Marilyn Monroe and Cary Grant (1950)
Monkey Business was a refreshing comedy from the 1950s, with its iconic celebrity leads attractive among the script’s slapstick hilarity. Marilyn and Cary got along great, and there are more outtakes and behind-the-scenes images of them smiling and cutting up than anything else. There’s even a recently discovered typed letter to Marilyn on Cary’s stationery, delivered to Marilyn after Cary and his wife returned from visiting American soldiers in Asia. Cary has included a music box given to him by a soldier to give to Marilyn in the letter.
Claudia Cardinale (1959)
After winning the Italian competition for “The Most Beautiful Girl in Tunisia,” teenage Claudia Cardinale drew the attention of a French filmmaker, a considerably older Franco Cristaldi. He would become her mentor and place her in a modest role opposite Omar Sharif, catapulting her career into one of the most in-demand actors of the period. She would later marry Franco, although she would eventually leave American film to focus completely on Italian and French movies.
Hedy Lamarr (1938)
Hedy Lamarr is remembered for being a famous, gorgeous, and extremely brilliant actress from the 1930s and 1940s, yet it is possibly her most unknown and incredibly astounding achievement. Hedy was an ardent inventor who invented “frequency hopping” to prevent military foes from eavesdropping on communication messages. She gave her invention to the United States military, which used it to win the war against the Nazis.
Jimmy Stewart (1941)
It’s a Wonderful Life. is arguably the most renowned and cherished Christmas film of all time, but a little-known and truly fantastic story about the film is that it saved the actor Jimmy Stewart’s life. Jimmy, a former soldier, had severe PTSD, and this was his first trip back to Hollywood in almost 5 years. The connections between Jimmy’s life and those of his character are so close that most of what we see onscreen is a genuine version of Jimmy fighting through many of his difficult PTSD difficulties to reach that penultimate happy ending.