Famous Screen couples from the classics.

What is it that makes a classic screen couple?  Well it’s chemistry to which is added a little something magic that cannot be measured.  That is why many couples teamed up on screen took it to another level and actually fell in love for real.  Many, however, did not last the distance and once the magic spilled over into real life it became a little too real and they realised that the person who seemed such a perfect match on set was not really the same on the outside.  Nothing is fair in love and war they say and the same is true in film and life.  One of the most perfect screen couples of all time was Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.  Thank God they never actually fell in love otherwise we wouldn’t have had so many of their wonderful films to choose from. Together they were effortless. My favourites ‘ Follow The Fleet’ and ‘Swing Time’ are celluloid heaven.

Betty and Bogie had undeniable screen chemistry from the moment they met on the set of ‘To Have And To Have Not.’ She was much younger and Bogie was already married. Bacall stuck by him through his terribly messy divorce from his alcoholic wife Madison, and put up with plenty of bad behaviour from Bogart too.  They went on to make another four films together before Bogie died and in each film their connection on every level was undeniable.

Clark Gable and Loretta Young starred together in ‘Call Of The Wild’ and had an affair both on and off the set.  They had a child together which both denied.  Young would have faced being blacklisted by the studios.  Gable would have had no such dilemma but he had fallen in love with and married Carol Lombard with whom he also starred.  Anyway he and Loretta did make another film together in the 1950s, ‘Key To The City,’ so all was not completely lost.  Their poor daughter, however, had to wait many years before finding out who her real father was.

Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman married in the 1940s and had a child together before he married Nancy Coleman.  He and Wyman starred in quite a few films together and were the happy, healthy, all American idols of a generation.  Her film career far surpassed his but Reagan made up for it in other ways.

Garry Cooper and Lupe Velez seemed like complete opposites and yet there was something between them on screen that virtually sizzled.  In the film ‘Wolf Song,’ Coop famous for his laconic internal acting style which made him a complete natural onscreen, was the foil for the pent up energy of the firey performance of Velez.  In fact, she was so obsessed with Coop that when he had to go off and film with other actresses she would stalk him on set. Finally he stopped telling her where he would be, she got suspicious and tried to kill him.  Her plot failed and sadly she killed herself instead in her own house during a party.