Tinseltown's Most Famous Feuds

The Golden Age of Hollywood gave us timeless cinema, unmatched glamour, and some of the most spectacular behind-the-scenes drama you could ever imagine. While studio publicists worked overtime to present a picture of perfect harmony, the backlots were often simmering with genuine resentment and icy stares. You might think modern celebrity drama is intense, but the legendary stars of yesteryear took grudge-holding to an absolute art form.

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1. Bette Davis and Joan Crawford

If there can be considered to be a universal beef in Hollywood, it would have to be between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Tension between the two actresses reached its boiling point during filming of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? in 1962 when Bette had a Coke machine installed on set just to irritate her costar, whose late husband was the former president of Pepsi-Cola.

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2. Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland

Sibling rivalry is bad enough on its own, but imagine trying to coexist knowing that you and your sister were both nominated for Best Actress in the same year? Not only would Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland avoid talking at family functions and major events, they wouldn’t speak for the rest of their lives.

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3. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman

By all accounts, Bogart and Bergman had amazing chemistry in Casablanca, but they didn’t exactly hit it off away from the set. Humphrey was going through a very tumultuous time at home with his wife and daughter and preferred to spend time in his trailer rather than talk to his radiant costar.

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4. Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra

Sinatra was just coming into his own when he walked onto Crosby’s singing turf. Bing saw him as competition and was threatened by his strong rapport with the younger generation, while Frank wanted to prove that he was more than just a teenybopper idol.

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5. Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper

For two of Hollywood’s most powerful columnists, Parsons and Hopper ran Tinseltown with an iron fist. If you didn’t fall in line with their ways, one bad review could be the end of your career. Both women went to great extremes to outdo each other with celebrity news and gossip.

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6. Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone

You know them as sword-fighting legends on screen, but off screen Basil Rathbone was actually fed up with Flynn’s childish antics and irresponsible behavior. Errol was constantly showing up late, which required Basil to improvise his intricate sword-fight choreography.

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7. Ginger Rogers and Judy Garland

There was a lot of competition at MGM to land the leading lady role in a musical picture. Ginger needed to prove that she could carry a movie without dancing with Fred Astaire, while young Judy was climbing the ranks as one of MGM’s biggest talents. Studios frequently placed them against one another for singing roles.

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8. Vivien Leigh and Joan Fontaine

Everybody and their mother auditioned for Scarlett O’Hara, so when Vivien Leigh was chosen, there were many actresses still thirsty for the role. Fontaine was one of them. For years, the two clashed over playing second fiddle to each other.

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9. Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh

Speaking of that cinematic Southern epic, the romantic lead actors didn't exactly get along. Vivien openly complained about Clark's notoriously bad breath during their passionate embrace scenes, which deeply offended the proud leading man. In retaliation, Clark reportedly ate garlic right before their scheduled close-ups just to tease his fastidious British costar.

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10. Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier

The Prince and the Showgirl should have been the pairing of dreams. Instead, it was disastrous. Olivier was frustrated with Marilyn’s tardiness and dependence on her acting coach. Monroe thought he was arrogant and treated her like a child.

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11. Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst

Okay, so these are two moguls, but their war changed Hollywood forever. William Hearst viewed Citizen Kane as a scathing attack on his personal life and used his newspapers to blacklist Orson Welles from working in Hollywood.

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12. Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra

On screen they looked like the best of friends, but filming classic musicals like Anchors Aweigh wasn’t always smooth sailing. Gene Kelly was a perfectionist and would often make Sinatra run the dances until they were mathematically precise.

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13. Mae West and W.C. Fields

Anyone who knows comedy knows you don’t put two big egos together and expect them to get along. It was no surprise that Mae West and W.C. Fields struggled to coexist while filming Little Chickadee. Mae had always written her own irresistibly saucy one-liners, and she wasn’t about to let anyone upstage her.

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14. Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer

Joan and Norma were considered the queens of MGM but hated each other so much they couldn’t attend the same parties. Crawford envied Shearer because she believed Norma received favorable treatment from her studio-head husband, Irving Thalberg. Shearer thought Crawford was too aggressive in her pursuits to be worthy of him.

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15. Shelley Winters and Marlon Brando

Method actors were known to be crazier than usual, and Brando and Winters were no exception. The two met in New York while studying under the great Stella Adler and got off on the wrong foot immediately. Winters thought his bizarre energy was annoying.

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16. Lana Turner and Judy Turner

Publicists loved feeding rumors to the tabloids, and setting Lana Turner up against her look-alike rival Judy Turner was just delicious to them. They were routinely cast as competing stereotypes. Navigating the fabricated drama required a lot of patience, especially when the public began taking sides in the tabloids.

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17. Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich were two of the many European imports hired to keep Hollywood glamorous. Even though they hung out in the same high-class crowds and wore similarly stunning fashion, the two stars refused to acknowledge each other’s existence. It got so bad that rumors circulated that they had a close romantic relationship prior to emigrating that fell apart.

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18. Shirley Temple and Jane Withers

Even child stars weren't immune to the intense pressures of the studio system's competitive nature. Shirley was the undisputed darling of the box office. Jane finally broke through by playing a delightful brat who got to bully Shirley on screen in the film Bright Eyes. Parents and studio executives kept the young girls in a state of constant rivalry.

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19. Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner

The Ten Commandments needed strong men to bring it to life, which spelled tension behind the scenes. Charlton took his heroic role incredibly seriously and expected total reverence on the massive set. Yul possessed a flamboyant, theatrical energy that occasionally clashed with his costar's rigid demeanor.

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20. Grace Kelly and Judy Garland

The 1954 Academy Awards hosted one of the most suspenseful Best Actress races in history. Judy was widely expected to win for her heartbreaking comeback performance in A Star Is Born, a victory that felt like Hollywood destiny. When the elegant Grace pulled off a shocking upset win for The Country Girl, the industry was left in a state of utter disbelief.

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