Betcha if I say “Ginger Rogers,” you think “Fred Astaire.” It’s the classic-movie equivalent of the patellar reflex . Paired by destiny...

Pop music is littered with One-Hit Wonders. Movie stars are hot...until they’re not. And then there’s Bing Crosby, who reigned for nearly...

The honey-soaked hive of Film Noir Bad Girls is always buzzing with Queen Bee candidates. Barbara Stanwyck from Double Indemnity . Jane...

“Never have I seen a performer plagued with such a chronic case of stage jitters. I’m sure she vomited before and after every scene. When...

When I was a kid, I assumed most great actors came from New York, as if proximity to Broadway bestowed talent by osmosis (see: Bogie,...

Like us mere mortals, actors form close friendships, too. Myrna Loy and William Powell shared a tight bond, on screen and off. Before...

In the 1930s, two of the most powerful antidotes to the Great Depression were a race horse named Seabiscuit and a little girl named...

Two gangster classics, released four months apart in 1931, didn’t just launch the careers of James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson. They...

Remember that episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, when Lou tells Mary, “You know what? You’ve got spunk!” then adds, “I hate spunk”?...

Sometimes, Academy Awards are given to the right actor in the wrong year. Exhibit A: James Stewart was nominated for Mr. Smith Goes to...

In 1950, Bette Davis and Gloria Swanson launched big-screen comebacks in All About Eve and Sunset Boulevard with scenery-chomping...

For me, the big downside to loving classic films is that all of the stars that I want to meet are dead. But once upon a time in...

Nobody looked like her. Spoke like her. Or smoked like her! Bette Davis wasn’t an actress. She was a force of nature. The two-time Oscar...

You’ve probably heard the Mommie Dearest and “No-wire-hangers!” jokes. Or rumors of her Dueling Divas feud with Bette Davis (who quipped,...

Most articles about her open with some variation on “Before Marilyn Monroe, there was Jean Harlow.” It’s true. Harlow was Hollywood’s...

Let’s bust two Cary Grant myths and confirm another, shall we? He never said “Judy, Judy, Judy” on screen. He didn’t respond to a...

Screwball comedies ignited movie screens in the depths of the Depression – and the star who lit the match was Carole Lombard. Beginning...

Without Barbara Stanwyck, there would be no William Holden. He admitted as much at the Academy Awards in 1978. By then, the veteran...

They called her “The Perfect Wife.” Best known for playing William Powell’s partner in crime-busting in the classic Thin Man movies,...

Louise Brooks’ bob. Claudette Colbert’s bangs. Lucille Ball’s carrot top. Who’s the mastermind behind these tressed-for-success stories?...