Tim Burton
Like many directors,Tim Burtonhas dated several of the actresses he’s worked with. But the relationship that lasted the longest was with someone who could easily match his level of oddness,Helena Bonham Carter.The two met while Burton was makingPlanet of the Apes.
Reportedly, Burton’s first words upon meeting Bonham Carter were “I can really see you in an ape mask.” The actress was charmed, and they dated for thirteen years, making numerous movies together includingCharlie and the Chocolate Factory,Sweeney Todd, andAlice in Wonderland.
James Cameron
Falling in love with your leading ladies isn’t always a good thing. Just ask James Cameron. He met actressLinda Hamiltonwhile directing her in 1991’sTerminator 2: Judgement Day, and left his wife, directorKathryn Bigelow, for her.But almost immediately, their relationship was in trouble.
While filming the smash hitTitanic, Cameron began an affair withSuzy Amis, who plays the elderly Rose Calvert’s granddaughter Lizzy. Despite the affair, he married Hamilton in 1997. But after only eight months, he left her again for Amis, who he is still with today.
Peter Bogdanovich
Now often known as the therapist’s therapist onThe Sopranos,Peter Bogdanovichwas originally known as a promising young director. One of his first films,The Last Picture Show,was also how he met longtime girlfriend Cybill Shepherd, who he had contacted when he saw her on the cover ofGlamourmagazine.
Although she was nineteen and him, 30 (and married), no one seemed to bat an eyelash when Shepard later moved in with the director into a Bel-Aire mansion—except for longtime Bogdanovich collaboratorOrson Welles.Shepherd talks about some of her time living with Bogdanovich in the recent Netflix documentary about Welles,They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead.
Vincente Minnelli
The parents ofLIza Minnelli,Vincente MinnelliandJudy Garlandmight be one of the most famous director-actress pairs of all time. The two met while married to other people while working on the filmMeet Me in St. Louis.But like so many Hollywood couples, they had soon divorced their partners and married each other.
They collaborated on two more films,The ClockandThe Pirate, and Minnelli is often credited with revitalizing Garland’s career by giving her a more adult look. But he was not as able to affect change in her personal life—she suffered a nervous breakdown after developing an addiction to prescription drugs. The marriage didn’t survive the stress and the two split after six years.
Steven Spielberg
With so many Hollywood marriages ending in divorce, it’s comforting that directing legendSteven Spielbergis still married toKate Capshaw, who he directed in 1984’sIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom(even though he was married to another woman when they met).
More than twenty years (and five children) later, Spielberg reflected back on the movie when being interviewed byEntertainment WeeklyaboutIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.“The prettiest thing that came out of that film was my future wife. I met Kate, my leading lady. My leading lady is still my leading lady,” he said.
Danny Boyle
Take this tip from directorDanny Boyle: If you start dating the star of your movie, make sure it lasts longer than the press junket. The director of such films asTrainspotting,Slumdog Millionaire,and127 Hours, Boyle metRosario Dawsonwhile making the 2013 thrillerTrance.
They reportedly dated throughout filming, but by the time the movie came out, they had parted ways. Both insisted that there were no hard feelings, with Dawson even praising Boyle’s directing abilities, but interviewers found them to be noticeably stiff around one another.
Stanley Kubrick
EvenStanley Kubrickwasn’t immune to falling in love with one of his stars.ChristianeSusanne Harlan(also known asSusanne Christian), a German actress, had just begun dating Kubrick when he put her in a new final scene he had created for his World War I dramaPaths of Glory.
The scene ultimately gave the film its emotional heft. Harlan plays a German who’s captured by the French and forced to sing. Her song is so beautiful that the soldiers are mesmerized and moved, and so was Kubrick. He married Christian shortly after filming and they were together until his death more than 40 years later.
Charles Vidor
A prominent director during the golden age of film,Charles Vidordirected some of the best leading ladies who have ever been on the screen, includingRita Hayworth,Doris Day, andGrace Kelly. But it wasEvelyn Keyeshe fell for, on the sets of their filmsLadies in RetirementandThe Desperadoes.
Best known for her role as Scarlett O’Hara’s prim sister Suellen inGone with the Wind, Keyes was a fascinating Hollywood figure who also took classes at UCLA, a rarity in those days. “Since Charles Vidor had told me that my type of beauty would fade by the time I was 30,” she wrote in her memoir, “I figured I’d better become an intellectual as soon as possible.”
Elia Kazan
Called “the best director we have in America” byStanley Kubrick, Elia Kazanis considered one of the most influential directors in history, known for his Oscar-winning films likeA Streetcar Named Desire,East of Eden, andOn the Waterfront.During the production of 1960’sWild River, he metBarbara Loden.
Although Kazan and Loden were married to other people—and he was 22 years older than her—they struck up a romance. Kazan cast Loden asWarren Beatty’s sister inSplendor in the Grass, and she also played a lead role in his Broadway production ofAfter the Fall. They married in 1967.
Roberto Rossellini
TheNew Yorkeronce said thatIngrid Bergman“went further—and sacrificed more—than did any other actor, before or since, in order to work with a true cinematic artist,Roberto Rossellini.” Indeed, she became a pariah after falling in love with the director and having a baby with him before her divorce from her prior husband was final.
Rossellini remained relatively unscathed, but Bergman was the subject of a public protest, and a Colorado senator even called her “a powerful influence for evil” who had “perpetrated an assault upon the institution of marriage.” Luckily for the time being, the only director Bergman wanted to work with—Rossellini, of course—was still happy to cast her.
