|
A Tribute to Joan Bennett
|
Jean Arthur was one of Hollywood's most popular actresses of the 1930's and early 1940's. During the 30's, she specialized in playing hard-boiled depression era heroines, and is perhaps best remembered today for the three films she made for Frank Capra in the 30's; "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town", 1936, with Gary Cooper, "You Can't Take It With You", 1938, and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", 1939, both with James Stewart. She had a cracked, child-woman voice unlike any other actress which continues to enchant movie buffs to this day. She was also a favorite actress of director George Stevens, who called her "one of the greatest comediennes the world has ever seen." For Stevens she made "The Talk of the Town" 1942, with Cary Grant and Ronald Colman, "The More the Merrier", 1943, with Joel McCrea, and "Shane", 1953, with Alan Ladd. Her only Oscar nomination came for her peerless comedy performance in Stevens' "The More the Merrier". Among her other films: "The Whole Town's Talking", 1935, with Edward G. Robinson, "History is Made at Night", 1937, with Charles Boyer, "Only Angels Have Wings", 1939, with Cary Grant, and "The Devil and Miss Jones", 1941, with Robert Cummings, one of her biggest hits.
With James Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"
Swedish born Ingrid Bergman can hold claim to being one of the greatest actresses of Hollywood's Golden Era. She is a three time Academy Award winner: Best Actress for "Gaslight", 1944, with Charles Boyer. Best Actress for "Anastasia", 1956, with Yul Brynner. Best Supporting Actress for "Murder on the Orient Express", 1974, where she stole the film from an International all-star cast. On top of that, she has reached iconic status as Ilsa Lund in the Oscar winning "Casablanca", 1943, opposite Humphrey Bogart, one of the most beloved film romances of all time. She received 4 other Oscar nominations during her career, including those for "For Whom the Bell Tolls", 1943, with Gary Cooper, and "The Bells of St. Mary's", 1946, with Bing Crosby. She costarred with Cary Grant in two of her most popular films, Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious", 1946, and Stanley Donen's "Indiscreet", 1958. In 1982, three weeks after her death, she won a posthumous Best Actress Emmy Award for her portrayal of Golda Meir in the tv movie "A Woman Called Golda". She remains mourned by millions of fans around the world.
With Humphrey Bogart in "Casablanca"
French born actress Claudette Colbert began her Hollywood career in 1929 and reached major stardom in 1934 in three box office hits; the tearjerking "Imitation of Life", in the title role of Cecil B. DeMille's epic "Cleopatra", and Frank Capra's classic comedy "It Happened One Night", opposite Clark Gable, for which she won a Best Actress Oscar. A versatile actress equally at home with comedy or drama, she received two additional Oscar nominations for her dramatic performances in "Private Worlds", 1935, with Charles Boyer, and the WWII home front melodrama "Since You Went Away", 1944, as the mother of Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple. Her popularity endured into the 1950's, and she would have played Margo Channing in the Oscar winning "All About Eve", 1950, had she not injured her back, paving the way for Bette Davis to get one of her most famous roles. Among her other films: "Tovarich", 1937, with Charles Boyer; "Midnight", 1939, with Don Ameche; "Boom Town", 1940, with Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy; "The Palm Beach Story", 1943, with Joel McCrea; "Tomorrow Is Forever", 1946, with Orson Welles; and "The Egg and I", 1947, with Fred MacMurray.
Oscar winners Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in "It Happened One Night"
One of Hollywood's greatest stars, Joan Crawford began her film career in the silent era and made an easy and successful transition to talking pictures. Among her best films of the early 30's are the Oscar winning "Grand Hotel", 1932, with Wallace Beery and Greta Garbo; "Rain", 1932, with Walter Huston; and "Dancing Lady", 1933, one of a handful of films she made with Clark Gable. Despite being labeled "box office poison" in the late 30's, she went on to make some of her greatest films, including the all-star, all-female "The Women", 1939, and "A Woman's Face", 1941, in which she gave one of her finest performances. She moved from MGM to Warner Brothers in 1944 and was soon at the pinnacle of her career, winning the Best Actress Oscar for the title role in "Mildred Pierce", 1945. She followed with two more of her greatest performances, in "Humoresque", 1946, with John Garfield, and "Possessed", 1947, with Van Heflin, for which she received a second Oscar nomination. A third nomination came in 1952 for the suspense thriller "Sudden Fear" opposite Jack Palance. Two of her best films of the 1950's are "Johnny Guitar", 1954, and "Autumn Leaves", 1956. She had another big hit in 1962 in "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" opposite her reputed rival, Bette Davis. Her last great performace was in the 1969 made-for-television movie, "Night Gallary".
With Ann Blyth in "Mildred Pierce"
There is possibly no greater movie star of the 1930's and 1940's then Bette Davis. After struggling with Jack Warner for good film roles in the early 30's, she went to RKO in 1934 to play the sluttish Mildred in John Cromwell's "Of Human Bondage" and came back to Warners' a major star. She won a Best Actress Oscar for "Dangerous", 1935, opposite Franchot Tone, and after good roles in "The Petrified Forest", 1936, with Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart, and "That Certain Woman", 1937, with Henry Fonda, she won a second Oscar in 1938 for William Wyler's "Jezebel". She then moved from strength to strength; "The Sisters", 1938, with Errol Flynn; "Dark Victory", 1939, with George Brent; "All This, and Heaven Too", 1940, with Charles Boyer; "The Letter", 1940, with Herbert Marshall; "The Little Foxes", 1941, with Marshall again; "Now, Voyager", 1942, with Paul Henreid; "Watch on the Rhine", 1943, with Paul Lukas; and "Mr. Skeffington", 1944, with Claude Rains, receiving an additional five Oscar nominations. Few actors could maintain such an impressive track record, and Bette's career faltered in the late 40's. After the dismal "Beyond the Forest", 1949, Bette Davis left Warner Brothers. But she was far from down and out. In 1950 she gave one of her greatest performances as Broadway diva Margo Channing in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's multi-Oscar winning "All About Eve", receiving her 8th Oscar nomination and winning the New York Film Critics Best Actress Award. Her 9th Oscar nomination came in 1952 for "The Star", but it would be 10 years before her next great success, playing opposite Joan Crawford in "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?", 1962. She received her 10th and final Oscar nomination. Afterwards, Bette's best work would be for television. She won a Best Actress Emmy Award in 1979 for "Strangers; The Story of a Mother and Daughter" with Gena Rowlands. Her last great film role was in "The Whales of August", 1987, in which she costarred with fellow screen veterans Lillian Gish, Vincent Price and Ann Sothern.
Was there ever a more versatile actress then Miss Irene Dunne? She did it all, applying her craft to films of all genres. WESTERNS: "Cimmaron", 1931, with Richard Dix. TEARJERKERS: "Back Street", 1932, with John Boles. "Magnificent Obsession", 1935, with Robert Taylor. MUSICALS: "Roberta", 1935, with Astaire and Rogers. "Show Boat",1936, with Allan Jones and Paul Robeson. COMEDY: "Theodora Goes Wild", 1936, with Melvyn Douglas. "The Awful Truth", 1937, and "My Favorite Wife", 1940, both with Cary Grant. ROMANTIC DRAMA: "Love Affair", 1939, with Charles Boyer. "Penny Serenade", 1941, with Cary Grant. SENTIMENTAL DRAMA: "Life With Father", 1947, with William Powell. "I Remember Mama", 1948, with Barbara Bel Gedded and Ellen Corby. HISTORICAL DRAMA: "The White Cliffs of Dover", 1944, with Alan Marshall. "Anna and the King of Siam", 1946, with Rex Harrison. WWII DRAMA: "A Guy Named Joe", 1943, with Spencer Tracy. Along the way, she received 5 Oscar nominations for Best Actress. Irene Dunne not only did it all. She did it all very well.
With Cary Grant in "The Awful Truth"
Jean Harlow first reached stardom in Howard Hughes' ""Hell's Angels", 1930. With her platinum blonde, cotton candy-like hair and clinging, low cut gowns which emphaszied her breasts, she was unlike anything the movies had seen before. She was also a pretty bad dramatic actress. She played sirens in several early 30's films, most notably opposite James Cagney in "Public Enemy", 1931, but her roles were little more then bits, and at that she didn't play them well. It wasn't until she moved to MGM in 1932 that the real Harlow emerged. At MGM, she began kidding the siren image. She dropped the studied diction for the vulgarity of her voice, pronunciation and guttural Missouri accent. MGM empathsized her common touch, and Harlow went from siren to "babe", soon becoming the best rowdy comidienne in the business. "What are they feeding you?", she asks the pet parrott while cleaning his cage in "Red Dust", 1932. "Cement?" In 'Dinner at Eight", 1933, sparring with the mountainous Wallace Beery, Harlow gave as good as she got, even better. It's Beery who backs down. She's at her peak in "Libeled Lady", 1936, as the battling would-be wife of Spencer Tracy. MGM did experiment with expanding her image in the mid 30's, and Harlow showed she had learned a lot. She's excellent as the secretary in love with her married boss, Clark Gabke, in "Wife vs Secretary", 1936. But time wasn't on her side. It's been said that all of Hollywood mourned when Jean Harlow died tragically of uremic poisoning at the age of 26. But in her brief 6 years of stardom, Jean Harlow left an indelible mark on Hollywood. A mark that continues to shine brightly 70 years after her passing.
Exchanging barbs with Wallace Beery in "Dinner at Eight"
The whole world fell in love with Audrey Hepburn when she made her starring debut as a runaway princess in William Wyler's "Roman Holiday", 1953. With her gamine looks and slender, boyish figure, she had a startlingly fresh beauty and intelligence for the early 50's when most new actresses were blonde and buxom and giggling. And the camera adored her. With her big, doe-like eyes, she only needed to gaze into the camera to captivate an audience. But there was a bonus. Audrey Hepburn could also act. She won the Academy Award and NY Film Critics Best Actress prizes for "Roman Holiday", and for the next 15 years she could do very little wrong. She's at her most beautiful and beguiling in Billy Wilder's "Sabrina", 1954, became a fashion icon in "Funny Face", 1957, and gave one of her finest performances in Fred Zinnemann's "The Nun's Story", 1959, as a young nun serving in the Belgian Congo, winning the NY Critics prize again. She remained a top box office draw during the 1960's. She had one of her biggest hits as Holly Golightly in Blake Edward's "Breakfast at Tiffany's", 1961, and another romancing a much older Cary Grant in Stanley Donen's "Charade", 1963. In 1964 she beat out Julie Andrews for the role of Eliza Doolittle in George Cukor's film adaption of Andrews' Broadway hit, "My Fair Lady", and was excellent as a terrorized blind woman in Terence Young's "Wait Until Dark", 1967, receiving her fifth and final Oscar nomination. She went into semi-retirement shortly afterwards and would make only 5 more screen appearances during her life, preferring instead to work for the United Nations UNICEF fund, helping needy children in Latin America and Africa. Audrey Hepburn died in 1993. She remains much beloved around the world for both her film work and humanitarian efforts.
With Gregory Peck in 'Roman Holiday"
Katharine Hepburn holds the record for having won more Academy Awards then any other actor. She received Best Actress Oscars for "Morning Glory", 1933, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?", 1967, "The Lion in Winter", 1968, and "On Golden Pond", 1981. What's even more amazing is that none of these are her best performances. She may deserve at least four more. Under contract to RKO, Hepburn made her film debut opposite John Barrymore in George Cukor's "A Bill of Divorcement", 1932 and won her first Oscar the following year. With her high cheekbones, piercing eyes and flashing smile, she was a unique beauty, but her Bryn Mawr accent, obvious intelligence and astringent wit didn't make her a favorite with mass audiences, and by the late 30's she was labeled "box office poison." Ironically, she was doing some of her best work then; as the aspiring actress in Gregory LaCava's "Stage Door", 1937, the screwball heroine of Howard Hawks' "Bringing Up Baby", 1938, and the nonconformist rich girl of George Cukor's "Holiday", 1938. Hepburn fled to Broadway in 1939 and was a big hit in Philip Barry's "The Philadelphia Story." When Hollywood came knocking for the film rights, they found that Hepburn had already bought them, and would only sell them with the guarentee that she would repeat her stage role. MGM agreed, cast her with Cary Grant and James Stewart, and "The Philadelphia Story", 1940, was one of the years biggest hits, with Hepburn winning The New York Film Critics Best Actress prize. Hepburn followed with the battle-of-the-sexes comdey "Woman of the Year", 1942, another hit which teamed her with Spencer Tracy, starting their long professional and personal partnership. She made some of her most forgettable films in the 40's, but came back strong with Tracy in "Adam's Rib", 1949, and some career best performances in the 50's and early 60's. These include the spinster missionary in John Huston's "The African Queen", 1951, with Humphrey Bogart, the love-starved schoolteacher in David Lean's "Summertime", 1955, the tortured mother of Montgomery Clift in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's "Suddenly, Last Summer", 1959, and the drug addicted housewife in Sidney Lumet's "Long Day's Journey into Night", 1962. She was inactive for most of the 60's, preferring to be at the side of an ailing Spencer Tracy. The two made one last film together, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?",1967, winning Hepburn her second Oscar. Tracy died shortly after filming ended, and Hepburn won her thrid Oscar the following year for "The Lion in Winter." She continued to work regularly through out the 70's, won a Best Actress Emmy Award in 1975 for the made-for-tv "Love Among the Ruins" with Laurence Olivier, and won her fourth Oscar in 1981 for the old age drama "On Golden Pond" with Henry Fonda. Her final big screen appearance was in Warren Beatty's "Love Affair", 1994.
With James Stewart and Cary Grant in "The Philadelphia Story"
Ida Lupino has sometimes been referred to as "the poor man's Bette Davis." She was no Davis imitator, but she did have the same kind of forceful acting personality. Lupino was also under contract at Warner Brothers in the 40's where, like Eleanor Parker, Ann Sheridan and Alexis Smith, she suffered from getting only those roles which Davis (and later Joan Crawford) had first turned down. But Ida managed better then most. After a brief apprenticeship in the British film industry, Ida Lupino came to Hollywood in the mid 30's and won great acclaim as the vengeful Cockney model of painter Ronald Colman in "The Light That Failed", 1939. Major stardom seemed assured in the early 40's, with top performances as the murderous wife who goes insane on the witness stand in "They Drive By Night", 1940, with George Raft, as the taxi dancer in love with fugitive Humphrey Bogart in "High Sierra", 1941, as the escaped convict trapped on sadistic Edward G. Robinson's shipping vessel in "The Sea Wolf", 1941, and as the spinster housekeeper who goes to great lengths, even murder, to protect her crazy sisters in 'Ladies in Retirement", 1941, her own personal favorite. Lupino won the New York Film Critics Best Actress prize in 1943 for "The Hard Way", as the ambitious stage sister who pushes Joan Leslie into a career in show business, ruining both their lives. But the momentum seemed to run out of her career. Her films of the mid-40's are mostly forgettable, though Warners gave her two good roles towards the end of her contract. She's fine as the nightclub singer pursued by mobster Robert Alda in "The Man I Love", 1947, and gives one of her finest performances as the shy, stuttering mountain girl who finds love with escaped convict Dane Clark in "Deep Valley," 1947. She left Warners in 1948 and gave another best performance at 20th Century-Fox in Jean Negulesco's "Road House", 1948, again playing a nightclub singer who comes between Cornel Wilde and Richard Widmark. She sang her own songs, and her throaty, wiskey soaked voice was very effective. Ida Lupino said later in life that she felt her acting career had a been a failure. A harsh judgement, to be sure. But in the 50's and beyond she did turn her attentions behind the camera, producing and directing a series of low budget independent films and later many episodes of various tv programs. She continued to work in front of the cameras as well, givng her best latter day performance as Steve McQueen's mother in Sam Peckinpah's "Junior Bonner", 1972.
With Edward G. Robinson and John Garfield in "The Sea Wolf"
What can be written about Marilyn Monroe, and in one paragraph, that hasn't already been written in mountains of books, biographies, magazine articles and film & television documentaries since her death in 1962? She was, simply said, the greatest movie star in the world, as famous today as she was at her death 45 years ago. She's most often referred to as a "sex symbol," a tag which doesn't half tell the truth. She's a Hollywood Icon, an American Icon, with an iconic life. She rose from a troubled childhood of illegitimacy, poverty and foster homes to become a model (including the now famous nude calendar shots) and Hollywood starlet. The slow build-up began in 1950 at 20th Century-Fox, with small roles in two good films, John Huston's "The Asphalt Jungle" and Joseph L. Mankiewicz's "All About Eve." She had bigger roles in Fritz Lang's "Clash by Night" and Roy Baker's "Don't Bother to Knock", 1952. Her first important starring role came in Howard Hawks' "Monkey Business", 1952, and she reached major stardom in a tight red satin dress in Henry Hathaway's "Niagara", 1953. She was a delightful light comedienne in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", 1953, "How to Marry a Millionaire", 1953, and "The Seven Year Itch", 1955. She had ambitions to be taken more seriously as an actress and proved she had the stuff with a fine dramatic performance in Joshua Logan's "Bus Stop", 1956. But her emotional problems were soon to take a toll. Her marriages to two American icons, the great American baseball player, Joe DiMaggio, and the great American playwrite, Arthur Miller, both ended in divorce. Her personal demons spilled over into her professional life, and she had trouble filming her scenes in Billy Wilder's classic comedy "Some Like It Hot", 1959, still managing to give her most delightful and appealing performance. Arthur Miller wrote "The Misfits", 1961, for her, and Marilyn gave a powerful, emotionally raw performance. But it was to be her last film. She caused too many delays on the set of "Something's Got to Give", and was fired by 20th Century-Fox. Her drug induced death in 1962 shocked and stunned the world, and is still being written about today. Ruled a suicide, many theories abound that Monroe was murdered for knowing too many government secrets following love affairs with both President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Her sad death only added to the legend of Marilyn Monroe, a legend that continues to captivate the world.
With Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon (in drag) in "Some Like It Hot"
Ohio born Eleanor Parker was a ravishing beauty with a distinctive, beautifully modulated speaking voice who never quite reached the heights of stardom predicted for her by both critics and colleagues. Co-star Glenn Ford called her "the least heralded great actress" and Oscar winning director Robert Wise referred to Parker as "an artist of the first rank." Placed under contract by Warner Brothers in 1942, Parker lacked the temperament to fight for the good roles that were offered first to Bette Davis and Ida Lupino. Nor did she create an identifyable screen persona, preferring instead to disappear within her characters. Still, she carved out an impressive film career for herself which brought her three Academy Award nominations for Best Actress. After a few minor films and supporting parts, Parker began getting starring roles in 1944 opposite some of Warners top male stars; these include "Between Two Worlds", 1944, with Paul Henreid, "The Very Thought of You", 1944, with Dennis Morgan, "The Pride of the Marines", 1945, with John Garfield, and "Never Say Goodbye", 1946, with Errol Flynn. In 1946, Warner's cast her as Mildred in their remake of the 1934 Bette Davis hit, "Of Human Bondage", but the film failed to do for Parker's career what the original had done for Bette's. In 1947 she won the coveted role of Sally Middleton in "The Voice of the Turtle", which had been a Broadway smash for Margaret Sullavan. Opposite future President Ronald Reagan, she gave a delightful comic performance. In 1950, Warners cast her opposite Humphrey Bogart in "Chain Lightning", as one of the three female leads (with Patricia Neal and Ruth Roman) in "Three Secrets", and gave her the best role of her Warners career in John Cromwell's "Caged." As the decent, innocent young wife sent to prison for her husband's crime, she is corrupted by the heartless penal systems and hardened criminals she is incarcerated with, preparing her for a life of crime upon her release. Parker's transformation from frightened child-woman to bitter con was remarkable, and she received her first Oscar nomination. She left Warners in 1950 and received her second Oscar nomination the next year in William Wyler's "Detective Story", 1951, as the wife of Kirk Douglas who hides a troubled past. She moved to MGM in 1952, made the popular swashbuckler "Scaramouche", 1952, with Stewart Granger, 4 films with MGM's longtime leading man Robert Taylor, then received another of her best roles in Curtis Bernhardt's "Interrupted Melody", 1955, with Glenn Ford. Parker played real life opera star Marjorie Lawrence, whose career was cut short by her battle with polio. Parker received her third and final Oscar nomination for her highly dramatic performance. It was the peak of her career. She had a few more good roles; with Frank Sinatra in "The Man With the Golden Arm", 1955, "The Seventh Sin", 1956, and with Robert Mitchum in "Home From the Hill", 1960, but her career slowly faed in the 60's. Her last good role, and perhaps the one she's best remembered for today, was as the Baroness in the Oscar winning musical "The Sound of Music", 1965. She continued to work in films and television through the 70's and 80's, but has not been seen since the 1991 tv-movie, "Dead on the Money."
With Agnes Moorehead in "Caged"
Ann Sheridan's greatest popularity was possibly as a WWII pin-up girl. Tagged the "Oomph Girl", she was a favorite of the American GI's, along with Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth, who set their pulses racing with her svelte figure and pouting beauty. She was also a fine actress, with a screen persona that was at once tough as Cagney and warm and sympathetic. She had been a school teacher in her home state of Texas when she won a studio sponsered beauty contest and a six month contract at Paramount. She served a long and dreary apprenticeship in bits and walk-on's, first at Paramount and then Warner Brothers, before things began to improve for her in the late 30's. By 1940, she was a star, with good roles opposite George Raft in 'They Drive By Night", and James Cagney in both "Torrid Zone" and "City For Conquest". In 1941 she had her best role as Randy Monaghan, the proud, compassionate girl from the wrong side of the tracks in Sam Wood's superb "Kings Row", and followed with a fine comic turn as the vamping stage diva Lorraine Sheldon in the film adaption of the Kaufman-Hart Broadway hit, "The Man Who Came to Dinner". Through out the 40's she continued to rotate between comedies ("George Washington Slept Here", 1942, "The Doughgirls", 1944) and dramas ("Edge of Darkness", 1943, "The Unfaithful", 1947) and had one of her most popular hits in the Cary Grant-in-drag comedy "I Was a Male War Bride", 1949. Like most glamour stars of her era, Ann's career waned in the 50's, and she turned to the stage and later television before her untimely death from lung cancer in 1967.
With Ronald Reagan in "Kings Row"
Barbara Stanwyck was one of Hollywood's most durable stars. She made her film debut in 1929 and was still going strong on television well into the 1980's. As an interpreter of strong roles for women, she ranks with Bette Davis and Joan Crawford as one of the greats, and it could be argued that she had a greater range then either. She could match their dramatic intensity, played comedy better, gave the definitive femme fatale performance of the film noir genre, and became a western star on film and television as she aged past romantic leads. She had started her career on the NY stage and came to Hollywood with the beginning of sound. Several of her early 30's films are now considered classics of the provocative pre-code era, including "Night Nurse", 1931, and "Ladies They Talk About", 1933. The most famous of these is "Baby Face", 1933, with Stanwyck literally sleeping her way up the social ladder. She was the favorite actress of rising director Frank Capra, and starred in several of his early films, including "Miracle Woman", 1931, "Forbidden", 1932, and "The Bitter Tea of General Yen", 1933. She had her biggest hit of the decade, and received her first Oscar nomination, in King Vidor's "Stella Dallas", 1937, the tearjerker supreme of a woman who sacrifices her daughters love to give her a better future. She made two classic comedies in 1941, Howard Hawks' "Ball of Fire" with Gary Cooper (another Oscar nomination), and Preston Sturges' "The Lady Eve" with Henry Fonda,. In 1944 she played what may be her greatest role, Phyllis Dietrichson, the cheating wife who plots to murder her husband for his life insurance in Billy Wilder's classic film noir "Double Indemnity". She received her third Oscar nomination for her iconic performance, and played another murderess role in the noirish melodrama "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers", 1946. She received her fourth and final Oscar nomination in 1948 as the bedridden invalid who overhears a murder plot in "Sorry, Wrong Number." She continued to work through out the 50's in both dramas ("Clash by Night", 1952, "There's Always Tomorrow", 1956) and westerns ("Blowing Wild", 1953, "Cattle Queen of Montana", 1954) and in 1960 turned to television as the star of "The Barbara Stanwyck Show". It lasted only one season, just long enough for Stanwyck to win a Best Actress Emmy Award. Her next series, "The Big Valley", was a big hit, lasting from 1965 to 1969 and brought Stanwyck her second Emmy Award. She made a few television movies in the 70's, won a well deserved Honorary Oscar in 1982 and, at the age of 76, a third Best Actress Emmy Award in 1983 for her work in the highly rated mini-series "The Thorn Birds". A most durable star.
With Fred MacMurray in "Double Indemnity"
No other actress in Hollywood died on-screen as bravely and gallantly as Margaret Sullavan. She seemed to specialize in playing tragic heroines, many of whom didn't make it to the final reel of the film. She wasn't a traditional Hollywood beauty, but Margaret Sullavan had a luminous quality on screen that made her film deaths all the more touching. And there was that magical voice, with it's deep lows and lilting highs. The voice of Margaret Sullavan is one of the great treasures of the American cinema. Off screen, she was temperamental and tempestuous. But on screen she could break your heart. After some stage work, she came to Hollywood in 1933, having already married and divorced Henry Fonda, and made her film debut (and played her first death scene) in "Only Yesterday". In 1935 she made "The Good Fairy" and married her director, William Wyler. But neither the film nor the marriage were a success. She played actresses in "Next Time We Love", 1936, with James Stewart, an ideal costar with whom she would make several films, and in "The Moon's Our Home", 1936, with ex-husband Fonda. In 1938 came the best of her tragic heroines. In "Three Comrades", she's the tuberculous stricken Patricia who finds love and companionship with Robert Taylor before her courageous death. Sullavan received her only Oscar nomination and won the New York Film Critics Best Actress prize for her moving performance. In 1940 she made her best known film, "The Shop Around the Corner", with Sullavan and Stewart as bickering coworkers who don't realize they are secret penpals. Sullavan, tender and delightful, gives her finest performance and gets a rare happy ending. She costarred with Stewart again in "The Mortal Storm", 1940, an powerful anti-Nazi drama with another tragic ending. In 1941 she was excellent with Charles Boyer in a remake of the Irene Dunne weepie "Back Street" (no happy ending there), and joined Ann Sothern and Joan Blondell as army nurses on the island of Bataan in "Cry Havoc", 1943. Having fulfilled her MGM contract, Sullavan then returned to the stage, and would make only one more film appearnce in "No Sad Songs For Me", 1950, as a dying (again) wife and mother preparing her family for the inevitable. Sullavan herself died 10 years later of a barbituate overdoes, her death believed to be a suicide. In 1977, Sullavan's daughter, Brooke Hayward, wrote 'Haywire', a #1 bestselling memoir of her mother and her stormy childhood.
With James Stewart in "The Shop Around the Corner"
Created February 2007 by Harold J. Gaugler
Make a free website at Freewebs.com