20 Fierce Rivalries from Hollywood’s Golden Age

If there’s one legendary feud in Hollywood, it’s undoubtedly the one between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Tensions between the two actresses reached a fever pitch during the filming of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? in 1962, when Bette had a Coca-Cola vending machine installed on set for the sole purpose of annoying her co-star, whose late husband had been the former president of Pepsi-Cola.

Sibling rivalry is hard enough on its own, but imagine having to live under the same roof knowing that you and your sister were both nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress in the same year? Not only did Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland avoid speaking to each other at family gatherings and major events, but they never spoke to each other again for the rest of their lives.

It is widely believed that Bogart and Bergman had incredible chemistry in Casablanca, but they didn’t really get along off-screen. Humphrey was going through a very difficult time at home with his wife and daughter and preferred to stay in his trailer rather than chat with his radiant co-star.

Sinatra was just beginning to make a name for himself when he entered Crosby’s musical arena. Bing saw him as a rival and felt threatened by the strong connection he had with the younger generation, while Frank wanted to prove that he was much more than just a teen idol.

Parsons and Hopper, two of Hollywood’s most influential columnists, ruled Tinseltown with an iron fist. If you didn’t play by their rules, a single bad review could spell the end of your career. The two women didn’t hesitate to go to great lengths to outdo one another when it came to celebrity news and gossip.

They’re known as legends of on-screen swordfighting, but off set, Basil Rathbone had actually had enough of Flynn’s childish antics and irresponsible behavior. Errol was constantly late, which forced Basil to improvise his complex swordfight choreography.

Competition was fierce at MGM for the lead female role in a musical. Ginger had to prove she could carry a film without dancing alongside Fred Astaire, while the young Judy was working her way up the ranks to establish herself as one of MGM’s greatest talents. The studios often pitted them against each other for singing roles.

Almost everyone had auditioned for the role of Scarlett O’Hara; so when Vivien Leigh was chosen, many actresses were still dreaming of it. Fontaine was one of them. For years, the two women vied with each other to avoid being overshadowed by the other.

Speaking of this cinematic epic set in the South, the lead actors didn’t really get along. Vivien openly complained about Clark’s notorious bad breath during their passionate embrace scenes, which deeply offended the proud leading man. To get back at her, Clark reportedly ate garlic right before their scheduled close-ups, just to tease his finicky British co-star.

“The Prince and the Dancer” was supposed to be the perfect pairing. Instead, it was a disaster. Olivier was annoyed by Marilyn’s tardiness and her dependence on her acting coach. Monroe found him arrogant and felt he treated her like a child.

Okay, sure, they were just two tycoons, but their feud changed Hollywood forever. William Hearst saw Citizen Kane as a scathing attack on his privacy and used his newspapers to blacklist Orson Welles and prevent him from working in Hollywood.

On screen, they seemed to be the best of friends, but the filming of classic musicals like Anchors Aweigh didn’t always go smoothly. Gene Kelly was a perfectionist and often made Sinatra rehearse the dance routines until they were executed with mathematical precision.

Anyone familiar with comedy knows that you can’t put two big egos together and expect them to get along. So it’s no surprise that Mae West and W.C. Fields had a hard time getting along during the filming of Little Chickadee. Mae had always written her own lines—irresistibly sassy—and she wasn’t about to let anyone steal the spotlight from her.

Joan and Norma were considered the queens of MGM, but they hated each other so much that they couldn’t even attend the same parties. Crawford envied Shearer because she believed Norma received preferential treatment from her husband, studio head Irving Thalberg. Shearer, for her part, felt that Crawford was too ambitious in her romantic pursuits to be worthy of him.

It was well known that actors who followed the method were more eccentric than average, and Brando and Winters were no exception. The two met in New York while taking classes with the great Stella Adler, and they got off on the wrong foot right away. Winters found his strange energy annoying.

Publicists loved to fuel gossip in the tabloids, and pitting Lana Turner against her rival Judy Turner—who looked exactly like her—was a real treat for them. They were regularly portrayed as stereotypical rivals. It took a lot of patience to deal with this fabricated drama, especially when the public began to take sides in the tabloids.

Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich were among the many stars from Europe who had been hired to preserve Hollywood’s glamour. Although they moved in the same high-society circles and wore outfits each as dazzling as the next, the two stars refused to acknowledge each other’s existence. The situation was such that rumors circulated that they had been in an intimate romantic relationship before emigrating, a relationship that had since ended.

Even child stars were not immune to the intense pressures of the studio system’s competitive nature. Shirley was the undisputed darling of the box office. Jane finally made her breakthrough by playing an adorable little brat who was allowed to give Shirley a hard time on screen in the movie Bright Eyes. The girls’ parents and studio executives constantly stoked the rivalry between the two young girls.

The Ten Commandments needed charismatic actors to bring the story to life, which created tension behind the scenes. Charlton took his heroic role extremely seriously and demanded absolute respect on the massive set. Yul exuded a flamboyant, theatrical energy that sometimes clashed with his co-star’s rigid demeanor.

The 1954 Academy Awards ceremony was the scene of one of the most nail-biting races for Best Actress in history. Everyone expected Judy to win the award for her poignant performance marking her return to the screen in A Star Is Born, a victory that seemed like a foregone conclusion in Hollywood. When the elegant Grace pulled off a surprise win for The Country Girl, the film world was left speechless.