1. Judy Garland
The world’s sweetheart, Judy Garland, who delighted young and old in The Wizard of Oz (1939) and whose legacy reverberates through the ages, fell pregnant when she married bandleader David Rose. But, Hollywood studios of the day ruled with an iron fist, and concerned the pregnancy might ruin her virginal image, arranged for Garland to have an abortion. Unfortunately, she had to go through the same thing a second time when, in 1943, she became pregnant from her affair with Tyrone Power. This took its toll on the actress who suffered years of alcohol and substance abuse which ultimately led to her death in London from a barbiturate overdose at age 47.
2. Marilyn Monroe
One of the American President’s favourite women, Marilyn Monroe’s life was plagued by scandals and rumours of affairs with some of the most powerful men of the time. In 1960, Monroe was photographed pregnant with a baby fathered, not by husband Arthur Miller, but by her Let's Make Love (1960) co-star Yves Montand. She would later lose the child, an experience which was just one of the many traumas she endured.
3. Loretta Young
American actress Loretta young was also impregnated by Clark Gable (he loved to sow his seeds!), though a scandal erupted when accusations of date-rape emerged. Despite some pressure, Young refused to get an abortion, on moral grounds, and gave birth to a daughter whom she ended up adopting in a complicated ploy to hide the girl’s true parentage.
4. Ingrid Bergman
Swedish star Ingrid Bergman may be best remembered for her roles in Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca (1942) and Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946), but it’s her extramarital affair with world-renowned Italian director Roberto Rosselini which will also be going down in the history books. She became pregnant and the two eventually married, though this did not quieten the gossip-mongers of Hollywood.
5. Joan Crawford
Superstar actress Joan Crawford, whose famous films include Mildred Pierce (1945), Possessed (1947) and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962), was no stranger to scandal. In 1931, she fell pregnant while separated from her husband – the legendary Douglas Fairbanks. She believed the child to be Clark Gable’s, of Gone with the Wind (1939) fame, and MGM head of publicity Howard Strickling arranged for an abortion. Fearful of the consequences, Crawford decided to tell Fairbanks she lost the baby by slipping on the deck of a shop while filming Rain on Catalina Island.
Milton H. Greene (C) 2017 Joshua Greene