Random Classic Hollywood Actor/Actress Trivia

I've been watching a lot of random Youtube videos about different actors/actresses and I thought it would be fun to share a few of the random bits of trivia I found. There's so much information out there, it's both fun and a little daunting. Anyways, without further ado.

Sorry, I couldn't not finish the exchange

Ray Milland (top GIF)

Ray Milland, like any actor or actress, had to work hard to get good roles, but eventually after he started getting them he began to suspect that he was getting roles just because of his looks. He decided to go take lessons and get better at it. 

He had some sort of woodworking saw in his backyard. One time his hand slipped and he got his left hand/thumb pretty bad I guess. (Later on the set of another film he would injure his left hand again. He just didn't have much luck with his hand.) Because WW1 or WW2 was going on he tried enlisting but because of his hand they wouldn't let him. Despite that though he found other ways to help. 

At a different point, he was touring at these different theatres and a soldier there was heckling him asking why he wasn't in the army and his response was 'With a war on? Are you crazy?' 

He ended up (I think) helping with the audition reading for a movie called 'The Jungle Princess' and the lady that they ended up casting as the leading lady requested that be her co-star instead of the guy that was supposed to do it. The studio was hesitant but they ended up going along with her request which surprised me. The movie ended up doing really well apparently so the studio really couldn't complain.

He was asked to do the movie 'The Lost Weekend' but he was really hesitant because he wasn't sure he could portray alcoholism properly and he knew that his acting had to be good. He really wanted to fully understand what he was doing and I guess he decided to spend the night in a psychiatric ward but he only made it a few hours. The effort he put into the role paid off though, the director/cast thought that the movie wasn't going to do very well (based on the reaction they had been receiving) but Ray Milland ended up getting an Oscar for the role. It was also one of the first Hollywood movies to portray alcoholism as a serious thing and not just played for laughs. Although some temperance groups misunderstood the movie and thought that they were glorifying it. I've seen the movie and I'm not sure how they could have got that part so wrong, but misunderstandings like that happen all the time so I guess it makes sense. 

Ingrid Bergman

Ingrid Bergman was a famous actress particularly in the 40s. Eventually, after about 10 years of working in the American Film Industry bubble she became bored with it and worked with an Italian director in neo-realistic films. She ended up having an affair with her co-star (they were both married to different people and had their own children). She had a very 'perfect' persona that had been carefully crafted by different people, which is sort of how show business works I guess, but when she had the affair (which resulted with a baby) it made a lot of people mad. Suddenly she wasn't this perfect person and a lot of people turned on her. Someone actually wrote (and I'm completely paraphrasing, this isn't the exact quote) that she had done more harm for the concept of the family unit than Stalin or Lenin could have done preaching for 10 years. Her movies were banned at different times and it was all very over-blown. Can you imagine people thinking you are worse than Stalin?

She, eventually, after working on different projects that interested her came back for a few American movies years later for roles she wanted to do. She thought the whole thing was kind of ridiculous and stated very clearly that she didn't regret any of it. She was 'forgiven' over time as the press started to back-peddle on some of the things they had said saying that 'people shouldn't judge other people' which sounds disingenuous considering everything but whatever.  

Cary Grant

His mother was put into a mental institution when he was 10 (9? possibly 11? different sources say different things) and she remained there for 21 years. Apparently he didn't know that and had been told that she'd just left. He didn't find out she was still alive and in the institution until he was 30 years old. She'd been suffering 'mania'. 

I was watching a documentary and there was this lady that was saying she had written something and she needed a very, very handsome man to carry the plot. The people that told her about him said that he wouldn't work because he had a cockney accent, had a weird walk, etc and she said that didn't make a difference to her. She said that he was the only good-looking man who'd come in the last week and she says that she just fell madly in love with him. Honestly writing goals.

He was rejected his first Paramount screen test because he 'had bow-legs and a thick neck'.

Thelma Todd

Getting good jobs as an actor/actress is really hard but women especially seemed to have a dangerous time of it. Not always, but the things that happened behind closed doors sometimes is horrifying. There were (and sadly still are) a lot of monsters and sickos in Hollywood. Anyways Thelma Todd refused to go to a 'party' where there was going to be a lot of drunk guys (and there were other actresses that would be told to go as well) and they told her that if she didn't they would fire her. Despite having a mother that was reliant on support from her daughter and trying to survive through life in general, Thelma Todd walked out on them and made a name for herself despite them. And good for her.

Hope this was interesting!