15 Old Hollywood Stars Who Cheated But Stayed Married 

 

 

 

Old Hollywood did not need faithful marriages. It needed marriages that looked faithful. Bob Hope’s wife, Dolores, knew about his womanizing, but when asked why it did not bother her, she said she believed she was better looking than the other women. Orson Welles died still married to Paola Mori after giving Oja Kodar, his lover and collaborator, rights to the unfinished films his widow never controlled.

Humphrey Bogart stayed married to Lauren Bacall while Verita Thompson said she traveled with him as secretary, bartender, hairdresser, and mistress. One, Bob Hope and Dolores Hope. Bob Hope’s clean family image was protected by Dolores Hope while his affairs became Hollywood knowledge. The most dangerous affair was with Marilyn Maxwell.

 She worked with him in The Lemon Drop Kid, sang Silver Bells with him on screen, and was around him so often in the early 1950s that people on the Paramount lot called her Mrs. Hope. Hope’s associate, Eliot Kozak, said Maxwell was serious and that Hope once told him he almost left Dolores for her.

 Dolores did not leave. She kept the children, the house, the public appearances, and the useful image of Bob Hope as a safe married entertainer. When asked about his womanizing, she gave a brutal answer. It never bothered her because she thought she was better looking than the other women. One night in London, Kozak saw Dolores push Hope against a wall and demand, “Kiss me, Bob.

 Tell me you love me.” They remained married until Hope died on July 27th, 2003. Two, George Burns and Gracie Allen. George Burns betrayed Gracie Allen once in the early 1950s, then tried to buy his way out of guilt. He said he had too many Martinis and could not even remember the woman’s name. In his book, he identified her only as a beautiful starlet.

 The affair did not become a divorce case because Burns panicked privately instead. He brought Gracie a silver centerpiece for the dining room table and a $10,000 diamond ring. Gracie understood why the gifts had appeared. She did not confront him in public, did not break the act, and did not leave the marriage.

 Years later, she joked to Mary Benny that she wished George would cheat again because she needed a new centerpiece. Burns and Allen stayed married until Gracie died of a heart attack on August 27th, 1964. In 1996, Burns was buried beside her at Forest Lawn under the marker, “Together again.” Three, Leslie Howard and Ruth Martin. Leslie Howard stayed married to Ruth Martin while another woman lived inside the marriage.

 He married Ruth in 1916 and had two children with her. By the mid-1930s, the marriage had already been tested by his affair with Merle Oberon during The Scarlet Pimpernel, serious enough that divorce nearly happened. Ruth stayed. In 1938, while working on Pygmalion, Howard met Violet Cunningham, secretary to producer Gabriel Pascal.

She became his secretary, lover, and traveling companion. Cunningham accompanied him to California while he filmed Gone with the Wind and Intermezzo, even as Ruth remained his legal wife. During the war, Howard spent weekdays with Violet and returned to Ruth at their Surrey home on weekends. Violet died of meningitis in late 1942.

On June 1st, 1943, Howard’s civilian plane from Lisbon was shot down over the Bay of Biscay. The plane was never recovered. Four, William Randolph Hearst and Millicent Hearst. William Randolph Hearst stayed married to Millicent while Marion Davies lived as the woman of San Simeon.

 Hearst married Millicent Wilson in 1903 and they had five sons. By the mid-1920s, the marriage was effectively broken. Millicent stayed in New York with the family name. Marion hosted Hearst’s California world where film stars, politicians, writers,  and millionaires came through the castle as if she were the real mistress of the house.

 The divorce fight almost happened in 1937. Millicent wanted Cosmopolitan magazine as part of the settlement. Hearst refused and the marriage stayed legally alive. Marion still did not get the title. She remained with Hearst through his decline, left San Simeon with him in 1947, and moved into her Beverly Hills home while he needed medical care.

Hearst died in Los Angeles on August 14th, 1951. Millicent was still his wife. Marion married sea captain Horace Brown 11 weeks later. Five. Melvyn Douglas and Helen Gahagan Douglas. Melvyn Douglas and Helen Gahagan Douglas did not divorce after his affair. They turned the marriage into a long public partnership.

 They married on April 5th, 1931 and had two children, Peter and Mary Helen. After Helen discovered Melvyn’s affair with an unnamed co-star, the bedroom part of the marriage was over. They remained married and amicable, but for most of the next decades, the relationship was platonic. The arrangement gave both of them freedom.

 Helen’s Washington life was linked to Lyndon Johnson, described as an open secret on Capitol Hill, and to British diplomat Philip Noel Baker. Melvyn kept his Hollywood career while Helen defended the marriage in her autobiography, insisting long separations did not make it a fiction. Divorce still never came. Helen died of cancer in New York on June 28th, 1980.

Melvin died on August 4th, 1981 at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital where pneumonia was complicated by a heart condition. Six, Cole Porter and Linda Lee Thomas. Cole Porter and Linda Lee Thomas stayed married while his affairs with men were treated as an open secret. They met in Paris in 1918 and married the next year.

Linda was a wealthy divorcee who understood Porter’s sexuality before the wedding. The marriage gave him a respectable public front, but it did not stop his private life. In his own circle, Porter was as openly gay as a man could be then with lovers, coded letters, parties,  and social arrangements everyone agreed not to name in public.

 Linda did not divorce him. The marriage had already been strained before October 24th, 1937 when Porter’s horse fell on him and crushed his leg. After the accident, Linda came back to his side and stayed. He went through more than 30 operations. Linda later became ill herself. She died of emphysema on May 20th, 1954 in their apartment at the Waldorf Towers.

Seven, Darryl F. Zanuck and Virginia Fox. Darryl F. Zanuck stayed married to Virginia Fox while his affairs became part of the Fox studio routine. He married Virginia on January 12th, 1924 and they had three children. Marriage did not stop his private appointments with young actresses. Inside Hollywood, the 4:00 girls became shorthand for women brought into his office late in the work day.

 Virginia endured the pattern for decades. The break came with Bella Darvi. Virginia had helped discover her in Europe and Bella’s screen name was built from Darryl and Virginia’s first names. Then Bella became Darryl’s mistress and received Fox promotion as if the studio were backing his private obsession. In 1956, Virginia stopped living with him, but she never legally ended the marriage.

After Zanuck declined and became mentally incapacitated in the 1970s, Virginia returned. On December 22nd, 1979, he died of pneumonia complications at Desert Hospital with Virginia at his side. Eight. Rex Ingram and Alice Terry. Rex Ingram stayed married to Alice Terry while at least four mistresses remained close enough to be invited to his funeral.

 He married Alice on November 5th, 1921 during production of The Prisoner of Zenda. The marriage survived career fights, moves from Hollywood to the French Riviera, and Ingram’s private affairs. Alice was not just the wife waiting at home. She acted in his films, worked behind the camera, and helped him finish projects when his moods made production difficult.

 The affairs did not end the marriage. Ingram’s biographer Ruth Barton records at least four mistresses, and Alice did not push them out of the final scene. When Ingram died of a cerebral hemorrhage in North Hollywood on July 21st, 1950,  she invited the women to the funeral. Asked why they were there, Alice gave the answer herself.

 “Who cares? I’m the only one that can call herself Mrs. Rex Ingram.” Nine. Marlene Dietrich and Rudolf Sieber. Marlene Dietrich stayed married to Rudolf Sieber while her affairs were open enough that she mailed him her lovers’ letters. She married Sieber in Berlin on May 17th, 1923, and their daughter Maria was born in December 1924.

The domestic marriage lasted only a few years. Dietrich went to Hollywood, started affairs with co-stars and powerful men and kept Rudolph as the legal husband who knew the system. During Morocco, she began an affair with Gary Cooper. Later names around her included Jean Gabin, Errol Flynn, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Yul Brynner, Edith Piaf, and Mercedes d’Acosta.

 Rudolph did not live like a rejected husband. He had a permanent companion, Tamara Matul, a Russian refugee whom Dietrich accepted into the family arrangement. Dietrich supported Rudolph and Tammy first in Europe, then on a ranch in the San Fernando Valley. Rudolph died of cancer on June the 24th, 1976, still married to Marlene.Laurence Olivier and Joan Plowright. Laurence Olivier stayed married to Joan Plowright after beginning an affair with Sarah Miles almost immediately into the marriage. He married Joan in March 1961. Their son Richard was born that December. In 1962, Olivier filmed Term of Trial with Sarah Miles, a 20-year-old actress playing a student drawn to his character.

 Off camera, the affair began while Joan was at home with their newborn. Olivier was 35 years older than Miles and the relationship was not well hidden. It followed them through the publicity around the film. The affair did not end with one set. 10 years later, Olivier and Miles were together again on Lady Caroline Lamb and the on-and-off relationship was still part of the story around him.

 Joan did not divorce him. Olivier died on July 11th, 1989. At his Westminster Abbey memorial, Joan and their three children sat beside the altar. His first wife, Jill Esmond, sat there, too. 11. Cecil B. DeMille and Constance Adams. Cecil B. DeMille preached marriage and temptation on film while keeping mistresses outside his own marriage.

 He married Constance Adams on August 16th, 1902. The marriage stayed intact because Constance accepted a public arrangement. She kept the house, the children, and the title while DeMille kept long-term women around him. Jeanie Macpherson became his writer, collaborator, and lover. That relationship lasted professionally until her death in 1946.

Julia Faye followed as another mistress after DeMille cast her in The Woman God Forgot in 1917. DeMille also used his private spaces for the double life. His wife disliked his ranch, Paradise, so he took mistresses there, including Faye. He bought the yacht, The Sea Word, in 1921, another place where the private circle could be kept away from Constance.

 Constance never divorced him. DeMille died on January 21st, 1959, and she remained Mrs. DeMille until her own death 1 year later. 12. Trevor Howard and Helen Cherry. Trevor Howard stayed married to Helen Cherry after the affair that nearly broke them in 1950. They married on September 8th, 1944, after working together at Stratford, and had no children.

 Howard’s drinking and womanizing tested the marriage for years, but the worst crisis came while he was filming The Golden Salamander in North Africa with Anouk Aimée. She was 18. Howard was 37, married, and already famous enough for the affair to become dangerous. A journalist saw Howard and Aimée in a hotel late at night, plainly not rehearsing lines.

 When the unit returned to Britain, Helen put pressure on him, and Howard ended the affair. Aimée continued to pursue him for a time, but Helen did not divorce him. The marriage lasted 43 more years. Howard died on January 7th, 1988 at a hospital in Bushey, near London. His agent said Helen was at his side. 13, John Wayne and Pilar Pallete.

 John Wayne stayed married to Pilar Pallete while Pat Stacy lived as the woman beside him. He married Pilar in Hawaii on November 1st, 1954, the same day his divorce from Esperanza Baur became final. They had three children, Aissa, Ethan, and Marisa. By the early 1970s, the marriage had collapsed at home, but not in court.

 Pilar moved out of their Newport Beach house in 1973. Wayne’s former secretary, Pat Stacy, became his live-in companion from 1973 until his death. Pilar said she and Wayne never legally separated or divorced. Stacy later published Duke, a love story about her years with him. Pilar had already been provided for in a private settlement after she moved out in 1973, and Wayne’s will excluded her from the $6.

85 million estate. Wayne died of stomach cancer at UCLA Medical Center on June 11th, 1979. In his will, Wayne still called Pilar his wife, then wrote that they were separated and that he was making no provision for her. 14, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Humphrey Bogart stayed married to Lauren Bacall while Verita Thompson said she remained his mistress inside the marriage.

 He married Bacall on May 21st, 1945, 12 days after his divorce from Mayo Methot was final. Thompson had met him after Casablanca, and in her memoir, Bogie and Me, she said the affair had already begun before Bacall. From 1950 to 1956, she traveled with Bogart as personal secretary, bartender, and hairdresser, carrying 10 hair pieces because he hated looking bald.

 In company, Bogart introduced her as his mistress, then told her the joke would make people doubt the truth. Bacall did not divorce him. She and Bogart had Stephen in 1949 and Leslie in 1952, while Thompson stayed in the background. Thompson later called herself Bacall’s worst nightmare. Bogart died of esophageal cancer on January 14th, 1957.

Thompson said he phoned from his deathbed and told her not to drink all his scotch. 15. Orson Welles and Paola Mori. Orson Welles stayed married to Paola Mori while Oja Kodar became his partner in work, travel, and bed. He married Paola in London on May 8th, 1955, and their daughter Beatrice was born that November.

 In 1961, while shooting The Trial in Zagreb, Welles met Olga Palinkas, renamed her Oja Kodar, and began the relationship that followed the rest of his life. By the 1970s, Paola remained the legal wife, but Welles was filming The Other Side of the Wind with Kodar, who co-wrote it and appeared in it. His life was split between two households, Paola in Las Vegas, Kodar in Los Angeles. The divorce never came.

When Welles died on October 10th, 1985, he left Paola part of the estate and Kodar rights to his unfinished films. Paola died in a car crash in August 1986 before papers settling the estate with Kodar could be signed.