Cloris Leachman Miscarried & Got Call From Husband’s A-List Star Mistress at 4 AM: ‘I Felt Simply Awful’

George Englund, the late Cloris Leachman’s sole devoted spouse, introduced her to him through Patsy, his sister. Leachman liked her future sister-in-law because she was a direct person who did not readily get intimidated by people in positions of power.

In 1950, veteran actress Cloris Leachman got married to George Englund, her only partner. Englund’s sister Patricia, referred to as Patsy, introduced the pair.

She played Celia in Leachman and Patsy’s Broadway production of “As You Like It” at the time. The two women used the same changing room.

The eight-time Emmy Award winner wrote in her memoirs, “Cloris Leachman with George Englund,” on why she liked his sister so much. Leachman clarified that the actress gained her admiration when, one afternoon, they left for lunch and returned to the theater shortly after:

Our extremely military stage manager, Karl Nielsen, chastised us right away and gave us a sharp lecture about being punctual. Unafraid, Patsy said, “Karl, you are exactly right.” It is not going to occur again.

Leachman added that the “Last Wish” star was admirable in many aspects and that was all that was necessary for the case to be ended. She even questioned Patsy’s brotherhood.

Luckily, she succeeded. One evening, Patsy and she were approached by her brother George, who was accompanied by their friend Herb Sargent and their stepfather Ken Englund.

Another night, George returned to the stage, “and the car I was driving suddenly changed lanes,” Leachman recalled, adding that they soon after became husband and wife.

The comedian recounted the tale to FilmFestival.com in 2017 and disclosed that she initially met George, a film director, upon her relocation to New York City in the 1950s:

“I spent a year performing with Katharine Hepburn in the Broadway production of ‘As You Like It.'” I got to know George Englund there; his sister was in the show.

After residing together for four years, the couple decided to tie the knot in April 1953. Adam was the couple’s first child, born in that same year. Dinah, Morgan, George Jr., and their late son Bryan were the four more children that Leachman and George had.

Actress Mabel Albertson and actor Harold Austin Ripley welcomed George into the world in June 1926.Upon his parents’ divorce, he was born under the name George Howe Ripley. Ken, a scriptwriter, and his mother remarried, adopting him and his sister Patsy.
The Washington, D.C. native studied at Black-Foxe Military Institute, where she graduated with a degree in philosophy and English, according to the LA Times. As the team captain for both the basketball and tennis teams, George participated in athletics as well.

The film editor was a Hollywood star, just like his wife. He had, however, only acted in a small number of movies and TV series. Being a director, producer, and screenwriter was George’s primary interest.

In addition to having credits in films including “The Ugly American,” “See How She Runs,” “Dark of the Sun,” and “The Streets of LA,” he helped create “The Eddie Fisher Show.”

George was a family man, but his job kept him away from home a lot. At times, he would disappear for weeks at a time, leaving his wife in charge of the housekeeper and their children. As a result, he and Leachman were at odds with one another.

When her husband returned home, the Iowa native said he would be shocked to learn that things they had agreed upon had been undone. wondering why the children appeared messy and, to some extent, neglected. Leachman continued, saying:

“How the kids should be raised has been, and I’m sure always will be, a major cause of stress between us. George believes that a large part of the reason we were apart for so long was our disagreement about it.

George’s mother lived two doors away from the couple on Beverly Glen Boulevard, so they saw her every day. Mabel noted that her son seemed unduly impatient when they discussed him finding a steady job.

The actress advised him to start small and work his way up as a stage manager for television. George informed her that he had no desire to oversee a stage:

“Yes, Muth, I have done so. My apprenticeship was completed in New York. Stage management is not what I want to do. Directoring and producing is what I want to do.

His spouse, meanwhile, was content to be a mom on-screen and claimed nothing could compare to that experience. However, the couple’s problems persisted. George and I engaged in a disagreement about the same old topic, namely how the kids should be brought up,” Leachman remarked. At the time, she appeared in the drama series “Lassie,” which ran for 19 seasons in 1954. Joan Collins, George’s co-star, was rumored to have been watching him the entire time.

Leaving the show without knowing anything about her husband’s relationship with Collins, Leachman brought her children to see her sister Mary in Darien, Connecticut. “I was concerned about the boys,” she clarified, “who were now one and a half, three, and four and a half years old.

Leachman and her kids had a happy life in Darien. Mary and her husband Bob Castle, a vice president of the advertising firm J. Walter Thompson Company, extended a hearty welcome to them. “They welcomed my boys, and Bob was a loving surrogate father,” the woman said. Life was so sweet. The sons and I moved into a small house I purchased nearby for fifteen thousand dollars.

She and her kids had started a new life, but her husband lived in New York full-time and just occasionally traveled back. When he arrived one evening, Leachman became pregnant. She received a call shortly after that asking her to travel to Los Angeles for a TV show.

Leachman had to go right away, so George offered to come get his sons and take them back to Los Angeles with him. The former cast member of “Raising Hope” had to run, jump, and run around a lot while filming for the TV show.

Leachman was under a lot of stress throughout the rehearsal, which made her tired, and her pregnancy put her in a difficult situation.

After that, she started to stain and thereafter began to bleed every few minutes. Something came out of me that looked like a big liver. I went to the hospital with George. I experienced a miscarriage,” Leachman said.

She was devastated by the overwhelming emotional impact of the terrifying encounter. She was weak and distraught when Leachman got home.

George contacted her while he was in New York for work. There was an urgency in his voice, “Baby, you have to come back,” Leachman revealed. The kids require you.

After that, she made a weekend visit back to Darien, where she stayed with Mary and her husband. When the Hollywood starlet returned to New York, she was exhausted, and her health did not get better after a few weeks. “I felt weak, depressed, and lifeless,” Leachman remarked.

She called George one night and told him how much she needed to see her kids and how much she missed everyone. Recognizing her predicament, he gave her the assurance that he would either bring the kids or send them to see her.

Leachman was appreciative of his constant assistance, But as much as she missed her family, she was not ready to see them. Rather, she desired to gradually improve day by day, and George concurred.

When Leachman was waiting to go on stage two nights later, he noticed the headline in the newspaper Helen Hayes had been reading: “Joan Collins Should Get An Oscar For The Love Scene She Played With George Englund Last Night.”

She glanced at it and realized she was blanking on the reading, but she finished her performance. At four in the morning, three nights later, Leachman got a call from Collins.

“This is Joan, Carolis. George just walked out of this place. Every day, we get to see one another. I’m smitten with him. How would you like to go with that? She enquired.

Leachman replied, “I don’t know,” admitting that she was tired and confused by what she had just heard. I’m not sure what options are available. Do you believe that the two of you can succeed?

Collins said she loved George and said yes. He, too, loved Leachman, she pointed out. Collins hung up the phone, but dropped it under intense emotion, and Leachman heard her puke in the background.

George was incensed at discovering what his mistress had done. Despite the lack of conflict between them regarding his extramarital affair, his primary worry was the stability of his wife and the family.

Leachman disclosed in her autobiography that she had extramarital affairs during her marriage to the writer. She had secret relationships with actors like Andy Williams and Gene Hackman.

Remarkably, the “Phyllis” actress said that she thought George was unfaithful to her and described their situation as a “somewhat open marriage.”

However, Leachman returned to Los Angeles in a diminished state once her work in the play “A Touch of the Poet” eventually concluded. She felt bad for spending so much time away from her kids and was unsure of what would happen to her and George after they got married.

“I was still anemic, physically,” Leachman said. Upon seeing George and the children waiting for her at the airport, she observed an unhappy and inquisitive group:

Adam stood alone, a good fifteen feet off from the rest. With his eyes shaded, he was gazing below. George was holding baby George in his arms, and Bryan was standing next to him.

George Jr. was standing right in front of Leachman when he asked him where his mother was, according to Leachman. She was unfamiliar to him. Leachman and her family had moved from the small Beverly Glen home adjacent to her mother-in-law to Comstock Avenue in West Los Angeles before she went for New York.

However, the six-member family barely stayed there for a year before she and George got divorced. After that, he relocated to an English home overlooking Sunset Strip.

George wanted the kids to travel to Thailand with him while he filmed 1963’s “The Ugly American,” so Leachman had to accompany them in order to look after their boys. He desired for their kids to travel to other nations and learn about their customs, and It held significance for him:

George and I spoke about it, and in the end, we had to confront reality. It was best for me to go. We promised each other that we would not fight while traveling.

Leachman revealed that they were both aware of his duties as the film’s producer and first-time director, and they concluded that it would be a good chance for him to further his career.

While on the work vacation, the family experienced something very unique. They went to several interesting locations across Bangkok. Every morning, they rode a three-wheeled pedicab called a samlor, which was rented out by a young Thai man, and explored the city.

Leachman made sure her estranged spouse was well-cared for in addition to the children. When he was shooting outside, she brought him juice, and he thought she did a fantastic job:

“A fantastic companion and wife throughout the entire adventure.”

It all changed when I realized the pair had vowed to treat each other civilly. The two never argued while visiting a foreign country. But Collins had moved on with actor Warren Beatty after George had broken up with her.

After Leachman and George made the decision to fight for their marriage, they bought a home in Brentwood Park and moved in together as a family.

Morgan, their fourth son, was welcomed into the family during that time. Dinah, their lone child, was born in January 1966. But in December 1978, after 26 years of marriage and five children, Leachman and George got divorced.