Frank Capra talks about LOST HORIZON
- Order:
- Duration: 5:28
- Published: 07 Apr 2008
- Uploaded: 17 Apr 2011
- Author: cavettbiter
The original length of LOST HORIZON was 3 1/2 hours.
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Adolphe Menjou
Adolphe Jean Menjou (February 18, 1890 – October 29, 1963) was an American actor. His career spanned both silent films and talkies, appearing in such films as The Sheik, A Woman of Paris, Morocco, and A Star is Born. He was nominated for an Academy Award for The Front Page in 1931.
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Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, in a career spanning 57 years, Kurosawa directed 30 films. Kurosawa entered the Japanese film industry in 1936, following a brief, unsuccessful career as a painter. After years of working on numerous films as an assistant director and scriptwriter, he made his debut as a director during the Second World War with the popular action film Sanshiro Sugata (a.k.a. Judo Saga, 1943).
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Alice Day
Alice Day (born as Jacquiline Alice Newlin; November 7, 1905 – died May 25, 1995) was a film actor who began her career with the Mack Sennett studios as a bathing beauty.
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Allan Dwan
Allan Dwan (April 3, 1885 – December 28, 1981) was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer and screenwriter.
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Anatole Litvak
Anatole Litvak (Анатоль Литвак) (May 10, 1902 – December 15, 1974) was a Jewish Russian-born filmmaker who wrote, directed, and produced films in a various countries and languages. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Snake Pit (1948).
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Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck (July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American actress, a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra. After a short stint as a stage actress, she made 85 films in 38 years in Hollywood, before turning to television.
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Ben Lyon
Ben Lyon (February 6, 1901 – March 22, 1979) was an American film actor and a 20th Century Fox studio executive.
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Bessie Love
Bessie Love (September 10, 1898 – April 26, 1986) was an American motion picture actress who achieved prominence mainly in the silent films and early talkie eras. With a small frame and delicate features, she played innocent young girls, flappers, and wholesome leading ladies. In addition to her acting career, she wrote the 1919 movie A Yankee Princess.
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Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress of film, television and theatre. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres; from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies, though her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas.
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Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer and actor. His career stretched more than half a century from 1926 until his death in 1977. Crosby's unique bass-baritone voice made him the best-selling recording artist until well into the rock era, with over half a billion records in circulation.
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Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach (January 18, 1904 – November 29, 1986), better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English-American actor. With his distinctive yet not quite placeable Mid-Atlantic accent, he was noted as perhaps the foremost exemplar of the debonair leading man: handsome, virile, charismatic, and charming.
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Charlotte Chandler
Charlotte Chandler (the pen name of Lyn Erhard) is an American biographer and playwright who has written biographies of Groucho Marx, Federico Fellini, Billy Wilder, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Alfred Hitchcock. Her work often features loquacious, unfamiliar quotations by deceased celebrities whom Chandler claims to have personally interviewed, although the statements occasionally contradict those already in print.
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Clark Gable
William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901 – November 16, 1960) was an American film actor, nicknamed "The King of Hollywood" in his heyday. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Gable seventh among the greatest male stars of all time.
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Claude Rains
Claude Rains (10 November 1889 – 30 May 1967) was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 47 years; he later held American citizenship. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man (1933), a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and, perhaps his most notable performance, as Captain Renault in Casablanca (1942).
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Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert (; September 13, 1903 — July 30, 1996) was a French-born American stage and film actress.
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Constance Bennett
Constance Campbell Bennett (October 22, 1904 – July 24, 1965) was an American actress.
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David Lynch
David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker and visual artist. Over a lengthy career, Lynch has employed a distinctive, unorthodox (and now known as "Lynchian") approach to narrative filmmaking that has become instantly recognizable to many audiences and critics worldwide. Lynch's films are known for nightmarish and dreamlike images and meticulous sound design. Lynch's work often depicts a seedy underside to small-town America (particularly Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks) or sprawling California metropolises (Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, and his latest release, Inland Empire). Beginning with his experimental film-school feature Eraserhead (1977), he has maintained a strong cult following while experiencing inconsistent commercial success.
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David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick, born David Selznick (May 10, 1902 – June 22, 1965), was an American film producer. He is best known for producing Gone with the Wind (1939) and Rebecca (1940), both of which earned him an Oscar for Best Picture.
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Diptendu Pramanick
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Donna Reed
Donna Reed (January 27, 1921 – January 14, 1986) was an American film and television actress.
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Dorothy Revier
Dorothy Revier (April 18, 1904 – November 19, 1993) was an American actress.
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Edward G. Robinson
actor
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Fay Wray
Fay Wray (born Vina Fay Wray; September 15, 1907 – August 8, 2004) was a Canadian-American actress. Through an acting career that spanned 57 years, Wray attained international stardom as an actress in horror film roles, leading to many considering her as the first "scream queen".
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Francis X. Bushman
Francis Xavier Bushman (January 10, 1883 – August 23, 1966) was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. His matinee idol career started in 1911 in the silent film ''His Friend's Wife,'' but it did not survive the silent screen era.
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Frank Capra III
Frank Capra III (born July 16, 1959 in San Diego, California) is the son of Frank Capra, Jr., and grandson of director Frank Capra.
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Frank Capra, Jr.
Frank Capra, Jr. (March 20, 1934 – December 19, 2007) was an American movie studio executive and one of the three children of the film director Frank Capra and his second wife Lou Capra.
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Frank Lloyd
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Frank Lloyd (2 February 1886, Glasgow, UK – 10 August 1960, Santa Monica, California, United States) was a film director, scriptwriter and producer. Lloyd was among the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and its president between 1934 and 1935.
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Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor.
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François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut (; (F77 pronunciation - True-font) 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was an influential filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five films. Along with Jean-Luc Godard, Truffaut was one of the most influential figures of the French New Wave, inspiring directors such as Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Brian De Palma and Martin Scorsese.
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Gary Cooper
Frank James “Gary” Cooper (May 7, 1901 – May 13, 1961) was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, individualistic, emotionally restrained, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made. His career spanned from 1925 until shortly before his death, and comprised more than one hundred films.
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Glenn Ford
Glenn Ford (May 1, 1916 – August 30, 2006) was a Canadian-born American actor from Hollywood's Golden Era with a career that spanned seven decades. Despite his versatility, Ford was best known for playing ordinary men in unusual circumstances.
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Guy Kibbee
Guy Bridges Kibbee (March 6, 1882 – May 24, 1956) was an American stage and film actor.
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H. B. Warner
H. B. Warner (26 October 1875 – 21 December 1958) was an English actor.
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Harry Carey (actor)
:This page is about the actor Harry Carey. For the baseball broadcaster with a similar name, see Harry Caray.
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Harry Cohn
Harry Cohn (July 23, 1891 – February 27, 1958) was the American president and production director of Columbia Pictures.
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Harry Langdon
Harry L. Langdon (June 15, 1884 – December 22, 1944) was an American comedian who appeared in vaudeville, silent films (where he had his greatest fame), and talkies. He was briefly partnered with Oliver Hardy.
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Helene Chadwick
Helene Chadwick (November 25, 1897–September 4, 1940) was an American actress in silent motion pictures and in early sound films.
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Henry Blanke
Henry Blanke (December 30, 1901 – May 28, 1981) was a German-born film producer who also worked as an assistant director, supervisor, writer, and production manager. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for ''The Nun's Story (1959).
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Hope Lange
Hope Elise Ross Lange (November 28, 1933 – December 19, 2003) was an American stage, film, and television actress.
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Hunt Stromberg
Hunt Stromberg (July 12, 1894 - August 23, 1968) was a film producer during Hollywood's Golden Age. In a prolific 30-year career beginning in 1921, Stromberg produced, wrote, and directed some of Hollywood's most profitable and enduring films, including The Thin Man series, the Nelson Eddy/Jeanette MacDonald operettas, The Women, and The Great Ziegfeld, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1936.
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Jack Holt (actor)
Jack Holt (May 31, 1888 – January 18, 1951) was an American motion picture actor. He was a leading man of silent and sound films, and was known for his many roles in Westerns.
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Jack Warner
:This article is about Jack Warner, the head of Warner Brothers. For other people named Jack Warner, see Jack Warner (disambiguation).
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James Stewart
James Maitland "Jimmy" Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American film and stage actor. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime Achievement award. He was a major MGM contract star. He also had a noted military career and was a World War II and Vietnam War veteran, who rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the United States Air Force Reserve.
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Jane Wyatt
Jane Waddington Wyatt (August 12, 1910 – October 20, 2006) was an American actress perhaps best known for her role as the housewife and mother on the television series Father Knows Best and as Amanda Grayson, the human mother of Spock on the science fiction television show, . Wyatt was a three-time Emmy-winner.
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Jane Wyman
Jane Wyman (born Sarah Jane Mayfield; January 5, 1917 – September 10, 2007) was an American singer, dancer, and character actress of film and television. She began her film career in the 1930s, and was a prolific performer for two decades. She received an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Johnny Belinda (1948), and later achieved success during the 1980s for her leading role in the television series Falcon Crest.
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Jean Arthur
Jean Arthur (October 17, 1900 – June 19, 1991) was an American actress and a major film star of the 1930s and 1940s. She remains arguably the epitome of the female screwball comedy actress. As James Harvey wrote in his recounting of the era, "No one was more closely identified with the screwball comedy than Jean Arthur. So much was she part of it, so much was her star personality defined by it, that the screwball style itself seems almost unimaginable without her." Arthur has been called "the quintessential comedic leading lady."
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Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow (March 3, 1911 – June 7, 1937) was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "Platinum Blonde" and the "Blonde Bombshell" due to her platinum blonde hair, Harlow was ranked as one of the greatest movie stars of all time by the American Film Institute. Harlow starred in several films, mainly designed to showcase her magnetic sex appeal and strong screen presence, before making the transition to more developed roles and achieving massive fame under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Harlow's enormous popularity and "laughing vamp" image were in distinct contrast to her personal life, which was marred by disappointment, tragedy, and ultimately her sudden death from renal failure at age 26.
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Joe Cook (actor)
Joe Cook (1890 - May 15, 1959) was an American actor, comedian, and entertainer most known for his work on Broadway but who also appeared in motion pictures.
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John Ford
Rear Admiral (reserve)
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John Lasseter
John Alan Lasseter (born January 12, 1957) is an American animator, director and the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. He is also currently the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering.
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John Milius
John Frederick Milius (born April 11, 1944) is an American screenwriter, director, and producer of motion pictures.
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Joris Ivens
Joris Ivens (18 November 1898, Nijmegen – 28 June 1989, Paris) was a Dutch documentary filmmaker and committed communist.
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Karolyn Grimes
Karolyn Grimes (born July 4, 1940) is an American actress known for her role as "Zuzu Bailey" in the Frank Capra classic ''It's a Wonderful Life. She also played "Debbie" in the 1947 Christmas film, The Bishop's Wife'' starring Cary Grant, David Niven, and Loretta Young.
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Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress of film, stage, and television. A film icon, in 1999, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the greatest female star in the history of American cinema.
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Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore (April 28, 1878 – November 15, 1954) was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul (1931). He is well known for the role of the villainous Henry Potter in Frank Capra's 1946 film ''It's a Wonderful Life''.
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Loretta Young
Loretta Young (January 6, 1913 – August 12, 2000) was an American actress. Starting as a child actress, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953. She won the 1948 best actress Academy Award for her role in the 1947 film ''The Farmer's Daughter, and received an Oscar nomination for her role in Come to the Stable'', in 1950.
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Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett (January 17, 1880 – November 5, 1960) was a Canadian-born American director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy". His short "Wrestling Swordfish" was awarded the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 1932 and he earned an Academy Honorary Award in 1937.
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Margaret Livingston
Margaret Livingston (November 25, 1900 – December 13, 1985) was an American film actress, most notable for her work during the silent film era.
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Margaret Sullavan
Margaret Brooke Sullavan (May 16, 1909 – January 1, 1960; studio publicity incorrectly reported her year of birth as 1911) was an American stage and film actress. Sullavan started her career on the stage in 1929. In 1933 she caught the attention of movie director John M. Stahl and had her debut on the screen that same year in Only Yesterday.
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Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese (; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. He is the founder of the World Cinema Foundation and a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award for his contributions to the cinema, and has won awards from the Oscars, Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Directors Guild of America. Scorsese is president of The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation.
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Masaki Kobayashi
was a Japanese director.
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May Robson
May Robson (19 April 1858 - 20 October 1942) was an actress and playwright. A major stage actress of the late 19th and early 20th century, Robson is best known today for the dozens of 1930s motion pictures she appeared in when she was well into her seventies, usually playing cross old ladies with hearts of gold.
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Miriam Hopkins
Miriam Hopkins (October 18, 1902 – October 9, 1972) was an American actress known for her versatility in a wide variety of roles.
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Mitchell Lewis
Mitchell Lewis (26 June 1880 – 24 August 1956), was an American film actor. He appeared in 200 films between 1914 and 1956. His best known role is Captain of the Winkie Guards in The Wizard of Oz, but he was uncredited.
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Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy (August 2, 1905 – December 14, 1993) was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles in The Thin Man (1934). Her successful pairing with William Powell resulted in fourteen films together, including several subsequent Thin Man films.
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Nils Asther
Nils Anton Alfhild Asther (17 January 1897 – 19 October 1981) was a Danish-born Swedish actor active in Hollywood from 1926 to the mid 1950s, known for his beautiful face and often called "the male Greta Garbo". Between 1916 and 1963 he appeared in over 70 feature films, whereof 16 done in the silent era.
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Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946) is an American film director and screenwriter. Stone came to prominence in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, in which he had himself participated as an American infantry soldier. His work has earned him three Academy Awards, and continues to focus frequently on contemporary political and cultural issues, often controversially. His first Academy Award was for Best Adapted Screenplay for Midnight Express (1978). He subsequently won Academy Awards for Directing Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989), both of which were centered on the Vietnam War. He has been described, by the British newspaper The Guardian as "one of the few committed men of the left working in mainstream American cinema.
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Peter Falk
Peter Michael Falk (born September 16, 1927) is an American actor, best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo in the television series Columbo. He appeared in numerous films and television guest roles, and has been nominated for an Academy Award twice, and won the Emmy Award on five occasions and the Golden Globe award once. Director William Friedkin, when discussing Falk's role in his 1978 film The Brink's Job said that "Peter has a great range from comedy to drama. He could break your heart or he could make you laugh."
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Ralph Graves
Ralph Graves (January 23, 1900 - February 18, 1977) was an American screenwriter, film director, and actor who appeared in 93 films between 1918 and 1949.
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Ricardo Cortez
Ricardo Cortez (September 19, 1900 – April 28, 1977) was an American film actor who began his career during the silent film era.
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Rob Wagner
Robert Leicester Wagner was the editor and publisher of Script, a weekly literary film magazine published in Beverly Hills, California, between 1929 and 1949.
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Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman (February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.
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Robert Riskin
Robert Riskin (March 30, 1897–September 20, 1955) was an American screenwriter and playwright, best known for his collaborations with director-producer Frank Capra.
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Ron Howard
Ronald William "Ron" Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American film director and producer, as well as an actor. Howard came to prominence in the 1960s while playing the son of sheriff Andy Taylor (played by Andy Griffith), Opie Taylor, on The Andy Griffith Show (credited as Ronny Howard), and later in the 1970s as Howard Cunningham's son and Arthur Fonzarelli's best friend (played by Tom Bosley and Henry Winkler respectively), Richie Cunningham, on Happy Days (a role he played from 1974 to 1980). Since retiring from acting, he has directed many films including Splash, Cocoon, Backdraft, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Frost/Nixon, The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons.
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Ronald Colman
Ronald Charles Colman (9 February 1891 – 19 May 1958) was an English actor.
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Roy William Neill
Roy William Neill (4 September 1887 – 14 December 1946) was a film director best known today for directing several of the Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, made between 1943 and 1946 and released by Universal Studios.
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Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn (August 17, 1879 January 31, 1974) was an American film producer, and founding contributor executive of several motion picture studios.
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Spencer Tracy
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Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 74 films from 1930 to 1967. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Tracy ninth among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time. He was nominated for nine Academy Awards for Best Actor in all, winning two.
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Spring Byington
| spouse = (divorced) 2 children
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Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg, (born December 18, 1946) is an American film director, screenwriter, film producer and video game designer. In a career spanning six decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an archetype of modern Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking. In later years, his films began addressing such issues as the Holocaust, slavery, war and terrorism. He is considered one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. He is also one of the founders of DreamWorks.
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Victor Fleming
Victor Fleming (February 23, 1889 – January 6, 1949) was an American film director, cinematographer, and producer. His most popular films were The Wizard of Oz (1939), and Gone with the Wind (1939), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.
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Viola Dana
Viola Dana (June 26, 1897 – July 3, 1987) was an American film actress who was successful during the era of silent movies.
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Walter Huston
Walter Huston (; April 6, 1884 – April 7, 1950) was a Canadian-born American actor. He was the father of actor and director John Huston and the grandfather of actress Anjelica Huston and actor Danny Huston.
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Warner Baxter
Warner Leroy Baxter (March 29, 1889 – May 7, 1951) was an American actor, known for his role as The Cisco Kid in In Old Arizona (1929), for which he won the second Academy Award for Best Actor in
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Warren William
Warren William (December 2, 1894 – September 24, 1948) was a Broadway and Hollywood actor, born the son of Freeman E. and Frances Krech, as Warren William Krech in Aitkin, Minnesota. He had a certain physical resemblance to John Barrymore. He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After moving from Broadway to Hollywood in 1931, he reached his peak as a leading man in early 1930s pre-Production Code films. He was a contract player at the Warner Bros. studio and was known for portraying amoral businessmen, lawyers, and other heartless types, including the Sam Spade character (renamed "Ted Shane") in the second filming of The Maltese Falcon, called Satan Met a Lady (1936) with Bette Davis.
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William Wyler
William Wyler (July 1, 1902 – July 27, 1981) was a leading American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter. He was regarded as second only to John Ford as a "master craftsman of cinema."
http://wn.com/William_Wyler
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Bisacquino
Bisacquino (Sicilian: Busacchinu) is a town and comune in the Province of Palermo in Sicily, Italy. It is located 82 km
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California
California (pronounced ) is the most populous state in the United States and the third-largest by land area, after Alaska and Texas. California is also the most populous sub-national entity in North America. It's on the U.S. West Coast, bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the west and by the states of Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, Baja California, Mexico, to the south. Its 5 largest cities are Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, and Long Beach, with Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Jose each having at least 1 million residents. Like many populous states, California's capital, Sacramento is smaller than the state's largest city, Los Angeles. The state is home to the nation's 2nd- and 6th-largest census statistical areas and 8 of the nation's 50 most populous cities. California has a varied climate and geography and a multi-cultural population.
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Caltech
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United States
.svg)
The United States of America (also referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, or America) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Caribbean and Pacific.
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Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the Lido, Venice, Italy. Screenings take place in the historic Palazzo del Cinema on the Lungomare Marconi. It is one of the world's most prestigious film festivals and is part of the Venice Biennale, a major biennial exhibition and festival for contemporary art.
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Wesleyan University
:This article is about Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, USA. For a list of other colleges and universities with names including "Wesleyan," see Wesleyan University (disambiguation).
http://wn.com/Wesleyan_University
- A Hole in the Head
- Academic degree
- Academy Award
- Academy Awards
- Adolphe Menjou
- AFI's 10 Top 10
- Akira Kurosawa
- Alice Day
- Allan Dwan
- American Madness
- Anatole Litvak
- Anthony Veiller
- anti-Communist
- Bachelor of Science
- ballistics
- Barbara Stanwyck
- Ben Lyon
- Bessie Love
- Bette Davis
- BFI
- Bing Crosby
- Bisacquino
- Broadway Bill
- California
- Caltech
- Cary Grant
- Charlotte Chandler
- chemical engineering
- Clark Gable
- Claude Rains
- Claudette Colbert
- Columbia Pictures
- Constance Bennett
- David Lynch
- David O. Selznick
- Desert Victory
- Diptendu Pramanick
- Dirigible (film)
- Documentary film
- Donna Reed
- Dorothy Revier
- Eastmancolor
- Edward G. Robinson
- Fay Wray
- film director
- Fireside Productions
- Flight (1929 film)
- For the Love of Mike
- Francis X. Bushman
- Frank Capra III
- Frank Capra, Jr.
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Frank Capra Accepts 10th AFI Life Achievement Award
Frank Capra accepts the 10th AFI Life Achievement Award (1982). CONNECT WITH AFI: facebook.com twitter.com AFI.com AFI FACEBOOK APP: apps.facebook.com
Bad Bailey - It's a Wonderful Life
A frightening recut of the Frank Capra classic, "It's a Wonderful Life." Meet George Bailey, a man teetering on the edge of insanity. Inspired by "Scary Mary."
Donna Reed Salutes Frank Capra at the AFI Life Achievement Award
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Donna Reed salutes Oscar-winning Director Frank Capra at the 10th AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute To Frank Capra (1982). CONNECT WITH AFI: facebook.com twitter.com AFI.com AFI FACEBOOK APP: apps.facebook.com
Frank Capra on the Tomorrow Show
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:57
- Published: 22 Aug 2008
- Uploaded: 13 Feb 2011
- Author: vidsampler
Frank Capra talking with Tom Snyder about Mr Smith Goes to Washington on the Tomorrow Show
Frank Capra Receives Three Best Director Oscars
Footage of Frank Capra receiving three Best Directors Oscars - part of the 10th AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute To Frank Capra (1982). The films were: IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1935) MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN (1936) YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1939) CONNECT WITH AFI: AFI.com http facebook.com
![It's A Wonderful Life [1946] Digitally Re-mastered.mov](http://web.archive.org./web/20110506000845im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/UWWsht-4H2E/0.jpg "It's A Wonderful Life [1946] Digitally Re-mastered.mov")
It's A Wonderful Life [1946] Digitally Re-mastered.mov
George Bailey's confrontation with Mr. Potter over the building and loan, the townspeople and fairness.
Jimmy Stewart Narrates Frank Capra's Wonderful Life Story
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Jimmy Stewart narrates the early years of Oscar-winning Director Frank Capra at the 10th AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute To Frank Capra (1982). CONNECT WITH AFI: facebook.com twitter.com AFI.com AFI FACEBOOK APP: apps.facebook.com
Frank Capra talks about DIRIGIBLE & LOST HORIZON
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:15
- Published: 07 Apr 2008
- Uploaded: 30 Dec 2010
- Author: cavettbiter
Notice how Peter Bogdanovich automatically knows that IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT won 5 oscar awards.
Claudette Colbert Salutes Frank Capra at the AFI Life Achievement Award
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Bette Davis salutes Oscar-winning Director Frank Capra at the 10th AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute To Frank Capra (1982). CONNECT WITH AFI: facebook.com twitter.com AFI.com AFI FACEBOOK APP: apps.facebook.com
Bette Davis Declares Frank Capra A "Great Director"
Bette Davis salutes Oscar-winning Director Frank Capra at the 10th AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute To Frank Capra (1982). CONNECT WITH AFI: facebook.com twitter.com AFI.com AFI FACEBOOK APP: apps.facebook.com
1958 - Global Warming - It's NOT newly known
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:18
- Published: 03 Feb 2007
- Uploaded: 09 Apr 2011
- Author: hmmmmmmmmm2
For FIFTY YEARS scientists have known about global warming. This exerpt is from the well known educational documentary "Unchained Goddess" produced by Frank Capra for Bell Labs for their television program "The Bell Telephone Hour." It was so well made, that it went on to live a continued life in middle school science classrooms across the nation for decades. Nearly half a century before Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth," this film was made. But what does it reveal? That our scientists have known for over two generations about this danger, but our politicians and citizenry have chosen to ignore the dangerous implications of this fact until it really is too late to avoid the preventable consequences. Perhaps we deserve our fate.
Peter Falk Salutes Frank Capra at AFI Life Achievement Award
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Peter Falk salutes Oscar-winning Director Frank Capra at the 10th AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute To Frank Capra (1982). CONNECT WITH AFI: facebook.com twitter.com AFI.com AFI FACEBOOK APP: apps.facebook.com
Frank Capra's THE POWER OF THE PRESS (1928) 1/7
Frank Capra's THE POWER OF THE PRESS starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Jobyna Ralston.
Bing Crosby sings SUNSHINE CAKE in Frank Capra's RIDING HIGH (1950) with Colleen Gray
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:39
- Published: 24 Nov 2009
- Uploaded: 08 Apr 2011
- Author: BingandNelsonFan
- http://wn.com/Bing_Crosby_sings_SUNSHINE_CAKE_in_Frank_Capra's_RIDING_HIGH_1950_with_Colleen_Gray
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Bing Crosby, Colleen Gray, and Clarence Muse sing "Sunshine Cake" from Frank Capra's 1950 film "Rinding High". Song by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke
Jimmy Stewart on Frank Capra's War Service
Jimmy Stewart talks about Frank Capra's contribution to the World War II effort and how Capra helped him regain his confidence for IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE at he 10th AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute To Frank Capra (1982). CONNECT WITH AFI: facebook.com twitter.com AFI.com AFI FACEBOOK APP: apps.facebook.com
Why We Fight: Prelude to War (Frank Capra)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 52:22
- Published: 26 Jul 2010
- Uploaded: 18 Apr 2011
- Author: nuclearvault
"Prelude to War," Chapter I of Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" series, describes World War II as a battle between the "slave world" of fascism and the "free world" of American liberty. In the "slave world," the entire populations of Germany, Italy and Japan have been hoodwinked by madmen, opportunists who capitalized on their people's desperation and weakness to rise to power. These demagogues promised revenge for past losses, and in the process convinced their people to give up their rights and accept dictatorship. In the "free world," the principles of equality, freedom, and liberty characterize the greatest leaders, embodied in the works and words of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln. This freedom is a threat to the fascist dictators of the Axis powers, who claim that democracy is weak and must be eradicated. The film claims that the ultimate goal of the Axis powers is to enslave the nations of the "free world," a desire made manifest in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and Mussolini's destruction of Ethiopia.
Why We Fight: Divide And Conquer (Frank Capra)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 56:23
- Published: 14 Jul 2010
- Uploaded: 04 Apr 2011
- Author: nuclearvault
"Divide and Conquer," Chapter III of Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" series, begins with Britain and France's declaration of war on Germany after Hitler's invasion of Poland. The film covers the Nazi capture of Denmark and Norway, steps necessary to mount a future attack on Britain, then describes in detail Hitler's strategy as he conquers Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. Special attention is paid to Nazi atrocities. Dead and injured children are shown en masse and the film explains how the bombing of Rotterdam leads to "thirty thousand men, women and children killed in ninety minutes." The narrator tells how the Luftwaffe bombs small villages so that refugees clog the highways, and how it uses precision machine gun fire to herd the survivors toward the allied armies, who find their progress severely constrained as a result. An American military officer details the Nazi plan for an invasion of France, which Hitler conquers in just over a month. The Germans bludgeon the French armies into surrender, then "enslave" much of the local population to service the German military regime.
Frank Capra's Original "Why We Fight"
A short clip of the same name on which Eugene Jarecki's "Why We Fight" is based
Pat Hingle / Frank Capra Jr. Speech at Cucalorus Moving Arts Expo, Wilmington, NC, 2006
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Here's Frank Capra Jr. introducing Pat Hingle at an expo during the Cucalorus Film Festival (cucalorus.org) at Thalian Hall in 2006. Both men have since passed away, Capra in 2007, Hingle in early 2009, but they will be remembered by the Wilmington film community for their immeasurable talent and support. Capra's introduction begins at 1:38, and Hingle's speech is at 3:50.
"La vita è meravigliosa" di Frank Capra (1946) - estratto: ritorno a casa
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Steve Martin Salutes Frank Capra at AFI Life Achievement Award
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Steve Martin salutes Oscar-winning Director Frank Capra at the 10th AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute To Frank Capra (1982). CONNECT WITH AFI: facebook.com twitter.com AFI.com AFI FACEBOOK APP: apps.facebook.com
Frank Capra - Interview 1982 1/2
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:02
- Published: 04 Nov 2008
- Uploaded: 13 Feb 2011
- Author: VintageEuroTV
Frank Capra interviewed in May 1982.
photo: public domain /
New York Times
photo: Public Domain / Frank Capra (film)
British troops escaping from Dunkirk in lifeboats (France, 1940).
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The Examiner
Back in the mid 1930’s the movie “It Happened One Night” won five Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Writing. It was I would say a hit! And with that movie Frank Capra was well on his way to achieving legendary status in Hollywood. For an emerging writer it is one terrific story. Frank wrote that story at The Hotel La Quinta (now called The La Quinta Resort and...
The Examiner
As the holiday season approaches, a trifecta of classic entertainment resurfaces sort of the way mistletoe makes its way over unsuspecting lovebirds at just the right moment. Audiences await "The Nutcracker"...
The Examiner
Starring: Ronald Colman, John Howard, Margo; Director: Frank Capra; Released: 1937 Robert Conway (Colman) is a famed British diplomat who, along with his brother and four other passengers board a plane that is to take them home from the Far East. It was meant to be a safe and easy flight, but before the plane even leaves the runway the pilot is killed and the plane is overtaken...
Frank Capra films re-released
29 Oct 2010
London Evening Standard
It Happened One Night Cert 12A, 105 mins **** Forbidden Cert 12A, 88 mins *** Frank Capra was a superb craftsman as these two re-released films show. It Happened One Night (1934) is one of the best-loved films of the Thirties and won five Academy Awards with its story about a runaway heiress (Claudette Colbert) and a brash newsman (Clark Gable). Forbidden (1932) has Barbara...
How Frank Capra's scared and gullible ordinary joes laid the foundations for the Tea Party
23 Oct 2010
The Guardian
Evergreen satire Meet John Doe shows the little people being used by the media to serve its own ends. Sounds familiar, says John Patterson The fall guy: Gary Cooper with co-star Barbara Stanwyck in Capra's Meet John Doe. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/CAPRA...
PR Newswire
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Early Frank Capra films featured in Berkeley
15 Jan 2010
The Examiner
Frank Capra's timely banking crisis film, "American Madness," plays at the Pacific Film Archive. American Madness If you like this ... George Lucas’s Blockbusting Silent films show in Berkeley Best DVDs of 2009 Six silent films not on DVD that should be Sad tale of Oakland comedian told in new book View all »...
The President's Frank Capra moment
18 Oct 2009
Toledo Blade
WASHINGTON - Maybe it happened on an afternoon when no one was looking. Maybe it occurred when everyone was focused on something else, or preoccupied with other matters. Maybe it happened one night. But this is no romantic comedy, and there is no Clark Gable or Claudette Colbert involved. Yet it definitely happened. The Iraq war, once owned by George W. Bush, suddenly became...
It really was a wonderful life for Frank Capra
03 Sep 2009
The Examiner
Frank Capra publicity photo It’s the 18th anniversary of the death of one of the world’s most beloved directors, Frank Capra. This man brought us some of the most recognizable and cherished films in cinema history. Throughout his lengthy career, Capra earned three best director Academy Awards out of six nominations. Most know him as the director of...
Frank Capra
| Coordinates | 37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N |
|---|---|
| Name | Frank Capra |
| Caption | Frank Capra cuts army film as a Signal Corps Reserve major during World War II. |
| Birth name | Francesco Rosario Capra |
| Birth date | May 18, 1897 |
| Birth place | Bisacquino, Sicily, Italy |
| Death date | September 03, 1991 |
| Death place | La Quinta, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Director, producer, writer |
| Years active | 1922–1961 |
| Spouse | Helen Howell (1923-1927)Lou Capra (1932-1984); 4 children}} |
Frank Russell Capra (May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was a Sicilian-born American film director and a creative force behind a number of films of the 1930s and 1940s, including It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Lost Horizon (1937), You Can't Take It With You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Meet John Doe (1941), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946).
Early life
Born as Frank Rosario Capra (some sources indicate Francesco Rosario Capra) in Bisacquino, Sicily, he immigrated to the United States in 1903 with his parents, Turiddu Capra (later known as "Salvatore") and Rosaria (later known as "Sarah"; née Nicolosi) and his siblings Giuseppa, Giuseppe, and Antonia.In California the family met with Benedetto Capra (the oldest sibling, known as "Benjamin") and settled in Los Angeles. Frank Capra attended Manual Arts High School there. In 1918, he graduated from Throop Institute (now the California Institute of Technology) with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering.
World War I
During World War I, Capra enlisted in the United States Army on October 18, 1918. He taught ballistics and mathematics to artillerymen at Fort Winfield Scott in the Presidio of San Francisco. While there, he caught Spanish flu and was medically discharged with the rank of second lieutenant on December 13, 1918. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1920 as Frank Russell Capra.
Film career
Capra began as a prop man in silent films. However, Capra's first exposure to films occurred in 1915 while he was attending Manual Arts High School. At Manual Arts, Capra's teacher, Rob Wagner, directed Our Wonderful Schools, a documentary on the Los Angeles Unified School District. Capra worked on the film as an editor. The film was produced by Reliance Film Company and released by Mutual Film. The film won a medal at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition fair in San Francisco. Later, Capra wrote and directed silent film comedies starring Harry Langdon and the Our Gang kids. Capra went to work for Mack Sennett in 1924 and then moved to Columbia Pictures, where he became the top director at the small studio, and eventually one of the most honored directors in Hollywood. During his years there he also formed a close association with screenwriter Robert Riskin (husband of Fay Wray) and cameraman Joseph Walker.For the 1934 film It Happened One Night, Robert Montgomery and Myrna Loy were originally offered the roles, but each felt that the script was poor, and Loy described it as one of the worst she had ever read, later noting that the final version bore little resemblance to the script she and Montgomery were offered. After Loy, Miriam Hopkins and Margaret Sullavan also each rejected the part. Constance Bennett wanted to, but only if she could produce it herself. Then Bette Davis wanted the role, but she was under contract with Warner Brothers and Jack Warner refused to loan her to Columbia Studios. Capra was unable to get any of the actresses he wanted for the part of Ellie Andrews, partly because no self-respecting star would make a film with only two costumes. Harry Cohn suggested Claudette Colbert to play the lead role. Both Capra and Clark Gable enjoyed making the movie; Colbert did not. After the 1934 film It Happened One Night, Capra directed a steady stream of films for Columbia Pictures, intended to be inspirational and humanitarian.
The best known of Capra's films are Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, the original Lost Horizon, You Can't Take It with You, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and It's a Wonderful Life. His ten-year break from screwball comedy ended with the comedy Arsenic and Old Lace. Among the actors who owed much of their early success to Capra were Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Barbara Stanwyck, Cary Grant and Donna Reed. Capra called Jean Arthur "[his] favorite actress".
Capra's films in the 1930s enjoyed success at the Academy Awards. It Happened One Night was the first film to win all five top Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay). In 1936, Capra won his second Best Director Oscar for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town; in 1938 he won his third Director Oscar in five years for You Can't Take It with You, which also won Best Picture. In addition to his three directing wins, Capra received directing nominations for three other films (Lady for a Day, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and It's a Wonderful Life). On May 5, 1936, Capra was also host of the 8th Academy Awards ceremony.
World War II
Frank Capra was commissioned as a major in the United States Army Signal Corps during World War II. He produced State of the Union and directed or co-directed eight documentary propaganda films between 1942 and 1948, including the seven-episode U.S. government-commissioned Why We Fight series—consisting of Prelude to War (1942), The Nazis Strike (1942), The Battle of Britain (1943), Divide and Conquer (1943), (1945), Tunisian Victory (1945), and Two Down and One to Go (1945)—as well as produced the African-American targeted The Negro Soldier (1944). Why We Fight is widely considered a masterpiece of propaganda and won an Academy Award. Prelude to War won the 1942 Academy Award for Documentary Feature. Capra regarded these films as his most important works. As a colonel, he received the Distinguished Service Medal in 1945.
Post-war
, James Stewart, and Karolyn Grimes in It's a Wonderful Life (1946).]]It's a Wonderful Life (1946) was considered a box office disappointment but it was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Sound Recording and Best Editing. The American Film Institute named it one of the best films ever made, putting it at the top of the list of AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers, a list of what AFI considers to be the most inspirational American movies of all time. The film also appeared in another AFI Top 100 list: it placed at 11th on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list of the top American films.
Capra directed two films at Paramount Pictures starring Bing Crosby, Riding High (1950) and Here Comes the Groom (1951). From 1952-1956, Capra produced four science-related television specials in color for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company: Our Mr. Sun (1956), Hemo the Magnificent (1957), The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays (1957), and (1958). These educational science documentaries were popular favorites for showing in school science classrooms. It was eight years before he directed another theatrical film, A Hole in the Head (1959) with Frank Sinatra, which was his first feature film in color.
Capra's final theatrical film was with Glenn Ford and Bette Davis, named Pocketful of Miracles (1961), a remake of his 1933 film Lady for a Day. In the mid-1960s he worked on pre-production for an adaptation of Martin Caidan's novel Marooned but budgetary constraints made him eventually shelve it.
Capra's final film, Rendezvous in Space (1964), was an industrial film made for the Martin Marietta Company and shown at the 1964 New York World's Fair. It was exhibited at the New York Hall of Science after the Fair ended.
In 1982, the American Film Institute honored Frank Capra with the television film The American Film Institute Salute to Frank Capra, hosted by James Stewart. In 1986, Capra received the National Medal of Arts.
Autobiography
In 1971, Capra published his autobiography, The Name Above the Title. Upon the book's publication, Capra became a popular guest speaker on the college lecture circuit. Capra was also the subject of a 1991 biography by Joseph McBride, Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success.
Political views
Capra was a Republican who was active in the anti-Communist cause and also donated funds to the Human Life Amendment PAC.
Family
His son Frank Capra, Jr. — one of the four children born to Capra's second wife, Lucille Capra — was the president of EUE Screen Gems Studios, in Wilmington, North Carolina, until his death on December 19, 2007. His grandson, Frank Capra III, is a Hollywood director and worked as an assistant director in the 1995 film The American President, which referred to Frank Capra in the film's dialogue.
Death and legacy
Frank Capra died in La Quinta, California, of a heart attack in his sleep in 1991 at the age of 94. He was interred in the Coachella Valley Public Cemetery in Coachella, California.He left part of his ranch in Fallbrook, California, to Caltech. Capra's personal papers and some of his film related materials are contained in the Wesleyan University Cinema Archives; which allows scholars and media experts from around the world to have full access.
Style
Capra films usually carry a definite message about the basic goodness of human nature and show the value of unselfishness and hard work. His wholesome, feel-good themes have led some to term his style Capra-corn, but those who hold his vision in high regard prefer the term Capraesque.Capra's basic themes of championing the common man, as well as his use of spontaneous, fast-paced dialogue and goofy, memorable lead and supporting characters, made him one of the most popular and respected filmmakers of the 20th century. His influence can be traced in the works of many directors, including Robert Altman , Ron Howard , Akira Kurosawa , John Lasseter , David Lynch, John Milius , Oliver Stone
Awards and honors
Academy Awards
Capra won a total of six Academy Awards. He was nominated six times for Best Director and six times for Outstanding Production/Best Picture. Out of six nominations for Best Director, Capra received the award three times. He briefly held the record for winning the most Best Director Oscars when he won for the third time in 1938, until this record was matched by John Ford in 1941, and then later surpassed by Ford in 1952. William Wyler also matched this record upon winning his third Oscar in 1959. With three directing Oscars each, Capra and Wyler have received the second highest number of directing awards in Oscar history, behind Ford's four.
American Film Institute
Directors Guild of America
Golden Globe Award
Venice Film Festival
American Film Institute recognition
United States National Film Registry
Filmography
{|class="wikitable sortable" width="100%" !Year||Title||Production Co.||Cast||Notes |- |colspan="8" align="center" style="background:LightSteelBlue"|Silent films |- |1915 || Our Wonderful Schools || Reliance Film Company || || Documentary; film editor |- style=background:#efefef; |- |1922 || Fultah Fisher's Boarding House || Fireside Productions || || Short film |- style=background:#efefef; |1926 || The Strong Man || Harry Langdon Corporation || Harry Langdon || |- |1927 || Long Pants || Harry Langdon Corporation || Harry Langdon || |- style=background:#efefef; |1927 || For the Love of Mike || Robert Kane Productions || Claudette Colbert / Ben Lyon || |- |1928 || That Certain Thing || Columbia || Viola Dana || |- style=background:#efefef; |1928 || So This is Love? || Columbia || Shirley Mason || |- |1928 || The Matinee Idol || Columbia || Bessie Love / Johnnie Walker || |- style=background:#efefef; |1928 || The Way of the Strong || Columbia || Mitchell Lewis / Alice Day / William Norton Bailey || |- |1928 || Say It with Sables || Columbia || Helene Chadwick / Francis X. Bushman / Margaret Livingston || |- style=background:#efefef; |1928 || Submarine || Columbia || Jack Holt / Ralph Graves / Dorothy Revier || |- |1928 || The Power of the Press || Columbia || Douglas Fairbanks Jr. || |- style=background:#efefef; |1928 || The Burglar || Mack Sennett || || Short film / Co-directed with Phil Whitman |- |colspan="8" align="center" style="background:LightSteelBlue"|Sound films |- |1929 || The Younger Generation || Columbia || Ricardo Cortez || Talking sequences |- style=background:#efefef; |1929 || The Donovan Affair || Columbia || Jack Holt || |- |1929 || Flight || Columbia || Jack Holt / Ralph Graves || |- style=background:#efefef; |1930 || Ladies of Leisure || Columbia || Barbara Stanwyck / Ralph Graves || |- |1930 || Rain or Shine || Columbia || Joe Cook || |- style=background:#efefef; |1931 || Dirigible || Columbia || Jack Holt / Ralph Graves / Fay Wray || |- |1931 || The Miracle Woman || Columbia || Barbara Stanwyck || |- style=background:#efefef; |1931 || Platinum Blonde || Columbia || Loretta Young / Robert Williams / Jean Harlow || |- |1932 || Forbidden || Columbia || Barbara Stanwyck / Adolphe Menjou || |- style=background:#efefef; |1932 || American Madness || Columbia || Walter Huston || Co-directed with Allan Dwan / Roy William Neill |- |1933 || The Bitter Tea of General Yen || Columbia || Barbara Stanwyck / Nils Asther || |- style=background:#efefef; |1933 || Lady for a Day || Columbia || May Robson / Warren William / Guy Kibbee || |- |1934 || It Happened One Night || Columbia || Clark Gable / Claudette Colbert || |- style=background:#efefef; |1934 || Broadway Bill || Columbia || Warner Baxter / Myrna Loy || |- |1936 || Mr. Deeds Goes to Town || Columbia || Gary Cooper / Jean Arthur || |- style=background:#efefef; |1937 || Lost Horizon || Columbia || Ronald Colman / Jane Wyatt || |- |1938 || You Can't Take It With You || Columbia || Lionel Barrymore / Jean Arthur / James Stewart || |- style=background:#efefef; |1939 || Mr. Smith Goes to Washington || Columbia || James Stewart / Jean Arthur || |- |1941 || Meet John Doe || Frank Capra Productions || Gary Cooper / Barbara Stanwyck || |- style=background:#efefef; |1943 || The Nazis Strike ||U.S. War Department || || Documentary / Short film / Co-directed with Anatole Litvak |- |1943 || Divide and Conquer || U.S. War Department || || Documentary / Co-directed with Anatole Litvak |- style=background:#efefef; |1943 || The Battle of Britain || Warner Bros. || || Documentary / Co-directed with Anthony Veiller |- |1943 || Prelude to War || U.S. War Department || || Documentary / Co-directed with Anatole Litvak |- style=background:#efefef; |1943 || The Battle of Russia || U.S. War Department || || Documentary / Co-directed with Anatole Litvak |- |1944 || The Battle of China || U.S. War Department || || Documentary / Co-directed with Anatole Litvak |- style=background:#efefef; |1944 || Tunisian Victory || U.S. War Department || || Documentary / Co-directed with Hugh Stewart |- |1944 || Arsenic and Old Lace || Warner Bros. || Cary Grant / Priscilla Lane || |- style=background:#efefef; |1945 || Your Job in Germany || || || Documentary / Short film |- |1945 || || U.S. War Department || || Documentary / Co-directed with Joris Ivens |- style=background:#efefef; |1945 || Two Down and One to Go || U.S. War Department || || Documentary / Short film |- |- |1945 || War Comes to America || U.S. War Department || || Documentary / Co-directed with Anatole Litvak |- style=background:#efefef; |1946 || It's a Wonderful Life || Liberty Films || James Stewart / Donna Reed || |- |1948 || State of the Union || Liberty Films || Spencer Tracy / Katharine Hepburn || |- style=background:#efefef; |1950 || Riding High || Paramount Pictures || Bing Crosby || Remake of Broadway Bill |- |1951 || Here Comes the Groom || Paramount Pictures || Bing Crosby / Jane Wyman || |- style=background:#efefef; |1959 || A Hole in the Head || Sincap Productions || Frank Sinatra / Edward G. Robinson || First color film |- |1961 || Pocketful of Miracles || Franton Production || Glenn Ford / Hope Lange / Bette Davis || Eastmancolor film / Remake of Lady for a Day |}
His Films with Academy Awards
{|class="wikitable" |- ! Year !! Film !! OscarNominations !! OscarWins !! Performances Nominations |- | 1933 | Lady for a Day | align="center"|4 | align="center"|0 | Best Actress for May Robson (nom) |- | 1934 | It Happened One Night | align="center"|5 | align="center"|5 | Best Actor for Clark GableBest Actress for Claudette Colbert |- | 1936 | Mr. Deeds Goes to Town | align="center"|5 | align="center"|1 | Best Actor for Gary Cooper (nom) |- | 1937 | Lost Horizon | align="center"|7 | align="center"|2 | Best Supporting Actor for H. B. Warner (nom) |- | 1938 | You Can't Take It With You | align="center"|7 | align="center"|2 | Best Supporting Actress for Spring Byington (nom) |- | 1939 | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington | align="center"|11 | align="center"|1 | Best Actor for James Stewart (nom)Best Supporting Actor for Harry Carey (nom)Best Supporting Actor for Claude Rains (nom) |- | 1941 | Meet John Doe | align="center"|1 | align="center"|0 |- | 1942 | Prelude to War | align="center"|1 | align="center"|1 |- | 1943 | The Battle of Russia | align="center"|1 | align="center"|0 |- | 1946 | It's a Wonderful Life | align="center"|5 | align="center"|0 | Best Actor for James Stewart (nom) |- | 1951 | Here Comes the Groom | align="center"|2 | align="center"|1 |- | 1959 | A Hole in the Head | align="center"|1 | align="center"|1 |- | 1961 | Pocketful of Miracles | align="center"|3 | align="center"|0 | Best Supporting Actor for Peter Falk |- |}
See also
References
;Notes ;Bibliography
External links
Category:American anti-communists Category:American film directors Category:American military personnel of World War I Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:Best Director Academy Award winners Category:Best Director Golden Globe winners Category:Presidents of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Category:California Institute of Technology alumni Category:California Republicans Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in California Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:American film directors of Italian descent Category:Italian immigrants to the United States Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:People from the Province of Palermo Category:Propaganda film directors Category:Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (United States) Category:American people of Sicilian descent Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:1903 births Category:1991 deaths Category:Burials at Coachella Valley Public Cemetery Category:American screenwriters Category:American film producers Category:United States Army Air Forces officers Category:First Motion Picture Unit personnel Category:United States Army officers
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James Stewart
| Coordinates | 37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N |
|---|---|
| Name | James Stewart |
| Caption | Stewart, Donna Reed and Karolyn Grimes in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) |
| Birth name | James Maitland Stewart |
| Birth date | May 20, 1908 |
| Birth place | Indiana, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Death date | July 02, 1997 |
| Death place | Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Other names | Jimmy Stewart |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1933–1991 |
| Spouse | Gloria Hatrick (1949–1994) (her death) 2 children |
James Maitland "Jimmy" Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American film and stage actor. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime Achievement award. He was a major MGM contract star. He also had a noted military career and was a World War II and Vietnam War veteran, who rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the United States Air Force Reserve.
Throughout his seven decades in Hollywood, Stewart cultivated a versatile career and recognized screen image in such classics as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Philadelphia Story, Harvey, It's a Wonderful Life, Rear Window, Rope, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo. He is the most represented leading actor on the AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) and AFI's 10 Top 10 lists. He is also the most represented leading actor on the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time list presented by Entertainment Weekly. As of 2007, ten of his films have been inducted into the United States National Film Registry.
Stewart left his mark on a wide range of film genres, including westerns, suspense thrillers, family films, biographies and screwball comedies. He worked for a number of renowned directors later in his career, most notably Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Billy Wilder, Frank Capra, George Cukor, and Anthony Mann. He won many of the industry's highest honors and earned Lifetime Achievement awards from every major film organization. He died at age 89, leaving behind a legacy of classic performances, and is considered one of the finest actors of the "Golden Age of Hollywood". He was named the third Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute.
Early life and career
James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908 in Indiana, Pennsylvania, the son of Elizabeth Ruth (née Jackson) and Alexander Maitland Stewart, who owned a hardware store. Stewart's parents were of Scottish Presbyterian origin. His Jackson ancestors served in the American Revolution, the War of 1812 and the American Civil War. The eldest of three children (he had two younger sisters, Virginia and Mary), he was expected to continue his father's business, which had been in the family for three generations.His mother was an excellent pianist but his father discouraged Stewart's request for lessons. But when his father accepted a gift of an accordion from a guest, young Stewart quickly learned to play the instrument, which became a fixture off-stage during his acting career. As the family grew, music continued to be an important part of family life.
Stewart attended Mercersburg Academy prep school, graduating in 1928. He was active in a variety of activities. He played on the football and track teams, was art editor of the KARUX yearbook, and a member of the choir club, glee club, and John Marshall Literary Society. During his first summer break, Stewart returned to Indiana, Pennsylvania, to work as a brick loader for a local construction company and on highway and road construction jobs where he painted lines on the roads. Over the following two summers, he took a job as an assistant with a professional magician. He also made his first appearance on the stage at Mercersburg, as Buquet in the play The Wolves.
A shy child, Stewart spent much of his after-school time in the basement working on model airplanes, mechanical drawing and chemistry—all with a dream of going into aviation. But he abandoned visions of being a pilot when his father insisted that instead of the United States Naval Academy he attend Princeton University.
Stewart enrolled at Princeton in 1928 as a member of the class of 1932. He excelled at studying architecture, so impressing his professors with his thesis on an airport design that he was awarded a scholarship for graduate studies; He was a member of the Princeton Charter Club as well as a head cheerleader. In his spare time, he enjoyed going to the movies at the time when 'talkies' were just displacing silent films.
His acting and accordion talents at Princeton led him to be invited to the University Players, an intercollegiate summer stock company in West Falmouth, a town on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The company had been organized in 1928 and would run until 1932, with Joshua Logan, Bretaigne Windust, and Charles Leatherbee as directors. Stewart performed in bit parts in the Players' productions in Cape Cod during the summer of 1932, after he graduated. The troupe had previously included Henry Fonda, who married Margaret Sullavan on Christmas Day 1931, while the University Players were in Baltimore, Maryland, for an 18-week winter season. Sullavan, who had rejoined the University Players in Baltimore in November 1931 at the close of the post-Broadway tour of A Modern Virgin, left the Players for good at the end of The Trial of Mary Dugan in Baltimore in March 1932. By the time Stewart joined the University Players on Cape Cod after his graduation from Princeton in 1932, Fonda and Sullavan's brief marriage had ended. Stewart and Fonda became great friends over the summer of 1932 when they shared an apartment with Joshua Logan and Myron McCormick. When Stewart came to New York at the end of the summer stock season, which had included the Broadway try-out of Goodbye Again, he shared an apartment with Fonda, who had by then finalized his divorce from Sullavan. Along with fellow University Players Alfred Dalrymple and Myron McCormick, Stewart debuted on Broadway as a chauffeur in the comedy Goodbye Again, in which he had two lines. The New Yorker noted, "Mr. James Stewart's chauffeur... comes on for three minutes and walks off to a round of spontaneous applause."
The play was a moderate success, but times were hard. Many Broadway theaters had been converted to movie houses and the Depression was reaching bottom. "From 1932 through 1934," Stewart later recalled, "I'd only worked three months. Every play I got into folded." By 1934, he had gotten more substantial stage roles, including the modest hit Page Miss Glory and his first dramatic stage role in Sidney Howard's Yellow Jack, which convinced him to continue his acting career. However, Stewart and Fonda, still roommates, were both struggling.
In the fall of 1934, Fonda's success in The Farmer Takes a Wife took him to Hollywood. Finally, Stewart attracted the interest of MGM scout Bill Grady who saw Stewart on the opening night of Divided by Three, a glittering première with many luminaries in attendance, including Irving Berlin and Moss Hart and Fonda, who had returned to New York for the show. With Fonda's encouragement, Stewart agreed to take a screen test, after which he signed a contract with MGM in April 1935, as a contract player for up to seven years at $350 a week.
Upon Stewart's arrival by train in Los Angeles, Fonda greeted him at the station and took him to Fonda's studio-supplied lodging, next door to Greta Garbo. Stewart's first job at the studio was as a participant in screen tests with newly arrived starlets. At first, he had trouble being cast in Hollywood films owing to his gangling looks and shy, humble screen presence. His first film was the poorly received Spencer Tracy vehicle The Murder Man (1935), but Rose Marie (1936), an adaptation of a popular operetta, was more successful. After mixed success in films, he received his first substantial part in 1936's After the Thin Man.
On the romantic front, he found himself dating newly divorced Ginger Rogers, whom he had revered while a student at Princeton only a few years earlier. The romance soon cooled, however, and by chance Stewart encountered Margaret Sullavan again. Stewart found his footing in Hollywood thanks largely to Sullavan, who campaigned for Stewart to be her leading man in the 1936 romantic comedy Next Time We Love. She rehearsed extensively with him, having a noticeable effect on his confidence. She encouraged Stewart to feel comfortable with his unique mannerisms and boyish charm and use them naturally as his own style. In the meantime, roommate Fonda continued to arrange parties with starlets, who found Stewart different from the other young actors and irresistible in his own way. Stewart was enjoying Hollywood life and had no regrets about giving up the stage, as he worked six days a week in the MGM factory. In 1936, he acquired big-time agent Leland Hayward, who would eventually marry Sullavan. Hayward started to chart Stewart's career, deciding the best path for him was through loan-outs to other studios.
Pre-war success
and James Stewart in The Shop Around the Corner (1940).]] In 1938, Stewart had a brief, tumultuous, and well-publicized romance with Hollywood queen Norma Shearer, whose husband, Irving Thalberg, head of production at MGM, had died two years earlier. Stewart began a successful partnership with director Frank Capra in 1938, when he was loaned out to Columbia Pictures to star in You Can't Take It With You. Frank Capra had been impressed by Stewart's minor role in Navy Blue and Gold (1937). The director had recently completed several popular movies, including It Happened One Night (1934), and was looking for the right actor to suit his needs—which other recent actors in his films such as Clark Gable, Ronald Colman and Gary Cooper did not quite fit. Not only was Stewart just what he was looking for, but Capra also found Stewart understood that prototype intuitively and required very little directing. Later Capra commented, "I think he's probably the best actor who's ever hit the screen."The heart-warming Depression-era film (You Can't Take It With You), starring Capra's "favorite actress", comedienne Jean Arthur, won the 1938 Best Picture Academy Award. The following year saw Stewart work with Capra and Arthur again in the political comedy-drama Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Stewart replaced intended star Gary Cooper in the film, playing an idealist thrown into the political arena. Upon its October 1939 release, the film garnered critical praise and became a box-office success. Stewart was nominated for the first of five Academy Awards for Best Actor. Even after this great success, Stewart's parents were still trying to talk him into leaving Hollywood and its sinful ways and to return to his home town to lead a decent life. Instead, he took a secret trip to Europe to take a break and returned home in 1939 just as Germany invaded Poland. Made for Each Other (1939) had Stewart sharing the screen with irrepressible Carole Lombard in a melodrama that garnered good reviews for both stars, but did less well with the public. Newsweek wrote that they were "perfectly cast in the leading roles." Between movies, Stewart began a radio career and became a distinctive voice on the "Lux Radio Theater", "The Screen Guild Theater" and other shows. So well-known had his slow drawl become that comedians started to impersonate him, a form of flattery which continued for most of his life.
(1940)]] In 1940, Stewart and Margaret Sullavan reunited for two films. The first, the Ernst Lubitsch romantic comedy, The Shop Around the Corner, starred Stewart and Sullavan as co-workers unknowingly involved in a pen-pal romance who cannot stand each other in real life (this was later remade into the musical, In the Good Old Summertime with Judy Garland and Van Johnson, and later as the romantic comedy You've Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan). It was Stewart's fifth film of the year and that rare film shot in sequence; it was completed in only 27 days. The Mortal Storm, directed by Frank Borzage, was one of the first blatantly anti-Nazi films to be produced in Hollywood and featured the pair as friends and then lovers caught in turmoil upon Hitler's rise to power.
Stewart also starred with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant in George Cukor's classic The Philadelphia Story (1940). His performance as an intrusive, fast-talking reporter earned him his only Academy Award in a competitive category (Best Actor, 1941), and he beat out his good friend Henry Fonda (The Grapes of Wrath). Stewart thought his performance "entertaining and slick and smooth" but lacking the "guts" of "Mr. Smith." Stewart gave the Oscar statuette to his father, who displayed it for many years in a case inside the front door of his hardware store, alongside other family awards and military medals.
During the months before he began military service, Stewart appeared in a series of screwball comedies with varying levels of success. He followed the mediocre No Time for Comedy (1940) and Come Live with Me (1941) with the Judy Garland musical Ziegfeld Girl and the George Marshall romantic comedy Pot o' Gold. Stewart was drafted in late 1940, a situation that coincided with the lapse in his MGM contract, marking a turning point in Stewart's career, with 28 movies to his credit at that point.
Military service
The Stewart family had deep military roots as both grandfathers had fought in the Civil War, and his father had served during both the Spanish-American War and World War I. Since Stewart considered his father to be the biggest influence on his life, it was not surprising that when another war eventually came, he too was eager to serve. Although members of his family had previously been in the infantry, Stewart chose to become a military flyer.An early interest in flying led Stewart to gain his Private Pilot certificate in 1935 and Commercial Pilot certificate in 1938. He often flew cross-country to visit his parents in Pennsylvania, navigating by the railroad tracks.
Considered a highly proficient pilot, he even entered a cross-country race as a co-pilot in 1939. Along with musician/composer Hoagy Carmichael, Stewart saw the need for trained war pilots and joined with other Hollywood celebrities to invest in Thunderbird Field, a pilot-training school built and operated by Southwest Airways in Glendale, Arizona. This airfield became part of the United States Army Air Forces training establishment and trained more than 10,000 pilots during WWII, and is now the home of Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Later in 1940, Stewart was drafted into the United States Army but was rejected for failing to meet height and weight requirements for new recruits—Stewart was five pounds (2.3 kg) under the standard. To get up to 148 pounds he sought out the help Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's muscle man and trainer Don Loomis, who was noted for his ability to add or subtract pounds in his studio gymnasium. Stewart subsequently attempted to enlist in the Army Air Corps, but still came in under the weight requirement, although he persuaded the AAC enlistment officer to run new tests, this time passing the weigh-in, with the result that Stewart enlisted in the Army in March 1941. He became the first major American movie star to wear a military uniform in World War II.
Stewart enlisted as a private
Public appearances by Stewart were limited engagements scheduled by the Army Air Forces. "Stewart appeared several times on network radio with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, he performed with Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson, Walter Huston and Lionel Barrymore in an all-network radio program called We Hold These Truths, dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the Bill of Rights." In early 1942, Stewart was asked to appear in a propaganda film to help recruit the anticipated 100,000 airmen the USAAF would need to win the war. The USAAC's First Motion Picture Unit shot scenes of Lieutenant Stewart in his pilot's flight suit and recorded his voice for narration. The short film, Winning Your Wings, appeared nationwide beginning in late May and was very successful, resulting in 150,000 new recruits.
Stewart was concerned that his expertise and celebrity status would relegate him to instructor duties "behind the lines." His fears were confirmed when he was stationed for six months at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to train bombardiers. He was transferred to Hobbs AAF to become an instructor pilot for the four-engine B-17 Flying Fortress, where he trained B-17 pilots for nine months at Gowen Field in Boise, Idaho. Stewart appealed to his commander, a pre-war aviator, who understood the situation and reassigned him to a unit going overseas.
with palm by Lt. Gen. Henri Valin, Chief of Staff of the French Air Force, for his role in the liberation of France. USAF photo.]] In August 1943, Stewart was finally assigned to the 445th Bombardment Group at Sioux City AAB, Iowa, first as operations officer of the 703rd Bombardment Squadron and then as its commander, at the rank of captain. In December, the 445th Bombardment Group flew its B-24 Liberator bombers to RAF Tibenham, Norfolk, England and immediately began combat operations. While flying missions over Germany, Stewart was promoted to major. In March 1944, he was transferred as group operations officer to the 453rd Bombardment Group, a new B-24 unit that had been experiencing difficulties. As a means to inspire his new group, Stewart flew as command pilot in the lead B-24 on numerous missions deep into Nazi-occupied Europe. These missions went uncounted at Stewart's orders. His "official" total is listed as 20 and is limited to those with the 445th. In 1944, he twice received the Distinguished Flying Cross for actions in combat and was awarded the Croix de Guerre. He also received the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters. In July 1944, after flying 20 combat missions, Stewart was made Chief of Staff of the 2nd Combat Bombardment Wing of the Eighth Air Force, and though he was no longer required or expected to fly missions, he continued to do so. Before the war ended, he was promoted to colonel, one of the few Americans to rise from private to colonel in four years.
Stewart continued to play a role in the United States Air Force Reserve after the war, achieving the rank of Brigadier General on July 23, 1959. Stewart did not often talk of his wartime service, perhaps due to his desire to be seen as a regular soldier doing his duty instead of as a celebrity. He did appear on the TV series The World At War to discuss the October 14, 1943, bombing mission to Schweinfurt, which was the center of the German ball-bearing industry. This mission is known in USAF history as Black Thursday due to the high casualties it sustained; 60 aircraft were lost out of 291 B-17s dispatched unescorted to Schweinfurt. The available escort aircraft lacked the range to accompany them. Upon his request, he was identified only as "James Stewart, Squadron Commander" in the documentary.
After the war, Stewart served as Air Force Reserve commander of Dobbins Air Reserve Base in the early 1950s. In 1966, Brigadier General James Stewart flew as a non-duty observer in a B-52 on a bombing mission during the Vietnam War. At the time of his B-52 flight, he refused the release of any publicity regarding his participation, as he did not want it treated as a stunt, but as part of his job as an officer in the Air Force Reserve. After 27 years of service, Stewart retired from the Air Force on May 31, 1968. After his retirement, he was promoted to Major General by President Ronald Reagan.
Post-war success
, 1953.]] After the war, Stewart took time off to reassess his career, and he spent much time with his friend Fonda. He was an early investor in Southwest Airways, founded by Leland Hayward, and considered going into the aviation industry if his re-started film career did not prosper. Upon Stewart's return to Hollywood in fall 1945, he decided not to renew his MGM contract. He signed with an MCA talent agency. His former agent Leland Hayward got out of the talent business in 1944 after selling his A-list of stars, including Stewart, to MCA. The move made Stewart one of the first independently contracted actors, and gave him more freedom to choose roles. Stewart was able to work without limits on director and studio availability for the remainder of his career.For his first film in five years, Stewart appeared in his third and final Frank Capra production, It's a Wonderful Life. Capra paid RKO for the rights to the story and formed his own production company, Liberty Films. The female lead went to Donna Reed, after Capra's perennial first choice, Jean Arthur, was unavailable, and after turn-downs from Ginger Rogers, Olivia de Havilland, Ann Dvorak and Martha Scott. Stewart appeared as George Bailey, an upstanding small-town man who becomes increasingly frustrated by his ordinary existence and financial troubles. Driven to suicide on Christmas Eve, he is led to reassess his life by Clarence Odbody AS2, an "angel, second class", played by Henry Travers.
After viewing It's a Wonderful Life, President Harry S Truman concluded, "If Bess and I had a son we'd want him to be just like Jimmy Stewart." However, in the decades since the film's release, it grew to define Stewart's film persona and is widely considered as a sentimental Christmas film classic and, according to the American Film Institute, one of the best movies ever made.
In the aftermath of the film, Capra's production company went into bankruptcy, while Stewart started to have doubts about his ability to act after his military hiatus. His father kept insisting he come home and marry a local girl. Meanwhile in Hollywood, his generation of actors were fading and a new wave of actors would soon remake the town, including Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and James Dean.
(1950)]] After a poorly received Magic Town (1947) and the completion of Rope (1948) and Call Northside 777 (1948), Stewart had two flops On Our Merry Way (1948) and You Gotta Stay Happy (1949). In the documentary film James Stewart: A Wonderful Life (1987), hosted by Johnny Carson, Stewart said that he went back to Westerns in 1950 in part because a string of films that were flops.
Stewart decided to return to the stage for the Mary Chase-penned comedy, Harvey, which had opened to nearly universal praise in November 1944. Elwood P. Dowd, the protagonist and Stewart's character, is a wealthy eccentric living with his sister and his niece, and whose best friend is an invisible rabbit as large as a man. Dowd's eccentricity, especially the friendship with the rabbit, is ruining the niece's hopes of finding a husband. While trying to have Dowd committed to a sanatorium, his sister is committed herself while the play follows Dowd on an ordinary day in his not-so-ordinary life. Stewart took over the role from Frank Fay and gained an increased Broadway following in the unconventional play. Stewart received his fourth Best Actor nomination for his performance in the film.
After Harvey, the comedic adventure film Malaya (1949) with Spencer Tracy and the conventional but highly successful biographical film The Stratton Story in 1949, Stewart's first pairing with "on-screen wife" June Allyson, his career took another turn. During the 1950s, he expanded into the western and suspense genres, thanks largely to collaborations with directors Anthony Mann and Alfred Hitchcock.
Other notable performances by Stewart during this time include the critically acclaimed 1950 Delmer Daves western Broken Arrow, which featured Stewart as an ex-soldier and Indian agent making peace with the Apache; a troubled clown in the 1952 Best Picture The Greatest Show on Earth; and Stewart's role as Charles Lindbergh in Billy Wilder's 1957 film The Spirit of St. Louis. He also starred in the western radio show The Six Shooter for its one-season run from 1953-1954. During this time Stewart wore the same cowboy hat and rode the same horse, named "Pie", in most of his Westerns.
Collaborations with Hitchcock and Mann
(1950)]] James Stewart's collaborations with director Anthony Mann increased Stewart's popularity and sent his career into the realm of the western. Stewart's first appearance in a film directed by Mann came with the 1950 western, Winchester '73. In choosing Mann (after first choice Fritz Lang declined), Stewart cemented a powerful partnership. The film, which became a massive box office hit upon its release, set the pattern for their future collaborations. In it, Stewart is a tough, revengeful sharpshooter, the winner of a prized rifle which is stolen and then passes through many hands, until the showdown between Stewart and his brother (Stephen McNally).Stewart and Mann also collaborated on other films outside the western genre. 1953's The Glenn Miller Story was critically acclaimed, garnering Stewart a BAFTA Award nomination, and (together with The Spirit of St. Louis) cemented the popularity of Stewart's portrayals of 'American heroes'. Thunder Bay, released the same year, transplanted the plot arc of their western collaborations to a more contemporary setting, with Stewart as a Louisiana oil driller facing corruption. Strategic Air Command, released in 1955, allowed Stewart to use his experiences in the United States Air Force on film.
(1948)]] Stewart's starring role in Winchester '73 was also a turning point in Hollywood. Universal Studios, who wanted Stewart to appear in both that film and Harvey, balked at his $200,000 asking price. Stewart's agent, Lew Wasserman, brokered an alternate deal, in which Stewart would appear in both films for no pay, in exchange for a percentage of the profits and cast and director approval.
This wasn't the first such deal at Universal; Abbott and Costello also had a profit participation contract, but they were no longer top-flight moneymakers by 1950. Stewart ended up earning about $600,000 for Winchester '73 alone.
The second collaboration to define Stewart's career in the 1950s was with acclaimed mystery and suspense director Alfred Hitchcock. Like Mann, Hitchcock uncovered new depths to Stewart's acting, showing a protagonist confronting his fears and his repressed desires. Stewart's first movie with Hitchcock was the technologically innovative 1948 film Rope, shot in long "real time" takes.
The two collaborated for the second of four times on the 1954 hit Rear Window, one of Hitchcock's masterpieces. Stewart portrays photographer L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries, loosely based on Life photographer Robert Capa, who projects his fantasies and fears onto the people he observes out his apartment window while on hiatus due to a broken leg. Jeffries gets into more than he can handle, however, when he believes he has witnessed a salesman (Raymond Burr) commit a murder, and when his glamorous girlfriend (Grace Kelly), at first disdainful of his voyeurism and skeptical about any crime, eventually is drawn in and tries to help solve the mystery. Limited by his wheelchair, Stewart is masterfully led by Hitchcock to react to what his character sees with mostly facial responses. It was a landmark year for Stewart, becoming the highest grossing actor of 1954 and the most popular Hollywood star in the world, displacing John Wayne.
(1958)]] After starring in Hitchcock's remake of the director's earlier production, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), with co-star Doris Day, Stewart starred in what many consider Hitchcock's most personal film, Vertigo (1958). The movie starred Stewart as John "Scottie" Ferguson, a former police investigator suffering from acrophobia, who develops an obsession with a woman he is shadowing. Scottie's obsession inevitably leads to the destruction of everything he once had and believed in. Though the film is widely considered a classic today, Vertigo met with negative reviews and poor box office receipts upon its release, and marked the last collaboration between Stewart and Hitchcock. Stewart was also disappointed. The director blamed the film's failure on Stewart looking too old to still attract audiences, and cast Cary Grant as Roger Thornhill in North by Northwest (1959), a role Stewart had very much wanted (Grant was actually four years older than Stewart). Today, Vertigo is ranked second only to Citizen Kane in the 2002 Sight & Sound critics poll for the greatest films ever made.
Career in the 1960s and 1970s
In 1960, James Stewart was awarded the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and received his fifth and final Academy Award for Best Actor nomination, for his role in the 1959 Otto Preminger film Anatomy of a Murder. The early courtroom drama starred Stewart as Paul Biegler, the lawyer of a hot-tempered soldier (played by Ben Gazzara) who claims temporary insanity after murdering a tavern owner who raped his wife. The film featured a career-making performance by George C. Scott as the prosecutor. The film was sexually frank for its time (some thought it sordid), and its provocative promotional campaign helped gain it box office success, though Ben-Hur outgrossed all movies by a huge margin and swept the Academy Awards that year. Stewart's nomination was one of seven for the film (Charlton Heston was the winner), and saw his transition into the final decades of his career.On January 1, 1960 Stewart received the devastating news that Margaret Sullavan had committed suicide, most likely over despondency from her loss of hearing and its effect on her stage career. As a friend, mentor, and focus of his early romantic urges, she had a unique influence on Stewart's life.
(1962)]] In the early 1960s Stewart took leading roles in three John Ford films, his first work with the acclaimed director. The first, Two Rode Together, paired him with Richard Widmark in a Western with thematic echoes of Ford's The Searchers. The next, 1962's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (with John Wayne), is a classic "psychological" western, with Stewart featured as an Eastern attorney who goes against his non-violent principles when he is forced to confront a psychopathic outlaw (played by Lee Marvin) in a small frontier town. At story's end, Stewart's character—now a rising political figure—faces a difficult ethical choice as he attempts to reconcile his actions with his personal integrity. The film's billing is unusual in that Stewart was given top billing over Wayne in the trailers and on the posters but Wayne had top billing in the film itself, a system later repeated by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in All the President's Men. The film garnered so-so reviews and fared poorly at the box office, but is now considered a late Ford classic.
How the West Was Won (which Ford co-directed, though without directing Stewart's scenes) and Cheyenne Autumn were western epics released in 1962 and 1964 respectively. While the Cinerama production How the West Was Won went on to win three Oscars and reaped massive box office figures, Cheyenne Autumn, in which a white-suited Stewart played Wyatt Earp in a long sequence in the middle of the movie, failed domestically and was quickly forgotten. It was Ford's final Western and Stewart's last feature film with Ford.
Having played his last romantic lead in 1958's Bell, Book and Candle, and silver-haired (although not all was his—he wore a partial hairpiece starting with "It's a Wonderful Life" and in every film thereafter), Stewart transitioned into more family-related films in the 1960s when he signed a multi-movie deal with 20th Century Fox. These included the successful Henry Koster outing Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962), and the less memorable films Take Her, She's Mine (1963) and Dear Brigitte (1965), which featured French model Brigitte Bardot as the object of Stewart's son's mash notes. The Civil War period film Shenandoah (1965) and the western family film The Rare Breed fared better at the box office; the Civil War movie with strong antiwar and humanitarian themes was a smash hit in the South.
As an aviator, Stewart was particularly interested in aviation films and had pushed to appear in several in the 1950s; most notably Strategic Air Command and The Spirit of St. Louis. He continued in this vein in the 1960s, most notably in a role as a hard-bitten pilot in The Flight of the Phoenix (1965). Subbing for Stewart, famed stunt pilot and air racer Paul Mantz was killed when he crashed the "Tallmantz Phoenix P-1", the specially-made, single-engine movie model, in an abortive "touch-and-go". Stewart also narrated the film X-15 in 1961. In 1964, he and several other military aviators, including Curtis LeMay, Paul Tibbets, and Bruce Sundlun were founding directors of the board of Tibbets' Executive Jet Aviation Corporation.
After a progression of lesser western films in the late '60s and early '70s, James Stewart transitioned from cinema to television. In the 1950s he had made guest appearances on the Jack Benny Program (Benny was his real life neighbor and good friend). Stewart first starred in the NBC comedy The Jimmy Stewart Show, on which he played a college professor. He followed it with the CBS mystery Hawkins, in which he played a small town lawyer investigating his cases. The series garnered Stewart a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Dramatic TV Series, but failed to gain a wide audience and was cancelled after one season. (Andy Griffith fared much better later in Matlock, based on a similar formula.) During this time, Stewart periodically appeared on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show, sharing poems he had written at different times in his life. His poems were later compiled into a short collection titled Jimmy Stewart and His Poems (1989).
Stewart returned to films after an absence of five years with a major role in John Wayne's final film, The Shootist (1976) where Stewart played a doctor giving Wayne's gunfighter a terminal cancer diagnosis. At one point, both Wayne and Stewart were flubbing their lines repeatedly and Stewart turned to director Don Siegel and said, "You'd better get two better actors". Stewart also appeared in supporting roles in Airport '77, the 1978 remake of The Big Sleep with Robert Mitchum and The Magic of Lassie (1978). The latter film received poor reviews and flopped at the box office. Some critics expressed their dismay at seeing the 70-year-old veteran singing as the grandfather. Stewart responded it was the only script he had been offered without any sex, profanity or graphic violence.
Later career and death
Following the failure of The Magic of Lassie, Stewart went into semi-retirement from acting. He donated his papers, films, and other records to Brigham Young University's Harold B. Lee Library in 1983. Stewart had diversified investments including real estate, oil wells, a charter-plane company and membership on major corporate boards. He became a multimillionaire. In the 1980s and 1990s, he did voiceovers for commercials for Campbell's Soups. He made frequent visits to the Reagan White House and traveled on the lecture circuit. The re-release of his Hitchcock films gained Stewart renewed recognition. Rear Window and Vertigo were particularly praised by film critics, which helped bring these films to the attention of younger movie-goers. He was presented an Academy Honorary Award by his friend Cary Grant in 1985, "for his 50 years of memorable performances, for his high ideals both on and off the screen, with respect and affection of his colleagues."Stewart became a real life "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" in 1988, when he made an impassioned plea in Congressional hearings, along with colleagues Burt Lancaster, Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, and film director Martin Scorsese, against Ted Turner's decision to 'colorize' classic black and white films, including It's a Wonderful Life. Stewart stated, "the coloring of black-and-white films is wrong. It's morally and artistically wrong and these profiteers should leave our film industry alone".
In 1989, Stewart joined Peter F. Paul in founding the American Spirit Foundation to apply entertainment industry resources to developing innovative approaches to public education and to assist the emerging democracy movements in the former Iron Curtain countries. Paul arranged for Stewart, through the offices of President Boris Yeltsin, to send a special print of It's a Wonderful Life, translated by Lomonosov Moscow State University, to Russia as the first American program ever to be broadcast on Russian television. On January 5, 1992, coinciding with the first day of the existence of the democratic Commonwealth of Independent States and Russia, and the first free Russian Orthodox Christmas Day, Russian TV Channel 2 broadcast It's a Wonderful Life to 200 million Russians who celebrated an American holiday tradition with the American people for the first time in Russian history.
In association with politicians and celebrities such as President Ronald Reagan, Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger, California Governor George Deukmejian, Bob Hope and Charlton Heston, Stewart worked from 1987 to 1993 on projects that enhanced the public appreciation and understanding of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.
In 1991, James Stewart voiced the character of Sheriff Wylie Burp in the movie , which was his last film role.
Shortly before his 80th birthday, he was asked how he wanted to be remembered. "As someone who 'believed in hard work and love of country, love of family and love of community.'"
Stewart died from a blood clot on a lung on July 2, 1997, at his home in Beverly Hills. His death came one day after fellow screen legend and The Big Sleep co-star Robert Mitchum had died. Stewart is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
"America lost a national treasure today," President Bill Clinton said on the day Stewart died. "Jimmy Stewart was a great actor, a gentleman and a patriot."
Joan Crawford, Stewart's co-star in the early period, praised him as an "endearing perfectionist" with "a droll sense of humor and a shy way of watching you to see if you react to that humor." and the two gained a reputation as playboys. Once married, both men's children noted that their favorite activity when not working seemed to be quietly sharing time together while building and painting model airplanes, a hobby they had taken up in New York, years earlier.
After World War II, Stewart settled down, at age 41, marrying former model Gloria Hatrick McLean (1918–1994) on August 9, 1949. As Stewart loved to recount in self-mockery, "I, I, I pitched the big question to her last night and to my surprise she, she, she said yes!".
Stewart adopted her two sons, Michael and Ronald, and with Gloria he had twin daughters, Judy and Kelly, on May 7, 1951. The couple remained married until her death from lung cancer on February 16, 1994. Ronald McLean was killed in action on June 8, 1969, at the age of 24, while serving as a Marine Corps Lieutenant in Vietnam. Kelly Stewart is an anthropologist at the University of California, Davis.
, Los Angeles.]] While visiting India in 1959, Stewart reportedly smuggled the remains of a supposed yeti, the so-called Pangboche Hand, by hiding them in his luggage (specifically, in his wife's underwear) when he flew from India to London, as a favor to Tom Slick.
James Stewart was active in philanthropic affairs over the years. His signature charity event, "The Jimmy Stewart Relay Marathon Race", held each year since 1982, has raised millions of dollars for the Child and Family Development Center at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California. (Jefferson Smith in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, was also the leader of the "Boy Rangers", a fictional organization patterned after cub scouts.) An award for Boy Scouts, "The James M. Stewart Good Citizenship Award" has been presented since May 17, 2003.
One of Stewart's lesser-known talents was his homespun poetry. He once read a poem that he had written about his dog, entitled "Beau," while on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. By the end of this reading, Carson's eyes were welling with tears. This was later parodied on a late 1980s episode of the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live, with Dana Carvey as Stewart reciting the poem on Weekend Update and bringing anchor Dennis Miller to tears.
In addition to poetry, Stewart would talk during Tonight Show appearances about his avid gardening. Stewart purchased the house next door to his own home at 918 North Roxbury Drive, razed the house, and installed his garden in the lot.
Politics
Stewart was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party and actively campaigned for Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. He was a "hawk" on the Vietnam War. Following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, Stewart, Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas and Gregory Peck issued a statement calling for support of President Lyndon B. Johnson's Gun Control Act of 1968.One of his best friends was fellow actor Henry Fonda, despite the fact that the two men had very different political ideologies. A political argument in 1947 resulted in a fist fight between them, but the two apparently maintained their friendship by never discussing politics again. There is a brief reference to their political differences in character in their movie The Cheyenne Social Club. In the last years of his life, he donated to the campaign of Bob Dole in the 1996 presidential election and to Democratic Florida governor Bob Graham in his successful run for the Senate.
Filmography
From the beginning of James Stewart's career in 1935 through his final theatrical project in 1991, he appeared in 92 films, television programs and shorts. Through the course of this illustrious career, he appeared in many landmark and critically acclaimed films, including such classics as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Rear Window, The Spirit of St. Louis and Vertigo. His roles in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Philadelphia Story, It's a Wonderful Life, Harvey, and Anatomy of a Murder earned him Academy Award nominations (he won for Philadelphia Story). Stewart's career defied the boundaries of genre and trend, and he made his mark in screwball comedies, suspense thrillers, westerns, biographies and family films.
Broadway stage performances
. It was once stolen but was subsequently replaced.]]
Honors and tributes
James Stewart was presented various kinds of film industry awards, military and civilian medals, honorary degrees, memorials and tributes over the years for his contribution to performing arts, humanitarianism, and military service.
See also
References
;Notes ;Citations ;Bibliography
External links
Category:1908 births Category:1997 deaths Category:People from Indiana, Pennsylvania Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients Category:Actors from Pennsylvania Category:American film actors Category:American military personnel of the Vietnam War Category:American Presbyterians Category:American stage actors Category:Best Actor Academy Award winners Category:Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (television) winners Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) Category:California Republicans Category:Cecil B. DeMille Award Golden Globe winners Category:Recipients of the Croix de Guerre (France) Category:Deaths from pulmonary embolism Category:Disease-related deaths in California Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:20th-century actors Category:Mercersburg Academy alumni Category:People from California Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Princeton University alumni Category:RCA Victor artists Category:Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (United States) Category:Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) Category:Recipients of the Air Medal Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent Category:United States Air Force generals Category:Western (genre) film actors Category:United States Army Air Forces officers Category:United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II
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Steve Martin
| Coordinates | 37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N |
|---|---|
| Name | Steve Martin |
| Caption | at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival |
| Birth name | Stephen Glenn Martin |
| Birth date | August 14, 1945 |
| Birth place | Waco, Texas, United States |
| Medium | Stand-up, television, film, music, publishing |
| Nationality | American |
| Active | 1967–present |
| Genre | Improvisational, sketch, slapstick |
| Influences | British television, Red Skelton, Jerry Lewis, Jack Benny, Laurel and Hardy, Wally Boag |
| Influenced | Eddie Izzard, Chris Rock, Judd Apatow, Patton Oswalt, Dane Cook, Brian Posehn, Bo Burnham, Will Forte, David Walliams, Sarah Silverman, Will Arnett, Jon Stewart, Harry Hill, Vic Reeves, Stephen Colbert, Louis C.K., Tina Fey, Russell Peters, Howie Mandel, Andy Samberg, Bill Hader, Artie Lange |
| Spouse | Victoria Tennant (November 20, 1986–1994) Martin was raised in Inglewood, California, and then later in Garden Grove, California, in a Baptist family. One of his earliest memories is of seeing his father, as an extra, serving drinks onstage at the Call Board Theatre on Melrose Place. During World War II, in England, Martin's father had appeared in a production of Our Town with Raymond Massey. Years later, he would write to Massey for help in Steve's fledgling career, but would receive no reply. Expressing his affection through gifts of cars, bikes, etc., Martin's father was stern, not emotionally open to his son. Martin's first job was at Disneyland, selling guidebooks on weekends and full-time during the summer school break. That lasted for three years (1955–1958). During his free time he frequented the Main Street Magic shop, where tricks were demonstrated to potential customers. In his authorized biography, close friend Morris Walker suggests that Martin could "be described most accurately as an agnostic [...] he rarely went to church and was never involved in organized religion of his own volition". |
| |rowspan | 2| Cameo |
| Colspan | "5" style="font-size:90%"|"—" denotes a title that did not chart. |
| Name | Martin, Steve |
| Alternative names | Martin, Stephen Glen |
| Short description | Comedian, writer, and entertainer |
| Date of birth | August 14, 1945 |
| Place of birth | Waco, Texas, United States |
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Peter Falk
| Coordinates | 37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N |
|---|---|
| Caption | As "Columbo", circa 1976 |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1956–2008 |
| Spouse | Alyce Mayo (1960–1976)Shera Danese (1977 – present) |
| Author | Just One More Thing: Stories from My Life (Thorndike Press, 2006) ISBN 978-0-7862-9288-2 |
| Birth name | Peter Michael Falk |
| Birth date | September 16, 1927 |
| Birth place | New York City, United States |
| Website | http://www.peterfalk.com/ |
Peter Michael Falk (born September 16, 1927) is a retired American actor, best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo in the television series Columbo. He appeared in numerous films and television guest roles, and has been nominated for an Academy Award twice (for 1960's Murder, Inc. and 1961's Pocketful of Miracles), and won the Emmy Award on five occasions (four for Columbo) and the Golden Globe award once. Director William Friedkin, when discussing Falk's role in his 1978 film The Brink's Job said that "Peter has a great range from comedy to drama. He could break your heart or he could make you laugh."
As the star of the TV series Columbo, which initially aired from 1971 to 1978, he was "everyone's favorite rumpled television detective", writes historian David Fantle. Describing his role, Variety columnist Howard Prouty writes, "The joy of all this is watching Columbo dissemble the fiendishly clever cover stories of the loathsome rats who consider themselves his better."
Early life
Born in New York City, Falk was the son of Michael Peter Falk, owner of a clothing and dry goods store, and his wife, Madeline, an accountant and buyer. His father was Polish and his mother Russian. He is the great-grandson of Miksa Falk, chief editor of the Budapest newspaper Pester Lloyd.His right eye was surgically removed at the age of three because of a malignant tumor; he has worn a glass eye for most of his life. Despite this, Falk participated in team sports, mainly baseball and basketball, as a boy. In a 1997 interview in Cigar Aficionado magazine with Arthur Marx, Falk said, "I remember once in high school the umpire called me out at third base when I was sure I was safe. I got so mad I took out my glass eye, handed it to him and said, 'Try this.' I got such a laugh you wouldn't believe." in upstate New York. Falk attended Ossining High School in Westchester County, New York, where he was a star athlete and president of his senior class. After graduating from high school in 1945, Falk briefly attended Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and then tried to join the armed services as World War II was drawing to a close. Rejected because of his glass eye, he joined the United States Merchant Marine, and served as a cook and mess boy. "There they don't care if you're blind or not", Falk said in 1997. "The only one on a ship who has to see is the captain. And in the case of the Titanic, he couldn't see very well, either."
After a year and a half in the Merchant Marine, Falk returned to Hamilton College and also attended the University of Wisconsin. He transferred to the New School for Social Research in New York City, which awarded him a bachelor's degree in literature and political science in 1951. He then traveled in Europe and worked on a railroad in Yugoslavia for six months. He returned to New York, enrolling at Syracuse University,
Falk obtained a master's degree in public administration at Syracuse University in 1953. It was a new program designed to train future workers in the federal bureaucracy, a career that Falk said in his memoir that he had "no interest in and no aptitude for." He applied for a job with the CIA, but was rejected because of his membership in the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union while serving in the Merchant Marine, even though he was required to join and was not active in the union. He then became a management analyst with the Connecticut State Budget Bureau in Hartford. Falk characterized his Hartford job as "efficiency expert." "I was such an efficiency expert that the first morning on the job, I couldn't find the building where I was to report for work", he said in 1997. "Naturally, I was late, which I always was in those days, but ironically it was my tendency never to be on time that got me started as a professional actor." His next theater role proved far better for his career. In May he appeared at Circle in the Square in a revival of The Iceman Cometh with Jason Robards, playing the bartender.
Falk made his Broadway debut also in 1956, appearing in Aleksandr Ostrovsky's Diary of a Scoundrel. As the year came to an end, he appeared again on Broadway as an English soldier in Shaw's Saint Joan, with Siobhán McKenna. In 1972 he won a Tony for his performance in Broadway's The Prisoner of Second Avenue. According to film historian Ephraim Katz, "His characters derive added authenticity from his squinty gaze, the result of the loss of an eye . . ."
Early films
for his performance as the gangster Abe Reles in Murder, Inc.]] Despite his stage success, a theatrical agent advised Falk not to expect much film work because of his glass eye. His first film performances were in small roles in Wind Across the Everglades (1958), The Bloody Brood (1959) and Pretty Boy Floyd (1960).Falk's performance in Murder, Inc. (1960) was a turning point in his career. He was cast in the supporting role of killer Abe Reles, in a film based on the real-life murder gang of that name, which terrorized New York in the 1930s. New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther, while dismissing the movie as "an average gangster film", singled out Falk's "amusingly vicious performance."
The film turned out to be Falk's breakout role. In his 2006 autobiography, Just One More Thing, Falk said that his selection for the film from thousands of other off-Broadway actors was a "miracle" that "made my career", and that without it he would not have gotten the other significant movie roles that he later played. Falk, who played Reles again in the 1960 TV series The Witness,
For his part, Falk says that he "never worked with a director who showed greater enjoyment of actors and the acting craft." Falk says, "There is nothing more important to an actor than to know that the one person who represents the audience to you, the director, is responding well to what you are trying to do." Falk recalled one time that Capra reshot a scene even though he yelled "Cut and Print", indicating the scene finalized. When Falk asked him why he wanted it reshot, "he laughed and said that he loved the scene so much he just wanted to see us do it again. How's that for support!"
Columbo series
Although Falk appeared in numerous other television roles in the 1960s and 1970s, he is best known as the star of the TV series Columbo, "everyone's favorite rumpled television detective", writes historian David Fantle. His character was a shabby and ostensibly absent-minded police detective lieutenant, who had first appeared in the 1968 film Prescription: Murder. Falk described his role to Fantle::Columbo has a genuine mistiness about him. It seems to hang in the air . . . [and] he's capable of being distracted. . . . Columbo is an ass-backwards Sherlock Holmes. Holmes had a long neck, Columbo has no neck; Holmes smoked a pipe, Columbo chews up six cigars a day."
Television critic Ben Falk adds that Falk "created an iconic cop . . . who always got his man (or woman) after a tortuous cat-and-mouse investigation." He notes also that the idea for the character was "apparently inspired by Dostoyevsky's dogged police inspector, Petrovich, in the novel Crime and Punishment. Columbo was a real one-off."
Falk tries to analyze the character and notes the correlation between his own personality and Columbo's:
:''I'm a Virgo Jew, and that means I have an obsessive thoroughness. It's not enough to get most of the details, it's necessary to get them all. I've been accused of perfectionism. When Lew Wasserman (head of Universal Studios) said that Falk is a perfectionist, I don't know whether it was out of affection or because he felt I was a monumental pain in the ass."
The debut episode in 1971 was directed by 25-year-old Steven Spielberg in one of his earliest directing roles. Falk recalled the episode to Spielberg biographer Joseph McBride:
:Let's face it, we had some good fortune at the beginning. Our debut episode, in 1971, was directed by this young kid named Steven Spielberg. I told the producers, Link and Levinson, This guy is too good for "Columbo". . . . Steven was shooting me with a long lens from across the street. That wasn't common twenty years ago. The comfort level it gave me as an actor, besides its great look artistically—well, it told you that this wasn't any ordinary director."
The character of Columbo had previously been played by Bert Freed in a single TV episode and by Thomas Mitchell on Broadway. Falk first played Columbo in Prescription: Murder, a 1968 TV-movie, and from 1971 to 1978 Columbo aired regularly on NBC as part of the umbrella series NBC Mystery Movie. All episodes were of TV-movie length, 90 or 120 minutes including commercials. The show returned on ABC in the form of a less frequent series of TV-movies, still starring Falk, from 1989 until 2003.
In 1978, he appeared on the comedy TV show, "Dean Martin Roast" where Frank Sinatra was the evening's victim. Watch clip
Falk continued to work in films, including his performance as a questionable ex-CIA agent of dubious sanity in the comedy The In-Laws. Director Arthur Hiller said during an interview that the "film started out because Alan Arkin and Peter Falk wanted to work together. They went to Warner's and said, 'We'd like to do a picture,' and Warner's said fine . . . and out came The In-laws. . . . of all the films I've done, The In-laws is the one I get the most comments on."
He also appeared in The Princess Bride, and (cast as himself) in Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire. In 1998, Falk returned to the New York stage to star in an off-Broadway production of Arthur Miller's Mr. Peters' Connections. His previous stage work included shady real estate salesman Shelley "the Machine" Levene in a Los Angeles production of David Mamet's prizewinning Glengarry Glen Ross.
Falk also starred in such holiday television movies as A Town Without Christmas (2001), Finding John Christmas (2003) and When Angels Come to Town (2004). In 2005 he starred in The Thing About My Folks. Although movie critic Roger Ebert was not impressed with most of the other actors, he writes in his review, ". . . we discover once again what a warm and engaging actor Peter Falk is. I can't recommend the movie, but I can be grateful that I saw it, for Falk." In 2007, Falk appeared with Nicolas Cage in the thriller Next.
Personal life
Falk married Alyce Mayo, whom he met when they were both students at Syracuse University, on April 17, 1960. They adopted two daughters, Catherine (who is a private investigator) and Jackie. They divorced in 1976. On December 3, 1977, Falk married actress Shera Danese, who guest-starred on the Columbo series on numerous occasions.Falk is an accomplished artist. Examples of his sketches can be seen on his official website.
At a two day conservatorship trial in Los Angeles in June 2009, one of Falk's personal physicians, Dr. Stephen Read, reported Falk rapidly slipped into dementia after a series of dental operations in 2007. Dr. Read said it was unclear whether Falk's condition worsened as a result of anesthesia or some other reaction to the operations. Shera Danese Falk was appointed as her husband's conservator and requested the media to respect his privacy.
Selected filmography
References
External links
Category:1927 births Category:Living people Category:Actors from New York Category:American film actors Category:American sailors Category:American stage actors Category:American television actors Category:American television producers Category:American people with disabilities Category:Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (television) winners Category:Cancer survivors Category:Emmy Award winners Category:American people of Russian descent Category:American people of Polish descent Category:American people of Hungarian descent Category:People from New York City Category:People with dementia Category:Syracuse University alumni Category:The New School alumni Category:The Princess Bride
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Pat Hingle
| Coordinates | 37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N |
|---|---|
| Caption | Hingle as Judge Adam Fenton in Hang 'Em High (1968). |
| Birth date | July 19, 1924 |
| Birth name | Martin Patterson Hingle |
| Birth place | Miami, Florida, United States |
| Death date | January 03, 2009 |
| Death place | Carolina Beach, North Carolina, United States |
| Years active | 1954–2009 |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Spouse | Alyce Faye Dorsey (1947-1972) (divorced) 3 childrenJulie Wright (1979-2009) |
Martin Patterson "Pat" Hingle (July 19, 1924 – January 3, 2009) was an American actor.
Early life
Hingle was born Martin Patterson Hingle in Miami, Florida, the son of Marvin Louise (née Patterson), a schoolteacher and musician, and Clarence Martin Hingle, a building contractor. Hingle enlisted in the U.S. Navy in December 1941, dropping out of the University of Texas. He served on the destroyer USS Marshall during World War II. He returned to the University of Texas after the war and earned a degree in radio broadcasting.
Near fatal 1960 accident
In 1960, he had been offered the title role in Elmer Gantry, but could not do it due to a near fatal accident; caught in an elevator in his West End Avenue apartment building that had stalled between the second and third floors, he crawled out, trying to reach the second floor corridor, lost his balance and fell 54 feet down the shaft, fracturing his skull, wrist, hip and most of the ribs on his left side, breaking his left leg in three places and losing the little finger on his left hand. He lay near death for two weeks and his recovery took more than a year.
Acting career
Traditional roles
Hingle was traditionally known for playing judges, police officers, and other authority figures. One of his notable roles was the father of the character played by Warren Beatty in Splendor in the Grass (1961). He is probably best known in recent times for playing Commissioner Gordon in the 1989 film Batman, and its three sequels. Hingle had a long list of television and movie credits to his name, going back to 1948. Among them are Hang 'Em High (1968), Sudden Impact (1983), Road To Redemption (2001), When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? (1979), Brewster's Millions (1985), Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive (1986), The Grifters (1990), Citizen Cohn (1992), The Land Before Time (1988), Wings (1996), and Shaft (2000). Hingle played Dr. Chapman in the TV series Gunsmoke (1971), and Col. Tucker in the movie Gunsmoke: To the Last Man (1992). In 1963, Hingle guest-starred in an episode of The Twilight Zone in an episode called "The Incredible World of Horace Ford" as the title character.
Batman film series
Along with Michael Gough, who played Alfred Pennyworth, he was one of only two actors to appear in the four Batman films from 1989-1997. In Hingle's appearance as Commissioner Gordon in Batman & Robin, he worked with Uma Thurman (who portrayed Poison Ivy), whose first husband, Gary Oldman, succeeded him in the role in Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008). Hingle portraying yet another judge in Shaft also worked with Christian Bale, who would go on to portray Batman/Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.
Other roles
Marriages
Married Alyce Faye Dorsey, June 3, 1947 (divorced); :children: (first marriage) Jody, Billy, Molly; Married Julia Wright, October 25, 1979 - January 3, 2009; :children:(second marriage) two children
Death
Hingle died at his home in Carolina Beach, North Carolina, of cancer on January 3, 2009, having been diagnosed with myelodysplasia in November 2006. He was cremated. His ashes were scattered into the Atlantic Ocean.
References
External links
Category:1924 births Category:2009 deaths Category:Actors Studio alumni Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:American stage actors Category:Actors from Colorado Category:Cancer deaths in North Carolina Category:Deaths from leukemia Category:People from Denver, Colorado Category:University of Texas at Austin alumni Category:United States Navy sailors
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Donna Reed
| Coordinates | 37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N |
|---|---|
| Name | Donna Reed |
| Caption | Image from the trailer for The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) |
| Birth name | Donna Belle Mullenger |
| Birth date | January 27, 1921 |
| Birth place | Denison, Iowa, U.S. |
| Death date | |
| Death place | Beverly Hills, California, U.S. |
| Spouse | William J. Tuttle (1943-1945) (divorced)Tony Owen (1945-1971) (divorced) 4 childrenGrover Asmus (1974-1986) (her death) |
| Years active | 1941–1985 |
| Occupation | Actress |
Donna Reed (January 27, 1921 – January 14, 1986) was an American film and television actress.
She received the 1953 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Lorene, a prostitute, in From Here to Eternity, and received the 1963 Golden Globe Award for Best TV Star - Female for her performance as Donna Stone, an American middle class wife and mother, in The Donna Reed Show. In 1984, she replaced Barbara Bel Geddes as Miss Ellie in the television melodrama, Dallas, and sued the production company for breach of contract when she was abruptly fired upon Bel Geddes's decision to return to the show.
Reed was married three times and the mother of four children. She died of pancreatic cancer.
Early life
Reed was born Donna Belle Mullenger on a farm near Denison, Iowa, the daughter of Hazel Jane Shives (1899–1975) and William Richard Mullenger (1893–1981). The eldest of five children, she was raised as a Methodist. After graduating from Denison High School, Reed planned to become a teacher, but was unable to pay for college. She decided to move to California to attend Los Angeles City College on the advice of her aunt. While attending college, she performed in various stage productions but had no plans to become an actress. After receiving several offers to screen test for studios, Reed eventually signed with MGM, but insisted on finishing her education first.
Career
, (1941)]]After signing with MGM in 1941, Reed made her film debut that same year in The Get-Away, opposite Robert Sterling. Billed in her first feature as Donna Adams, MGM decided against the name and changed it to Donna Reed. She starred in The Courtship of Andy Hardy and had a supporting role with Edward Arnold in Eyes in the Night (1942). In 1943, she appeared in The Human Comedy with Mickey Rooney, followed by roles in The Picture of Dorian Gray and They Were Expendable, both in 1945.
Her "girl-next-door" good looks and warm on-stage personality made her a popular pin-up for many GIs during WWII. She personally answered letters from many GIs serving overseas.
and Karolyn Grimes in It's a Wonderful Life, (1946)]]
In 1946, she was lent to RKO Pictures for the role of Mary Bailey in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. The film has since been named as one of the 100 best American films ever made by the American Film Institute and is regularly aired on television during the Christmas season.
Following the release of It's a Wonderful Life, Reed appeared in Green Dolphin Street (1947) with Lana Turner and Van Heflin, and Scandal Sheet (1952). In 1953, she played the role of Alma "Lorene" Burke, a prostitute and mistress of Montgomery Clift's character in the World War II drama From Here to Eternity. The role earned Reed an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for 1953.
Beginning in 1958, she starred in The Donna Reed Show, a television situation-comedy series that featured her as Donna Stone, the idealized housewife of pediatrician Dr. Alex Stone (Carl Betz) and mother of Jeff (Paul Petersen) and Mary Stone (Shelley Fabares). It ran for eight seasons on ABC. Reed won a Golden Globe Award and earned four Emmy Award nominations for her work on the series.
, (1958)]]
After The Donna Reed Show ended its run in 1966, Reed took time off from acting and helped form the advocacy group, Another Mother For Peace in 1967. Reed also became an opponent of the Vietnam War and the use of nuclear weapons. She returned to acting in the 1970s, appearing in various guest spots in television series and television movies.
In 1984, she replaced Barbara Bel Geddes, who had decided to step down from her role as "Miss Ellie" in the television series Dallas in the 1984-85 season. When Bel Geddes agreed to return to the role for the 1985-86 season, Reed was abruptly fired. She sued the show's production company for breach of contract and later settled out of court for over $1 million.
Personal life
From 1943 to 1945, Reed was married to make up artist William Tuttle. In 1945, she married producer Tony Owen (1907–1984) with whom she raised four children: Penny Jane, Anthony, Timothy, and Mary Anne (the two oldest children were adopted). Reed and Owen divorced in 1971, and three years later, she married retired U. S. Army Colonel Grover W. Asmus (1926–2003).During the Vietnam War, Reed was a peace activist, co-chairing a group opposed to the war called Another Mother for Peace.
On January 8, 1945, Reed went to Juarez, Mexico, to obtain a divorce from Bill Tuttle. Returning home on the night of January 9, 1945, Reed boarded a plane in El Paso, Texas, for a flight back to Los Angeles. Just as the plane was about to take off, Reed was bumped from the flight to make room for a military officer. The airliner crashed on approach to Lockheed Air Terminal (now called Bob Hope Airport) in Burbank, California, killing everyone on board.
Death
Reed died of pancreatic cancer in Beverly Hills, California, on January 14, 1986, thirteen days short of her 65th birthday. She had been diagnosed with the terminal illness three months prior. She is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.Reed's hometown of Denison, Iowa, hosts the annual Donna Reed Festival. Reed's childhood home was located on Donna Reed Drive in Denison but was destroyed by a fire in 1983.
Reed's Academy Award is on display at W.A. McHenry museum house in Denison, Iowa.
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Donna Reed has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1610 Vine Street.
In May 2010 Turner Classic Movies honored Donna as their star of the month which saw Mary Owen pay a special tribute to her mother.
Filmography
{| border="2" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 90%;" |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" ! colspan="4" style="background: LightSteelBlue;" | Film |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" ! Year ! Film ! Role ! Notes |- |rowspan=3|1941 |The Get-Away |Maria Theresa 'Terry' O'Reilly |Alternative title: The Getaway |- |Shadow of the Thin Man |Molly | |- |Babes on Broadway |Jonesy's Secretary |Uncredited |- |rowspan=7|1942 |Personalities | |Uncredited |- |The Bugle Sounds |Sally Hanson | |- |The Courtship of Andy Hardy |Melodie Eunice Nesbit | |- |Mokey |Anthea Delano | |- |Calling Dr. Gillespie |Marcia Bradburn | |- |Apache Trail |Rosalia Martinez | |- |Eyes in the Night |Barbara Lawry | |- |rowspan=4|1943 |The Human Comedy |Bess Macauley | |- |Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case |Marcia Bradburn |Alternative title: Crazy to Kill |- |The Man from Down Under |Mary Wilson | |- |Thousands Cheer |Customer in Red Skelton Skit | |- |rowspan=2|1944 |See Here, Private Hargrove |Carol Holliday | |- |Gentle Annie |Mary Lingen | |- |rowspan=2|1945 |The Picture of Dorian Gray |Gladys Hallward | |- |They Were Expendable |Lt. Sandy Davyss | |- |rowspan=2|1946 |Faithful in My Fashion |Jean Kendrick | |- |It's a Wonderful Life |Mary Hatch Bailey |Alternative title: Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life |- |1947 |Green Dolphin Street |Marguerite Patourel | |- |1948 |Beyond Glory |Ann Daniels | |- |1949 |Chicago Deadline |Rosita Jean D'Ur | |- |1951 |Saturday's Hero |Melissa |Alternative title: Idols in the Dust |- |rowspan=2|1952 |Scandal Sheet |Julie Allison |Alternative title: The Dark Page |- |Hangman's Knot |Molly Hull | |- |rowspan=5|1953 |Trouble Along the Way |Alice Singleton |Alternative title: Alma Mater |- |Raiders of the Seven Seas |Alida | |- |From Here to Eternity |Alma "Lorene" Burke |Winner: Best Supporting Actress Academy Award |- |The Caddy |Kathy Taylor | |- |Gun Fury |Jennifer Ballard | |- |rowspan=3|1954 |They Rode West |Laurie MacKaye | |- |Three Hours to Kill |Laurie Mastin | |- |The Last Time I Saw Paris |Marion Ellswirth/Matine | |- |rowspan=2|1955 |The Far Horizons |Sacajawea |Alternative title: The Untamed West |- |The Benny Goodman Story |Alice Hammond | |- |rowspan=3|1956 |Ransom! |Edith Stannard |Alternative title: Fearful Decision |- |Backlash |Karyl Orton | |- |Beyond Mombasa |Ann Wilson | |- |1958 |The Whole Truth |Carol Poulton | |- |1974 |Yellow-Headed Summer | | |- |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" ! colspan="4" style="background: LightSteelBlue;" | Television |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" ! Year ! Title ! Role ! Notes |- |1954 |The Ford Television Theatre |Lydia Campbell |1 episode |- |1955 |Tales of Hans Anderson | |1 episode |- |rowspan=2|1957 |General Electric Theater |Rayna |1 episode |- |Suspicion |Letty Jason |1 episode |- |1958–1966 |The Donna Reed Show |Donna Stone |275 episodes |- |1979 |The Best Place to Be |Sheila Callahan |Television movie |- |1983 |Deadly Lessons |Miss Wade |Television movie |- |1984 |The Love Boat | |2 episodes |- |1984–1985 |Dallas |Eleanor "Miss Ellie" Southworth Ewing Farlow |24 episodes |}
Awards and nominations
{| border="2" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 90%;" |- bgcolor="#B0C4DE" align="center" ! style="background-color: #BCBCBC"|Year ! style="background-color: #BCBCBC"|Award ! style="background-color: #BCBCBC"|Result ! style="background-color: #BCBCBC"|Category ! style="background-color: #BCBCBC"|Film or series |-style="background-color: #EAEAEA;" |1953 || Academy Award || rowspan=3|Won || Best Actress in a Supporting Role || From Here to Eternity |-style="background-color: #EAEAEA;" |1963 || Golden Globe Award || Best TV Star - Female || The Donna Reed Show |-style="background-color: #EAEAEA;" |1964 || Golden Apple Awards || Most Cooperative Actress ||
References
Further reading
External links
Category:1921 births Category:1986 deaths Category:Actors from Iowa Category:American film actors Category:American Methodists Category:American television actors Category:Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winners Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer Category:Los Angeles City College alumni Category:People from Crawford County, Iowa Category:American people of English descent Category:American activists Category:20th-century actors
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Coleen Gray
| Coordinates | 37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N |
|---|---|
| Name | Coleen Gray |
| Caption | Gray in the trailer for Kiss of Death (1947) |
| Birthname | Doris Jensen |
| Birth date | October 23, 1922 |
| Birth place | Staplehurst, Nebraska, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1944-1986 |
| Spouse | Rodney Amateau (1945-1949) divorceWilliam Clymer Bidlack (1953-1978) his deathFritz Zeiser (1979-present)}} |
Coleen Gray (born October 23, 1922) is an American movie and television actress born in Staplehurst, Nebraska. She is known for her roles in the films Nightmare Alley (1947), the frontispiece of Red River (1948), in which she played John Wayne's character's fiancée, and Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956).
Early career
Born Doris Jensen, Gray was a farmer's daughter from Nebraska. After graduating from high school, she studied dramatics at Hamline University, graduating with a bachelor of arts degree. She then decided to see America and traveled to California, stopping at La Jolla, where she worked in a restaurant as a waitress. After several weeks there, she moved to Los Angeles and enrolled in a drama school. She had several leading roles in the Los Angeles stage productions Letters to Lucerne and Brief Music, which won her a 20th Century Fox contract in 1944. After initially playing a bit part in State Fair (1945), she became pregnant and briefly stopped working, only to return a year later as the love interest of John Wayne in Red River (1948), which was shot in 1946 but held for release until 1948, by which time she had already graduated to leading roles in films noir like Kiss of Death (1947) opposite Victor Mature and Nightmare Alley (1947) opposite Tyrone Power.
Film appearances
Gray appeared in two 1947 film noirs: Kiss of Death, as ex-con Victor Mature's wife and Richard Widmark's target and Nightmare Alley, as "Electra", Tyrone Power's carnival performer wife. In 1948, she appeared as John Wayne's love interest in the opening sequences of Red River, but she was overshadowed by the men in Howard Hawks' western and from there, her career suffered, Fox ending her contract in 1950.Gray worked steadily in the 1950s. She played a crooked nurse in The Sleeping City (1950) and appeared in Kansas City Confidential (1952), and the Stanley Kubrick film noir The Killing (1956), in which she plays a lonely woman desperate for love. Other films included Father Is a Bachelor (1950), the cult horror film The Leech Woman (1960), The Phantom Planet (1961), and P.J. (1968).
She made only one film in the 70s, The Late Liz (1971). She also appeared in one in the 80s, the religious flick Cry From the Mountain (1986), produced by Billy Graham. She filmed Forgotten Lady (1977) in Houston, Texas and Mother (1978) with Patsy Ruth Miller. Mother had a premiere at Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
In 1964, along with actors Victor Jory and Susan Seaforth, Gray testified before the United States Congress as part of "Project Prayer", arguing in favor of Constitutional amendment allowing school prayer.
Television
From the 1950s, she guest starred in episodes of television series such as Maverick, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Mr. Ed, Rawhide, 77 Sunset Strip, Bonanza, and The Deputy, Have Gun Will Travel, Perry Mason, Family Affair, Ironside and The Name of the Game, among dozens of others.
Personal life
Gray married Rodney Amateau, a screenwriter, on August 10, 1945. They divorced on February 11, 1949. They had one daughter, Susan (born 1946). Her second husband was William Clymer Bidlack, an aviation executive. They were married from July 14, 1953 until his death in 1978. They have one child, a son named Bruce Robin Bidlack, born 1954.She has been married to Fritz Zeiser since 1979. They are involved with the non-profit volunteer organization Prison Fellowship, founded in 1976 by Chuck Colson (a former prisoner himself for his involvement in the Watergate scandal), which assists the church in ministering to prisoners and their families, as well as their victims.
Quotes
"When I attended the University, I daydreamed about being a movie star. I would do my dressing room in Early American and give lovely presents to my make-up man and hairdresser for making me look so lovely, and so on. When I got my contract at 20th I was in seventh heaven, but I found out that a movie career is mostly hard work laced with disappointments".--Coleen Gray, quoted in The Boston Sunday Post, November 9, 1947
Partial filmography
References
External links
Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:1922 births Category:Living people Category:Actors from Nebraska Category:Hamline University alumni Category:People from Seward County, Nebraska
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Claudette Colbert
| Coordinates | 37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N |
|---|---|
| Name | Claudette Colbert |
| Caption | in I Cover the Waterfront (1933) |
| Birth name | Emilie Claudette Chauchoin |
| Birth date | September 13, 1903 |
| Birth place | Saint-Mandé, France |
| Death date | July 30, 1996 |
| Death place | Speightstown, Barbados |
| Spouse | Norman Foster (1928–1935) (divorced)Dr. Joel Pressman (1935–1968) (his death) |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1923–1987 |
Claudette Colbert (; September 13, 1903 – July 30, 1996) was a French-born American stage and film actress.
Born in Saint-Mandé, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures. She established a successful film career with Paramount Pictures and later, as a freelance performer, became one of the highest paid entertainers in American cinema. Colbert was recognized as one of the leading female exponents of screwball comedy; she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her comedic performance in It Happened One Night (1934), and also received Academy Award nominations for her dramatic roles in Private Worlds (1935) and Since You Went Away (1944).
Her film career began to decline in the 1950s, and she made her last film in 1961. Colbert continued to act in theater and, briefly, in television during her later years. After a career of more than 60 years' duration, Colbert retired to her home in Barbados, where she died at the age of 92, following a series of strokes.
Colbert received theatre awards from the Sarah Siddons Society, a lifetime-achievement award at the Kennedy Center Honors, and, in 1999, the American Film Institute placed her at number twelve on their "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars" list of the "50 Greatest American Screen Legends".
Early life
, France.]]Émilie Claudette Chauchoin was born in Saint-Mandé, Seine, France, to Georges Claude, a banker, and Jeanne Loew Chauchoin, a pastry cook. After some financial reversals, her family emigrated to New York City in 1906. Colbert eventually became a naturalized citizen of the U.S.
Colbert studied at Washington Irving High School, where her speech teacher, Alice Rossetter, encouraged her to audition for a play she had written. Colbert made her stage debut at the Provincetown Playhouse in The Widow's Veil, at the age of 15. She then attended the Art Students League of New York. She intended to become a fashion designer, but appeared on the Broadway stage in a small role in The Wild Westcotts (1923). Inspired by this experience, Colbert ended her studies and embarked on a stage career in 1925. She adopted the name "Claudette Colbert" as her stage name two years later; she had been using the name of Claudette since high school.
Career
Broadway
After signing a five-year contract with the producer Al Woods, Colbert played ingenue roles on Broadway from 1925 through 1929. During her early years on stage, she fought against being typecast as a maid, and received critical acclaim on Broadway in the production of The Barker (1927), playing a carnival snake charmer. She later reprised this role for the play's run in London's West End. Two other plays, See Naples and Die and Eugene O'Neill's Dynamo (1929), were unsuccessful. However, Colbert was noticed by the theatrical producer Leland Hayward, who suggested her for a role in Frank Capra's film For the Love of Mike (1927), now believed to be lost. The film, Colbert's only silent film role, was a box office failure. While these films were popular with audiences, one of her films from this period, Young Man of Manhattan, her only collaboration with her then-husband, Norman Foster, received negative notices. The magazine Picturegoer criticized Foster's performance and noted him as one of Colbert's weakest leading men, writing, "He did not seem to get any sincerity into his love scenes." The New York Times wrote, "It cannot be denied that Claudette Colbert—given an even chance—is capable of excellent acting." She was briefly paired with March, and they made four films together, including Dorothy Arzner's Honor Among Lovers (1931). She sang in her role opposite Maurice Chevalier in the Ernst Lubitsch musical The Smiling Lieutenant (1931), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, and was acknowledged by critics for her ability to assert herself opposite the more experienced Miriam Hopkins. Later the same year she played in The Phantom President. In 1933, Colbert renegotiated her contract with Paramount to allow her to appear in films for other studios.
Breakthrough
how to hitchhike in It Happened One Night (1934)]]During 1934, Colbert's film career flourished. Of the four films she made that year, three of them — the historical biography, Cleopatra, the romantic drama, Imitation of Life, and the screwball comedy, It Happened One Night — were nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture.
Colbert was reluctant to appear as the "runaway heiress", Ellie Andrews, in the Frank Capra romantic comedy, It Happened One Night (1934), opposite Clark Gable and released by Columbia Pictures. Behind schedule after several actresses had refused the role, the studio accepted Colbert's demand that she be paid $50,000 and that filming was to be completed within four weeks to allow her to take a planned vacation. Colbert felt that the script was weak, and Capra recalled her dissatisfaction, commenting, "Claudette fretted, pouted and argued about her part... she was a tartar, but a cute one."
The film contained at least one scene that is often cited as representative of the screwball film genre and which became well known, even by people who had not seen the entire film. Stranded in the countryside, Colbert demonstrates to an astonished Gable how to hitchhike by displaying her leg. Colbert won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role. The film was the first to sweep all five major Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor, and was a resounding box-office success. In later life, Colbert reflected upon her misgivings about the film and her lack of confidence when it was completed, commenting, "I left wondering how the movie would be received. It was right in the middle of the Depression. People needed fantasy, they needed splendor and glamour, and Hollywood gave it to them. And here we were, looking a little seedy and riding on our bus".
(1934)]]
DeMille perceived Colbert as a femme fatale, and her films with him included partial nudity (particularly in the 1932 film The Sign of the Cross, in which glimpses of her bare breasts and nipples were visible in a scene in which her character was bathing in asses' milk).
In Cleopatra (1934), she played the title role opposite Warren William. Thereafter, Colbert did not wish to be portrayed as overtly sexual and later refused such roles.
Post 1934
Colbert's success allowed her to renegotiate her contract, raising her salary. In 1935 and 1936, she was listed in the annual "Quigley Poll of the Top Ten Money Making Stars", which was compiled from the votes of movie exhibitors throughout the U.S. for the stars who had generated the most revenue in their theaters over the previous year. She received a second Academy Award nomination for her role in the hospital drama, Private Worlds (1935).In 1936, Colbert signed a new contract with Paramount Pictures, which required her to make seven films over a two-year period, and this contract made her Hollywood's highest paid actress. This was followed by a contract renewal in 1938, after which she was reported to be the highest paid performer in Hollywood with a salary of $426,924. Her films during this period include The Gilded Lily (1935) and The Bride Comes Home (1935) with Fred MacMurray, She Married Her Boss (1935) with Melvyn Douglas, Under Two Flags (1936) with Ronald Colman, Maid of Salem (1937), again with MacMurray, Tovarich (1937) with Charles Boyer, Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938) with Gary Cooper, Zaza (1939) with Herbert Marshall, Midnight (1939) with Don Ameche, and It's a Wonderful World (1939) with James Stewart.
(1937)]]
With her success, Colbert was able to assert control over the manner in which she was portrayed and gained a reputation for being fastidious by refusing to be filmed from her right side. She believed that her face was uneven and photographed better from the left. She learned about lighting and cinematography, and refused to begin filming until she was satisfied that she would be shown to her best advantage. One example of Colbert's determination to control the way she was photographed occurred during the filming of Tovarich in 1937, when one of her favored cameramen was dismissed by the director, Anatole Litvak. After seeing the rushes filmed by the replacement, Colbert refused to continue. She insisted on hiring her own cameraman, and offered to waive her salary if the film went over budget as a result.
During this time she began acting for CBS' popular Lux Radio Theater, making numerous appearances between 1935 and 1954.
Later film career
In 1940, Colbert refused a seven-year contract that would have paid her $200,000 a year, as she had found that she could command a fee of $150,000 per film as a freelance artist. With her brother as her manager, Colbert was able to secure roles in prestigious films, and this period marked the height of her earning ability. Eventually, Colbert accepted. The director, John Cromwell, later noted that Colbert was "level headed, very professional and with no temperament", but Selznick expressed frustration with some of her demands. He wrote in a memo to Colbert's agent that they had rebuilt several sets "because of her refusal to have the right side of her face photographed, on top of which we have to pay her not only a fabulous salary, but also give her two days off a month, which works out to $5000 every four weeks for doing absolutely nothing, and now she's demanding three.... Tell her there's a war on and we all have to make some sacrifices."Released in June 1944, the film became a substantial success and grossed almost $5 million in the United States. The critic James Agee praised aspects of the film, but particularly Colbert's performance, writing "Selznick has given Claudette Colbert the richest, biggest role of her career. She rewards him consistently with smooth Hollywood formula acting, and sometimes, in collaboration with (Joseph) Cotten, with flashes of acting that are warmer and more mature." Colbert received her final Academy Award nomination for this performance.
(1946)]]
In 1945, Colbert ended her association with Paramount Studios, and continued to free-lance in such films as Guest Wife (1945), with Don Ameche. RKO Studios hired her to appear opposite John Wayne in Without Reservations (1946), with a storyline and setting intentionally inspired by It Happened One Night. As a result, Without Reservations grossed $3 million in the U.S., and the overall popularity of Colbert's films during 1946 led to her making a final appearance in the "Quigley Poll of the Top Ten Money Making Stars". Her subsequent films failed to capitalize on her renewed success, with the exception of the suspense film Sleep, My Love (1948) with Robert Cummings.
Colbert then lost two roles that were originally intended for her, and which were highly successful ventures for each of the actresses who replaced her. She was signed to appear in State of the Union with Gary Cooper, who was replaced by Spencer Tracy. Two days before filming began, Colbert advised the director Frank Capra that she was unable to work beyond 5 p.m. each day, citing "doctor's orders". Capra refused to accommodate her terms and cast Katharine Hepburn in the role.
In 1949, Joseph L. Mankiewicz wrote the part of Margo Channing in All About Eve for Colbert, feeling that she best represented the style of the older actress he envisioned for the part. Mankiewicz admired her "sly wit and sense of class" and felt that she would play the part as an "elegant drunk", who would easily win the support of the audience. Colbert was enthusiastic about the role, and after a succession of noble roles, relished the prospect of playing what she described as a more "feline" character. Before production started, Colbert severely injured her back, while filming a scene for Three Came Home, and although 20th Century Fox postponed the production of All About Eve for two months while she convalesced, she was still not fit enough to take the role and was replaced by Bette Davis. Years later, Mankiewicz commented that he still imagined how effectively Colbert would have embodied the role, and how greatly her portrayal would have differed from Davis's. Colbert described her loss of the role as one of her great regrets, and said that she wished she could have played the role, even if it had been "in a wheelchair".
Her films of this period received mixed reception. The RKO comedy Bride for Sale, in which Colbert was part of a love triangle that included George Brent and Robert Young, was well reviewed and modestly successful. The Secret Fury (1950), also for RKO, was a mystery melodrama that was widely panned, with one critic commenting that Colbert and her co-star Robert Ryan "wandered through the film like two abandoned children in search of their father".
Decline of film career
In the early 1950s, Colbert traveled to Europe and began making fewer films. She appeared in the French film Royal Affairs in Versailles, one of only two films she made in her native country, and a success at the local box-office. Colbert had a supporting role rather than top billing in the film, which also featured a number of well known French cinema performers.In 1954, after a successful appearance in a television version of The Royal Family, she began acting in various teleplays. From 1954 to 1960, she appeared in the television adaptations of Blithe Spirit in 1956 and The Bells of St. Mary's in 1959. She also guest starred on Robert Montgomery Presents, Playhouse 90, and Zane Grey Theater.
In 1958, she returned to Broadway in The Marriage-Go-Round, for which she was nominated for a Best Actress Tony Award.
By 1955 she had stopped making films, although returned to the screen in Parrish (1961) for Warner Brothers. When the film was released, most of the studio publicity was in support of the young male lead Troy Donahue, who was being groomed by the studio. Colbert, playing the supporting role of Donahue's mother, received little attention, and the film was not a success. She never made another film although the press occasionally referred to upcoming projects that did not exist. Embarrassed, Colbert instructed her agent to stop his attempts to generate interest in her as a film actress. In the late 1960s, a reporter asked her why she had made no more films, to which she replied, "Because there have been no offers."
Her occasional acting ventures were limited to theater and included performances on Broadway and in London in The Irregular Verb to Love (1963); The Kingfisher (1978) in which she co-starred with Rex Harrison, and Frederick Lonsdale's Aren't We All? (1985) also with Rex Harrison.
In 1987, Colbert appeared in a supporting role in the television miniseries The Two Mrs. Grenvilles. The production was a ratings success and was nominated for several awards. Colbert won a Golden Globe and received a nomination for an Emmy Award. This marked her final performance on film, however she continued to act in theater.
Personal life
In 1928, Colbert married Norman Foster, an actor and director, who appeared with Colbert in the Broadway show The Barker. However, she and her first husband lived apart, never sharing a home together in Hollywood, supposedly because Colbert's mother disliked Foster and wouldn't allow him into their home. Colbert and Foster divorced in 1935, and in December of that year, Colbert married Dr. Joel Pressman, a surgeon at UCLA.
Final years and death
For years, Colbert divided her time between her apartment in Manhattan and her summer home in Speightstown, Barbados. Colbert left no immediate family.
Contemporary reception
Colbert established one of the most successful film careers of any actress of her generation, and was considered a dependable and bankable star. Her status was reflected in her earnings as one of the best paid performers of the 1930s and 1940s. Colbert once commented that she had sacrificed for the sake of her career.In discussing Colbert's career, her contemporaries confirmed her drive. Irene Dunne commented that she had lacked Colbert's "terrifying ambition" and noted that if Colbert "finished work on a film on a Saturday, she would be looking for a new project by Monday". Hedda Hopper wrote that Colbert placed her career "ahead of everything save possibly her marriage", and described her as the "smartest and canniest" of Hollywood actresses, with a strong sense of what was best for her, and a "deep rooted desire to be in shape, efficient and under control". Her fastidious attitude in this regard became well known, with Doris Day quoted as saying, "God wasted half a face on Claudette". During her heyday, film technicians described the right side of her face as "the dark side of the moon."
Modern critics and film historians note that Colbert demonstrated versatility throughout her career, and played characters that ranged from vamps to housewives, and that encompassed screwball comedy and drama.
She was praised for her sense of style and awareness of fashion, and she ensured throughout her career, that she was impeccably groomed and costumed. Such was the importance she placed upon costuming, that for the 1946 melodrama, Tomorrow is Forever, Jean Louis was hired to create eighteen changes of wardrobe for her.
When she received a Kennedy Center Honor, her fashion sense was referred to with a quotation from Jeanie Basinger in The International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers: "[Her] glamour is the sort that women attain for themselves by using their intelligence to create a timeless personal style." The writer A. Scott Berg described Colbert as one of Paramount Studio's greatest assets as she had "proved deft in all genres" and had "helped define femininity for her generation with her chic manner."
Colbert is cited as a leading female exponent of screwball comedy, along with such actresses as Jean Arthur, Irene Dunne, Carole Lombard, Myrna Loy and Rosalind Russell. In her comedy films, she invariably played shrewd and self reliant women, but unlike many of her contemporaries, Colbert rarely engaged in physical comedy, with her characters more likely to be observers and commentators.
Filmography
Awards and honors
Colbert was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for three films, It Happened One Night (1935), Private Worlds (1936), and Since You Went Away (1945), winning for It Happened One Night. In addition, she won a for her role in The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1988), and was nominated for an Emmy Award for the same.Claudette Colbert remains the only actress in the history of cinema to star in three films in the same year to be nominated for Best Picture Academy Award, those films being Cleopatra, Imitation of Life, and It Happened One Night which were all made in 1934. A male also accomplished this feat, John C. Reilly in 2002, when he started in The Hours, Chicago, and Gangs of New York.
In 1980, Colbert was awarded the Sarah Siddons Award for her theatre work. In 1984, Colbert was awarded the Gala Tribute award by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. The same year, a building at the old Kaufman Astoria Studios in New York, where she had made ten films in early career, was renamed in her honor. In 1985, Colbert was awarded a Drama Desk Special Award.
In 1989, Colbert was the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime achievement. In 1990, Colbert was honored with the San Sebastián International Film Festival Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award.
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Claudette Colbert has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6812 Hollywood Blvd.
References
Bibliography
External links
Category:1903 births Category:1996 deaths Category:People from Saint-Mandé Category:American people of French descent Category:American film actors Category:American stage actors Category:Art Students League of New York alumni Category:Best Actress Academy Award winners Category:Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (television) winners Category:California Republicans Category:Disease-related deaths in Barbados Category:French immigrants to the United States Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:New York Republicans Category:20th-century actors
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Bing Crosby
| Coordinates | 37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N |
|---|---|
| Name | Bing Crosby |
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Harry Lillis Crosby |
| Born | May 03, 1903Tacoma, Washington, U.S. |
| Origin | Spokane, Washington, U.S. |
| Died | October 14, 1977Madrid, Spain |
| Instrument | Vocals |
| Voice type | Baritone/Bass-baritone |
| Genre | Traditional pop, Jazz, vocal |
| Occupation | Singer-songwriter actor |
| Years active | 1926–1977 |
| Label | Brunswick, Decca, Reprise, RCA Victor, Verve, United Artists |
| Associated acts | Bob Hope, Dixie Lee, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire, The Rhythm Boys, Rosemary Clooney, David Bowie, Louis Armstrong |
| Url | http://www.bingcrosby.com |
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Crosby's unique bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists until well into the late 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation.
One of the first multimedia stars, from 1934 to 1954 Bing Crosby was very successful across record sales, radio ratings and motion picture grosses. Crosby and his musical acts influenced male singers of the era that followed him, including Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin. Yank magazine recognized Crosby as the person who had done the most for American G.I. morale during World War II and, during his peak years, around 1948, polls declared him the "most admired man alive," ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII. Also during 1948, the Music Digest estimated that Crosby recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music.
Through the aegis of recording, Crosby developed the techniques of constructing his broadcast radio programs with the same directorial tools and craftsmanship (editing, retaking, rehearsal, time shifting) that occurred in a theatrical motion picture production. This feat directly led the way to applying the same techniques to creating all radio broadcast programming as well as later television programming. The quality of the recorded programs gave them commercial value for re-broadcast. This led the way to the syndicated market for all short feature media such as TV series episodes.
In 1963, Crosby was the first person to be recognized with the Grammy Global Achievement Award. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Father Chuck O'Malley in the 1944 motion picture Going My Way, and was nominated for his reprisal of Father O'Malley in The Bells of St. Mary's the very next year, becoming the first of four actors to be nominated twice for the same character performance. Crosby is one of the few people to have three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Early life
Crosby was born in Tacoma, Washington, on May 3, 1903, In 1906, Crosby's family moved to Spokane, Washington. In 1913, Crosby's father built a house at 508 E. Sharp Ave. The house now sits on the campus of Bing's alma mater Gonzaga University and formerly housed the Alumni Association.He was the fourth of seven children: five boys, Larry (1895–1975), Everett (1896–1966), Ted (1900–1973), Harry 'Bing' (1903–1977), and Bob (1913–1993); and two girls, Catherine (1904–1974) and Mary Rose (1906–1990). His parents, Harry Lincoln Crosby (1870–1950), a bookkeeper, and Catherine Helen (known as Kate) Harrigan (1873–1964), were English-American and Irish-American, respectively. Kate was the daughter of Canadian-born parents who had emigrated to Stillwater, Minnesota, from Miramichi, New Brunswick. Kate's grandfather and grandmother, Dennis and Catherine Harrigan, had in turn moved to Canada in 1831 from Schull, County Cork, Ireland. Bing's paternal ancestors include Governor Thomas Prence and Patience Brewster, who were both born in England and who emigrated to what would become the U.S. in the 17th century. Patience was a daughter of Elder William Brewster, (c. 1567 – April 10, 1644), the Pilgrim leader and spiritual elder of the Plymouth Colony and a passenger on the Mayflower.
In 1910, Crosby was forever renamed. Six-year-old Harry discovered a full-page feature in the Sunday edition of the Spokesman-Review, "The Bingville Bugle".
As documented by biographer Gary Giddins in Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams - The Early Years, 1903 - 1940, Volume I, the "Bugle," written by humorist Newton Newkirk, was a parody of a hillbilly newsletter complete with gossipy tidbits, minstrel quips, creative spelling, and mock ads. A neighbor, 15-year-old Valentine Hobart, shared Crosby's enthusiasm for "The Bugle" and noting Crosby's laugh, took a liking to him and called him "Bingo from Bingville". The last vowel was dropped and the name shortened to "Bing", which stuck.
In 1917, Crosby took a summer job as property boy at Spokane's "Auditorium," where he witnessed some of the finest acts of the day, including Al Jolson, who held Crosby spellbound with his ad libbing and spoofs of Hawaiian songs. Crosby later described Jolson's delivery as "electric".
Popular success
Music
In 1926, while singing at Los Angeles Metropolitan Theater, Crosby and his vocal duo partner Al Rinker caught the eye of Paul Whiteman, arguably the most famous bandleader at the time. Hired for $150 a week, they made their debut on December 6, 1926 at the Tivoli Theatre (Chicago). Their first recording, "I've Got The Girl," with Don Clark's Orchestra, was issued by Columbia and did them no vocal favors as it sounded as if they were singing in a key much too high for them. It was later revealed that the 78 rpm was recorded at a speed slower than it should have been, which increased the pitch when played at 78 rpm.As popular as the Crosby and Rinker duo was, Whiteman added another member to the group, pianist and aspiring songwriter Harry Barris. Whiteman dubbed them The Rhythm Boys, and they joined the Whiteman vocal team, working and recording with musicians Bix Beiderbecke, Jack Teagarden, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, and Eddie Lang and Hoagy Carmichael.
Crosby soon became the star attraction of the Rhythm Boys, not to mention Whiteman's band, and in 1928 had his first number one hit, a jazz-influenced rendition of "Ol' Man River". However, his repeated youthful peccadilloes and growing dissatisfaction with Whiteman forced him, along with the Rhythm Boys, to leave the band and join the Gus Arnheim Orchestra. During his time with Arnheim, The Rhythm Boys were increasingly pushed to the background as the vocal emphasis focused on Crosby. Fellow member of The Rhythm Boys Harry Barris wrote several of Crosby's subsequent hits including "At Your Command," "I Surrender Dear", and "Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams"; however, shortly after this, the members of the band had a falling out and split, setting the stage for Crosby's solo career.
On September 2, 1931, Crosby made his solo radio debut. In 1931, he signed with Brunswick Records and recording under Jack Kapp and signed with CBS Radio to do a weekly 15 minute radio broadcast; almost immediately he became a huge hit. His 1948 song Now is the Hour, however, would be his last number one hit. Crosby is, according to Quigley Publishing Company's International Motion Picture Almanac, tied for second on the "All Time Number One Stars List" with Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks, and Burt Reynolds. Crosby's most popular film, White Christmas, grossed $30 million in 1954 ($}} million in current value). Crosby won an Academy Award for Best Actor for Going My Way in 1944, a role he reprised in the 1945 sequel The Bells of Saint Mary's, for which he was nominated for another Academy Award for Best Actor. He received critical acclaim for his performance as an alcoholic entertainer in The Country Girl, receiving his third Academy Award nomination. He partnered with Bob Hope in seven Road to musical comedies between 1940 and 1962 and the two actors remained linked for generations in general public perception as arguably the most popular screen team in film history, despite never officially declaring themselves a "team" in the sense that Laurel and Hardy or Martin and Lewis were teams.
By the late 1950s, Crosby's singing career would make a comeback, with his albums Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings and Bing With A Beat selling reasonably well,
Career statistics
Crosby's sales and chart statistics place him among the most popular and successful musical acts of the 20th century. Although the Billboard charts operated under a different methodology for the bulk of Crosby's career, his numbers remain astonishing: 1,700 recordings, 383 of those in the top 30, and of those, 41 hit #1. Crosby had separate charting singles in every calendar year between 1931 and 1954; the annual re-release of White Christmas extended that streak to 1957. He had 24 separate popular singles in 1939 alone. Billboard's statistician Joel Whitburn determined Crosby to be America's most successful act of the 1930s, and again in the 1940s.in White Christmas (1954)]]For 15 years (1934, 1937, 1940, 1943–1954), Crosby was among the top 10 in box office draw, and for five of those years (1944–1948) he was the largest in the world.
Entrepreneurship
Mass media
Crosby's radio career took a significant turn in 1945, when he clashed with NBC over his insistence that he be allowed to pre-record his radio shows. (The live production of radio shows was also reinforced by the musicians' union and ASCAP.) Historian John Dunning, in On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, has written that Crosby – having discovered German engineers developed a tape recorder and improved them to a near-professional standard – saw "an enormous advantage in prerecording his radio shows. The scheduling could now be done at the star's convenience. He could do four shows a week, if he chose, and then take a month off. But the networks and sponsors were adamantly opposed. The public wouldn't stand for 'canned' radio, the networks argued. There was something magic for listeners in the fact that what they were hearing was being performed, and heard everywhere, at that precise instant. Some of the best moments in comedy came when a line was blown and the star had to rely on wit to rescue a bad situation. Fred Allen, Jack Benny, Phil Harris, and, yes, Crosby were masters at this, and the networks weren't about to give it up easily."
Crosby's influence eventually factored into the further development of magnetic tape sound recording and the radio industry's adoption of it. He used his power to innovate new methods of reproducing audio of himself. But with NBC (and competitor CBS) refusing to allow recorded radio programs (except for advertisements and occasional promotional material), Crosby walked away from the network and stayed off the air for seven months, causing a legal battle with Kraft, his sponsor, that was settled out of court and put Crosby back on the air for the last 13 weeks of the 1945–1946 season.
The Mutual network, on the other hand, had pre-recorded some of its programs as early as the Summer 1938 run of The Shadow with Orson Welles, and the new ABC network – formed out of the sale of the old NBC Blue network in 1943 to Edward Noble, the "Life Savers King," following a federal anti-trust action – was willing to join Mutual in breaking the tradition. ABC offered Crosby $30,000 per week to produce a recorded show every Wednesday sponsored by Philco. He would also get $40,000 from 400 independent stations for the rights to broadcast the 30-minute show that was sent to them every Monday on three 16-inch lacquer/aluminum discs that played ten minutes per side at 33⅓ rpm.
Crosby wanted to change to recorded production for several reasons. The legend that has been most often told is that it would give him more time for his golf game. And he did record his first Philco program in August 1947 so he could enter the Jasper National Park Invitational Golf Tournament in September when the new radio season was to start. But golf was not the most important reason.
Crosby was always an early riser and hard worker, and Dunning and other radio historians have noted that, even while acknowledging he wanted more time to tend his other business and leisure activities. But he also sought better quality through recording, including being able to eliminate mistakes and control the timing of his show performances. Because his own Bing Crosby Enterprises produced the show, he could purchase the latest and best sound equipment and arrange the microphones his way; mic placement had long been a hotly debated issue in every recording studio since the beginning of the electrical era. No longer would he have to wear the hated toupee on his head previously required by CBS and NBC for his live audience shows (he preferred a hat). He could also record short promotions for his latest investment, the world's first frozen orange juice to be sold under the brand name Minute Maid. This investment allowed Bing to make more money by finding a loophole whereby the IRS couldn't tax him at 77% for income, see TIME Magazine story.
The transcription method had problems, however. The acetate surface coating of the aluminum discs was little better than the wax that Edison had used at the turn of the century, with the same limited dynamic range and frequency response.
But Murdo MacKenzie of Bing Crosby Enterprises saw a demonstration of the German Magnetophon in June 1947, one that Jack Mullin had brought back from Radio Frankfurt with 50 reels of tape at the end of the war. This machine was one of the magnetic tape recorders that BASF and AEG had built in Germany starting in 1935. The 6.5mm ferric-oxide-coated tape could record 20 minutes per reel of high-quality sound. Alexander M. Poniatoff ordered his Ampex company (founded in 1944 from his initials A.M.P. plus the starting letters of "excellence") to manufacture an improved version of the Magnetophone.
Crosby hired Mullin and his German machine to start recording his Philco Radio Time show in August 1947, with the same 50 reels of I.G. Farben magnetic tape that Mullin had found at a radio station at Bad Nauheim near Frankfurt while working for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. The crucial advantage was editing. As Crosby wrote in his autobiography, "By using tape, I could do a thirty-five or forty-minute show, then edit it down to the twenty-six or twenty-seven minutes the program ran. In that way, we could take out jokes, gags, or situations that didn't play well and finish with only the prime meat of the show; the solid stuff that played big. We could also take out the songs that didn't sound good. It gave us a chance to first try a recording of the songs in the afternoon without an audience, then another one in front of a studio audience. We'd dub the one that came off best into the final transcription. It gave us a chance to ad lib as much as we wanted, knowing that excess ad libbing could be sliced from the final product. If I made a mistake in singing a song or in the script, I could have some fun with it, then retain any of the fun that sounded amusing."
Mullin's 1976 memoir of these early days of experimental recording agrees with Crosby's account: "In the evening, Crosby did the whole show before an audience. If he muffed a song then, the audience loved it – thought it was very funny – but we would have to take out the show version and put in one of the rehearsal takes. Sometimes, if Crosby was having fun with a song and not really working at it, we had to make it up out of two or three parts. This ad lib way of working is commonplace in the recording studios today, but it was all new to us."
Crosby invested US$50,000 in Ampex to produce more machines. In 1948, the second season of Philco shows was taped with the new Ampex Model 200 tape recorder (introduced in April) using the new Scotch 111 tape from the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (3M) company. Mullin explained that new techniques were invented on the Crosby show with these machines: "One time Bob Burns, the hillbilly comic, was on the show, and he threw in a few of his folksy farm stories, which of course were not in Bill Morrow's script. Today they wouldn't seem very off-color, but things were different on radio then. They got enormous laughs, which just went on and on. We couldn't use the jokes, but Bill asked us to save the laughs. A couple of weeks later he had a show that wasn't very funny, and he insisted that we put in the salvaged laughs. Thus the laugh-track was born." Crosby had launched the tape recorder revolution in America. In his 1950 film Mr. Music, Bing Crosby can be seen singing into one of the new Ampex tape recorders that reproduced his voice better than anything else. Also quick to adopt tape recording was his friend Bob Hope, who would make the famous "Road to..." films with Crosby and Dorothy Lamour.
Mullin continued to work for Crosby to develop a videotape recorder. Television production was mostly live in its early years, but Crosby wanted the same ability to record that he had achieved in radio. The Fireside Theater, sponsored by Procter and Gamble, was his first television production for the 1950 season. Mullin had not yet succeeded with videotape, so Crosby filmed the series of 26-minute shows at the Hal Roach Studios. The "telefilms" were syndicated to individual television stations.
Crosby did not remain a television producer but continued to finance the development of videotape. Bing Crosby Enterprises (BCE), gave the world's first demonstration of a videotape recording in Los Angeles on November 11, 1951. Developed by John T. Mullin and Wayne R. Johnson since 1950, the device gave what were described as "blurred and indistinct" images, using a modified Ampex 200 tape recorder and standard quarter-inch (6.3 mm) audio tape moving at 360 inches (9.1 m) per second.
Thoroughbred horse racing
Crosby was a fan of Thoroughbred horse racing and bought his first racehorse in 1935. In 1937, he became a founding partner and member of the Board of Directors of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club that built and operated the Del Mar Racetrack at Del Mar, California. One of Crosby's closest friends was Lindsay Howard, for whom he named his son Lindsay and from whom he would purchase his 40-room Hillsborough estate in 1965. Lindsay Howard was the son of millionaire businessman Charles S. Howard, who owned a successful racing stable that included Seabiscuit. Charles S. Howard joined Crosby as a founding partner and director of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club.Crosby and Lindsay Howard formed Binglin Stable to race and breed thoroughbred horses at a ranch in Moorpark in Ventura County, California. They also established the Binglin stock farm in Argentina, where they raced horses at Hipódromo de Palermo in Palermo, Buenos Aires. Binglin stable purchased a number of Argentine-bred horses and shipped them back to race in the United States. On August 12, 1938, the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club hosted a $25,000 winner-take-all match race won by Charles S. Howard's Seabiscuit over Binglin Stable's Ligaroti. Binglin's horse Don Bingo won the 1943 Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York.
The Binglin Stable partnership came to an end in 1953 as a result of a liquidation of assets by Crosby in order to raise the funds necessary to pay the federal and state inheritance taxes on his deceased wife's estate.
A friend of jockey Johnny Longden, Crosby was a co-owner with Longden's friend Max Bell of the British colt Meadow Court, which won the 1965 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Irish Derby. In the Irish Derby's winner's circle at the Curragh, Crosby sang "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling."
The Bing Crosby Breeders' Cup Handicap at Del Mar Racetrack is named in his honor.
Personal life
Crosby was married twice, first to actress/nightclub singer Dixie Lee from 1930 until her death from ovarian cancer in 1952. They had four sons: Gary, twins Dennis and Phillip, and Lindsay. The 1947 film is indirectly based on her life. After Dixie's death, Crosby had a relationship with actress Inger Stevens and with Grace Kelly before marrying the actress Kathryn Grant in 1957. They had three children, Harry (who played Bill in Friday the 13th), Mary (best known for portraying Kristin Shepard, the woman who shot J.R. Ewing on TV's Dallas), and Nathaniel.Crosby was Catholic. Kathryn converted to Catholicism to marry him. He was also a Republican, and actively campaigned for Wendell Willkie in 1940, asserting his belief that Franklin Roosevelt should serve only two terms. When Willkie lost, he decreed that he would never again make any open political contributions.
Crosby had an interest in sports. From 1946 until the end of his life, he was part-owner of baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates and helped form the nucleus of the Pirates' 1960 championship club. Although he was passionate about his team, he was too nervous to watch the deciding Game 7 of that year's World Series, choosing to go to Paris with Kathryn and listen to the game on the radio. Crosby had the NBC telecast of the game, capped off by Bill Mazeroski's walk-off home run, recorded on kinescope. He apparently viewed the complete film once at his home and then stored it in his wine cellar, where it remained undisturbed until it was discovered in December 2009. In 1978, he and Bob Hope were voted the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf.
Crosby reportedly overindulged in alcohol in his youth, and may have been dismissed from Paul Whiteman's orchestra because of it, but he later got a handle on his drinking. A 2001 biography of Crosby by Village Voice jazz critic Gary Giddins says that Louis Armstrong's influence on Crosby "extended to his love of marijuana." Bing smoked it during his early career when it was legal and "surprised interviewers" in the 1960s and 70s by advocating its decriminalization, as did Armstrong. According to Giddins, Crosby told his son Gary to stay away from alcohol ("It killed your mother") and suggested he smoke pot instead. In Bob Hope's 1985 book Bob Hope's Confessions of a Hooker: My Lifelong Love Affair with Golf, Hope recounts hearing Crosby had been advised by a physician in England to only play 9 holes of golf due to his heart condition.
After Crosby's death, his eldest son, Gary, wrote a highly critical memoir, Going My Own Way, depicting his father as cold, remote, and both physically and psychologically abusive. Two of Crosby's other sons, Lindsay and Dennis, sided with Gary's claim and stated Crosby abused them as well. Dennis also stated that Crosby would abuse Gary the most often.
Nathaniel Crosby, Crosby's youngest son from his second marriage, was a high-level golfer who won the U.S. Amateur at age 19 in 1981, the youngest winner of that event (a record later broken by Tiger Woods). Nathaniel praised his father in a June 16, 2008, Sports Illustrated article.
Widow Kathryn Crosby dabbled in local theater productions intermittently, and appeared in television tributes to her late husband.
Denise Crosby, Dennis's daughter, is also an actress and known for her role as Tasha Yar on , and for the recurring role of the Romulan Sela (daughter of Tasha Yar) after her withdrawal from the series as a regular cast member. She also appeared in the film adaptation of Stephen King's novel Pet Sematary.
In 2006, Crosby's niece, Carolyn Schneider, published "Me and Uncle Bing," in which she offered an intimate glimpse of her family, and gratitude for Crosby's generosity to her and to other family members.
Legacy
at 6769 Hollywood Blvd.]] He is a member of the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in the radio division.The family has established an official website. It was launched October 14, 2007, the 30th anniversary of Bing's death.
In his 1990 autobiography Don't Shoot, It's Only Me! Bob Hope states, "Dear old Bing. As we called him, the Economy-sized Sinatra. And what a voice. God I miss that voice. I can't even turn on the radio around Christmastime without crying anymore."
Calypso musician Roaring Lion wrote a tribute song in 1939 entitled "Bing Crosby", in which he wrote: "Bing has a way of singing with his very heart and soul / Which captivates the world / His millions of listeners never fail to rejoice / At his golden voice..."
Golf
Crosby is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Aside from Bobby Jones and Arnold Palmer, Crosby may be the person most responsible for popularizing the game of golf. Since 1937 the 'Crosby Clambake' as it was popularly known—now the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am—has been a leading event in the world of professional golf. Crosby first took up the game at 12 as a caddy, dropped it, and started again in 1930 with some fellow cast members in Hollywood during the filming of The King of Jazz. Although he made his name as a singer, vaudeville performer, and silver screen luminary, he would probably prefer to be remembered as a two handicap who competed in both the British and U.S. Amateur championships, a five-time club champion at Lakeside Golf Club in Hollywood, and as one of only a few players to have made a hole-in-one on the 16th at Cypress Point.He conceived his tournament as a friendly little pro-am for his fellow members at Lakeside Golf Club and any stray touring pros who could use some pocket change. The first Clambake was played at Rancho Santa Fe C.C., in northern San Diego county, where Crosby was a member. He kicked in $3,000 of his own money for the purse, which led inaugural champion Sam Snead to ask if he might get his $700 in cash instead of a check. Snead's suspicions notwithstanding, the tournament was a rollicking success, thanks to the merry membership of Lakeside, an entertainment industry enclave in North Hollywood. That first tournament set the precedent for all that followed as it was as much about partying as it was about golf.
The tournament, revived on the Monterey Peninsula in 1947, has as of 2009 raised $93 million for local charities.
Compositions
Crosby co-wrote lyrics to 15 songs. His composition "At Your Command" was no.1 for three weeks on the U.S. pop singles chart in 1931, beginning with the week of August 8, 1931. "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You" was his most successful composition, recorded by Duke Ellington, Linda Ronstadt, Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday, and Mildred Bailey. The songs Crosby co-wrote are:#"That's Grandma" (1927), with Harry Barris and James Cavanaugh #"From Monday On" (1928), with Harry Barris and recorded with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra featuring Bix Beiderbecke on cornet, no. 14 on US pop singles charts #"What Price Lyrics?" (1928), with Harry Barris and Matty Malneck #"At Your Command" (1931), with Harry Barris and Harry Tobias, US, no. 1 (3 weeks) #"Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)" (1931), with Roy Turk and Fred Ahlert, US, no. 4; US, 1940 re-recording, no. 27 #"I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You" (1932), with Victor Young and Ned Washington, US, no. 5 #"My Woman" (1932), with Irving Wallman and Max Wartell #"Love Me Tonight" (1932), with Victor Young and Ned Washington, US, no. 4 #"Waltzing in a Dream" (1932), with Victor Young and Ned Washington, US, no.6 #"I Would If I Could But I Can't" (1933), with Mitchell Parish and Alan Grey #"Where the Turf Meets the Surf" (1941) #"Tenderfoot" (1953) #"Domenica" (1961) #"That's What Life is All About" (1975), with Ken Barnes, Peter Dacre, and Les Reed, US, AC chart, no. 35; UK, no. 41 #"Sail Away to Norway" (1977)
Filmography
Discography
Radio
RIAA certification
{| style="background:none" cellpadding="2" |- ! style="width:30%; background:white;"|Album ! style="width:20%; background:white;"|RIAA |- |Merry Christmas |Gold |- |Bing sings |2x platinum |- |White Christmas |4x platinum |}
References
;Bibliography
External links
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Bette Davis
| Coordinates | 37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N |
|---|---|
| Name | Bette Davis |
| Caption | Davis in Now, Voyager (1942) |
| Birth name | Ruth Elizabeth Davis |
| Birth date | April 05, 1908 |
| Birth place | Lowell, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Death date | October 06, 1989 |
| Death place | Neuilly-sur-Seine, France |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1929–1989 |
| Spouse | Harmon Nelson (1932–1938)Arthur Farnsworth (1940–1943)William Grant Sherry (1945–1950)Gary Merrill (1950–1960) |
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres; from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies, though her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas.
After appearing in Broadway plays, Davis moved to Hollywood in 1930, but her early films for Universal Studios were unsuccessful. She joined Warner Bros. in 1932 and established her career with several critically acclaimed performances. In 1937, she attempted to free herself from her contract and although she lost a well-publicized legal case, it marked the beginning of the most successful period of her career. Until the late 1940s, she was one of American cinema's most celebrated leading ladies, known for her forceful and intense style. Davis gained a reputation as a perfectionist who could be highly combative, and her confrontations with studio executives, film directors and costars were often reported. Her forthright manner, clipped vocal style and ubiquitous cigarette contributed to a public persona which has often been imitated and satirized.
Davis was the co-founder of the Hollywood Canteen, and was the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, was the first person to accrue 10 Academy Award nominations for acting, and was the first woman to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. Her career went through several periods of eclipse, and she admitted that her success had often been at the expense of her personal relationships. Married four times, she was once widowed and thrice divorced, and raised her children as a single parent. Her final years were marred by a long period of ill health, but she continued acting until shortly before her death from breast cancer, with more than 100 films, television and theater roles to her credit. In 1999, Davis was placed second, after Katharine Hepburn, on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest female stars of all time.
Life and career
Background and early acting career
Ruth Elizabeth Davis, known from early childhood as "Betty", was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, the daughter of Ruth ("Ruthie") Augusta (née Favor) and Harlow Morrell Davis, a patent attorney; her sister Barbara ("Bobby") was born October 25, 1909. The family was Protestant, of English, French, and Welsh ancestry. In 1915, Davis's parents separated and Betty and Bobby attended a Spartan boarding school called Crestalban in Lanesborough, which is located in the Berkshires. In 1921, Ruth Davis moved to New York City with her daughters, where she worked as a portrait photographer. Betty was inspired to become an actress after seeing Rudolph Valentino in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) and Mary Pickford in Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921), and changed the spelling of her name to "Bette" after Honoré de Balzac's La Cousine Bette. She received encouragement from her mother, who had aspired to become an actress.She attended Cushing Academy, a boarding school in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, where she met her future husband, Harmon O. Nelson, known as "Ham". In 1926, she saw a production of Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck with Blanche Yurka and Peg Entwistle. Davis later recalled that it inspired her full commitment to her chosen career, and said, "Before that performance I wanted to be an actress. When it ended, I had to be an actress... exactly like Peg Entwistle.". She auditioned for admission to Eva LeGallienne's Manhattan Civic Repertory, but was rejected by LeGallienne who described her attitude as "insincere" and "frivolous". She was accepted by the John Murray Anderson School of Theatre, and studied dance with Martha Graham.
She auditioned for George Cukor's stock theater company, and although he was not very impressed, he gave Davis her first paid acting assignment anyway – a one-week stint playing the part of a chorus girl in the play Broadway. She was later chosen to play Hedwig, the character she had seen Entwistle play, in The Wild Duck. After performing in Philadelphia, Washington and Boston, she made her Broadway debut in 1929 in Broken Dishes, and followed it with Solid South. A Universal Studios talent scout saw her perform and invited her to Hollywood for a screen test.
Transition from stage to film
Accompanied by her mother, Davis traveled by train to Hollywood, arriving on December 13, 1930. She later recounted her surprise that nobody from the studio was there to meet her; a studio employee had waited for her, but left because he saw nobody who "looked like an actress". She failed her first screen test but was used in several screen tests for other actors. In a 1971 interview with Dick Cavett, she related the experience with the observation, "I was the most Yankee-est, most modest virgin who ever walked the earth. They laid me on a couch, and I tested fifteen men ... They all had to lie on top of me and give me a passionate kiss. Oh, I thought I would die. Just thought I would die." A second test was arranged for Davis, for the film A House Divided (1931). Hastily dressed in an ill-fitting costume with a low neckline, she was rebuffed by the director William Wyler, who loudly commented to the assembled crew, "What do you think of these dames who show their chests and think they can get jobs?" Carl Laemmle, the head of Universal Studios, considered terminating Davis's employment, but cinematographer Karl Freund told him she had "lovely eyes" and would be suitable for The Bad Sister (1931), in which she subsequently made her film debut. Her nervousness was compounded when she overheard the Chief of Production, Carl Laemmle, Jr., comment to another executive that she had "about as much sex appeal as Slim Summerville", one of the film's co-stars. The film was not a success, and her next role in Seed (1931) was too brief to attract attention.
Universal Studios renewed her contract for three months, and she appeared in a small role in Waterloo Bridge (1931) before being lent to Columbia Pictures for The Menace and to Capital Films for Hell's House (all 1932). After nine months, and six unsuccessful films, Laemmle elected not to renew her contract. George Arliss chose Davis for the lead female role in The Man Who Played God (1932), and for the rest of her life, Davis credited him with helping her achieve her "break" in Hollywood. The Saturday Evening Post wrote, "she is not only beautiful, but she bubbles with charm", and compared her to Constance Bennett and Olive Borden. Warner Bros. signed her to a five-year contract.
In 1932, she married Harmon "Ham" Nelson, who was scrutinized by the press; his $100 a week earnings compared unfavorably with Davis's reported $1,000 a week income. Davis addressed the issue in an interview, pointing out that many Hollywood wives earned more than their husbands, but the situation proved difficult for Nelson, who refused to allow Davis to purchase a house until he could afford to pay for it himself. Davis had several abortions during the marriage.
(1934), Davis was acclaimed for her dramatic performance.]]
After more than 20 film roles, the role of the vicious and slatternly Mildred Rogers in the RKO Radio production of Of Human Bondage (1934), a film adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's novel, earned Davis her first major critical acclaim. Many actresses feared playing unsympathetic characters and several had refused the role, but Davis viewed it as an opportunity to show the range of her acting skills. Her costar, Leslie Howard, was initially dismissive of her, but as filming progressed his attitude changed and he subsequently spoke highly of her abilities. The director, John Cromwell, allowed her relative freedom, and commented, "I let Bette have her head. I trusted her instincts." She insisted that she be portrayed realistically in her death scene, and said, "the last stages of consumption, poverty and neglect are not pretty and I intended to be convincing-looking".
The film was a success, and Davis's confronting characterization won praise from critics, with Life magazine writing that she gave "probably the best performance ever recorded on the screen by a U.S. actress". Davis anticipated that her reception would encourage Warner Bros. to cast her in more important roles, and was disappointed when Jack Warner refused to lend her to Columbia Studios to appear in It Happened One Night, and instead cast her in the melodrama Housewife. When Davis was not nominated for an Academy Award for Of Human Bondage, The Hollywood Citizen News questioned the omission and Norma Shearer, herself a nominee, joined a campaign to have Davis nominated. This prompted an announcement from the Academy president, Howard Estabrook, who said that under the circumstances "any voter ... may write on the ballot his or her personal choice for the winners", thus allowing, for the only time in the Academy's history, the consideration of a candidate not officially nominated for an award. Claudette Colbert won the award for It Happened One Night but the uproar led to a change in Academy voting procedures the following year, whereby nominations were determined by votes from all eligible members of a particular branch, rather than by a smaller committee, with results independently tabulated by the accounting firm Price Waterhouse.
Davis appeared in Dangerous (1935) as a troubled actress and received very good reviews. E. Arnot Robertson wrote in Picture Post, "I think Bette Davis would probably have been burned as a witch if she had lived two or three hundred years ago. She gives the curious feeling of being charged with power which can find no ordinary outlet." The New York Times hailed her as "becoming one of the most interesting of our screen actresses". She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the role, but commented it was belated recognition for Of Human Bondage, calling the award a "consolation prize". For the rest of her life, Davis maintained that she gave the statue its familiar name of "Oscar" because its posterior resembled that of her husband, whose middle name was Oscar, although her claim has been disputed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, among others.
(1936)]]
In her next film, The Petrified Forest (1936), Davis co-starred with Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart, but Bogart, in his first important role, received most of the critics' praise. Davis appeared in several films over the next two years but most were poorly received.
Legal case
Convinced that her career was being damaged by a succession of mediocre films, Davis accepted an offer in 1936 to appear in two films in England. Knowing that she was breaching her contract with Warner Bros., she fled to Canada to avoid legal papers being served upon her. Eventually, Davis brought her case to court in England, hoping to get out of her contract with Warner Bros. She later recalled the opening statement of the barrister, Sir Patrick Hastings, who represented Warner Bros. Hastings urged the court to "come to the conclusion that this is rather a naughty young lady and that what she wants is more money". He mocked Davis's description of her contract as "slavery" by stating, incorrectly, that she was being paid $1,350 per week. He remarked, "if anybody wants to put me into perpetual servitude on the basis of that remuneration, I shall prepare to consider it". The British press offered little support to Davis, and portrayed her as overpaid and ungrateful.Davis explained her viewpoint to a journalist, saying "I knew that, if I continued to appear in any more mediocre pictures, I would have no career left worth fighting for." Davis's counsel presented her complaints – that she could be suspended without pay for refusing a part, with the period of suspension added to her contract, that she could be called upon to play any part within her abilities regardless of her personal beliefs, that she could be required to support a political party against her beliefs, and that her image and likeness could be displayed in any manner deemed applicable by the studio. Jack Warner testified, and was asked, "Whatever part you choose to call upon her to play, if she thinks she can play it, whether it is distasteful and cheap, she has to play it?" Warner replied, "Yes, she must play it."
(1937)]]
The case, decided by Branson J. in the English High Court, was reported as Warner Bros. Studios Incorporated v. Nelson in [1937] 1 KB 209. Davis lost the case and returned to Hollywood, in debt and without income, to resume her career. Olivia de Havilland mounted a similar case in 1943 and won.
Success with Warner Bros.
Davis began work on Marked Woman (1937), as a prostitute in a contemporary gangster drama inspired by the case of Lucky Luciano. The film and Davis's performance received excellent reviews, and her stature as a leading actress was enhanced.During the filming of her next film, Jezebel (1938), Davis entered a relationship with director William Wyler. She later described him as the "love of my life", and said that making the film with him was "the time in my life of my most perfect happiness". The film was a success, and Davis's performance as a spoiled Southern belle earned her a second Academy Award, which led to speculation in the press that she would be chosen to play a similar character, Scarlett O'Hara, in Gone with the Wind. Davis expressed her desire to play Scarlett, and while David O. Selznick was conducting a search for the actress to play the role, a radio poll named her as the audience favorite. Warner offered her services to Selznick as part of a deal that also included Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, but Selznick did not consider Davis as suitable, and rejected the offer.
Jezebel marked the beginning of the most successful phase of Davis's career, and over the next few years she was listed in the annual "Quigley Poll of the Top Ten Money Making Stars", which was compiled from the votes of movie exhibitors throughout the U.S. for the stars that had generated the most revenue in their theaters over the previous year. In contrast to Davis's success, her husband, Ham Nelson, had failed to establish a career for himself, and their relationship faltered. In 1938, Nelson obtained evidence that Davis was engaged in a sexual relationship with Howard Hughes and subsequently filed for divorce citing Davis's "cruel and inhuman manner".
(1939).]]
She was emotional during the making of her next film, Dark Victory (1939), and considered abandoning it until the producer Hal B. Wallis convinced her to channel her despair into her acting. The film became one of the highest grossing films of the year, and the role of Judith Traherne brought her an Academy Award nomination. In later years, Davis cited this performance as her personal favorite.
She appeared in three other box office hits in 1939, The Old Maid with Miriam Hopkins, Juarez with Paul Muni and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex with Errol Flynn. The latter was her first color film and her only color film made during the height of her career. To play the elderly Elizabeth I of England, Davis shaved her hairline and eyebrows. During filming she was visited on the set by the actor Charles Laughton. She commented that she had a "nerve" playing a woman in her sixties, to which Laughton replied, "Never not dare to hang yourself. That's the only way you grow in your profession. You must continually attempt things that you think are beyond you, or you get into a complete rut." Recalling the episode many years later, Davis remarked that Laughton's advice had influenced her throughout her career.
trailer (1940).]]
By this time, Davis was Warner Bros.' most profitable star, and she was given the most important of their female leading roles. Her image was considered with more care; although she continued to play character roles, she was often filmed in close-ups that emphasized her distinctive eyes. All This and Heaven Too (1940) was the most financially successful film of Davis's career to that point, while The Letter (1940) was considered "one of the best pictures of the year" by The Hollywood Reporter, and Davis won admiration for her portrayal of an adulterous killer, a role originated by famed actress Katharine Cornell. During this time, she was in a relationship with her former costar George Brent, who proposed marriage. Davis refused, as she had met Arthur Farnsworth, a New England innkeeper. They were married in December 1940.
In January 1941, Davis became the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences but antagonized the committee members with her brash manner and radical proposals. Faced with the disapproval and resistance of the committee, Davis resigned, and was succeeded by Jean Hersholt, who implemented the changes she had suggested.
William Wyler directed Davis in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes ( RKO,1941), but they clashed over the character of Regina Giddens. Taking a role originally played on stage by Tallulah Bankhead, Davis felt Bankhead's original interpretation was appropriate and followed Hellman's intent, but Wyler wanted her to soften the character. Davis refused to compromise. She received another Academy Award nomination for her performance, and never worked with Wyler again.
War effort and personal tragedy
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Davis spent the early months of 1942 selling war bonds. After Jack Warner criticized her tendency to cajole crowds into buying, she reminded him that her audiences responded most strongly to her "bitch" performances. She sold two million dollars of bonds in two days, as well as a picture of herself in Jezebel for $250,000. She also performed for black regiments as the only white member of an acting troupe formed by Hattie McDaniel, that also included Lena Horne and Ethel Waters.(1942)]]
At John Garfield's suggestion of opening a servicemen's club in Hollywood, Davis–with the aid of Warner, Cary Grant and Jule Styne–transformed an old nightclub into the Hollywood Canteen, which opened on October 3, 1942. Hollywood's most important stars volunteered to entertain servicemen. Davis ensured that every night there would be a few important "names" for the visiting soldiers to meet. She appeared as herself in the film Hollywood Canteen (1944) which used the canteen as the setting for a fictional story. Davis later commented, "There are few accomplishments in my life that I am sincerely proud of. The Hollywood Canteen is one of them." In 1980, she was awarded the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal, the United States Department of Defense's highest civilian award, for her work with the Hollywood Canteen.
Davis had initially shown little interest in the film Now, Voyager (1942) until Hal Wallis advised her that female audiences needed romantic dramas to distract them from the reality of their lives. It became one of the best known of her 'women's pictures'. In one of the film's most imitated scenes Paul Henreid lights two cigarettes as they are held in his lips before passing one to Davis. Film reviewers complimented Davis on her performance, the National Board of Review commenting that she gave the film "a dignity not fully warranted by the script".
During the early 1940s, several of Davis's film choices were influenced by the war, such as Watch on the Rhine (1943) and Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), a lighthearted all-star musical cavalcade, with each of the featured stars donating their fee to the Hollywood Canteen. Davis performed a novelty song, "They're Either Too Young or Too Old", which became a hit record after the film's release.
Old Acquaintance (1943) reunited her with Miriam Hopkins in a story of two old friends who deal with the tensions created when one of them becomes a successful novelist. Davis felt that Hopkins tried to upstage her throughout the film. The director Vincent Sherman recalled the intense competitiveness and animosity between the two actresses, and Davis often joked that she held back nothing in a scene in which she was required to shake Hopkins in a fit of anger.
In August 1943, Davis's husband, Arthur Farnsworth, collapsed while walking along a Hollywood street, and died two days later. An autopsy revealed that his fall had been caused by a skull fracture which had occurred about two weeks earlier. Davis testified before an inquest that she knew of no event that might have caused the injury. A finding of accidental death was reached. Highly distraught, Davis attempted to withdraw from her next film Mr. Skeffington (1944), but Jack Warner, who had halted production following Farnsworth's death, convinced her to continue.
Although she had gained a reputation for being forthright and demanding, her behavior during filming of Mr. Skeffington was erratic and out of character. She alienated director Vincent Sherman by refusing to film certain scenes and insisting that some sets be rebuilt. She improvised dialogue, causing confusion among other actors, and infuriated the writer Julius Epstein, who was also called upon to rewrite scenes at her whim. Davis later explained her actions with the observation, "when I was most unhappy I lashed out rather than whined". Some reviewers criticized Davis for the excess of her performance; James Agee wrote that she "demonstrates the horrors of egocentricity on a marathonic scale", but despite the mixed reviews, she received another Academy Award nomination.
Professional setbacks
Davis married an artist, William Grant Sherry, who also, when necessary, worked as a masseur, in 1945. She had been drawn to him because he claimed that he had never heard of her and was therefore not intimidated by her.Davis refused the title role in Mildred Pierce (1945), a role for which Joan Crawford ultimately won an Academy Award, and instead made The Corn Is Green (1945) based on a play by Emlyn Williams. Davis played Miss Moffat, an English teacher who saves a young Welsh miner from a life in the coal pits, by offering him education. The part had originally been played in the theatre by Ethel Barrymore but Warner Bros. felt that the film version should depict the character as a younger woman. Davis disagreed and insisted on playing the part as written and wore a gray wig and padding under her clothes to create a dowdy appearance. The film was well received by critics and made a profit of $2.2 million. The critic E. Arnot Robinson observed that "only Bette Davis... could have combated so successfully the obvious intention of the adaptors of the play to make frustrated sex the mainspring of the chief character's interest in the young miner." He concluded that "the subtle interpretation she insisted on giving" kept the focus on the teacher's "sheer joy in imparting knowledge".
Her next film, A Stolen Life (1946), was the first and only film that Davis made with her own production company, BD Productions. Davis played dual roles, as twins. The film received poor reviews, and was described by Bosley Crowther as "a distressingly empty piece", but was one of her biggest box-office successes with a profit of $2.5 million. In 1947, the U.S. Treasury named Davis as the highest paid woman in the country, with her share of the film's profit accounting for most of her earnings. Her next film was Deception (1946), the first of her films to lose money.
Possessed (1947) had been tailor-made for Davis and was to have been her next project after Deception. However, she was pregnant and went on maternity leave. Joan Crawford played her role in Possessed and was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress. In 1947, at the age of 39, Davis gave birth to a daughter, Barbara Davis Sherry (known as B.D.) and later wrote in her memoir that she became absorbed in motherhood and considered ending her career. Her relationship with Sherry began to deteriorate and she continued making films, but her popularity with audiences was steadily declining.
Among the film roles offered to Davis following her return to film making was Rose Sayer in The African Queen (1951). When informed that the film was to be made in Africa, Davis refused the part, telling Jack Warner, "If you can't shoot the picture in a boat on the back lot, then I'm not interested." Katharine Hepburn played the role. Davis was also offered a role in a film version of the Virginia Kellogg prison drama Women Without Men. Originally intended to pair Davis with Joan Crawford, Davis made it clear that she would not appear in any "dyke movie", and the lead roles were played by Agnes Moorehead and Eleanor Parker when it was filmed as Caged (1950). She lobbied Jack Warner to make two films, Ethan Frome and a biography of Mary Todd Lincoln, however Warner vetoed each proposal.
In 1948, Davis was cast in Winter Meeting and, although she was initially enthusiastic, she soon learned that Warner had arranged for "softer" lighting to be used to disguise her age. She recalled that she had seen the same lighting technique "on the sets of Ruth Chatterton and Kay Francis, and I knew what they meant". She began to regret accepting the role and, to add to her disappointment, she was not confident in the abilities of her leading man, Jim Davis. She disagreed with amendments made to the script because of censorship restrictions and found that many of the aspects of the role that had initially appealed to her were no longer to be included. The film was later described by Bosley Crowther as "interminable" and he noted that "of all the miserable dilemmas in which Miss Davis has been involved ... this one is probably the worst". It failed at the box office and the studio lost nearly one million dollars.
Davis clashed with her co-star Robert Montgomery while making June Bride (1948), later describing him as "a male Miriam Hopkins... an excellent actor, but addicted to scene-stealing". The film marked her first comedy in several years, and earned her some positive reviews, but it was not particularly popular with audiences and returned only a small profit. Despite the lackluster box office receipts from her more recent films, in 1949, she negotiated a four-film contract with Warner Bros. which paid $10,285 per week and made her the highest-paid woman in the United States.
Jack Warner refused to allow her script approval and cast her in Beyond the Forest (1949). Davis reportedly loathed the script and begged Warner to recast the role, but he refused. After the film was completed, Warner released Davis from her contract, at her request. The reviews that followed were scathing; Dorothy Manners writing for the Los Angeles Examiner described the film as "an unfortunate finale to her brilliant career". Hedda Hopper wrote, "If Bette had deliberately set out to wreck her career, she could not have picked a more appropriate vehicle." The film contained the line, "What a dump!", which became closely associated with Davis after impersonators used it in their acts. In later years, Davis often used it as her opening line at speaking engagements.
Starting a freelance career
(1950)]]By 1949, Davis and Sherry were estranged and Hollywood columnists were writing that Davis's career was at an end. She filmed The Story of a Divorce (released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1951 as Payment on Demand) but had received no other offers. Shortly before filming was completed, the producer Darryl F. Zanuck offered her the role of the aging theatrical actress Margo Channing in All About Eve (1950). Claudette Colbert, for whom the part had been written, had severely injured her back, and although production had been halted for two months in the hope that she might recover, she was unable to continue. Davis read the script, described it as the best she had ever read, and accepted the role. Within days she joined the cast in San Francisco to begin filming. During production, she established what would become a life-long friendship with her costar, Anne Baxter, and a romantic relationship with her leading man, Gary Merrill, which led to marriage. The film's director Joseph L. Mankiewicz later remarked, "Bette was letter perfect. She was syllable-perfect. The director's dream: the prepared actress."
Critics responded positively to Davis's performance and several of her lines became well-known, particularly, "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night." She was again nominated for an Academy Award and critics such as Gene Ringgold described her Margo as her "all-time best performance". Pauline Kael wrote that much of Mankiewicz's vision of "the theater" was "nonsense" but commended Davis, writing "[the film is] saved by one performance that is the real thing: Bette Davis is at her most instinctive and assured. Her actress–vain, scared, a woman who goes too far in her reactions and emotions–makes the whole thing come alive."
Davis won a "Best Actress" award from the Cannes Film Festival, and the New York Film Critics Circle Award. She also received the San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award as "Best Actress", having been named by them as the "Worst Actress" of 1949 for Beyond the Forest. During this time she was invited to leave her handprints in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
On July 3, 1950 Davis's divorce from William Sherry was finalized, and on July 28 she married Gary Merrill. With Sherry's consent, Merrill adopted B.D., Davis's daughter with Sherry, and in 1950, Davis and Merrill adopted a baby girl they named Margot. The family traveled to England, where Davis and Merrill starred in a murder-mystery film, Another Man's Poison (1951). When it received lukewarm reviews and failed at the box office, Hollywood columnists wrote that Davis's comeback had petered out, and an Academy Award nomination for The Star (1952) did not halt her decline.
Davis and Merrill adopted a baby boy, Michael, in 1952, and Davis appeared in a Broadway revue, Two's Company directed by Jules Dassin. She was uncomfortable working outside of her area of expertise; she had never been a musical performer and her limited theater experience had been more than 20 years earlier. She was also severely ill and was operated on for osteomyelitis of the jaw. Margot was diagnosed as severely brain damaged due to an injury sustained during or shortly after her birth, and was eventually placed in an institution. Davis and Merrill began arguing frequently, with B.D. later recalling episodes of alcohol abuse and domestic violence.
Few of Davis's films of the 1950s were successful and many of her performances were condemned by critics. The Hollywood Reporter wrote of mannerisms "that you'd expect to find in a nightclub impersonation of [Davis]", while the London critic, Richard Winninger, wrote, "Miss Davis, with more say than most stars as to what films she makes, seems to have lapsed into egoism. The criterion for her choice of film would appear to be that nothing must compete with the full display of each facet of the Davis art. Only bad films are good enough for her." Her films of this period included The Virgin Queen (1955), Storm Center (1956), & The Catered Affair (1956). As her career declined, her marriage continued to deteriorate until she filed for divorce in 1960. The following year, her mother died.
Renewed success
in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), opposite Joan Crawford.]]In 1961, Davis opened in the Broadway production The Night of the Iguana to mostly mediocre reviews, and left the production after four months due to "chronic illness". She then joined Glenn Ford and Ann-Margret for the Frank Capra film A Pocketful of Miracles (1961) (a remake of Capra's Lady for a Day (1933)), based on a story by Damon Runyon. She accepted her next role, in the Grand Guignol horror film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) after reading the script and believing it could appeal to the same audience that had recently made Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) a success. She negotiated a deal that would pay her 10 percent of the worldwide gross profits, in addition to her salary. The film became one of the year's biggest successes.
Davis and Joan Crawford played two aging sisters, former actresses forced by circumstance to share a decaying Hollywood mansion. The director, Robert Aldrich, explained that Davis and Crawford were each aware of how important the film was to their respective careers and commented, "It's proper to say that they really detested each other, but they behaved absolutely perfectly." After filming was completed, their public comments against each other allowed the tension to develop into a lifelong feud. When Davis was nominated for an Academy Award, Crawford contacted the other Best Actress nominees (who were unable to attend the ceremonies) and offered to accept the award on their behalf should they win. Davis also received her only BAFTA Award nomination for this performance.
Daughter B.D. played a small role in the film and when she and Davis visited the Cannes Film Festival to promote it, she met Jeremy Hyman, an executive for Seven Arts Productions. After a short courtship, she married Hyman at the age of 16, with Davis's permission.
In September 1962, Davis placed an advertisement in Variety under the heading of "Situations wanted — women artists", which read, "Mother of three—10, 11 & 15—divorcee. American. Thirty years experience as an actress in Motion Pictures. Mobile still and more affable than rumor would have it. Wants steady employment in Hollywood. (Has had Broadway)." Davis said that she intended it as a joke, and she sustained her comeback over the course of several years. Dead Ringer (1964) was a crime drama in which she played twin sisters and Where Love Has Gone (1964) was a romantic drama based on a Harold Robbins novel. Davis played the mother of Susan Hayward but filming was hampered by heated arguments between Davis and Hayward. Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) was Robert Aldrich's follow-up to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, in which he planned to reunite Davis and Crawford, but when Crawford withdrew allegedly due to illness soon after filming began, she was replaced by Olivia de Havilland. The film was a considerable success and brought renewed attention to its veteran cast, which also included Joseph Cotten, Mary Astor and Agnes Moorehead.
In 1964 Davis was cast as the lead in an Aaron Spelling sitcom, The Decorator. A pilot episode was filmed, but was not shown, and the project was terminated. By the end of the decade, Davis had appeared in the British films The Nanny (1965), The Anniversary (1968), and Connecting Rooms (1970), but her career again stalled.
Late career
in late 1981 during a show celebrating Taylor's life]]In the early 1970s, Davis was invited to appear in New York, in a stage presentation, Great Ladies of the American Cinema. Over five successive nights, a different female star discussed her career and answered questions from the audience; Myrna Loy, Rosalind Russell, Lana Turner, Sylvia Sidney, and Joan Crawford were the other participants. Davis was well received and was invited to tour Australia with the similarly themed, Bette Davis in Person and on Film, and its success allowed her to take the production to the United Kingdom.
In 1972, she played the lead role in two television films that were each intended as pilots for upcoming series for NBC, Madame Sin with Robert Wagner, and The Judge and Jake Wyler, with Joan Van Ark, but in each case, NBC decided against producing a series.
In the U.S., she appeared in the stage production, Miss Moffat, a musical adaptation of The Corn is Green, but after the show was panned by the Philadelphia critics during its pre-Broadway run, she cited a back injury and abandoned the show, which closed immediately. She played supporting roles in Burnt Offerings (1976) and The Disappearance of Aimee (1976), but she clashed with Karen Black and Faye Dunaway, respectively the stars of the two productions, because she felt that neither extended her an appropriate degree of respect, and that their behavior on the film sets was unprofessional.
In 1977, Davis became the first woman to receive the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award. The televised event included comments from several of Davis's colleagues including William Wyler who joked that given the chance Davis would still like to refilm a scene from The Letter to which Davis nodded. Jane Fonda, Henry Fonda, Natalie Wood and Olivia de Havilland were among the actors who paid tribute, with de Havilland commenting that Davis "got the roles I always wanted".
Following the telecast she found herself in demand again, often having to choose between several offers. She accepted roles in the television miniseries The Dark Secret of Harvest Home (1978) and the theatrical film Death on the Nile (1978), an Agatha Christie murder mystery. The bulk of her remaining work was for television. She won an Emmy Award for (1979) with Gena Rowlands, and was nominated for her performances in White Mama (1980) and Little Gloria... Happy at Last (1982). She also played supporting roles in two Disney films, Return from Witch Mountain (1978) and The Watcher in the Woods (1980).
Davis's name became well-known to a younger audience when Kim Carnes's song "Bette Davis Eyes" became a worldwide hit and the best-selling record of 1981 in the U.S., where it stayed at number one on the music charts for more than two months. Davis's grandson was impressed that she was the subject of a hit song and Davis considered it a compliment, writing to both Carnes and the songwriters, and accepting the gift of gold and platinum records from Carnes, and hanging them on her wall.
She continued acting for television, appearing in Family Reunion (1981) opposite her grandson J. Ashley Hyman, A Piano for Mrs. Cimino (1982) and Right of Way (1983) with James Stewart.
Illness, conflict and death
(1987) brought her acclaim during a period in which she was beset with failing health and personal trauma.]]In 1983, after filming the pilot episode for the television series Hotel, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. Within two weeks of her surgery she suffered four strokes which caused paralysis in the left side of her face and in her left arm, and left her with slurred speech. She commenced a lengthy period of physical therapy and, aided by her personal assistant, Kathryn Sermak, gained partial recovery from the paralysis.
During this time, her relationship with her daughter, B. D. Hyman, deteriorated when Hyman became a born-again Christian and attempted to persuade Davis to follow suit. With her health stable, she traveled to England to film the Agatha Christie mystery Murder with Mirrors (1985). Upon her return, she learned that Hyman had published a memoir, My Mother's Keeper, in which she chronicled a difficult mother-daughter relationship and depicted scenes of Davis's overbearing and drunken behavior.
Several of Davis's friends commented that Hyman's depictions of events were not accurate; one said, "so much of the book is out of context". Mike Wallace rebroadcast a 60 Minutes interview he had filmed with Hyman a few years earlier in which she commended Davis on her skills as a mother, and said that she had adopted many of Davis's principles in raising her own children. Critics of Hyman noted that Davis had financially supported the Hyman family for several years and had recently saved them from losing their house. Despite the acrimony of their divorce years earlier, Gary Merrill also defended Davis. Interviewed by CNN, Merrill said that Hyman was motivated by "cruelty and greed". Davis's adopted son, Michael Merrill, ended contact with Hyman and refused to speak to her again, as did Davis, who also disinherited her.
In her second memoir, This 'N That (1987), Davis wrote, "I am still recovering from the fact that a child of mine would write about me behind my back, to say nothing about the kind of book it is. I will never recover as completely from B.D.'s book as I have from the stroke. Both were shattering experiences." Her memoir concluded with a letter to her daughter, in which she addressed her several times as "Hyman", and described her actions as "a glaring lack of loyalty and thanks for the very privileged life I feel you have been given". She concluded with a reference to the title of Hyman's book, "If it refers to money, if my memory serves me right, I've been your keeper all these many years. I am continuing to do so, as my name has made your book about me a success."
at the Kennedy Center on December 6, 1987. They appeared together in the 1939 film Dark Victory, one of Davis' best-known roles.]]
Davis appeared in the television film As Summers Die (1986) and Lindsay Anderson's film The Whales of August (1987), in which she played the blind sister of Lillian Gish. The film earned good reviews, with one critic writing, "Bette crawls across the screen like a testy old hornet on a windowpane, snarling, staggering, twitching – a symphony of misfired synapses." Her last performance was the title role in Larry Cohen's Wicked Stepmother (1989). By this time her health was failing, and after disagreements with Cohen she walked off the set. The script was rewritten to place more emphasis on Barbara Carrera's character, and the reworked version was released after Davis's death.
After abandoning Wicked Stepmother and with no further film offers, Davis appeared on several talk shows and was interviewed by Johnny Carson, Joan Rivers, Larry King and David Letterman, discussing her career but refusing to discuss her daughter. Her appearances were popular; Lindsay Anderson observed that the public enjoyed seeing her behaving "so bitchy". He commented, "I always disliked that because she was encouraged to behave badly. And I'd always hear her described by that awful word, feisty."
During 1988 and 1989, Davis was feted for her career achievements, receiving the Kennedy Center Honor, the Legion of Honor from France, the Campione d'Italia from Italy and the Film Society of Lincoln Center Lifetime Achievement Award. She collapsed during the American Cinema Awards in 1989 and later discovered that her cancer had returned. She recovered sufficiently to travel to Spain where she was honored at the Donostia-San Sebastián International Film Festival, but during her visit her health rapidly deteriorated. Too weak to make the long journey back to the U.S., she traveled to France where she died on October 6, 1989, at 11:20 pm, at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine. She was 81 years old.
She was interred in Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, alongside her mother, Ruthie, and sister, Bobby. On her tombstone is written: "She did it the hard way", an epitaph that she mentioned in her memoir Mother Goddam as having been suggested to her by Joseph L. Mankiewicz shortly after they had filmed All About Eve.
In 1997, the executors of her estate, Michael Merrill, her son, and Kathryn Sermak, her former assistant, established "The Bette Davis Foundation" which awards college scholarships to promising actors and actresses. She admitted she was terrified during the making of her earliest films and that she became tough by necessity. "Until you're known in my profession as a monster, you are not a star", she said, "[but] I've never fought for anything in a treacherous way. I've never fought for anything but the good of the film." During the making of All About Eve, (1950) Joseph L. Mankiewicz told her of the perception in Hollywood that she was difficult, and she explained that when the audience saw her on screen, they did not consider that her appearance was the result of numerous people working behind the scenes. If she was presented as "a horse's ass ... forty feet wide, and thirty feet high", that is all the audience "would see or care about".
While lauded for her achievements, Davis and her films were sometimes derided; Pauline Kael described Now, Voyager (1942) as a "shlock classic", and by the mid-1940s her sometimes mannered and histrionic performances had become the subject of caricature. Reviewers such as Edwin Schallert for the Los Angeles Times praised Davis's performance in Mr. Skeffington (1944), while observing, "the mimics will have more fun than a box of monkeys imitating Miss Davis", and Dorothy Manners writing for the Los Angeles Examiner said of her performance in the poorly received Beyond the Forest, (1949) "no night club caricaturist has ever turned in such a cruel imitation of the Davis mannerisms as Bette turns on herself in this one". Time magazine noted that Davis was compulsively watchable even while criticizing her acting technique, summarizing her performance in Dead Ringer (1964) with the observation, "her acting, as always, isn't really acting: it's shameless showing off. But just try to look away!"
She attracted a following in the gay subculture and was frequently imitated by female impersonators such as Charles Pierce. Attempting to explain her popularity with gay audiences, the journalist Jim Emerson wrote, "Was she just a camp figurehead because her brittle, melodramatic style of acting hadn't aged well? Or was it that she was 'Larger Than Life,' a tough broad who had survived? Probably some of both." Individual performances continued to receive praise; in 1987, Bill Collins analyzed The Letter (1940), and described her performance as "a brilliant, subtle achievement", and wrote, "Bette Davis makes Leslie Crosbie one of the most extraordinary females in movies." In a 2000 review for All About Eve, (1950) Roger Ebert noted, "Davis was a character, an icon with a grand style, so even her excesses are realistic."
A few months before her death in 1989, Davis was one of several actors featured on the cover of Life magazine. In a film retrospective that celebrated the films and stars of 1939, Life concluded that Davis was the most significant actress of her era, and highlighted Dark Victory (1939) as one of the most-important films of the year. Her death made front-page news throughout the world as the "close of yet another chapter of the Golden Age of Hollywood". Angela Lansbury summed up the feeling of those of the Hollywood community who attended her memorial service, commenting after a sample from Davis's films were screened, that they had witnessed "an extraordinary legacy of acting in the twentieth century by a real master of the craft", that should provide "encouragement and illustration to future generations of aspiring actors".
In 1977, Davis became the first woman to be honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award. In 1999, the American Film Institute published its list of the "AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars", which was the result of a film-industry poll to determine the "50 Greatest American Screen Legends" in order to raise public awareness and appreciation of classic film. Of the 25 actresses listed, Davis was ranked at number two, behind Katharine Hepburn.
The United States Postal Service honored Davis with a commemorative postage stamp in 2008, marking the 100th anniversary of her birth. The stamp features an image of her in the role of Margo Channing in All About Eve (1950). The First Day of Issue celebration took place September 18, 2008, at Boston University, which houses an extensive Bette Davis archive. Featured speakers included her son Michael Merrill and Lauren Bacall.
Academy Awards milestones
In 1962 Bette Davis became the first person to secure ten Academy Award nominations for acting. Since then only four people have equalled or surpassed this figure, Meryl Streep (with sixteen nominations and two wins), Katharine Hepburn (twelve nominations and four wins), Jack Nicholson (twelve nominations and three wins) and Laurence Olivier (ten nominations and one win).Steven Spielberg purchased Davis's Oscars for Dangerous (1935) and Jezebel (1938) when they were offered for auction for $207,500 and $578,000, respectively, and returned them to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Filmography
Notes
References
Further reading
External links
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