9 Celebrity Scandals That Completely Rocked The 1960s

The 1960s were a wild ride for everyone involved. The Beatles invaded, protestors paraded, and the smell of patchouli was in the air. The '60s were a time of miniskirts and moon landings, big hair and bell bottoms, artistic expression and anti-war demonstrations. It faced hardship as the country mourned the assassinations of two Kennedys and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and danced in the rain at Woodstock during some of the most memorable moments in music history — after all, who could forget Jimi Hendrix's interpretation of "The Star Spangled Banner?"

Though it was an era fueled by peace, love, and rock 'n' roll, it wasn't without its share of celebrity scandals that rocked the decade. Affairs, arrests, and accidents cast some of the 1960s' biggest names in the headlines, and became such a part of our culture that we still remember them today. The 1960s were a time for change, and young people were leading the "make love, not war" movement. In his last interview before his death, John Lennon told Dave Sholin of RKO radio (per The Nation), "The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility."  

However, responsibility may not have been on the minds of the public figures who found themselves at the center of some of the decade's biggest stories. From bands behaving badly to the rise of psychedelics, love triangles, and whiffs of conspiracies and cover-ups, these nine '60s celebrity scandals kept a generation talking. 

Perhaps the only thing more scandalous than a 21-year-old Mia Farrow marrying a 50-year-old Frank Sinatra was the way the marriage ended. The 1960s were a time when women were pushing for equality, but men still called the shots, especially in Hollywood. So when "Ol' Blue Eyes" ordered his wife to leave "Rosemary's Baby" mid-production and she refused, the singer served her with divorce papers on set. 

"He left me because I wouldn't leave the movie when he told me to leave it," Farrow said in an interview on "The Drew Barrymore Show" (per People). "It had another month. He had some dispute with the head of the studio and he said, 'I'm taking my girl out of this,' that kind of thing." That decision may have cost her a marriage, but it earned Farrow a Golden Globe nod for her performance. 

Farrow was the daughter of Hollywood royalty. Her mother was the acclaimed actress Maureen O'Sullivan, and her father was writer and director John Farrow. To leave the film would have been an embarrassment to both of them, and a blemish on what was turning out to be a promising career for the young actress who had already achieved success as a teen on "Peyton Place." While he didn't get "his way," Sinatra was not Farrow's biggest regret in life. In fact, in an interview on "CBS This Morning," Farrow recalled her ex fondly and said, "It ended up being a friendship that lasted until he died." 

Sometimes, the best man doesn't win, and that was the case when Pete Best found himself ousted from what would go on to become one of the most famous bands in the history of music. Yep, long before Ringo became a star, Best was the drummer who put the beat in The Beatles. 

He first met the Liverpool lads (sans Starr), who were then known as "The Quarryman," when they performed at a club owned by Best's mom. He eventually became the fourth Beatle and spent two glorious years playing, touring, and forging what he thought were strong friendships. Behind his back, however, the other three Beatles didn't think Best was the best man for the job, and he was unceremoniously cut from the soon-to-be supergroup. He received the news from the group's manager, Brian Epstein. "I was completely shell-shocked," Best said on "Late Night with David Letterman," and added that none of his bandmates ever spoke to him about it. 

Best was able to rise above and put it all behind him, eventually getting out of the industry altogether. But why was he cut? Some speculate the reason might be as plain as the nose on Starr's face. Larry Kane, author of "When They Were Boys: The True Story of the Beatles' Rise to the Top," told Parade, "the evidence is growing that Best, the most popular Beatle in the early days, was sacked because of his good looks." Meanwhile, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr remain lifelong friends. 

Beautiful, blonde Jayne Mansfield was one of Hollywood's brightest stars until her light was snuffed out in a devastating car accident. The Playboy model-turned-actress was only 34 when the convertible she was traveling in rear-ended an 18-wheeler, killing Mansfield and her two adult traveling companions. Three of Mansfield's five children sustained non-life-threatening injuries in the wreck. 

One of those children was actress Mariska Hargitay of "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit" fame. Hargitay has channeled Mansfield on the red carpet a few times, but she was only three at the time of her mom's death and has admitted that she doesn't remember much about her. In a trailer for her HBO documentary, "My Mom Jayne," the actress revealed (per People), "I've spent my whole life distancing myself from my mother, Jayne Mansfield, the sex symbol. Her career made me want to do it differently, but I want to understand her now."

Perhaps the reason Hargitay wanted to do things differently stemmed from the fact that her mother was known more for her pin-up girl looks (her measurements were 40-18-35) and persona than for any real acting chops. Mansfield was said to have capitalized on her starlet status and played glamour girl to perfection. As she once told a reporter (per The New York Times), "To establish yourself as an actress, you have to become well known. A girl just starting out, I would tell her to concentrate on acting, but she doesn't have to go around wearing blankets." 

There was one place to be if you wanted to cement your celebrity status in the '60s, and that was "The Ed Sullivan Show." It was where America first met The Beatles, and a boy named Elvis Presley, among others. The show was a career-making vehicle that shot many a wanna-be star into the stratosphere, and most performers would agree to almost anything to appear on that stage. However, The Doors weren't most performers — and their actions proved it. 

According to The Doors website, Sullivan asked the band to change the lyrics to "Light My Fire," specifically, the phrase "girl, we couldn't get much higher."  It's unclear whether or not they agreed to the change, but as soon as the cameras were on, all bets were off, and Jim Morrison belted the uncensored lyric into millions of homes across America. 

"We thought they were joking — who were they kidding? Wanting us to change the lyrics on the number one song in America? We decided to just do the song as-is, and maybe they would forget all about it," Robby Krieger​ explained. The Doors weren't the only ones who had to make some concessions in order to appear on the most popular variety show of the decade. The Rolling Stones changed the lyrics to "Let's Spend the Night Together," and Elvis was only filmed from the waist up. They were, however, the only ones who rebelled. "So, yeah, we never played the Ed Sullivan show again," continued Krieger. "But we didn't care."

The name Kennedy has become synonymous with scandal over the years, but none were quite as big as the Chappaquiddick scandal that the late Senator Ted Kennedy found himself in during the late '60s. The details, although tragic, seemed straightforward enough: After attending a party, Kennedy's car went off a bridge in Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts, and landed in the water. 

Kennedy escaped, but his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne (who had worked on his late brother Robert's presidential campaign) did not. What first made this story suspicious was that Kennedy waited ten hours before reporting the incident to the police. "I was overcome, I'm frank to say, by a jumble of emotions: grief, fear, doubt, exhaustion, panic, confusion, and shock," he said in a nationally broadcast statement on ABC News. As more sketchy details emerged, there was talk of foul play, but there was no concrete evidence to implicate Kennedy. He pled guilty to a charge of "leaving the scene of an accident without making himself known" (per People) and received a two-month suspended sentence. 

To some, it looked like he got off easy, but before his death, Kennedy confessed that the incident haunted him. "That night on Chappaquiddick Island ended in a horrible tragedy that haunts me every day of my life," he wrote in his 2009 autobiography "True Compass" (per People). "I had suffered sudden and violent loss far too many times, but this night was different. This night I was responsible. It was an accident, but I was responsible." The accident has since been made into a 2017 film documentary.

There has always been drama between Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, but what do you expect from bandmates who often found themselves at the center of controversies? Rowdier than The Beatles, The Rolling Stones were rock's bad boys in the '60s. Their antics often landed them in hot water, but in 1967, they landed Jagger and Richards in jail during one of the biggest drug busts of the decade.  

The boys, along with art dealer Robert Fraser, were reportedly busted for illegal drugs, including amphetamines, marijuana, and heroin, at Richards' home. In his book "Life" (per Rolling Stone), Richards described how he mistook the officers for dwarves. "There's a knock on the door, I look out the window, and there's this whole lot of dwarves outside," he wrote. "I'd never been busted before, and I'm still on acid." The debacle earned Richards a one-year sentence, while Jagger got off with just three months. However, both rockers appealed and were out in one month. 

Although they've never professed to be angels, The Stones have claimed that the bust was a set-up and part of an ongoing feud between Jagger and the British newspaper "The News of the World." The famous frontman had recently sued the publication for slander after it reported that he took LSD at a party. Regardless, Richards wrote (per The Daily Harold) that the event changed things. "When we got busted at Redlands, it made us realize that this was a whole different ball game, and that was when the fun had stopped." 

Of the stunning number of times Elizabeth Taylor was married, Richard Burton had the distinction of being the only husband she married twice. Theirs was a passionate and turbulent relationship that began almost the moment they laid eyes on one another on the "Cleopatra" set. "The first day on the set, he was hungover and very vulnerable, and his hands were shaking," the late Taylor said in an interview (per People). "He asked me to hold a coffee cup up to his lips, and I was gone." 

Burton echoed her sentiments in an interview with Town and Country. "I fell in love at once," he said. "She was like a mirage of beauty of the ages, irresistible like the pull of gravity." However, both were married to other people, Taylor to Eddie Fisher, a man she had lured away from his wife Debbie Reynolds in another scandal, and Burton to actress Sybil Burton, but it soon became clear that the costars had eyes only for each other. "There was obviously something going on with Richard and Elizabeth, and Eddie knew about it," actress Joan Collins told People. 

The chemistry between the two stars was undeniable, and it wasn't long before their affair became public knowledge. In the 2024 HBO documentary "Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes" (per People), the violet-eyed Taylor said, "We were like two atom bombs." They eventually exploded in divorce, only to remarry and divorce again. "I love Richard with every fiber of my soul," Elizabeth said (per Town and Country), "but we can't be together."

Marilyn Monroe was the ultimate blonde bombshell, and her death from an apparent drug overdose was one of the biggest scandals of the decade. With her white-blonde hair, red lips, soft voice, and killer figure, Monroe was a true femme fatale who captured the hearts of millions in films like "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and "How to Marry A Millionaire." However, it was her untimely death more than her life that made the actress so fascinating. The belief that there was more to the story than met the eye has spawned books, movies, and documentaries, many with some bizarre conspiracy theories about Marilyn Monroe. 

At the heart of the theories is the idea that Monroe's involvement with some powerful men got her killed — specifically, former President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert, both of whom she had allegedly had affairs with over the years. An interview with Monroe's housekeeper, along with tapes from Monroe's allegedly bugged house, indicates that Bobby Kennedy was there the night of the star's death, but they don't prove that he was responsible for it. 

However, Monroe's ex, Joe DiMaggio, disagreed. In his 2017 biography "Dinner with DiMaggio: Memories of an American Hero," Dr. Rock Positano recalled a conversation with the baseball great where he implied the prominent political family was involved in the scandal. "The whole lot of Kennedys were lady-killers, and they always got away with it," DiMaggio told Positano (per People) and added, "They'll be getting away with it a hundred years from now."  

Joan Baez was one of the great activists of the '60s, known as much for her participation in protests as for her folk songs — and her love affair with Bob Dylan. But those who confused her message of non-violence for weakness were in for a rude awakening. Baez was a force of nature, and a woman Rolling Stone once deemed "A Secret Badass." 

"Joan has that rock and roll attitude toward life and freedom and love," singer-songwriter Bob Neuwirth told Rolling Stone. "She has a kind of bravery that could just kick down the doors." It was also the kind of bravery that landed her in jail alongside her mother, "Big Joan." Both women were among many protestors arrested in California in 1967 for blocking the entrance to an armed forces induction center. 

The incarceration caught the attention of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who paid a visit to the women, and publicly praised them for their actions. "As an expression of my appreciation for what they are doing for the peace movement and for what they have done for the civil rights movement, I would take time out of my schedule to come out to see them, to visit them, and let them know that they have our absolute support," he said in a news conference outside the jail (per Democracy Now). "And I might say that I see these two struggles as one struggle. There can be — there can be no justice without peace, and there can be no peace without justice."