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Classic Hollywood was built on glamour, talent, and larger-than-life personalities, but some of its brightest stars were gone far too soon. Join us as we look back at screen icons whose lives ended in heartbreaking and often shocking ways, from devastating accidents to tragic mysteries and untimely deaths that left audiences mourning what could have been.
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00:00Well, I don't have much of a voice, but then this isn't much of a band either. I'm only with
00:04them
00:04because I'm running away. Welcome to Ms. Mojo. And today, we're looking at classic Hollywood
00:09stars whose lives and careers ended far too soon. It's up to you. Tony wouldn't know the difference.
00:17Well, I would. Natalie Wood. Looks like they're having a little trouble with the baseball player.
00:23He was a clown last year. They just changed the head and painted him different. My mother told me.
00:28Hmm. Hmm. He certainly is a giant, isn't he? Not really. There are no giants, Mr. Daly.
00:36Well, maybe not now, Susie, but in olden days, there were a lot of...
00:42Natalie Wood practically grew up on screen, then did what few child stars manage. She became a major
00:49adult actress too. Audiences first embraced her in Miracle on 34th Street, but she later helped
00:55define teenage longing and rebellion in Rebel Without a Cause, earning an Oscar nomination.
01:01He looks at me like I was the ugliest thing in the world. He doesn't like my friends. He doesn't
01:10like
01:10one thing about me. He called me... He called me a dirty tramp. My own father.
01:21From there, Wood built a remarkable career across eras. On November 29th, 1981, she drowned off Santa
01:30Catalina Island while on a yacht trip with her husband, Robert Wagner, co-star Christopher Walken,
01:36and the boat's captain. She was 43. Her death has remained controversial for decades,
01:42with the official wording later changed to, quote,
01:45drowning and other undetermined factors.
01:48She made films on Staten Island, Splendor in the Grass. We come from Staten Island. The Staten
01:53Islanders. And they watched her Thursday night on Miracle on 34th Street. And I thought she was
01:59a beautiful woman. It's a shame. I really am shocked. Just the other day, I was watching
02:03a Miracle on 34th Street. So, you know, she's a pretty young woman, you know.
02:07Lupe Velez. Born in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, Lupe Velez moved from vaudeville and dance into
02:22silent films, then made the transition to sound with a voice and personality studios eagerly
02:28packaged as the Mexican Spitfire. Her series of the same name was especially significant
02:34because it placed a Latina performer at the center of multiple Hollywood films,
02:39not just in the margins.
02:41Maybe you're happy because I'm leading.
02:43That's right.
02:44You mean to say you don't want me to stay?
02:46Of course not. The sooner you get out of my cabin, the better. Goodbye.
02:49Your cabin? Ha! This is my cabin as much as it is yours. It says so on the tickets.
02:55I don't care what it says on the tickets.
02:57Oh, you don't care. Well, I care. And nobody's gonna throw me out of my cabin.
03:01If anybody's gonna get out, it's gonna be you.
03:03In December 1944, Velez died from an intentional barbiturate overdose at 36.
03:09The cruel myths that later attached themselves to her final hours should be left where they belong,
03:15in the trash. The real story is sad enough, and her career deserves far more respect than
03:21the gossip ever gave it.
03:22So you want somebody to throw somebody out, eh?
03:25Well, I'm gonna get a policeman and throw you out.
03:28Carmelia, wait a minute. Carmelia, nothing.
03:30Look here. Don't you cause another scene.
03:32There's gonna be a scene, all right?
03:33You're gonna listen to me right now.
03:34Oh, now I'll get you listening. Let go of me.
03:37I'll knock you out.
03:38Thelma Todd.
03:39How do you do?
03:41How do you do?
03:44Would you like to dance?
03:46If you like.
03:48A former beauty queen from Massachusetts, Thelma Todd became a familiar face in shorts and features,
03:55working with giants of comedy like the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, and Buster Keaton.
04:01Todd's screen presence was unusually flexible.
04:04She could be glamorous, mischievous, exasperated, silly, or sly, often in the same scene.
04:11Dear Ms. Todd, the committee congratulates you upon being chosen the most popular and talented girl in Joplin.
04:19You are to report to the Roaring Lion Studio for a test.
04:24The rest depends upon the impression you make upon director von Sternheim.
04:30By the mid-1930s, she had also opened Thelma Todd's Sidewap Cafe,
04:36a successful Los Angeles restaurant that added to her public profile,
04:40and later, to the mystery around her death.
04:43In December 1935, Todd was found dead in her car from carbon monoxide poisoning.
04:50She was 29.
04:52Authorities eventually treated the death as accidental,
04:55but rumors and darker theories never fully disappeared.
04:58Who knows, but what Ms. Todd's name will be alongside of such stellar nights
05:03as John Crawford, Norma Shearer, and Clark Gable alongside nothing,
05:10huh, my name will stand alone.
05:14Sal Mineo.
05:15You talk nice to the man now, here.
05:17He's going to help you.
05:20Nobody can help me.
05:22Can you tell me why you killed those puppies, Plato?
05:26No, sir.
05:29Where'd you get the gun?
05:33My mother's jaw.
05:34Sal Mineo's tragedy is often tied to the shadow of Rebel Without a Cause,
05:39but his career was bigger than one role.
05:41As Plato, Mineo brought heartbreaking sensitivity to a character who felt lonely,
05:47fragile, and quietly radical for 1950s Hollywood.
05:50The performance earned him an Oscar nomination while he was still a teenager.
05:54I told you not to fool with those guys.
05:56Now they're laying for you.
05:57If you don't want trouble, I know a place where we can go.
06:00It's a big mansion.
06:08There it is.
06:10We could sneak around and they wouldn't even know.
06:12But Hollywood didn't always know what to do with him as he aged out of youthful vulnerability,
06:16and Mineo moved between film, television, music, and stage work.
06:21On February 12th, 1976, he was killed in an indiscriminate homicide outside his West Hollywood apartment
06:28after returning from rehearsal for a play.
06:31He was 37.
06:33We walked each other up to the front of the theater and out into the street,
06:38and I probably gave him a slap in the back and said, see you tomorrow.
06:43Carol Lombard.
06:44Oh, I've got to cry, Enoch.
06:46I can't help it.
06:47Come, come, come.
06:48This is no way to behave in a doctor's office.
06:51Besides, that soap will give you the darndest bellyache you ever had.
06:55Oh, Enoch, you saved my life.
06:57Oh, it was nothing.
06:59That first diagnosis I made was a mistake.
07:01I got sure that I was seeing radium poisoning everywhere.
07:04I've been awfully brave, haven't I?
07:06Not to cry before.
07:07Please, sir.
07:07After early silent work and Max Sennett comedies,
07:11Carol Lombard found her lane in the 1930s with 20th Century,
07:15My Man Godfrey, and Nothing Sacred.
07:18Lombard could play Daffy without seeming stupid,
07:21glamorous without seeming untouchable,
07:23and romantic without losing her bite.
07:25Well, I'll tell you how I can see the whole thing.
07:28I can see the Magdalene as a woman who was an aristocrat at the beginning.
07:32And after being heartbroken by some man she loved madly and trusted,
07:37she went down, down, down.
07:40Into the depths.
07:42Hating and despising old men, laughing at them so cruel, so terrible.
07:47By the early 1940s, she was also married to Clark Gable
07:50and using her fame to support the war effort.
07:53In January 1942, after helping sell millions of dollars in war bonds in Indiana,
07:59Lombard boarded a flight home.
08:01The plane crashed near Las Vegas, killing everyone aboard.
08:05She was 33.
08:07Her final film, To Be or Not to Be, was released after her death,
08:12preserving one last example of her nerve and comic brilliance.
08:16I hope you forgive me if I acted a little clumsy,
08:18but this is the first time I ever met an actress.
08:21Lieutenant, this is the first time I've ever met a man
08:24who could drop three tons of dynamite in two minutes.
08:27Bye.
08:28Rudolph Valentino
08:29Before Hollywood had fully figured out what a male screen idol could be,
08:33Rudolph Valentino became one.
08:36Born in Italy,
08:37Valentino rose through silent cinema with a mixture of elegance,
08:40intensity, and exoticized romantic appeal that made him a global sensation.
08:46His fame wasn't always kind to him.
08:48The press scrutinized his masculinity, his relationships, and his image,
08:53even as audiences adored him.
08:55Then, in August 1926, Valentino died at 31 from peritonitis after a ruptured ulcer.
09:03The public reaction was extraordinary.
09:05Huge crowds, chaotic mourning, and a level of fan grief that foreshadowed the modern celebrity hysteria.
09:12Valentino's career was brief,
09:14but his death showed just how powerful and inescapable movie stardom had become.
09:20Gene Harlow
09:21What are you thinking of?
09:23If you must know, I was thinking of Martin.
09:27Do you like him?
09:28Yes, I like him.
09:29He's a marvelous dancer.
09:30Gene Harlow helped define the Hollywood blonde before Marilyn Monroe ever reached the screen.
09:36With her platinum hair, sharp comic timing, and fearless sensuality,
09:41she became perhaps MGM's brightest star in the early 1930s.
09:45I walked all the way up here all alone,
09:47just because I knew how important those letters were.
09:51And now you're sending me away just like you always do.
09:55Trying to put me to work, hmm?
09:57Oh, can't I stay and help, please?
10:00Can't I?
10:01Off screen, Harlow's life had already been marked by public scandal and private loss,
10:06including the death of her second husband, MGM executive Paul Byrne.
10:11Then, while making Saratoga with Clark Gable, she became seriously ill.
10:16Who is this?
10:17My name is Duke Bradley, a friend of your father's.
10:19Why don't you try sometime?
10:21Uh, put my father on the phone.
10:24Who is it?
10:25Oh, it's some fool.
10:28I would like to speak to my father.
10:30Harlow died on June 7th, 1937, from kidney failure and related complications.
10:35She was only 26.
10:38MGM completed Saratoga with doubles, and the film became a hit,
10:42but it also became a heartbreaking reminder of how much more Harlow had left to give.
10:46Who do you think you're talking to?
10:48Who is it, darling?
10:50Will you please tell me where my father is, that I may call him there?
10:54Well, if you must know, he's down at the doctors.
10:56He's having a little trouble with his heart.
10:58Heart?
11:00Is it serious?
11:01Well, he'd be better off without it.
11:03Tell father I'll take the next boat home.
11:06Now you're talking, honey.
11:07James Dean.
11:08So, um, that's for you.
11:13It's all the money you lost on the lettuce business.
11:17That's for you, and I made it for you.
11:21Cal, you will have to give it back.
11:25No, I, I made it, I made it for you, Dad.
11:28I don't, I want you to have it.
11:30The film career of James Dean rests on three movies.
11:35East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, and Giant.
11:38Only East of Eden had been released before his death,
11:41yet that was enough to announce a performer with raw, volatile emotional power.
11:46On September 30th, 1955, he was killed in a car crash in California,
11:51aged just 24.
11:54Rebel Without a Cause opened not even a month later,
11:57turning his red-jacketed image into a symbol of teenage alienation almost overnight.
12:02I don't want you to go to the police.
12:04There were other people.
12:05Why should you be the only one involved?
12:07But I am involved.
12:09We are all involved.
12:11Mom, a boy, a kid was killed tonight.
12:16I don't see how I can get out of that by pretending that it didn't happen.
12:20Giant followed the next year, giving audiences one more glimpse of where he might have gone.
12:25Dean's legend endures partly because it's so painfully incomplete.
12:29Three major roles, two posthumous Oscar nominations, and endless unanswered questions.
12:35I know that land ain't worth much, but then someday, I just might up and put my own fence around
12:44her,
12:46call her a little reality.
12:54See you.
12:56Marilyn Monroe.
12:58Hi.
12:59Sugar cane?
13:00Yeah, I changed it.
13:01Used to be Sugar Kowalczyk.
13:02You're Polish?
13:03Yes.
13:04I come from this musical family.
13:06My mother is a piano teacher.
13:07My father was a conductor.
13:08Where did he conduct?
13:10Under Baltimore, Ohio.
13:11Marilyn Monroe's death is among the most mythologized in Hollywood history.
13:15But the human story is devastating enough without the conspiracy fog.
13:19Born Norma Jean Mortensen, she turned a difficult childhood into arguably the most recognizable screen
13:25persona ever created.
13:27But Monroe was never just the blonde bombshell image the studio system sold.
13:31She fought to be taken seriously, studied acting, challenged her contracts, and won a Golden Globe for Some Like It
13:39Hot.
13:39I don't want you to think I'm a drinker.
13:41I can stop anytime I want to, only I don't want to, especially when I'm blue.
13:45We understand.
13:46All the girls drink.
13:48It's just that I'm the one that gets caught.
13:49Story of my life.
13:51I always get the fuzzy end of the lollipop.
13:53On August 4th, 1962, Monroe spent her final evening at her Los Angeles home.
13:59She was found dead the following day at age 36, most likely having taken her own life.
14:05Her death was officially attributed to acute barbiturate poisoning, bringing a defining career in cinema to a tragic end.
14:11Miss Monroe's dramatic coach delivered the eulogy, saying he had no words to describe the myth and the legends that
14:18grew up about her.
14:19The film star's coffin is then moved to a crypt as Mr. DiMaggio and his Marine Corps son walked with
14:26other mourners in the quartet.
14:27Sharon Tate.
14:28I just want to go back to America and see Tony.
14:31What use is a man who is no longer a man, eh?
14:34A vegetable.
14:36Claude, please stop it.
14:38I've hated this.
14:39You can find yourself another girl.
14:41Before 1969, Sharon Tate was a rising actress and model whose career was still taking shape.
14:48She appeared on television, moved into films like Eye of the Devil and The Fearless Vampire Killers, and earned major
14:54attention for Valley of the Dolls.
14:56In the early hours of August 9th, 1969, Tate was murdered at her Los Angeles home by members of the
15:03Manson family.
15:04She was just 26 years old and eight and a half months pregnant.
15:08The shocking crime dominated headlines around the world, becoming one of the most infamous murders in American history.
15:15We have a weird homicide.
15:18In a scene described by one investigator as reminiscent of a weird religious rite, five persons, including actress Sharon Tate,
15:25were found dead at the home of Miss Tate and her husband, screen director Roman Poljanski.
15:30Which classic Hollywood star do you think had the most unfinished business on screen?
15:35Be sure to let us know in the comments.
15:37Be sure to let us know in the comments.
15:37Be sure to let us know in the comments.
15:39Be sure to let us know in the comments.
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