Birthday bonanza: rare images of Hollywood’s greatest stars

The playboy (and girl) of the western world: legendary lovers and Hollywood stars Anjelica Huston and Jack Nicholson captured by photographer Klaus Lucka von Zelberschwecht

A birthday? Whose birthday? Whose do you think, my dear readers – why, this very blog’s! Yes, that’s right, a full year ago today, the often fun-loving and insightful, other times rather goofy and eccentric, but always retro George’s Journal traversed out into the blogosphere and began its journey down through the decades with this, it’s very first post.

And so, to celebrate, this latest post offers up you, my (hopefully) loyal and pleased followers, something of a present, or even – if you prefer – a ‘thank you’… yes, it’s a post featuring rarely seen piccies of some of Hollywood’s best loved stars. A mixture of images in which their subjects are on-set, off-guard, funny or, in some cases, downright cool, this is a collection I hope you all enjoy as we blow out the, well, single candle on this blog’s birthday cup-cake – for here at George’s Journal now, indeed, we are one…

CLICK on the images to see them full-size

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Heaven’s missing two angels: it isn’t, of course, as Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly are no longer with us, but here they both are checking on their radiance backstage at the 1956 Oscars

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Close-up: Sammy Davis Jr. goofing around with James Dean, most likely, in the mid-’50s

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Hoop dream: Marilyn Monroe toasts us in the pool, most likely from the late ’50s or early ’60s

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Poker faces: Frank Sinatra with a faithful friend during the filming of 1955’s The Tender Trap

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Man and wife: happily married for decades until his recent death, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward shortly after her Academy Award win in 1958 – with her Oscar and his ‘Noscar’

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Holding the key: À Bout de Souffle’s Jean Seberg posing oh-so sexily in these snaps most likely from the mid- or late ’60s, looking so blissfully unaware of the tragic future that awaited her

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So close to me: Steve McQueen and Natalie Wood in 1963’s Love With The Proper Stranger

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The three stooges: Woody Allen, Peter O’Toole and Peter Sellers on the set of 1965’s madcap What’s New Pussycat?, all three at the beginning of what would be stellar cinematic careers

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Double exposure: Charlie’s daughter Geraldine Chaplin and Swinging Sixties ‘It’ girl Julie Christie artily caught in costume and on-set of 1965’s blockbuster epic Doctor Zhivago

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From stage to screen: director Fred Zinneman (with pipe) adjusts the costume of star Paul Schofield during the filming of 1966’s multi Oscar-winning A Man For All Seasons

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Paris when it sizzles: co-stars Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole between takes during filming at the Parisian location of 1966 heist-cum-romantic comedy How To Steal A Million

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That face: Italian screen goddess Sophia Loren photographed most likely in the 1960s

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Francophilia: Jane Fonda with saucy cult director Roger Vadim, most probably in the mid-’60s

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Winter wonderland: Alfred Hitchcock on a sleigh-ride with his grandchildren

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Three’s a crowd?: siblings Shirley Maclaine and Warren Beatty in deep conversation, while the latter’s girlfriend at the time Joan Collins looks on, seemingly happy to sit this one out

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Hardy boy and his girl: iconic lovers Terence Stamp and Julie Christie in a promotional shot for John Schlesinger’s 1967 cinematic adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Far From The Madding Crowd

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Hippie chic: Natalie Wood defining late-’60s beauty on-set of 1969’s Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

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À ma sœur!: Catherine Deneuve and her fellow actress sister Francoise Dorleac photographed together most likely in the mid- or late ’60s, shortly before the latter’s untimely death

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Getting ahead: Sean Connery has Brigitte Bardot right where he wants her during a break in filming of 1968 western Shalako – the latter was almost a Bond Girl a few years before

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Naked ambition?: Robert Redford and Paul Newman look like they mean business as they play a game of table tennis during a break in filming of 1969’s Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid

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Tattoo you: Goldie Hawn sporting psychedelic bodypaint in the late ’60s

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Unhappy ending: Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate in 1969, the year of her murder

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Alpine schnaps break?: Clint Eastwood, Ingrid Pitt and Richard Burton are joined by the latter’s then wife Elizabeth Taylor in a break during filming of 1969 WWII actioner Where Eagles Dare

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Famous faces: megastars Michael Caine, Roger Moore and Burt Reynolds on a 1973 TV show

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Kiss and tell: golden girls Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin on-set of the Roger Vadim 1973 film Don Juan ou Si Don Juan était une femme… (Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were A Woman…)

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Golden boy: Robert Redford captured candidly and defining cool in the early 1970s

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Stepping out: Steve McQueen, Robert Wagner, Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Jennifer Jones, Fred Astaire, Paul Newman, Richard Chamberlain, Robert Vaughn and, er, OJ Simpson – aka the stars of 1974’s blockbusting disaster movie extraordinaire The Towering Inferno

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Jeet Kune Do-ing it: Bruce Lee in the early ’70s looking every bit an icon for all times

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Hot stuff: Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in a personal and passionate moment

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Friends in high places: Jill St. John, then girlfriend of US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, snapped in the presence of Russian premier Leonid Brezhnev and US President Richard Nixon

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Clowning around: Dustin Hoffman creeps up on his co-star Lord Olivier on the set of 1976’s Marathon Man and plays up for the camera – the latter doesn’t exactly look happy as Larry

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Saturday sly fever: John Travolta and Sylvester Stallone snapped together in the late ’70s

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Three’s company: on the verge of superstardom, Star Wars’ young leads Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill looking fresh-faced, light and relaxed at the movie’s 1977 premiere

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Football crazy: Michael Caine and England’s 1966 World Cup winning captain Bobby Moore promote John Huston’s unlikely but delightful 1981 football caper Escape To Victory

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Two of a kind: Al Pacino and Robert De Niro pose as if caught in headlights in this 1982 shot

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Bon-d viveurs: former 007 stars (and good friends in real life) Roger Moore and Sean Connery enjoy a drink, a smoke and a laugh for the camera, most likely in the late ’70s or early ’80s

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Double take: another shot of Huston and Nicholson by Klaus Lucka von Zelberschwecht

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Record artists: Nicholson and Huston again – is a change of record all Jack’s requesting here…?

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Into the groove: Rosanna Arquette and Madonna on-set of 1985’s Desperately Seeking Susan

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Who ya gonna call (for a sequel)?: Bill Murray, Sigourney Weaver and Dan Aykroyd looking all smiles as they team up again to star in (and publicise) 1989 megabucks comedy Ghostbusters II

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