Go inside the incredible triumphs and heartbreaking tragedies of Golden Age Hollywood's most iconic actresses — pictured in stunning color.
Lansbury was a legendary British-born American actress with an 80-year career across film, stage, and television. Renowned for her versatility, she earned Oscar nominations, five competitive Tony Awards, and global fame as Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote. She was also a Dame Commander, celebrated for her iconic performances.Wikimedia Commons
Prior to her breakout role, Ekberg was a beauty queen, winning Miss Sweden and subsequently venturing to Hollywood. Though her early film roles were often minor, her stunning beauty and curvy figure garnered significant attention. She later worked predominantly in Italy, where she became a permanent resident.Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo
Sheridan was one of the most popular pin-up girls during World War II, but she was determined to be taken seriously in Hollywood, continuing to choose her roles carefully even as she grew older.Public Domain
She was also the first Asian American to star in a U.S. television series, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong. Eventually, she made a name for herself as a fierce advocate for Asian American rights.Public Domain
Though she eventually took a step back from acting, she soon made a name for herself as a passionate UNICEF goodwill ambassador, going on over 50 missions with the organization.Public Domain
Despite never winning a competitive Oscar, she received an Honorary Oscar and multiple Emmys, cementing her legacy as a Hollywood icon.Public Domain
A two-time Academy Award winner for the movies Dangerous and Jezebel, she was a force to be reckoned with during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Public Domain
Page vanished from the spotlight in 1957 after a series of scandals, became a recluse, and then garnered controversy for a series of violent incidents that led to her spending time in mental hospitals.Photo 12/Alamy Stock Photo
A Grammy and Emmy Award winner, White would reinvent herself numerous times during her seven-decade-long career.Huffington Post
After retiring from cinema, Bardot became a devoted and outspoken animal rights activist. However, she also became infamous for inciting racial hatred.Public Domain
Tragically, Harlow died of kidney failure at age 26. Though rumors spread that she had been poisoned, fatally beaten by one of her ex-husbands, or even killed by her own hair dye, the most likely explanation is that her many childhood illnesses had irreversibly damaged her kidneys.John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images
Wagner was later named as a "person of interest" in the case, but he has reportedly refused to talk to investigators.Allstar Picture Library Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo
Known for her roles in Gone with the Wind and The Heiress, de Havilland also famously sued Warner Bros. and won a landmark case that granted actors more freedom from restrictive studio contracts. Public Domain
Her death led to silent film star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle being accused of her rape and manslaughter. Although Arbuckle was ultimately acquitted, the scandal irrevocably damaged his career and became a major Hollywood turning point.Logic Images/Alamy Stock Photo
Although it's called the Golden Age of Hollywood, the harsh reality is that, for many actresses, life behind the glitz and glamour of the silver screen was difficult and rife with hardship. Some of Old Hollywood's most famous stars dealt with severe mistreatment from the studios, public scrutiny, exploitation, and abuse that often went unnoticed or ignored.
While the films produced during this period are hailed as classics, there was a very real human cost behind the making of them. Actresses often lacked creative control over their projects while also having to maintain images meticulously crafted by the studios that hired them. They had to conform to unrealistic beauty standards, which often led to extreme diets or even being forced to undergo cosmetic surgery. Privacy was basically nonexistent.
But worst of all was the exploitation and abuse that took place behind the scenes. Powerful studio heads and directors sometimes demanded sexual favors in exchange for roles or career advancement, and those who refused could potentially be blacklisted from the industry altogether. Financial exploitation was also common, with many stars locked into unfair contracts.
Naturally, the psychological toll from all of this was immense, and some Golden Age Hollywood actresses met tragic fates in the end. Despite all of this, though, their iconic performances left an everlasting mark on cinema, inspiring generations of talented stars that would follow.
The Tyranny Of The Old Hollywood Studios
At the core of the Golden Age's cruelty was the studio system. Back then, actresses were not viewed as independent artists, but rather as highly valuable assets, bound by restrictive, long-term contracts that lasted up to seven years with options for renewal. These contracts gave studios unprecedented power over their careers and their lives.
For starters, actresses had little to no say in the roles they were assigned. They were expected to accept whatever the studio deemed profitable, regardless of their personal preferences or aspirations. Actresses could also be "loaned" to other studios, sometimes without their consent, forcing them to work for rival companies and contribute to their profits.
Bette Davis famously breached her contract with Warner Bros. in 1936 over these issues, accepting a deal to appear in two films in Britain, as she felt she was given inadequate roles back in the United States. The case eventually went to court in Britain, and while Davis ultimately lost and had to continue working with Warner Bros., the high-profile story at least shed light on the issue of actresses' lack of agency in the roles they played.
Public DomainBette Davis felt she was not being given high-quality roles and sought employment in Britain, a breach of her Warner Bros. contract. The ensuing controversy exposed how restrictive these contracts could be.
But then, in 1943, Olivia de Havilland sued Warner Bros. to be freed from her contract — and won. According to Northwestern Now, the lawsuit marked a major moment of change for the Hollywood studio system, and in 1948, the U.S. federal government sued Paramount Pictures in an antitrust case. That second case resulted in studios losing control of movie theaters, meaning they could no longer exclusively produce, distribute, and exhibit their films.
Luís Amaral, who authored a 2020 study that analyzed female representation in film over the course of a century, said, "These legal changes took the power away from a handful of men and gave more people the power to start changing the industry. There is a connection between increased concentration of power and decreased participation of women."
But of course, the rules of Hollywood studios went beyond controlling actresses' film roles. Studios frequently crafted meticulous public images for their female stars, which could include changing their names — Joan Crawford's real name, for example, was Lucille LeSueur — dictating their hairstyles, makeup, and wardrobes, and even inventing their backstories.
Actresses were sometimes pressured into cosmetic surgeries, from nose jobs to work on their chins, to achieve a perceived ideal of beauty. And studios went about keeping tabs on their actresses in rather nefarious ways.
Old Hollywood Actresses Faced Unrelenting Scrutiny And A Lack Of Privacy
Today, celebrities have public relations teams that help manage their public-facing image and handle any potential controversies, but studios in the Golden Age functioned less like PR teams and more like mob handlers.
Studios often employed "fixers" or even trusted assistants to spy on their stars, reporting back on their relationships, habits, and any behavior deemed unbecoming or damaging to their public image. Judy Garland, for example, later found out that her assistant Betty Asher had been spying on her for MGM for years, giving the studio intimate details about her social life and activities outside of work. It was a brutal betrayal as, according to Slate, the two were reportedly so close that rumors spread they were actually lovers.
Public DomainJudy Garland reading a book poolside.
But Garland was hardly the only Hollywood starlet to be treated in such a manner. Studios regularly intervened in the personal lives of their stars, manufacturing romances between co-stars for publicity, even if the two had no attraction to each other. Marriages and divorces were sometimes orchestrated or suppressed to align with studio-approved narratives.
In the end, all this did was further add to the idea that actresses — and actors, though to a lesser degree — were forced to live in a sort of artificial reality, blurring the lines between their real lives and public personas.
Exploitation And Abuse During Hollywood's So-Called Golden Age
One of the most infamous aspects of Old Hollywood — and modern Hollywood, as the #MeToo movement and arrest of disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein showed — was the "casting couch."
In fact, of Weinstein's rape and sexual assault allegations, West Side Story actress Rita Moreno told the BBC, "I think everyone is shocked — not surprised." Moreno, 85 at the time the accusations became public, had also been aggressively pursued by a studio head when she was starting out at the age of 19, an experience she described as "frightening and scary."
The "casting couch" — or, more bluntly, the coercion of actresses for sexual favors in exchange for film roles and promotions — was the worst-kept open secret of Hollywood's Golden Age, but the Weinstein scandal showed that this hadn't really gone away. The difference is that today's actresses have more agency in coming forward and seeking justice than they did before.
But it wasn't just the studio heads perpetuating abuse. Actress Joan Fontaine revealed in her autobiography No Bed of Roses, for instance, that she had been raped by an actor she was dating at the age of 20. Other forms of abuse were likewise rampant, including the physical and emotional abuse of child stars like Judy Garland and Shirley Temple.
Public DomainJoan Fontaine had a famous lifelong rivalry with her sister, Olivia de Havilland, who was also an actress.
The pressure of stardom, in combination with this abuse and exploitation, naturally took a toll on Hollywood starlets. Many of them turned to alcohol and drugs to cope, and in many instances this led to tragically early deaths — take Marilyn Monroe, who faced constant criticism for her personal life, public persona, appearance, and more. On top of this, many stars who did not align with what studios wanted were often cast aside or discarded in favor of actresses who were more willing to conform.
While the Golden Age of Hollywood may have produced some of the most timeless films ever made, the reality is that this era was a far cry from the gilded paradise that it presented itself as. By acknowledging these harsh realities now, though, it's clear that things are changing, despite several high-profile scandals still occupying the cultural zeitgeist.
After this insight into the lives of Golden Age Hollywood's most famous actresses, check out our gallery of more colorized photos from the Golden Age. Then, read about how the Hays Code censored Hollywood.
