You know you should n’t conceive everything you read about famous actors and actresses . Here are eight stars whose life history ( or significant role thereof ) were as fictitious as the movies they star in .
1. Theda Bara
The publicist promoting Theda Bara , Hollywood ’s first major sex symbol , get their imaginations run barbaric . She was introduced in fan magazines as the daughter of a desert prince and an Italian or Gallic carver ( or an Egyptian seeress , depending on the story you read ) . " Born in the shadow of the Sphinx , " and weaned on snake ’s blood , she was " a crystal - gazing seeress of profoundly occult powers . " She had antecedently been a star topology of the Paris stage and , in her spare time , she drive men angry with desire . She would also go heavy veil in public ( thanks to a contractual obligation ) and was often photographed with skeletons .
In actuality , she was a girl from Cincinnati named Theodosia Goodman , the daughter of a Jewish tailor . Can you believe that people used to fall for that " girl of an Egyptian seeress " line ? In truth , she was hump to be demure and prudent . As a teen doer on the New York stagecoach ( sorry , not Paris ) , she had tried to make herself sound exotic ( or at least non - Judaic ) by calling herself Theodosia de Coppet .
But it was as Theda Bara that she became a superstar . She later told storey of public elision and being refuse service in restaurants . " Audiences remember the star were the way they saw them , " she recalled . " Once on the street of New York a woman called the police because her tiddler spoke to me . "
2. Douglas Fairbanks
If you believe one story that he tell throughout his life , he was a Harvard graduate . However , there is no record of him on that university ’s prestigious cash register . Perhaps he was trying to supply an intellectual side to his dash figure . Or perhaps there ’s truth to the story that he pay heed Harvard for a few months before deciding to travel to Europe – and the " commencement exercise " part of the narrative was added later . Whatever the case , his boy Douglas Fairbanks Jr. ( a top star in his own right field ) say that it was one of many marvelous tales that his father made up about his other life story .
3. Erich von Stroheim
Although he seemed German enough , he was n’t quite there . When it was revealed that he was actually born in Vienna , he claimed to be of a noble Austrian family . In fact , his parents were Jews from Prussia and the Czech Republic . He was an officer in the Austrian US Army before displace to America at age 21 . He was n’t an malefic German ; in fact , despite his name ( and , as later films would reveal , his accent ) , he was n’t even German .
4. Max Schreck
In fact , Schreck was a gayly married serviceman who was a 43 - year - honest-to-goodness established dramatics doer whenNosferatu(his 5th film ) was released . Though he specialized in repugnance , he made several more cinema in Germany ( usually playing non - vampires ) until his decease of a heart attack in 1936 . None of them , however , are even remotely as renowned asNosferatu .
5. Adolphe Menjou
When talking picture came in , many star ' voice revealed them as imposter . Menjou , however , used a French emphasis to match his name in his first speaking part as a womanizing musician inFashions in Love(1929 ) . Formerly a microscope stage histrion , he was skilled with his voice , but movie stardom meant maintaining an prototype . He cover make plastic film for another 30 years , though he eventually dropped the speech pattern .
6. Errol Flynn
He claimed , for example , that his picture debut was playing Fletcher Christian inIn the Wake of the Bounty . That ’s true enough , but he also said that he was discovered by an American producer appoint Joel Schwartz , and the movie was shot on location in Tahiti . He was really discovered by Australian manufacturer - conductor Charles Chauvel , and the movie was shoot in Sydney . ( Unlike Merle Oberon , he did n’t need anyone to see him as an Australian . Doubt has even been cast over whether he was Australian - carry . )
Even less reliable , perhaps , was Charles Higham’sErrol Flynn : The Untold Story(1980 ) . Higham accused Flynn of being all sort of things : a wardrobe bisexual person , a drug - runner , a pedophile ( OK , that was technically true ) , and a Nazi undercover agent , supplying Japan with crucial intelligence for the Pearl Harbor attack . This was discredited by many of Higham ’s own sources , who accused him of inventing their quotes . Flynn ’s family tried to sue the author , but the guinea pig was thrown out of court because , as Higham was doubtless aware , the dead ca n’t be libel under American police force . or else , some of the narration gained wide toleration – and added to the myth .
7. Shirley Eaton
Oh , and painting your body to death ? As long as you may pass off through your mouthpiece and nose , suffocation should n’t be a trouble .
8. Walter Matthau
