Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall are one of the most famous old Hollywood power couples of all time. Bogart had married four times but his last marriage to Lauren Bacall lasted the longest. He kept to his vows and they remained married until his death in 1957. Bacall would die in 2014 and would marry only once for a period of about eight years.
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall had met on the set of To Have and Have Not. He was 25 years older than her and already married. But it would be his marriage to Bacall that would become legendary. In 1945, the couple got married in Lucas, Ohio, on a farm belonging to Bogart’s friend Louis Bromfield, a Pulitzer Prize winner.
Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli met on the set of Meet Me in St. Louis in 1943. Minnelli was the director of the film and Garland was the film’s star. The film was relatively successful. It had a budget of $1,885,000 and earned $6,566,000 upon its original release. But it wasn’t a romance between Minnelli and Garland from the get-go.
It is said that initially there was quite a bit of conflict between the director and actress. However, that turned into something else, and they soon started a relationship. By June 1945, they were married. It was Garland’s second marriage and they had one child together: Liza Minnelli. They would divorce in 1951.
One of the most beautiful and talented actresses of the 20th century, Natalie Wood’s life was a story of success, love, and tragedy. The actress met Robert Wagner back in 1956 when he was 26 years old and she was just 18. They married initially in 1957 but separated after she caught him having an affair in 1961. They divorced in 1962, but that was not the end of their story.
Natalie Wood eventually married again in 1969 to Richard Gregson, but Wood filed for divorce in 1971. After dating future governor Jerry Brown for a short time, she re-entered a relationship with her ex-husband Robert Wagner. They remarried in 1972 and stayed together until her death by drowning in 1981. It was never determined how she fell off the boat nor how she had bruises on her body. Wagner is a person of interest in the ongoing investigation, although the truth may likely never be known.
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz are easily one of the most famous couples of all time. Their groundbreaking work on I Love Lucy, as well as their film work, captivated audiences and brought on laughter like no one else had before. While the pair worked great on-screen, their real-life relationship was no laughing matter.
Ball met bandleader Desi Arnaz while filming Too Many Girls and they initially eloped in 1940. However, the marriage was plagued by Arnaz’s drinking and infidelity and so she filed for a divorce in 1944. They reconciled, however, and renewed their vows in 1949 at Our Lady of the Valley Church in Canoga Park, California. They finally divorced in 1960.
Tony Curtis was a man who married a total of six times, but it was Janet Leigh whom he married first. They tied the knot in 1951 in Greenwich, Connecticut. Janet Leigh went against the norm of a luxurious gown and married in a sleek white suit and a beaded cap.
But the marriage did not last. According to Curtis, "I was very dedicated and devoted to Janet, and on top of my trade, but in her eyes that goldenness started to wear off. I realized that whatever I was, I wasn't enough for Janet. That hurt me a lot and broke my heart.”
They had two children together: Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Frank Sinatra was first married to Nancy Barbato, until he met Ava Gardner, and divorced her. He married Ava Gardner in 1951 but the marriage was not smooth sailing. It was a real roller coaster with plenty of publicized altercations. They only stayed married until 1957 when the divorce was finalized.
However, Gardner had filed for divorce back in 1954 and began dating a famous matador. Nevertheless, even after the divorce, Sinatra and Gardner had remained friends and Sinatra even continued to help Gardner with her finances. It is said that Sinatra still had feelings for her long after they called it quits.
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Tayler garnered plenty of media attention for their affair while filming Cleopatra in Rome. Burton was already married to Sybil Williams when he met Taylor on the set. They ended up marrying for the first time, in 1964, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montreal. But wait, there’s more…
Burton and Taylor ended up staying married until 1974 when they divorced. But they couldn’t stay apart it seems as they ended up falling back in love and marrying each other a second time in 1975, just 16 months later. Well, they thought they were in love again, but unfortunately, divorced again in 1976.
Audrey Hepburn married Mel Ferrer in a secret ceremony in Bürgenstock, Switzerland, wearing a high neck tea-length dress and elbow-length gloves. On top of her head was a crown of roses. Truly she looks like royalty even if she never actually was, but she did play a Princess in a movie so that’s got to count for something.
Audrey Hepburn met her first husband Mel Ferrer at a cocktail party that was hosted by Gregory Peck, a mutual friend. Peck had them meet and suggested that they do a play together and they did, starring in Ondine. Eight months later they would marry. The marriage would not last though as they would divorce in 1968.
Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe certainly didn’t have a fairy tale happy ending with husband Joe DiMaggio. Their marriage was plagued with emotional and mental abuse. The famous subway grate picture of Monroe marked the end of her marriage to DiMaggio who was furious with jealous because of the scene. He also became physically abusive.
Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio had eloped at the San Francisco courthouse in January of 1954. As a couple, they were constantly hounded by the press, once Monroe’s studio leaked the news. Monroe filed for Divorce nine months later in 1954. The reason given for ending the marriage was cited by Monroe as “mental cruelty.”
Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher dated for 15 months before they got married. They married at the home of Elaine Grossinger Etess in the Catskills Mountains in New York. Their marriage would last until 1959 when they would divorce. They had one child together: the one and only Princess Leia, aka Carrie Fisher.
Debbie Reynolds married singer Eddie Fisher in 1955. The marriage ended abruptly once Debbie Reynolds learned that her husband had had an affair with Elizabeth Taylor who were supposedly “good friends” at the time. Reynolds would go on to marry two more times but those marriages would also end in divorce.
Grace Kelly had met Prince Rainier of Monaco at the Cannes Film Festival in 1955. As the head of the U.S. delegation, Kelly participated in a photo shoot along with the prince at the Prince’s Palace of Monaco. They dated for about a year until marrying in 1956. They would never divorce.
There was a ton of buzz surrounding the wedding in 1956, but the marriage a bittersweet affair because it meant the end of Grace Kelly’s acting career as she decided to leave the industry to become full-time royalty. The couple had two ceremonies: a civil service and a religious ceremony.
Marlon Brando and Anna Kashfi eloped in 1957 in Eagle Rock, California. They separated in 1958, not long after they had their first child together, Christian Devi Brando. The two had a bitter divorce due to a custody battle between the two of them, so definitely not a happy ending here either.
Anna Kashfi was Brando’s first wife, a British actress. She was born in Calcutta and moved from India to Wales in 1947. She met Brando in the summer of 1956 and they would marry in 1957. They would stay married for only a year and a half before divorcing. Brando ended up winning custody of their child.
Elvis Presley married his longtime girlfriend Priscilla Ann Beaulieu in 1967. It was a small and private affair at a Las Vegas chapel – and that is indeed why people do that today. If it’s good enough for the King then it’s good enough for everyone else. They met back in 1959 while Elvis was still in the army.
Priscilla was just 14 years old when they met. She went home to her parents late that night and they were not pleased. He promised to never bring her home late again. Priscilla would finish school while dating Elvis long distant. They got engaged in 1966 and married in 1967 at the Aladdin Hotel. The ceremony lasted eight minutes.
Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski met on the set of The Fearless Vampire Killers, a film he directed and in which she starred in. They had lived together first, which was not traditional for the time, before marrying in 1968. They married at the registrar’s office in London. Polanski was dressed in some Edwardian finery, while Tate wore a white minidress.
Polanski and Tate had their reception at the Playboy Club, which was fitting of Polanski’s persona, but Tate wanted a traditional wedding. During the course of his marriage, he was unfaithful. Their marriage ended shockingly when Tate was murdered by a member of the Manson Family in 1969 while Polanski was in London.
Ronald and Nancy Reagan are best known as Republican icons of the ‘80s – the President and First Lady of America. But before Reagan became the 40th President of the United States, he was a Hollywood actor, although not a great one by any means. His favorite acting role was in the 1942 film King’s Row.
In 1949, Ronald Reagan, who was the president of the Screen Actor’s Guild, met Nancy Davis when he helped remove her name from a Communist blacklist which she was put on by mistake. They got engaged at a restaurant in Los Angeles and married in 1952. They stayed married until his death in 2004.
