Classic Hollywood's Legendary Love Stories

When I think about certain legendary movie star couples from the classic Hollywood era, I think about the special love they shared. Not just any old love. They felt very deeply for each other and couldn't imagine life without the other in it.

These four couples had a love so great that, even in death and with the passage of time, it has endured and is still admired by many.

They had their problems, all couples do (some more than others). But these couples loved each other so deeply and in ways we may never quite understand. Many of us would give our eyeteeth to have that kind of love just one time in our lives.

Who wouldn't want a love like Bogie and Bacall or Gable and Lombard?

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard:

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard had one of the sweetest love stories in Hollywood. She was 28 when she met the revered actor Clark Gable, 35, at a party. Carole wanted Gable in a big way. So much so, she conformed herself to fit his likes - particularly duck hunting and fishing, Gable's two favorite past times.

Margaret Tallichet, Lombard friend and wife of director William Wyler said, "Carole was madly in love with him. When she would zero in on something, that was it, and she wanted this relationship."

At the time, Gable was married to socialite Ria Langham but had grown tired of the marriage. By 1937, they were going through a divorce that would be hastened when Photoplay published an article naming Lombard and Gable as one of "Hollywood's Unmarried Husbands and Wives." Following his divorce from Langham, he and Lombard were free to marry and they did in 1939.

The couple settled down in a restored farmhouse near Encino, California and, although they never had any children, they referred to each other as Ma and Pa.

In January 1942, Lombard had just finished filming her movie, 'To Be or Not to Be,' her 57th movie, and was on tour selling war bonds. The plane she, along with her mother and 19 others, was on crashed into a mountain near Las Vegas. Upon hearing the news, Gable rushed to the scene with the intent of climbing the mountain to save to his beloved, but he was prevented from doing so.

After Lombard's body was recovered, an emotional Clark Gable said, "Oh, God! I don't want to go back to an empty house ..."

Gable died in 1961 after suffering a heart attack. His wife Kay laid him to rest next to Lombard at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor:

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor met while filming 'Cleopatra' in Rome. Although she was just 30, Taylor was already on her fourth marriage of three-years to singer Eddie Fisher. Burton, a 36-year-old stage actor, was married to his first wife Sybil. The press alerted Fisher to the affair and he flew to Rome to "stand guard," but it was already too late.

Congress denounced Taylor and the Vatican accused the actress of "erotic vagrancy." When she thought Burton would return to his wife, she took some pills in an attempt to end her own life.

This was clearly a couple in love and theirs was one of the greatest Hollywood love stories of the twentieth century.

In 1968, Richard Burton wrote in his diary that Elizabeth Taylor "is a wildly exciting lover-mistress, she is shy and witty, she is nobody's fool, she is a brilliant actress, beautiful beyond the dreams of pornography....AND SHE LOVES ME!"

Granted, the arguments they had were often heated and when they stayed at hotels, they usually rented suites directly above and below the one they were staying in so no one would hear them.

Burton's brother Graham Jenkins commented the couple was lovely to be around most of the time, but when they fought, Burton would "call on his tremendous command of the English language to conjure up the most devastating insults."

The couple announced their separation July 4, 1974. Burton told reporters, "You can't keep clapping a couple of dynamite sticks together without expecting them to blow up."

Their divorce was short lived and they remarried in October 1975. It lasted just four months.

Elizabeth went on to marry Senator John Warner of Virginia. They divorced after six-years of marriage; Burton married his third wife, English fashion model Susan Hunt, and then his fourth wife, Sally Hay.

When Burton died in 1984, his wife did everything in her power to shut Taylor out at the memorial service and was apparently successful, or so she thought. At a second service in London, Taylor was front and center sitting at the front pew with Burton's relatives. Hay did manage to make sure it would be she laying next to Burton when she made arrangements to be buried next to him in Switzerland.

Humphry Bogart and Lauren Bacall:

Lauren Bacall was a 19-year-old model when she met 44-year-old movie star Humphrey "Bogie" Bogart at Warner Bros. studio. Nothing notable was said during their first meeting and there were no fireworks going off.

They met a few weeks later when Bacall auditioned for a part in 'To Have and Have Not.' When told she would be cast opposite Cary Grant or Bogart, the actress said, "Cary Grant - terrific! Humphrey Bogart - yuck."

At the time, Bogie was married to his third wife Mayo Methot, an actress with an alcohol problem. Bacall has said she doesn't know how it happened, but three weeks into filming she was sitting at her dressing table when Bogart popped in to say goodnight. He leaned over, put his hand under her chin, and kissed her.

Over the next year, the pair carried on a secret affair. Bogart was in the middle of a divorce from Methot but he and Bacall were very careful not to further enrage the woman scorned.
When Bogie called Bacall, she said her "heart would literally pound."

Not being able to be with Bacall openly tortured the actor, but when his divorce became final in May 1945, he and Bacall were married. Together they had a son and a daughter.

In 1956, Bogart was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and on January 14, 1957, the actor died. This devastated Bacall. You could say she never found another love quite like the love she shared with Bogie.

She went on to have an affair with crooner Frank Sinatra and married actor Jason Robards with whom she had a son, Sam Robards. Their marriage ended in divorce after a rocky 12 years.

Bogie and Bacall were the inspiration for the 1981 song, 'Key Largo.'

Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn:

When Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn met, he was a 41-year-old actor who had an affinity for liquor and she was a divorced 33-year-old actress. They were starring their first movie together, 'Woman of the Year,' in 1941.

Tracy and Hepburn were very careful not to be seen together publicly and avoided being photographed together. After all, he was a married man who wouldn't divorce his wife unless she asked for it. She never did. Tracy took a cottage to be closer to Hepburne.

The couple made nine movies together including 'Adams Rib' and 'Pat and Mike.' Their last movie together was 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' in 1967. Tracy died within weeks of finishing the movie. She would live another 36 years, dying in 2003 of natural causes.

Hepburn didn't attend Tracy's funeral out of respect for his wife and family.

Sources:
BonzaSheila.com - Presents Stories of Famous Lovers - Clark Gable and Carole Lombard
Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor : People.com
Katharine Hepburn - Biography (IMDb)
Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall : People.com