Buster Keaton, Evelyn Nesbit, Laurel and Hardy
Silent Screen Star Scandals – Sex, Sanity, Substance Abuse and So On
Apr 12, 2009
Continuing from F-J Silent Screen Stars, the murderous, sexual, economic, political scandals of the silent film era were torrid, sorrowful, and extreme.
K – Buster Keaton
Joseph “Buster” Keaton (1895-1966) was a popular comedian in silent films. Although using physical comedy, his set stoical deadpan facial expression became his trademark.
Keaton’s career spanned almost forty years, but unfortunate business decisions of plagued his purse. His finances were further affected by costly divorces and the settlements made on his first two wives.
Keaton wed three times. His first marriage to Natalie Talmadge ended due to his infidelity. Talmadge refused Keaton contact with their sons. Keaton also suffered from alcoholism, supposedly marrying his second wife during an alcoholic blackout.
L – Laurel and Hardy
One of the most famous and popular comedy teams of motion pictures, Laurel and Hardy were first paired during the silent screen era, starring in twenty-three silent shorts. They would go on to enjoy even greater success during the sound era.
British-born Stan Laurel (1890-1965) caused the comedy pair to be affected by a studio dispute with Hal Roach, which led to a temporary termination of Laurel’s contract. Not only being tried for drunk driving, Laurel’s personal life also witnessed a carousel of marriages.
First living with Mae Dahlberg, who was paid off to end the relationship, and soon after, Laurel wed his first wife. Continually leaving one wife for the next, Laurel would be married for the next thirty-nine years, but to four different women, one of whom he married twice.
American-born Oliver Norvell “Babe” Hardy (1892-1957) also endured failed marriages, but his health and death are more subject to speculation. Hardy suffered a heart attack in 1954, causing him to consider his health. His weight halved, but in 1956, he still suffered a stroke which left him unable to speak or move for months. In 1957, he suffered two more strokes before his death. Laurel’s letters indicate that Hardy had terminal cancer, causing some to think this accounts for Hardy’s weight loss and decline.
M – Tom Mix
As the first screen superstar cowboy, Thomas Mix (1880-1940) is credited with helping to define the genre of film Westerns for the actors who followed.
Married five times, Mix went AWOL from the army to wed his first wife. The marriage lasted less than the year, as did his second marriage. His third marriage endured for a decade, but he abandoned his wife and young child to wed his much younger co-star. Over a decade later, Mix divorced his fourth wife and soon married a fifth wife.
Following lavish spending, Mix’s entire savings were seriously deflated. He continued to work until he was killed in an unusual road accident. Perhaps speeding and driving drunk, Mix was unable to brake before sliding into a gully, causing a large aluminum suitcase from the backseat to fly forward, striking the back of his head, shattering his skull, and breaking his neck.
N – Evelyn Nesbit
Florence Evelyn Nesbit (1884-1967) was a model, chorus girl, and silent screen actress. She is remembered as the inspiration for the “Gibson Girl” and famed as “The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing.”
Nesbit was either raped or seduced by the womanizing architect Stanford White, who was forty-seven when she was only sixteen. Following his moving onto other virginal young women, Nesbit embarked on a romantic relationship with John Barrymore.
Barrymore, only two years older than Nesbit, wished to marry her, but Nesbit’s mother considered the young actor too poor to wed. Against the desires of her ambitious mother, Nesbit continued her relationship with Barrymore, becoming pregnant twice. White intervened by sending Nesbit away to a boarding school run by the mother of Cecil B. DeMille. Nesbit had at least one abortion. Some believe that she carried the second baby to term, giving it up for adoption in 1904.
In 1905, Nesbit wed millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw, who was a possessive cocaine addict and sadist. In 1906, Thaw became enraged about White’s former relationship to Nesbit, and shot White to death in Madison Square Garden. What words Thaw shouted at White are debated.
Thaw was tried twice for the murder and divorced Nesbit, who went on to live through suicide attempts, an addiction to morphine, and alcoholism.
O – Oona O’Neill and Charlie Chaplin
Although Oona O’Neill (1925-1991) intended to become an actress, she is known as the daughter of Eugene O’Neill, who abandoned the family while Oona was still a toddler, and the wife of Charlie Chaplin, who by himself created some of the most scandalous stories of the silent film era.
Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) is remembered as a comedian of silent films, but scandalous behavior filled his personal life. He supposedly enjoyed being the first sexual partner of considerably underage girls, who he often mentored professionally.
It has been suggested that his fetish for young teenage girls originated due to his memory of lost teenage love Hetty Kelly. Each of his first two wives, Mildred Harris and Lita Grey, were sixteen when wedding sizably older Chaplin, who only married each due to pregnancy. Both divorces devolved into sensationalist media circuses reporting sexual scandals.
Chaplin notoriously had numerous affairs, and thus became linked to the mystery of the 1924 death of Thomas Ince because it was thought that Ince may have been accidentally killed by William Randolph Hearst, who may have intended to murder Chaplin following a suspected affair with Hearst’s mistress.
Chaplin’s reputation was threatened by his living with young actress Paulette Goddard, who was twenty-one years his junior. Years later, another former mistress brought a highly publicized paternity suit against Chaplin.
Chaplin met Oona when she auditioned for him. They married when she was newly eighteen and he was fifty-four. Due to Chaplin being accused of communism, the couple exiled themselves to Switzerland, and Oona renounced her American citizenship.
Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson, and more…
Continue with the scandalous murders, intrigues, and affairs of P-T Silent Silver Screen Stars.
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