Four For Friday - The Substitute - Old Hollywood
Earlier this week, I was doing some pro bono work for some elderly people at a senior facility. One of the people I helped was wondering about royalties for some movies she appeared in back in the 50's. It was a question I hadn't expected. Most of the time the questions are about benefits or being scammed or bill collectors. Of course, me being me, I had to ask a lot of questions. She loved talking about it and I listened to her for a good fifteen minutes talk about her career and studio life. I then laughed and asked her if she knew any good scandals or gossip that occurred back then. I fully expected her to say no, nothing exciting. Umm, I was wrong. She then proceeded to tell me about an A list Academy Award winner who, when he made it big, killed the wife he had brought to Hollywood with him and dumped her body into a lake, which is near, what is now, Six Flags.
He then told the studio he was single and never been married and that is what all the tabloids reported too. Well, as our actor was becoming a huge star, the police came calling. The actor told the studio about it and the studio made it all go away. They then brought in an actress and told her she was going to marry the actor. How did she know this? She was the actress brought in to marry the guy. The police did what they did back then and told the family of the person killed, that it had been an accidental drowning.
He then told the studio he was single and never been married and that is what all the tabloids reported too. Well, as our actor was becoming a huge star, the police came calling. The actor told the studio about it and the studio made it all go away. They then brought in an actress and told her she was going to marry the actor. How did she know this? She was the actress brought in to marry the guy. The police did what they did back then and told the family of the person killed, that it had been an accidental drowning.
I wanted to say Brando because he would do this, but I cant make him fit...
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ReplyDeleteKinda confused.
ReplyDeleteYou were giving her (pro bono) legal advice, thus making you her lawyer of record, and you go on to post about her involvement in a murder (accessory after the fact), conspiracy (in the cover-up of a capital offense) and maybe other now admitted crimes?
+1000
DeleteSo much for attorney-client confidentiality huh?
DeleteKarl Malden?
ReplyDeleteI think you are going too big with the answers,not a permanent A lister, but someone big at the time,probably a romantic lead type,otherwise,why care if he is married?
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ReplyDeleteKarl was married in 1938 and stayed married
ReplyDeleteLoved streets of San Francisco and had a huge crush on a young Michael Douglas
DeleteGeorge Chakiris? He's never been married and it doesnt say this woman actually married him.
ReplyDeleteAwww ok I was looking for someone who only married once since he murdered the first wife I thought it was to hide the fact that he was ever married from the public.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry but I make it a point not to read anything about that little arrogant shit Bono.
ReplyDeleteLet's google old actors with drowned wives who could be woven into a murder conspiracy.
ReplyDeleteShatner?
Deleteatoukzug --you have no idea what you are talking about, a woman hearing a second or third-hand rumor of a murder and not reporting it does not make her 'involved' nor an 'accessory'.
ReplyDeleteStupid
Sandy, it does seem Chakiris is the only one who fits who rose up at that time. He seems so mellow though.
ReplyDeletegauloise I always thought he was gay, but he fits...
ReplyDeleteRobert Wagner: "What a piece of shit!"
ReplyDeleteDammit, Natalie Wood's stuff clogs up looking for the wife.
ReplyDeleteMalden's wife was not an actress
ReplyDeleteShe said SHE was the one brought in by the studio to marry the actor, and she stated she knew why. That's pretty direct admission that she knew the who and the shy of the murder.
ReplyDeletePeople have been convicted for a lot less.
But the point wasn't her admission to her presumptive lawyer, it was about the lawyer announcing it to the world.
Prosecutors would not have been able to compel her to testify, since she was his wife.
ReplyDeleteYul Brynner?
ReplyDeleteMaybe she told Enty that he could, she's on the way out anyway. Also supposedly the police helped cover up the crime, so good chance getting any charges related to the murder to stick.
ReplyDeletebetty white
ReplyDeleteGeneral concensus is that george chakiris is gay...
ReplyDeleteplus - his career started when he was in his teens in the late 40s but didn't "take off" until he was in West Side Story in London for almost 2 years then the movie...in 1961.
so...unless she was in movies which would produce royalties...BEFORE she was supposed to marry the murderous star in the 1960s, this can't really be him according to timeline.
Nicholson?
ReplyDeleteActress/wife Sandra Knight
No guesses on the actor, but maybe Pyramid lake?
ReplyDeleteLake chabot
ReplyDeleteYoung man, married to a plain wife, dreams of making it big, has a shot in Hollywood, drowns wife in a lake...
ReplyDeleteThe actress basically regurgitated the plot to A Place in the Sun to Enty...
Oh, please don't impugn George Chakiris. I have met him on several occasions and he is an incredibly good man. He is not only physically beautiful, but a wonderfully beautiful person through and through. He would never even remotely hurt anyone in lesser ways than this. I am not going to comment on his personal life, only to say that I believe he lives true to himself and others.
ReplyDeleteClark Gable?
ReplyDeleteMaximilian Schell?
ReplyDeleteI think this is meant to be Brando, and the woman is one of his early Hollywood girlfriends, maybe Virginia Leith. Her movies play on TV a lot.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a dotty old actress who has confused her life with the plot from A Place In The Sun.
ReplyDelete"Earlier this week, I was doing some pro bono work for some elderly people at a senior facility.
ReplyDeleteOnce a janitor...eh, Enty?
This can't be Brando, given that he was never under contract to a particular studio.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, outside of the A Place in the Sun thing or Enty breaking the attorney-client confidentiality, there are lots of plot holes in this one. For instance, why would the family of the dead wife believe the version by the police? She had been missing for months, they most likely knew who her husband was, and they never tried to contact her or him, even when the tabloids reported that he was single?
The Old Hollywood blind items have really gone downhill since Enty is out of Hollywood Babylon material to rip off...
I tried Bing Crosby or Jerry Lewis, but they don't seem to fit
ReplyDeleteThis could be Ryan O'Neal, but he isn't dead yet so it's not a good idea to mention it. Furthermore "love means never needing to say you're sorry" would be his built-in justification. Dustin Hoffman has been reputed to be quite the little s.o.b. but might not have the heft to dump a dead body into a lake.
ReplyDeleteThen there's always Martin Landau, not to mention Gig Young. Even Gerard Depardieu comes to mind, although in recent decades his only true love has been epicurean gluttony. Richard Gere seems to have always been a secretive schmuck but is known to prefer mountains to lakes. He could never afford to risk getting his hairdonwet, either.
That was supposed to say "getting his hairdo wet" but evidently the sentence tried to attempt getting a hard-on.
ReplyDeleteGeorge C Scott had a bad reputation.
ReplyDeleteHis wife, actress Trish VanDeVere would be in her late 70's now
This news has been around for ages. Now it makes sense why it never goes far, cuz the police were involved
ReplyDeleteRobert Wagner and Natalie Wood-how sad. But I didn't know he remarried again.
Closest lake to Six Flags is Castaic.
ReplyDelete@pi530
ReplyDeleteIt is NOT Robert Wagner. Never won an Oscar; and he did not 'Bring his wife to Hollywood'.
Natalie was a star since she was a teenager; she was a bigger star than Wagner.
Really wish that people would read the blind and do a minute of research before tossing out answer.
According to the timeline this happened in the 1950's she was old enough to be in movies at that time. That was at least 60 to 70 years ago. If she was 18 in movies at that time that makes her 78-88 or so years old. I think she is a bit old to be married to a bunch of the guesses. Gere, Oneal, etc. The actor would likely be older than that as he was established and all. He is likely dead.
ReplyDeleteJust reasoning out things.
Keep visiting that lady~
ReplyDeleteGod Bless you for doing pro bono for our seasoned citizens
George C Scott could fit. He was married to his (maybe) first wife Carolyn Hughes from 1951-1955. She is credited with roles in films I’ve never heard of that all came in the late 50’s after her divorce from George.
ReplyDelete@DarylsBigFan: if that were the case, this place would be nearly empty
ReplyDeleteI'm amazed at all the people saying this story is a ripoff of A Place in the Sun. Have you ever heard of Wikipedia, people? Read the plot synopsis, it has nothing to do with anyone making it big in Hollywood.
ReplyDeleteHow about Steve McQueen and Nelle Adams? He was an up and comer more likely to have had studio attention than Nicholson. His background is sketchy enough I can imagine him for this. What I can't get is how you marry a man you know is a murderer. Altho the blind doesn't actually say the person went through with it.
ReplyDeleteAngela, except in A Place in the Sun, they weren't married were they,she was knocked up out of wedlock and he killed her so he could marry Liz Taylor, not to say he was single.
ReplyDeleteAnd Anzagouk or whatever your name is, she knows because she was brought in to marry him but it doesn't say she was told at the time why she was brought in to marry him. She very well could have found out decades later.
Maybe the blind is a red herring to say this woman was in A Place In The Sun.
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