Most Marriages by a Celebrity

Valentine's Day represents love and marriage, so who tops the list of being married the most among our top celebrities?

5 - LARRY FLYNT. The notorious publisher of Hustler magazine has been married 5 times. A foiled 1978 assassination attempt left him paralyzed from the waist down. Although white supremacist Joseph Paul Franklin confessed to the shooting, he has never been charged. According to Flynt's book, An Unseemly Man: My Life As A Pornographer, Pundit And Social Outcast, his first sexual experience was at age nine with a chicken.

6 - BORIS KARLOFF. Famous for his portrayal of Frankenstein, Boris Karloff was married 6 times. Born William Henry Pratt in London, England, Karloff emigrated to Canada in 1909. The 1931 Frankenstein 6-sheet movie poster, featuring Karloff as the monster, is considered to be the most valuable movie poster in the world. Boris Karloff won a Grammy award for his narration of the 1960's made-for-television animated film, Dr Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Every year, Boris would dress up as Santa Claus and hand out presents to physically disabled kids in a Baltimore hospital - a tradition he started in 1940. After a long battle with arthritis and emphysema, he contracted pneumonia and died in February 1969 at the age of 81.

6 - JERRY LEE LEWIS. The legendary rock 'n roller married 6 times. He married his second wife 23 days before his divorce from his first wife was final. The 1958 scandal over the marriage to his 13 year old cousin all but destroyed his career. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Jerry Lee Lewis as number 24 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All time. 2009 marks the 60^th year since his first public performance at a car dealership in Ferriday, Louisiana.

7 - RICHARD PRYOR. The comic, well know for setting himself on fire in 1980, had 7 marriages to 5 women. Richard married his 4^th and 5^th wives twice. Richard Pryor co-wrote Blazing Saddles, directed by Mel Brooks and starring Gene Wilder. In 1991, Pryor announced that he had been suffering from Multiple Sclerosis since 1986. Richard died of cardiac arrest on December 10, 2005 - 9 days after his 65^th birthday.

8 - LANA TURNER. Married 8 times to 7 different men, Lana Turner married her 2^nd husband twice. Turner's discovery at Schwab's Drug Store has become one of Hollywood's most famous show-business legends. Born Julia Jean Mildred Frances Turner in Wallace, Idaho, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1957's Peyton Place. Lana Turner died in 1995 of complications related to throat cancer. She was 74 years old.

8 - ELIZABETH TAYLOR. Although married 8 times to 7 husbands, her most famous trips down the aisle were the 2 she took with Richard Burton. She started doing motion pictures at age nine, but stardom came from her role in 1944's National Velvet. Many of her back problems have been traced to when she hurt her back falling off a horse during the filming of that movie. In 1963, she became the highest paid movie star up until that time with a $1 million paycheque to play the title role in Cleopatra. Elizabeth Taylor won Academy Awards for Best Actress in Butterfield 8 (1960) and again in Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf (1966). Ms. Taylor was in the news recently with a rumored ninth marriage to her constant companion Jason Winters. This has been dismissed as a rumor, but time will tell.

8 - MICKEY ROONEY. Born Joseph Yule, Jr., Mickey has made the matrimonial trip 8 times. Well known for his "Andy Hardy" series of films, his breakthrough as a dramatic actor came in BoysTown, the 1938 film with Spencer Tracy. The movie opened shortly before his 18^th birthday. After battling drug addiction and a near bankruptcy caused by gambling and bad investments, Rooney became a born-again Christian in the 1970s, reportedly after an angel appeared to him in a coffee shop.

8 - ARTIE SHAW. The jazz clarinettist married 8 times, including marriages to Lana Turner and Ava Gardner. Born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky, he's widely considered to be one of the greatest jazz clarinettists of his time and his playing was eventually recognized as equal to that of Benny Goodman. He signed Billie Holiday as his band's vocalist in 1938, becoming the first white bandleader to hire a full-time black female singer. Artie Shaw had long suffered from diabetes and eventually died of complications of the disease at age 94 in 2004.

9 - ZSA ZSA GABOR. The undisputed ruler of the "Most Marriages" by a personality, Zsa Zsa Gabor has been married 9 times, to different men. She's been divorced 7 times and one marriage was annulled. Born in 1917, she has a long list of move, theatre and television roles to her credit, but is most noted as the outspoken socialite who just can't seem to resist marriage proposals. Tabloids went wild in 1989 when Gabor was accused of slapping the face of a Beverly Hills police officer when he stopped her for a traffic violation. She was eventually found guilty and sentenced to 72 hours in jail plus a $13,000 payment of court costs. She married Frederic Prinz von Anhalt in August, 1986, and this union continues today.

It seems what chocolate is to Valentine's Day, marriage is to our high profiled celebrities.