Top 10 Iconic Old Hollywood Couples

It doesn’t get much wilder than Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner. The two met in 1949 and carried on a torrid affair while Sinatra was still married to his wife, Nancy. After he divorced, the two were married from 1951 to 1957, marking six long years of passionate ups and downs. According to legend, their fights were ferocious, but their make-ups were almost more savage than their arguments. The first night they met each other, Sinatra allegedly shot out the lights in street lamps. Gardner later joined in, taking out the windows of a storefront. Talk about wild love.

This love story doesn’t end well, but for nine years Diahann Carroll and Sidney Poitier had a passionate romance. The two actors were both married to other people when they met, Carroll to Monte Kay and Poitier to Juanita Hardy. A few years into their affair, Carroll divorced Kay, but Poitier refused to divorce Hardy for quite some time. In 1965, Poitier finally followed through with divorce, but the romance between him and Carroll only lasted for a few short years after that moment. According to Poitier, he asked Caroll if they could live alone with each other for six months, meaning without Carroll’s daughter present. Apparently unwilling to leave her daughter alone, she refused and things ended.

When Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward met each other in 1953, they reportedly couldn’t keep their hands off of each other. This instant sexual attraction is detailed in the docuseries, “The Last Movie Stars,” which tells the love story of Newman and Woodward, who were married from 1958 until his death in 2008. Throughout their marriage, they starred in numerous films together, maintaining a romance as well as a working relationship. But while this romance looks rosy, they did struggle, namely with Newman’s addiction issues and the toll that fame can have on a relationship. However, these two made it work until the very end, proving Hollywood romances don’t have to end in tragedy.

On paper, they seemed so different. He was a dramatic leading man, she was the queen of screwball comedies. But Clark Gable and Carole Lombard are one of the greatest couples Hollywood has ever produced. Unfortunately, their romance was short-lived and tragic. The two first met in the early 1930s when they were both stuck in unhappy marriages. Lombard divorced her husband in 1933, but while Gable was technically separated from his wife, the two carried out their affair in secret until his divorce was finalized. They married in 1939 and seemed deliriously happy until Lombard died in a plane crash in 1942. Gable was bereft, and reportedly never the same.

The tale of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh is one of glamor and success, but also great sadness. The two British actors met each other in 1936. While they were both married to other people, they clicked immediately. Love grew between them, and they began an affair in 1937 before eventually marrying in 1940. But circumstances beyond either of their control plagued their marriage. Although she wasn’t diagnosed at the time, Leigh suffered from bipolar disorder and never received treatment. Leigh’s illness affected the couple greatly, and after numerous trials and tribulations, they divorced in 1960.

#5: Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton

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A love so untameable, it caused not one, but two marriages. Elizabeth Taylor is notorious for the number of times she was married, but if there was one actor to match her, it was Richard Burton. The two met on the set of “Cleopatra,” an epic production only matched by the epic proportions of Burton and Taylor’s affair. They were both married, but that didn’t stop either of them from being public with their affections, something the press latched onto with glee. Liz and Dick, as they were called, made eleven films together and lived a glamorous, jet-setting lifestyle that was anything but quiet. They divorced once in 1974 before giving things another shot one year later. It didn’t last.

When Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis met in 1950, she was a star, but he was just getting started. The relationship moved quickly, and they married in 1951, despite outside pressure not to do so from both of their studios. However, their happiness was short-lived. Leigh didn’t like the way Curtis behaved himself in public, and Curtis thought Leigh was cheating on him with co-star Bob Fosse. Curtis began having affairs himself, and Leigh’s career continued to take off while his stagnated, causing some jealousy in the house. The two divorced in 1962, but not before they gave birth to the iconic scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis.

Humor and good looks. What more could a Hollywood partnership need? Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz might not have gone the distance in their relationship, but at least they gave us some comedic television in history in the process. “I Love Lucy” starred Arnaz and Ball as Ricky and Lucy, the TV couple who graced every living room in America for six years. They weren’t your typical Hollywood couple, particularly at the time. Ball stubbornly fought for Arnaz, who was Cuban, to play her husband on the show, despite the fact that interracial couples generally were not seen on TV at the time. While their marriage didn’t last, the two remained close friends until the end.

One of Hollywood’s worst-kept secrets was also one of its greatest couples. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn met on the set of 1942’s “Woman of the Year.” They fell hard and fast for each other, but Tracy was already married to his wife, Louise Treadwell. While he and Treadwell were effectively separated by the 1940s and living separate lives, Tracy, a devout Catholic, would not officially divorce her. Still, he and Hepburn continued their affair until Tracy’s death in 1967. They made nine films together, and in every single one, their chemistry leaps off the screen. You can tell how in love with each other they were. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. Rita Hayworth & Orson Welles The Lady from Shanghai Meets Citizen Kane Tyrone Power & Lana Turner A Torrid Love Affair That Never Ended in Marriage Frances Dee & Joel McCrea A Love Spanning Almost 60 Years Brigitte Bardot & Jacques Charrier A French Connection Blake Edwards & Julie Andrews A Director & Actress Partnership for the Ages

Bogie and Bacall. The romantic nickname just screams old Hollywood and all the passion that entails. The connection between Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart wasn’t instant, at least for Bacall. She was only 19 when she starred with the 43-year-old Bogart in “To Have and Have Not.” But the young actress became nervous on set on her first day, Bogart was instrumental in helping her relax. The two reportedly acted like schoolchildren around each other from that day forward. It wasn’t easy. Their age difference was vast, and Bogart was in a terrible marriage at the time. But they eventually went on to make many movies together and got married in 1945. They stayed that way until Bogart’s early, tragic death in 1957.