Welcome everyone for our weekly look back at the stars and films of yesteryear and this time I recall three Hollywood legends who once drove along Shenley Road in Borehamwood.

Alas, two have faded from memory for younger people, whilst one still remains a recognisable name nearly 60 years after his demise.

The first star I recall was Tyrone Power and, alas, as with the other two I am too young to have ever met him. He visited Borehamwood briefly in the 1950s to film a couple of sequences for a movie at the old National Studios, now home to the BBC Elstree Centre. I suspect if you asked most people working there today they would not recall the name but from the 1930s to the 1950s he was a big heartthrob on screen in such movies as Blood and Sand, The Mark Of Zorro and Jesse James.

Tyrone was married and had several children but also had affairs with men, which in his day would have ruined his career. The power of the studio system back then kept such matters out of the press, unlike today.

In 1958 he went to Spain to star in Solomon and Sheba but while filming a duelling scene with veteran bad guy George Sanders he suffered a heart attack and died on the way to hospital aged just 44. The film was reshot with Yul Brynner donning a wig and taking over his role.

Errol Flynn remains a name today, I suspect because of his wild private life, which eventually destroyed him. He was the cinema's great swashbuckler in the 1930s and adopted a similar lifestyle off screen. Errol married several times and had kids but was never exactly faithful to the marriage vows and had a liking for teenage girls. His motto was "try everything at least once, as life is short and otherwise how do you know what you are missing?"

Alas, this included becoming an alcoholic and drug addict, albeit whilst still able to turn on the charm and remain box office. Errol made four films in Borehamwood and while here visited Hatfield House, drank in the Red Lion opposite Elstree Studios, and had a good time. He made two films at Elstree Studios with Dame Anna Neagle who told me: "You needed to film Errol before his liquid lunches and he was way past his best but remained a real charmer."

In 1959 Errol visited Canada to sell his yacht as money was tight, but collapsed with a heart attack and died aged just 50. The coroner said his body resembled that of an old man with several significant illnesses. He hated the thought of being buried in Hollywood but he was, although for many years his grave had no marker. A sad end but as Errol said once: "What is the point living beyond 50 as it's downhill after that?" Alas, I am well past that but still going strongish.

Our last star was crowned by a Hollywood gossip columnist as King of Hollywood in the 1930s, and in that decade he was certainly riding high with a string of successful films. Today Clark Gable is no longer a household name, but he gained screen immortality playing the lead in Gone With The Wind, one of the most successful movies of all time in terms of viewers and updated box office receipts.

Ironically, although heavily tipped for the best actor Oscar, he lost out to Robert Donat in Goodbye, Mr Chips. In fact, Clark already had an Oscar from his earlier role in It Happened One Night, ironically in a Columbia film that his own Studio MGM had loaned him out to to punish him for some minor issue.

Clark made three films at MGM in Borehamwood, the most famous of which was Mogambo, co-starring Grace Kelly and Ava Gardner. The supporting cast included Sir Donald Sinden. Many years ago I recall chatting to him at Pinewood Studios and mentioning that a photo signed by all four of them had sold for £800. Donald responded: "Well, at least £20 of that must have been for my signature." A lovely man.

In 1960, Clark had just finished a film called The Misfits with two real life misfits, Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift, who would both self-destruct in the next few years. He was changing a tyre at home when he collapsed in pain. Admitted to hospital with a heart attack, it looked like he would recover by a few days later he succumbed to a second attack and was dead at just 59 years old. Ironically, the son he had always wanted was born shortly after. Such is life.