"Old Hollywood" is synonymous with class, sophistication, and images of matinee idols chastely stealing kisses on the silver screen. In reality, though, all sorts of bonkers nonsense was going on behind the scenes. Here's a look at some classic film stars who were actually really weird people.
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00:00Old Hollywood is synonymous with class, sophistication, and images of matinee idols chastely stealing
00:06kisses on the silver screen.
00:07In reality, though, all sorts of bonkers nonsense was going on behind the scenes.
00:11Here's a look at some classic film stars who were actually really weird people.
00:16In 1960, the editors at Good Housekeeping magazine got a strange call.
00:20Cary Grant, the suave, sophisticated film star who almost never gave interviews, was
00:25on the line and wanted to talk — about the magnificent amount of LSD he'd dropped.
00:30Yep, plagued by personal demons, Grant finally found peace when his third wife introduced
00:34him to the wonders of acid, which he'd dropped over a hundred times between 1958 and 1961.
00:40And he wanted everyone to experience the same wonderful benefit.
00:43So he went on a campaign to promote the benefits of LSD, which, according to the biography
00:48Cary Grant, A Touch of Elegance, included Grant saying things like,
00:52It releases inhibition.
00:53You know, we are all unconsciously holding our anus.
00:56In one LSD dream, I s---- all over the rug, and s---- all over the floor.
01:00Another time, I imagined myself as a giant penis launching off from Earth like a spaceship.
01:05Most people who get nose jobs want to make their nose smaller.
01:09But legendary writer, director, and actor Orson Welles was obsessed with making his
01:13nose larger.
01:14He thought his real nose was too small for his round face.
01:17So in every movie, he had a fake nose made.
01:20And as his career went along, those noses got bigger and bigger and bigger.
01:24When he finished a film, Welles kept his noses, named them, and stored them in his Hollywood
01:29home, where he would occasionally take them out at parties and perform magic tricks with
01:33them.
01:34That's the sort of crazy you get away with when you've directed the best film ever made.
01:38In one of the most famous cases of a star having a secret weird side, Joan Crawford
01:42was outed by her adopted daughter Christina as a jealous egomaniac in the infamous memoir
01:46Mommy Dearest, which was later turned into a hit movie.
01:49In account of her time as Crawford's ward, it made the Hollywood star sound like the
01:52mother from hell.
01:53Among other tidbits were harrowing descriptions of the physical abuse Crawford occasionally
01:57unleashed on her children, the revelation that Crawford lied when she told Christina
02:01her birth mother was dead, and of course, the famous meltdown of her wire hangers.
02:05"...Hangers!"
02:07Some claim the book wasn't entirely true, but considering Crawford was so weird, she
02:11once sabotaged her own movie in order to spite rival Bette Davis, separating truth from fiction
02:17is nearly impossible.
02:19The star who gave us Doctor Strangelove and Inspector Clouseau wasn't just a weirdo.
02:23He was apparently also such a monumental butthead that few could stand to be around him.
02:27Peter Sellers would have screaming meltdown tantrums on set.
02:30He'd freak out at his wives, smash crockery, and threaten them with his shotgun.
02:34He'd even get low-level people fired on movies as a way of venting his frustrations against
02:38people like producers and directors who were more powerful than he was.
02:41He was also profoundly superstitious, so when director Vittorio De Sica told him the color
02:46purple represented death, Sellers took it way too literally.
02:49According to the biography Mr. Strangelove, Sellers became convinced the color purple
02:53could kill.
02:54He refused to be in rooms with it, and would have screaming tantrums if he came into contact
02:58with it.
02:59Elizabeth Taylor's hell-raising is so infamous that her private life was publicly denounced
03:03by the Vatican.
03:04Over her lifetime, she married eight times, had endless affairs, and took great pride
03:08in the offense she caused.
03:10Sometimes her behavior was truly outrageous.
03:12After marrying and divorcing Richard Burton twice, Taylor was so upset that she got engaged
03:17just to spite him.
03:18While working on the play Private Lives, Taylor and Burton brought out the worst in each other.
03:22They separately turned up drunk, they broke character, they skipped performances.
03:26When Taylor missed a show, Burton got fed up, went to Vegas, and married Sally Hay.
03:31When Taylor heard the news, she was so furious, she announced her engagement to Victor Luna,
03:35upstaging Burton.
03:36Not that she hated her ex-husband.
03:38Later in life, Taylor claimed they would have married a third time if only Burton hadn't
03:43The best way to describe Katharine Hepburn is fiercely independent.
03:46She lived as if married with both women and men, all while acting like it was no big deal.
03:51Part of that, though, was that she had plausible deniability, as according to the book Kate,
03:55The Woman Who Was Katharine Hepburn, the famed actress not only didn't like physical intimacy,
04:00she hated nudity to the point where she would walk out on a film if there was a scene showing
04:04someone naked.
04:05So why did Hepburn loathe nudity and physical romance so much?
04:08According to a college friend, she tried intercourse once and, quote, just didn't like
04:13it.
04:14Fair enough.
04:15They say that cleanliness is next to godliness, but matinee idol Clark Gable took it to a
04:19whole new level.
04:20According to Warren G. Harris' biography of Gable, the star shaved his chest and armpits
04:24because he didn't like sweating.
04:26He also didn't like baths, because it meant soaking in your own dirty water.
04:29So he always showered, even carrying his own portable shower around with him when he was
04:33in the Army.
04:34Considering his obsession with hygiene, it's ironic that Gable's Gone with the Wind co-star
04:38Vivian Leigh later publicly called him out for having bad breath.
04:41Still, no matter what people said about his weird ways, he always had the perfect comeback.
04:46"'Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.'"