Old time actors and directors that you were surprised to find out were married to each other once upon a time

This is as good a time as any to bring up Lana Turner's steamy affair with Kool-Aid Man.

Soon to be made into a major Hollywood Oliver Stone/Quentin Tarantino/Paul Thomas Anderson co-production, The Real Kool-Aid Killers.

Not both actors - you could argue neither were - but the one that always surprises me is George Lazenby and Pam Shriver.

― Eats like Elvis, shits like De Niro (Tom D.), Sunday, January 15, 2017 10:06 AM (five years ago)

Stumbled across this one today while watching Pam in her job as Wimbledon commentator.

Also, she had three kids with Lazenby in her 40s (and he in his 60s)!

Debbie Harry and Penn Jillette dated according to Wikipedia.

I'm betting Debbie likes to keep that one quiet.

If she wanted to keep that one quiet, she would have dated Teller.

💯

Susan Hanson aka Miss Diane from Crossroads was briefly married to Tommy Vance and much longer to The Move’s Carl Wayne.

I did a double take and thought that said Carol Wayne. Who apparently was married to Burt Sugarman, producer of Celebrity Sweepstakes AND The Midnight Special along with some other shows, and who later married Mary Hart, who he is still married to.

(xp) I knew about Carl Wayne, they were like the glamorous celebrity couple of the West Midlands, also Carl Wayne appeared on Crossroads a few times.

Clifford Odets and Luise Rainer

Which is pushing it a bit as is the following pairing but still.

Oleg Cassini and Gene Tierney

Myrna Loy was married for several years to Arthur Hornblow Jr, producer and eponym for Horatio Hornblower.

Abby Dalton of Roger Corman films and later Falcon Crest, and in-demand West Coast jazz bassist Joe Mondragon

He who played the bass on the Peggy Lee version of "Fever." Good catch.

He said, "Abby, baby, you're my flame - thou giveth fever"

Heh. I think people get confused about who played that part. I know I used to think it was Max Bennett since I associate him more with Peggy Lee. Max Bennett's nephew used to work in a video store in Brooklyn Heights where I may have rented much of the work of some of these old-timey pairs.
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/03/nyregion/captain-video.html
https://www.indiewire.com/2006/03/did-netflix-kill-my-local-video-store-135089/
https://www.wweek.com/arts/2019/12/10/a-portland-filmmaker-examines-the-significance-of-video-stores-and-the-path-forward-for-the-few-that-remain/
https://gothamist.com/news/no-ashtray-for-you
http://howesbrooklyn.com/howesbrooklyn/howes-brooklyn-marty-arno/

^obnoxious thread starter derail

No actors or directors, but definitely old-timey:
Screenwriter and Phantom Lady producer Joan Harrison and novelist/screenwriter Eric Ambler.

First place they lived after their wedding was a house Eric was renting in which Vincente Minnelli had once lived.

Just learnt that Sally Timms of The Mekons was married to Fred Armisen.

Wow! Just read about his other marriage too.

Cliff Robertson & Dina Merrill

Not really old time, but Diane Cilento and Anthony Schaeffer.

Screenwriter, producer and WWII rear admiral Gene Mackey was married to- wait for it- Joan Bennett, Hedy Lamarr and Myrna Loy.

Do ur thing gene

*Markey. Crazy he could look back from the perspective of 1947 and realize that in the previous 10 years he had spent some time married to each of those women, plus was divorced for five years, plus fought in WWII.

Oops, thanks for fixing. That’s Admiral Gene Markey to you.

Here’s one that’s evaded us so far:
James Lipton and Nina Foch

James Lipton’s father’s Wikipedia page is wild.

We didn’t even mention Admiral “Bull” Halsey. There’s a whole book about the horse farm the guy had with his fourth wife.

https://academic.oup.com/kentucky-scholarship-online/book/33970/chapter-abstract/288841040?redirectedFrom=fulltext

An unattractive man whospent much of his early career writing B-movie screenplays, Gene Markey possessed enough charm and wit to convince actresses Joan Bennett, Hedy Lamarr, and Myrna Loy to take a walk down the aisle with him while they were at the height of their careers. None of these marriages lasted more than a few years, however. Markey had raised his ante as a successful producer at 20th Century Fox by the time he married his fourth wife: Lucille Parker Wright, the widowed owner of America’s most powerful racing stable, Calumet Farm. The Markeys won three Kentucky Derbies with Iron Liege, Tim Tam, and Forward Pass before mismanagement drove Calumet into a downward spiral from which it never recovered, signaling the end of the Golden Age of horse racing in America

Shooters shoot

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1980/05/02/111236441.html?pageNumber=94
He graduated from Dartmouth, attended the Art Institute of Chicago and "chronicled the Jazz Age in several novels."

We didn’t even mention Admiral “Bull” Halsey. There’s a whole book about the horse farm the guy had with his fourth wife

Whose fourth wife? I only see one wife listed for Admiral Halsey

Ha, Admiral Markey's fourth wife. Sorry for the misleading ellipsis or what-have-you.

Wrote some horse racing novels in later years.

Lots of photos of him online with his famous spouses, in particular Hedy Lamarr.

How about this: Raoul Walsh and Walter Pidgeon were brothers-in-law, although it’s hard to tell from Wikipedia since Walsh’s second wife’s maiden name seems wrong. Unless it was a married named from later on.

Now I want to read this Brian Kellow book about the Bennetts.

And the Richard Rhodes book about Hedy Lamarr.

I was wondering if, during his naval service, Gene Markey ever had the chance to use the “frequency hopping” technology developed by his second wife Hedy Lamarr.

The answer is no, as the US Navy didn’t use that technology until the 1960s.

Thanks for looking into that.

The Hedy Lamarr book has given me the following pairing:
Janet Gaynor and MGM costume designer Adrian, he of the ruby red slippers.

Guess they are mostly known as just the ruby slippers.

Conductor/bandleader not a director and singer only briefly turned actress but
Lily Pons and Andre Kostelanetz

My work for this weekend is done.

Janet Gaynor and (Gilbert) Adrian is a very interesting case. More later perhaps.

HI DERE

Admiral Bull Halsey was best man at Gene Markey’s wedding to Myrna Loy! The bride was given away, as at her first wedding to Arthur Hornblow Jr., by John Ford.

Both Markey and his friend Hornblow were Dartmouth men, as was another friend, producer and writer Collier “Collie” Young, who was married to both Ida Lupino and Joan Fontaine, along with a few others I am unfamiliar with.

Wiki sez:

After his divorce from Lupino, Young was executive director of her 1957–58 CBS sitcom Mr. Adams and Eve, co-starring Lupino's then-husband, Howard Duff. Elements of his screenplay for The Bigamist mined his serial relationships with Lupino and Fontaine, who played the deceived wives of that film.