By Eric Kohanik, ReMIND Magazine
Joan Crawford — “Mommie Dearest”
This scandal was less about the person and more about the book that told the tale. Mommie Dearest, penned by Crawford’s adopted daughter Christina, painted Crawford as a boozer who was abusive to her children. The 1978 memoir rocked Hollywood’s foundations — partly because it was one of Tinseltown’s first “tell-all” books — and was made into a movie in 1981.
Natalie Wood
The drowning of actress Natalie Wood remains shrouded in mystery. She married Robert Wagner twice, in 1957 and 1972. Things went bad in 1981, during a weekend yacht trip with Wagner and Christopher Walken when Wood’s body was found in the water one morning. Initially ruled as an accidental drowning, the case was reopened in 2011 after the boat captain alleged that Wagner was responsible. Wood’s death certificate was amended in 2012, citing the cause as “drowning and other undetermined factors.”
Roman Polanski
Film director Roman Polanski got wrapped up in a 1977 saga involving accusations of statutory rape, sodomy and plying a 13-year-old female with drugs. Although he admitted to having sex with the girl, Polanski insisted she was a willing participant. Polanski was about to be sentenced in February 1978 when he fled to Europe. There have been several unsuccessful extradition attempts, the most recent in 2015. And so, the story lingers on.
Errol Flynn
Debauchery and sexual deviance aren’t usually associated with the heroic figures actor Errol Flynn often played. But that famous expression “in like Flynn” didn’t come out of nowhere. The swashbuckling star had a reputation for being a hard-drinking womanizer. He was entangled in a vulgar saga in 1942, when two underage girls accused him of statutory rape. Although he was acquitted, his image remained somewhat clouded for years.
Elizabeth Taylor
The eight marriages of Elizabeth Taylor often raised eyebrows. Taylor insisted on marrying her lovers and perhaps the most gossip-worthy hookup involved singer Eddie Fisher, a friend of Taylor’s third husband, producer Mike Todd. After Todd died in a plane crash, Fisher “consoled” Taylor. Since he was married to wholesome screen star Debbie Reynolds, an uproar ensued when Fisher divorced Reynolds for Taylor. The Taylor-Fisher marriage disintegrated after she met Richard Burton, whom she married twice. Taylor put the final icing on her wedding cakes in 1991, with construction worker Larry Fortensky.
Johnny Stompanato
The name isn’t famous, but Johnny Stompanato was silver-screen star Lana Turner’s boyfriend during the 1950s. The stormy relationship came to a head in 1958, when Turner’s 14-year-old daughter, Cheryl Crane, stabbed Stompanato to death at Turner’s home in Beverly Hills. Claiming that she had defended her mother, who Stompanato was threatening to kill, Crane was exonerated by a verdict of justifiable homicide.
Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy
In the early 1960s, Marilyn Monroe was one of the hottest starlets in Hollywood and John Fitzgerald Kennedy was deemed by many as the most handsome president in U.S. history. Their paths crossed at public events, but a secretive hookup in Palm Springs, Calif., in 1962 got the scandal ball rolling. Some say that after Kennedy ended their rumored affair, Monroe went into a downward spiral that ended in her suicide. Others still insist her death wasn’t a suicide at all.
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Photo Caption: Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood