Becoming Yourself

In 1960, after two failed marriages, Ellen fell in love with actor Neil Burstyn. Neil, Ellen says, "was charming and funny and bright and talented and eccentric. And then he degenerated into mental illness and became schizophrenic and violent."

Neil left Ellen just before she became one the most celebrated actors of the 1970s and '80s, with five Academy Award® nominations and one win in 10 years. "Then he wanted to come back," she says. "By then I had discovered how pleasant life was without a crazy husband and I didn't want him to come back. So he stalked me for 10 years."