Classic Stars – Then and Now
Elizabeth Taylor married eight times. Most people can barely name half the husbands. But there is one name every fan of Old Hollywood knows by heart, because she married him twice: Richard Burton. Their romance was so explosive the Vatican publicly condemned it, so passionate it produced two of the most legendary screen pairings in … Read more
In 1985, most of Hollywood was too afraid to even say the word AIDS out loud. Elizabeth Taylor, one of the most famous women on the planet, decided to make it the fight of her life. It began with the death of her close friend and former co-star Rock Hudson, and it ended with Taylor … Read more
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is remembered as one of the defining Paul Newman films, the role that cemented his easy, roguish charm for a new generation. What almost no one remembers is that the studio didn’t want him for it at all. Newman wasn’t even their first choice for the part. He was … Read more
In the 1950s, Paul Newman had everything a rising star was supposed to want: a beautiful wife, three young children, and a career on the verge of exploding. Then he met Joanne Woodward on a film set, and everything he thought he wanted quietly fell apart. What followed was one of the biggest scandals of … Read more
In 1982, Paul Newman started bottling his own salad dressing as a joke gift for friends and neighbors. He never expected it to become a business. He certainly never expected it to become one of the most quietly radical acts of generosity in Hollywood history. Behind the folksy label and the twinkling blue eyes on … Read more
Marlon Brando spent his career playing men consumed by rage, guilt, and grief. In his final decades, he lived through a family tragedy so devastating that no performance could have prepared him for it. What happened inside his Mulholland Drive estate in 1990 would haunt him, and his family, for the rest of his life. … Read more
By 1971, Marlon Brando was considered a has-been. Once the most electrifying actor of his generation, a decade of box office flops and a reputation for being difficult on set had made studios wary of hiring him at all. When director Francis Ford Coppola wanted him for The Godfather, Paramount executives fought the decision every … Read more
In May 1955, Grace Kelly traveled to the Cannes Film Festival for a magazine photo shoot she nearly skipped entirely. By the end of the year, Hollywood’s reigning leading lady would trade her film career for a crown, and she would never make another movie again. It remains one of the most extraordinary real-life fairy … Read more
Marlon Brando was one of the most private public figures in Hollywood history, and nowhere was that more true than in his family life. Behind the legendary performances was a household that, at times, included more than a dozen children from a string of different relationships. Brando almost never discussed it publicly. What emerges from … Read more
1955 might be the single most extraordinary year any actress has ever had. Grace Kelly won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Months later, at a magazine photo shoot she almost didn’t attend, she met the man she would marry. Few careers have ended on a higher note, or in a stranger sequence of events, … Read more