“The trouble with the world is that everybody is three drinks behind.”

- Humphrey Bogart

“I should never have switched from scotch to martinis.”

1941′s I Wanted Wings was her breakthrough role. The film was a box office hit. Later that year she starred in Hold Back the Dawn. Her more popular movies were Sullivan’s Travels, This Gun for Hire, and I Married a Witch.

Lake was considered one of the biggest box office draws in Hollywood during the early 1940s. Years later, Lake would quip, “I never did cheesecake; I just used my hair.” She became known for onscreen pairings with actor Alan Ladd. At first, the couple was teamed together merely out of physical necessity: Lake stood just 4 feet 11½ inches and Ladd was just 5 feet 5 inches tall. Veronica was the only actress then on the Paramount lot short enough to pair with Ladd, and they made four films together.

Though audiences loved her, Lake had a reputation for being difficult to work with, mostly due to her complex personality. Lake’s career faltered with her portrayal as Dora Bruckman in 1944′s The Hour Before the Dawn. The film was bombarded with criticism of her unconvincing German accent.  The scathing reviews of her performance, the premature birth and death of her first child, and divorce from her first of several husbands triggered a decline in Lake’s career and personal life.

Her reputation as difficult to work with made the offers begin to wane, and her growing alcoholism didn’t help.  As her popularity declined, Paramount decided not to renew her contract in 1948.  After only one film for 20th Century Fox, 1949′s Slattery’s Hurricane, her career was over. By the end of 1951, she had appeared in Stronghold, but had to file for bankruptcy.  Due to unpaid taxes, the IRS seized her remaining assets.

Lake was unable to get out of her debt; she broke her ankle in 1959, and could not continue acting.  The fall of her career devastated her. She was arrested several times for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. By the late 1960s, her physical and mental health continued to paralyze her.  She developed paranoia, believing the FBI was stalking her.

She co-produced and starred in her last film, Flesh Feast, in 1970, mostly due to the success of her autobiography. The film was a horror movie with a Nazi-myth storyline, and was panned by critics. Soon after its release, Lake was hospitalized. She died on July 7, 1973 of complications of her alcoholism — hepatitis and renal failure.

“Drink is the greatest wrecker of men since women was invented.”

– Jimmy Durante, in On An Island With You

A nervous breakdown due to job-related stress led Robert to look for work as an actor or extra in movies. He appeared in a few B-movie westerns and appeared as a villain in several films between 1942 and 1943.

Mitchum would become most well-known due to his film noir films that were popular in the mid- to late-40′s. But his career was checkered with bad-boy activity. After a string of successful films for RKO, he and actress Lila Leeds were arrested for possession of marijuana. After serving a week at the county jail, he spent 43 days at a prison farm. The arrest didn’t affect Mitchum’s success in the long term. In fact, the conviction was later over-turned, as it was proven to be a setup. His studio, however, was embarrassed by the ordeal, and they ordered Mitchum to clean up his act or they would terminate his contract.

Even after many successful roles in film noirs and westerns, his childhood prankster days seeped in to his adult life, and he often caused trouble during filming. He was expelled from 1955′s Blood Alley due to his horrible behavior on-set. One day Mitchum showed up drunk and tore apart a studio office when they didn’t have a car ready for him. Mitchum walked off the set of the third day of filming, claiming he could not work with the director. Because of the many pranks he pulled on fellow actors and crew, as well as his continual tardiness, producer John Wayne took over the role himself.  Following a succession of average westerns and some box office flops, he regained prominence in the film community with his most well-known character, southern rapist Max Cady in 1962′s Cape Fear.

Robert Mitchum continued to work in to his 80′s, but the parts got smaller as his health deteriorated. He died on July 1, 1997, shortly before his 80th birthday, in Santa Barbara, California, due to complications of lung cancer and emphysema. Yet his dark, cynical personality in real life made his portrayals in film noir films of the 40′s legendary.

[Orlando Sentinel]

“I like my whiskey old and my women young.”

– Errol Flynn

“There are lots of methods. Mine involves a lot of talent, a glass, and some cracked ice.”

–John Barrymore, on acting

Peter Lawford was born to un-wed parents. This caused a scandal that drove the family to the United States, where they traveled constantly. Because of his family’s travels, Peter was never formally educated, and his lack of education was a sore subject. It contributed to his low self-esteem later on as a member of the Kennedy family (his brother-in-law was JFK), and throughout his adult life.

Injuring his arm in a childhood accident kept Peter from entering World War II, the greatest thing that could happen to his acting career. Hollywood was infatuated with heroic Englishmen, and as war movies were being churned out by the dozens, Peter Lawford was just what America was looking for.

Once he signed with MGM, his mother insisted that studio head Louis B. Mayer pay her a salary as Peter’s personal assistant. Mayer declined, so Mrs. Lawford responded by claiming her son to be homosexual and that he needed to be “supervised”. When Peter learned of his mother’s actions their relationship was never the same.

Perhaps to prove to everyone his sexuality, Lawford had a reputation as a ladies’ man, even as he was married to Patricia Kennedy. He allegedly had many affairs with famous women, including Ava Gardner, June Allyson, Lana Turner, Janet Leigh, Rita Hayworth, Lucille Ball, Judy Holliday, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Kim Novak, Jackie O, Nancy Reagan, and Elizabeth Taylor, to name just a few. These affairs made Peter more of a celebrity than a movie star, especially when he was made member of the Rat Pack.

As part of the Pack, he would party at the best clubs, drink the finest champagne, and eat the best food.  But as the parties wore on, he fell into drug and alcohol abuse. A great deal of stress wore on his increasingly fragile health, due to his habits and strained relationships. Despite many trips to rehab, he still found a way to the booze and drugs.  Towards the end of his life as the drugs and alcohol became his obsession, he was seen as unmanageable and the movie offers stopped coming. His vices not only caused him to lose any opportunity to get work, but it ended his life as well.

Days before his death, his wife found him laying on the kitchen floor, unconscious and bleeding. Peter was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in serious condition.  On December 19th he slipped into a coma and remained that way for the next four days. On December 24th, Peter moved for the first time in days, but moments later he fell back onto the mattress and was dead. The Christmas day newspapers read, “Peter Lawford dead at 61.”

Interestingly enough, none of the Rat Pack members attended the funeral. This is possibly due to a falling-out between Frank Sinatra and Lawford over Peter’s involvement with Ava Gardner.

When a horse learns to buy martinis, I’ll learn to like horses.

– Steve McQueen