Some were so driven by passion that their pursuits turned fatal. Others
succumbed to the pressures of celebrity in the most tragic way imaginable. These
are the stories of the greats of Old Hollywood we lost too soon.
Marilyn Monroe is a Hollywood icon who needs little introduction. Born on June 1, 1926,
in Los Angeles, California, Monroe had a turbulent childhood. She bounced around from orphanages to
foster families, and was sexually assaulted multiple times. When she became an adult,
she cultivated a career as a model, which led to her landing parts in several motion pictures.
Her roles capitalized on her seductive demeanor,
which established her as a bona fide sex symbol of the 1950s. However, according to Biography,
she became disenchanted with always playing the flirtatious blonde, so she decided to
develop her acting under the tutelage of Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York City.
"Miss Monroe worked in my classes by the way — in the
regular classes. And she also worked at the Actors Studio."
Unfortunately, before Monroe could fulfill her dream of becoming a serious actor,
she died on August 4, 1962, at the age of 36. People reports the cause of her
death was the ingestion of a lethal mix of Nembutal and chloral hydrate. These drugs,
which were prescribed for her anxiety and insomnia,
are just a small representation of Monroe's struggles with mental health in her later years.
Monroe's alleged connections to the Kennedy family have sparked many conspiracy theories
about how her seemingly accidental overdose may not have been accidental
at all. We may never fully know what she was going through during her last days,
but there's no doubt that her passing left a huge hole in Hollywood that no actor has filled since.
Jayne Mansfield is one of the few contemporaries of Marilyn Monroe who could possibly compete with
her in terms of sex appeal and the ability to generate salacious headlines. As Biography
reports, it was clear from a young age that Mansfield was born to entertain.
She took music and dance lessons as a child, and began making appearances in local plays.
She eventually moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting,
making her small screen debut in the Lux Video Theatre series, followed by small
roles in feature films. It wasn't long before she became a top actor, attracting
as much attention for her outrageous public wardrobe malfunctions as she did for her films.
Tragically, Mansfield's very public life came to an untimely end on June 29, 1967,
when she was killed in a terrible car accident while on her way to make a TV
appearance in New Orleans, Louisiana. In addition to Mansfield, her driver,
her lawyer, and three of her children were also in the vehicle. While her
lawyer and driver were both killed, her children survived with various injuries.
Few entertainers have lived a life as turbulent as Judy Garland's. Born on June 10,
1922, in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, Biography reports that Garland displayed an early talent
for singing. Her family moved to Los Angeles while she was still young, where she further
developed her skills as an actor and singer. At the age of 13, she landed a deal with MGM.
Garland starred in several Andy Hardy films with Hollywood icon Mickey Rooney,
but her big break came in 1939 when she played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. Her
legendary performance in the musical earned her a special Academy Award,
and propelled her career into overdrive. She proceeded to appear in classic films like
Strike Up the Band and A Star Is Born, and performed in various Broadway productions.
However, the constant pressure of always having to look, sing,
and act her best paired with her dramatic personal life took its toll on Garland,
and she spent much of her adulthood on various medications to help with her anxiety and sleep
problems. She died on June 22, 1969, from an accidental overdose of sleeping pills.
Despite the rough state she was in during her final years, there was no evidence that
Garland's death was intentional. Coroner Gavin Thurston told press at the time,
"This is quite clearly an accidental circumstance to
a person who was accustomed to taking barbiturates over a very long time."
Despite his extremely brief career, James Dean's enormous legacy is a testament to
how talented of an actor he was. Dean was born in Marion, Indiana on February 8,
1931. According to his website, his family moved to Los Angeles when he was young,
and it was there that he forged his acting skills under the instruction of James Whitmore.
He appeared in several commercials and landed small roles in various TV shows
before getting his first big break in 1955's East of Eden. Dean followed
this Academy Award-nominated performance up with the teen classic Rebel Without a Cause,
which established him as the face of troubled youth in the 1950s.
"It's all I ever do."
Sadly, he would only make one other film,
1956's Giant, which once again earned him an Oscar nomination.
Dean's career was cut short by a fatal car crash when he was just 24 years old. The
accident occurred in a small town near Paso Robles, California while he was on his way
to compete in an auto race in Salinas. Dean was driving his brand new Porsche,
which he decided to take at the last minute instead of his station wagon.
A lover of auto racing, Dean was forbidden from joining any races while shooting Giant,
which is why he was so eager to take his new wheels for a spin when production wrapped up.
Thelma Todd was born on July 29, 1906, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. She got her
start in show business as a model, but was eventually discovered by a
Hollywood talent scout and sent to New York City to add acting to her résumé.
Todd appeared in numerous silent films, but when movies started to convert to
"talkies," the number of roles she scored dramatically increased. Comedy was her forte,
having already appeared in films with such slapstick icons as Laurel and Hardy,
Buster Keaton, and the Marx Brothers, though she often appeared in dramas as well. While
Todd continued her impressive career as an actor, she also started a side business in
the form of Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Café, a popular Pacific Palisades restaurant.
To the world at large, Todd was living an amazing life. Unfortunately, she was found dead in her car
in a garage on December 16, 1935. The cause of her death was carbon monoxide poisoning,
which seemed to be accidental. But the events surrounding her last days have
called that explanation into question: for one, her Los Angeles Times obituary
revealed the actor was being extorted for $10,000 at the time of her death.
Additionally, she was in good spirits while attending a party the night before her passing,
and there were injuries on her body that hinted at foul play. Today,
Todd's death is still very much a mystery.
Ramon Novarro was born on February 6, 1899, in Durango, Mexico before he moved to Los
Angeles with his family. It was there that he cultivated his skills as an entertainer,
dabbling in dance and music and eventually becoming an extra in various movies. This
minor acting work led to him landing the role of Rupert of Hentzau in 1922's The Prisoner of Zenda,
which really gave the world a taste of his dashing screen presence.
Novarro's persona as a "Latin lover" ensured him many big roles well into the era of "talkies,"
though around the mid-1930s his film career slowed and he began to pivot into theater. However,
he did return to the screen for a few television projects, getting particularly busy in the 1960s.
Unfortunately, Novarro suffered an incredibly shocking end to his life.
Two young men who had acquired the actor's phone number from a mutual
acquaintance set up a social meeting on the night of October 30, 1968. The 69-year-old
Novarro welcomed the two men into his home for what started off as a pleasant evening.
"What is this mortal sin you are about to commit?"
However, after the consumption of alcohol, the guests demanded their host give them $5,000 that
they believed was in the house. Novarro claimed that he didn't have that much in his home, and the
two men brutally beat him to death before trashing his house. The actor's demise caused a massive
media stir, becoming a tragic coda to the life of one of early cinema's greatest leading men.
Before there was Ramon Novarro, there was Rudolph Valentino,
the first real "Latin lover" icon of Hollywood. Born in Italy in 1895, Vanity Fair reports he
was a rebellious yet impulsive young man who learned almost every skill of high society
except for that of saving money. Still, he managed to make a living in New York City as
a dancer before moving to Los Angeles in 1917 after getting embroiled in various scandals.
Valentino appeared in an assortment of minor film roles, but it was his casting in 1921's The Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse that really popularized him. He followed up on this success with the
starring role in The Sheik, forever securing his place in film history as a dashing leading man.
Few actors' deaths have caused as much disruptive mourning as Valentino's. His passing on August 23,
1926 from a ruptured ulcer, sent the world into a frenzy,
as countless fans stormed the streets just to get a peek at the deceased
actor while his body was at Frank E. Campbell's funeral home in Manhattan.
Valentino was so beloved by fans that dozens of his supporters even attempted
suicide in the wake of his death. Like his life, his send-off was extravagant
and outrageous. His funeral was attended by numerous celebrities, and actor Pola Negri
notably fainted multiple times throughout the service for the benefit of the press.
Much like the Man of Steel he'd later play, Biography reports that George Reeves hailed
from a small Midwest agricultural town. His parents divorced when he was still a baby,
and after the separation, his mother took him to Pasadena, California to start a new life.
As Reeves grew, so did his love for the arts,
and he took up music and acting while in college. This led to him
joining the prestigious Pasadena Community Playhouse, where he honed his acting talents.
"Your Majesty, my name will mean more after the battle is won. For now,
let my lance prove my worth."
Reeves landed a supporting role in Gone With the Wind, which opened the door to
appearances in more films. While the late 1940s saw him acting in mostly B-movies,
he kicked off the 1950s with his most defining role yet, landing
the part of Clark Kent in the popular TV series The Adventures of Superman.
Reeves' well-documented frustration at being relegated to children's TV programming has
made it easy for the masses to assume that was what led to his death by suicide on June 16,
1959. However, the details of his death have made many wonder if foul play may have been involved.
For example, there was a group of people having a party downstairs while he was
upstairs allegedly carrying out that final act. Witnesses claimed to have
heard only one gunshot, yet there were multiple bullet holes found around the
room that he died in. There were rumors that Reeve's affair with Toni Mannix,
wife to Hollywood "fixer" Eddie Mannix, may have been an incentive for someone to hurt him.
Lupe Vélez may not have as well-known a name as other early-Hollywood starlets, but that
doesn't diminish her considerable importance in cinema history. Originally from Mexico,
she rose to prominence after a memorable role in the 1927 Douglas Fairbanks vehicle The Gaucho.
One of the only Latina actors in Hollywood at the time, Vélez's sensual screen presence and
versatility allowed her to appear in films ranging from slapstick comedies with Laurel and Hardy to
dramas directed by D.W. Griffith. With a powerful singing voice, Vélez also booked several musicals.
"Oh me, oh my."
Vélez was well known for a stormy personality that caused no shortage of turmoil in her personal and
professional life, and sadly even her death was marred by this characteristic. According
to the Sydney Morning Herald, after getting pregnant by her boyfriend Harald Ramond,
Ramond refused to marry her. Devastated by the rejection,
Vélez overdosed on sleeping pills, leaving behind a note that read,
"How could you, Harald, fake such a great love for me and our baby when all the time
you didn't want us? I see no other way out for me, so good-bye and good luck to you."
Her shocking passing was only made worse by Kenneth
Anger's controversial and mostly fictional book Hollywood Babylon,
which started the unfortunate rumor that the actor had drowned in a toilet.
Out of all the careers on this list, Peg Entwistle's was the shortest. The actor
was born in Wales in 1908 and lived in London before moving to New York City. It was there
that Entwistle pursued acting, eventually getting cast in various Broadway productions
She joined the New York Theatre Guild with whom she established herself as a legitimate actor,
even getting featured in The New York Times and the Oakland Tribune. Within a few years,
the Theatre Guild headed westward, which led to Entwistle ending up in
sunny Southern California. She soon booked a small part as Hazel Cousins
in 1932's Thirteen Women, though it would be her only film credit.
Sadly, the role didn't get her much attention from studios. After failing to meet her goal of
becoming a working actor, she climbed to the top of the "H" of the Hollywood sign and jumped off,
ending her life on September 16, 1932. Her body was discovered by
a hiker, who also found her purse containing a suicide note. It read,
"I am afraid I am a coward and I am sorry for many things. If I had
only done this long ago I could have saved a lot of pain. P.E."
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline​ by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.