Barbara Stanwyck - Personal Life

Personal Life

While playing in The Noose, Stanwyck fell in love with her co-star, Rex Cherryman, who became her fiancée in 1928. Cherryman had become ill early in 1928 and his doctor advised him to take a sea voyage to Paris where he and Stanwyck had arranged to meet. While still at sea, he died of septic poisoning, at the age of 31.

On August 26, 1928, Stanwyck married her Burlesque co-star, Frank Fay. She and Fay later claimed that they disliked each other at first, but became close after the sudden death of Cherryman. After moving to Hollywood, they adopted a son, Dion Anthony "Tony" Fay, on December 5, 1932. The marriage was a troubled one. Fay's successful career on Broadway did not translate to the big screen, whereas Stanwyck achieved Hollywood stardom. Fay engaged in physical confrontations with his young wife, especially when he was inebriated. Some claim that this union was the basis for A Star is Born. The couple divorced on December 30, 1935. Stanwyck won custody of their troubled adoptive son.

In 1936, while making the film His Brother's Wife (1936), Stanwyck was paired with her co-star, Robert Taylor, who were also brought together off-screen through mutual friends. Following a whirlwind romance, the couple began living together. Stanwyck was hesitant to remarry after the failure of her first marriage. However, their 1939 marriage was rumored to have been arranged with the help of Taylor's studio MGM, a common practice in Hollywood's golden age. She and Taylor enjoyed time together outdoors during the early years of their marriage, and were the owners of acres of prime West Los Angeles property. Their large ranch and home in the Mandeville Canyon section of Brentwood, Los Angeles is still referred to by the locals as the old "Robert Taylor ranch".

In 1950, Stanwyck and Robert Taylor mutually decided to divorce and she proceeded with the official filing of divorce. There have been many rumors of the cause of their divorce, but according to several of their friends, they grew apart after World War II. Taylor had romantic affairs and Stanwyck was also rumored to have had some affairs, but nothing has been confirmed. After the divorce, they acted together in Stanwyck's last feature film, The Night Walker (1964). Stanwyck never remarried and cited him as the love of her life, according to her friend and costar, Linda Evans. She took his death in 1969 very hard and began a long break from film and television work.

Stanwyck was one of the most well-liked actors in Hollywood and was friends with many of her co-stars and fellow actors (and crew members working on her films and TV series), including: Joel McCrea and his wife Frances Dee, George Brent, Robert Preston, Henry Fonda (who had a lifelong crush on her and a rumored affair), James Stewart, Linda Evans, Joan Crawford, Jack Benny and his wife Mary Livingstone, William Holden, Gary Cooper, Fred McMurray, and many others.

Stanwyck reportedly had an affair with actor Robert Wagner, whom she met on the set of Titanic (1953). Wagner, who was 22, and Stanwyck, who was 45 at the beginning of the affair, had a four-year romance, which is described in Wagner's 2008 memoir, Pieces of My Heart. Stanwyck ended the relationship. In the 1950s, Stanwyck also, reportedly, had a one-night-stand with the much younger, Farley Granger which he writes about in his memoir, Include Me Out: My Life from Goldwyn to Broadway. She was also rumored to have been bisexual, but, as of yet, no solid proof has come to light; unsubstantiated rumors also swirled about a lesbian relationship with her publicist, Helen Ferguson.

Stanwyck was a conservative-minded Republican along with such contemporaries as William Holden, Ginger Rogers, Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Bob Hope, and her Double Indemnity co-star, Fred McMurray.