Stars & Their Hobbies ~ Wrap-Up

Hobbies of the Stars (Source)

September is coming to a close and that means it's time to wrap up my Stars & Their Hobbies series. I hope you've enjoyed this series as much as I have! It's been a lot of work. Even though the posts are relatively short, some of them required up to 2-3 hours of research. My goal for each post was to include the following: a photo of the star doing their hobby, a quote from them about their hobby and some fun trivia. This ideal scenario wasn't possible for every post but gosh darn it I tried! Below are some interesting (and some strange) hobbies that didn't make it into the mix.

Anne Shirley enjoyed sand skiing.
Lew Ayres was an amateur astronomer.

Billie Dove collected rare perfumes.

George Montgomery made furniture.
Lila Lee flew airplanes.
Gary Cooper was an amateur taxidermist.
Mel Torme had so many hobbies that it led to a divorce.
Dorothy Lee collected toy dogs.
Lyle Talbot and Ann Dvorak studied bacteriology.
Robert Mitchum wrote poems, songs and jokes.

Jerry Lewis played the drums.

Vincent Prince loved cooking and wrote cookbooks.

Tony Curtis had a collection of pipes.

Lewis Stone's hobby was cabinet-making.
Rock Hudson had a vast collection of films.

In addition to Steve McQueen, Paul Newman and James Garner were both race car enthusiasts.


A big thank you to Laura, Jessica, Terry, Kate Gabrielle, Neil, Jonas, and Sebina for all of the tips! They helped make this series possible.

If I find more ideas for posts in the future, I'll make sure to revive this series.

Now I leave you with an MGM short from 1939 entitled Hollywood Hobbies. It features two young tourists exploring Hollywood on a tour and spot some MGM stars along the way.

My series Stars & Their Hobbies explores how notable actors and actresses from Hollywood history spent their free time. Click here  to view a complete list of entries.

Stars & Their Hobbies ~ Hedy Lamarr

Hedy Lamarr, inventions

"Heddy invented as a hobby. Since she made two or three movies a year, each one taking about a month to shoot, she had spare time to fill. She didn't drink and she didn't like to party, so she took up inventing. When she was a girl, her father, a Viennese banker, had encouraged her interest in how the world worked, taking walks with her and explaining the mechanics of the machinery they encountered. As a young woman, before she emigrated from Austria to the United States, se married a munitions manufacturer and listened in on the technical discussions he head with his Austrian and German military clients. She also had a keen sense of the world's large and small failings, some of which she decided she could fix. In hollywood she set up an inventor's corner in the drawing room of her house, complete with a drafting table and lamp and all the necessary drafting tools." -- Richard Rhodes, Hedy's Folly

Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil's Patent

Stay tuned for more on this coming up!

My series Stars & Their Hobbies explores how notable actors and actresses from Hollywood history spent their free time. Click here to view a complete list of entries.

Stars & Their Hobbies ~ Greer Garson

Greer Garson, racehorses

“All of a sudden I found myself in a race to get the sports pages in the morning.” – Greer Garson

In 1948 Greer Garson met Buddy Fogelson, a man of many trades including horse and cattle breeding. They married in 1949 and were together until Fogelson’s death in 1987. They operated Forked Lightning Ranch where they bred thoroughbred racehorses. They purchased Ack Ack, a champion thoroughbred, for $500k. Ack Ack was in many races including Withers Stakes, Hollywood Gold Cup and Arlington Classic, won several awards and was recognized as an American Thoroughbred Hall of Fame racehorse.

“Ack Ack was a national treasure” – Greer Garson

It’s very clear that Garson’s love of racehorses was influenced by her husband Fogelson. She said,

“living with Buddy has broadened my life… I’ve shared the excitement of sitting up with him all night waiting for a gusher to come in answering fan mail for a horse.” (Source )

Garson enjoyed betting on races. She'd pick the horse with the longest tail and bet on it. This never proved to be an effective tactic.

Buddy Fogelson and Greer Garson receiving the 1971 Eclipse Award
for Outstanding Older Horse (Ack Ack) from Mervyn LeRoy

My series Stars & Their Hobbies explores how notable actors and actresses from Hollywood history spent their free time. Click here to view a complete list of entries.

Stars & Their Hobbies ~ Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey Bogart aboard his yacht "Santana" circa 1945.
Source: LIFE Magazine

Humphrey Bogart, Sailing

“Unless you really understand the water and understand the reason for being on it and understand the love of sailing and the feeling of quietness and solitude, you don't really belond on a boat anyway.” – Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey Bogart loved sailing especially on his beloved yacht the “Santana”. He and his wife Lauren Bacall owned and sailed the yacht from 1945 until his death in 1957. Other notable stars who owned the Santana include Eva Gabor, George Brent, Ray Milland, Dick Powell and June Allyson.  Guests on the Bogart’s yacht included Ingrid Bergman, Richard Burton, David Niven and Frank Sinatra (Source).

Sailing was an important part of Bogart’s life. He developed a passion for sailing as a child when his family would summer on Lake Canandaigua in New York. He was a member of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club and Los Angeles Yacht Club and participated in races including the San Clemente Island and Channel Islands races.

"An actor needs something to stabilize his personality, something to nail down what he really is, not what he is currently pretending to be." - Humphrey Bogart

You could say the Santana was the love of Bogart’s life, besides Lauren Bacall. Bogart had a minuature model of the Santana in his home. The boat in his film Key Largo was named the Santan. In 1947, Bogart started his own production company Santana Productions which produced films such as Knock on Any Door (1949), Tokyo Joe (1949), In a Lonely Place (1950), Sirocco (1951) and Beat the Devil (1953) among others.

There are many wonderful photos of Bogart on his yacht including a series shot by noted photographer Peter Stackpole in 1945 for LIFE magazine. Below is a home movie of Bogart and Bacall on board the Santana. Enjoy!

My series Stars & Their Hobbies explores how notable actors and actresses from Hollywood history spent their free time. Click here to view a complete list of entries.