Sex Icons Loved Women, Divorce and Drugs

Marlene Dietrich loved women, Judy Garland tried to commit suicide several times and Vivien Leigh suffered from schizophrenia.

It is well known that former divas from the silver screen did magic for men’s fantasies. But they all carried their cross which they most often hid from the public eye. Or at least they tried to.

We decided to dig out some juicy details that prove that the icons did not much differ from the

Hayworth’s father sexually abused her, she liked alcohol and died poor 

The actress who raised the morale of soldiers and prisoners on posters, Rita Hayworth, was born in 1918 in New York. Her father was a flamenco dancer who had hoped she would follow in his footsteps.

By real name Margarita Carmen Cansino, she also had British and Irish heritage from her mother Volga. She started intensively going to dance and acting classes. The agents merited for her success made her dye her hair red, which later made her recognisable.

- Basically, I am a good, gentle person, but I am attracted to mean personalities – she said on one occasion. Rita got married five times: with Orson Welles, Prince Aly Khan, Dick Haymes, James Hill and Edward Charles Judson.

She stirred the most dust when she married 40-year-old Judson when she was only 18. She became famous with the movie “Fire Down Below” with John Lemmon and she won a Golden Globe Award for her role in the movie “Circus World” with John Wayne as the co-star.

Later, Barbara Leaming revealed in the actress’s biography that Rita’s happy childhood was all but happy because her father sexually abused her.

Her daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan admits that Rita had trouble dealing with fame and remembers seeing her mother with a bottle in her hand quite often.

Before she died Rita played in films because she had no more money and she also struggled with Alzheimer’s disease. However it may be, Rita Hayworth is still remembered, just as one of her most interesting quotes: “Movies were much better in the days when I was doing them”.

 Greta did not turn up for her own wedding, she loved women, she spent time with Aristotle Onassis and posed nude 

Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, better known as Greta Garbo, originally Swiss, who left her mark on movie reels, won over the world in the 1930’s. Greta also did not have much fun during childhood, primarily because her father, with whom she was close, died when she was 14 years old.

Greta dropped out of school and started working. She worked in a barber shop where she soap-lathered customers. But she soon found her way on posters, titillating men’s fantasies.

Later she became famous for her roles in the movies “Ninotchka” and “Camille”. Garbo had a rather unusual temperament, she did everything by instinct. She was never in the mood to speak with the media or fans.

Her private life was full of intrigue. She never turned up for her wedding with actor John Gilbert. Later she had romances with numerous actors, a nutritionist Hauser and finally, her own manager.

She was also no stranger to having intimate relations with women.

One of her lovers, model Louise Brooks, revealed that Greta was a bit masculine, but a gentle lover.

Greta hung out with jetsetters Cecil Beaton and Aristotle Onassis. She attracted public attention when People magazine published her nude photographs which all the men in the world wanted to possess at the time.

Dietrich – opponent of Nazism and bisexual 

Lola-Lola from “The Blue Angel”, a cult film by Josef von Stenberg, or by true name Marlene Dietrich, was a German actress who became famous playing the roles of erotic, sensual women. One of the best paid women of her time was also known for despising the Nazi.

The last role of this famous cabaret dancer, model and actress was in the film “Just a Gigolo” in which David Bowie was her partner.

The smoking, hoarse voice of this film and music diva won over the world at lightning speed. Her duet with Margo Lion, “Wenn die Beste Freundin”, which irresistibly alludes to the affair between the two singers, also became popular.

Between the 1950’s and 1970’s, Marlene was offered 30,000 dollars for a week’s performance.

The film icon hid her private life from the media, but mostly without any success.

She married only once, but she had a love affair with Jean Gabin, a sex symbol of that time. She adored women with whom she often had sexual relations.

Monroe grew up as an orphan, married at 16, had numerous affairs, failed marriages and met an unusual death 

Who does not know that Norma Jeane Baker is Marilyn Monroe’s real name? The face we most often see on prints of the father of pop-art, Andy Worhol, used to rule the covers of Hollywood magazines, as well as other magazines across the globe.

The actress from movies “How to Marry a Millionaire”, “Bus Stop” and “Some Like It Hot” conquered with her blond hair and a mole on her cheek which became her trademark.

Marilyn grew up with foster parents and relations within her family would, even in the shortest version, take up at least two articles like this. The diva grew up surrounded by suicides of her close ones. So she would not be left alone and forced to live in a children’s home, she married James Dougherty at the age of 16.

As she married, she started working together with her mother-in-law in a factory where they painted aircraft parts. A war photographer noticed her looks there and he helped her start off her career.

At the beginning of the 1950’s, the rising star’s nude photographs started circling around, which later High Hefner bought and published in Playboy. When she was asked what she wore in bed, she said: “Chanel No. 5”, which brough enormous popularity for the fashion and cosmetics company. The perfume is still popular among women and is very high on the list of most sold fragrances of all time.

Marilyn was said to have had many affairs, including with heavy smoker Clarke Gable. She was blamed for his death.

Monroe suffered with insomnia, so she often rested on psychiatric sofas in New York. The doctors wrote down the insomnia to excessive use of drugs in which the actress was simply in love, and she was no stranger to alcohol either.

She got married three times, to the aforementioned James Dougherty, later to Joe DiMaggio and finally to Arthur Miller. Dean Martin adored her and she often shared her bed with Marlon Brando.

Athletes loved her and her diary, which was discovered after her death, revealed she liked seeing them too.

Monroe was disappointed by the fact that she was seen as a “stupid blonde”. She died from an overdose of sleeping pills, or at least that is what was said just after she was found in her home by the cleaning lady.

The actress’s death caused many controversies.

Conspiracy theoreticians claim that brothers John and Robert Kennedy killed her. Jeanne Carmen, a friend of the sex icon, said that she believed that the politicians were involved in her death which is to this day enveloped by a veil of secret.

It was subsequently established that the flat where she lived in Los Angeles was bugged, which reporters used to connect her death to the CIA, the FBI and the mafia.

Judy Garland’s father flirted with his workers and she was a gay icon on amphetamines who really wanted to commit suicide 

Judy Garland, who many people remember as Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” was actually a gay icon adored by everybody.

She married five times. She grew up in an artistic family with which she moved to California after it turned out that her father, Frank Gumm, was seducing ushers who worked in his cinema.

During the filming of the movie “The Pirate”, Garland had a nervous breakdown, after which she was placed in a private sanatorium.

She was kept there for a while, since she tried to commit suicide with a piece of a mirror she broke.

Later she tried cutting her throat with a broken glass, but this suicide attempt failed also. She was suspended several times from big film companies for which she worked because of her neurotic behaviour.

With her voice, garland had the opportunity to hypnotise Carnegie Hall, but it looks like that was not enough for her. The mother of Liza Minelli was an addict who did not care much for living, judging by the statements she gave to the media.

The actress eventually did commit suicide with an overdose. Tests showed that she had 97 milligrams of Seconal in her blood and her death was ruled accidental. This actress advocated the rights of gay actors, so same-sex couples cherished her.

Lana Turner acted in court, she smoked more than a pack of cigarettes a day and she grew up in poverty 

Lana Turner, the star of the movie “The Postman Always Rings Twice” signed her first contract with MGM studios when she was only 16. She married seven times and died of throat cancer after a long smoking career.

Julia Jean Mildred Frances Turner being her real name, she lived humbly and moved with her mother from Alabama to Los Angeles.

Her former husband, Johnny Stompanato, could not get over the fact that she carried on with her life after they divorced. Lex Barker, another one of her husbands, revealed Turner had to fight off Johnny because of frequent physical abuse with which he “showed his love”.

Finally, Lana fought Stompanato in her own home, in front of her mother and daughter Cheryl Crane, whom Turner tried to protect from being hit with a kitchen knife. The media later developed theories claiming that the 14-year-old killed Johnny.

Later Lana testified about the incident in court. Some media said that she played the best drama performance of her career in the courtroom.

Ginger Rogers swapped sex for class 

Virginia Katherine McMath, better known as Ginger Rogers, was born in Missouri, while her parents originated from Sweden and Wales. After they divorced, she lived with her grandparents.

In the meantime, her father kidnapped her twice. At 17 she married Jack Pepper who, before marrying Ginger, had a love affair with her cousin.

“Girl Crazy” was a play set up by Ira and George Gershwin in which she danced with the famous Fred Astair for the first time. Even today, “Fred and Ginger” is a synonym of a harmonised dance couple.

Katharine Hepburn described the relationship between Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire very cynically: “She gives him sex, he gives her class”.

‘Scarlet O’Hara’ was depressed and died from tuberculosis 

Vivien Leigh, a British actress who became famous acting in “Gone with the Wind”, was born in India. In the film “A Streetcar Named Desire” she acted with the then irresistible Marlon Brando.

She suffered from schizophrenia, became depressed and her numerous associates often complained about her uncontrolled outbursts. She married twice and she tried her third luck without a ring on her finger with John Merivale.

She was married for a short while to Lawrence Olivier who helped her become one of the greatest stars of that day. Winston Churchill, who visited the Buckingham Palace several times, loved the married couple.

Before she came down with tuberculosis, Vivien performed for British troops in Africa during World War II.

After she died, Merivale, with whom she was living, found her body. By his order, she was cremated. The ashes of one of the most desirable women of that time were thrown into a lake near her home in Great Britain.