unidentified gunman shot switzer in the arm a motive for the shooting was never determined what is certain is that switzer's notoriously volatile temper had earned him no friends on january 21 1959 at the age of 31 an enraged and intoxicated switzer was killed by a man and his 38 caliber revolver during a violent incident at the man's home the shooting was ruled a justifiable homicide darla gene hood was our gang's undisputed sweetheart with her apple cheeks and angelic voice she kept alfalfa and the gang at constant odds as they vied for her attention hood continued to work in entertainment after her time in our gang was over in the 1940s she formed a vocal group that performed background music for many popular hollywood productions later hood made occasional guest appearances on tv wrote songs had a successful nightclub act and worked as a voiceover artist active in the art gang fan community hood was in the process of organizing a little rascal's reunion when she fell ill with appendicitis following a routine appendectomy hood died suddenly of congestive heart failure on june 13 1979 at the age of 47. an autopsy determined that a tainted blood transfusion had infected her with acute hepatitis which caused her death nearly 60 years after her death marilyn monroe's face remains one of the most recognizable in hollywood but things were not easy for monroe as the actress experienced a great deal of tragedy during her relatively short life this is the tragic real-life story of marilyn monroe the woman the world recognizes as marilyn monroe was born norma jean mortensen on june 1st 1926 and baptized norma jean baker monroe never knew who her father was in her unfinished memoir my story she wrote that her mother had a picture of a man who looked like actor clark gable but wouldn't tell her daughter his name subsequently whenever monroe thought of her father she pictured gable whom she even starred opposite in her final movie the misfits meanwhile monroe's mother gladys baker experienced a number of mental health issues over the course of her life within two weeks of monroe's birth baker had put her in the care of foster parents baker would be in and out of mental health institutions all her life and wouldn't re-establish a relationship with her daughter for many years to come after gladys baker was taken to an institution for the first time monroe lived with her mother's former lodgers and then with neighbors who offered to legally adopt her baker however refused to let this happen monroe next went to live with baker's best friend grace mckee but in 1935 mckee could no longer afford to care for her and took her to the los angeles orphans home society here monroe was nothing less than miserable two years later mckee now married took monroe back to live with her and new husband doc goddard soon after the goddard also put monroe in foster care at the time being a foster parent was seen more as a money-making scheme than an act of compassion during her childhood monroe lived with 12 different families many of whom were neglectful or abusive monroe later said she was sexually assaulted by a lodger in one of the homes and developed a stutter as a result of the trauma after all this the goddards eventually took monroe back but it wouldn't last when the goddards again could no longer afford to look after marilyn monroe she went to live with grace's aunt anna lower who provided her with the most loving and stable home she'd ever had when monroe was 15 doc otter got a job in west virginia and the goddards couldn't afford to take monroe with them but with lower getting older they decided she could no longer take care of the now teenage monroe either instead the goddards arranged for monroe to marry their neighbor 21 year old james doherty when she turned 16. in late 1943 doherty joined the merchant marine and was deployed overseas in 1944. monroe who had dropped out of high school got a job making 20 a week in a defense plant it was there that a photographer discovered her igniting her hollywood ambitions ambitions that didn't involve being married at 18. she and dharti divorced in september 1946 darty remarried twice and died in 2005. marilyn monroe's first show business job was modeling which served as a stepping stone into the movies she signed her first movie contract with fox in 1946 and was dropped in 1947 and signed with colombia in 1948 but was dropped again later that year with her acting career proving unstable monroe struggled to pay her bills in 1949 she agreed to pose naked for photographer tom kelly in exchange for 50 bucks which she needed for a car payment after monroe's movie career took off the following year the photos and the merchandise they were printed on became famous in 1953 aspiring publisher hugh hefner bought the rights to one of the photos and made it the first centerfold in his new magazine playboy according to the washington post monroe later said i never even received a thank you from all those who made millions off a nude maryland photograph she admitted that despite fox executive's nerves her decision to be honest about why she had the photo taken ultimately boosted her career hefner's obsession with monroe continued after her death and his although he never once met her in 1992 he purchased the crypt next to hers for 75 000 which is creepy on pretty much every level in 1952 retired baseball superstar joe dimaggio asked a friend to set him up with marilyn monroe being the most famous athlete in the country dimaggio got his dinner monroe had low expectations but she was pleasantly surprised to find that dimaggio was reserved and respectful after engaging in a long-distance romance on january 14 1954 monroe and dimaggio married at san francisco city hall monroe later said they were drawn together by a need for stability but in her mind that didn't mean she was going to stop working dimaggio however wanted a housewife and disliked his wife's sex symbol status these contrasting desires and dimaggio's possessiveness created tension alia kazan with whom monroe later had an affair wrote that she told him dimaggio struck her often and beat her up several times in september 1954 after dimaggio watched monroe shoot the famous subway great scene for the seven year itch the couple had a fight that turned violent monroe filed for divorce citing mental cruelty as the reason dimaggio begged for forgiveness but monroe refused the couple reconnected his friends during the christmas of 1961. dimaggio tried to help with her addictions and mental health issues and later blamed himself for her death after arranging monroe's funeral he had roses delivered to her crypt three times a week for the next 20 years the widely accepted version of marilyn monroe's rags to riches story is that she took a few pretty photos and immediately became a movie star but monroe worked hard to go from factory worker to hollywood icon as a model monroe studied her photos and constantly asked photographers for feedback for five years she took every job she was offered without complaint starting as an extra and climbing to bit parts at fox she deliberately befriended studio reporters who were happy to give her a publicity boost she also made an effort to improve her limited formal education often reading classic literature on set monroe resented being typecast as a dumb blonde or seductress and wanted to prove that she could bring more to a movie than sex appeal she took many acting classes first at the actor's lab in la and later with famous acting coach lee strasberg at the actors studio in new york in 1954 monroe protested against the demeaning roles fox kept sending her as well as the studio's refusal to increase her salary even though she was its biggest star after walking out on her contract monroe became the second woman ever to found her own production studio which she named after herself the rebellion worked too fox raised her salary and gave her greater creative control over her career despite her determination to make it in hollywood marilyn monroe suffered from terrible stage fright don murray who starred opposite her in 1956's bus stop has revealed that monroe got so nervous before every scene that she'd break out in a rash she struggled to learn lines and forgot technical requirements like hitting her mark walking out of the light or out of focus these problems meant that editors often had to patchwork together many takes to form a usable scene she was frequently also late to set murray later told the la times i think it was a lack of confidence for somebody who the camera loved she was still terrified other collaborators had the same problem jack lemmon who co-starred alongside monroe in 1959's some like it hot recalled that it once took her over 37 takes to finish one simple scene but he also told an interviewer that he never held this against her and he knew that she could do scenes in one take because he'd seen her do it and then the next morning we came in did the whole upper birth thing that whole first take before he goes down to get the booze in one and she had it in the first crack so you never know marilyn monroe met her third husband pulitzer prize-winning playwright arthur miller on a movie set in 1951. although each felt an attraction to the other they didn't act on it until 1955. monroe had divorced dimaggio but miller was still married at the time in 1956 during his divorce miller was subpoenaed by the house un-american activities committee and risked being blacklisted by hollywood monroe was advised to leave him for the sake of her career but she refused on june 29 1956 eight days after his testimony they married there were happier times ahead for the couple but monroe ultimately needed more emotional support than miller could give and the glamour quickly faded for him at one point monroe found a diary entry miller had written saying he was quote disappointed and embarrassed by her miller made his feelings on their relationship public in the screenplay of 1961's the misfits which he wrote to give munro the chance to show her dramatic skills while also clearly basing her sweet but neurotic character roslyn on her personality the shoot was a disaster and they divorced shortly after in the end miller didn't even attend monroe's funeral in an unpublished essay he began that day miller wrote that he didn't want to be around the false people he knew would be there in 1987 he summed up his feelings toward monroe he was a super sensitive instrument and that's exciting to be around until it starts to self-destruct despite her own dysfunctional upbringing marilyn monroe longed to have a child unfortunately she was never able to carry a pregnancy to term during her marriage to arthur miller she suffered two miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy monroe worried that her alcohol and drug abuse could have caused the problems she experienced with pregnancy however she also had endometriosis an extremely painful condition in which the lining of the uterus spreads into other parts of the reproductive system some studies have found that endometriosis increases the risk of miscarriage it was also rumored that monroe chose to have several abortions throughout her life this would have been illegal and therefore unregulated and potentially unsafe but it wasn't unusual hollywood studios had strict clauses about pregnancy and children for their female stars and a number of legendary actresses chose to have abortions rather than lose their careers and income it's thought marilyn monroe was initially prescribed painkillers for her endometriosis and barbiturates and other sedatives for her insomnia when she died her bedside table was covered in bottles of medicines she also drank heavily some of the medication monroe took was for depression many have also tried to diagnose monroe with a personality disorder but if she was ever diagnosed with one to her face she never made it public it seems fair to say that monroe's mental health had consistently been up and down and she attempted suicide at least once in her life i think you're the saddest girl i ever met the first man never said that i'm usually told how happy i am about a month after filing for divorce from miller monroe signed herself into the payne whitney psychiatric ward in new york claiming she was suffering from insomnia and simply needed to rest instead she was locked in a padded room and prevented from leaving joe dimaggio with whom she'd recently reunited eventually managed to force his way into the hospital and get her released marilyn monroe was found dead by her housekeeper eunice murray early in the morning of august 5th 1962. the coroner's report concluded that she had died of an overdose of barbiturates in a probable suicide however many have refused to accept this as the truth and the circumstances around monroe's death have been subject to a number of conspiracy theories over the years these are fueled by the fact that witness testimonies regarding her death generally contradicted each other some say munroe was in good spirits leading up to her death she'd been working hard to revamp her image after being fired and then rehired on a movie project but other people including her psychiatrist dr ralph greenson said that she was agitated on the day she died at one point eunice murray who monroe had fired days earlier claimed that bobby kennedy had visited monroe the day she died which the fbi investigated and later dismissed monroe was barely 36 when she died the true tragedy of her life is that she was a complicated fragile yet determined person who quickly found fame but never quite found true love or stability if you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts please call the national suicide prevention lifeline at 1-800-273-talk that's 1-800-273 [Music] laurel and hardy were a comedy duo who rose to fame during the classical hollywood era stan laurel and oliver hardy's slapstick comedy dominated the 1930s as they appeared in 107 films had millions of fans and even earned an academy award but behind the act were failed marriages health problems and financial ruin norville hardy was born in georgia in 1892 his father oliver hardy died just a few months after his birth his mother supported the family by managing hotels and boarding houses sometime in his teenage years artie began using the name oliver in honor of his father that wasn't the only loss hardy suffered during his childhood when he was 17 years old his older brother sam visited home and the brothers decided to go swimming at an old mill dam on the oconee river sam showing off for his kid brother climbed a tree and dived into the river from an overhanging branch tragically he misjudged the depth of the water and broke his neck on the rocks below the surface oliver hardy and his friends dived into the river and pulled sam out they carried him back to the hotel their mother ran but it was too late sam was dead decades later when hardy appeared on the television program this is your life he became very emotional when the subject was brought up showing just how much of a mark the loss left on the young boy stan laurel was born arthur stanley jefferson in 1890 in england while laurel had a relatively happy family life he was alone a lot as a child his parents were performers and theater managers and they frequently travel they took their children with them except stan who was weak and sickly as a child laura wound up spending much of his childhood with his grandparents george and sarah metcalf the metcalfes were generally kind to laurel but they were very strict and he spent much of his time alone in a shack on their property being punished for one thing or another still laurel grew into a performer just like his parents and he quickly began writing his own plays and pursued theater while this initially disappointed his parents who hoped laurel would come work with them they supported his dreams come out of there and put that pipe out then when stan laurel was just 18 years old tragedy struck when his mother madge died unexpectedly it's suspected she suffered from a respiratory illness made worse by the air quality in glasgow where the family had relocated laurel who had discovered his father was cheating on madge some years before blamed his father for breaking his mother's will to live according to laurel's second wife virginia ruth rogers he was devastated by the loss of his mother and in some ways never recovered from it part of the magic that was laurel and hearty as a comedy act was their physical disparity stan laurel's weepy railfin figure next to oliver hardy's robust frame was inherently charming to audiences party's weight was part of his identity and also the cause of his health problems later in life hardy's weight also caused him grief in his younger days throughout his childhood hardy was known as fatty hardy even after he became a famous hollywood star locals in his hometown in georgia referred to him by the cruel nickname his mother who managed local boarding houses made things even worse when she made young hearty walk around town wearing a sandwich board advertising the food at her hotels hearty size continued to plague him as he got older when america entered world war one oliver hardy sought to do his patriotic duty and went to a local enlistment office to join the army however the officers took one look at hardy's size and began to make fun of him calling other recruiters over to look at him he left humiliated laurel and hardy the iconic comedy duo wouldn't exist without hollywood producer hal roach both oliver hardy and stan laurel were working actors during the 1920s but neither had achieved any sort of breakout success roach saw their potential and put them together in 1927's the second hundred years from that point on the pair rose to stardom under roach's guidance but roach was a sharp businessman and laurel and hardy were not roach managed to keep the upper hand through shrewd negotiating for example he staggered the expiration dates of their contracts so they could never negotiate as a team which allowed roach to consistently undervalue them he paid them a flat wage instead of a percentage of the profits roach also ensured that they never held any of the copyrights or got any screenwriting credits although they usually took a very active role in the writing and directing of their films as both men went through several divorces alimony payments piled up and oliver hardy developed a gambling problem by the 1950s laurel and hardy had to embark on a live tour of english music halls to try to pay some bills which failed when hardy took ill and the tour had to be cancelled oliver hardy died surprisingly broke and new statesman reveals that in 1946 stan laurel was forced to admit that he only had two thousand dollars in his bank account and two hundred dollars a month to live on for about 14 years laurel and hardy were one of the most popular comedy duos in hollywood they often took an active role in shaping the films they worked on writing and introducing physical gags the comedy duo usually improvised much of their bits and carefully planned and even directed scenes while working with producer hal roach but over time laurel and hardy grew to despise roach for his tough negotiating methods and hard charging business style thus when they finally had the chance to break away from him they leaped at it signing new deals with 20th century fox and metro goldwyn mayer in 1941 however their new deal was not all it was cracked up to be because with roach laurel and hardy had enjoyed a great deal of creative control when they moved to mgm in the 1940s they were disappointed to find they'd lost that and they were treated as hired actors with no input on the scripts or direction as a result their output in the 1940s is considered to be of lower quality and their stars began to fade the duo made only one film together after 1945 and by 1953 they were broke and out of the film business entirely oliver hardy married his first wife madeleine in 1913 when he was just 21 years old the couple eloped to macon georgia for the nuptials claiming that since they were both a part of touring troops of actors and musicians they couldn't wait until they were both home to hold a ceremony the hardy family reported that hardy's mother was enraged at the union because madeleine was older than her son but as author simon luvish writes the reason for the hardy family's opposition to the marriage was likely much worse madeleine was jewish hardy married her far away from his family to avoid an ugly scene and the couple left georgia almost immediately the marriage lasted six years and hardy would describe it as a quote sham in his divorce application he married myrtle reeves shortly after the divorce was granted but once again marital bliss was denied him as luvish notes reeves was an alcoholic who was forced to stay in a sanitarium several times as she struggled with her disease leaving hardy desperate to leave the marriage he finally found contentment after divorcing reeves in 1940. he married virginia lucille jones who remained by his side until his death in 1957. oliver hardy and stan laurel were unique hollywood comedians in many ways one of the most surprising was the fact that they were very close friends in real life they enjoyed a very healthy and balanced professional relationship wherein hardy trusted laurel to shape the material in their films and went along with his ideas this mutual respect extended to their career dealings as well when laurel and hardy finally got out from under hal roach's control in the early 1940s neither considered working alone when hardy died in 1957 stan laurel was crushed he chose to retire from show business rather than work without his friend of more than 30 years the final phase of laurel and hardy's film career was a lengthy decline when they switched film studios in the 1940s and lost creative control over their work the quality of their films declined and public tastes shifted leaving them less popular than they'd once been they were virtually retired by 1945. it's because this comedy is difficult to make you see and difficult to do after world war ii ended laurel and hardy's celebrity which had been on the steady decline throughout the 1940s suddenly took off internationally as their films were finally widely distributed so it was decided that there was potential to relaunch their film careers with a french italian co-production that eventually became known as atol k the production was a fiasco there were language barriers and a terrible script to contend with but the truly tragic aspect was laurel and hardy's health hardy was at his heaviest and suffered from heart problems as well as a serious bout of the flu while laurel was dealing with diabetes and a prostate condition furthermore both men were considered heavy smokers in an era when smoking was common and accepted which didn't help their conditions in a final humiliation the producers found it impossible to get the film into theaters in the end the final film of laurel and hardy was a sad end to their brilliant careers it was fun while it lasted wasn't it stan oliver hardy's weight caused him many health concerns over the course of his life and by the 1950s he finally decided to do something about it so he embarked on a crashed diet that led to a weight loss of 150 pounds party expected people to be supportive but as author simon luvish says the change in his appearance was so drastic that friends and family were visibly upset at the sight of him this bothered hardy terribly and he went into near seclusion seeing only a short list of trusted friends including stan laurel then in september 1956 oliver hardy suffered a massive stroke that left him paralyzed and mute he was unable to concentrate on anything or communicate effectively with the people around him when he became especially agitated or depressed his wife would invite stan to visit he lingered on for almost a year being diagnosed with cancer and suffering an additional two strokes before dying in august 1957. by the 1950s stan laurel had been struggling with his own health laurel had chronic problems with his prostate and had to have an ulcer surgically removed from his prostate he was also a diabetic which complicated his health laurel had a stroke in 1955 which he survived but it left him weak when oliver hardy died in 1957 laurel quietly retired and moved into a small apartment in santa monica with his wife ida he spent his final years as a lonely man who passed his time writing letters possibly thousands of them laurel spent hours every day corresponding with anyone he could faithfully answering fan letters and sending missives off to his acquaintances some of these letters reveal tragic facts as when he writes that after his stroke quote of course i shall never be in a condition to work anymore even more tragic was the fact that stan laurel pinned something other than letters during his final years he also wrote comedy routines designed for laurel and hardy routines that would never be performed as new statesman notes it was almost as if it was laurel's way of staying in touch with hardy brock hudson was best known for his dashing looks and roles in giant and all the heaven allows behind rockhutson's fame was a troubled childhood a manipulative hollywood agent and a struggle with his gay identity he was also the first major celebrity to die with aids in 1985. rock hudson didn't have the easiest start in life born roy harold shearer jr in winnetka illinois hudson's father abandoned him and his mother when hudson was still a child his mother later remarried a man named wallace fitzgerald hudson's new stepfather adopted the eight-year-old roy giving him the last name fitzgerald one would think it would be indicative of some paternal feeling towards the boy however this turned out not to be the case wallace fitzgerald was brutal toward his stepson especially when the young roy first revealed his interest in becoming an actor hudson learned early in life just how dangerous it could be to express his true thoughts and feelings hudson later enlisted in the u.s navy during world war ii and served from 1944 to 1946 after he was discharged he moved to hollywood and took a paying job as a truck driver he lingered around movie studios during the day hoping to be noticed by executives or talent agents the young roy fitzgerald as rock hudson was then known did get his wish and was discovered by hollywood talent agent henry wilson wilson was quite taken with roy's dashing good looks and imposing six foot four height however the talent agent had a very shady reputation in the hollywood world it was also a semi-open secret that henry wilson was gay and while he was good at producing actors it was also known that wilson usually recruited young handsome and inexperienced aspiring actors like hudson rock hudson and henry wilson actually had a lot in common seeing us both were gay men with abusive fathers wilson's father even sent him to an all-male boarding school when he was young hoping the school would make his son more manly once wilson recruited him roy fitzgerald had to completely remake his image with henry wilson's help of course wilson was actually the one who gave his client his new name rock hudson he was given the first name rock for the rock of gibraltar and the last name hudson for the hudson river given that hudson's legal last name up until that point had been his abusive stepfathers he probably wasn't too regretful about giving it up but wilson knew that hudson needed more than a name change to be a convincing leading man it was clear that hudson was gay but that couldn't be made obvious to studio executives or the public luckily hudson already had the height the good looks and the naivete wilson could work with all of that according to vanity fair wilson personally paid for an extensive makeover for hudson this included getting hudson's teeth capped buying him a new wardrobe and sending him for vocal lessons wilson even taught hudson how to exude an exaggerated masculinity in essence henry wilson can be credited with creating the cinematic image of the rock huts and the public recognized surprisingly enough rock hudson was actually not that great an actor in the beginning he had no professional experience or training as an actor when he first arrived in hollywood however others were willing to take a chance on him because of his stunning all-american good looks and imposing height before signing with henry wilson hudson would apparently pose outside of the studio gates hoping to catch a higher-up's attention with his handsomeness or send photos of himself to producers even henry wilson couldn't deny that hudson's primary talents at least in the beginning were his striking good looks according to vanity fair after laying eyes on hudson wilson was said to have declared quote the acting can be added later once hudson was signed he was given acting and vocal lessons his debut role in 1948 was a bit part in the movie fighter squadron however as noted by the radio times there were rumors that it took 38 takes for hudson to deliver his one simple line in the film successfully peg i won't let you do it you know you love you and you know i won't let me throw it all away so i screwed it up can i try it again in fact for the rest of his acting career hudson was notorious for his problems with learning his lines despite his struggles they didn't stop him from starring in the 1956 film giant a role that earned him a best actor oscar nomination homosexuality was never portrayed on the big screen during the old hollywood days but many of hudson's roles often depicted a man in the midst of an identity crisis like magnificent obsession and all that heaven allows both of which were directed by douglas circ cirque was one of hudson's regular directors and seemed keenly aware of hudson's personal struggles with identity he likely urged hudson to do these roles and i've always been trusting my audience to have imagination otherwise they should stay out of this cinema given how hudson grappled with pretending to be a completely different person in public he was most effective in these film roles douglas circ and rock hudson worked together several times and they both had a close friendship according to an article in the criterion collection hudson described his bond with cirque as very much a father-son type of relationship he was like old dad to me and i was like a son to him i think hudson was about the same age as serk's son whom he lost custody to in a divorce after his ex-wife joined the nazi party and hudson had never had a close paternal figure in his life so cirque was certainly a welcome change although henry wilson was instrumental in starting hudson's career working with him came at a hefty price wilson's reputation had never been the greatest but by the 1960s it was getting even worse besides being a notorious alcoholic excessively vicious and cruel rumors of wilson's quote gay casting couch were circulating studios became increasingly more reluctant to sign his clients hudson stood by wilson and continued to have a professional and personal relationship with him for years but by 1966 wilson was becoming a weight around his neck hudson then fired him hudson had been wilson's most profitable client and without him wilson didn't have much to work with he would continue to spiral downward into poverty and ill health according to vanity fair when his health was extremely bad and the money had run out wilson begged hudson for financial help hudson wrote a check for 20 000 and said that was all he owed henry wilson and no more wilson died in 1978 of cirrhosis of the liver by then he was completely destitute there wasn't even enough money for a headstone at his grave for years henry wilson was nameless in his plot until someone finally paid for a headstone to be made prior to his diagnosis with aids rock hudson was already starting to develop severe health problems in the early 80s hudson was a heavy smoker and drinker which were likely the main contributors to his issues in the 1980s hudson had switched gears and was now acting on television in 1982 when starring on the short-lived detective show the devlin connection hudson had a massive heart attack to shut down production he subsequently had to have quadruple bypass surgery will not be sick i will not be dependent upon anybody else by the time hudson recovered from surgery and filming resumed viewers lost interest in the deviling connection and the show was canceled rock hudson's last major role was on the soap opera dynasty he was intended to be a leading character but soon it became obvious that his health was failing him hudson was becoming increasingly frailer losing weight and soon his speech began to suffer after appearing on 14 episodes of dynasty hudson's character had to be written off the show as an a-list hollywood star rock hudson would always be in the public eye but he tried to avoid the limelight whenever possible including interviews in one of his rare interviews in the 80s with journalist randa handler handler inquired about his reluctance to give interviews hudson responded by blaming his interview shyness on worries about being misquoted while there is certainly some truth to this most likely rock hudson found interviews particularly stressful due to diminished control for decades he had to play a very specific carefully crafted role for the public and a curveball question from an interviewer could throw off the facade which meant he risked exposure rock hudson was diagnosed with aids in 1984. he had originally visited a dermatologist to have a blemish on his neck examined the blemish turned out to be a form of cancer typically found in aids patients this meant he had an obligation to contact his recent former lovers to inform them of his illness however hudson was still wary about exposing his identity and outing himself as gay instead his close friend george nader handled the process for him by sending out anonymous letters which according to usa today stated the following we recently had sex together and i have been informed by my doctor that i may have aids please go to your doctor and have a checkup nader posted the letters from his home in palm springs to prevent anyone from tracing them back to hudson and compromising him despite their best efforts to protect hudson one of the recipients a 22 year old man guessed the letter writer's actual identity after being diagnosed with aids himself the young man sold his story to a tabloid for ten thousand dollars before dying six months later hudson eventually came out publicly in 1985 about his aids diagnosis and identity as a gay man he was one of the first celebrities to discuss his homosexuality and his diagnosis with the deadly disease it ended up being a huge turning point in bringing greater awareness about the aids epidemic before aids was publicly dismissed as a quote gay disease and not regarded as seriously as it needed to be but once rock hudson came out everything changed now there was an identifiable human face for the disease it can be considered disappointing that it took a celebrity getting diagnosed with aids a sickness that was already killing many in order for it to be given proper attention but it did the trick hudson's old celebrity friends like elizabeth taylor and doris day stood by him while people from all over began supporting aids benefits and fundraisers in a 1985 interview with people joan rivers admitted that rock hudson's coming out did wonders for aids support telling the magazine two years ago when i hosted a benefit parades i couldn't get one major star to turn out rock's admission is a horrendous way to bring aids to the attention of the american public but by doing so rock and his life has helped millions in the process rock hudson passed away at the age of 59 on october 2nd 1985. he was able to live out the remainder of his life surrounded by close friends while hudson was fortunate to have a support system at the end of his life he never was able to have true love his career in public life wouldn't permit it before his death hudson revealed to biographer sarah davidson that stockbroker lee garlington was his quote real true love the two dated in the mid-60s but had to keep their relationship a secret or it would have meant career suicide for both of them this involved taking secret trips together away from the press's prying eyes and attending hollywood events together with women as their official dates but hudson's career in the public eye wouldn't allow them to stay together for the long haul during a recent interview with people garlington expressed his regret that they couldn't have been together in today's more accepting world telling the magazine i wish he had been born 30 or 40 years later he'd be more relaxed than at ease and it would have been a happier life it'd also be elated by how much has changed don knotts will always be remembered for his role as deputy sheriff barney fife on the andy griffith show while don knotts was especially funny on the small screen his tragic real-life story includes a wounded childhood struggles with insomnia and pill addiction and later severe health struggles jesse donald knotts was born in morgantown west virginia in 1924 when knott's brother-in-law daniel de visay did a deep dive into knott's childhood in his book andy and dunn the making of a friendship and a classic american tv show he wrote that knott's childhood was horrible knotts was an accidental child that came along 14 years after his next closest sibling his two older brothers shared their bedroom with the family's various borders while knotts slept on a cot in the kitchen his father jesse senior was mostly bedridden by the time knots was born closer weekly says the elder knots was a schizophrenic alcoholic while the new york times adds that he also suffered from hysterical blindness abuse was a regular part of his childhood around age 30 nottz's mother elsie asked him if he remembered a horrifying confrontation where his father had threatened him with a knife in order to get from his kitchen bedroom to literally anywhere else knotts needed to walk through the living room and pass the sofa where his father spent most of his time sometimes a young don would sneak by otherwise it invariably ended with threats it's no wonder then that as a young boy don knotts was already pale thin and was regularly sick he'd later recall i did not come into the world with a great deal of promise naza's relationship with his brothers was complicated as well they were funny says the new york times especially his brother william nicknamed shadow an impressive feat when there was so little to laugh about and i think it was probably because of him that i really got interested in comedy myself but there was more to it nancy's daughter karen would later tell closer weekly that her father was mistreated by his brothers too they were often drunk and fought until shadow tragically died after suffering an asthma attack knotts was only a teenager at the time it's difficult to imagine growing up in that kind of environment with that kind of fear and don knotts had a deep desire for happiness he later revealed some of the coping mechanisms he used saying that he managed to find some comfort by filling my space with imaginary characters with whom i would act out some happy drama things started to improve as he entered his teenage years his daughter karen told closer weekly when his father passed he was 13 years old at that point that burden that huge burden lifted off him and he became old enough that he was able to get the other brother under control so he was no longer terrorized at home she also recalled that once her father entered high school he really started to come into his own he was class president he had a yearbook column he was popular and he had a best friend for the first time but in 1976 he told the los angeles times he had a slightly different view of his youth i felt like a loser i was unhappy i think most of the time we were terribly poor and i hated my size it's perhaps not entirely surprising then that it was during don knotts's early teens that he turned to a friend named danny who was dany ventriloquist's dummy and with the dummy he started performing there's an oft-repeated rumor about nods that says he was once an incredibly strict marine corps drill instructor that's balderdash and it also ignores his actual military service according to the new york times when world war ii rolled around everyone was convinced that the military wouldn't take such a sickly undernourished man but they did and they found the perfect place for him knotts toured the pacific front as a member of the comedy troupe stars and gripes who were tasked with entertaining the troops and he also worked as a nurse when those services were needed it was while he was in the military that he caught the eye of another older comedian named red ford ford's comments stuck with him and he would remember what he said years later you know something you're a funny little son of a by the time he was out he wasn't a ventriloquist anymore he had moved on to other types of comedy and according to appalachian talk he threw his dummy danny off a ship while he was somewhere in the south pacific after the military and after graduating from west virginia university in 1948 don knotts headed for new york city he had a hundred dollars in his pocket according to the la times and his career started out like many he was rejected he was turned down for a series of radio gigs then landed a spot on a soap opera but it took seven years before he got a role on broadway some attention and a co-star that would become a lifelong friend that co-star was andy griffith and the play was a comedy called no time for sergeants from there he started making a reputation as the perfect person to play a certain type of character nervous anxious and non-threatening and here's the thing the new york times says that he absolutely stole some of the material he was doing and those he stole from were largely fine with it why because the small thin nervous knots was the perfect side kick to make others look more manly so anyone he shared the screen with looked more like a leading man well i mean any complaints anything wrong with me oh gosh no i'm as strong as a bull it was don knotts who went to andy griffith and suggested himself for the role of barney fife and according to the la times he was almost joking when he said it but griffith absolutely went for it and it was a match made in tv heaven knotts had made it and found the success that most aspiring actors and comedians could only dream of but not all was well behind the scenes according to divise knotts had long struggled with massive feelings of inferiority long before he even made it to the small screen alongside andy griffith he would become so distraught that before a performance he might spend days in bed in the 1950s his doctors gave him a prescription for anti-anxiety drugs to which he became addicted wrapped up in his anxiety was hypochondria too along with chronic insomnia davise says that his insomnia stemmed from a tendency to stay out too late and enjoy the company of too many women but he also says that not quit all his bad habits with the snap of his fingers after an accidental overdose of sleeping pills and an ultimatum from his third wife knots changed at least some of his ways while success did come for the poor boy from west virginia don knott's daughter karen told closer weekly that the long hard years of his childhood definitely left their mark saying things came back to haunt him another part according to davise was that knott had difficulty reconciling his lives he constantly played characters who were submissive anxious nervous and often the butt of the joke and at the same time he'd found more success than he'd ever imagined reconciling those two things proved difficult and davise says that knotts was a good way into his career when he found himself sitting in the office of a hollywood therapist screaming and cursing god in an attempt to rid himself of depression self-doubt and the lessons of his bible loving father i've never really amounted to anything my whole life has just been one big failure after another still not's daughter karen remembered he was mercurial he had a lot of different kinds of moods he fought a lot of depression and i helped him or thought i did because i could see how he had this endless loop of thought that would always lead to a downward spiral on a more positive note she felt that by the end of his life he had overcome a lot of his past trauma and that he'd worked hard to become a happy person who loved people there are a few different stories as to why don knotts left the andy griffith show his daughter karen told closer weekly that the work was hard and there were only so many story lines the show could go through according to the la times though knotts had only ever intended on doing five seasons of the show when it started and that's what he did in 1967 he told them the grind gets to you in television and that's primarily the reason i'm concentrating on pictures the andy griffith show continued on without him for the most part though he did continue to make the occasional guest appearance but the general consensus is that without knots just wasn't the same there is a positive here though and that's the fact that griffith and nuts remain friends the tragedy on the other hand is that knotts never quite made it in the movie career that he'd been hoping for after leaving tv he scored a five film deal with universal in hindsight movies like the incredible mr olympics the reluctant astronaut and the ghost and mr chicken were absolutely brilliant not only did mr limpet kickstart the idea of mixing animation and live action the later comedians from martin short to jim carrey have cited them as a major inspiration unfortunately at the time knotts didn't see the critical acclaim that he thought he should have when knotts was only 57 years old he was given a troubling diagnosis of macular degeneration according to the myoclinic the condition interferes with a person's ability to see directly in front of them and makes anything in their direct line of sight appear distorted or blurry in some cases it can even lead to an inability to recognize faces and it usually gets progressively worse notts struggled with the diagnosis for the new york times knots once said i got pretty depressed for a while and then one day i said to myself i bet a blind person would give his right arm to have the vision i have knotts continued to work and according to the american macular degeneration foundation he continued to participate in his favorite hobby swimming laps eventually though his eyesight had deteriorated to the point where he could no longer drive or reel in the early 70s variety shows were all the rage which led to the opportunity of a lifetime the don knotts show the show seemed like it had everything that would have made it a major hit according to me tv they had given the show 22 weeks to make an impact and it didn't knotts talked about the show saying we did all kinds of things there was tremendous competition that season for variety because everybody and his brother had a variety show the show was on nbc and knotts went on to say that they essentially had stolen him away from cbs that didn't go over well but everyone had been so convinced it was going to be a hit that they didn't see where it could possibly go wrong the andy griffith show director bob sweeney was even brought in to try to fix things mash's gary bergoff was brought in as a recurring sketch comedy character and they even debuted acts like the carpenters still it came to a premature end while don knotts continued to make appearances on other variety shows it was in the early 2000s that closer weekly reports that don knotts was diagnosed with lung cancer by that time he and his longtime friend andy griffith had fallen a bit out of touch but griffith rushed to his side and was right there with him as he fought according to their matlock co-star nancy stafford as soon as the two of them were together it was like they never skipped a beat they fell into this routine of singing laughing and telling jokes together it was hysterical they had this amazing communication stop four scores seven years ago unfortunately knotts would ultimately lose his battle with cancer he passed away on february 24 2006 and people reported that one of the very last people to go and sit at his bedside was andy griffith griffith later recalled i told him i loved him and i held his hand his chest heaved several times and i believe he heard my voice 14 years after passing his daughter karen shared some regrets he had this funniness that was just completely insanely natural when he was dying he was making us laugh in hysterics he was literally dying but he did something or said something to cause my stepmother and i to go into fits of laughter which is why i ran out and that is what karen knotts regretted leaving her dad's side to laugh she added that she had been telling the story to the director howard storm who told her she should have stayed laughed out loud and let him hear her he was right i should have just stood there and blasted out laughing [Music] during the 1950s jane mansfield captured the imaginations of millions with her stunning good looks gravity-defying figure and bubbly personality but her wild ride came to a terrible end in 1967. this is the tragic real-life story of jane mansfield born vera jane palmer in 1933 in bryn mawr pennsylvania to parents herbert william and vera jeffrey palmer jane mansfield always knew she wanted to be famous teenage jane plastered a walls with photos of movie idols and dreamed of stardom in 1936 a big part of jane's world came crashing down when her beloved father died suddenly of a heart attack herbert palmer's passing left a void in jane's life as raymond straight author of the tragic secret life of jane mansfield explained biography jane grew up always looking for a father and looking to men for a father image and she never found it at 16 vera jane palmer not yet out of high school eloped with 20 year old paul mansfield jane kept the marriage under wraps and continued to attend high school and live with her mother and stepfather however when jane became pregnant the secret came out in recalling her mother's reaction to her pregnancy jane had this to say to her friend and biographer mae mann mama said i had ruined my life and her life then she relented and bought me a pretty white wedding dress and we had a wedding of sorts but i always remembered her telling me never to expect help from her on november 9 1950 jane and paul mansfield welcomed daughter jane marie into the world however motherhood would do nothing to diminish jane's ambition after jane's high school graduation the young couple enrolled at southern methodist university in dallas like many young newlyweds jane and paul mansfield struggled financially nevertheless they juggled parenthood classes and work to make a life for themselves and their baby daughter with her husband away for rotc summer camp jane left their daughter in the care of her parents while she headed for california to study drama at the university of california los angeles at the end of the summer session the mansfields briefly returned to texas but the korean war necessitated paul's activation in the army reserve and a move to camp gordon near atlanta georgia jane's habit of sunbathing and outdoor exercise caused quite a stir among the soldiers and their wives and drove her husband mad with jealousy paul mansfield struck a deal with his wife if she could wait out his two-year tour of duty they would move to hollywood and make a go of jane's dreams initially on board with jane's aspirations paul mansfield moved his small family to los angeles soon however paul would come to hate the idea of jane becoming a star as her pursuit of her career pushed him further and further into the background of his wife's life incredibly intelligent to possessing superhuman ambition jane mansfield mapped her every career move like a general planning and assault by the 1950s the public's conception of ideal womanhood was a voluptuous platinum blonde marilyn monroe set the standard for the mid-century sex symbol and thousands of would-be starlets followed her lead with her 40-22-35 figure mother nature had given jane mansfield a leg up while a bottle of peroxide would do the rest sex appeal is a wonderful warm womanly healthy feeling jane mansfield took the concept of the blonde bombshell and turned it up to 11 but even in an era when bigger was always better her curves proved a bit too dangerous to some as recounted in a 2003 episode of the bbc documentary series living famously mansfield's stunning looks had scored her numerous titles ranging from miss photo flash and miss cadillac to cherry blossom queen and queen of the palm springs desert rodeo yet her physical assets were just a bit too hot for commercial advertising the official jane mansfield licensing website janemansfield.com quotes photographer gary lester on one of mansfield's first professional modeling gigs which was a photo shoot for general electric lester recalled general electric notified me that they had to cut her out of the picture because she looked too sexy for 1954 viewers jane mansfield's first marriage would not survive her quest for stardom just four months after arriving in california jane and paul mansfield separated cracks in their marriage had begun to show during their time at camp gordon according to biographer raymond strait paul mansfield had hoped that marriage and motherhood would quell his wife's ambitions by the time paul left for korea the marriage was effectively over the marriage collapsed under the strain of emotional and financial struggles brought on by the mansfield's move to california and jane's single-minded pursuit of fame alleged infidelities on jane's parts also took a toll on paul eventually he gave jane an ultimatum it was him or her career soon he was on his way back to dallas jane mansfield's ambitions finally began to bear fruit when she landed her first movie role in the 1955 film noir female jungle that year would also find mansfield making the first of many appearances in playboy jane's semi-nude photo spread in the famous men's magazine gave paul mansfield what he hoped would be ammunition to gain custody of their daughter citing it as evidence that jane was an unfit mother but everyone figures me for a sex part no one thinks i'm equipped for motherhood jane mansfield instinctively understood the value of publicity she turned to jim byron a former club promoter to help her with her image as related in jane mansfield a biography byron managed to get her a meeting with a producer at warner brothers already familiar with mansfield's story from thousands of other starry-eyed aspiring actresses the producer told her she'd be better off settling down as a wife and mother after taking mansfield on a tour of the studio lot the producer told her he'd call her if something came up soon after the studio called mansfield for a screen test within days she signed a seven-year contract with the studio at first it seemed that jane mansfield had at last achieved her dreams of stardom she relished strolling about the warner lots in the company of the biggest movie celebrities of the day and warner's publicity machine kept her in the public eye yet her seven-year contract resulted in little work from mansfield ultimately warner brothers dropped jane mansfield after four largely unremarkable films in july 1955 mansfield took a starring role in george axelrod's play will success spoil rock hunter a broadway smash the play finally propelled mansfield to fame however 20th century fox was so eager to nab the actress that the studio bought the rights to the play and signed mansfield to a new six-year contract with a promise to groomer as one of the studio's most important stars from the beginning of her career to the present day many critics dismissed jane mansfield as an overblown parody of marilyn monroe the comparisons began with mansfield's star-making turn and george axelrod's 1955 comedy will success spoil rock hunter in the play mansfield stars is rita marlowe a stereotypical blonde starlet with a breathy voice and a questionable iq leave and walk out on all this publicity written as a lampoon of monroe rita marlowe gave mansfield the opportunity to stretch out in a comedic role unfortunately she would forever be branded as a dumb blonde by detractors who mistook her act for reality mansfield who had an iq in the 140s spoke five languages and played violin piano and viola truly crafted her flighty sex bomb persona for maximum impact where monroe came to despise her public image and long to be considered a serious actress mansfield craved attention so when monroe was suspended by 20th century fox the studio picked up jane mansfield to fill the shoes of their troubled and increasingly disagreeable star citing monroe's pretensions to art mansfield explained her own unique appeal to the washington post lawrence j quirk in a 1957 interview i want to strike out on the comment trail i want to be the ordinary man's conception of what a sexy obliging comradely down-to-earth girlfriend ought to be jane mansfield's moved from broadway to 20th century fox at last put her on the road to movie stardom her first film at the studio was a technicolor rock and roll comedy titled the girl can't help it in the film mansfield stars is jerry jordan the tone-deaf girlfriend of a mobster determined to make her a singing star with the help of a hapless hard-drinking press agent the film was a huge success and further cemented mansfield's sex pot image mansfield's next film for fox was a radical departure released in 1957 the wayward bus based on a novel by john steinbeck found the actress in a rare dramatic role a modest box office success the film garnered mansfield a golden globe for new star of the year the same year mansfield would star and kiss them for me with cary grant and reprise her role as rita marlowe in the film adaptation of will success spoil rock hunter a world famous movie star at last mansfield bought a hollywood mansion a jaguar and host of other luxuries all in her signature color pink mansfield's new york rise ended with the 1958 release of the sheriff of fractured jaw as the 1960s dawn the era of the blonde bombshell was over relegated to low budget 4 and b pictures mansfield was forced to turn down roles due to her repeated pregnancies in 1962 fox ended her contract jane mansfield pursued romance with nearly the same passion and intensity as she chased fame stardom and fame were a volatile mix for mansfield her first marriage to paul mansfield father of her daughter jane marie and the man from whom she took her last name withered in the light of her rising star paul's jealousy and reluctance to live his life as mr jane mansfield coupled with his wife's rumored extramarital dalliances ended their marriage in an acrimonious divorce and custody fight if jane mansfield had one true love in life other than fame it was bodybuilder mickey hargitay whom she wooed away from an aging mate west to marry in 1958 with their flashy style and physical perfection they perfectly complimented one another nevertheless jane embarked on a series of affairs that eventually ended her second marriage i think it's very very bad taste what's very bad taste telling your wife your lover in front of me mansfield's third and final marriage to director matt simber ended in divorce in just under two years jane mansfield's final years were stained with tragedy and a struggle to remain relevant abandoned by the mainstream film industry the few movie roles she could get were cheaply made exploitation fair in 1964 mansfield married theater director matt simber who assured her that he could reignite her hollywood career the two-year union resulted in another child and mansfield's final starring role in simbra's film single room furnished if jane mansfield had begun her career as a parody of marilyn monroe it seemed that she was ending it as a parody of herself turning to drugs and alcohol to cope with the life and career that was rapidly careening out of control mansfield engaged in a volatile affair with her attorney sam brody brody and mansfield's relationship often devolved into drunken brawls as recounted by biographer may mann diminished to performing in a gaudy traveling nightclub act mansfield's career and life were on borrowed time on the morning of july 29 1967 jane mansfield sam brody driver ronnie harrison and three of mansfield's children were enroute from biloxi mississippi to new orleans mansfield was scheduled for an appearance on local tv at around 2am the party's car collided with the rear of a tractor-trailer shrouded in a fog of pesticide the looming danger was virtually invisible the three adult occupants were killed instantly though the children survived one of her children marishka hargitay would later go on to star in nbc's long-running crime procedural law and order special victims unit jane mansfield was just 34 years old [Music] i love lucy is one of the most enduring and beloved tv shows of all time but the fame that lucille ball desi arnaz and their co-stars enjoyed came at a cost keep watching to discover some tragic details about the i love lucy cast by 1940 lucille ball was a movie star that year she starred in too many girls which is where she met desi arnaz his role in that film was small but their love for each other was big the couple eloped shortly after they met but arnez was drafted in the army soon after despite ball's strong-willed reputation she often gave in to her husband as actress rudely told closer weekly in 2017 if he wanted something she would get it for him if they were seated and he needed more room she would slide over i found it surprising because she was such a strong independent lady it's worth noting that arnez was already engaged to someone else when he met ball and there were other women in the picture as well because of his infidelity in 1944 ball filed for divorce for the first of multiple times the couple eventually reconciled though arnez continued cheating when i love lucy was being developed ball wisely insisted that arnez be cast as her husband in order to keep him close she later told people magazine tv started for me just as a means of keeping my husband desi off the road he'd been on tour with his band since he got out of the army and we were in our 11th year of marriage and wanted to have children there was more to ball's determination to have her husband on i love lucy than met the eye as it turns out the couple had been trying to have children for quite some time they had endured a few miscarriages during their attempts including ones in 1942 and 1949 a third happened in 1950 while i love lucy was in the works nevertheless work on the show continued as the couple grieved ball later explained to the saturday evening post that she was indeed working on i love lucy and sorting out details with her talent agency when she lost her baby as she put it to get my mind off my loss i said to desi and the agency we'll try out our proposed tv act in vaudeville we did and the public accepted our cuban american marriage in spite of the doubts of the talent agency people in july 1951 just a few months before i love lucy's premiere ball finally gave birth to a daughter named lucy two years later lucy was joined by her brother desi junior i was delighted to be pregnant nothing else mattered in 1951 i love lucy was about to become a sensation and the star of the show wanted her cuban-born husband to co-star alongside her but at that time there were 29 states in the country that had laws against interracial marriage would america accept a white woman married to a cuban man neither cbs nor i love lucy's sponsor philip mora cigarettes thought so instead they wanted to hire richard denning who was on ball's popular radio show my favorite husband which evolved into i love lucy but ball begged to differ she boldly told the network that if they wouldn't have arnes they couldn't have her either to prove her point she enlisted her husband and writer producer jess oppenheimer to create a stage version of the show performed in front of a live audience at a theater the stage show was a hit so cbs had no choice but to give in and the result was truly something special the ratings were massive as typically more than 50 percent of all americans watching tv at any given time were tuning in to watch the crazy redhead and her exasperated husband lucille ball had been a registered voter since at least 1936 at the insistence of her grandfather she signed an affidavit of registration in favor of the communist party back then blue-collar workers reeling from poverty caused by the great depression were looking for hope predictions that economic struggles would be over in weeks proved to be unfounded as the depression dragged on for months and then years until franklin roosevelt introduced his new deal in 1935 the poorest people in the country began leaning toward communism as a way to gain some sort of relief from their troubles but the new deal didn't happen overnight and for lucille ball whose father died when she was young her grandfather fred hunt provided the support she needed in her show business career ball didn't just register as a communist she also hosted classes for others in her california home so when a right-wing publication attacked 151 workers in the entertainment industry she was one of them to clear her reputation she twice testified before the house on american activities committee in 1953. she was popular enough that fans of i love lucy including fbi director j edgar hoover stood by her the chemistry between william frawley and vivian vance who played fred and ethel mertz on i love lucy was unmistakable at least on the screen frawley was born in 1887 and acted in vaudeville before signing with paramount pictures for movie parts but he had a reputation for being hard to work with he was also an alcoholic and he was once fired for punching one of his fellow actors his career was on the skids when he was hired for i love lucy in return for refraining from bad behavior his contract allowed him to attend the world series anytime the yankees played it seemed like frawley was content enough but then he met vance she had troubles of her own she initially didn't get along with lucille ball and she also was aghast to be playing the wife of a man 22 years her senior crawley overheard vance telling ball and arnaz that the audience wouldn't believe she was married to such an old man the relationship was doomed when i love lucy went off the air cbs proposed a spin-off called fred and ethel but both actors refused when frawley died in 1966 vance heard about it while at a restaurant and reportedly called out champagne for everyone i love lucy was so popular while it was on the air that life magazine called ball and arnez tv's first family in a 1953 issue but by 1957 the cast members were sick of the weekly grind the last episode aired on may 6 of that year with the ricardo's ending up in connecticut in the final season everyone was then looking forward to the lucille ball desi arnaz show which would run from 1957 to 1960 and i love lucy's place but the lucille ball desi arness show was a little different it ran as a series of hour-long specials that aired at various times all four of the main actors from i love lucy also starred in the new show as the mertz's relocated to connecticut as well but the new show would only last three years by the end of it ball had finally become fed up with arnez's infidelity and drinking the day after production on the last show wrapped she filed for divorce her daughter lucy later told closer weekly they were fighting all the time when we were growing up there was a lot of anger and screaming lucille ball filed for her divorce from desi arnaz in 1960 but trouble had been brewing in their marriage for a while by then the two were already practically living separate lives when i love lucy began production while arnez fully acknowledged that ball was the star of the show that didn't stop him from being a philanderer and drinking too much ball knew all about her husband's infidelity one time she took a magazine article describing his exploits and read it in her dressing room when she came out she threw the magazine at him and said oh hell i could tell them worse than that the ball arnez marriage was all about professionalism privately the couple kept separate bedrooms and although they talked of divorce several times they never followed through because of their shows in an interview with people magazine ball was asked what her darkest moment was and she said when i got a divorce and disappointed millions of people by doing so but that time in ball's life wasn't all bad she bought out desi lou productions in 1962 making her the first woman in history to run a tv studio although ball and arden has remained friends and even continued to work together they would never share the spotlight with each other again it wasn't easy to play ethel mertz on tv's most popular show for one thing lucille ball had hesitations about even hiring actress vivian vance in the first place as she was worried that she would overshadow her own attractiveness so producers scurried to dress ethel in frumpier clothing and vance's contract required her to always weigh more than ball if lucy gained weight ethel was directed to gain weight as well eventually though both actresses got over their misgivings they became best friends often laughing over the old days on various talk shows this friendship continued long after i love lucy and the lucy desi comedy hour went off the air vance was a regular on the lucy show which ran on cbs from 1962 to 1968. her final tv appearance was in the 1977 cbs special lucy calls the president she suffered a stroke later that year and died from bone cancer in 1979. when people magazine asked ball in 1980 whether she wanted to do another series she responded i wouldn't think of it not since my vivian's gone we enjoyed it so much we didn't want to go home at night oh the scrapes lucy got me into the cast of i love lucy was actually required to smoke on air the show's sponsor was philip mora cigarettes and their product was featured in most episodes as well as on the commercial breaks if nobody was smoking someone would inevitably say let's all have a cigarette as it was written into the script pax of philip morris were nearly always in view of the camera and cigarettes were carefully placed to make sure they resembled something like dessert with that in mind it shouldn't be too surprising that desi arnaz was eventually diagnosed with lung cancer especially considering that he also smoked often outside of the show as he laid dying at the hospital in 1986 ball went to see him at that time she was preparing for another show life with lucy arnez's last words to her were i love you too honey good luck with your show at his funeral she reportedly wept openly while clasping hands with her second husband gary morton before entering the church she remembered arnez by saying just look at the stuff he's done over the years it's on three or four times every day he was a great part of our innovation in this business lucille ball likely found it fitting that she was the last surviving adult cast member of i love lucy but by 1989 at the age of 78 she was tired she made her last tv appearance that march at the oscars with her friend bob hope she complained about her wig and commented god i'm so tired of myself a month later she gained the strength to join her friend lee tannen and spy on a party next door as tannen recounted lucy was fascinated by the goings-on commenting on everything and eyeing everybody who ironically would have given their eye teeth to meet the crazy redhead on the other side of the wall ball never got over her first husband's death and a few days after the party she needed emergency heart surgery when she returned she was disappointed that she had to stay in a downstairs room instead of her own bedroom while being treated like an invalid she died just a few days later on april 26 1989. brucy is gone but she'll always be with us i love you and see everybody the lives of the marx brothers weren't all just chuckles and pratfalls from their hard scrabble upbringing to their legendary legal troubles they faced more than their share of heartache this is their tragic true life story the marx brothers were famously a group of five but there was actually a sixth marx brother manfred marks nicknamed manny was the firstborn son of sam and many marx but he lived for only seven months passing away on july 18 1886. complications that probably arose from influenza are cited as his cause of death he's buried beside his maternal grandmother in new york's washington cemetery manfred's death had a profound effect on sam and many that translated into them lavishing love and attention onto their eldest surviving son leonard better known by his stage name chico baby mamford's sickness also instilled a heightened sense of parental vigilance in the marxist groucho marx once recalled his mother saying sam can cough all night and i never hear him but if one of my boys coughs just once i'm wide awake in memory of their lost child sam and minnie bestowed their youngest son herbert better known as zeppo with the middle name manfred young groucho born julius henry marks on october 2nd 1890 was an outsider in his own family a middle child he yearned for the approval of his parents but found himself overshadowed by his older brothers unlike his siblings he loved school and threw himself into his studies although he faded into the background at home he could shine in school the praise of his teachers standing in for the parental affection he craved books were his comfort and he dreamed one day of becoming a doctor sadly groucho's academic ambitions were crushed by his family's dire financial circumstances at only 12 years old he left school at the behest of his mother to help support his family if i'd have gone to college i'd have been a writer much faster in my life and probably a much better one because i wasn't sure of grammar or english or anything else groucho was put to work in a wig factory though his stint in the workforce was mercifully short at 15 he joined the leroy trio a traveling musical act and he would go on to sing with other acts as well ironically the formerly unassuming groucho would eventually find his greatest success with his brothers gummo and harpo as a member of the four nightingales during a particularly disastrous gig in nacogdoches texas in which the group was upstaged by a runaway mule he used his acerbic wit to put down an unreceptive audience when he quipped nakadochis is full of roaches to everyone's surprise the sparse crowd roared with laughter and a comedy legend was on his way harpo the marx brothers silent master of physical comedy was born adolf marx on november 23 1888 one of a handful of jewish kids growing up in a largely irish and italian neighborhood he often found himself the target of persecution abuse from both bullies and a discouraging teacher who considered him slow led to his permanent exit from school at age eight in his autobiography harpo speaks he wrote my formal schooling ended halfway through my second crack at the second grade at which time i left school in the most direct way possible i was thrown out the window there were two causes of this one was the big irish kid in my class and the other was a bigger irish kid physical objections from the classroom at the hands of his tormentors became commonplace over the course of his abbreviated tour of second grade as harpo recalled i was the perfect batsy i was small for my age i had a high squeaky voice and i was the only jewish boy in the room although harpo may have suffered minimal physical damage from his bullies his emotional anguish inflicted by his teacher left more lasting scars chico marx born leonard joseph marks on march 22 1887 had a lifelong penchant for gambling which would cost him dearly over the course of his career this addiction reportedly began when he was just nine years old his father a tailor discovered early on that he couldn't trust his eldest son with deliveries as chico pawned the garments and blew the cash in local pool halls and bars he even hocked his father's sheers to pay off a gambling debt the marx brothers success allowed chico to indulge his habit at higher stakes his daughter maxine recalled the extent of her father's debts in a 2000 interview with the los angeles times as she put it when somebody asked chico how much money he lost betting he would say two million six hundred forty thousand two hundred thirty nine dollars and twenty seven cents or some figure he'd made up he would always include the sense look at chicolini he sits there alone an abject figure i object toward the end of their careers the marx brothers made some of their less memorable films so as to get chico out of trouble groucho's daughter miriam explained how a desperate chico would beg his brothers for assistance as he would shout they are going to kill me they are going to kill me and then as miriam put it they made some lousy movie to save his life the youngest of the marx brothers herbert manfred zeppo appeared in the comedy team's first five films cast as the straight man he never really had the opportunity to develop as a comedian his long simmering frustration led to his departure from the marx brothers after their final film for paramount he reportedly broke the news about his intentions to groucho in a letter in which he wrote i have only stayed in the act until now because i knew that you chico and harpo wanted me to but i'm sure you understand why and that you forgive my action wish me luck love zeppo zeppo then became a successful talent agent first on his own and then as part of mark's miller and marx with his brother gummo and their partner alan miller disillusioned with show business the mechanically inclined zeppo left the entertainment industry in the 40s to start an industrial engineering firm that specialized in the manufacture of aircraft parts despite his professional success his personal life was turbulent his second wife actress and former show girl barbara blakely left him in 1973 for frank sinatra and in 1978 zeppo was ordered by a court to pay a former girlfriend twenty thousand six hundred ninety dollars for physically assaulting her during an argument on top of all that legal woes surrounding groucho's estate would haunt zeppo until his death from lung cancer in 1979. although critics and fans tend to agree the marx brothers were at their unhinged best during their tenure at paramount pictures their time at the studio was marred by financial disputes creative accounting on the part of paramount reportedly robbed the marx brothers of prophets following the successes of 1929's the coconuts and 1930s animal crackers the brothers negotiated the deal that should have garnered them 50 percent of the net profits for the next two films 1931's monkey business and 1932's horse feathers although both the films were box office hits the studio cooked the books to avoid paying the brothers their fair share the two sides fought the matter in court for decades finally 1962 the marx brothers were awarded a 36 000 settlement after 1933's duck soup the marx brothers parted ways with paramount and mgm head irving thalberg then snatched them up with a personal contract the brothers successfully negotiated for 15 percent of the gross of their next film a night at the opera which netted them the greatest financial returns of their careers however that monetary success would ultimately come at the cost of their creativity a night at the opera and its follow follow-up a day at the races shoehorn the brothers mayhem into formulaic plots that featured them as supporting players in their own films the marx brothers fortunes appeared to be looking up in 1935 with a lucrative contract with mgm and an ally in irving thalberg they were set for their greatest success with the night of the opera mgm was in need of a comedy hit when it nabbed the marx brothers but the studio wasn't willing to give them the free reign that they'd enjoy to paramount their new studio was instead intent on fitting them into a structured plot rather than just letting them loose in front of the camera nevertheless a night at the opera was a hit for mgm and a financial windfall for the brothers however mgm's smoothing of their rough edges robbed the comic trio of their anarchic quality that was their hallmark in a way fallberg's re-engineering of the troop act was the beginning of the end for the marx brothers while their early films portrayed them as a force of anti-authoritarian chaos a night at the opera relegated them to support players mischievous but kind-hearted troublemakers in the service of mgm's stable of stars dahlberg's gambit initially worked but in the long run it robbed the marx brothers of their unpredictable essence harpo marx performed for the last time in january 1963 appearing opposite comedian alan sherman at the pasadena theater he pulled out all the stops with his classic bits then the silent comic stunned the audience with a surprise ending as his son bill recalled in the pbs documentary make him laugh the funny business of america at the very end he picks up the microphone and he launches into his bar mitzvah speech for 13 long years i have twirled and labored for your happening and does the whole thing bill continued the people are just silent as a church mouse i mean you can't hear a pin drop and he comes to the end of this and he says and in conclusion i am so honored to know that you folks have the keenness and the perspicacity for recognizing monumental genius i thank you and walked off the stage the people must have applauded for at least a good two or three minutes that's a long time if you're just counting seconds on september 28 1964 harpo died at the age of 75 after undergoing an open heart procedure braucho wept at the funeral according to his son arthur it was the only time he ever saw his father cry by the end of his life groucho marx was in extremely poor health suffering from dementia congestive heart failure hypertension and a host of other debilitating ailments he was no longer able to care for himself estranged from his children he fell into the care of his companion and manager aaron fleming 51 years as junior she was instrumental in engineering his comeback in the 70s alas the revival of groucho's career was not without its dark side many of his friends accused fleming of pushing him too hard forcing an increasingly frail marks to perform against his will for her financial gain his son arthur filed suit against fleming accusing her of having a harmful and destructive influence on his ailing father groucho's nurses testified that fleming administered overdoses of tranquilizers to him and verbally abused him groucho's daughter melinda accused fleming of attempting to alienate him from his family fleming was eventually removed as his conservator but his family's legal woes with her would continue long after his death from pneumonia in 1977. the children of groucho harpo and chico marx spent many of the years after the deaths of their famous fathers embroiled in intense litigation related to the immortal comedy true at the center of these long-standing legal battles was the issue of the licensing of the comedian's likenesses these legal quarrels were just as often between the mark's children as they were with outside parties in 1981 the marx heirs successfully filed suit against the producers of a broadway play that consisted of performers simulating the style appearances and mannerisms of the marx brothers but there was still more strife to come in 2000 just as the marx estates were coming into an amicable agreement on a proposed biopic about the comedy team the estates of chico and harpo marx came to legal blows with groucho marx productions over a proposed marx brothers animated tv show the result is that as of 2020 a marx brothers biopic has never been produced the munsters brought classic monsters to suburbia as a typical sitcom family there was no predicting how this series would become a hit for generations of fans it wasn't an easy show to film with all day shoots and heavy costuming and makeup for some cast members life was truly monstrous although actor fred guin was born into privilege his life before hermann munster was often anything but easy as documented by biography tragedy ripped the gwen family apart when fred's father died after routine sinus operation eight-year-old gwyn was devastated by the sudden loss a few years later a growth spurt would isolate gwen from his adolescent peers making puberty already in awkward time even more difficult with the support of his mother the gangly teen made it through to become a popular outgoing student who excelled in art and drama after graduating high school gwen enlisted in the united states navy where he served as a radio operator on a submarine chaser during world war ii according to the new york times the stress and constant beeping of morse code took a toll on gwen and he once broke down in tears in front of his captain who relieved him of radio duty in the 1950s gwen began working as an actor on stage and television while juggling his second career as a copywriter for an ad agency in 1961 he made his big breakthrough as officer francis muldoon on the cop comedy car 54 where are you however just as gwen was settling into a success and enjoying family life with his wife and four children his youngest son dylan drowned in the family pool while still dealing with his grief he got word that car 54 was cancelled and fell deeper into depression the role of hermann munster made fred guinn a household name yet the actor nearly passed up the part fred's former wife foxy gwen told a e's biography in 1999 he didn't want to do it but the money was too good the whole idea kind of turned him off after the professional gwen nevertheless gave the role his all and his childlike interpretation of dr frankenstein's monster remains one of the greatest dads in sitcom history you're going to be your daddy's big smart successful son eventually gwen discovered a wholly unexpected set of challenges in portraying herman donning the costume and makeup proved torturous for the actor perspiring heavily under the makeup and heavy costume gwen was forced to take salt tablets to stave off dehydration he also developed severe back pain and began to lose weight at an alarming rate physical rigors aside gwen also grew frustrated with the show's recycled scripts and jokes the stale material eventually left the actor feeling creatively stifled following the monster's cancellation in 1966 gwen found that he couldn't escape the long shadow of hermann foxy gwen also said it wasn't until he was out of the monsters that he realized the show had hurt him a lot as far as acting his name would come up for a part and they would say ah come on herman munster for that are you crazy when yvonne de carlo took the role of lily munster in 1964 she had been an established hollywood star for two decades as detailed by a e's biography a grisly accident on the set of 1962's how the west was won left to carla's husband stuntman bob morgan permanently disabled movie studio mgm refused to take responsibility for the negligence that led to morgan losing his leg leaving the couple in dire financial straights forced to mortgage the family home decarlo took any job she could get from singing in nightclubs to summersock theater with medical and legal bills mounting dicarlo needed a miracle in 1964 universal offered de carlo the role of lily munster although the monsters was the solution to de carlo's money troubles the actress was still reluctant to take the role biographer james parish explained to biography at first she was embarrassed by the thought of doing it but her agents and her bank book told her go audition for this you need the part and you need the money co-stars fred gwynne and al lewis initially had their misgivings about working with a movie star but quickly re-evaluated their attitudes when de carlo got on the set lewis told the archive of american television in 2002 when we heard that ivan de carlo was going to play lily munster i guess there was some reverse snobbery we were wrong she was wonderful ivan de carlo was one of the most glamorous starlets of the 1940s and 50s with her exotic beauty and vivacious personality the young actress was sought after by some of the most powerful men in the world yet her many relationships rarely brought her happiness while under contract to paramount in the early 1940s de carlo began a romantic relationship with legendary director billy wilder whom she would later call the quote first big love of her life as detailed in her 1987 autobiography yvonne wilder was physically far from de carla's idea of the perfect man still she fell head over heels for the director of double indemnity their romance ended abruptly when de carlos spotted wilder arm in arm with actress doris dowling in 1945 de carlo became involved with eccentric billionaire howard hughes but their relationship fizzled when hughes refused to commit to marriage after breaking up with hughes de carlo briefly dated actress robert stack in bert lancaster while working on the 1949 film the gal who took the west descartes met actor and stuntman jack mahoney the couple fell in love and were engaged to be married when de carlo discovered she was pregnant sadly she lost the baby when doctors removed a large cyst from one of her ovaries best remembered as sam grandpa dracula lily munster's dad and herman's partner in hijinks comedic actor al lewis was one of the most visible members of the monsters in the decades after the show ended especially in the last years of his life still lewis's past is something of a mystery as harassable in real life as the character he made famous lewis was known to bend the truth often to the breaking point the beginning of lewis's self-mythologizing likely dates to 1964 when lewis was first cast as grandpa fearing he might lose the part if producers discovered he was younger than ivan de carlo it's thought that he fudged his date of birth by 13 years as detailed on the a e biography episode al lewis forever grandpa lewis was actually born on april 30th 1923 to russian immigrants in manhattan lewis decided to fill in the 13 year gap in his biography with many unlikely exploits telling interviewers that he had been everything from a circus clown to a union organizer in the south lewis always placed himself just at the edge of important historical events he also claimed to have a totally unverifiable doctorate in child psychology from columbia university earned some time between 1941 and 1949. i have a degree in education i also have a degree in child psychology as documented in al lewis forever grandpa in his 60s al lewis embraced his munster's persona using his famous image as a foundation for an italian restaurant in greenwich village appropriately called grandpa's bellagente the eatery brought lewis back into the public eye and the aging actor used his renewed celebrity to promote everything from liquor to a line of children's videos ever a political activist lewis ran as a green party candidate for governor of new york in 1998 at the age of 75. although he lost to republican george pataki lewis garnered enough votes to make the green party a viable force in new york politics although his enthusiasm for new challenges never waned al lewis's health was in rapid decline by the early 2000s according to the new york times in 2003 lewis underwent an operation to clear a blockage in his heart complications during the surgery led to an emergency bypass and the amputation of his right leg and the toes of his left foot lying in a coma for a month the end seemed near for lewis however he rallied and a year later he made an appearance in the music documentary ramone's raw on february 3rd 2006 al lewis died he'll be back i'm i'm sure he will grandma nevermore consider the family's quote ugly duckling because of her girl next door good looks the character of marilyn munster was inspired by blonde bombshell marilyn monroe beverly owen was the first of two actresses to portray herman and lily's niece she only appeared in the initial 13 episodes owen in love and living in new york had reluctantly accepted the role in the munsters pilot believing the outrageous show had little chance of going to series when the munsters not only went to series but became a huge hit owen was forced to move to los angeles overcome with homesickness the 25 year old actress spent much of her time on the set in tears under contract with universal owen felt trapped at one point she told biography i had signed one of those seven year hollywood contracts and i certainly didn't get a lawyer i just believed what they told me as owen grew more miserable two of her co-stars intervened on her behalf she further explained finally fred gwen and al lewis marched into the office and said you either let her go or we're all walking and you're not going to have a show co-star butch patrick explained to the seattle times and they let her go but they blackballed her and she never worked again following beverly owens departure from the monsters the show's producers found themselves in the difficult position of having to replace a cast member halfway through the first season at last they settled on utah-born pat priest priest had previously appeared in small roles on my favorite martian in the sci-fi series voyage to the bottom of the sea a dead ringer for beverly owen priest slipped into the role virtually unnoticed and co-starred on the monsters until its cancellation in 1966. despite its strong first season the show was getting clobbered in the ratings by abc's batman soon cbs pulled the plug on the show but the monsters weren't quite ready to slink off to the grave just yet hoping to generate foreign interest in the show for syndication producers joe connolly and bob mosher brought the original cast together for the feature film monster go home in 1966. unfortunately pat priest wouldn't be invited along for the munster's last ride connolly and moshe are considered priest who was approaching 30 too old to reprise her role and the part of maryland went to 17 year old debbie watson already a veteran tv actor at age 11. butch patrick replaced nate happy durman in the role of youngest monster eddie after durman's performance in the pilot was deemed unsuitable patrick's interpretation of eddie as a normal kid who just happened to be a werewolf made him lovable where durman's snarling feral performance was anything but following the cancellation of the monsters butch patrick continued to work as a child actor appearing in episodes of the monkeys i dream of jeannie and family affair in 1970 patrick starred in the sid and marty croft's saturday morning series lidsville opposite legendary comic actor charles nelson reilly the show briefly established patrick as teen idol in the mold of david cassidy bobby sherman and davey jones however by 1974 life had taken a turn for the 21 year old actor descending into alcohol and drug abuse patrick disappeared from public life it would take patrick decades to finally put drugs and alcohol behind him patrick told australia's studio 10 talk show and i survived i was a functioning alcoholic drug addict but nonetheless it was i was i still was doing what i was doing but it caused me a lot of grief you know but i'm back now fred guinn died of pancreatic cancer in 1996 at the age of 66. al lewis passed away 10 years later in 2006 and in 2007 ivan de carlo died of heart failure at 84. with beverly owens 2019 death at age 81 from ovarian cancer butch patrick and pat priest are the last remaining principal cast members from the original the munsters both priest and patrick are cancer survivors priest was diagnosed with non-hodgkin's lymphoma in 2010 after a successful series of treatments priest remains in remission in 2011 butch patrick had surgery to remove a small cancerous mass from his prostate butch and pat often appear together at autograph shows and fan conventions to the delighted generations of fans of the munsters if you or someone you know is struggling with addiction please call the substance abuse and mental health administration's 24 7 national helpline at 1-800-662-help that's 1-800-662 charlie chaplin was one of the world's greatest filmmakers and he was also blacklisted from hollywood and exiled from the united states turns out the real life of this slapstick legend wasn't very funny at all by the end of the 19th century charles chaplin senior was one of the hottest talents on the british stage a comic singer chaplain senior star was rising even as he was settling down with his wife and fellow vaudeville star hannah chaplin in 1889 the pair welcomed a child who they named charlie chaplin jr the young charlie's life was anything but easy however when he was just one his father walked out on the family taking their means of support with him hannah and charlie were plunged into grinding poverty which chaplin senior did nothing to alleviate at the height of his fame chaplain senior was arrested for failing to provide for both charlie and his other son sydney drinking was also a serious problem among vaudeville stars in the 1890s and charles chaplin was a booze hound like no other by the time charlie was 12 his father was dead killed by his addiction to the bottle despite their destitution hannah managed to keep a roof over her son's head even entertaining him by performing old vaudeville routines it could have even been a poor but happy childhood sadly fate had other ideas always fascinated by his mother's vaudeville career chaplain was mimicking her routines by the age of five and although he would soon take to the stage himself the circumstances were anything but happy charlie's first performance took place during one of hannah chaplin's shows he was watching from the wings when halfway through a song his mother lost her voice the stage manager panicked and shoved charlie out he then proceeded to stun the audience with his own routine in a kinder world this moment might have marked the beginning of better times for the chaplains instead it was the beginning of their nightmare it quickly became clear that hannah's vocal issue was merely the first outward sign of her rapidly declining mental health as she and the children continued on in poverty hannah drifted further from reality eventually she was institutionalized and charlie and his brother were thrown into a workhouse charles chaplin senior was still alive at the time and briefly agreed to take the boys in but it didn't last charlie wound up spending so much of his childhood in the workhouse that he only ever received six months worth of schooling for the first 12 years of charlie chaplin's life charles chaplin senior seems to have had fleeting pangs of conscience in which he tried to help out his son even if those pangs quickly dissipated one such moment came in 1897 when he got a son into a clogged dancing troop to make ends meet even this is uncertain however and other sources claim that hannah chaplin's sympathetic showbiz contacts arranged the gig sadly this wasn't to be charlie's big break the so-called eight lancashire lads went nowhere and charlie was forced to scramble for work to survive which meant taking on an endless parade of day-to-day jobs charlie would later claim he had been a newspaper vendor a toy maker a printer a doctor's boy and much more it wasn't until the 20th century that he was able to move back into vaudeville and it wasn't until 1908 that this became a viable career signed to play the drunk in a comic sketch for fred carno's pantomime troupe chaplin eventually toured america evidently america liked what it saw in 1912 producer max sennett signed the young comic to appear in motion pictures this time chaplin's big break was real stanley kubrick's name may be the byword for artistic perfectionism to the point of insanity but before kubrick there was charlie chaplin after max senate signed chaplain the young comic star exploded he made 35 films in 1914 alone and by the second film he'd created his famous character by the 11th he was directing by 1915 he'd signed to s a studios and was given his own production unit and by 1916 chaplin was with mutual films where he had complete creative freedom and the largest salary in hollywood so it's fair to say that things were going well for chaplin and they would continue to do so for the next few years but this was also the period in which chapel and the autocrat emerged it would be the world's first real glimpse of the tortured and driven man behind the genius known as the most demanding man in hollywood he would reshoot scenes hundreds of times and rather than actually directing he'd act out everyone's role for them to show them how it should be done i know this that i'm very uneasy if other people do it for me chaplin would also fire actors halfway through a film's production and start their work all over again it was a bizarre and domineering system but somehow it actually worked but these traits also hinted at a much darker figure in chaplain one who was about to emerge by 1918 charlie chaplin was making some of his finest and most popular pictures off-camera however chaplin was anything but the lovable miscreant he appeared to be mildred harris was barely 16 when chaplin met her she was an emerging starlet at best and chaplin was the biggest star in the world he seduced her and when he thought he'd gotten her pregnant he arranged a hasty marriage when he found out the pregnancy wasn't real he got her pregnant for real and then divorced her soon after chaplin's next relationship was even more disturbing the actor first met leda gray in 1920 when she was a 12 year old child star chaplin spent the next few years doting on gray keeping her in his orbit until she was a teenager he seduced her when she was just 15 or 16 depending on who you ask either way chaplin got her pregnant married her impregnated her again and then abandoned her in 1927 there were other scandals in chaplin's love life too the 1924 shooting death of producer thomas n son william randolph hearst's yacht was rumored to have occurred after hearst tried to kill chaplin for seducing his wife in the heat of the moment he allegedly shot the wrong man in a taste of things to come these many seductions and salacious rumors would later see chaplin banned from several u.s states during the great depression charlie chaplin's career reached its peak for weary audiences the was just the tonic they needed his movies really did fulfill that old cliche of bringing joy to millions even as other silent stars like harold lloyd and buster keaton were fading away by the outbreak of world war ii chaplain wasn't just famous he was an icon he also considered himself more or less untouchable which may explain what happened next as the war got underway chaplin began making public speeches extolling the virtues of the soviet union in 1942 he even praised joseph stalin's purges and said the only people who object to communism are nazi agents with the establishment already against him over his private life chaplin's perceived anti-american beliefs handed his enemies the mother of all sticks to beat him with the communist fifth columnist among us are working for a world dictatorship to accomplish this their strategy is to undermine the confidence of our people ushered into law in 1910 by representative james r mann the man acts official name is the white slave traffic act and its original intention was to combat forced prostitution however the act was worded so broadly that it could be used to prosecute almost any consensual sex act provided one participant traveled to meet the other in 1944 charlie chaplin's personal life again exploded in a mess of cd allegations this time for supposedly impregnating and dumping actress joan berry previously this kind of thing would have stayed in the tabloids but emboldened by rising anti-communist feeling in america the establishment pounced chaplin was arrested for immoral purposes under the man act having allegedly taken barry across state lines before seducing her he was eventually acquitted but the establishment was gunning for his blood chaplin was sued by barry for paternity payments despite medical tests that proved he wasn't the father barry won the case and chaplin was forced to pay out for a child that had been scientifically proven to belong to someone else what remained of his reputation in america was shredded in the process and things were about to get even worse in 1947 charlie chaplin's reputation had hit a low point nevertheless europe had been shattered by war america was devouring itself in a red scare and all audiences wanted was for the little to make them laugh again instead chaplin chose to make monsieur verdu an orson well-scripted black comedy in which chaplin plays a serial killer preying on rich old ladies it did not go over well monsieur verdu bombed hard it nearly ruined united artists and the press junket for the film turned into a kangaroo court in which chaplin was mobbed by the press the tabloids had announced in advance that they would make him squirm for his communist leanings and they really did stick to the word chaplin almost had to abandon one press conference when all the reporters did was accuse him of not being sufficiently supportive of capitalism it didn't help that monsieur verdu could clearly be read as a black satire on capitalism's worst excesses at the exact same time monsieur verdu was ruining his career chaplin was put on notice by the house of un-american activities committee that he could soon be indicted while he never was the little still became a favorite punching bag of anti-communist senators men who were desperate to have chaplain removed from the picture at basically any cost just a few years later in 1952 they finally found their excuse although never formally indicted by the hoac charlie chaplin was still blacklisted in hollywood blacklisting ruined guys like dalton trumbo but chaplin was somewhat immune since he was rich enough to finance his own films this may be why after the disaster of monsour verdu subsided he was back in the director's chair for limelight until he was kicked out of america that is although he'd been living in america for 40 years by 1952 chaplain still hadn't applied for u.s citizenship he was still using his british passport which didn't endear him one bit to the american elite in the fall of that year chaplain decided to combine an international press junket for limelight with a trip to britain he planned to be in europe for about four weeks but wound up living there for 25 years on september 19th u.s immigration barred chaplin from re-entry and for the rest of his life chaplain remained a man in exile the last decades of charlie chaplin's life were marked by ups and downs on the one hand he only made two more films a king in new york and a countess from hong kong on the other hand he settled in switzerland with his wife una o'neil and raised a remarkably happy family by his son's account perhaps unsurprisingly o'neil had been another of chaplain's young conquests married when she was 18 and he was 54 they nonetheless stayed together until charlie died in 1977. sadly vade had one last gruesome curveball to throw at chaplin months after his funeral two grave robbers dug up his body and made off with it they held the tramps remains for a couple of months demanding a ransom payment of 600 thousand dollars o'neil refused to play ball however hanging up on the criminals rather than hear their demands panic the grave robbers began to make mistakes and the swiss police eventually tracked them down after a tortured life and a truly bizarre postscript chaplin was finally laid to rest this time for good james dean took a hold of america in a way most heartthrob wannabes only dreamed about little did everyone know how real his struggle was it was only after he died that america and the world really embraced dean's hard work this is the tragic real-life story of james dean james dean was born in marion indiana in 1931 to mildred and wynton dean winton was a dental technician a job he found rather dull when james was about three the family moved south to fairmount where winton decided to take up bullfrog farming according to biographer david dalton but the farm failed and the deans returned to marion before deciding on their next adventure by relocating to santa monica california in 1938 though mildred dean was diagnosed with cancer passing away two years later at age nine james found himself riding a train back to marion with his mother's coffin being back among family gave james time to work through his grief and resume his childhood working on the family farm he also attended high school pursuing sports and drama classes graduating in 1949. dean returned to california and majored in drama at ucla in 1950 a classmate james bella talked him into being an extra for a pepsi cola commercial it was dean's first appearance on television soon he was off moving to new york dean was accepted by the actors studio under lee strasberg and in 1951 dean landed his first role as john in a family theater episode titled hill number one a series of similar roles carried his career through the early 1950s but he had his eyes on bigger prizes and james dean tomorrow never comes biographer darwin porter claimed the actor became a typical hollywood playboy who quote would sleep with anybody to get ahead women he reportedly bedded included joan crawford judy garland marilyn monroe and elizabeth taylor all starlets with whom it didn't hurt to be seen with in public dean did have one more serious relationship with actress pierre anjali whom he met when he was filming his first movie east of eden in 1955 but when the couple separated to work on respective projects anjali began dating singer victim on and announced their engagement to him supposedly a brooding dean satisfied his motorcycle outside the church at the wedding speeding away as the newlyweds came out hollywood's rumor mill began churning out stories that dean was gay or bisexual some of the rumors might have dated back to 1954 when he played a gay character in the play the immoralist when asked whether he believed dean was homosexual however writer hal hackaday responded i never heard anything like that biography also acknowledges that dean's sexuality has been a matter of debate filmmaker and author kenneth anger is best known for concocting mostly fictitious claims of sordid scandals in his book hollywood babylon where he made wild assertions claiming dean was kept by an aging tv producer among other things as a result these rumors about dean have become an urban legend attached to his legacy james dean was the epitome of the moody tortured artist you're tearing me apart as reported on real unexplainedmysteries.com dean became known as the little bastard on set due to his rebellious nature sudden mood swings and disruptive behavior according to dean's friends lou bracker and phil stern jack warner of warner brothers gave dean the nickname for refusing to come out of his trailer while filming east of eden at the time dean was also developing a taste for speedy sports cars with hot rod engines warner had forbidden him from racing during filming in retaliation when dean bought his infamous porsche spider 550 he had little bastard painted on the vehicle giant began filming in may of 1955 after james dean had already had starring roles in three television shows and another movie rebel without a cause the actor was buying more and more cars and even began racing professionally according to biographer don graham as giants started filming director george stevens made sure dean's contract prohibited racing but that didn't stop dean from purchasing the porsche spider 550 on september 21st stevens warned dean that he was going to kill somebody with that car george perry author of james dean wrote that stevens told dean you can never drive this car on the lot again you're going to kill a carpenter or an actor or somebody on september 30th dean set out in his spider for a race in salinas california with him was mechanic rolfe wuthrich dean received a speeding ticket and about two hours later dean saw another car making a left turn onto the road according to wutherich dean told him quote that guy's gotta stop instead the two vehicles crashed head-on wutherich was thrown from the car and survived while the other driver donald turnipseed escaped with minor injuries dean was trapped in the car as it spun in the air before hitting the ground he was pronounced dead upon arrival at paso robles war memorial hospital and is buried in his home state of indiana dean spider was briefly put on display before generating stories about a curse which resulted in injuries and deaths of the owners the car itself was in transit when it mysteriously disappeared in 1960 but a fox sports report in 2015 identified a man sean riley who believed his father and others including batmobile creator george barris hid the car in washington state though barris later claimed he did indeed own the vehicle its whereabouts remain unknown dean received best actor oscar nominations in 1955 and 1956 for his roles in east of eden and giant and posthumously a whopping 23 books and 14 movies have come out about the actor according to internet movie database and that doesn't include the times the icon has been portrayed in other films in 1996 he was remembered on a u.s postage stamp and his hometown of marion indiana celebrates his life each september with the festival including a dean lookalike contest and of course a showing of dean's movies chris hepteen author of the birthplace book a guide to birth sites of famous people places and things writes that visitors can check out the fairmount historical museum which displays the pants dean warren giant as well as the speeding ticket he received the day he died while clint eastwood may appear to be a success story to his fans he's experienced a number of hardships in his life here are the tragic details about one of hollywood's most enduring icons clint eastwood was born to his parents clinton and ruth eastwood in 1930 during the great depression eastwood's family was financially sound but did have to confront difficulties during that period basically the eastwoods had to shift base several times thanks to clinton's senior and his work demands this meant that they had to adjust to an uncertain life for a large chunk of the actor's early years in fact eastwood later claimed to have gone to 10 schools as a child but he didn't complain too much additionally clinton jr was a shy kid who didn't easily open up to his peers so he wasn't at all pleased when he was pressured into being part of a school play he later recounted that although the experience freaked him out the play did help him get over his chronic shyness barely out of high school a young clint eastwood was in for a surprise when he was drafted into the u.s army during the korean war at one point during his time in the army eastwood was on a plane back to san francisco with an air force pilot friend of his when the aircraft malfunctioned and ultimately crashed as eastwood told the hollywood reporter he nearly lost his life during the incident eastwood later recalled what was going through my mind was just a stark fear a stark terror because in the first place i didn't know anything about aviation at that particular time i was just hopping to ride after they made a water landing eastwood and the others had to swim to safety it was a traumatic experience overall glenn eastwood wasn't always a star and when he first started his journey in the entertainment industry he had to fight hard to get parts and films in fact his first role wasn't even credited it was in a movie titled revenge of the creature in which eastwood played an unassuming lab technician eastwood took on more minor roles afterward trying to stay afloat at the same time the actor was juggling several odd jobs to get by and make a living for himself in an interview with the hollywood reporter eastwood recalled i worked at a texaco station right next to general service studios on santa monica boulevard and i managed an apartment house that i was living in to get the rent knocked down on top of all that he was booted by universal studios which dropped his contract a year and a half after he started working for them this was of course a major setback for eastwood who is trying his best to get more significant roles i was commonly known for the genre films that that i had started out with for clint eastwood being a part of hollywood wasn't easy his mental health suffered and he experienced severe anxiety on set when he first started acting east one has a particularly vivid memory of his first ever role in 1955's revenge of the creature his role wasn't crucial but simply getting used to his dialogue and being confident or herculean tasked for the actor as he watched the film's director and producer argue over the line that eastwood was supposed to utter eastwood recalled the director stood there and just chewed out put me down something awful and i was a nervous wreck anyway at the time so that was my first experience and probably my last for a couple of months this wasn't eastwood's only brush with anxiety according to the book clint the life and legend by patrick mcgilligan eastwood experienced severe anxiety in the 1970s while dealing with a bronchial infection when he was working on the film joe kidd things got so serious at one point that clint felt like he was dying during those moments clint eastwood suffered a major setback when he lost his father to a heart attack in the 1970s as per the book clint the life and legend by patrick mcgilligan in july 1970 clint senior had been getting ready for a game of golf but never came downstairs ruth checked on him and found him in his final moments there was nothing she could do to save her dying husband who was just 64 years old at the time this was especially hard news to digest for the eastwood family as eastwood's grandfather had been around until he was in his 90s clint changed in many ways after his father's death taking his health a lot more seriously than he used to and staying dedicated to his nutrition and exercise regimen film producer fritz mayne said that his father's death was a massive blow to eastwood who couldn't quite wrap his head around the incident maine's reflected clint eastwood couldn't understand this it was a personal thing to him something that had been done to him maine's added that it took a long time for the actor to heal and accept his dad was gone as a public figure clint eastwood has definitely not been spared when it comes to certain controversies for instance when he directed the film american sniper he attracted a lot of criticism for what some viewers perceived to be a glorification of war eastwood tried his best to defend his film in interviews but his critics weren't necessarily convinced in one press interview the director stated american sniper certainly has nothing to do with any political parties or anything these fellows who are professional soldiers navy personnel or what have you go in for a certain reason according to the rap what was also greatly upsetting for audiences was witnessing what appeared to be a celebration of the extremist views of sharpshooter chris kyle who was known for saying things like the enemy are savages and despicably evil kyle was the subject of american sniper and was portrayed by bradley cooper in the movie eastwood insisted that the film's vision wasn't interpreted correctly he told the guardian that he is against war himself and doesn't support violence war is one of those things that should be done with a lot of thought if it needs to be done self-protection is a very important thing for nations but i just don't like to see it clint eastwood has a notorious reputation for having engaged in multiple relationships throughout his life according to the independent in the early 1960s eastwood was involved in a hookup with a stunt woman roxanne tunis who later gave birth to their daughter kimber the actor has fathered a total of eight kids with different women over the years as described by the independent eastwood has often seemed incapable of maintaining stable relationships in his personal life while he was with actor and director sandra locke he was also married to his wife maggie whom he'd been with for some 20 years and before he broke up with locke he began seeing actor francis fisher pattern repeated itself when he dated dina ruiz while he was with fisher he's also been known to avoid opening up to those close to him even some of his oldest buddies film producer lily zanik said he's what you project onto him the man you meet is that screen persona but with more depth his whole value system is based on what the individual can do and overcome according to a report by showbiz cheat cheat clint eastwood was forced to deal with a tragic event while filming one of his movies 1975's the eiger sanction the crew had an accident while working on the film and a mountain climber was killed another crew member survived but with serious injuries it was a tough call to make but eastwood decided to resume filming at that point despite the difficult circumstances when the eiger sanction was finally released in theaters it received mixed reviews as for the accident itself here's what happened experienced mountain climber david knowles was working as a stunt double in the film and the crew needed a few extra shots for a sequence knowles decided to finish the job with another mountain climber mike hoover while the duo succeeded in getting the shots they weren't prepared for what happened next a boulder unexpectedly dislodged and hit them while they were standing on a ledge hoover sustained a fracture and knolls died from his injuries one of the other climbers described the terrible scene we flew up to that same location and there was the scene we had been faking for two days dave knowles hanging dead on the end of the rope it was unbelievable fantasy and reality come head on eastwood was traumatized when he was told about the incident and almost canceled the entire project however his team convinced him to finish the movie eastwood hasn't always had the best relationship with his many children one of his daughters kimber has mentioned that she felt neglected by her father growing up as per patrick mcgilligan's clint the life and legend however kimber has issued conflicting statements on how she felt about her father when she was trying to be part of the film industry herself she told her famous dad about her plans and he said that he'd think about casting her in a movie in the future at one point kimber said that her father would meet her whenever he could and that they shared a strong bond on many other occasions however kimber is implied that it was frustrating for her to reach out to him in the 1980s lori murray discovered that eastwood was her dad she'd been adopted as a baby and didn't know about her parents until she hired a professional to do some digging after finding out murray got in touch with eastwood who was welcoming introducing her to the media the 2004 oscars however until murray contacted eastwood he had no idea about her existence though murray's mom had sent her baby to an adoption center enlisted clint eastwood as her biological father clint eastwood knows that being famous is no cakewalk he has often been called out publicly for expressing his opinions according to a reuters report eastwood was heavily criticized by thousands of fans online who believe that the actor had officially endorsed then-u.s president donald trump while it's true that the actor had previously offered favorable comments on the politician he never officially endorsed him you know i haven't supported anybody really eastwood was also the subject of a viral meme in 2019 in the meme eastwood was falsely quoted as saying i'm not making this endorsement on a whim i think this man is the man that can get this country where it needs to be back in the hands of true americans so with that said i am endorsing mr trump for president while eastwood never said this he did mention in 2016 that he preferred trump over hillary clinton he chose to not officially endorse anyone though meanwhile in 2020 the actor expressed his support for democratic hopeful michael bloomberg and said the best thing we could do is just get mike bloomberg in there however he also said he supported some of trump's actions but didn't approve of his online behavior patrick mcgilligan's book clint the life and legend notably painted eastwood in an unflattering light stating among other things that eastwood was perceived to be a bit of a control freak according to the chicago tribune the actor was known for terminating contracts with employees if he felt that they were undermining his authority an ex-producer who worked with eastwood was quoted as saying if they ever called a meeting of all the people that clint has screwed over they'd have to hold it in the la coliseum eastwood disagrees with this assessment when he was asked in a cbs interview whether he sought to be in control all the time the actor denied it saying no because i like the participation of everyone man's got to know his limitations hardly anyone can think of classic hollywood without recalling actress grace kelly she wasn't in very many films but kelly had a huge impact on hollywood and on the world here's the tragic story of grace kelly grace patricia kelly was the third child born into a wealthy irish catholic family in philadelphia pennsylvania the kellys were never fully accepted into high society despite their substantial wealth if someone had the good luck of being wealthy around the early to middle part of the 20th century they still had to have the right background to be welcomed among the upper class unfortunately it didn't matter how much money a family had if they were of the irish catholic persuasion as many elites still gave them the cold shoulder according to the washington post grace's father jack kelly was not one to be put out if he wasn't going to be accepted among the philadelphia mainline elites he would have just as luxurious a mansion as any aristocrat so he built an elegant family home in the east falls neighborhood of philadelphia jack was the son of irish immigrants and made his fortune in the construction trade during the post-world war one boom he was also one of the rare few unaffected by the 1929 market crash due to him never investing in stocks grace kelly came from a wildly athletic and sociable family her father jack was a three-time olympic gold medalist in rowing her mother margaret was a model and a competitive swimmer kelly's father expected all of his children to be just as extroverted but according to vanity fair kelly was shy and introverted she suffered from asthma and sinus problems as a child much to her father's disappointment grace's serenity made her stand out from her siblings but that wasn't enough to interest or impress her father her siblings weren't sympathetic to her relationship with her father according to one story her sister lisanne one time locked her in a cupboard rather than tried to escape kelly simply stayed in the closet and quietly played with her dolls until someone discovered her hours later grace kelly's family was disapproving when she announced her intention to become an actress according to biography her father most notably was displeased with his daughter's career choice and said that an actress was a slim cut above a street walker but as biography notes her uncle walter kelly was a successful vaudeville performer while her other uncle george kelly was a pulitzer prize-winning playwright george was one of the actresses greatest influences and became her primary mentor and confidante it was thanks to her uncle's guidance that grace kelly learned the ins and outs of hollywood and was able to gain admittance to the american academy of the dramatic arts in manhattan grace kelly tried not to rely too much on family relations or money to advance her career her parents didn't want her to move to new york but kelly was insistent according to vanity fair she even covered her own tuition by taking lucrative jobs as a commercial model kelly also had to lose her philadelphian accent and get control of her sinus troubles which she tried by taking diction lessons and wearing a clothespin on her nose her newly refined accent was the subject of some mockery from her family what's the matter with me mark i don't seem able to feel anything after a few rolls on broadway kelly decided to try hollywood vanity fair stated that she took great care with her appearance when attending auditions dressing conservatively and ladylike and even wearing white gloves highly unusual in the hollywood world but it worked her biggest break arrived when gary cooper discovered her during her first film 14 hours cooper then had her cast as his wife in his latest film high noon cooper's endorsement put grace kelly on the road to stardom she went on to another major motion picture mogambo alongside clark gable and later won the academy award for best actress for the country girl kelly also became a favorite of director alfred hitchcock who notoriously had a weakness for elegant blondes grace kelly seemed to have a particular type when it came to her romantic choices she was constantly cast as the romantic interest of men who were usually more than 20 years her senior which played a role in her real-life relationships according to vanity fair kelly had a two-year romance with one of her instructors don richardson who was 11 years grace's senior he was also jewish something that wildly aggravated kelly's notoriously anti-semitic father family pressure put an end to the relationship kelly was said to have had many affairs with her older male sometimes married co-stars she had been linked to romances with major actors such as clark gable bing crosby ray milan and frank sinatra at one point she dated prince ali khan and almost married fashion designer ole cassini kelly's love letters to cassini were discovered and printed by harper's bazaar many years after her death the details of her romantic dalliances are still a point of interest grace kelly met her future husband prince rainier iii of monaco at the cannes film festival while promoting to catch a thief country living stated that it was through actress olivia de havilland that kelly was formally introduced to him at the time de havilland was married to pierre gallante the editor of paris match magazine after meeting kelly on the train from paris to cannes de havilland asked kelly if she would be interested in a personal meeting with prince rainier de havilland said many years later in an interview with people grace struck me on first encounter as a rather reserved self-possessed well-brought up young woman after getting approval from mgm grace agreed to meet the prince this initial first meeting would spark a correspondence between the two which later resulted in their engagement kelly fell in love with the prince while she was filming the swan where she played a young princess preparing to become the wife of a european king mgm also filmed the couple's royal wedding in 1956 and broadcasted across europe grace kelly found a love match with prince rainier iii but some have wondered whether there was a mercenary aspect to the marriage according to the telegraph prince rainier came to the monaco throne in 1949 after the devastation of world war ii he not only inherited a principality but he also had to deal with the country's financial issues rainier decided to make monaco a tax haven and made it look more appealing to foreign millionaires tourists and businesses but the unmarried rainier needed his future wife to bring a tidy summon to their marriage and a beautiful hollywood actress could bring the money and the publicity to monaco kelly wasn't even the first actress on rainier's short list according to the chicago tribune at one point rainier had an interest in hollywood cover girl marilyn monroe a letter was sent to her from rainier but monroe ultimately turned him down not fancying herself the princess type also monroe was beginning her romance with playwright arthur miller and was eager for more serious film work but rainier eventually met kelly who had the looks the prestige and the cash as it would turn out becoming a princess wasn't as charming as it's hyped up to be for grace kelly the actual path to princess hood was far from a fairy tale according to the chicago tribune why don't you want a place like this palaces are for royalty we're just common people with a bank account in order to marry and become a royal of monaco kelly would unfortunately have to give up her acting career and renounce her u.s citizenship a hefty price to pay to marry into international royalty since money was a concern for monaco prince rainier insisted on receiving a dowry for kelly to have the privilege of marrying a prince the asking price was 2 million dollars despite having the money kelly's father wasn't thrilled about paying for his beautiful famous daughter to get married but the prospect of a royal in the family and all the benefits were too good to pass up father and daughter agreed to each pay half on the dowry kelly also had to submit to a fertility test to prove that she could produce errors nothing says fairy tale like an invasive and uncomfortable medical procedure that's exactly what was running through my mind the reasoning behind the test was that monaco still had an old agreement with france from 1918 which dictated that if monaco had no air the principality would be return to french rule so as invasive as a fertility test was for kelly for the royal family it was a necessity kelly agreed to the medical exam and once she was in the clear the wedding could proceed prince rainier may have had a vested interest in marrying a beautiful starlet but that didn't mean he had any admiration for the acting profession grace kelly's hollywood fame brought significant and valuable publicity to monaco but raniere disapproved of kelly's former career he viewed it as an undignified profession particularly for a royal princess he seemed to share similar sentiments as kelly's father regarding acting as too common and naive of a practice according to the guardian out of concern that kelly's movies would negatively impact the image of the royal family rainier banned all of his wife's films in monaco for years although kelly agreed to give up her career in order to become a princess she still missed acting and wished she could return to her profession in 1962 she tentatively tried to stage a comeback she was about to sign on to play the titular role of alfred hitchcock's upcoming film marnie but the public outcry in monaco was overwhelming and it wasn't just that she would be acting again but the fact that her lead character in the hitchcock film was a criminal the people of monaco shuttered at the thought of their refined elegant princess playing the role of a common crook according to vogue grace mourned the loss of her on-screen career for the rest of her life even telling the los angeles times in 1964 i miss acting once you're bitten with the acting bug you never really get over it grace kelly had three children with rainier princess caroline prince albert and princess stephanie yet kelly seemed to struggle to connect with her children possibly as a result of her royal duties and responsibilities in recent years after both their parents had passed away princess caroline and prince albert revealed in interviews as reported by insider that they weren't particularly close to their mother caroline and albert were only a year apart and grew up with a close bond and shared a nanny maureen wood with whom they felt more of a parental connection than with either of their parents they preferred their nanny so much that they would cry when wood was away on her annual vacation and kelly would ask wood if she could come back to work early on occasion caroline and albert added that they were not even allowed to eat dinner with their parents until they were 14 years old even grace by her own admission to abc news said that she was a hard disciplinarian to her three children she wasn't above lashing out or speaking harshly kelly stated we sort of tend to think that knowledge is a substitute for discipline and it never will be our children were brought up with a certain amount of discipline and unfortunately wasn't much different than kelly's own authoritarian mother who raised her in this way the news of princess grace and monaco's death took the world by shock according to the independent ireland kelly had been in fine health at 52 years old as far as anyone knew kelly was driving her 17 year old daughter stephanie to school in paris one day when tragedy struck the details of what precisely happened are hazy but it appears that kelly took a sharp turn on a steep mountain turn that caused the car to shoot down a 120 foot slope stephanie only sustained minor injuries but grace suffered a brain hemorrhage she died on september 14 1982 at monaco hospital it was later renamed princess grace hospital center in honor of kelly kelly's eldest daughter princess caroline assumed grace's role in the royal family after her death prince rainier established the princess grace foundation in the u.s an organization dedicated to financially supporting emerging artists in theater dance and film prince rainier never remarried he was buried beside grace after his death in 2005. at her funeral service co-star and lifelong friend james stewart said of kelly grace brought into my life as she brought into yours a soft warm light every time i saw her and every time i saw her was a holiday of its own the life of peter sellers is a 20th century archetype that of an astronomical rise from humble beginnings to international stardom but away from the characters of inspector clouseau and chance the gardner sellers was a troubled man here are some tragic details about peter sellers famous for slipping in and out of characters and creating new ones at the drop of a hat the character of the real-life peter sellers has been difficult to pin down stanley kubrick described the naturalness with which he inhabited his roles in classic movies as quote a state of comic ecstasy and his dynamism is shown especially in the film dr strangelove in which sellers place three distinct parts but it has been reported by many biographers that sellers found his own identity impossible to inhabit furthermore in a 1980 interview on the today show the actor discussed an idea that had recently taken hold that in essence there was no peter sellers sellers claim that it wasn't entirely true that behind the mask he was an empty vessel but the topic had recurred throughout his career and in a famous clip from the muppet show sellers who had hosted the show as a range of characters told kermit there is no me i do not exist the daily telegraph notes however that the roots of his selflessness may have arisen from tragic circumstances in early childhood sellers was born richard henry sellers with the name peter bestowed on him as a tribute to his older brother who was stillborn this sense of displaced identity haunted sellers but perhaps it gave him his ability to project himself so uncannily into the minds of other characters peter sellers had a reputation as a womanizer divorcing his first wife anne with whom he had had two children in the early 1960s his second wife the swedish actress brett eklund has in recent years gone on record to describe their difficult marriage and sellers jealous controlling and abusive behavior eclin suggested that her former husband most likely had bipolar disorder explaining the great bouts of depression and paranoia that characterized his relationships with women in his life eclin was just 21 when she met sellers who was 17 years her senior the actor had seen her photograph in a newspaper and decided that he wanted to meet her the pair were soon married with sellers informing the press of his intentions before actually proposing to eclin eckland described how sellers would decide on almost all aspects of their lives together including the outfits that his wife was to wear in one incident his abrupt decision that they should take a spontaneous holiday meant that eclin was fired from her role in a hollywood movie eklund has described how sellers was both psychologically and physically abusive going so far as to throw items and destroy property if he didn't get his way after his divorce from eklund sellers remarried twice more to aristocrat miranda mcmillan and later to actress lin frederick to whom he was married at the time of his death peter seller's erratic behavior toward those close to him was exacerbated by alcohol and the drugs with which he used to experiment big drinking and fast living hollywood actors weren't exactly a rare species in the 60s and 70s but the effects of such a lifestyle for sellers and those around him were especially disastrous firstly alcohol and drugs affected his health dramatically with sellers having his first heart attack before the age of 40. however to make matters worse sellers wasn't given adequate treatment for a variety of reasons as noted by the guardian seller's value to the production companies that made his movies meant that his heart issues were continually brushed off on top of that sellers himself was highly superstitious and pursued a number of alternative methods when decisive medical intervention by pulmonary specialists might have had a tangible effect on his health coupled with the fact that sellers did not change his lifestyle which was amplified by the similar habits of his fourth wife lynn frederick it became a certainty that his health would continue to decline the harrowing period which is biographer ed seykov describes as quote peter seller's death began at a los angeles hotel room in april 1964 with sellers in bed with 21 year old wife brett eckland zykov's book features direct quotes from eklund who described the regularity with which the couple used drugs to increase their bedroom performance particularly ammonitrite commonly known as poppers the couple would take the drug nightly according to eckland in pursuit of quote the ultimate orgasm on this particular night however their adventurousness would go awry with eckland describing how she came back from the bathroom to find cellars collapsed on the bed in a puddle of spilled champagne with sellers himself realizing that he was having a heart attack despite this sellers wasn't taken to cedars of lebanon hospital until the next morning where over the course of the coming days he would suffer a barrage of further heart attacks in which his heart stopped entirely the star was revived each time by a defibrillator saikov describes how on hearing the news television crews were already working on potential obituaries he said i was there for two minutes clinically then and i i guess i was you know meanwhile between bouts of unconsciousness sellers perform songs and impersonations for children on the ward sellers would continue to have heart issues for the rest of his life seller's first marriage to anne howe came to an end due to his infatuation with another woman italian page and screen idol sophia loren sellers and lorend had worked together on the 1960 movie the millionaires as well as the novelty song goodness gracious me which sellers performed in character to promote the movie sellers didn't exactly keep his infatuation with his co-star secret according to saikov colleagues on the set of the millionaires reported that sellers acted boyishly toward loren as though she were a pinup in his bedroom meanwhile in the evenings over dinner with his family the actor could not help but pour over the details of loren's behavior and how she treated him each day in one incident sellers returned home and declared his love for loren openly to his wife loren was married to italian movie producer carlo ponti and would continue to be until his death in 2007. sellers claimed to friends that he and his co-star were in the throes of a passionate love affair and that she was going to leave her husband for him however there is no evidence to support these claims and as michael sellers has discussed the possibility exists that seller's infatuation was nothing more than a fantasy born out of the inflation of his ego from being cast opposite such a glamorous sex symbol it wasn't just his first wife anne who had to deal with sellers ego driven emotional problems his declaration of love for sophia loren also occurred in front of his children his son michael speaking to psykov described a moment when his father awoke him in the middle of the night to ask him the following question do you think i should divorce your mummy though the sophia lorenz saga is perhaps the most striking example of seller's strange lack of regard for the feelings of his family the truth is that they acted as a continual outlet for his insecurities in an interview with the scotsman michael recalls how his father had asked him at the age of seven which of his parents he liked best when he replied mummy it sent sellers into a rage the following year michael says his father wrote him a letter claiming to disown him and advising the child to take his mother's maiden name howe michael together with his sister sarah and victoria later wrote a best-selling book about the treatment they received from their troubled and troubling father but aside from the intermittent contact distance and mood swings that the three had to contend with the most brutal treatment was to come at the time of peter's death irritability flightiness and violent mood swings were not reserved purely for peter sellers home life indeed his difficult personality put great strains on his friendships and those he worked with on set a prime example is given in the recollections of director peter medic who is friends with sellers according to the guardian the disastrous production of the 1973 movie the ghost in the noonday sun was so fraught with difficulties that it provided enough material for a story of its own which medic finally told in the form of a documentary that goes to peter sellers released in 2018 while arranging to work on a script with sellers medic was rudely left waiting alone at the actor's house and having gone to find him discovered cellars on his head naked performing yoga the incident is funny on its own but further ambivalence toward the production on the part of sellers as well as tantrums and arguments on set combined with bad luck regarding poor shooting conditions meant the movie was never given a theatrical release ghost in the noonday sun was eventually released on home video in 1985. the official biography on the peter seller's website describes him as an obsessive perfectionist an aspect of his character that accounts for his genius and also partly for his difficult personality [Music] i thought you said your dad did not bite that is not my talk peter sellers also had a complicated relationship with his mother pegg peter was spoiled by his mother which may have been related to the tragedy of pegg losing her first baby in zykov's biography seller's first wife anne describes the dynamic between the pair as being formative for his later relationships with women peg remained close to sellers well into his adulthood and was abnormally protected while allowing his behavior to go entirely unchecked some biographers believe this means that sellers remained infantilized expecting the women in his life to mother him while filming the movie the bobo in italy in august 1966 sellers received a phone call that his mother had suffered a heart attack however sellers chose to remain on set and his mother died within days her death affected sellers deeply in 1980 16 years after his first heart attack seller's heart finally gave out the scene once again was a glamorous hotel according to roger ebert sellers was staying at the dorchester hotel in london at the time of the attack he was taken to london's middlesex hospital where his condition worsened dramatically sellers passed away at 6 28 pm on july 24th by his side was his second wife fred eckland and their daughter victoria as well as his fourth wife lynn frederick to whom he had been married for only a few years a number of tragic details have emerged surrounding seller's death apart from the relatively early age at which he passed away firstly sellers have been taking steps to reconcile with his children as is indicated by the presence of one of his daughters at his death similarly on the day of his heart attack sellers was due to attend a reunion dinner with his old friends and co-stars on the goon show spike milligan and harry cecum as reported by wales online cellar saved his last joke for after his death he had requested for his funeral the song in the mood by glenn miller a song that all the goons mutually detested knowing they'd have to sit through it and hopefully share a last laugh one of the most contentious events of peter seller's life occurred in fact after his death and so did one of the most tragic side stories at the reading of seller's will it was found that the vast majority of the actor's wealth said to be around seven million dollars was to go straight to his fourth wife lynn frederick to whom he was married at the time of his death so far so uncontroversial however the will also stipulated that each of seller's three children were to receive just one thousand dollars each at the time it seemed like a final rebuke from the erratic and emotionally troubled star although evidence exists in the form of a recently unearthed letter that sellers was attempting to change the beneficiaries of his will at the time of his death frederick declined to provide sellers three children with any more of his fortune than was allocated to them in his will despite the pleas of seller's friends spike milligan says psykov his book also details how struggling with addiction frederick died on april 27 1994 aged just 39. [Music] if he had to define the concept of comedy with the career of a single person dick van dyke would be that person but the actors face struggles from relationship woes to addiction battles here are some tragic details about the legend is there anyone on the planet who's more fun and infectiously happy than dick van dyke though a quick peek at his imdb page reveals that his most long-running role is oddly enough the crime solving dr mark sloane in the comparatively serious diagnosis murder the highlights of his excessive filmography almost invariably feature him in roles in which his assured slightly goofy happiness and considerable knack for physical comedy are at the forefront due to his reputation as inevitable sort of comedic genius it's very easy to assume that van dyke is a huge extrovert who just can't help but flash that famous grin every time he sees a fellow human being this could not be further from the truth in a 2016 interview for oprah's where are they now van dyke revealed that he has struggled with extreme shyness to the point that he found it difficult to approach others i was very shy very with strangers i i just couldn't talk to people he soon found a way to treat this debilitating bashfulness though the cure would eventually prove far worse than the ailment alcohol helped van dyke to loosen up but as we'll soon see it created another problem altogether during a 2016 appearance in oprah where are they now dick van dyke revealed that his attempts to minimize his shyness with alcohol ultimately led to a lengthy struggle with addiction that took him years to conquer in fact he confirmed to the bullseye with jesse thorne podcast that he didn't quit drinking until middle age and opened up about a situation before that happened i drank at home but instead of having a martini i would have three or four martinis i had no idea that i had addiction in my personality van dyke eventually managed to stop drinking and his decision to open up about his personal substance use issues has done plenty of good in fact he said that many people have found strength from his confession and he still gets letters from fans telling him that his own openness helped them come to grips with their drinking problems dick van dyke struggled with alcohol addiction for a long time and in a 2013 interview with the telegraph he said that it took a toll on his mental health he reportedly became very depressed and even considered self-harm to the point that he was quote suicidal as strange as it is to imagine van dijk like this the national institute of mental health reminds us that depression is a common mental health issue that can affect all kinds of people van dyke was ultimately able to resolve his alcohol-induced bad situation when he grew weary of alcohol itself he eventually even developed a physical distaste for drinking which helped him to quit for good however he also noted it wasn't a solo effort and that at various points of his life he sought help from sources like rehab and alcoholics anonymous in a 2010 interview with craig ferguson dick van dyke shared a story of a real-life close call that would seem too much to believe if it came from anyone else that he was once stranded at sea and got saved by a group of porpoises it all started he said when he fell asleep atop a surfboard and jolted awake to discover that he was in great peril after the tide had carried him out in the sea with no land in sight he started to paddle in then saw finns all around him and realized that porpoises were pushing his surfboard all the way to land is this story an exaggeration or was it truly just dick van dyke's incredible luck we may never know there are many sitcoms that are named after their star but the dick van dyke show is particularly clear about its main attraction by van dijk's own admission though the dick van dyke show wasn't originally intended to be the dick van dyke show show creator carl reiner who appears in the finished product as van dyke's tv star boss alan brady originally intended to be the main star but his take on the character didn't end up working at all it was only after reiner realized his show wasn't working that he offered the part to van dyke after these hurdles had been cleared van dyke basically ditched everything to take a shot at the show as he explained on bullseye with jesse thorne he even threw his own pilot script away so he could work with reiner after reading the first scripts for the series just a few years after van dyke opened up about being saved by porpoises he had another far less poetic brush with death in august 2013 the entertainment legend's official twitter account posted an image of an utterly destroyed jaguar sports car accompanied with the texts used jag for sale real cheap this was not just a strange little social media joke according to the guardian the then 87 year old van dyke had indeed been driving on route 101 in california when suddenly his sports car caught fire the actor managed to pull over safely but had to be rescued from the smoking vehicle by passers-by thankfully van dyke emerged from the burning vehicle with no injuries as his tweet about the situation attests his comedic timing was also as impeccable as ever even at an age in which most people would be content to lounge in a rocking chair and watch daytime soaps dick van dyke has managed to stay active according to the chicago tribune he was still happily hitting the gym on a daily basis at 89 and he's written a book that discusses advanced age fitness however he's very familiar with unhealthy habits such as cigarettes the comedian smoked for quite a long time and as the washington post notes it was far from a casual vice in fact he smoked up to three packs a day and fully admits that he was addicted to nicotine vandikus called cigarettes the worst of all addictions it was so difficult for him to quit smoking that he ultimately had to be literally scared away from the habit it wasn't until a doctor finally showed him an x-ray of his own lungs and pointed out the scar tissue on them that he finally gave up for good van dyke's smoking days are long gone but it may not be entirely coincidental that his lungs have given him trouble in his later days reportedly he's had to deal with pneumonia and one of his lungs has even collapsed sometimes people author their own tragedies and that was the case when dick van dyke had an affair that ended his marriage with margie willett in 1972 van dijk and willett were both treated for addiction he to alcohol sheet to prescription drugs van dyke later told the guardian that he feels this was a sign of even deeper issues since he led the high life of a famous star and she had little interest in such matters unfortunately he decided to deal with this by starting an affair with michelle triola who worked for his agent and was a former actress herself in his memoirs van dijk said he was quote thriving in guilt over the affair and eventually decided he had to be honest about it sad honesty was the final nail on the coffin of their marriage and williton van dijk decided to live apart and eventually divorced in 1984. still while the relationship ultimately ended because of his infidelity van dijk says it will its illness and death in 2008 took a heavy toll on him he later said that when willett passed away he felt he'd lost a part of himself a long-time partner's death is always a tragedy and van dijk's long life has meant that he unfortunately had to deal with the loss of his love of many years michelle triola when she died in 2009 at the age of 76. as the guardian notes triola and van dijk were together for a long time though triola's better known relationship is arguably her six year one with the actor lee marvin triola never married either marvin or van dyke though she did take marvin's name for a time this ended up making legal history after they separated 1970 and marvin stopped his agreed payments to her the ensuing lengthy legal battle established the concept of palimony divorce payments in cases of unmarried couples who live together but break up treyola's death was hard for van dyke for more than just the obvious reasons he just lost his ex-wife to cancer in 2008 and though he had an idea of what the end result of triolo's own lung cancer diagnosis would be he was determined to remain confident that there was a chance she'd survive at least on the outside as he explained to the guardian when she asked if she was going to die i pretended i didn't know the hardest acting i have ever done imagine having a strange neurological disorder that causes you no end of discomfort and that no one seems to be able to properly diagnose now imagine having to live with it for a whopping seven years and you have an idea of what dick van dyke went through according to entertainment tonight the actor's condition consisted of a strange heartbeat-like sound inside his head and none of the numerous treatments and tests he'd gone through managed to solve the problem over the years it got so bad that it severely affected his ability to function due to the sheer fatigue it caused in 2013 van dyke revealed the situation when he took to twitter to crowdsource solutions to his mystery ailment this openness may have led to a breakthrough because a few weeks after his initial tweet his twitter account posted that the case of his mysterious throbbing head was finally solved and that the root cause of the problem was actually his famous smile van dyke later tweeted that his titanium dental implants were actually what caused the pounding sensation dick van dyke has played many great roles but as the guardian tells us one particular thing has haunted him for decades his performance as burnt the multi-talented chimney sweep in mary poppins is a master class of song dance and physical comedy unfortunately the character is also saddled with what van dyke himself has called quote the most atrocious cockney accent in the history of filmmaking number 17 cherry tree line you say all right come on with me to be fair van dyke didn't mangle the dialect on purpose in fact when making the film he was under the impression that he was doing a pretty decent job with the character's accent because no one told him otherwise after the film came out however people have more than made up for this lack of feedback over the years though van dyke doesn't come across as a particularly negative man years of reflecting on this criticism make it seem that the whole cockney accent thing has nevertheless gotten under his skin after all in 2017 he actually used his bafta award speech to formally apologize for his linguistic crimes against cockney we still love you bert if you or someone you know is struggling with mental health please contact the crisis text line by texting home to 741-741 call the national alliance on mental illness helpline at 1-800-950-n-a-m-i 6264 or visit the national institute of mental health website check out one of our newest videos right here plus even more grunge videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon subscribe to our youtube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one [Music]

Channel: Grunge

Views: 639,107

Keywords: grunge, the three stooges, clint eastwood, tragic stories, marilyn monroe

Id: IQ94uz4r9dk

Length: 217min 9sec (13029 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 27 2022