For Valentine day, I’ll blog about one of Hedy’s love interests during the early 40s: George Montgomery.
He was one of the two very handsome Hollywood actors who came from Montana (the other was Gary Cooper!). He was engaged to Hedy Lamarr in 1942, yet for some reason they didn’t make it to the altar. Hedy, instead married to John Loder and George to Dinah Shore. However, they remained good friends and George admitted, “Hedy is the only girl I’ve ever asked to marry me.” He called Hedy, “Penny” because she often sat thinking when he came and said, “Penny for your thoughts”. She once gave him a St.Christopher medal which he still wore around his neck. George is, undoubtedly, a talentedly artist. Besides being in the movie business, he was a painter, sculptor who as Hedy said, “can make a living out of his hobbies.” At the end of this post, you’ll get to see many of George’s paintings and sculpturing works.
Hedy and George in 1942. Please check back at the gallery at hedy-lamarr.org for hi-res version of the picture.
George Montgomery was born in August. 29. 1916 to a family of 17 members. He left his education at the University of Montana to pursue his interest in a film career in Hollywood. His cowboy background led him to getting many film offers in various western movies. His first movie appearance was at the age of 18. At age 24, he signed a contract with 20th century fox and changed his name to George Montgomery. George had wonderful craftsmanship ever since he was a little child. He had made many many sculptures (some was sent to the White House), furniture for family and friends.
George had loved Hedy ever since he saw her in “Algiers” and their romance blossomed in 1942. The engagement was announced during the filming of “Tortilla Flat”. Their love story appeared on various film magazines of the time for one whole year. Nobody really knew what happened in between, but by the time Hedy started “Crossroads” she started hanging out with John Loder, an English actor she met at the Hollywood canteen. And George found his ideal soulmate in Dinah Shore, at the same place. In the same year 1943, Hedy married John and George married Dinah. Hedy remembered George as one of the men “she should have married to.” Somehow I think they would have been a good match to each other, regarding how much Hedy loved arts, painting, and she herself was a vivid painter and art collector.
Check out some of George pictures:
Some artworks (out of many many):
For more artworks and pictures of George Montgomery, please feel free to contact me
Pictures and information taken mainly from “The years of George Montgomery” which George dedicated to: “who believed in me, had faith in me, loved me, envied me, jealous of me, and those who didn’t give a damn about me.”
An Pham
Beyond just a fan website 
George was a good artist and good actor, although I’m still waiting for the 20th Century-Fox Philip Marlowe mystery THE BRASHER DOUBLOON (1947) to surface somewhere. Nevertheless, I hope he does justice to the character. That last painting of the bird is somewhat reminiscent of a John James Audubon painting.
Yes I think he’s a good artist and actor, handsome as well. But many of his westerns are rather bloody for me. I wish he’d star more in other movie genres.
If you find his Westerns too bloody, try the 20th Century-Fox military comedy TEN GENTLEMAN FROM WEST POINT (1942), starring Maureen O’Hara as George’s love interest and John Sutton, one of my favorite character actors, as George’s rival.
It so happens that I run a MySpace tribute page on Mr. Sutton, which includes a copule photos from TEN GENTLEMAN FROM WEST POINT. Sadly, I don’t do much with now except to add photos:
http://www.myspace.com/mrjohnsutton
I wrote to three of John’s costars last summer–Joan Fontaine, Doris Merrick, and Rhonda Fleming–and Miss Merrick and Miss Fleming both remembered John as “an elegant gentleman and a very fine and sensitive actor.” Sadly, Miss Fontaine dealt so little with him on the set of JANE EYRE (1944) and her secretary replied in writing, “Miss Fontaine is sorry.”
Thanks, I have that movie. I’ll check it out soon. I love Maureen O’Hara!
How cool! I just wrote to Joan Fontaine the other day, waiting for a response. She’s a very nice lady, maybe she and John Sutton didn’t share lots of screen time together in Jane Eyre and she’s like 93 now that she didn’t remember much about him!
By the by, Hedy proposed to MGM to let her star in a movie with George Montgomery but it didn’t work out. Errol Flynn wanted her to be his love in the technicolor “William Tell” as well. How pitiful! I would blog about Hedy’s missed opportunities. She let some very successful films flip by.
Hedy looks so beautiful in the first picture. I have to say, she and George made a beautiful couple. His artworks are also very nice. Very talented man! By the way, is it only me or he looked so much like Gary Cooper in the first picture on the second row? WoW!
Penny? Awww they’re so cute together <3. Any particular why they separated?
I don’t really know. Hedy just said they were not really right for each other. I’m clueless of how it happened in details 😐
Hedy first met John Loder while volunteering at the Hollywood Canteen sometime during 1942. Instead of receiving a “Dear John” letter, George read in a newspaper on May 27, 1943 that Hedy and John were married that day.
how do you think of John Loder by the by? I personally don’t really find him interesting! In his book he blamed Hedy for robbing away his parental role as father of Denise and Tony. But Deedee and Tony don’t really remember much about him as if he was never part of their lives. It seems to me that after their divorce, he didn’t insist much on taking care of them. Nobody can separate the father away from his children if he REALLY insists on being part of their lives. So his excuse doesn’t sound right to me.
And guess what John Loder even stated their marriage year wrong in his book!!!!
What do I think of John Loder? I think he’s an incredibly dull actor. Sure, he has a debonair English accent, but he has no screen personality to speak of. I have WEDDING REHEARSAL (1932) just for Merle Oberon’s minor supporting role as a romantic young secretary and John Loder has a major supporting role as a beau. His performance is incredibly boring and he makes no memorable impression whatsoever in this stuffy and dry British comedy. He reminds me of an equally dull British actor, Brian Aherne, whose rugged English accent was nowhere near as refined as Loder’s.
It seems that Loder, despite his debonair English accent which must have charmed the socks off Hedy, felt indifferent towards being a father. And after all, divorce courts usually state that a child or children must be kept in the custody of its mother.
My favorite of Hedy’s many lovers is Reginald Gardiner, by the way. I like him in every movie I’ve seen of his, including A YANK IN THE R.A.F. (1941), in which Reggie costars with John Sutton.
Agree on John Loder, even though I haven’t seen him in many movies. I’m not a big fan of Brian Aherne myself, I watched his movies because he was once Marlene Dietrich’s lover. I love Dietrich so I wanted to checked him out. He’s never smashing or anything but I have to admit that in some pictures, he looks real good. John Loder even blamed Hedy on ruining his career when she wanted him to get off contract with Warner Bros (is it Warner Bros?) because he thought if he had stayed he would have become some sort of Walter Pidgeon!!!
I love Reggie too. I love his painting of Hedy. It’s just marvelous!
By the way, I found an obituary article on Loder, which contains a still of Loder and Merle Oberon in the British film THE BATTLE (titled THUNDER IN THE EAST in the U.S.) (1934):
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2009/07/movie-star-mystery-photo-1.html
Interesting that the film also features Miles Mander, who was reportedly Merle’s lover at the time. I’ve always liked Miles and I find myself rooting for Claude Rains when an enraged Claude strangles Miles in PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1943)!
I’ve noticed through Hedy’s career, she seem to favor the English Gents…look at some of her candid photo’s, there was Reginald, Douglas fairbanks,jr., George Sanders, David Niven, Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, to name some that come to mind..Maybe it had to do with her learning the English language from those elite englishmen. …and she finally married one, Loder. As for George Montgomery, now that was really a step into unknown ground, for Hedy. She loved good looking men, that’s for sure. My take on the reason they broke up was that she had met Loder in England before she became Hedy Lamarr, and was stalking MGMayer, Louis to sign a contract. She had an affair with Loder then and resulted in a baby, that Hedy conviently ‘adopted’. He was called James. You can see the boy at such a young age, had not only the ‘beauty’ of Hedy, but also of handsome Loder. So when she by ‘chance’ met Loder at the USO canteen during the war years, made it legal by marrying. A couple of years ago i was watching an old “Password” TV show, created and hosted by Allen Lunden, Betty Whites deceased husband. On this particular show, he had as usual a celebrity guest and this time it was George. His ‘partner’ was a rather homesome women, sorry to say that most men would ignore. They won the match though and George spontaneously got up and smooched this woman like he was going to devour her. Mr. Ludden thought it was weird and had to separate them. Reason i am mentioning this is…that George must have been a womanizer, and Hedy saw this. Imagine he was courting the most beautiful woman at the time and his reaction on that show, might have shown his true side. In fact, years later, Dinah left him because of his affairs.
James’ DNA proves he wasn’t related to Hedy and Loder and Anthony & Denise. Denise talked about it after a screening of the excellent fact checked Bombshell documentary about Hedy’s life by Alexandra Dean in 2017. It’s in a clip on YouTube after a screening in Nashville. The documentary even calls him an “adopted son.” His birth certificate he showed tabloids and a foreign documentary maker is a secondary birth certificate with the address of John Loder and Hedy in 1946 after they moved from Hedgerow Farm to Roxbury Drive and was issued after Loder adopted James. James was adopted first by Hedy and Gene Markey. His natural father was Irish and died before he was born and his mother died shortly after. We know that from Hedy. Adoption courts seal the natural parents’ names so we will never know who they were. James does not show any resemblance to John or Hedy, and we know that Anthony and Denise do. Hedy did not know much English when she was in London for the short time before meeting Louis B. Mayer (how could she and Loder have any kind of affair then) and she was in the US in October of 1937 still with barely any English language. She was busy and did not see Loder again until he came to Hollywood in the early 1940s. He was married with a young daughter and very busy making a bunch of films in England before coming to the US when war broke out in Europe. Ruth Barton and others tried to find pictures of Hedy pregnant but couldn’t from then. She was always being photographed in the late 1930s. She was very pregnant with Denise in 1944/45. The story which is fiction was dreamed up by people not dealing with facts or paying attention to the timeline. James was a big baby and even bigger when Hedy left him out of her will as she made a point of cutting him out first in 1962 in a will that was auctioned off online. He wanted to leave Hedy and Anthony & Denise and had gotten in trouble at the boarding school. They wouldn’t let him live there after he caused trouble. He was a big problem for Hedy for 2 or 3 years. She finally agreed to letting him leave to live with his teacher Ingrid Gray and her husband. Hedy gave James a trust fund when he left. He didn’t seem too sad about it in the 2006 documentary.
STRANGERS AT SUNRISE is one of those hard to find movies that George did. I have an old grainey copy but its real bad. I was wondering if anyone had a decent copy on DVD or VHS or whatever. I would love to purchase it as I love collecting movies where George acted in them. Please send me an email if you have a copy of this movie please… Thanks!
Oh in case its not visible my email is silverko50@gmail.com
Hope someone has the movie STRANGERS AT SUNRISE!
James does look like Hedy. Has he done a DNA test with Denise or Tony Loder.
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