Continuing from A-F Movie Stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, these actors and actresses are just a few of the people who paved the path of Grauman’s Chinese Theater.
G – Clark Gable
Born in Ohio on February 1, 1901, Clark Gable became known as the ultimate leading man, starring in successful films such as It Happened One Night (1934), which won him an Oscar, and Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), which won him great critical acclaim and a nomination for another Academy Award for Best Actor. However, he is perhaps best remembered for playing Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind (1939).
Joan Crawford was said to be his favorite co-star. They made 8 films together, and carried on an on-and off again love affair for many years. A major box-office draw, Gable was paired with many of the top female stars including Jean Harlow, Norma Shearer, and Lana Turner.
Gable married five times. His third wife, Carole Lombard is said to have been the love of his life, but they were on the brink of divorce at the time of her early death. In 1935, an affair with former co-star Loretta Young resulted in the secret birth of his biological daughter Judy Lewis. Gable’s only legitimate child was born after his death in 1960.
H – William Holden
Born in Illinois on April 19, 1918, William Holden played his first starring role in Golden Boy (1939), and he always credited his co-star Barbara Stanwyck as saving his acting career. Later, like many of the male stars of Hollywood, Holden interrupted his filmmaking by serving during World War II, returning to appearing in Hollywood films in 1947, even starring in a movie about a returning army officer, Dear Ruth (1947).
He did not find great fame until he starred opposite Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard (1950). The film was directed by Billy Wilder, who also directed Holden in Stalag 17 (1953), which won Holden the Academy Award for Best Actor. Throughout his career he played a variety of respected serious and lighter roles in films such as Born Yesterday (1950), Sabrina (1954), and The Country Girl (1954).
Holden was married to former actress Brenda Marshall from 1941 until they divorced in 1971. The couple had two sons, Peter and Scott, and the 1952 wedding of their friends Nancy and Ronald Reagan took place at the Holden home, Bill Holden even serving as the best man. Although married for thirty years, Holden had several affairs including an often mentioned relationship with Audrey Hepburn. In 1972, he began a relationship with actress Stefanie Powers, who after his death in 1981, began the William Holden Wildlife Foundation in his honor of his long working for wildlife conservation.
I – Irving Thalberg’s Wife Norma Shearer
Born in Montréal on August 10, 1902, Norma Shearer was initially a silent screen actress, often cast as girl-next-door characters, but as her career progressed she played a variety of character types. In 1927, she married “The Boy Wonder” Vice-President of MGM, Irving Thalberg.
Norma was said to be both madly in love and conscious that by marrying her boss she would become “Queen of MGM.” Her position was understandably resented by some of her contemporary movie stars, such as Joan Crawford, but Shearer received both critical acclaim and commercial success in talking films.
Sound films were introduced only a week after the Thalberg marriage, and since Norma’s brother was instrumental in the introduction of sound, she was prepared for voice recording. Shearer starred in numerous film versions of plays such as Private Lives (1931), Romeo and Juliet (1936), and The Women (1939).
Marie Antoinette (1938) is said to have been her favorite role, since the movie was the brainchild of her husband, being made in tribute to his vision. Shearer was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning on the occasion she was nominated against herself. Distraught by the 1936 death of her husband, she began to lose interest in acting, making certain career mistakes, and finally deciding to retire in 1942.
Shearer was approached on several occasions to return to acting, but she always declined, although she remained active in the business, even discovering later actresses such as Janet Leigh. Shearer remarried in 1942, and the marriage lasted until her death in 1983.
J – Al Jolson
Born in Lithuania on May 26, 1886, Al Jolson’s family immigrated to the United States in 1891. Depressed by the 1894 death of his mother, Jolson discovered show business. Today, Jolson is remembered as one of the greatest entertainers of all time, first rising to prominence in vaudeville. He never became a major movie star, but he did star in the first talking picture, The Jazz Singer (1927).
Al Jolson married four times, adopting a son with his third wife Ruby Keeler, and adopting two children with his fourth wife Erle Galbraith. He remained married to his last wife until his death in 1950.
K – Buster Keaton
Born in Kansas on October 4, 1895, the heyday of Buster Keaton was during the silent film era, but he continued to work as an actor and director throughout his life, contributing innovative work to the cinema. His trademark physical comedy often involved the use of his stoically deadpan facial expression, earning him the nickname “The Great Stone face,” and his comic technique influenced many later comedians such as Lucille Ball.
Keaton married three times. When his tumultuous first marriage, which had resulted in two sons, ended in divorce after eleven years, he sank into depression, becoming an alcoholic, and supposedly marrying his nurse while in a drunken blackout. His final sixteen year marriage was the most successful, ending with his death in 1966.
Vivien Leigh, Marilyn Monroe, Barbara Stanwyck, Maureen O’Hara, Betty Grable
Brief biographies of Old Hollywood movie stars continues with L-P Movie Stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Elizabeth Fredericks - Elizabeth Fredericks is a graduate of Oxford University, and she has worked as a freelance writer since her first paid assignment as a ...
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