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