When people asked Roddy McDowall if he might ever write a memoir, he always said no. He believed the only book anyone would pay him to write was one revealing his own and, crucially, everyone else's secrets.
Showbiz
Hollywoods Confidante: Secrets and Betrayal Uncovered
When people asked Roddy McDowall if he might ever write a memoir, he always said no. He believed the only book anyone would pay him to write was one revealing h...
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Inarguably, he did know where all the bodies were buried, figuratively speaking.
But if , one of his closest confidantes, had ever killed anyone, McDowall would undoubtedly have helped her bury the body. And he would have taken their secret to the grave.
To him, loyalty was everything, and betraying someone's trust was unforgivable.
In researching the first published biography of Roddy McDowall, I've read through thousands of documents in his archives at Boston University and conducted dozens of interviews. And it all points to a man who knew how to keep Hollywood's secrets.
McDowall was the person when she needed a safe haven as headlines about her cyclical tragedies made her a target. He shielded the star from the press at his Malibu beach house.
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Years later, he did the same for a young , who was making the transition from teen idol to serious actor and wanted to learn how the old guard like Gregory Peck managed to build career longevity.
remembers those days well. 'I met so many elderly stars at Roddy's - such giants in my mind,' she told me.
If Elizabeth Taylor, one of McDowall's closest confidantes, had ever killed anyone, he would undoubtedly have helped her bury the body
To McDowall, loyalty was everything, and betraying someone's trust was unforgivable
Julie Andrews is photographed with McDowall and Marcello Mastroianni deep in conversation at the 1965 Golden Globes
'Such great actors and creators, all full of story and fascinating history - and all deeply aware of the ironies inherent in our fickle profession.
'None wanted pity or attention. They just wanted to be included in conversations about the craft, about film, about where it was heading, about who was in and who was out.
'He loved them - and he loved us, the young, too. He gave everyone such beautiful opportunities to connect.'
At age 12, McDowall shot to international stardom in the 1941 Best Picture How Green Was My Valley, the story of the epic struggles of a Welsh mining family.
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In a string of hits, he came to embody a wartime little man who faced impossible demands without complaint. His expressive eyes reflected absolute loyalty - to his beloved collie in Lassie Come Home, his beloved horse in My Friend Flicka, and his beloved country in The White Cliffs of Dover.
Being the guy you could trust with your life and your secrets wasn't an act. It was an intrinsic part of his emotional makeup.
As a kid, he navigated the incredibly complicated, sometimes crushing world of the entertainment industry, balancing his public role as the bravest, best little boy in the world with his private role as a micromanaged child who had no power at all but was expected to perform at a moment's notice.
The public truth: He loved his childhood, and he owed his family everything.
As a child star, he appeared in the much-loved Lassie Come Home
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He came to embody a wartime little man who faced impossible demands without complaint
McDowall (front, in white) with Tony Curtis, Piper Laurie, Marshall Thompson and friends
McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor became best of friends as child stars (photographed circa 1946)
McDowall was Taylor's closest confidante, and he never betrayed her trust
McDowall and Taylor photographed in 1985 - she remained one of his dearest friends until his death in 1998
Author Flora Rheta Schreiber, later famous for the book Sybil, which was adapted into the TV movie starring Sally Field, wrote an article in Cosmopolitan titled 'I Was Raising a Homosexual Child.'
It was loosely based on an anonymized entry in an academic publication that bore a striking similarity to McDowall's childhood stardom, his overbearing mother and his sexual history.
The case study was written by Dr Cornelia Wilbur, McDowall's psychiatrist.
He felt betrayed and horribly exposed, but was powerless to respond since lodging any claim would have cemented the 'truth' of the article.
So, ironically, the only public betrayal of him, however oblique, came not from a friend, loved one or gossip columnist, but from a medical professional sworn by law to confidentiality.
After winning a Tony Award in 1960 and an Emmy in 1961, he threw himself into reviving his Hollywood film career, hitting the jackpot not in Los Angeles but in Rome, with the costly, scandal-ridden epic that was Cleopatra, starring , Rex Harrison, and with McDowall as Mark Antony's nemesis Octavian.
Whole books have been written about . The production was chaotic, behind schedule and criminally over budget from the start, and 20th Century-Fox almost sank under the weight of paying for the whole thing.
During the troubled shoot, Richard and Sybil Burton shared a villa with McDowall and his then partner, John Valva. Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher had their own villa nearby.
Among his many confidantes was the late actor Natalie Wood
McDowall formed deep bonds with fellow stars including Lauren Bacall
Taylor and Burton began an affair and an avalanche of bad press hit. They were pilloried from the floor of the United States Congress to the Italian Parliament, and the international press lost its collective mind. Seemingly every publication in the world had something to say, including L'Osservatore della Domenica, the Vatican City weekly.
When the attacks wore Taylor down, McDowall was steadfast in his support of his friend.
'You are such a talented and dear woman, and you have the unfortunate role of being the world's most important movie star,' he wrote to her. 'It is an unenviable position in which to be, and just because you are there, you're going to be the recipient of rocks and mud. Daily. May I have your autograph?'
But to everyone else, he stayed silent about the affair, even with his closest friends, many of whom begged in their letters for dirt and lamented his refusal to comply.
McDowall had his own reasons for wanting to stay out of the conversation. It seems Burton was apparently not the only one in their shared villa with tricky romantic feelings.
Roddy McDowall and John Valva were a confirmed couple. McDowall even got a ring made for Valva in the same style as one Elizabeth Taylor made for him.
Things seemed golden, but at some point, Valva and Sybil Burton began developing feelings for each other.
After the shoot, back in New York, with her husband and Taylor jetting off into the sunset, Sybil took an apartment in the same building where McDowall and Valva lived together.
Burton and Taylor started a torrid affair during the filming of Cleopatra - while Burton's wife Sybil bedded McDowall's lover John Valva
He remained friends with Sybil Burton after she had an affair with his own lover, John Valva
McDowall was the person Judy Garland turned to when she needed a safe haven as headlines about her cyclical tragedies made her a target
Valva moved out of McDowall's apartment and in with Sybil. Their relationship didn't last long, but Sybil remained one of McDowall's best friends for the rest of his life. So did Taylor.
Taylor and Sybil: The two 'other women.' They were never friendly with one another, but separately, both were among McDowall's closest relationships.
Sybil stayed living in New York while McDowall moved back to Los Angeles, establishing the Studio City house that would become a haven for his beloved coterie of friends.
McDowall could have held on to whatever bitterness he felt about Sybil's affair with Valva, but he chose loyalty instead.
Years later, his last wish brought Taylor and Sybil together to build a rose garden in his honor at the Motion Picture & Television Fund Country House. In 2001, at the dedication, Taylor publicly apologized to Sybil as they came together to celebrate and remember their dear friend.
Today, some 64 years after Cleopatra and 28 years after McDowall's death, he remains a rare beast in Hollywood then and now: a man of exceptional grace, forgiveness and elegance.
Roddy McDowall: An Actor's Life - From How Green Was My Valley to Lassie to Planet of the Apes, is published by Citadel Press/Kensington Publishing Corp, May 26, and is available to pre-order now.
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