First Mates: Their First Spouses Quiz

Answer: Conrad (Nicky) Hilton

Nicky Hilton was the heir to the Hilton Hotel Chain and he and Liz got hitched
in 1950. I wonder which hotel they stayed in on their wedding night?

Liz wed Richard Burton in 1964 (and gave it another try in 1975).
Liz wed Michael Wilding in 1952 and they had two sons together.
Liz wed Mike Todd in 1957 and they had a daughter together before he died in a plane crash in 1958.
Liz wed Eddie Fisher in 1959 after he and actress/singer Debbie Reynolds divorced.
BTW:Construction worker, Larry Fortensky, whom she married in 1991 was her last.
Elizabeth Taylor was born February 27, 1932 in London, England and died at the age of 79 in Los Angeles on March 23, 2011.

Answer: Melissa Lee Gatlin

Billy Bob married actress Melissa Lee Gatlin in 1978 and they had one child.
Billy Bob wed actress Toni Lawrence in 1986.
Billy Bob wed actress Cynda Williams in 1990.
Billy Bob wed Pietra Dawn Cherniak (the Playboy model)in 1993 and she bore him two children.

By the way: Wife number five was the popular actress Angelina Jolie whom he wed in 2000 and divorced in 2003.

Billy Bob Thornton was born August 4, 1955 in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Answer: Burhan Belge

Turkish born writer and diplomat Burhan Belge was the first to swap vows with Zsa Zsa, marrying her in 1937.

Corad Hilton, father of Liz Taylor's Nicky, became hubby number two in 1942.

Michael O'Hara, conveniently her divorce lawyer, was the not so lucky number seven, whom she married in 1976, but, alas divorced a few years later.

Oil magnate Joshua Cosden became her fifth when they wed in 1966.

In 1986 she married her ninth husband, Frederick Prinz von Anhalt.
I guess the old saying "if at first you don't succeed try, try, try, try try, try, try, try again" is applicable here.

Zsa Zsa Gabor was born February 6, 1917 in Budapest, Hungary.

Answer: Peter Allen

Australian singer-songwriter-entertainer Peter Allen (born Peter Richard Woolnough in New South Wales) on February 10, 1944 married Liza (with a "Z") in 1967. He wrote songs that were popularized by among others, Melissa Manchester and Olivia Newton-John. He won an Academy Award in 1981 for "Arthur's Theme" (which he co-wrote with Burt Bacharach, Christopher Cross and Carol Bayer Sager) for the movie "Arthur" (1981) starring Dudley Moore and Liza herself. One of his more memorable moments occurred in Radio City Music Hall where he rode, of all things, an elephant. He and Liza divorced in 1974 and he passed away June 18, 1992.

Her second spouse, whom she married in 1974, John Joseph "Jack" Haley Jr. was born October 25, 1933 in Los Angeles, CA and was the son of the actor of the same name (minus the Jr.) who starred opposite Liza's mom in a nice little film you may have heard of called "The Wizard of Oz" (1939). Their marriage ended in divorce in 1979. A two time Emmy Award winner, he died of respiratory failure in Santa Monica, CA April 21, 2001.

Stage manager/sculptor Mark Gero and Liza were married from 1979-1992 before the "Big D" ended their union.

Hubby number four was David Gest, a media personality and concert promoter whose biggest claim to fame seems to be his relationship with The Jackson Five. In fact in the 1980s he had numerous plastic surgeries performed by the same doctor who also operated on Michael Jackson. David and Liza swapped vows in 2002 and divorced in 2007.

Singer, dancer, actress Liza May Minnelli was born March 12, 1946 in Hollywood, CA and is the daughter of the legendary singer/actress Judy Garland and movie director Vincent Minnelli. She has appeared in over twenty movies including 1972's "Cabaret" which earned her the The Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Sally Bowles. She has won Tony Awards and is one of a very short list of performers (including Barbara Streisand, Woody Allen and Whoopi Goldberg) who have won Emmy, Grammy, Tony and Oscar Awards. Her first movie appearance came at the age of three, when she played a baby in the last shot of "In The Good Old Summertime" in 1949, a film which featured her mother, the aforementioned Judy Garland.

Answer: Jean-Francois Allaux

Jean-Francois Allaux, a French artist and political cartoonist married Christie in 1973, but their marriage ended in divorce and produced no children.

Her most famous marriage was to her second husband, singer/song writer/musician Billy Joel whom she wed in 1985. That union produced one child before it also ended in divorce.

Next up was real estate developer Richard Taubman who became hubby number three in 1994. Alas, yet another less than perfect ending followed when they divorced the following year. They had one child together, a son, Jack Paris Taubman.

Batting cleanup was architect and ex-model Peter Cook whom she married in 1996, and, yup you guessed it, divorced after producing two children.

She was born Christie Lee Hudson on February 2, 1954 in Monroe, Michigan and after her parents divorced (it must be genetic, no?) she took the surname of her mother's second husband, TV writer Don Brinkley.

Answer: Freida Miller

Number one on your scorecard was Frieda Miller, his high school sweetheart, but their marriage in 1951 was annulled when their parents thought they were too young.

The second Mrs. King, Annette Kaye was not Mrs. King very long, but long enough to present him with his first child, Larry Jr.

Arlene Akins, the Playboy bunny was both his third and fifth wife, each marriage producing a child. The first time around it was a son, Andy and the second marriage produced his daughter Chaia with whom he has produced a book
titled "Daddy Day, Daughter Day" (published in 1997).

Wife number eight, Shawn Southwick (born Shawn Oro Engemann) was herself a TV host as well as a singer and together they have had two more children, Chance and Cannon. In addition Larry adopted Shawn's son from a previous union, Danny.

Lawrence Harvey Zeiger later to become Larry King was born November 19, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York.

Answer: Artie Shaw

Wedding bells first rang out in 1940 when Lana married bandleader Artie Shaw (who would later marry Ava Gardner). Their union ended in divorce and they had no children.

Joseph Crane the aforementioned actor/restaurateur was Lana's second (and third) husband and the father of Lana's only child, a daughter Cheryl.
Their first marriage was annulled and the second ended in divorce court.

Lex Barker, who in 1949 became the tenth actor to portray "Tarzan", in "Tarzan's Magic Fountain", became her fifth husband in 1953 and became her fifth ex-husband, again as the result of a divorce.

Lana's eclectic taste in men was displayed in 1969 when she became the bride of a nightclub hypnotist named Robert Dante (aka Robert Peller). I'll give you one guess as to how that marriage ended.

In 1958 Lana's daughter Cheryl Crane, then just 14 years old, stabbed to death one Johnny Stompanato who was reputedly connected to organized crime and was in a relationship that her mother was trying to end. No one knows exactly what happened that night in Lana's bedroom but attorneys for the defense claimed she killed him it to protect her mother and she was later cleared when a judge ruled it a justifiable homicide.

Julia Jean "Lana" Turner was born February 8, 1921 in Wallace, Idaho and passed away at the age of 74 in Century City, CA, as a result of throat cancer.

Answer: Ava Gardner

Ava Gardner, the daughter of a North Carolina sharecropper, was an aspiring 20 year old when she became Mick's mate number one in 1942, long before she would go on to become one of the most well known actresses of her day. The marriage ended in divorce. She starred in such films as "The Barefoot Contessa" (1954), "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" (1952), "Show Boat" (1951), "On the Beach" (1959) and received a best actress nomination for her role in "Mogambo" in 1953. Later she would go on to marry bandleader, Artie Shaw in 1945 and singer/actor Francis Albert Sinatra in 1951.
Ms. Gardner died of pneumonia in Westminster, London, England January 25, 1990.

Betty Jane Rase who was born Betty Jane Phillips, won the title of Miss Alabama 1944 and was fourth runner-up in that year's Miss America pageant.
Together they had two children before getting divorced.

Barbara Ann Thompson, an actress and beauty queen who was also known as Carolyn Mitchell had four children with Mickey before being dying as a result of a murder/suicide committed by Milos Milosevics, a 24 year old Yugoslavian actor with whom she had been having an affair after telling him she wanted it to end.

Janice Darlene "Jan" Chamberlain, a singer, became Mickey's ninth wife in 1978 and they have performed together for decades.

He has been acting virtually all his life, first becoming known for his string of fourteen "Andy Hardy" films from 1937 to 1946. He appeared in a series of musicals with Judy Garland including the 1939 Oscar nominated "Babes in Arms". Another one of his most famous roles was opposite Spencer Tracy in "Boys Town" (1938).
He has won a Juvenile Academy Award, two Golden Globes and an Emmy.

Mickey Rooney was born Mickey Yule Jr. on September 23, 1920 in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Answer: Maxwell Reed

Maxwell Reed, a British actor who was born April 2, 1919 in Larne, Northern Ireland became her first mate in 1952.
As she revealed in her autobiography "Past Imperfect" (published in 1978), the marriage ended in divorce when she believed (are you ready for this?) that he was attempting to actually sell her to a wealthy Arabian sheik. I suppose that's redundant since I've never heard of any poor Arabian sheiks! He died of cancer at the age of 55.

Singer/songwriter Anthony Newley became Ms. Collins' second hubby in 1963 and that union produced two children. He is probably best known for winning a Grammy in 1963 for writing "What Kind of Fool Am I?". A lesser known fact is that he also wrote the lyrics for the theme song for the 1964 James Bond film "Goldfinger (John Barry wrote the score).
Their marriage also ended in divorce and he died April 14, 1999 in Florida.

Ronald Cass was born Ronald Stanley Kashinoff March 30, 1935 in Philadelphia, PA and was a recording executive as well as a film producer. They had one child together before divorcing, but remained good friends right up to the time of his death from cancer in 1986 with Joan at his bedside.

Her fifth husband, Perry Gibson a theatre company manager whom she maried in 2002 is thirty two, count 'em, thirty two, years younger than Joan...did someone just say cougar?

Joan Henrietta Collins was born May 23, 1933 in London, England.
She is the sister of novelist Jackie Collins.

Answer: Laraine Marie Brennan

Scorsese's first marriage was to fellow N.Y.U. undergraduate student Laraine Brennan whom he married in 1965 and divorced in 1971. They had one child, a daughter, Catherine.

In 1976 he married author, artist, poet, journalist and composer Julia Cameron but, unfortunately that union would only last a year. They first met when she was interviewing him for Rolling Stone magazine after starting her journalistic career at The Washington Post. Their marriage also produced a daughter, Dominica.

In 1979 he married author, actress, model, Isabella Rossellini who was the daughter of Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and Italian film director Roberto Rossellini. She is the author of books and for fourteen years (1982-1996)was the exclusive model for Lancome cosmetics. They were divorced in 1982 and had no children together.

Barbara De Fina is herself an accomplished movie producer and became bride number four when they swapped nuptial vows in 1985. She produced many of the films which Scorsese directed including "Goodfellas" (1990), "Casino" (1995) and "The Color of Money" (1986). She also produced "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988) and "The Grifters" (1990). She also co-produced "Bad", Michael Jackson's 1987 music video with Quincy Jones.
His fourth marriage ended the same way as the earlier three, by divorce in 1991.

Martin Charles Scorsese was born November 17, 1942 in Queens, N.Y.and is
a graduate of New York University.