18 Shocking Confessions From Old Hollywood Actors That Stayed Buried For Decades

Warning: This post discusses physical abuse and child abuse.

Here are 18 of those confessions that might make you view your favorite actors in a different light.

1. In her 2013 memoir, Shirley Jones revealed that she once had a threesome with her first husband, Jack Cassidy. "Hang on to your hats," she warned readers in the book's introduction, admitting, "I never would have written this book if I weren't the age I am now."

2. During an appearance on Good Morning America that same year, Jones also confirmed that her first husband, Cassidy, was bisexual. "Well, Jack was…he did it with men and women," she said on the morning news show.

When pressed, she continued: "I mean he was, you know. He had an affair with Cole Porter and he told me about all this, by the way. I was very aware of all this. But he loved women!"

3. Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger were not the best of friends, despite how their acting made it seem. In My Lucky Stars: A Hollywood Memoir, MacLaine said that Winger, who played her onscreen daughter in Terms of Endearment, once farted in her face while they were on set.

She said the whole thing occurred when Winger yelled at her to get to her mark. "'I heard you,' I said. 'I know marks when I see them,'" MacLaine wrote in her book, per People. "'Good,' [Winger] said. 'How's this for a mark?' She turned around, walked away from me, lifted her skirt slightly, looked over her shoulder, bent over, and farted in my face."

4. In her memoir, By Myself and Then Some, Lauren Bacall said she was ghosted by Frank Sinatra shortly after they called off their engagement.

"Actually, Frank did me a great favor — he saved me from the disaster our marriage would have been,” she said, per Vanity Fair. “The truth is, he was probably smarter than I: he knew it couldn’t work. But the truth also is that he behaved like a complete sh—t.”

5. Lauren Bacall, who started off as a model, had a signature look that consisted of dropping her chin and focusing her gaze. She became famous for the look in her 1944 film To Have and Have Not.

She later revealed how she came up with her signature look and said it happened by accident. “I used to tremble from nerves so badly that the only way I could hold my head steady was to lower my chin practically to my chest and look up at Bogie (Humphrey Bogart),” she said, per Time. “That was the beginning of the Look. I still get the shakes from time to time.”

6. Despite him being married five times, Cary Grant allegedly saw his friend and fellow actor Randolph Scott as the love of his life.

“It was dreadful having to let go of him in my heart," Grant's friend Bill Royce recalled him saying once. “Our souls did touch. What more could I ask?”

7. Mary Astor's ex-husband, Dr. Franklyn Thorpe, stole her diary and used it to blackmail her to get custody of their daughter, Marylyn. In the notebook, Astor talked about her personal life and said she had an affair with famous playwright George S. Kaufman. "I did meet a man, professional, somewhat older and rather well-to-do, only his first initial is G. and I fell like a ton of bricks — as only I can fall," she wrote at the time.

The details continued throughout her diary. "We write to each other often, about every two weeks — flowers and telegram for Christmas and New Years." She also bragged, "Once when Franklyn was away, he called me long distance and we talked for half an hour — his last letter finished with 'Think of me my darling, because I certainly think of you."

8. In her 1990 memoir, Ava: My Story, Ava Gardner said she had two abortions when she was married to Frank Sinatra. Gardner and Sinatra were married from 1951 to 1957.

She also recalled these abortions in her other book, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, which she co-wrote with Peter Evans. The article suggests the relationship began the same way it ended, "fighting all the time, boozing and fighting."

Gardner went on to name the person as George C. Scott, whom she claimed would often “beat the s–t out of me" when drunk.

10. Marlon Brando had a complicated relationship with his father. "My old man was tough. He was a bar fighter, he was a man with not much love in him... He used to slap me around and for no good reason… I was truly intimidated by him at that time," Brando shared in his audio tapes that were released in his 2015 movie, Listen to Me Marlon, per BBC.

11. In the same recordings, Brando said he wasn't fond of acting and only did it because it was easy money. "Acting is just making stuff up, but that's OK. Life is a rehearsal. Life is an improvisation. I'm going to have a special microphone placed in my coffin so that when I wake up in there, 6 feet under the ground, I'm going to say, do it differently," he said, per NPR.

12. Bette Davis made quite a few enemies in her career. She once feuded with her What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? costar Joan Crawford and many others. In her memoir, The Lonely Life, she said she didn't regret any enemy she had made. “I do not regret one professional enemy I have made,” she said, per Architectural Digest. “I suppose I’m larger than life. That’s my problem. Created in a fury, I’m at home in a tempest.”

14. In 1964, journalist Richard Meryman interviewed Elizabeth Taylor. He recorded her on tape and used her quotes to ghostwrite her novel, Elizabeth Taylor: An Informal Memoir. These tapes were left in Meryman's home until his wife found them years later and returned it to Taylor's Estate. With the Estate's approval, HBO featured these tapes in its 2024 documentary, Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, which gave fans a close look into the actor's life.

In one part of her interview with Meryman, Taylor recalled her marriage to Eddie Fisher and said she never loved him. Taylor married Fisher one year after her last husband, Mike Todd, died in a plane crash. The actor was wed eight times in her life to seven different men.

"I was still in love with the memory of Mike and kept him alive by talking about him," Taylor said, per Entertainment Weekly. "I never loved Eddie. I liked him and liked talking about Mike with him... I don't remember much about my marriage, except it was one big, giant mistake, and I knew it before the wedding."

15. Also in The Lost Tapes, Taylor also recalled a scary night that she had with Fisher. She said he once sat by her bedside with a loaded gun. "Eddie at nighttime would sit up," she said, per Vanity Fair. "He had a gun. Every time I started to close my eyes... he would stroke my arm and say, ‘I’m not going to kill you. I’m not going to shoot you. You’re much too pretty.’ All night long… I was so scared."

16. The last big revelation that Taylor revealed in the tapes was that she was with James Dean the morning before he died. “He was so alive, he was so vital. He was only 24 and it seemed impossible — I had just been with him that day, driving around the studio in his Porsche,” she said, according to Parade. “I couldn’t believe he was dead.”

17. Before her 1962 death, Marilyn Monroe spoke with a psychiatrist, who encouraged her to be open about her life. In the alleged transcripts that were published by the Los Angeles Times, Monroe apparently revealed that she had a one-night stand with Joan Crawford.

However, the encounter between the two actors would only happen once. “Next time I saw Crawford, she wanted another round. I told her straight out I didn’t much enjoy doing it with a woman. After I turned her down, she became spiteful," she said.

18. Monroe also stated on the record that she still loved her first husband, Joe DiMaggio the most. “I love him and I always will," she wrote. However, she explained why they didn't work, saying, "Joe could not stay married to Marilyn Monroe, the famous film star. Joe has an image in his stubborn Italian head of a traditional Italian wife... Doctor, you know that’s not me..."

Despite the break-up, the two remained close. "Anytime I need him, Joe is there. I couldn’t have a better friend," she said, per the NY Daily News.

What's another Old Hollywood revelation that should've made this list? Share it in the comments or the anonymous form below. Who knows — your response could be featured in an upcoming BuzzFeed article.

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