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Barbara Garson (born July 7, 1941 in Brooklyn, New York City) is an American playwright, author and social activist.

Garson is best known for the play MacBird, a notorious 1966 counterculture drama/political parody of Macbeth that sold over half a million copies as a book and had over 90 productions world wide. The play was originally intended for an anti-war teach-in at the University of California, Berkeley. The first published edition was printed on an offset press that Garson had restored the year before in order to print The Free Speech Movement Newsletter which she edited. She was one of 800 arrested with Mario Savio during these early student protests of the 1960s. Garson's self-published edition of MacBird had sold over 200,000 copies by 1967 when the play opened in New York in a production starring Stacey Keach, Bill Devane, Cleavon Little, and Rue McClanahan. While these then unknown actors went on to become fixtures in American theater, movies and television, the author disappeared from public view at the height of fame.

In 1968 Garson had a child, and in 1969 she went to work at The Shelter Half, an anti-war GI coffee house near Fort Lewis Army base in Tacoma, Washington. Her only known publications from the coffee house period were articles in a Seattle anarchist newsletter and contributions to FTA, the Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland anti-war show for soldiers that toured G.I. venues in the U.S. and abroad. Garson is said to have written skits performed at the coffee house during her tenure there.

Garson moved to Manhattan in the early 1970s and began publishing short, humorous essays and theater reviews primarily for The Village Voice. Her next full length play Going Co-op, 1972, was a comedy about residents of an Upper West Side Manhattan apartment house going co-op and a floundering left wing political collective that comes home to help organize the tenants who cannot afford to change from renters to owners. It was written with Fred Gardner. Gardner is credited with founding the first of the Vietnam era GI Coffee Houses.

Garson's children's play The Dinosaur Door, set on a class trip to the Natural History Museum, was awarded an OBIE for playwriting in 1977.

A full-length play, The Department (1983), written for and performed by the organizing group Women Office Workers (WOW), is set in a bank's back office that is about to be automated. The Department, though a light farce, sets out many of the problems that Garson expanded on in her 1989 book The Electronic Sweatshop: How Computers are Transforming the Office of the Future into the Factory of the Past.

In addition to plays, Garson is the author of three non-fiction books:

• All the Livelong Day: The Meaning and Demeaning of Routine Work, Doubleday & Co., N.Y., 1975; Penguin, N.Y., 1977,; Expanded edition, Penguin, 1994.
• The Electronic Sweatshop: How Computers Are Transforming the Office of the Future into the Factory of the Past, Simon & Schuster, N.Y., 1988; Penguin, N.Y., 1989.
• Money Makes the World Go Around: One Investor Tracks Her Cash Through the Global Economy, Viking, N.Y., 2001, Penguin, N.Y., 2002.

All three books explain complex capitalist phenomena — Taylorism in the first two, global finance in the third — through dramatic anecdotes and interviews. They each describe a historical turning point through the voices of a range of people who may (or may not) themselves, understand the changes happening in their own lives.

MacBird is remembered as an attack on then U.S. President Lyndon Johnson. In fact, it presented Johnson's predecessor, John Kennedy, and his would-be successor Robert Kennedy as equally unacceptable but more dangerously alluring. Garson wanted her fellow 1960s activists to step away from the Democratic Party and create their own institutions including a third party. To that end, she could sometimes be seen outside of California theaters where MacBird was playing, gathering signatures to put the Peace and Freedom Party on the ballot.

In Money Makes the World Go Around, Garson explained the global economy by depositing her book advance in a one branch small town bank, then following it around the world. At one point, her money was invested in Suez, the French company that owned Johannesburg's water system. When protesters were arrested for opposing price increases and water shut offs, Garson organized a "shareholders" demonstration on their behalf in front of the South African consulate.

Garson insists that activism is essential to her writing. But her plays and non-fiction feature layered characters and plot twists that are often irrelevant or even inimical to liberal and socialist tenets. Indeed, Money Makes the World Go Around was largely ignored by the anti-globalization movement within which Garson was active, while a Wall Street Journal review said "Ms. Garson recounts her travels with a disarmingly balanced combination of amazement and social concern"^{[citation needed]} and Business Week said "...her voice is so persistently good-natured and her intelligence so obvious that by the end of this curious capitalist's Baedeker you can't help but trust her gentle judgments."^{[citation needed]}

Garson is the author of over 100 articles in publications including Harper's, The New York Times, McCalls, Newsweek, The Village Voice, Ms., The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Newsday, Modern Maturity, Mother Jones, The Nation, and Znet.

She was awarded an OBIE for The Dinosaur Door and a Special Commission from the New York State Council on the Arts, for the Creation of Plays for Younger audiences. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Louis M. Rabinowitz Foundation Grant, the New York Public Library Books to Remember award and Library Journal's Best Business Books of 1989 award, and a MacArthur Foundation Grant for reading and writing.

In 1992, Garson was the running mate for J. Quinn Brisben on the Socialist Party USA ticket, replacing Bill Edwards, who died during the race. In August 1992, she received a message on her answering machine: "We're sorry to tell you that the Socialist Vice-Presidential candidate, Bill Edwards, has died. We would like your help in writing a press release for the newspapers. And also, would you like to run for Vice President?", which she initially believed to be a joke.^[1]

References[link]

Vin Diesel
Diesel at a premiere for Fast & Furious in March 2009
Born	Mark Sinclair Vincent (1967-07-18) July 18, 1967 (age 44) New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, director, producer, screenwriter
Years active	1990–present
Partner	Paloma Jimenez
Website
VinDiesel.com

Vin Diesel (born Mark Sinclair Vincent; July 18, 1967) is an American actor, writer, director and producer. He became known in the early 2000s, appearing in several successful Hollywood films, including The Fast and the Furious and xXx. He founded the production companies One Race Films, Tigon Studios and Racetrack Records.

Early life[link]

Vin Diesel was born in New York City, the son of Delora, a psychiatrist and astrologer.^[1][2] Diesel has white and black ancestry.^[3][4] He has described himself as "definitely a person of color"^[5] and stated that he is "of ambiguous ethnicity – Italian and a lot of other stuff."^[6] Diesel has never met his biological father, and was raised by his African-American stepfather, Irving, an acting instructor and theatre manager.^[1][5] He made his stage debut at age seven when he appeared in the children's play Dinosaur Door, written by Barbara Garson. The play was produced at Theater for the New City in New York's Greenwich Village. His involvement in the play came about when he, his brother, and some friends had broken into Theater for the New City's space on Jane Street with the intent to vandalize it. They were confronted by the theater's artistic director, Crystal Field, who, instead of calling the police, handed them scripts and offered them parts in the upcoming show.^[7] He remained involved with the theatre throughout adolescence, going on to attend the city's Hunter College, where his creative writing studies led him to begin screenwriting. Diesel became an active film-maker in the early 1990s, first earning notice for the short film Multi-Facial, which was selected for screening at the 1995 Cannes Festival. Diesel has identified himself as a "multi-faceted" actor^[8] as a result of early difficulties finding roles due to his mixed heritage.^[8][9]

In an interview on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, he said that he changed his name to "Vin Diesel" while working as a bouncer at the New York City nightclub Tunnel, because in that business one's real name is not usually given out. The name "Vin" is simply a shortened version of "Vincent". He received the nickname "Diesel" from his friends who said he ran off diesel fuel, referring to his non-stop energy.

He has a twin brother, Paul, a younger brother, Tim, and a sister, Samantha.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2011)

Diesel in Munich, April 2005

Diesel's first film role was a brief uncredited appearance in the 1990 film Awakenings. He then produced, directed, and starred in the 1994 short film Multi-Facial, a short semi-autobiographical film which follows a struggling actor stuck in the audition process, because he is regarded as either "too black" or "too white", or not black or white enough. He made his first feature-length film, 1997's Strays, an urban drama in which he was self-cast as a gang boss whose love for a woman inspires him to try to change his ways. Written, directed and produced by Diesel, the film was selected for competition at the 1997 Sundance Festival, leading to an MTV deal to turn it into a series.

He was then cast in Steven Spielberg's 1998 Oscar-winning film Saving Private Ryan on the poignancy of his performance in Multi-Facial. In 1999 he earned critical acclaim for his voice work as the title character in the animation film The Iron Giant. He followed it up with a major role in the business drama Boiler Room (2000) and then got his breakthrough role as the anti-hero Riddick in the science-fiction film Pitch Black (2000). He attained action hero super stardom with the box office hits, the street racing action film The Fast and the Furious (2001), starring opposite Paul Walker, and the action thriller xXx (2002).

In 2004, he reprised his role as Pitch Black's Riddick in The Chronicles of Riddick which was a box office failure considering the large budget. In 2005 he played a lighthearted role in the comedy film The Pacifier, which became a box office success. In 2006 he chose a dramatic role playing real-life mobster Jack DiNorscio in Find Me Guilty. Although he received critical acclaim for his performance, the film did poorly at the box office. Later that year he made a cameo appearance in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, reprising his role from The Fast and The Furious. Diesel was originally offered the lead in 2 Fast 2 Furious but turned it down. He was also offered the chance to reprise his role from xXx in xXx: State of the Union but turned it down as well.

In 2007, he was set to produce and star as Agent 47 in the film adaptation of the video game Hitman, but eventually pulled back and served as executive producer on the film instead. In 2008 he starred in the science-fiction action thriller Babylon A.D..

He returned to the The Fast and The Furious series, alongside all the actors from the original 2001 film, in Fast & Furious, which released in April 2009. In 2011, he once again returned, for the fifth film in the series, titled Fast Five. He is is currently filming the third installment in the Riddick series titled The Chronicles of Riddick: Dead Man Stalking which is in post-production as of April 2012 and set for release in 2013.

Personal life[link]

Diesel is noted for his recognizable deep voice; he has said that his voice broke at around age 15, giving him a mature sounding voice on the telephone.^[10]

Around 2001, Diesel dated his The Fast and the Furious co-star, Michelle Rodriguez.^[11]

Diesel has expressed his love for the Dominican Republic, and how he relates to its multicultural facets.^[12] He is also acquainted with President Leonel Fernandez, and has since appeared in one of his earlier campaign ads. Los Bandoleros, a short film directed by Diesel, was also filmed in the Dominican Republic.^[13]

Diesel claims that he prefers dating in Europe, where he is less likely to be recognized and where celebrities are not romantically linked to each other. He prefers to maintain his privacy regarding his personal life:^[14]

Diesel has played Dungeons & Dragons for over twenty years^[15] and wrote the foreword for the commemorative book 30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons. In the 30th Anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons issue of Dragon Magazine, they examine the fact that Diesel played Dungeons & Dragons, and reveal that he had a fake tattoo of his character's name, "Melkor," on his stomach while filming xXx.

Diesel has a daughter, Hania Riley, born April 2, 2008, with his girlfriend, model Paloma Jimenez.^[16][17] Speaking to An tEolas, an Irish newspaper, Diesel stated he has been seen as a hard man, but is in touch with his soft side as a father.^[18]

Filmography[link]

Actor[link]

Producer[link]

Director and writer[link]

Games[link]

1. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (2004)
2. The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (2009)
3. Wheelman (2009)

Video game roles[link]

• Need for Speed: Most Wanted (Black Edition) - Rog

References[link]

External links[link]

• Vin Diesel at the Internet Movie Database
• Vin Diesel at the Open Directory Project

Paul Walker
Born	Paul William Walker IV (1973-09-12) September 12, 1973 (age 38) Glendale, California
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1985–present
Website
paulwalker.com

Paul William Walker IV (born September 12, 1973) is an American actor with Albanian ancestry^[1]. He became well known in 1999 after his role in the hit film Varsity Blues. He is also known for starring in the surprise summer hit The Fast and the Furious. His other films include Joy Ride, Running Scared, Into the Blue and Eight Below. The films he has starred in have grossed more than $1.7 billion. He also appears in the National Geographic Channel series Expedition Great White..

Early life[link]

Walker was born in Glendale, California and raised in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County, the son of Cheryl, a fashion model, and Paul Walker III, a sewer contractor.^[2][3] His paternal grandfather was a professional boxer.^[4] He is the oldest of five, having two brothers and two sisters.^[5] Walker was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormon, church.^[2] He attended and graduated from Village Christian School.^[6][7] After high school, he attended several community colleges where he majored in marine biology.^[6]

Career[link]

Walker's small-screen career began as a toddler, when he starred in a television commercial for Pampers. He began modeling at the age of 2^[8] and began working on television shows in 1985, with roles in shows such as Highway to Heaven, Who's the Boss?, The Young and the Restless and Touched by an Angel'.

Walker's film career began in 1986, with the horror/comedy film Monster in the Closet. He and his sister Ashlie were contestants on a 1988 episode of the game show I'm Telling!, finishing in second place. He continued with roles in several other movies without much success: it was not until 1998 that Walker made his feature film debut in the comedy Meet the Deedles, which finally gained him fame. This subsequently led to supporting roles in the movies Pleasantville, Varsity Blues, She's All That, and The Skulls.

In 2001, Walker's breakthrough role arrived when he starred opposite actor Vin Diesel in the successful action film The Fast and the Furious. The film established Walker as a notable film star and leading man and led to his reprisal of the role in the 2003 sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious. He continued his career with leading roles in films such as Joy Ride, Into the Blue, and Timeline, and also had a supporting role in Clint Eastwood's 2006 adaptation of Flags of Our Fathers.

Walker then starred in the crime thriller Running Scared and Walt Disney Pictures' Eight Below, both released in 2006. Eight Below garnered critical-acclaim and opened in first place at the box office, grossing over US$20 million during its first weekend.^[9] During the filming of Running Scared, director Wayne Kramer stated that "[Walker] is that guy on some level"^[10] when comparing Walker with his character in the movie, Joey Gazelle. Kramer continued on to say that he "loved working with [Walker] because as a director he's completely supportive of my vision of what the film is. And even better, he's completely game for it."^[10]

Walker starred in the independent film The Lazarus Project, which was released on DVD on October 21, 2008. He subsequently returned to The Fast and the Furious franchise, reprising his role in Fast & Furious, which was released on April 3, 2009.^[11] Walker then appeared with T.I., Idris Elba, Chris Brown, Matt Dillon, and Hayden Christensen in the crime drama Takers, which began filming in early September 2008 and was released in August 2010.^[12]

The Coty Prestige fragrance brand Davidoff Cool Water for Men announced in January 2011 that Walker was going to be the new face of the brand as of July 2011.^[13] Also in 2011, he reprised his role in the fifth installment of The Fast and the Furious series, Fast Five.

Personal life[link]

Walker currently resides in Santa Barbara, California, with his dogs, one of which is a Chesapeake Bay Retriever.^[2][14] Paul and his then-girlfriend Rebecca have a daughter, Meadow^[15] (born on November 4, 1998), who has moved from Hawaii to California to be closer to Walker.^[16] He is an avid surfer and enjoys the beach. Walker holds a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Ricardo "Franjinha" Miller at Paragon Jiu-Jitsu.^[17]

Walker's first passion was marine biology, with his idol being Jacques Cousteau,^[18] and he joined the Board of Directors of The Billfish Foundation in 2006.^[19] He recently fulfilled a lifelong dream by starring in a National Geographic Channel series Expedition Great White, which premiered in June 2010.^[20][21] He spent 11 days as part of the crew, catching and tagging 7 great white sharks off the coast of Mexico.^[18] The expedition, led by Chris Fischer, founder and CEO of Fischer Productions, along with Captain Brett McBride and Dr. Michael Domeier of the Marine Conservation Science Institute take measurements, gather DNA samples, and fasten real-time satellite tags to the great white sharks. This will allow Dr. Michael Domeier to study migratory patterns especially those associated with mating and birthing over a 5-year period of time.^[22]

In March 2010, Walker went to Chile, specifically to Constitución, to offer his help and support to the people injured in the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck on February 27. He also flew with his REACH OUT team to Haiti to lend a helping hand to the 2010 Haiti earthquake victims.^[23] He is also an avid car enthusiast who currently competes in the Redline Time Attack racing series in which he races a M3 E92 and is on the AE Performance Team. His car is currently sponsored by Etnies, Brembo Brakes, Ohlins, Volk, OS Giken, Hankook, Gintani, and Reach Out Worldwide.^[24]

Filmography[link]

Awards[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Paul Walker

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Paul Walker

• Official website
• Paul Walker at AllRovi
• Paul Walker at the Internet Movie Database
• Paul Walker at Yahoo! Movies

Barbara Stanwyck
From Stella Dallas in 1937
Born	Ruby Catherine Stevens (1907-07-16)July 16, 1907 Brooklyn, New York
Died	January 20, 1990(1990-01-20) (aged 82) Santa Monica, California
Cause of death	congestive heart failure chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1927–1986
Spouse	Frank Fay (m.1928–1935; divorced) Robert Taylor (m.1939–1951; divorced)

Barbara Stanwyck (July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American actress. She was 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 but notable career as a stage actress in the late 1920s, she made 85 films in 38 years in Hollywood, before turning to television.

Stanwyck was nominated for the Academy Award four times, and won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe. She was the recipient of honorary lifetime awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1981, the American Film Institute in 1987, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Golden Globes, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the Screen Actors Guild. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is ranked as the eleventh greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute.^[1]

Early life[link]

Barbara Stanwyck was born Ruby Catherine Stevens in Brooklyn, New York on July 16, 1907.^[2] She was the fifth and youngest child of Catherine Ann (née McPhee) and Byron E. Stevens; the couple were working-class, her father a native of Massachusetts and her mother an immigrant from Nova Scotia, Canada.^[3][4] Stanwyck had English and Scottish ancestry.^[2] When she was four, her mother was killed when a drunken stranger pushed her off a moving streetcar.^[5] Two weeks after the funeral, Byron Stevens joined a work crew digging the Panama canal^[6] and was never seen again.^[5] Ruby and her brother Byron were raised by their elder sister Mildred, five years Ruby's senior.^[6] When Mildred got a job as a John Cort showgirl, Ruby and Byron were placed in a series of foster homes (as many as four in a year), from which Ruby often ran away.^{[7][N 1]}

During the summers of 1916 and 1917, Ruby toured with Mildred, and practiced her sister's routines backstage.^[8] Another influence toward performing was watching the movies of Pearl White, whom Ruby idolized.^[10] At age 14, she dropped out of school to take a job wrapping packages at a Brooklyn department store.^[11] Ruby never attended high school, "although early biographical thumbnail sketches had her attend Brooklyn's famous Erasmus Hall High School" ^[12] Soon after, she took a job filing cards at the Brooklyn telephone office for a salary of $14 a week, a salary that allowed her to become financially independent.^[13] She disliked both jobs; her real interest was to enter show business even as her sister Mildred discouraged the idea. She next took a job cutting dress patterns for Vogue, but because customers complained about her work, she was fired.^[9] Her next job was as a typist for the Jerome H. Remick Music Company, a job she reportedly enjoyed. But her continuing ambition was to work in show business and her sister gave up trying to dissuade her.^[14]

Ziegfeld girl[link]

Barbara Stanwyck as a Ziegfeld girl (c. 1924)

In 1923, a few months short of her 16th birthday, Ruby auditioned for a place in the chorus at the Strand Roof, a night club over the Strand Theatre in Times Square.^[15] A few months later, she obtained a job as a dancer in the 1922 and 1923 seasons of the Ziegfeld Follies, dancing at the New Amsterdam Theater. "I just wanted to survive and eat and have a nice coat," Stanwyck said.^[16][17] For the next several years, she worked as a chorus girl, performing from midnight to seven a.m. at nightclubs owned by Texas Guinan. She also occasionally served as a dance instructor at a speakeasy for gays and lesbians owned by Guinan.^[18] One of her good friends during those years was pianist Oscar Levant, who described her as being "wary of sophisticates and phonies."^[16]

In 1926, Ruby was introduced to Willard Mack by Billy LaHiff who owned a popular pub frequented by showpeople.^[19] Mack was casting his play The Noose and LaHiff suggested that the part of the chorus girl be played by a real chorus girl. Mack agreed and gave the part to Ruby after a successful audition.^[20] She co-starred with actors Rex Cherryman and Wilfred Lucas.^[21] The play was not a success. In an effort to improve it, Mack decided to expand Ruby's part to include more pathos.^[22] The Noose re-opened on October 20, 1926^[23] and became one of the most successful plays of the season, running for nine months and 197 performances.^[17] At the suggestion of either Mack or David Belasco, Ruby changed her name to Barbara Stanwyck by combining her character's first name, Barbara Frietchie, and Stanwyck, after the name of another actress in the play, Jane Stanwyck.^[23]

Stanwyck received rave reviews for her performance in The Noose and was summoned by film producer Bob Kane to make a screen test for his upcoming 1927 silent film Broadway Nights. She lost the lead role because she could not cry in the screen test but got a minor part as a fan dancer.^[24] This marked Stanwyck's first film appearance. She played her first lead part on stage that year in Burlesque. The play was panned by the critics but Stanwyck received acclaim for her performance.^[7] While playing in Burlesque, Stanwyck was introduced to her future husband, actor Frank Fay, by Oscar Levant. She and Fay later claimed that they disliked each other at first but became close after the sudden death of Rex Cherryman, Stanwyck's fellow actor and amour.^[7] Cherryman had become ill early in 1928 and his doctor advised him to take a sea voyage to Paris where he and Stanwyck had arranged to meet. He died soon thereafter at the age of 31.^[25] Stanwyck's and Fay's relationship developed into a romance and they married on August 26, 1928. They soon moved to Hollywood^[7] where their careers took different paths.

Film career[link]

in The Gay Sisters (1942)

Stanwyck's first sound film was The Locked Door (1929), followed by Mexicali Rose in 1929. Neither film was successful; nonetheless, Frank Capra chose Stanwyck for his Ladies of Leisure (1930).^[17] Numerous memorable roles followed, among them the children's nurse who saves two little girls from being gradually starved to death by a vicious Clark Gable in Night Nurse (1931), the ambitious woman from "the wrong side of the tracks" in Baby Face (1933), the self-sacrificing mother in Stella Dallas (1937), Molly Monahan in 'Union Pacific' (1939) with Joel McCrea, the con artist who falls for her would-be victim (played by Henry Fonda) in The Lady Eve (1941), the woman who talks an infatuated insurance salesman (Fred McMurray) into killing her husband in Double Indemnity (1944), the columnist caught up in white lies and Christmas romance in Christmas in Connecticut (1945) and the doomed wife in Sorry, Wrong Number (1948). Stanwyck was reportedly one of the many actresses considered for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With The Wind (1939), although she wasn't given a screen test. In 1944, Stanwyck was the highest-paid woman in the United States.^[17]

Pauline Kael described Stanwyck's acting, "[she] seems to have an intuitive understanding of the fluid physical movements that work best on camera" and in reference to her early 1930s film work, "early talkies sentimentality ... only emphasizes Stanwyck's remarkable modernism."^[27] Stanwyck was known for her accessibility and kindness to the backstage crew on any film set. She knew the names of their wives and children, and asked after them by name. Frank Capra said she was "destined to be beloved by all directors, actors, crews and extras. In a Hollywood popularity contest she would win first prize hands down."^[28]

Studio photograph c.1960

Television career[link]

When Stanwyck's film career declined in 1957, she moved to television. Her 1961–1962 series The Barbara Stanwyck Show was not a ratings success but earned her first Emmy Award.^[17] The 1965–1969 Western series The Big Valley on ABC made her one of the most popular actresses on television, winning her another Emmy.^[17] She was billed as "Miss Barbara Stanwyck", and her role as frontier family matron Victoria Barkley was likened to that of Ben Cartwright, played by Lorne Greene in the series Bonanza. Stanwyck's costars included Richard Long as Jarrod Thomas Barkley, (who had been in Stanwyck's 1953 film All I Desire), Peter Breck as the hot-headed Nick Barkley, Linda Evans as Audra Barkley, and Lee Majors as Heath Barkley, the son fathered out-of-wedlock by the Stanwyck character's husband with another woman.

Years later, Stanwyck earned her third Emmy for The Thorn Birds.^[17] In 1985, she made three guest appearances on the hit primetime soap opera Dynasty prior to the launch of its ill-fated spin-off series The Colbys in which she starred alongside Charlton Heston, Stephanie Beacham and Katharine Ross. Unhappy with the experience, Stanwyck remained with the series for only one season^[17] (it lasted for two), and her role as Constance Colby Patterson would prove to be her last. Earl Hamner Jr. (producer of The Waltons) had initially wanted Stanwyck for the lead role of Angela Channing on the successful 1980s soap opera Falcon Crest, but she turned it down; the role ultimately went to her best friend Jane Wyman.

William Holden credited her with saving his career when they co-starred in Golden Boy (1939). They remained lifelong friends. When Stanwyck and Holden were presenting the Best Sound Oscar, Holden paused to pay a special tribute to Stanwyck. Shortly after Holden's death, Stanwyck returned the favor. Upon receiving her honorary Oscar, she said aloud: "And tonight, my golden boy, you got your wish."^[29]

Personal life[link]

With Robert Taylor in 1941

Stanwyck married her first husband, actor Frank Fay, on August 26, 1928. They adopted a son, Dion Anthony "Tony" Fay, on December 5, 1932. The marriage was a troubled one. Fay's successful career on Broadway did not translate to the big screen, whereas Stanwyck achieved Hollywood stardom. Fay engaged in physical confrontations with his young wife, especially when he was inebriated.^{[citation needed]} Some claim that this union was the basis for A Star is Born.^[30] The couple divorced on December 30, 1935. Stanwyck won custody of their adoptive son.

In 1936, while making the film His Brother's Wife (1936), Stanwyck met and fell in love with her co-star, Robert Taylor. Following a whirlwind romance, the couple began living together. Their 1939 marriage was arranged with the help of Taylor's studio MGM, a common practice in Hollywood's golden age. She and Taylor enjoyed time together outdoors during the early years of their marriage, and were the owners of acres of prime West Los Angeles property. Their large ranch and home in the Mandeville Canyon section of Brentwood, Los Angeles is to this day referred to by locals as the old "Robert Taylor ranch".^[31]

In 1941, while making the Preston Sturges film The Lady Eve with co-star Henry Fonda, Stanwyck and Fonda had a tempestuous affair, which was kept secret at the time.^[32] Years later, Fonda confided to his then fourth wife Afdera that "Barbara was ... gay [and had] no inhibitions. She'd do anything in bed to please a man."^[32] Taylor himself reportedly had affairs during the marriage. When Stanwyck learned of Taylor's fling with Lana Turner, she filed for divorce in 1950 when a starlet made Turner's romance with Taylor public. The decree was granted on February 21, 1951. After the divorce, they acted together in Stanwyck's last feature film, The Night Walker (1964). Stanwyck never remarried, collecting alimony of 15 percent of Taylor's salary until Taylor's death in 1969.

Stanwyck had an affair with actor Robert Wagner, whom she met on the set of Titanic. Wagner, who was 22, and Stanwyck, who was 45 at the beginning of the affair, had a four-year romance, as described in Wagner's 2008 memoir, Pieces of My Heart. Stanwyck broke off the relationship.^[33]

She was a conservative-minded Republican along with such contemporaries as William Holden, Ginger Rogers, Gary Cooper, and Double Indemnity co-star Fred McMurray.^[34][35][36]

Later life[link]

Stanwyck's retirement years were active, with charity work outside the limelight. Her decline began after she was robbed and assaulted inside her Beverly Hills home in 1981. The following year, while filming The Thorn Birds, the inhalation of special-effects smoke on the set may have caused her to contract bronchitis. The illness was perhaps compounded by her cigarette habit; she had been a smoker since age 9 until four years before her death.^[37]

Barbara Stanwyck died on January 20, 1990 of congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at Saint John's Health Center, in Santa Monica, California. Her body was cremated, and her ashes scattered in Lone Pine, California.

Filmography[link]

Awards and honors[link]

Academy Awards

• 1938 – Nominated, Best Actress in a Leading Role for Stella Dallas
• 1942 – Nominated, Best Actress in a Leading Role for Ball of Fire
• 1945 – Nominated, Best Actress in a Leading Role for Double Indemnity
• 1949 – Nominated, Best Actress in a Leading Role for Sorry, Wrong Number
• 1981 – Won, Academy Honorary Award "for superlative creativity and unique contribution to the art of screen acting"

Emmy Awards

• 1961 – Won, Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Series (Lead) for The Barbara Stanwyck Show
• 1966 – Won, Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series for The Big Valley
• 1967 – Nominated, Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series for The Big Valley
• 1968 – Nominated, Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series for The Big Valley
• 1983 – Won, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Special for The Thorn Birds

Golden Globes

• 1966 – Nominated, Best TV Star – Female for The Big Valley
• 1967 – Nominated, Best TV Star – Female for The Big Valley
• 1968 – Nominated, Best TV Star – Female for The Big Valley
• 1984 – Won, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV for The Thorn Birds
• 1986 – Won, Cecil B. DeMille Award

Other awards

• 1941 – Hollywood Walk of Fame, star located at 1751 Vine Street
• 1967 – Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award
• 1973 – Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
• 1981 – Film Society of Lincoln Center Gala Tribute
• 1981 – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Career Achievement Award
• 1987 – American Film Institute Life Achievement Award

References[link]

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Barbara Stanwyck

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Barbara Stanwyck

• Barbara Stanwyck at the Internet Movie Database
• Barbara Stanwyck at the TCM Movie Database
• Barbara Stanwyck at AllRovi
• Barbara Stanwyck at the Internet Broadway Database
• That Old Feeling: Ruby in the Rough Time Magazine, 2001
• Saluting Stanwyck: A Life On Film Los Angeles Times, 1987

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (November 2009)

Lizabeth Scott
Born	Emma Matzo (1922-09-29) September 29, 1922 (age 89) Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.

Lizabeth Scott (born September 29, 1922) is an American actress and singer widely known for her film noir roles.

Early life[link]

She was born Emma Matzo (some sources mistakenly give her family name as "Motzas") in the Pine Brook section of Scranton, Pennsylvania, one of six children, to Ruthenian^[1] parents who had emigrated from Uzhgorod, in what is now Ukraine. She attended Central High School and Marywood College (now Marywood University).

She later went to New York City and attended the Alvienne School of Drama. In late 1942, she was eking out a precarious living with a small Midtown Manhattan summer stock company when she got a job as understudy for Tallulah Bankhead in Thornton Wilder's play The Skin of Our Teeth. However, Scott never had an opportunity to substitute for Bankhead.

Rise to fame[link]

When Miriam Hopkins was signed to replace Bankhead, Scott quit and returned to her drama studies and some fashion modeling. She then received a call that Gladys George, who was signed to replace Hopkins, was ill, and Scott was needed back at the theatre. She went on in the leading role of "Sabina", receiving a nod of approval from critics at the age of 20. The following night, George was out again and Scott went on in her place.

Soon afterward, Scott was at the Stork Club when film producer Hal Wallis asked who she was, unaware that an aide had already arranged an interview with her for the following day. When Scott returned home, however, she found a telegram offering her the lead for the Boston run of The Skin of Our Teeth. She could not turn it down. She sent Wallis her apologies and went on the road.

Though the Broadway production, in which she was credited as "Girl", christened her "Elizabeth", she dropped the "e" the day after the opening night in Boston, "just to be different".

A photograph of Scott in Harper's Bazaar magazine was seen by film agent Charles Feldman. He admired the fashion pose and took her on as a client. Scott made her first screen test at Warner Brothers, where she and Wallis finally met. Though the test was bad, the producer recognized her potential. As soon as Wallis set up shop at Paramount, she was signed to a contract. Her film debut was in You Came Along (1945) opposite Robert Cummings.

Paramount publicity dubbed Scott "The Threat," in order to create an onscreen persona for her similar to Lauren Bacall or Veronica Lake. Scott's smoky sensuality and husky voice lent itself to the film noir genre and, beginning with The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) starring Barbara Stanwyck and Van Heflin, the studio cast her in a series of noir thrillers. Film historian Eddie Muller has noted that no other actress has appeared in so many noir films, with more than three quarters of her 20 films qualifying.^[2]

Don DeFore and Lizabeth Scott in a promotional still from Too Late for Tears.

The dark blonde actress was initially compared to Bacall because of a slight resemblance and a similar voice, even more so after she starred with Bacall's husband, Humphrey Bogart, in the 1947 noir thriller Dead Reckoning. At the age of 25, Scott's billing and portrait were equal to Bogart's on the film's lobby posters and in advertisements. The film was the first of many femme fatale roles for Scott. In 1946 exhibitors voted her the seventh-most promising "star of tomorrow".^[3]

She also starred in Desert Fury (1947), a noir filmed in Technicolor, with John Hodiak, Burt Lancaster, Wendell Corey and Mary Astor. In it, she played Paula Haller, who, on her return from college, falls for gangster Eddie Bendix (Hodiak), and faces a great deal of opposition from the others. Scott was paired with Lancaster, Corey and Kirk Douglas in Wallis' I Walk Alone (1948), a noirish story of betrayal and vengeance. In 1949, she starred as a vicious femme fatale in Too Late for Tears. The film is unusual for featuring her as the main character, rather than the supporting role most women were relegated to in film noirs of the period.

Having been known professionally as Lizabeth Scott for 4½ years, she appeared at the courthouse in Los Angeles, on October 20, 1949 and had her name legally changed. Another courtroom appearance came several years later, in 1955, when she sued Confidential magazine for stating that she spent her off-work hours with "Hollywood's weird society of baritone babes" (a euphemism for a lesbian) in an article which claimed Scott's name was found on the clients' list belonging to a call-girl agency.^[4] The suit was dismissed on a technicality. After completing Loving You in 1957, Elvis Presley's second film, Scott retired from the screen. Later that year, she recorded her album, Lizabeth. The next few years saw Scott occasionally guest-star on television, including a 1963 episode of Burke's Law.^{[citation needed]}

Music[link]

After completing her final major film role, Scott signed a recording contract with Vik Records (a subsidiary of RCA Victor) and recorded an album with Henri Rene and his orchestra (in Hollywood on October 28, 29 and 30, 1957). Simply titled Lizabeth, the tracks are a mixture of torch songs and playful romantic ballads. The recordings were arranged by George Wyle and Henri Rene, while Herman Diaz, Jr. produced and directed.^{[citation needed]}

Later years[link]

Despite some rumored romances, no positive records of a relationship exist, and Scott is believed to have never married. She has no children. At least one book has claimed she was a mistress of married film producer Hal Wallis.^[5]

While she continued to make some guest appearances on various television shows throughout the 1960s, much of her private time was dedicated to classes at the University of Southern California.^[6] In 1972, she made her last film appearance, in Pulp, which starred Michael Caine and Mickey Rooney. After that, she mostly kept away from public view and has declined many interview requests.

She did, however, appear on stage at an American Film Institute tribute to Hal Wallis in 1987. In 2001, she was listed as one of the celebrity guests for the Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Special, which screened in the USA on CBS. More recently, she was photographed next to an image of herself on the poster for The Strange Love of Martha Ivers at the AMPAS Centennial Celebration for Barbara Stanwyck on 16 May 2007. She recently attended another screening of the film on June 28, 2010 as part of AMPAS's "Oscar Noir" series at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.^{[citation needed]}

In 2003, Scott spoke substantially to Bernard F. Dick about her time in films for his biography of producer Hal Wallis. In the book, the author remarks that during his conversation with Scott in a restaurant, Scott (in her 80s) was still able to recite her opening monologue from The Skin of Our Teeth, which she performed on stage at age 20.

Lizabeth Scott has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to motion pictures at 1624 Vine Street in Hollywood.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lizabeth Scott

• Lizabeth Scott at the Internet Movie Database
• Lizabeth Scott at the Internet Broadway Database
• "Lizabeth Scott's Name Really Emma Motzas" - Printed in The Evening Independent, May 21, 1949.