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The 1940s was the decade that started on January 1, 1940 and ended on December 31, 1949.
The Second World War took place in the first half of the decade, which had a profound effect on most countries and people in Europe, Asia and elsewhere. The consequences of the war lingered well into the second half of the decade, with a war-weary Europe divided between the jostling spheres of influence of the West and the Soviet Union. To some degree internal and external tensions in the post-war era were managed by new institutions, including the United Nations, the welfare state and the Bretton Woods system, providing to the post–World War II boom which lasted well into the 1970s. However the conditions of the post-war world encouraged decolonialisation and emergence of new states and governments, with India, Pakistan, Israel, Vietnam and others declaring independence, rarely without bloodshed. The decade also witnessed the early beginnings of new technologies (including computers, nuclear power and jet propulsion), often first developed in tandem with the war effort, and later adapted and improved upon in the post-war era.
Although the 1940s was a decade dominated by World War II important and noteworthy films about a wide variety of subjects were made during that era. Hollywood was instrumental in producing dozens of classic films during the 1940s, several of which were about the war and some are on most lists of all-time great films. European cinema survived although obviously curtailed during wartime and yet many films of high quality were made in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, the Soviet Union and elsewhere in Europe. The cinema of Japan also survived. Akira Kurosawa and other directors managed to produce significant films during the 40s.
Film Noir, a film style that incorporated crime dramas with dark images, became largely prevalent during the decade. Films such as ''The Maltese Falcon'' and ''The Big Sleep'' are considered classics and helped launch the careers of legendary actors such as Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner. The genre has been widely copied since its initial inception.
In France during the war the tour de force ''Children of Paradise'' directed by Marcel Carné (1945), was shot in Nazi occupied Paris. Memorable films from post-war England include David Lean's ''Great Expectations'' (1946) and ''Oliver Twist'' (1948), Carol Reed's ''Odd Man Out'' (1947) and ''The Third Man'' (1949), and Powell and Pressburger's ''A Matter of Life and Death'' (1946), ''Black Narcissus'' (1946) and ''The Red Shoes'' (1948), Laurence Olivier's ''Hamlet'', the first non-American film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture and ''Kind Hearts and Coronets'' (1949) directed by Robert Hamer. Italian neorealism of the 1940s produced poignant movies made in post-war Italy. ''Roma, città aperta'' directed by Roberto Rossellini (1945), ''Sciuscià'' directed by Vittorio De Sica (1946), ''Paisà'' directed by Roberto Rossellini (1946), ''La terra trema'' directed by Luchino Visconti (1948), ''The Bicycle Thief'' directed by Vittorio De Sica (1948), and ''Bitter Rice'' directed by Giuseppe De Santis (1949), are some well-known examples.
In Japanese cinema ''The 47 Ronin'' is a 1941 black and white two-part Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. ''The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail'' (1945), and the post-war ''Drunken Angel'' (1948), and ''Stray Dog'' (1949), directed by Akira Kurosawa are considered important early works leading to his first masterpieces of the 1950s. ''Drunken Angel'' (1948), marked the beginning of the successful collaboration between Kurosawa and actor Toshirō Mifune that lasted until 1965.
1940 • 1941 • 1942 • 1943 • 1944 • 1945 • 1946 • 1947 • 1948 • 1949
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.
name | Veronica Lake |
---|---|
birth date | November 14, 1922 |
birth place | Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
death date | July 07, 1973 |
death place | Burlington, Vermont, U.S. |
birth name | Constance Frances Marie Ockelman |
other names | Constance Keane, Connie Keane |
spouse | John S. Detlie (1940–1943; 2 children)André De Toth (1944–1952; 2 children)Joseph A. McCarthy (1955–1959)Robert Carleton-Munro (1972–1973) (her death) |
occupation | Actress |
years active | 1939–1970 }} |
Veronica Lake (November 14, 1922 – July 7, 1973) was an American film actress and pin-up model. She received both popular and critical acclaim, most notably for her role in ''Sullivan's Travels'' and her femme fatale roles in film noir with Alan Ladd during the 1940s, and was well-known for her peek-a-boo hairstyle. She had a string of broken marriages and, after her career declined, long struggles with mental illness and alcoholism.
Lake was sent to Villa Maria, an all-girls Catholic boarding school in Montreal, Canada, from which she was expelled. The Keane family later moved to Miami, Florida. Lake attended Miami Senior High School in Miami, where she was known for her beauty. She had a troubled childhood and was, according to her mother, diagnosed as schizophrenic.
In 1938 Lake moved with her mother and stepfather to Beverly Hills, where her mother enrolled her in the Bliss-Hayden School of Acting. Her first appearance on screen was for RKO, playing a small role among several coeds in the 1939 film, ''Sorority House''. Similar roles followed, including ''All Women Have Secrets'' and ''Dancing Co-Ed''. During the making of ''Sorority House'' director John Farrow first noticed how her hair always covered her right eye, creating an air of mystery about her and enhancing her natural beauty. She was then introduced, while still a teenager, to the Paramount producer Arthur Hornblow, Jr. He changed her name to Veronica Lake because the surname suited her blue eyes.
Her contract was subsequently dropped by RKO. She married art director John S. Detlie, 14 years her senior, in 1940. A small role in the comedy, ''Forty Little Mothers'', brought unexpected attention. In 1941 she was signed to a long-term contract with Paramount Pictures. On August 21, 1941, she gave birth to her first child, Elaine Detlie.
For a short time during the early 1940s Lake was considered one of the most reliable box office draws in Hollywood. She became known for onscreen pairings with actor Alan Ladd. At first, the couple was teamed together merely out of physical necessity: Ladd was just 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m) tall and the only actress then on the Paramount lot short enough to pair with him was Lake, who stood just 4 feet 11½ inches (1.51 m). They made four films together.
A stray lock of her shoulder-length blonde hair during a publicity photo shoot led to her iconic "peekaboo" hairstyle, which was widely imitated. During World War II, she changed her trademark image to encourage women working in war industry factories to adopt more practical, safer hairstyles.
Although popular with the public, Lake had a complex personality and acquired a reputation for being difficult to work with. Eddie Bracken, her co-star in ''Star Spangled Rhythm'' was quoted as saying, "She was known as 'The Bitch' and she deserved the title." In that movie, Lake took part in a song lampooning her hair style, "A Sweater, A Sarong and a Peekaboo Bang", performed with Paulette Goddard and Dorothy Lamour. Joel McCrea, her co-star in ''Sullivan's Travels'', reputedly turned down the co-starring role in ''I Married a Witch'', saying, "Life's too short for two films with Veronica Lake."
Lake's career stumbled with her unsympathetic role as Nazi spy Dora Bruckman in 1944's ''The Hour Before the Dawn''. During filming, she tripped on a lighting cable while pregnant and began hemorrhaging. She recovered, but her second child, William, was born prematurely on July 8, 1943, dying a week later from uremic poisoning. By the end of 1943 her first marriage ended in divorce. Meanwhile, scathing reviews of ''The Hour Before Dawn'' included criticism of her unconvincing German accent.
Nonetheless, Lake was earning $4,500 per week under her contract with Paramount. She had begun drinking more heavily during this period and people began refusing to work with her. Paramount cast Lake in a string of mostly forgotten films. A notable exception was ''The Blue Dahlia'' (1946), in which she again co-starred with Ladd. During filming, screenplay writer Raymond Chandler referred to her as "Moronica Lake". Paramount decided not to renew her contract in 1948.
She married film director Andre De Toth in 1944 and had a son, Andre Anthony Michael De Toth, known as Michael De Toth (October 25, 1945 – February 24, 1991), and a daughter, Diana De Toth (born October 16, 1948). Lake was sued by her mother for support payments in 1948.
Lake earned her pilot's license in 1946 and was able to fly solo between Los Angeles and New York.
After breaking her ankle in 1959, Lake was unable to continue working as an actress. She and McCarthy divorced, after which she drifted between cheap hotels in Brooklyn and New York City and was arrested several times for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. A ''New York Post'' reporter found her working as a barmaid at the all-women's Martha Washington Hotel in Manhattan. At first, Veronica claimed that she was a guest at the hotel and covering for a friend. Soon afterward, she admitted that she was employed at the bar. The reporter's widely distributed story led to some television and stage appearances, most notably in the off-Broadway revival of the musical "Best Foot Forward." (Her contract overlapped with the departing Liza Minnelli and the two briefly co-starred together.) In 1966, she had a brief stint as a TV hostess in Baltimore, Maryland, along with a largely ignored film role in ''Footsteps in the Snow''.
Her physical and mental health declined steadily. By the late 1960s Lake was in Hollywood, Florida, apparently immobilized by paranoia (which included claims she was being stalked by the FBI).
She spent a brief period in England, where she appeared in the plays ''Madame Chairman'' and ''A Streetcar Named Desire''.
When ''Veronica: The Autobiography of Veronica Lake'' (Bantam, 1972) was published, she promoted the book with a memorable interview on ''The Dick Cavett Show'', as well as an episode of "To Tell the Truth," on which the panel had to guess which of three disguised women was the "real" Veronica Lake. Two of the panelists, Bill Cullen and Peggy Cass, quickly disqualified themselves because they knew her. With the proceeds, she co-produced and starred in her last film, ''Flesh Feast'' (1970), a very low budget horror movie with a Nazi-myth storyline. She then moved to the UK, where she had a short-lived marriage with an "English sea captain", Robert Carleton-Munro, before returning to the U.S. in 1973, having filed for divorce.
Lake was immediately hospitalized. Although she had made a cheerful and positive impression on the nurses who cared for her, she was apparently estranged from her three surviving children, particularly her daughters. Elaine Detlie became known as Ani Sangge Lhamo after becoming a member of the Subud faith in New Zealand. Diana became a secretary for the US Embassy in Rome in the 1970s. Michael De Toth stayed with his mother on and off through the 1960s and 1970s. He married Edwina Mae Niecke. When Lake died he claimed her body.
Her ashes were scattered off the coast of the Virgin Islands as she had requested. A memorial service was held in Manhattan, but only her son and handful of strangers attended. In 2004 some of Lake's ashes were reportedly found in a New York antique store. Her son Michael died on February 24, 1991, aged 45, in Olympia, Washington.
Lake has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6918 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to the motion picture industry. She remains a legendary star today and her autographs and other memorabilia continue to draw high prices on eBay and other popular outlets.
+ Film | |||
! Year | ! Title | Role | Notes |
1939 | ''Sorority House'' | Coed | Uncredited, alternative title: ''That Girl from College'' |
1939 | '''' | The Attorney's New Bride | Credited as Connie Keane |
1939 | ''Dancing Co-Ed'' | One of Couple on Motorcycle | Uncredited, alternative title: ''Every Other Inch a Lady'' |
1939 | ''All Women Have Secrets'' | Jane | Credited as Constance Keane |
1940 | ''Young As You Feel'' | Bit part | Credited as Constance Keane |
1940 | ''Forty Little Mothers'' | Granville girl | Uncredited |
1941 | ''I Wanted Wings'' | Sally Vaughn | First major film role |
1941 | ''Hold Back the Dawn'' | Movie Actress | Uncredited |
1941 | ''Sullivan's Travels'' | The Girl | First leading role |
1942 | ''This Gun for Hire'' | Ellen Graham | First of four films with Alan Ladd |
1942 | '''' | Janet Henry | Second of four films with Alan Ladd |
1942 | ''I Married a Witch'' | Jennifer | |
1942 | ''Star Spangled Rhythm'' | Herself | |
1943 | ''So Proudly We Hail!'' | Lt. Olivia D'Arcy | |
1944 | '''' | Dora Bruckmann | |
1945 | ''Bring on the Girls'' | Teddy Collins | |
1945 | ''Out of This World'' | Dorothy Dodge | |
1945 | ''Duffy's Tavern'' | Herself | |
1945 | ''Hold That Blonde'' | Sally Martin | |
1946 | ''Miss Susie Slagle's'' | Nan Rogers | |
1946 | '''' | Joyce Harwood | Third of four films with Alan Ladd |
1947 | Connie Dickason | ||
1947 | ''Variety Girl'' | Herself | |
1948 | Susan Cleaver | Fourth and final film with Alan Ladd | |
1948 | '''' | Letty Stanton | |
1948 | Candy Cameron | ||
1949 | ''Slattery's Hurricane'' | Dolores Greaves | |
1951 | ''Stronghold'' | Mary Stevens | |
1966 | ''Footsteps in the Snow'' | ||
1970 | Dr. Elaine Frederick | Alternative title: ''Time is Terror'' |
+ Television series | |||
! Year | ! Title | Role | Notes |
1950 | ''Your Show of Shows'' | 1 episode | |
1950 | 1 episode | ||
1950–1953 | ''Lux Video Theatre'' | Various | 3 episodes |
1951 | ''Somerset Maugham TV Theatre'' | Valerie | 1 episode |
1952 | ''Celanese Theatre'' | 1 episode | |
1952 | ''Tales of Tomorrow'' | Paula | 1 episode |
1952 | ''Goodyear Television Playhouse'' | Judy "Leni: Howard | 1 episode |
1953 | ''Danger'' | 1 episode | |
1954 | ''Broadway Television Theatre'' | 1 episode |
Category:American expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:American film actors Category:American people of Danish descent Category:Deaths from hepatitis Category:Deaths from renal failure Category:American people of Irish descent Category:People from Brooklyn Category:American aviators Category:Female aviators Category:1922 births Category:1973 deaths Category:Alcohol-related deaths in Vermont Category:20th-century actors
ca:Veronica Lake da:Veronica Lake de:Veronica Lake es:Veronica Lake fr:Veronica Lake id:Veronica Lake it:Veronica Lake he:ורוניקה לייק ka:ვერონიკა ლეიკი nl:Veronica Lake ja:ヴェロニカ・レイク no:Veronica Lake pl:Veronica Lake pt:Veronica Lake ru:Лейк, Вероника sh:Veronica Lake fi:Veronica Lake sv:Veronica Lake uk:Вероніка Лейк zh:維若妮卡·蕾克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.
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