Overlooked, Betty Grable. When she dated Tyrone Power he said he simply couldn't get past her personal odor.
If Hughes was obsessed with cleanliness, his nails wouldn't have been overgrown and he wouldn't have refused to bathe; that's more of a different disorder that he developed.
I reckon most people working hour after hour, dressed in heavy costumes and under blazing hot studio lights would stink.
I think a lot of these hygiene issues had a lot to do with depression and or related to sexual assault like Marilyn Monroe, it sounded like she was severely depressed, and also didn’t bathe or used attractive scent because she didn’t have a desire for being clean or smelling attractive. People of sexual assault also don’t bathe to avoid being touched.
I once dated a guy with Halitosis and gum disease. I could see his swollen bleeding gums as he talk. He carried a breath mint spray and constantly sprayed his breath when he thought I wasn’t looking. God that was a long date for me. And such a shame he was a very sweet man.
Marilyn Monroe, so sad! She was in many foster homes before she was 16. Once SA by one of her foster parent. I can understand why she didn’t bathe, it’s her way of protecting herself from men. RIP Norma!
I once had worked with someone whose breath was so bad that even at arm’s distance it was like being assaulted by invisible vibrating beams of stench!
As a college orderly, I once had the honor of transporting Elizabeth Taylor to the Operating Room. Let me tell you, folks, she wasn’t just a Hollywood legend—she was a gown-wearing, ultra-clean, and gracious queen. I probably looked like a nervous wreck next to her, but hey, that’s my claim to fame! 😄
As a young teenager, I waited tables in a hotel restaurant. Brando stayed there when filming a movie. I can confirm that he was revolting both physically and personally.
Hot climates, heavy costumes, deodorants not yet invented, booze and constant smoking, too much caffeine-filled black coffee and not enough eating, unawareness of oral hygiene like we know about today, I’m not surprised body odor was an issue. Even if they took a shower in the morning, with no deodorant, and long days in hot costumes, in hot studios or sets, with little food, and just black coffee and cigarettes… it was the sign of the times. In the UK, in these times, people still didn’t have inside bathrooms! A once-a-week soak in a tin bath, probably after the other kids went before them in the same water, which had been heated in a pan on the open fire, then the small tin bath got hung up for another week. Or they went to a bath house once a week and paid a few pennies for a bath. No excuses these days, but back then, things were different.
The Elizabeth Taylor case I do not believe. She was well known to hang around gay men and I doubt that they would not intervene.