1000 Weird Facts About Hollywood E-Book

Dylan Hart

• Herausgeber: epubli
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 272

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

1000 weird but true facts all about Hollywood and the film industry - from the early days to the modern era. Murders, child stars, bizarre diets, studio meddling, sex scandals, feuding stars, and all manner of fascinating trivia about actors and the movies they featured in and the strange world of Hollywood. All this and more can be found in 1000 Weird Facts About Hollywood.

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1000 Weird Facts About Hollywood  

Dylan Hart© Copyright 2023 Dylan Hart

ContentsIntroduction1000 Weird Facts About Hollywood INTRODUCTION1000 weird but true facts all about Hollywood and the film industry - from the early days to the modern era. Murders, child stars, bizarre diets, studio meddling, sex scandals, feuding stars, and all manner of fascinating trivia about actors and the movies they featured in. All this and more can be found in 1000 Weird Facts About Hollywood.1000 WEIRD FACTS ABOUT HOLLYWOOD(1) For the shower scene in Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock made the water freezing cold so that Janet Leigh's screams would be more convincing.  (2) About a week before his death in a car crash, James Dean had lunch with the actor Alec Guinness. Dean showed Alec Guiness his new Porsche and Guiness had a dreadful premonition that Dean would be killed in that car. He told James Dean not to drive the car. Dean obviously this ignored this advice. If he'd listened to Alec Guinness the fatal crash wouldn't have happened. (3) The katana-wielding foe James Bond battles in Osato's office in You Only Live Twice is played by Peter Fanene Maivia - grandfather of Dwayne Johnson.(4) It is estimated that around 16,000 boys were looked at before Daniel Radcliffe was cast as Harry Potter.(5) Chocolate syrup was used for blood in George Romero's Night of the Living Dead.(6) One of the darkly ironic things about James Dean is that one of the last things he ever did was appear in a public information film about road safety where he warned teenagers to drive sensibly. (7) Tab Hunter was one of those Hollywood stars who - sadly - lived in an era when actors had to keep their sexuality a secret for fear that it would destroy their careers. He appeared in over 40 films and was a well-known Hollywood star and heartthrob of the 1950s and 1960s. At the height of his career, Hunter had to go on 'fake' dates with famous women in order to evade any scrutiny of his private life. In reality he was gay and his lovers included Anthony Perkins. Hunter only came out in 2005. (8) Warner Bros paid for cinema ushers at early screenings of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban to have night vision goggles so that they could make sure no one was secretly recording and pirating the film. (9) Unbelievably, an image of a topless woman somehow appeared in the home video version of Disney's mouse cartoon The Rescuers.(10) Danny Lloyd, who, as a child actor, played Danny Torrance in The Shining, said that he had no idea he was appearing in a horror film when he shot his scenes. Stanley Kubrick told him they were making a drama about a family who lives in a hotel. (11) The 1976 film The Omen, about a couple who gradually realise their child is the anti-Christ, was a big hit. But a strange series of events clouded the production and led to stories of the film being cursed. Two months before the film started production, lead actor Gregory Peck's son committed suicide. When Peck flew to London to start work on the film his plane was struck by lightning. Studio executive Marc Neufield also had his plane struck by lightning when he crossed the Atlantic. Neufield also had his London hotel bombed by the IRA. Further strange events abounded. A plane that was set to ferry some of the crew for aerial work crashed. An animal trainer who worked on the zoo sequence was killed by a tiger. Special effects expert John Richardson, who masterminded the famous decapitation sequence, was involved in a car crash where his passenger, an assistant named Liz Moore, was decapitated for real. A sign in the vicinity clocked the distance to a nearby town. It read: "Ommen, 66.6 km."(12) The Black Sisters in Harry Potter were probably inspired by the real life Mitford Sisters Unity and Diana. The Mitfords were from an aristocratic English family of socialites and became notorious for their support of fascism. Unity Mitford worshipped Adolf Hitler while Diana Mitford married British fascist leader Oswald Mosley. (13) It is often alleged that Walt Disney was a fan of Cryonics and upon his death his head was frozen and placed beneath the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. The idea is that in the far future medical technology will be so advanced that those who died but were preserved and frozen can be thawed out and returned to full health in new bodies. While the science community is somewhat dubious about Cryonics there are companies making money out of this. It transpires though that the Disney story is nothing but an urban myth that seems to have snowballed over the years. Walt Disney was actually cremated.(14) Producer David O. Selznick wanted African-American actress Hattie McDaniel (who played Mammy) to come to the Gone with the Wind premiere but MGM told him not to bring her because of Georgia’s segregation laws at the time. (15) A script for Back to the Future existed as early as 1981 but studios were put off by the film's Oedipal theme.(16) Silent film actress Olive Thomas had one of the most bizarre deaths in Hollywood history. She died as a consequence of unwittingly drinking her husband's syphilis medication.(17) Despite playing the bullied put upon Carrie White in Carrie, Sissy Spacek was actually a popular Prom queen in her own school days.(18) Bela Lugosi never wore fangs when he played Dracula. (19) Allison Mack shot to fame through her role as Chloe Sullivan on the popular WB/CW series Smallville. Smallville ran from 2001 to 2011 and revolved around a young Clark Kent in the years before he becomes Superman. Mack's screen career was relatively quiet after Smallville ended. We eventually found out why this was the case. In her private life, Mack had become involved in NXIVM - a marketing company based near Albany, New York, that offered personal and professional development seminars. The company was, upon further investigation, deemed to be something of a front for a cult group - alleged to be a recruiting platform for a secret society (variously called "DOS" or "The Vow") in which women were branded and forced into sexual slavery. Mack was recruited by her Smallville co-star Kristin Kreuk but while Kreuk (who denied any knowledge of the more sinister aspects to the group) left in 2013 and severed all ties with NXIVM, it seems that Allison Mack became more and more embroiled. Sarah Edmondson, a Canadian actress who had been an ESP participant since 2005, said that she left NXIVM after Mack inducted her into DOS the preceding March at her home in Albany. Edmondson alleged that participants were blindfolded naked, held down by Mack and three other women, and branded by NXIVM-affiliated doctor Danielle Roberts, using a cauterizing pen. This was truly one of the most bizarre stories involving a celebrity that anyone could remember.(20) Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker, who played C-3PO and R2D2 respectively in the Star Wars films, hated each other in real life. Kenny Baker said that the snooty Daniels was unfailingly rude and condescending to him. (21) Stephen Geoffreys, who played the teenager Evil Ed in the cultish 1985 horror film Fright Night and appeared in Hollywood productions and TV shows like Heaven Help Us, The Twilight Zone, and Amazing Stories, later became a performer in gay porn films. By any standards that was a pretty bizarre career change. (22) The basis of A Nightmare On Elm Street was inspired by several newspaper articles printed in the LA Times in the 1970s on a group of Southeast Asian refugees, who, after fleeing to the United States from the results of war and genocide in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, were suffering disturbing nightmares, after which they refused to sleep. Some of the men died in their sleep soon after. Medical authorities called the phenomenon Asian Death Syndrome.(23) Believe it or not, the snow you see in The Wizard of Oz is actually pure asbestos. (24) The extras on the original Mad Max film were paid in beer.  (25) In 1978, Christina Crawford, the adopted daughter of Joan Crawford, write a memoir about her late mother that shocked Hollywood. Christina alleged that Joan Crawford was a sadistic alcoholic who treated her children as if they were prisoners and would fly into wild rages at the drop of a hat. Among the claims made in the book were that Joan Crawford would drunkenly wake her children in the middle of the night and force them to clean the house, once nearly killed Christina when she throttled her, shredded Christina's most beloved dress into rags and then made her wear it to humiliate her, trussed her children up at night so they couldn't move, and once starved Christina for days when she refused to eat a steak at dinner. Christina also seemed to suggest that Joan Crawford might have killed her fourth husband. The book was turned into a 1981 film with Faye Dunaway but was it a work of fact or fiction? Critics of the book included Joan Crawford's two younger children, Cindy and Cathy, who stated categorically many times that they did not witness or experience any of the events that were described in the book. Joan Crawford's secretary also said she had never witnessed any of the abuse alleged by Christina.Showbusiness figures like Van Johnson, Cesar Romero, Bob Hope, Barbara Stanwyck, Sydney Guilaroff, Ann Blyth, Gary Gray, Myrna Loy, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Crawford's first husband, also disputed the depiction of Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest. Those who supported Christina though included her adopted brother Christopher and show business figures like Helen Hayes, James MacArthur, June Allyson, Rex Reed, and Betty Hutton. Hutton said she used to used to encourage her children to engage with and play with Joan Crawford's children so they would get a respite from their mother. Eve Arden was another person in show business who believed Christina and knew that Joan Crawford was an alcoholic prone to erratic mood swings. Joan Crawford did not live to read Mommie Dearest - although she is said to have known that Christina was writing a memoir about her childhood. It is said that Joan Crawford, not long before she died, attempted to reconnect with her estranged daughter but nothing came of this. Christina is not convinced that her's mother's attempt at a reconciliation was genuine. She is still adamant too that Mommie Dearest is the truth and a sobering tale of abuse, alcoholism, and Borderline personality disorder.(26) Mel Brooks was the producer on David Cronenberg's remake of The Fly. Brooks shrewdly kept his name off a lot of the promotional material lest people should think the movie was a comedy. (27) In her memoir, Shirley Temple said that when kids misbehaved on the set of early films she worked on they were made to go and sit on a block of ice as punishment.(28) Ronni Sue Chasen was born in New York in 1946. She was the sister of the cult horror director and writer Larry Cohen. Chasen was an aspiring actress as a young women but eventually moved behind the scenes and became a Hollywood publicist. Her clients included the likes of Michael Douglas, John Williams, and Natalie Wood. Chasen's specific skill was in orchestrating Oscar campaigns for movies or clients. She was exceptional in these duties and a tireless and cheerful presence in the Los Angeles studio film community.There are many photographs online of famous faces clutching Oscars with Chasen by their side. It was her hard work behind the scenes promoting movies and stars that made many of these triumphs possible. Chasen was brilliant at her job and loved it too. She loved working in the film industry and never wanted to retire. On November the 16th, 2010, the 64 year-old Chasen attended the gltzy premiere of the Christina Aguilera and Cher film Burlesque. After midnight, Chasen headed home - which entailed a drive through a wealthy enclave of Beverly Hills. Near the intersection of Whittier Drive and Sunset Boulevard at around 12-30 am, four gunshots were fired through the front passenger seat window of Chasen's Mercedes-Benz car. It is believed the shots were most likely fired as Chasen slowed down in preparation to make a turn. Some suggested Chaen's death might have been a consequence of some sort of road rage incident but there was never any evidence to support this. The police suspect was a local man named Harold Martin Smith. Smith had some criminal convictions on his slate. He lived in a cheap apartment block in Los Angeles. When the police went to speak to Smith though he pulled out a gun and shot himself. The authorities seemed to conclude that this suicide proved he was guilty of the murder. The police would later say that the gun used in the suicide was the same sort of gun that killed Ronnie Chasen. Many armchair detectives who have studied this case though contend that Smith probably had nothing to do with Chasen's murder. There was no surveillance or forensic evidence linking him to the crime. The swanky area where Chasen was shot was full of security cameras and yet the police did not pick up any footage of a lone black man (Smith was black) suspiciously driving or lurking around. Others pointed out the rather sad but obvious fact that a black man in this well heeled street at some unearthly hour probably would have attracted the attention of the police. The police, in what felt like a contradiction to their earlier stance, later seemed to come to similar conclusions and suggest that Chasen's death was just a tragic random incident that will probably never be solved. Some of the frustrated friends and colleagues of Chasen felt that the murder investigation was rather lackadaisical and that the police were too quick to wash their hands of this case. Because of Chasen's line of work, a number of conspiracy theories concerning her death have inevitably abounded. These include the theory that she was killed by a Russian hitman after a film funded by Russian investment money didn't see a profit. Another theory is that Chasen was killed by a rival movie publicist company because she was too good at her job! There is another theory too that Chasen was murdered after an art deal went wrong. The notion that Chasen was murdered by art dealers sounds as far-fetched as any of the movies she promoted during her career. Because Chasen was killed with hollow point bullets (which are even more lethal than ordinary bullets) this has only fanned the flames of conspiracies. Some of these claim she was killed by a professional hitman (as opposed to a lone criminal or lunatic).(29) Crystal Lake in Friday the 13th was a real summer camp. It was called Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco.(30) Jaws 2 was the first Hollywood film sequel to use '2' instead of Roman numerals.(31) The original distributor of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was the Bryanston Distribution Company - which turned out to be a Mafia front operated by Louis Peraino.(32) The 2006 Brain De Palma film The Black Dahlia is based on the Elizabeth Short murder. On January 15, 1947, a body was discovered on a street in Los Angeles. The body was that of a young dark haired woman. She had been sliced in half, had her blood removed, and her mouth cut into a Joker smile. A tattoo had been cut from her thigh and stuffed in her private parts. It was a grisly and shocking murder worthy of Jack the Ripper. The police managed to identify the victim through fingerprints. Her name was Elizabeth Short - though in the wake of this case she would become immortal as the Black Dahlia. The Black Dahlia mystery baffled the police. Not only was the murder brutal and gruesome it also indicated a degree of medical knowledge (the relative proximity of a medical school close to where the body was found led the police to suspect the killer might have a connection to this establishment). The killer was deemed to be cunning, intelligent, and most likely completely insane. Elizabeth had been missing for six days when her body was found. It is presumed then that the killer kidnapped and then tortured her before the murder. The police found out that Elizabeth Short was working as a waitress at the time of her death. Like so many people she had moved to Los Angeles to become a star but she found that acting jobs were hard to come by and so she ended up waiting tables to make ends meet.About a week after the grisly discovery of the body, a letter was sent to the local newspaper containing some of Elizabeth Short's personal belongings. The contents had been cleaned with petrol - which was also how the killer had cleaned Short's body before he dissected it. It was pretty obvious then that the sender of this letter was the killer. How else would they have Elizabeth Short's personal affects? The police, thanks partly to these personal affects, manage to obtain the details of dozens of men that Elizabeth Short had known but investigations into these men turned out to be a frustrating dead end. The case eventually went cold. The killer was never caught.(33) In her memoir, Hedy Lamarr said that Errol Flynn's house was full of peepholes and opaque glass so that one could spy on whoever was in the bathroom or bedrooms. (34) Cheryl Crane is the daughter of Hollywood legend Lana Turner. Crane was thrust into the public glare at 14 when she stabbed her mother's abusive mob connected boyfriend Johnny Stompanato to death. It was ruled a justifiable homicide when Crane claimed she'd simply been defending her mother. Later, in her autobiography, Crane wrote that she was subject to a series of sexual assaults at the hands of her stepfather and her mother's fourth husband, actor Lex Barker. It was apparently a crazy and sometimes harrowing old life for Crane being the child of a Hollywood icon.(35) Hollywood is littered with child actors who went off the rails and struggled to adapt to life in the public glare as they moved to adulthood but few had such a rapid descent as former Nickelodeon child actress and performer Amanda Bynes. Bynes was building a promising movie career as a teenager and looked set to become a huge star but increasingly erratic conduct made her practically unemployable in the end. By her mid to late twenties her film career was over. The distressing nadir for Bynes came when she claimed on Twitter that her father had molested her and planted a microchip in her head. None of it was true of course. Bynes was suffering from a mental illness, made worse by the fact that - as a famous person - her distressing problems were all too public.(36) Before he became famous, Hugh Jackman worked as a clown at children's parties. (37) There was a rumour in Europe that Shirley Temple was actually an adult with dwarfism posing as a child. Believe it or not, the Vatican actually investigated this claim. (38) The sadistic torture of James Bond by Le Chiffre in Casino Royale was based on the French-Moroccan torture known as passer á la mandoline. Ian Fleming said this was actually done on captured Allied agents during the war. (39) The serial killer Danny Harold Rolling, who became known as The Gainsville Ripper, was the inspiration for the Wes Craven movie Scream. Rolling had a habit of stalking and killing students. Rolling's worst crimes took place when he moved to Florida. In 1990 he forced his way into the home of two University of Florida students and raped and killed them. The next day he forced his way into the apartment of another teenager and raped and killed her. He decapitated the victim and left the head next to some books. Rolling then killed two more students in the same month in equally grisly fashion. One was murdered in her bed. (40) Planet of the Apes star Kim Hunter had to sleep with vaseline on her face during production because the glue in her ape mask was burning her skin and giving her a rash.(41) The reclusive Howard Hughes allowed the Bond film Diamonds are Forever to shoot inside his casinos and at his other properties. His fee was one 16mm print of the film. (42) John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison. (43) Pasta, milk and marbles were used to depict the insides of the android Ash in Alien. (44) Goldfinger was so popular that its soundtrack knocked the Beatles off the top of the American albums chart. (45) The reason why Los Angeles and Hollywood became the centre of the film industry is that Thomas Edison in New York put patents on every facet of the moviemaking industry in order to create a monopoly on production and equipment in the city. By moving far away from Edison to Los Angeles, aspiring filmmakers suddenly had some freedom again. (46) John Hurt was the first choice to play Kane in Alien but already contracted to make Zulu Dawn in South Africa. Jon Finch was cast instead but suffered a severe diabetic episode when shooting began and had to drop out. John Hurt met with Ridley Scott again and agreed to to replace Finch. Hurt began shooting his scenes the next morning. Believe it or not, Hurt was only available because he had been banned from South Africa after being mistaken for John Heard - an anti-Apartheid campaigner!(47) A studio executive wanted Back to the Future to be called Spaceman from Pluto - a reference to Marty McFly pretending to be an alien in George's bedroom.(48) There are a number of elaborate conspiracy theories about The Shining. One is that Kubrick apparently leaves a trail of clues in the film that serve as a confession that he helped NASA fake the moon landings!(49) Doodles Weaver, who plays a fisherman in Hitchcock's The Birds, was the uncle of Sigourney Weaver.(50) Peter Jackson says that he strongly considered casting Mia Sorvino and Ashley Judd in his Lord of the Rings trilogy but was eventually persuaded not to by Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein told Jackson that the two women were awful to work with and not reliable. It was only years later, when the sexual allegations against Weinstein came to light and Sorvino and Judd were two of the women to go public with complaints, that Jackson, to his regret, became aware that Weinstein had effectively 'blackballed' the two actresses by advising him not to hire them. As you might imagine, Sorvino and Judd were very angry when this.(51) James Cameron apparently bans lunch on the sets of his films because he believes that food saps energy and makes the cast and crew sluggish in the afternoon. (52) The distinctive looking actor Peter Lorre, best known for Casablanca, is alleged to have spent most of his career high on morphine. (53) The famous theme song (by Lolita Ritmanis) to the Justice League cartoon is clearly stolen from the opening title music to the 1971 Hammer horror film Twins of Evil. (54) When Errol Flynn was in his late forties he had a girlfriend who was only fifteen years old. (55) Tula, one of the girls at the swimming pool in the Bond film For Your Eyes Only, was born Barry Cossey. After a sex-change operation, she became a model. (56) Psycho is the first American movie to show a toilet onscreen. (57) Despite being one of his most acclaimed films, Woody Allen hated Manhattan. "In the case of Manhattan," said Allen. "I was so disappointed that I didn't want it to open. I wanted to ask United Artists not to release it. I wanted to offer them to make one free movie, if they would just throw it away."(58) Very few of the actors playing the villains in Die Hard were German in real life. In a slight irony though, Bruce Willis was born in Germany. (59) Why did Harpo Marx adopt his mute comic persona and never speak onscreen? In real life Harpo had a distinctive and very New York accent but some theories have suggested it was too similar to that of his brother Chico's voice to work in the act. Harpo wrote that in the early days a critic watched their show Fun in Hi Skule and commented that while he found his pantomime skills impressive and charming, the effect was ruined when Harpo spoke. As a result he never spoke on stage or screen again. Most people he met in real life were rather surprised that he could actually talk!(60) Jack Cassidy was an actor born in 1927. He was a very familiar face on television with appearances on everything from Night Gallery to Columbo to Bonanza. His film roles included The Eiger Sanction with Clint Eastwood. He was also the father of the teen idol David Cassidy. Jack Cassidy's life came to a grisly end in 1976. He lived in a top floor penthouse in west Hollywood and one night returned home drunk after going out on the town. At 5am he fell asleep with a lit cigarette - which created a sudden and violent fire which engulfed his penthouse. It was only established by dental records that the charred remains found where that of Jack Cassidy. He was 49 years old. (61) The 1986 film Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer was based on Ottiss Toole and Henry Lee Lucas. Ottis Toole was a Florida born serial killer who confessed to over a hundred murders (he was officially convicted of six murders at his trial but DNA evidence suggested this was merely the tip of the iceberg). He is believed to have gone on a killing spree with Henry Lee Lucas. Toole had a very low IQ and his mother was said to be crazy and involved in occult rituals. Though sentenced to death, the execution was never carried out and Toole died in prison in 1996 at the age of 49.(62) In the film Hannibal, Dr Lector seems to have a fondness for eating human brain. In reality it would highly dangerous to eat human brains. Infected prions mostly inhabit the brain.(63) Playboy cover star Marli Renfro was a body double for some of the shower scene moments in Psycho. (64) The Yankee Pedlar Inn in the 2012 horror film The Innkeepers is a real haunted hotel. The director (Ti West) of The Innkeepers had actually stayed in his hotel himself and experienced some strange incidents. (65) James Bond's code number '007' was apparently inspired by a bus route which was often taken by the author Ian Fleming. (66) J.D Salinger was firm about The Catcher in the Rye. He did not want it to be adapted into a film and felt it would be a mistake. The thing was though that Catcher in the Rye was the one Salinger work that everyone was interested in. So many people have tried to gain the rights to The Catcher in the Rye over the years that one loses count in the end. Steven Spielberg, Marlon Brando, Billy Wilder, Jack Nicholson, Harvey Weinstein. Ralph Bakshi (of Fritz the Cat and Lord of the Rings fame) wanted to do it as part animation and felt that he might be the one who could finally get through to Salinger (who by then was a sphinx, living in isolation in Cornish, New Hampshire and about as fond of interviews and requests as an average person might be of a snake bite or a fall from a ten floor building). Salinger declined all offers that were thrown his way like confetti in a blizzard although he did apparently make a bizarre suggestion once that he should play Holden Caulfield himself in a stage adaption. Perhaps he was joking.Even more bizarre was the revelation that Jerry Lewis tried to get the rights so he could play Holden. "I have been in the throes of trying to buy The Catcher in the Rye for a long time. What’s the problem? The author, Salinger! He doesn’t want more money. He just doesn’t even want to discuss it. I’m not the only Beverly Hills resident who’d like to purchase Salinger’s novel. Dozens have tried. This happens now and then. Authors usually turn their backs on Hollywood gold only because of the potential for destruction of their material. I respect them for it! Why do I want it? I think I’m the Jewish Holden Caulfield. I’d love to play it!" (67) Jamie Waylett played Vincent Crabbe in six of the Harry Potter films but not return for the last movies in the franchise. This is because Waylett was arrested for possession of cannabis in 2009. He was also convicted for participating in riots that occurred in south London around this time. Waylett received a two year prison sentance. The Harry Potter movies remain Waylett's only credits and it appears as if his acting career is finished. (68) Stacey Nelkin, who played Elle in Halloween III, was briefly Woody Allen's girlfriend in the 1970s and the inspiration for Mariel Hemingway's character in Manhattan.(69) Tobe Hooper didn't allow the cast of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre to visit the locations until they started shooting. The heat and grisly nature of the Sawyer house therefore came as unpleasant shocks.(70) The romantic adventure film Romancing the Stone was a smashing success in 1984 and put director Robert Zemeckis firmly on the map. The film had the considerable charisma and sex appeal of Kathleen Turner in her eighties prime plus the star power of Michael Douglas as her male lead. The studio wanted a sequel as soon as possible but this would be something of a reluctant affair for the stars. Turner and Douglas did not want to return but had no choice because of a clause in their contracts. At one point the studio Fox filed a $25 million lawsuit against Turner to force her to take part in the film. Jewel of the Nile is a very forgettable sequel that pales in comparison to the first film. (71) Tony Todd said he was stung by bees 26 times over the course of making the Candyman trilogy. (72) Daniel Radcliffe was in the bath when news came in that he'd been cast as Harry Potter. By way of celebration he was allowed to stay up thirty minutes past his usual bedtime.(73) William Shatner's third wife Nerine was an alcoholic and fatally fell into a swimming pool after falling and banging her head while drunk. Shatner found her in the pool and remembers how distressing it was that his 911 call was aired on the type of crime entertainment shows he'd fronted himself. A news channel was listening to the police calls and one of their helicopters appeared over his house while he was there with his dead wife. Shatner was incredibly hurt by horrible tabloid whispers that he'd killed her himself. (74) Many famous actors (Jon Voight, Robert Redford, Clint Eastwood etc) in Hollywood turned the part down of Superman for 1978's Superman: The Movie. They got so desperate they screentested the handsome dentist of producer Illya Salkind's wife Skye. Thankfully, they managed to find a young actor by the name of Christopher Reeve in the end. (75) 'Oscarexia' is a term for how Hollywood actresses have to literally starve themselves before the Oscars so they can get into the slinky or revealing dresses they plan to wear. This would explain why, after she won an Ocar for Million Dollar Baby, a ravenous Hilary Swank was seen on Oscar night in a branch of Astro Burger wolfing down a vegetarian burger and fries as if she hadn't eaten for weeks. (76) Richard Gere, Mel Gibson, Sly Stallone, Nick Nolte, Harrison Ford, Al Pacino, Tom Berenger, Don Johnson, James Caan and Burt Reynolds all turned down the part of John McClane in Die Hard before it was offered to Bruce Willis. (77) In the mid 1930s, beautiful Frances Farmer was on course to become a major star. She married actor Leif Erickson and had been cast alongside Bing Crosby in a movie after plying her trade in B-pictures. However, Frances couldn't seem to stay out of trouble and deeper problems were on the horizon. She was fond of drinking and spent a night in jail for driving through a forbidden black out zone during the war. In the early 1940s she was arrested for dislocating the jaw of her hairdresser and in court she shoved a policeman and threw an inkwell at the judge. She was sent to the psychiatric ward at LA General Hospital and diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. She endured more hospitals and had electro-convulsive shock treatment. After her treatment she tried to stage a comeback a few times but her chance to become a superstar had long gone. She died of cancer in 1970.(78) Wallace Reid was one of the biggest stars of the silent era. He made over a hundred short films and seemed set for a long career. He was handsome and athletic and even raced cars in his spare time. Reid was like the big action star of the era and hugely popular. In 1919, while shooting The Valley of the Giant, Reid was injured in a train crash. In order to keep the actor free of pain and able to work, he was prescribed morphine. Reid became hopelessly addicted to morphine and used it to suppress the pain he still felt from his injuries. He made more films but with his drug addiction beginning to spiral out of control, he died in 1922 at the age of 31. The great tragedy for Reid is that he was recklessly given copious amounts of morphine in an era when drug rehabilitation was nowhere near as professional or widespread as it would later become.(79) In the Lethal Weapon movies, Danny Glover played a character ten years older than his real life age. This is pretty unusual in Hollywood as actors usually play characters who are younger than them.(80) Gary Goddard is the founder and CEO of The Goddard Group, an entertainment design firm based in North Hollywood. In April 2014, Goddard and Bryan Singer, along with several other figures, were sued by actor Michael Egan III, who alleged that they had sexually assaulted him when he was a minor. The lawsuit was withdrawn but this was far from the only allegation against Goddard to surface. Brian Claflin, an artist and fashion designer from Salt Lake City, Utah, accused Goddard of a 1999 sexual assault at his Beverly Hills residence. Claflin later committed suicide. The biggest name to accuse Godard of sexual misconduct though was the E.R and Top Gun actor Anthony Edwards.(81) Clark Gable had to have all of his teeth removed in his thirties because of a gum infection. It left him with very bad breath. Legend has it that if you watch Gone with the Wind you can see his co-star Vivien Leigh flinching a few times during romantic moments. (82) In the Yule Ball scenes in Goblet of Fire, we only see Harry Potter from the waist up. This is because Daniel Radcliffe didn't have time for dance lessons and so didn't know the footwork and moves for this sequence. (83) Oddly enough, considering it got very good reviews, The Blair Witch Project was nominated for a Razzie as worst picture!(84) Camille Keaton, the star of the notorious horror film I Spit on Your Grave, is the grand-niece of the legendary comedian Buster Keaton.(85) Zoe Wanamaker, who played games mistress Madam Hooch in the first Harry Potter film, did not return in the sequels because her character was written out of the franchise after Wanamaker was openly critical of what she perceived to be low rates of pay for the actors. (86) An outbreak of lice occurred among the child cast members during the filming of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.