Hollywood Heartbreak: The Tragic and Mysterious Deaths of Hollywood's Most Remarkable Legends

by Laurie Jacobson

Recounts the circumstances surrounding the deaths of thirty-one Hollywood celebrities, including D.W. Griffith, Bela Lugosi, Ernie Kovacs, Marilyn Monroe, Freddie Prinze, and John Belushi

Genres: Nonfiction

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

When Laurie moved to L.A., she quickly found her way to Harvey Lembeck's Comedy Improv Workshop, working for years with classmates Robin Williams, John Larroquette, John Ritter and more. While performing with comedy groups and as a stand-up, Laurie was uncovering and reveling in the history of those who had come before her. The stories and interviews she collected became the basis for her first book HOLLYWOOD HEARTBREAK, (1984, Simon & Schuster, 3 printings), a 75-year history of Hollywood told through the lives and deaths of 31 people. The book helped establish Laurie's reputation as a Hollywood historian.

Since then, she has written and produced documentaries, television series and specials, including: “20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW”, “THE MUSEUM OF TELEVISION AND RADIO’S SALUTE TO FUNNY WOMEN OF TELEVISION”, Warner Bros Studio Rededication Party, “THE SUZANNE SOMERS SHOW”, “PHOTOPLAY” and “HOLLYWOOD CHRONICLES”.

Laurie’s second book, HOLLYWOOD HAUNTED (Angel City Press, 7th printing) covers more than 100 years of ghostly goings-on in filmland. Her third, DISHING HOLLYWOOD (Cumberland House, 2nd printing), spills the beans on 43 Tinseltown scandals -- with a recipe connected to each one.

Laurie is the reigning expert on Tinseltown’s ghosts as well as a respected Hollywood historian. She appears regularly on radio and television, including: E!’s Mysteries and Scandals, CNN, Mike Wallace’s 20th Century, Art Bell, Entertainment Tonight, A&E, History Channel, Discovery Channel, AMC and many more. Recently, Laurie returned to her acting roots for a starring role in “Not Fade Away”, an independent film starring Shirley Knight.

This fall marks the 50th anniversary of Jon Provost’s debut as Timmy on “Lassie”. Laurie celebrates the occasion with the October release of her fourth book: TIMMY’S IN THE WELL -- The Jon Provost Story, (Cumberland House) an autobiography she co-wrote with Provost, her husband. They make their home with their beagle, Barney, in Santa Rosa where Laurie loves teaching a writing workshop at American Eagle Studios.

Reviews

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hollywood Heartbreak was our bible!” Michael Danahay, executive producer of E!’s Mysteries and Scandals


Relive 75 years of Hollywood history through the lives and deaths of 31 people who helped to build it, how their lives helped to create the city and the industry, how their tragic or mysterious deaths contributed to its mystique. It is an enduring tribute to the public and private lives of stars who inflamed our curiosity and captured our hearts. William Desmond Taylor, D. W. Griffith, Jim Thorpe, Mack Sennett, Bela Lugosi, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernie Kovacs, Sal Mineo, Dorothy Dandridge, Lenny Bruce, Sam Cooke, Janis Joplin, John Belushi, Marvin Gaye and more.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

As expected, there was not a lot of in-depth material here but it was a fantastic overview of a number of greater and lesser celebrities and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also liked how it was organized in decades, going from the 20's all the way up to the 80's. It made for a nice historical and evolutionary feel of sorts. The book had the expected usuals like Marilyn Monroe and Jean Harlow and James Belushi but it really branched out and provided so many more - Sal Mineo, Marvin Gaye, Janis Joplin, Clara Bow, and one of my favorites, Thelma Todd.

[Wendy Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this book. It's a nice introduction to these celebrities and a brief overview of their lives and contributions to entertainment. I now want more in-depth information on some of them. The writing definitely has 1980s vocabulary that is offensive in 2025, but you need to take it in context. Also, some sentences seemed to run on. I had to reread some paragraphs to get the characters straight. Some money figures were contradictory--not sure if typos or not.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were quite a few of these people that I had not known before, such as Mack Sennett, Russ Columbo, and Albert Dekker, but I really enjoyed reading about the Hollywood "Heartbreaks", that I did know. The book is more than 25 years old, since it was 1984 copyright, but reading about the Hollywood people I did know was very fun, such as Sal Mineo, Inger Stevens, Natalie Wood and John Belushi, among others. What was really fun, when reading this, was that the author said that Inger Stevens was having a clandestine affair with a very married high profile actor. I kept thinking to myself, I thought I just read about this elsewhere in the book, since I was skipping around in it. After a day or so, I finally remembered that I had just read a biography about Dean Martin, by his daughter, Deana, and she lets us know that Dean Martin had an affair with Inger Stevens in her book! Her updated book is "Dishing Hollywood", which also includes a few of these stars, and is also very enjoyable.

[Carla JFCL · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and learned quite a bit about the deaths of some people I really didn't know much about. I do wish there were a "sequel" of sorts; there have been plenty of mysterious deaths since Marvin Gaye. The book did confirm my belief that Hollywood has pretty much always been a screwed up place ... and I say that as a huge fan of movies and music. ;)

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was more dated than her other books, so not a lot of new information. Still, she writes well and writes from the "inside", unlike a lot of other authors of this genre. I've got a copy of this one if anyone wants to read it.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clara Bow makes me look like Mother Teresa. And F. Scott Fitzgerald makes me want to quit drinking. Almost.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good clean fun, but maybe because it's rather dated at this point, large swathes of it feel like not the whole story. I appreciate the way the author puts each celebrity into his or her larger context though, and this is a solid introduction if you're just getting into Hollywood scandal.