While Old Hollywood actors might have had a bit more privacy than the A-listers of today, there were still plenty of fascinating and quirky things that people found out about them, either through gossip columns or tell-all books. A lot of the facts were quite bizarre, leading some to believe that their favorite classic film stars were just weird people. From the Pink Panther star who was deathly afraid of the color purple to the North by Northwest actor who didn't need to climb Mount Rushmore to take an exciting trip, let's take 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.
00:16Cary Grant loved LSD
00:18In 1960, the editors at Good Housekeeping magazine got a strange call.
00:23Cary Grant, the suave, sophisticated film star who almost never gave interviews, was
00:27on the line and wanted to talk — about the magnificent amount of LSD he'd dropped.
00:32Yep, plagued by personal demons, Grant finally found peace when his third wife introduced
00:37him to the wonders of acid, which he'd dropped over a hundred times between 1958 and 1961.
00:42And he wanted everyone to experience the same wonderful benefit.
00:46So he went on a campaign to promote the benefits of LSD, which according to the biography Cary
00:50Grant, A Touch of Elegance, included Grant saying things like,
00:54It releases inhibition.
00:56You know, we are all unconsciously holding our anus.
00:59In one LSD dream, I s---- it all over the rug, and s---- it all over the floor.
01:03Another time, I imagined myself as a giant penis launching off from the Earth like a
01:07spaceship.
01:08Sold.
01:09I don't know, sir, but it looks like a giant dick.
01:14Yeah.
01:15Oh my God, it looks like a huge…
01:18Pecker!
01:19Who, where?
01:20Not a woodpecker.
01:21It looks like someone's…
01:22Privates!
01:23We have reports of an unidentified flying object!
01:26Orson Welles hated his nose
01:27Most people who get nose jobs want to make their nose smaller.
01:31But legendary writer, director, and actor Orson Welles was obsessed with making his
01:34nose larger.
01:36He thought his real nose was too small for his round face.
01:39So in every movie, he had a fake nose made.
01:41And as his career went along, those noses got bigger and bigger and bigger.
01:46When he finished a film, Welles kept his noses, named them, and stored them in his Hollywood
01:50home, where he would occasionally take them out at parties and perform magic tricks with
01:55them.
01:56That's the sort of crazy you get away with when you've directed the best film ever made.
01:59Joan Crawford was an egomaniac
02:02In one of the most famous cases of a star having a secret weird side, Joan Crawford
02:06was outed by her adopted daughter, Christina, as a jealous egomaniac in the infamous memoir
02:10Mommy Dearest, which was later turned into a hit movie.
02:13An account of her time as Crawford's ward, it made the Hollywood star sound like the
02:16mother from hell.
02:17Among other tidbits were harrowing descriptions of the physical abuse Crawford occasionally
02:21unleashed on her children, the revelation that Crawford lied when she told Christina
02:24her birth mother was dead, and of course, the famous meltdown of her wire hangers.
02:29"...HANGERS!"
02:31Some claim the book wasn't entirely true, but considering Crawford was so weird, she
02:35once sabotaged her own movie in order to spite rival Bette Davis, separating truth from fiction
02:40is nearly impossible.
02:42Peter Sellers was afraid of purple
02:44The star who gave us Doctor Strangelove and Inspector Clouseau wasn't just a weirdo.
02:48He was apparently also such a monumental butthead that few could stand to be around him.
02:52Peter Sellers would have screaming meltdown tantrums on set.
02:55He'd freak out at his wives, smash crockery, and threaten them with his shotgun.
02:59He'd even get low-level people fired on movies as a way of venting his frustrations against
03:03people like producers and directors who were more powerful than he was.
03:07He was also profoundly superstitious.
03:09So when director Vittorio De Sica told him the color purple represented death, Sellers
03:13took it way too literally.
03:15According to the biography Mr. Strangelove, Sellers became convinced the color purple
03:19could kill.
03:20He refused to be in rooms with it and would have screaming tantrums if he came into contact
03:23with it.
03:24Elizabeth Taylor's spiteful engagements
03:27Elizabeth Taylor's hell-raising is so infamous that her private life was publicly denounced
03:31by the Vatican.
03:32Over her lifetime, she married eight times, had endless affairs, and took great pride
03:36in the offense she caused.
03:38Sometimes her behavior was truly outrageous.
03:40After marrying and divorcing Richard Burton twice, Taylor was so upset that she got engaged
03:45just to spite him.
03:46While working on the play Private Lives, Taylor and Burton brought out the worst in each other.
03:50They separately turned up drunk, they broke character, they skipped performances.
03:54When Taylor missed a show, Burton got fed up, went to Vegas, and married Sally Hay.
03:59When Taylor heard the news, she was so furious, she announced her engagement to Victor Luna,
04:03upstaging Burton.
04:04Not that she hated her ex-husband.
04:06Later in life, Taylor claimed they would have married a third time if only Burton hadn't
04:11Katherine Hepburn hated nudity
04:13The best way to describe Katherine Hepburn is fiercely independent.
04:16She lived as if married with both women and men, all while acting like it was no big deal.
04:21Part of that, though, was that she had plausible deniability, as according to the book Kate,
04:25the woman who was Katherine Hepburn, the famed actress not only didn't like physical intimacy,
04:30she hated nudity to the point where she would walk out on a film if there was a scene showing
04:34someone naked.
04:35So why did Hepburn loathe nudity and physical romance so much?
04:38According to a college friend, she tried intercourse once and, quote, just didn't like
04:42it.
04:43Fair enough.
04:44Clark Gable was obsessed with cleanliness
04:47They say that cleanliness is next to godliness, but matinee idol Clark Gable took it to a
04:51whole new level.
04:53According to Warren G. Harris' biography of Gable, the star shaved his chest and armpits
04:56because he didn't like sweating.
04:58He also didn't like baths, because it meant soaking in your own dirty water.
05:01So he always showered, even carrying his own portable shower around with him when he was
05:05in the Army.
05:06Considering his obsession with hygiene, it's ironic that Gable's Gone with the Wind co-star,
05:10Vivian Leigh, later publicly called him out for having bad breath.
05:13Still, no matter what people said about his weird ways, he always had the perfect comeback.
05:18"...Frankly, my hair, I don't give a damn."