12 Old Hollywood Stars Who Had Only Adopted Children ht

Well, the kids must know what their daddy says. Alex, do you know what your daddy said? [laughter] >> Old Hollywood loved to sell the fantasy of perfect families. But behind some of its most famous front doors were renamed children, custody wars, bitter estrangements, and lives far darker than the publicity photos ever showed.

In these 12 cases, the real story began with adoption. Joan Crawford, four adopted children. Joan Crawford raised four adopted children, Christina, Christopher, and the twins Kathy and Cindy. Christina came first. She was born on June 11th, 1939 in Los Angeles. Crawford completed the adoption in Nevada, getting around a California restriction that prevented single women from adopting instate.

Early records reportedly used the placeholder name Joan and Crawford renamed the baby Christina. Christopher followed during Crawford’s marriage to actor Philip Terry. In biographical accounts, he was first named Philip Terry Jr. After the couple divorced in 1946, Crawford changed the boy’s name to Christopher Crawford.

Then came the twins. In 1947, Crawford adopted premature fraternal twin girls born on January 13th, 1947, and named them Catherine, known as Kathy, and Cynthia, known as Cindy. Contemporary reporting and later biographies connect that adoption to the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, the network later exposed in the Georgia Tan scandal.

A Memphis profile described Crawford bringing the infants from Tennessee to her Brentwood home in the summer of 1947. It also noted that years later, the twins [music] returned to Tennessee to search for their roots. After Crawford died in 1977, the children’s accounts split in public.

Christina published Mommy Dearest in 1978 and alleged abuse. Kathy and Cindy rejected Christina’s version and defended their mother. Crawford’s will disinherited Christina and Christopher for reasons well known to them. Both challenged the estate and eventually reached a combined settlement of $55,000. Barbara Stanwick, one adopted child.

Barbara Stanwick had one adopted child, a son, Dion Anthony Fay, usually called Tony. She adopted him with her first husband, comedian Frank Fay. Tony was born in Los Angeles on February 5th, 1932 and was adopted in December of that year while still a baby. By the time he was old enough to remember anything clearly, the marriage was already collapsing.

Stanwick and Fay separated in the fall of 1935, and the divorce was finalized on December 30th, 1935. After [music] that, Tony’s childhood stopped being private. In January 1938, newspapers reported a courtroom battle over their six-year-old adopted son. The coverage described bitter arguments and a judge struggling to control the chaos.

One detail helped turn the custody fight into a national story. Stanwick admitted that actor Robert Taylor was a frequent visitor to her home, that he played with Tony, and that those visits were part of why she refused to let Fa see the boy. Later accounts say Stanwick kept custody and raised Tony under strict rules, but the relationship did not survive into adult life.

They became estranged and later met only a few times. Tony died on May 17th, 2006 in the Los Angeles area. He was 74. Mary Pikford, two adopted children. Mary Pikford and her husband Buddy Rogers adopted two children, Ronald Charles Rogers and Roxanne Rogers. Ronnie was born in 1936 and adopted in 1943. Roxanne was born in 1942 and adopted in 1944.

Ronnie’s adoption came with a ready-made scene. Pigford was 51 and felt time was running out. She and Buddy Rogers went to an orphanage where they met a six-year-old boy dressed in a neat suit. They spent the day entertaining him and afterward Pigford decided that she wanted that child. The adoption was finalized in 1943. Roxanne followed a year later.

In later family photos, Ronnie appears as the older adopted son standing beside his baby sister in one of America’s most famous households. By the mid 1940s, Pigford and Rogers were being photographed as a complete family. mother, father, six-year-old Ronnie, and infant Roxanne. Pigford’s own writing adds a smaller domestic detail.

In a 1948 piece, she recalled receiving a telegram from a foundling home about a baby girl available for adoption. She wrote that within 10 months of adopting Ronnie, her wish to adopt a little girl had also come true. But the later story was less polished than the photographs. Biographical accounts describe Pikford’s relationship with both adopted children as tense.

Ronnie later said things didn’t work out that much, though he also said he would never forget her and called her a good woman. Other accounts say Pigford criticized Ronnie’s small stature and Roxan’s crooked teeth. After Pigford died in 1979, published reports on her estate said the two children received only small bequests while the bulk of the estate went elsewhere.

James Kagny, two adopted children. James Kagny and his wife Francis Billy Vernon adopted two children, a son James Francis Kagny III, known as Jimmy Jr. in 1940, and a daughter Kathleen Casey Kagny in 1941. Years later, family friends on Martha’s vineyard described an unusual setup. Jimmy Jr.

and Casey spent much of their time in a separate children’s house behind the main farmhouse, cared for by a Japanese caretaker named Betty and her daughter Patty. Francis Kagny was remembered as strict, and the children were said to keep out of the main house. Not every memory was grim.

They learned to row at the shore, played baseball, and sometimes James Kagny joined in. One story stayed with people for years. Jimmy Jr. and a friend were once handed the keys to a new black 1955 Thunderbird and drove it around Edgartown and Oak Bluffs before Jimmy Jr. even had a driver’s license. In adulthood, the bond with Jimmy Jr.

appears to have broken down. He died of a heart attack in Washington DC in late January 1984 at age 44. Contemporary reports said Kagny had become estranged from him after a dispute over property he had given his son. Casey’s later paper trail is quieter. A published death notice says she was born on July 30th, 1940, later married Jack Thomas, had two daughters, and died on August 11th, 2004.

One final recollection is especially bleak. Near the end of Kagney’s life, a longtime family friend visited the upstate farm and found it being stripped by caregivers. Furniture was gone. Family belongings were gone. Even cedar paneling had been removed. Jimmy Jr. stood there in tears watching what he called his history disappear.

Al Jolson, three adopted children. The first was a son, Al Jolson Jr., adopted in 1935 during Jolson’s marriage to Ruby Keeler. Contemporary reporting said the baby was 7 weeks old when the adoption was finalized in Chicago after he was taken from the Evston cradle. Family accounts say Jolson called him Sunny Boy, while Ruby shortened that to Sunny.

Later during his marriage to Earl Galbrath, Jolson adopted two more children, Asa Jr. born in 1948, and Alicia born in 1949. After Asa Jr. entered the family, Jolson bought back the house he had originally built years earlier, intending it to become the home for his new family. That detail survived in Jolson family histories because the child’s arrival literally changed where the family lived.

Alicia’s story was darker. Later, family and legacy accounts say she developed serious disabilities and eventually required institutional care. She died in 1982, still in her early 30s. Jolson himself died in 1950. So Asa Jr. and Alicia lost their father while still very young. That left all three adopted children attached to three different moments in the life of the same star.

The Ruby Keeler years, the late family years with Earl and the abrupt ending that came only a few years after the last two adoptions. Linda Darnell, one adopted child. Linda Darnell had one adopted child, Charlotte Mildred Lola Marley. Lola was born on January 5th, 1948. In June 1949, Time reported that Darnell and cinematographer Pavil Marley had legally adopted Charlotte Mildred Lola Marley at 17 months old and that she had already been living with them since she was 2 months old. That means Lola had spent almost her entire life in their home before the legal paperwork caught up. The timing matters for another reason. Biographical accounts place Lola’s adoption in 1948 then note that around the same period, Darnell began her affair with Joseph El Manitz and in July

1948 filed for divorce from Marley. After a brief hearing, Darnell was granted a divorce and custody of Charlotte, while Marley was ordered to pay child support. One more detail survives in the record. Darnell planned to adopt a boy within a few years, but it never happened. Lola remained her only child.

Later records list Lola under her married name, Charlotte Mildred Lola Marley Adams. She died in 2023 at age 75. George Burns, two adopted children. George Burns and Gracie Allen adopted two children, Sandra Jean Burns and Ronald John Burns. Ronnie has the clearest paper trail. He was born in Evston, Illinois on July 9th, 1935 and adopted in Chicago on September 27th, 1935 when he was just 11 weeks old.

Biographical sources note that Ronald Yan was the name given to him after the adoption. His older sister, Sandra Jean, had entered the family the year before. At the time Ronnie arrived, she was about 13 months old. Some later accounts place her adoption in 1934 and say she herself had been adopted at roughly 13 months of age.

Ronnie eventually grew up inside the family business. He appeared as himself on the George Burns and Gracie Allen show and became the more visible of the two children. Even in obituaries published after his death in 2007, he was still identified first as the adopted son of George Burns and Gracie Allen. One detail survived because George Burns told it himself.

When the couple was choosing a baby, he said Ronnie was the sicklest child available for adoption, and Gracie chose him because she thought he needed their help. [music] Sandra remained far less public. Later profiles and database entries identify her as the adopted daughter of Burns and Allen, and note that unlike Ronnie, she moved away from show business.

One later account says she became a teacher. Harpo Marx, four adopted children. Harpo Marx and his wife Susan Fleming adopted four children, Bill, Alex, Jimmy, and Minnie. One line Harpo gave in 1948 says almost everything about how he imagined family life. When George Burns asked how many children he planned to adopt, Harpo answered that he wanted as many children as he had windows in his house so that when he left for work, there would be a child in every window waving goodbye.

The family appears in publicity photos from the 1950s. In one 1954 image, Harpo is shown with three of the children wearing Harpo style wigs. The surviving captions identify them as Alec or Alex, Jimmy, and Minnie. Bill Marx later became the best known of the four. He went into music, worked as a pianist and composer, and later wrote publicly about his father.

In those memories, he described Harpo as a great father to him. Jimmy, Alex, and Minnie. The names of the other three also remained in the public record later in life. A family memorial notice for Susan Marx listed the children as Bill of Rancho Mirage, Alexander of Vallejo, Jim of Paso Robles, and Mini Eagle of Orange.

Harpo also left one short line about adoption that belongs beside the famous Windows quote. He wrote that he and Susan were adopted by the kids as much as they were by us. Irene Dunn, one adopted child. Irene Dunn and her husband, Dr. Francis Griffin, had one adopted child, a daughter, Mary Francis Griffin, born Anna Mary Bush.

The adoption began in 1936 and was legally finalized in 1938. Mary Francis came through the New York Foundling Hospital run by the Sisters of Charity of New York. By March 17th, 1938, the arrangement had already reached the newspapers. A New York Times item reported that Irene Dunn had formerly become the foster mother of a 4-year-old girl.

In practice, the child was already living as hers, and the paperwork was simply catching up. Fan magazines soon turned the child into a domestic feature. In Photoplay’s June 1938 profile, Mary Francis is repeatedly called Missy. The article describes how Missy and her nurse had their own suite in the Dun Griffin home in Homebe Hills.

The furniture was built to a child’s scale and the rooms were lined with shelves of picture books and toys. So even in childhood, her name, nickname, and even the layout of her rooms became part of publishable family news. Later records list her under the married name Mary Francis Griffin Gage.

She died in 2020. June Haver, two adopted children. June Haver and Fred McMurray raised two adopted daughters together. Fraternal twin girls adopted in 1956. [music] Reference works usually list them as Katie and Lorie. A contemporary photo caption from December 1956 gives the fuller names Katherine Marie and Lorie Anne.

The detail that stayed in print came from Fred McMurray himself. Because June could not conceive after a serious operation, he said they adopted the girls right out of the incubator. The adoption was approved by the court on December 4th, 1956. A news photo taken that week shows Fred holding Lorie Anne and June holding Catherine Marie.

The original caption called the twins their real Christmas present. The same caption added one more important fact. McMurray already had two other adopted children from his earlier marriage. So, the twins entered a home that already included adopted older siblings. Later reference entries keep the daughters in the record under the shorter names Katie and Lorie.

June Hab’s obituary also notes that the twin girls survived her and that her marriage to McMurray lasted until his death in 1991. Merl Oberon two adopted children. Merl Oberin adopted two children during her marriage to Italian industrialist Bruno Palei, a son Bruno Jr. and a daughter Francesca. They married in 1957.

Biographical reference works describe the family dividing its life between two lavish homes, one in Mexico City and the other in Quavaka. Another profile places them in Aapulkco during those years and a 1968 photo archive caption identifies Oberon with Francesca Pagli and Bruno Pagli Jr.

at their home Elgalal in Aapulko. One reference source gives the household its most vivid detail. It says Oberon ran her two households with a military precision, something that often strained the people who worked for her. The same source says she doted on the children while Paglia was frequently away on business.

The children’s names also remained in the public record through later film and biographical references. [music] Bruno Jr. and Francesca are the two names most consistently attached to Oberon’s adopted family. And one last detail hangs over the whole story. Major biographies of Oberon repeatedly note that she spent years protecting and reshaping the story of her own origins.

So by the time Bruno Jr. and Francesca entered that house, they were growing up around a mother whose private life had already been built on secrecy, editing, and control. Josephine Baker, 12 adopted children. Josephine Baker raised 12 adopted children known publicly as her rainbow tribe.

The names most often listed are Marianne, Stelina, Jano, Akio, Luis, Hari, later often written as Jerry, Jean Claude, Noel, Moyes, Brahim, later called Brian, Coffee, and Mara. Sources also note that Jano was born Teruya. The group was deliberately international. Standard biographical summaries identify the two daughters as Frenchborn Marianne and Moroccanborn Stellina.

The 10 sons are usually listed as Japanese born Jano [music] and Akio Colombianborn Luis, Finnishborn Yari, Frenchborn JeanClaude, Noel and Moyes, Algerianborn Brahim, Ivorianborn Coffee, and Venezuelanborn Mara. Some accounts vary on one or two birth origins, but the 12 names remain consistent.

Baker often traveled with the children. At Chateau de Milandis in Dordona, she turned family life into a public attraction. Visitors were allowed to walk the grounds and observe the children as proof of what Baker called a model of harmony. The estate included hotels, a farm, rides, and staged activity built around the family, including singing and dancing for visitors. Admission was charged.

Contemporary and later accounts describe Baker presenting the chateau almost like a working demonstration with the children placed at the center of it. One Atlantic profile from the period described Lelay Milandas as Baker’s village of the world capital of brotherhood built around the idea that the children themselves were the proof.

Some of the sharpest details came later from the children. John Claude Baker said of Josephine, “She wanted a doll.” Another son, Jerry, was forced to leave the chateau and live with Baker’s husband, Joe Buong, in Argentina when he was 15 after Baker discovered he was gay.

Later accounts say they eventually reconciled. There are also later life details on several of the children in the public record. Moyes died of cancer in 1999. Nol was later reported to be living with schizophrenia. Another boy, also named JeanClaude, was later treated by Baker as an unofficial member of the household, though standard summaries separate him from the 12 adopted