Margaret Leighton died yesterday at the age of 53. She was an actress as intelligent as she was beautiful. From her youth she had rare poise and period sense qualities evident in her final part, a Compton Burnett dowager in last year’s stage version of “A Family and a Fortune.”
Born in Worcestershire on February 26, 1922, and educated at Birmingham, she was one of Sir Barry Jackson’s Repertory Theatre discoveries. In 1938, as a tall, glowingly fair girl of 16, she began by scrubbing the stage and doing the work of a junior ASM. Early in the war she toured with Basil Langton’s company; but it was at the Repertory, especially between 1942 and 1944, that in such parts as Katharina, Rosalind, Barrie’s Lady Babbie, and the step-daughter in Six Characters”, she made the great regional reputation, justified during three years in London with the Old Vic. During the first three years, 1944-47, of the company’s famous stay at the New Theatre, she acted, among much else, Raina in “Arms and the Man”, Yelena in “Uncle Vanya”, Roxane in “Cyrano de Bergerac”, and a Regan, to Olivier’s Lear.
Always she was far more than decorative. She had a cutting truth, and her repetory training (though she never entirely lost her nervousness) prepared her for anything. From the Vic company she went to to a trio of parts in the Criterion revival of Bridie’s “A Sleeping Clergyman” (1947), welcoming the chance to act with Robert Donat: later she was with him in the film version of “The Winslow Boy”, her introduction to the work of Terence Rattigan.
She was Celia in the London production of “The Cocktail Party” (1950) and 12 months later appeared as Masha in a revival of “Three Sisters” for Festival of Britain year. In 1952, as Stratford upon Avon’s leading lady again, it was said, as the toast of the Midlands, she was Lady Macbeth, a Rosalind of jetting raillery and an Ariel described by a critic as a silver arrow.
Afterwards, though she remained among the first half dozen of English actresses, she never found the sustained full-scale triumph (long runs aside) for which one had hoped. Certainly there were long runs. After a few months as Orinthia to Noel Coward’s Magnus in the Haymarket revival of “The Apple Cart” (1953) and another Eliot heroine, Lucasta in “The Confidential Clerk”, she had nearly four years, in London and on Broadway, as two amply contrasted characters in the double bill of Terence Rattigan’s “Separate Tables”. Her Rose, a former Midland girl, in his “Variations on a Theme” (Globe, London, 1958) had to be less satisfying. She acted a gleaming Beatrice to Sir John Gielgud’s Benedick in New York (September, 1959). Then, after two more London parts – the second of them Ellida in “The Lady From the Sea” (1961) – she spent five years in New York where she won the Antoinette Perry Award for the best actress of 1961-62, as Hannah in Tennessee Williams’s “The Night of the Iguana”. She was also in Enid Bagnold’s “The Chinese Prime Minister” when the dramatist spoke of her as “an extraordinary and shining woman, made of moonshine and talent and deep self-distrust, astonished at success.”
Her return to London (1967) was in an undemanding play “Cactus Flower”. Within two years at the Chichester Festival, she reached the part many thought she should play, Shakespeare’s Cleopatra (to the Antony of Sir John Clements), royal in her aspect but never theatrically voluptuous. But the Festival period was brief. And of her three later parts, two were at Chichester, Mrs Malaprop in “The Rivals” and Elena in “Reunion in Vienna” (also for a short time in London). Finally there was the dowager she acted with such sharp assurance in “A Family and a Fortune” (Apollo, 1975). These were all performances, varying in scope, and of much style and vigour in execution, but without the transcendent quality we knew Margaret Leighton could achieve. We hoped she might again. It is too late now;but she is remembered, as “Maggie”, in and out of the theatre, with deep affection.
Margaret Leighton acted in several films besides “The Winslow Boy”. She received a Best Supporting Actress Award for her performance in “The Go-Between” in 1971, and her other credits included “The Loved One” (1965), “Lady Caroline Lamb” (1972), and “Bequest to the Nation” (1973). She was married three times – to Max Reinhardt, to Laurence Harvey, and lastly to Michael Wilding. The above “Times” obituary can also be accessed online here.
Pier Angeli was born in 1932 and was an Italian-born television and film actress. Her American cinematographic debut was in the starring role of the 1951 film Teresa, for which she won a Golden Globe Award for Young Star of the Year – Actress. She had one son with Vic Damone, her first husband, and another son with Armando Trovajoli, her second husband. Her twin sister is the actress Marisa Pavan.
During the 1960s and until 1970, Angeli lived and worked in Britain and Europe, and was often screen-credited under her birth name, Anna Maria Pierangeli. Her performance in The Angry Silence (1960) was nominated for a Best Foreign Actress BAFTA, and she was reunited with Stewart Granger for Sodom and Gomorrah (1963), in which she played Lot’s wife. She had a brief role in the war epic Battle of the Bulge (1965). 1968 found Angeli in Israel, top billed in Every Bastard a King, about events during that nation’s recent war.
According to Kirk Douglas‘ autobiography, he and Angeli were engaged in the 1950s after meeting on the set of the film The Story of Three Loves (1953). Angeli also had a brief romantic relationship with James Dean. She broke it off because her mother was not happy with their relationship as he was not Catholic.
Angeli was married to singer and actor Vic Damone from 1954 to 1958. During their marriage, they appeared as guests on the June 17, 1956 episode of What’s My Line?. Their divorce was followed by highly publicized court battles for the custody of their only child, son Perry (1955–2014).
Angeli next married Italian composer Armando Trovajoli in 1962. She had another son, Howard, in 1963. She and Trovajoli were separated in 1969.
In 1971, at the age of 39, Angeli was found dead of a barbiturate overdose at her home in Beverly Hills. She is interred in the Cimetière des Bulvis in Rueil-Malmaison, Hauts-de-Seine, France.
Marisa Pavan was born in Sardinia in 1932 and is the twin sister of the actress Pier Angeli. Pavan’s breaktrough role came in 1955 as the daughter of Anna Magnani in “The Rose Tattoo” based on the play by Tennessee Williams.
Pavan was nominated foran Oscar for her performance. She was married to the late French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont.
TCM Overview:
The twin sister of actress Pier Angeli, Marisa Pavan was generally cast in gentle roles during her brief career as a leading lady of 1950s films. The attractive, Italian-born brunette made her motion picture debut in John Ford’s 1952 remake of “What Price Glory?”, playing a sweet village girl, and followed as a doomed Native American in love with Indian fighter Alan Ladd in Delmar Daves’ “Drum Beat” (1954).
Pavan won a Golden Globe Award and earned an Oscar nomination for her performance as the sensitive teenaged daughter of the formidable Anna Magnani in “The Rose Tattoo” (1955).
She held her own in the costume epic “Diane” (also 1955), in which she competed with Lana Turner for the affections of Roger Moore.
In Nunnally Johnson’s “The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit” (1956), Pavan brought warmth and believability to her role as the war-time love of Gregory Peck.
After appearing opposite Tony Curtis in the taut mystery “The Midnight Story” (1957) and two more costume epics, “John Paul Jones” and “Solomon and Sheba” (1959), the actress retired from the big screen for more than a decade.
A mini-biography on Marisa Pavan can be viewed on the TCM website here.
Marisa Pavan died at her home in France in 2023 at the age of 91.
The Hollywood Reporter obituary in 2023:
Maria Luisa Pierangeli and her sister (birth name Anna Maria Pierangeli, who was older by a few minutes) were born on June 19, 1932, in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. Their father, Luigi, was an architect and construction engineer, and their mother, Enrica, was a homemaker who once dreamed of being an actress.
“My mother adored Shirley Temple and took us to see all her movies,” Pavan said in Jane Allen’s 2002 book, Pier Angeli: A Fragile Life. “She even dressed us like Shirley Temple, hence the big bows in our hair.”
The family moved to Rome in the mid-1930s and was threatened when the Nazis occupied the city.
When she was 16, Anna was strolling along the Via Veneto on the way home from art school when she was discovered by Vittorio De Sica, and she portrayed a teenager on the verge of a sexual awakening opposite him in Tomorrow Is Too Late (1950). That brought her to the attention of MGM, which cast her in Teresa (1951), signed her to a seven-year contract and gave her the stage name Pier Angeli.
Angeli and her sister then moved to Los Angeles, and Maria, with no acting experience, was signed by Fox. Newly christened Marisa Pavan, she made her big-screen debut as a French girl in John Ford’s World War I-set What Price Glory (1952), starring James Cagney and Dan Dailey.
Pavan then appeared in 1954 in the film noir Down Three Dark Streetsand in the Western Drum Beat, starring Broderick Crawford and Alan Ladd, respectively, before she broke out in The Rose Tattoo.
Pavan also co-starred in a pair of epic adventures released in 1959, playing Robert Stack’s love interest in John Farrow’s John Paul Jones(1959) and the servant Abishag in King Vidor’s Solomon and Sheba(1959). In the latter, she worked alongside Yul Brynner, who joined the film in Spain after the sudden death of Tyrone Power.
Pavan worked mainly in television after that, with stints on such shows as The United States Steel Hour, Naked City, 77 Sunset Strip, Combat!, The F.B.I., Wonder Woman, Hawaii Five-O and The Rockford Files.
Marisa Pavan and Tony Curtis on the set of 1957’s ‘The Midnight Story’ COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION
In 1976, she appeared as Kirk Douglas‘ mentally ill wife in the Arthur Hailey NBC miniseries The Moneychangers, and she played Chantal Dubujak, mother of crime lord Max DuBujak (Daniel Pilon), in 1985 on the ABC soap opera Ryan’s Hope.
Angeli, who dated James Dean before she married singer Vic Damone and portrayed the wife of champion boxer Rocky Marciano (played by Paul Newman) in 1956’s Somebody Up There Likes Me, died in 1971 at age 39 of a barbiturate overdose at a Beverly Hills apartment. It was never firmly established whether she died by suicide or suffered a reaction to prescribed medication.
Pavan was married to French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont (her castmate in John Paul Jones) from 1956 until his 2001 death. Survivors include her sons, Jean-Claude (a cinematographer) and Patrick, and her younger sister, Patrizia Pierangeli, also an actress
Michael York garnered very favourable reviews for his first three major films in the 1960’s. They were Joseph Losey’s “Accident” and Franco Zefferelli’s “The Taming of the Shrew” and “Romeo and Juliet”. After the success of the film “Cabreet” with Liza Minnelli, he went to Hollywood. Although he makes films all over the world, he is now based in the USA. He recently received recognition with younger audiences with his participation in the Austin Powers film where he plays Basil Exposition.
A classically trained British actor who honed his craft on the stage, Michael York made a smooth transition to the screen with several noted Shakespearean performances in films made by Italian director Franco Zeffirelli. Though not a leading performer, York delivered strong turns as Lucentino in “The Taming of the Shrew” (1967) and Tybalt in “Romeo and Juliet” (1968), before he played more seductively charming men in “Something for Everyone” (1970) and “Cabaret” (1972). While starring as D’Artagnan in “The Three Musketeers” (1973) and Logan in the sci-fi cult classic “Logan’s Run” (1976), he also turned to television to play Pip in “Great Expectations” (NBC, 1974) and John the Baptist in the epic miniseries “Jesus of Nazareth” (NBC, 1977).
In the following decade, York joined the cast of “Knot’s Landing” (CBS, 1979-1993), while stepping back into guest starring spots on shows like “Babylon 5” (TNT, 1993-98) and “Sliders” (Fox, 1995-99). Though he made fewer appearances on the big screen later in his career, York was quite memorable as the affable Basil Exposition in the “Austin Power” series, starring Mike Myers. As he continued forward, York diversified his talents to include voice work for both animated projects and a host of audiobooks, which served to underscore the wide breadth of the actor’s talents.
Born on March 27, 1942 in Fulmer, Buckinghamshire, England, York was raised in the London suburb of Burgess Hill by his father, Joseph Johnson, an ex-army officer-turned-executive for Marks and Spencer department stores, and his mother, Florence, a musician. While receiving his education at Bromley Grammar School for Boys, he began his acting career as a teenager in a production of “The Yellow Jacket” (1956). Three years later, York made his West End debut with a one-line role in a staging of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” He continued to study acting at Oxford University, where he was a member of the Dramatic Society, and spent his summers working with Michael Croft’s Youth Theatre while touring Italy in a production of “Julius Caesar.”
From there, he joined the Dundee Repertory Theatre in Scotland, where he played Sergius in “Arms and the Man” (1964) and first adopted the name Michael York. That same year, he graduated from Oxford and was invited to join England’s National Theatre, which led him to be immediately cast by Italian director Franco Zeffirelli in his production of “Much Ado About Nothing” (1965).
With his stage career taking off, York took the logical next stepping of making his screen debut as Young Jolyon in the acclaimed and fondly remembered drama series “The Forsyte Saga” (BBC, 1966). A year later, Michael York made his feature debut as Lucentino in Zeffirelli’s film, “The Taming of the Shrew” (1967), starring the tumultuous Elizabeth Taylor and her on-again/off-again husband Richard Burton. Now a bona fide movie actor, York scored again as Tybalt in Zeffirelli’s next Shakespearean screen adaptation “Romeo and Juliet” (1968).
Later that same year, York married his sweetheart, Patricia, an American photographer, whom he met while filming “Smashing Time” (1969) when she was assigned to photograph the star. The couple remained husband and wife well into the next century. Meanwhile, York went on to effectively portray a variety of well-bred, charming men like the manipulative bisexual of “Something for Everyone” (1970) and the adventurous expatriate in Bob Fosse’s Academy Award-winning “Cabaret” (1972), opposite Liza Minnelli.
From there, his role as D’Artagnan in Richard Lester’s romping version of “The Three Musketeers” (1973) and as Logan in the cult sci-fi classic “Logan’s Run” (1976) cemented York’s cinematic stardom on both sides of the pond. He played opposite Burt Lancaster in the critically panned adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “The Island of Dr. Moreau” (1977) and he even played himself in Billy Wilder’s old fashioned missive on Hollywood, “Fedora” (1977). A series of well-received landmark TV miniseries followed, including roles as the Charles Dickens’ hero Pip in “Great Expectations” (NBC, 1974) and a reteaming with his illustrious mentor Zeffirelli in “Jesus of Nazareth” (NBC, 1977), where he played John the Baptist to Robert Powell’s titular Jesus. York returned to his theatrical roots in the 1979 Broadway production of “Bent,” where he succeeded Richard Gere in the lead role of Max, a homosexual concentration camp inmate who pretends to be Jewish. That same year he produced his first movie, a slow-moving adaptation of Erskine Childer’s prototypical spy thriller, “The Riddle of the Sands” (1979).
Heading into the 1980s, Michael York attempted his first stage musical, “The Little Prince,” which failed miserably during its Broadway previews and led to his decision to return to the comfort of the small screen. York proved he could still be a dashing and stalwart swashbuckler in “The Master of Ballantrae” (CBS, 1984) and earned a Daytime Emmy nomination for the ABC Afterschool Special, “Are You My Mother?” He next joined the cast of the long-running primetime serial “Knot’s Landing” (CBS, 1979-1993) for the 1987-88 season, playing the love interest to Donna Mills. In the 1990s, York continued to work on the small screen with episodes of popular shows like “Babylon 5” (TNT, 1993-98) and the time travel adventure “Sliders” (Fox, 1995-99), while tackling prominent roles in TV movies like “Not of This Earth” (Showtime, 1995), “Dark Planet” (Syfy, 1997), “The Ripper” (Starz, 1997) and “A Knight in Camelot” (1998). Of course, York continued making big screen appearances, playing the prime and proper head of British intelligence, Basil Exposition, in the Mike Myers franchise “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” (1997), a role he reprised in “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me” (1999) and “Austin Powers: Goldmember” (2002).
Finding a new audience, York played media mogul Stone Alexander in the religious-themed “The Omega Code” (1999) and its sequel “Megiddo: Omega Code 2” (2001) – two films that were not theatrical blockbusters, but nevertheless performed extremely well in their niche market. Meanwhile, York’s highly distinctive voice made him perfect for recording audio books, in which he was credited with over 70 productions, such as The Book of Psalms, Carl Jung’sMemories, Dreams, Reflections, Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat, and his own children’s book, The Magic Paw Paw.
Of course, York also voiced numerous characters on screen, from Murdstone in “Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield” (NBC, 1993), King Sarastro in “The Magic Flute” (ABC, 1994) and Kanto on “Superman” (ABC, 1996-99) to The King in “A Monkey’s Tale” (2001) and Prime #1 in “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” (2009).
In live action, he appeared in episodes of “The Gilmore Girls” (The WB, 2000-07) and “How I Met Your Mother” (CBS, 2005- ), before joining Rutger Hauer and Charlotte Rampling for the Polish-made religious drama “The Mill and the Cross” (2011). The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
Jane Wyman won an Oscar in 1948 for her performance in “Johnny Belinda”. She had spent a long time in small parts in movies and htis film was one of her first starring parts. She had a good ten years as a major leading lady. She was retired for a number of yearswhen she made it big again in the 1980’s with the success of the television series “Falcoln Crest” where she played the matriarch Angela Channing. When the series ended she retired again. She died at the age of 90 in 2007. Jane Wyman was the first wife of Ronald Reagan. Her biography on IMDB can be found here.
Jane Wyman obituary in “The Independent”.
Her “Independent” obituary:
The Oscar-winning actress Jane Wyman, who married the future US president Ronald Reagan when he was still an actor, was a prime example of a film star who paid her dues in the days of the studio system. As a contract player at Warner Bros, she appeared in more than 40 films before achieving star billing, two years after which she won an Academy Award for her moving portrayal of a deaf mute in Johnny Belinda (1948), which heralded a long career as a major star. Best remembered for films in which she suffered nobly, she also shone in comedy, and she could sing too – with Bing Crosby she introduced the Oscar-winning song “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening”. The director Alexander Hall said, “That gal can do anything she sets her mind to; she is one of the most creatively versatile performers the screen has ever boasted.”
A new generation acclaimed her as the matriarch of the television series Falcon Crest. Her place in history is assured, since Reagan was the first US President to have an ex-wife, and though neither liked to talk about their marriage, many contend that he would never have become President had she not left him. “I was divorced in the sense that the decision was made by somebody else,” he once said.
Wyman’s early life is somewhat contentious. Records would indicate that she was born Sarah Jane Mayfield, daughter of Manning J. Mayfield, a labourer at a food company, and Gladdys Hope Christian, in St Joseph, Missouri, in 1917. Her parents, who married in 1916, were divorced in 1921, and Manning died the following year. Gladdys then gave her daughter into the care of Richard Fulks and his German-born wife, the former Emma Reiss. There seems to have been no formal adoption or name change, but when the child was registered for first grade at the Noyes School in St Joseph, Emma listed her name as “Sarah Jane Fulks”.
Wyman later revealed that she loathed school, but her spirited response to dance classes prompted Mrs Fulks to take her to Hollywood at the age of eight, but without success. “I was one of those blonde curly-haired kids and my mother thought I was destined for the movies,” she recalled. The couple returned home, and Jane later reflected, “I was raised with such strict discipline that it was years before I could reason myself out of the bitterness I brought from my childhood.”
She worked as a switchboard operator, waitress and manicurist before trying Hollywood again – she now had a contact, since her dancing instructor in Missouri was the father of the leading film choreographer Leroy Prinz, who gave her a spot in Busby Berkeley’s The Kid from Spain (1932). For the next four years, she toiled in the chorus, occasionally getting a line of dialogue, and she can be spotted in College Rhythm (1934), Rumba (1935), King of Burlesque (1935) and Anything Goes (1936). Finally, she won a contract with Warners in 1936, on the recommendation of the agent and actor William Demarest. The studio is often credited with naming her “Jane Wyman”, but some sources aver that the actress was briefly married in 1931 to a student named Eugene Wyman, while another explanation is that Mrs Fulks had been married before, and her first husband’s name was M.F. Weyman.
Warners put Wyman to work with a string of bit parts – wise-cracking girl friends, telephonists, secretaries, chorus girls – that would lead to starring roles in “B” movies with, it seemed, little chance of rising higher, though Dick Powell, who starred in three films that featured Wyman, stated, “Janie had something you couldn’t learn – presence.” The director William Keighley reflected, “I was surprised big things didn’t happen for the Wyman girl a lot faster than they did.” William Demarest was to say of Wyman’s lifestyle during those years, “She couldn’t keep still for a second, loved nightclubs, dancing, singing with her friends. ‘There’s a lot of living to be done, and I’m going to do it,’ she’d say.” Her penchant for elaborate clothes and costume jewellery prompted gossip columnist Louella Parsons to call her “a walking Christmas tree”. In 1937 Wyman married Myron Futterman, a dress manufacturer and divorcee with a teenage daughter, but the marriage lasted only a year.
Wyman was given her first leading role in a “B” movie titled Public Wedding (1937), and around this time she met a new contract player, the former radio sports announcer Ronald Reagan. She confessed later that she was attracted to the actor and flirted with him, but he would not consider a relationship because, although separated, she was still married. Demarest said, “She was far more worldly and experienced than he was, although she was three years his junior. I think Ronnie at first was somewhat bewildered by her fast come-on; then he started to like it, then her, and then he fell in love.”
Their relationship flourished during the shooting of William Keighley’s Brother Rat (1938), in which they played a marine cadet and his sweetheart. Wyman and Reagan were total opposites. He was an outdoor enthusiast and an ardent Democrat who was soon involved in the Screen Actors Guild, fighting for the rights of contract players. Wyman was apolitical, stating, “When I first met Ronnie I was a nightclub girl. I just had to go dancing and dining every night to be happy.”
By the time Reagan proposed to her – on the set of a sequel, Brother Rat and a Baby (1940) – Wyman had developed some interest in politics and athletics, and had even taken up golf, an enthusiasm she retained for the rest of her life. Meanwhile she had supported Alice Faye in Tailspin (1939) and starred as resourceful reporter Torchy Blane in Torchy Plays with Dynamite (1939).
Wyman and Reagan were wed in 1940. Their daughter, Maureen, was born in 1941, and in 1945 they adopted a baby boy, Michael. While Reagan’s career seemed to be going upwards, Wyman’s followed its familiar pattern. “I’m queen of the sub-plots,” she confessed. “For years I’ve been the leading lady’s confidante, adviser, pal, sister, severest critic.”
Drafted when the United States entered the Second World War, Reagan was stationed with an army film unit in Culver City, where he was a personnel officer when not acting in training films. Wyman toured military camps, using a talent for singing that she had rarely displayed on screen. Knowing that the studio had purchased the rights to the life story of torch singer Helen Morgan, Wyman campaigned for the role but was instead cast in support of Ann Sheridan in The Doughgirls (1944). Sheridan had become one of her closest friends, and commented, “Jane used to tell me that Ronnie was such a talker that he even made speeches in his sleep.”
Wyman’s career received a boost when Billy Wilder asked her to read the screenplay he and Charles Brackett had fashioned from Charles Jackson’s novel about alcoholism, The Lost Weekend, to be filmed for Paramount. She said, “I was so conditioned to think of myself as a comedienne, I was completely floored when Billy said he wanted me for the part of girlfriend to the hero.” Brackett said, “We wanted a girl with a gift for life. We needed some gusto in the picture.” (He omitted to tell Wyman that both Katharine Hepburn and Jean Arthur had turned down the role.)
Wilder and Brackett’s adaptation omitted the hero’s latent homosexuality, enlarged the part of the girl, and added an optimistic ending, but otherwise it was an uncompromising and brilliant study of a hopeless alcoholic (an Oscar-winning Ray Milland), with Wyman splendid as his down-to-earth sweetheart. “It changed my whole life,” said Wyman, though she was still under-rated by her own studio and found herself cast as a chirpy chorus girl in a wildly inaccurate biography of Cole Porter, Night and Day (1946).
Though release of The Lost Weekend was delayed for nearly a year – the studio had qualms about it, and the liquor industry offered them $5m to destroy the negative – trade insiders had seen it, and MGM negotiated to borrow Wyman for their screen version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a boy’s love for a fawn, The Yearling. Its star Gregory Peck, who personally acted with Wyman in her test, told her afterwards, “You were wonderful”, to which she replied, “Good God, don’t act so surprised.” When The Lost Weekend opened, critics displayed similar wonder. The World-Telegram referred to her “unsuspected talent” and The New York Times stated, “Jane Wyman assumes with great authority a different role.”
Her part in The Yearling (1947) as careworn Ma Baxter, who toils in the backwoods of 1870 Florida, required delicate shading in her portrayal of a mother who must have her son’s beloved fawn killed because it is eating their crops. Wyman’s performance was described by Life magazine as “beyond reproach”. Wyman won an Oscar nomination and, though she lost to Olivia De Havilland in To Each His Own, her status as a star was now established, and she was soon to play the part for which many best remember her.
The producer Jerry Wald had persuaded Warners to buy the rights to a Broadway hit of 1940, Johnny Belinda, despite the studio’s misgivings about a story in which a deaf mute is raped, has a child, then kills the father when he tries to take it from her. (Shortly before shooting commenced in late 1947, Wyman’s second child, a daughter, had died a few hours after her premature birth.) Wyman learned sign language and lip reading for the film, but later recalled, “Something was missing. Suddenly I realised what was wrong. I could hear.”
She and the director Jean Negulesco decided that her ears should be blocked with wax to cut out all noise except percussion. Wyman’s performance was beautifully modulated, avoided bathos, and won her a deserved Oscar against formidable competition (Ingrid Bergman, Barbara Stanwyck, Olivia De Havilland and Irene Dunne). Her acceptance speech was one of the briefest and most effective in Oscar’s history: “I accept this award very gratefully – for keeping my mouth shut for once. I think I’ll do it again.”
She was accompanied to the ceremony by the actor Lew Ayres, who was rumoured to have consoled her during the shooting because of her marital problems. Reagan’s political work and fervent campaigning for President Truman had strained their relationship, but when Wyman announced to the press, “We’re through. We’re finished. And it’s all my fault”, she was making it clear that it was her own decision to end the marriage. “I love Jane,” said Reagan, “and I know she loves me. I don’t know what this is all about and I don’t know why Jane has done it.”
Shortly afterwards, Reagan was in London filming The Hasty Heart, and his co-star Patricia Neal later commented, “Although I was a young, pretty girl, he never made a pass at me. Of course there were splendid reasons. I was wildly in love with Gary Cooper and he was still in love with Jane Wyman.” The couple’s divorce became final in July 1949. Wyman refused throughout her life to talk of their marriage or divorce, claiming that it was “bad taste” to discuss such matters.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Stage Fright (1950) took Wyman to London where she renewed a friendship with Laurence Olivier, who had won his Oscar for Hamlet on the same night she won hers. Hitchcock had personally asked for Wyman, but he was later to accuse her of getting out of character by refusing to look too drab compared to her glamorous co-star, Marlene Dietrich. The film’s lukewarm reviews, though, were the fault of the director, who made a rare error of judgement by opening the mystery with Wyman’s boyfriend (Richard Todd) relating an incident told in flashback (in an era when flashbacks were taken literally) though in fact he is lying. Critics were incensed by the perceived “cheating”, and the film proved a box-office disappointment.
The Glass Menagerie (1950), based on Tennessee Williams’ lyrical play, also proved disappointing, though Wyman gave what The New York Times called a “beautifully sensitive” portrayal of Laura, a crippled girl who finds solace from loneliness in her collection of glass figurines.
In 1952 Wyman had two contrasting box-office hits. The first was Frank Capra’s musical comedy, Here Comes the Groom, in which Wyman was teamed with her singing idol, Bing Crosby. The pair had relaxed fun with a novelty number, “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening”, which Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer had written for an unrealised Betty Hutton musical based on the life of Mabel Normand. It was a complicated production number that took the couple through several sets as they sang, and Capra decided to record the song live, with tiny radios in the stars’ ears so that they could hear the orchestra. The song won an Oscar, the stars’ recording was a big hit, and Decca signed Wyman to a recording contract. Her co-star Franchot Tone said, ‘Everybody got caught up in the fun Bing and Jane were obviously having together.’
The producer Jerry Wald had bought the rights to a French film hit, Le Voile Bleu (1947), hoping to tempt Greta Garbo out of retirement to play a woman who loses her husband and child in the First World Warand devotes her life to being governess to other people’s children. When Garbo refused, he asked Wyman to take the role, in which the woman goes from home to home until, old and working as a janitor, she is given a surprise party attended by all her former progeny. It was blatantly manipulative, but Wyman brought dignity and conviction to her part. Variety called it “a personal triumph”, and The Blue Veil won Wyman her third Oscar nomination, though she was up against two powerhouse performances, Katharine Hepburn’s in The African Queen, and Vivien Leigh’s (the winner) for A Streetcar Named Desire.
The success of both Here Comes the Groom and The Blue Veil put Wyman into the year’s top ten box-office draws, and she won two Golden Globe awards – as best actress, for The Blue Veil and as “World Film Favourite Actress of the year”. Wyman rejoined Crosby to take a role planned for Judy Garland (who was not fit enough to do it) in Just for You (1952). Its brightest spot was another catchy duet with Crosby. Wyman was reunited with Ray Milland for Let’s Do It Again (1952), a musical remake of a comedy classic, The Awful Truth. Milland, usually sparing with compliments, said of Wyman, “She could sing and dance with the best of them and her comedy timing was top-notch. She inspired everyone around her to give their best, and she was very down-to-earth and democratic.”
Making the film, Wyman met Fred Karger, an assistant to the studio’s music director, Morris Stoloff, and before shooting finished, Karger had become Wyman’s husband. They were divorced in 1955, remarried in 1961, and divorced again in 1965.
Wyman had to go from young woman to old lady again in Robert Wise’s So Big (1953), the third screen version of Edna Ferber’s novel. It proved popular, but not as much as her next film, another property filmed twice before, Magnificent Obsession (1954). In this, the first of a string of lush melodramas produced by Ross Hunter, wastrel Rock Hudson indirectly causes both the death of Wyman’s doctor husband and then Wyman’s blindness. Reformed, he becomes a surgeon and restores Wyman’s sight for a tearful climax. Most critics directed any praise they offered to Wyman’s sincere underplaying, which won her a fourth Oscar nomination (she lost to Grace Kelly in The Country Girl).
Directed by Douglas Sirk, the film was a huge money-maker, though it is less well regarded today than another film with the same production team and stars, All That Heaven Allows (1955). The latter, in which a widow falls in love with her young gardener to the horror of her selfish children and her conformist friends, was dismissed by most critics as just another piece of glossy kitsch, but is now perceived as a cuttingly perceptive attack on middle-class hypocrisy and the expectation that ageing widows should need nothing more from life than the country club and a TV set.
It was not entirely original (My Reputation had tackled a similar subject a decade earlier) but Sirk’s subversion of his material and use of colour made his film more than just a star vehicle. (In a celebrated shot, he has Wyman’s face reflected in the glass screen of the television to symbolise her entrapment.) Fassbinder’s Fear Eats the Soul (1974) was inspired by the film, though his ending was much bleaker.
In 1955, after starring with Van Johnson in the sentimental Miracle in the Rain, Wyman refused the role of Gary Cooper’s wife in Friendly Persuasion, and instead became president of the company that produced the television anthology series Fireside Theater. Rechristened The Jane Wyman Theater, it featured a variety of plays, with Wyman starring in around a third of each season’s 34 half-hour episodes, and ran until 1959. For the next 22 years, she made occasional guest appearances in TV shows such as Wagon Train and The Love Boat, and played only four more film roles, notably as Hayley Mills’ stern Aunt Polly in Pollyanna (1960). Semi-retired, she enjoyed painting, golf and seeing her children.
Her career, it seemed, was virtually over when in 1981, at the age of 64, she was asked to star as Angela Channing, wine tycoon, in the television series Falcon Crest. The “pilot” show left her with stringent demands. “Not only was Angela too mean and vicious, but she was just plain boring. I wanted her to be an interesting character.” When the former superstar Lana Turner joined the show as Wyman’s sister-in-law, Turner’s entourage and star demands did not sit well with Wyman, who displayed her power by having Turner’s character killed off after one season. Falcon Crest ran until 1990, and by the end of the show’s fifth season, the already-wealthy Wyman was estimated to be earning $3m a year (10 times Reagan’s salary).
When Reagan died in 2004, Wyman broke her long silence to say, “America has lost a great President and a great, kind and gentle man.”
Tom Vallance
The above “Independent” obituary can also be accessed online here.
Robert Wagner recently celebrated his 90th birthday and he is still making movies after sixtyseven years in show business. He published his autobiography “Pieces of My Heart” in 2008. He first came to public attention as the young injured soldier in “With A Song in My Heart” which starred Susan Hayward. He had a contract with 20th Century Fox and throughout the 50’s he made some very popular films including “Beneath the Twelve Mile Reef”, “Prince Valient”, “A Kiss before Dying”, “Broken Lance”, “Titanic” and “In Love and War”. In the 1960’s he made the transition to television and over the years he had several popular series including “Hart to Hart”. More recently he has starred in the Austin Power movies. Robert Wagner’s website can be accessed here.
TCM Overview:
The epitome of the handsome and debonair Hollywood star, actor Robert Wagner – known to friends as “R.J.” – played romantic heroes and upstanding young men in a string of mostly unmemorable 1950s-60s-era features, before finding lasting fame as one of television’s smoothest-of-the-smooth leading men. Wagner brought old-school class to the ABC action-drama “It Takes a Thief” (ABC, 1968-1970) and, more importantly, showed a knack for light comedy with his roles in “Switch” (CBS, 1975-1980) and “Hart to Hart” (ABC, 1979-1984). He also made headlines in his personal life – most notably for being half of one of Hollywood’s most beloved couples – after marrying the beautiful Natalie Wood – not once but TWICE. It was her tragic, mysterious death by drowning which sealed their legend and caused an outpouring of love and support for the actor.
Original Cinema Quad Poster – Movie Film Posters
This good will carried over year after year as the veteran actor aged gracefully, settled into a happy marriage with actress Jill St. John, and was always welcomed warmly with numerous appearances on both the big and small screen – most memorably as Mike Meyer’s Number Two in the “Austin Powers” film franchise. Born Robert John Wagner Jr. on Feb. 10, 1930 in Detroit, MI, Wagner’s father was a steel industry executive, leaving the family to relocate to Los Angeles when he was in grade school. He was expected to follow in his father’s footsteps, but after a turn in drag (as Priscilla Alden) in a high school production of “The Courtship of Miles Standish,” Wagner began to think about acting as his profession. A job at the Bel-Air Country Club, where he caddied to such stars as Clark Gable, gave him further inspiration, so he announced to his father than he intended to become an actor. Robert Wagner Sr. gave his son an ultimatum – he would have one year to find success in Hollywood or quit and get into the steel business. Fortunately for Wagner Jr., his first job came shortly after his father’s declaration with a bit part in “The Happy Years” (1950). More small roles followed, but his appearance as a hospitalized paratrooper in “With a Song in My Heart” (1952), about American singer Jane Froman (Susan Hayward), led to a contract with 20th Century Fox. Supporting roles in notable films like John Ford’s “What Price Glory” (1952) and the John Phillip Sousa biopic “Stars and Stripes Forever” (1953) – for which he earned a Golden Globe nomination – eventually led to starring roles – though pictures like “Beneath the 12-Mile Reef” (1953) and “Prince Valiant” (1954) asked little more of him than to look handsome. It took the intervention of actor Spencer Tracy to pull him out of the teen idol doldrums. The much respected Tracy took the young man under his wing and asked that he be cast as his son Joseph, who is tormented by his brothers for being half-Native American, in the dramatic Western “Broken Lance” (1954). The opportunity led to other substantial parts for Wagner, including “A Kiss Before Dying” (1956), which had him playing against type as a psychotic killer, and “Between Heaven and Hell,” for which he played a wealthy playboy who undergoes an emotional transformation during World War II. Wagner underwent a transformation of his own in 1956 when he became involved with another up-and-coming talent, former child actress (“Miracle on 34th Street” (1947)), Natalie Wood. The attractive pair was splashed across numerous magazine covers, and their marriage in 1957 earned them even further press. But their personal lives and careers floundered. Despite having proven his talents, Wagner’s status as a leading man faltered in the late ’50s and early ’60s, and after Wood’s contract was suspended for refusing to appear in a film in Europe, the couple experienced significant financial difficulties.
The pressures caused a strain on their marriage, and Wagner and Wood eventually divorced in 1962. They would later admit that they were simply too young to get married. Extremely distraught, Wagner fled to Europe, where he appeared as a soldier in the war epic, “The Longest Day” (1962). While there, he met and became involved with a fellow actor, Marion Marshall. The new couple was married in 1963, and a daughter, Katie, followed in 1964. Wagner’s film career slowed considerably during the 1960s. He enjoyed a few notable projects, including “The Pink Panther” (1963) – he was blinded for a month after an accident on the set involving industrial cleaning agents – and two films with Paul Newman – “Harper” (1966) and the racing drama “Winning” (1969) – but for the most part, he was tapped for his good looks and resonant voice in forgettable movies like “Don’t Just Stand There!” (1968) and “The Biggest Bundle of Them All” (1969. In 1968, he took the supposed step down by signing on to his first television series with “It Takes a Thief.” As a suave burglar turned spy, Wagner’s looks and charm were a considerable asset. Although the show lasted just two seasons, it gave his star a considerable boost, earning him his second Golden Globe nomination and first Emmy nod. From 1970, Wagner worked constantly and almost exclusively on television, guesting on series like “The Streets of San Francisco” (ABC, 1972-77) and the acclaimed World War II drama, “Colditz” (BBC, 1972-74). He also reunited romantically with Wood after a chance encounter in 1971. Though Wood was married and with a daughter at the time (future actress Natasha Gregson Wagner), the couple reignited their relationship, and, to the delight of true romance fans everywhere, remarried in 1972. A daughter, Courtney, was born in 1974 – their only biological child together.
Finally happy together, Wagner and Wood appeared in several highly regarded television projects, most notably a production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1976) with Laurence Olivier as Big Daddy. Wagner also made several theatrical features during this period, including the star-packed “The Towering Inferno” (1974) and “Midway” (1976). In addition to all his responsibilities, he found time to dabble in TV production, offering up to producer Aaron Spelling an idea he and Wood had conjured up; an idea which blossomed into the iconic jiggle show of them all – “Charlie’s Angels” (ABC, 1976-1981). In 1975, Wagner starred in his second series, “Switch,” a drama co-starring his lifelong friend, Eddie Albert, whom he had met on the set of “The Longest Day.” The pair played detectives who specialized in elaborate cons to trap criminals. A relatively popular series, it lasted two seasons before ending its network run in 1978. The following year, Wagner signed on to play millionaire Jonathan Hart, who dabbled in detective work with his wife Jennifer (Stephanie Powers), in “Hart to Hart.” Created by novelist Sidney Sheldon and produced by Aaron Spelling, the series was glossy, campy fun and a huge hit. Wagner earned numerous Golden Globe and Emmy nods for his tongue-in-cheek work. network run in 1983, Wagner was only too content to concentrate solely on raising his three daughters. But Wagner’s popularity did not allow him to stay away for too long. By 1985, he was appearing regularly in episodic series and TV movies, including the short-lived drama series, “Lime Street” (CBS, 1985) – which was touched by tragedy when, only a few episodes in, Wagner’s onscreen daughter, Samantha Smith, died in a plane crash, hastening the series’ demise.
He hosted “Saturday Night Live” (NBC, 1975- ) in 1989, and appeared in a string of popular “Hart to Hart” reunion TV-movies between 1993-96. Wagner also took time from his newly busy schedule in 1990 to marry actress and long-time girlfriend, Jill St. John, with whom he appeared in many stage productions for charity. Still undeniably handsome as he reached his sixth decade, Wagner settled comfortably into the role of “old Hollywood pro,” contributing numerous supporting turns in big budget films like “Wild Things” (1997), “Crazy in Alabama” (1999) and “Play It To The Bone” (1999). He even parodied his own smooth-as-silk image, starring as the diabolical but dense Number Two, henchman to Dr. Evil in “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” (1997), “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me” (1999), and briefly in “Austin Powers in Goldmember” (2002). In the latter film, Wagner shared the role with Rob Lowe, who played a younger version of Number Two and who offered a note-perfect imitation of Wagner’s plummy voice and gentlemanly demeanor.
Robert Wagner
Wagner remained exceptionally busy for the next few years, appearing on countless television shows and providing his unique perspective on Hollywood for many show business documentaries. He also served as the host for the “Hour of Stars” (Fox Movie Channel, 2002- ), which showcased episodes from the TV anthology series “The 20th Century Fox Hour” (CBS, 1955-57), on which Wagner had once appeared. Long considered one of the most pleasant and friendly men in the entertainment business, Wagner showed an aggressive side in 2000, when he sued Aaron Spelling Productions for breach of contract over his participation in a failed revival of “Charlie’s Angels” called “Angels 88.” He filed suit again in 2003 for profits from the “Angels” theatrical features, but a California appeals court ruled against him in 2007. Back onscreen and staying contemporary for the kiddies, Wagner made memorable guest appearances on hit shows like “Las Vegas” (NBC, 2003- ), “Hope & Faith” (ABC, 2003-06) and “Boston Legal” (ABC, 2004- )
Joseph Cotten obituary in “The Independent” in 1994
Joseph Cotten has starred in many of the all time classic films including !”Citizen Kane”, “The Magnificent Ambersons”, “Shadow of a Doubt”, “Portrait of Jeannie”, “Duel In the Sun”, “Love Letters”, “September Song” and “The Third Man”. His leading ladies have included such screen beauties as Jennifer Jones, Deanna Durbin, Teresa Wright, Loretta Young, Ava Gardner, Olivia de Havilland, Dorothy Malone, Alida Valli and Patricia Medina. Ms Medina became his wife in 1960. Joseph Cotten died at the age of 88.
The 1994 obituary in “The Independent”:
THERE was no one else quite like Joseph Cotten. He holds a high place in the Hollywood hierarchy, as Orson Welles’s friend and collaborator and as a star of the Forties whom the girls pinned up alongside Clark Gable and Gregory Peck. He was tall, rugged, handsome, with wavy hair and a courteous demeanour, especially towards women. Like Robert Taylor and Errol Flynn immediately before him, Cotten was emulated by the models for pullover patterns in women’s magazines, which now featured romantic heroes looking very much like him.
Cotten worked with Welles’s Mercury Theatre, on the stage and radio, from 1937 – taking time out to star opposite Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story (1940). When Welles was offered a contract by RKO he cast his first film, Citizen Kane (1941), almost entirely with his Mercury colleagues. The brouhaha which surrounded the film – that Hollywood’s wonder-boy was making a mockery of the newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst – meant that Cotten’s smooth performance as a drama critic was overlooked. Its very notoriety augured badly for Welles’s second film, The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), which was sent out in support of one of the ‘Mexican Spitfire’ cheapie series in the US and denied a West End showing in Britain.
Cotten wrote to Welles – who was in South America – about one of the previews of Ambersons, when a receptive audience became indifferent and then hostile. The film still inspires strong feelings, because of its brilliance, both technically and as an evocation of the American past; and because it was hacked about in Welles’s absence and had inserted in it some late sequences not by Welles at all. In the circumstances Cotten’s performance – as the faithful suitor of the widowed Isobel Amberson (Dolores Costello) – was again overlooked.
This second debacle put Welles in a precarious position in the industry, and he rushed into production a commercial thriller, Journey Into Fear (1942), based on a novel by Eric Ambler and with the direction credited to Norman Foster. This was again heavily cut, to just over an hour, though a longer version was issued the following year.
When RKO cancelled Welles’s contract, David O. Selznick signed Cotten, and loaned him and Hitchcock to Universal for Shadow Of a Doubt (1943), to play the beloved and admired Uncle Charlie, prepared to kill again when his niece (Teresa Wright) suspects that he is the perpetrator of the ‘Merry Widow’ murders. As the Johnny- on-the-Spot in Journey Into Fear Cotten had been likeable but unable to suggest desperation: but for Hitchcock he was superb, masking deadly menace with a suave charm.
He stayed at Universal to be the handsome flyer for whose sake the headstrong Deanna Durbin goes to work in a munitions factory in Hers To Hold (1943). He was an idealised hero and ideal as such, and Durbin’s yen for him at a time when she was a leading box-office star shot him into the front rank of sought-after actors. He was the Scotland Yard man who comforted Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight (1944), after Charles Boyer has tried to scare her to death; and the handsome family friend, dazzling in his white uniform, ready to step in if Claudette Colbert’s husband is killed at the front, in Since You Went Away (1944).
Selznick produced that (and wrote the script), also using Cotten in the last three films he made for his own company: I’ll Be Seeing You (1945), as a shell-shocked soldier; Duel in the Sun (1946), fighting with his dastardly brother Gregory Peck over the half-breed Jennifer Jones; and Portrait of Jennie (1948), as an artist who meets Jones in Central Park and later realises that she is less substantial than his painting of her. Like I’ll Be Seeing You, this was directed by William Dieterle, who had worked with them earlier at Paramount in Love Letters (1946).
Also at Paramount Dieterle helmed September Affair (1950), which cynics saw as Hollywood’s ‘take’ on Brief Encounter, with Joan Fontaine and Cotten committing adultery in an impossibly lush Italy; but since it starts with views of the Bay of Naples to Walter Huston’s version of ‘September Song’ the viewer may stay in a high mood till the end.
A reunion with Hitchcock was dicey at best: Under Capricorn (1949), with Cotten as an unfeeling ex-convict husband in old Sydney to an alcoholic Ingrid Bergman, overlaying her Swedish accent with an Irish one. Another 1949 reunion was in a triumphant project, with Cotten a writer searching for his old buddy Harry Lime in The Third Man: Welles was Harry, Selznick co-produced with Alexander Korda, and Carol Reed directed from Graham Greene’s screenplay.
With his Selznick contract at an end Cotten’s career began to founder. His last really memorable work is to be seen in two films in which he was cast with two of the screen’s more formidable stars: Bette Davis and Marilyn Monroe. The two films are, alike, melodramas to be enjoyed on their own terms: Beyond the Forest (1949), with Cotten as the husband Davis is running away from – and, as she said, ‘Who would want to leave Joe Cotten?’; and Niagara (1953), as the honeymooning husband Monroe wants to be rid of, trying to persuade her lover to push him into the Falls.
During the Fifties Cotten returned to Broadway and in 1960 he married, as his second wife, Patricia Medina, the British actor Richard Greene’s ex-wife. They were among Hollywood’s happiest couples, as Cotten confirmed in his memoir Vanity Will Get You Somewhere (1987): so it clearly did not matter that he had appeared in mostly junky films for almost 40 years, including telemovies and spaghetti westerns. But the old spark was there when he was challenged, as when cast as an alcoholic rancher with Kirk Douglas, in The Last Sunset (1961); and as a scheming doctor with Davis in Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte (1964).
The above “Independent” obituary can also be accessed online here.
Paulette Goddard was born in 1910 in Queens, Long Island. In 1932 she met Charles Chaplin and she starred with him in the classic “Modern Times” in 1936. The final scene in the film when they walk jauntily arm-in-arm and chins held high is one of the iconic scenes on celluloid. Paulette Goddard was the firm favourite to win the part of Scalet O’Hara in “Gone With the Wind” but lost the role to Vivien Leigh at the last hurdle. She did though star in many fine films in the 1940;s including “Hold Back the Dawn”, “So Proudly We Hail” and “Unconquered”. She married the novelist Erich MariaRemarque (All Quiet At the Western Front) in 1958 and retired to live in Switzerland where she died in 1990.
TCM Overview:
Amiable, effervescent leading lady, in Hollywood from 1929 but virtually unknown until she very touchingly played a waif opposite second husband Charles Chaplin in “Modern Times” (1936). Goddard was one of the final contenders for the much sought-after role of Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone with the Wind” (1939) but ultimately lost out to Vivien Leigh. (One story has it that a possible scandal surrounding her marital status with Chaplin may have kept her from getting the role.) Goddard, an extremely pretty and vivacious brunette, nevertheless became a popular favorite in comedy and period melodrama, remaining a top star at Paramount throughout the 1940s. She is best known as part of George Cukor’s all-star distaff ensemble in the riotous “The Women” (1939) and as Bob Hope’s co-star in the enjoyable horror comedies “The Cat and the Canary” (1939) and “The Ghost Breakers” (1940).
A link to a blog on Paulette Goddard and her connection to Charles Chaplin can be accessed here.
“New York Times” obituary :
Paulette Goddard, a vivacious film actress adept at playing both sophisticated comedy and sultry melodrama, died of heart failure yesterday at her home outside the Swiss resort of Ronco overlooking Lake Maggiore. Her age was usually listed as 78.
Miss Goddard, a Hollywood star of the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s, was also publicized for her friendships with many notable figures; her marriages to Charles Chaplin, Burgess Meredith and Erich Maria Remarque, and her glamorous life style.
The actress, a former fashion model and showgirl, made her first major screen appearance in 1936 as a waterfront waif befriended by a forsaken assembly-line worker (played by Chaplin) in ”Modern Times,” the last silent comedy feature.
Hollywood quickly took notice, and Miss Goddard earned leading comedy roles as an adventuress in ”The Young in Heart,” as a battling wife seeking a Reno divorce in ”The Women,” and as Bob Hope’s pert romantic foil in ”The Cat and the Canary” and ”The Ghost Breakers.”
Other early roles included a put-upon laundress in Mr. Chaplin’s ”Great Dictator” (1940); Fred Astaire’s partner in ”Second Chorus” (1941), in which she gamely struggled to keep up with him in the dance ”I Ain’t Hep to That Step, But I’ll Dig It,” and a lusty Southern belle singing a suggestive sea chanty to a party of prudes in the 1942 adventure ”Reap the Wild Wind.”
The last of these roles was a consolation prize for the major disappointment of her acting career: losing the coveted part of Scarlett O’Hara to Vivien Leigh in the final round of the ”Gone With the Wind” competition. At the time Miss Goddard said she ”cried her eyes out,” but years later she said she recalled the episode as only ”like a game.”
Miss Goddard, an energetic and articulate woman, was a close friend of a wide range of artists, including the composer George Gershwin, the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera and the artist Andy Warhol. She was wealthy, both from her Hollywood salaries and her husbands, but in later years she sold many costly artworks at auction, including her collection of Impressionist art, which was sold in 1979 for $2.9 million.
At the time, she said her reason for selling was no secret. ”It’s because I don’t want the responsibility any longer for this movable feast,” she said, explaining that she was tired of carting the art from Switzerland to California and New York when she changed residences. Coincidentally, more than 20 items in her extensive jewelry collection are being sold today as part of an auction at Sotheby’s in New York.
The actress was known for her philanthropies as well as her art and gems. In the last 12 years, she awarded more than $3 million in scholarships to 300 theater and film students at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She had previously given the university the diaries, manuscripts and personal library of Remarque, who died in 1970. In a statement yesterday, John Brademas, the university’s president, hailed the ”vision and continued generosity” of ”this remarkable actress.”
Miss Goddard’s acting also inspired tributes. The writer Robert Benchley praised her as ”a woman who could charm a rock,” and Ray Milland, a frequent co-star, hailed her as ”the most honest actress I ever knew; she gave it all she had.”
A celebrated Goddard role was a witty social-climber in ”The Diary of a Chambermaid,” directed in 1946 by Jean Renoir. She said she preferred such roles to ”sweet, boring” parts and that moviegoers also favored ”adventuruous characters because 90 percent of the public is good.” When an interviewer called her glamorous, she defined glamour as ”a spell of charm,” adding: ”I don’t want to be a phony. I want to be real.”
The actress could also be blunt. When several of her friends were accused of being Communists by members of Congress in 1947, she remarked, ”If anyone accuses me of being a Communist, I’ll hit them with my diamond bracelets.”
Paulette Goddard was born Marion Levy in Great Neck, L.I., on June 3, 1911, according to major film refererence works. However, news agencies yesterday quoted municipal employees in Ronco as giving her birth year of record as 1905. Her parents separated in her childhood, and she later chose her mother’s maiden name, Goddard.
She left school early and became a Powers model and then a Ziegfeld Girl. She was briefly married to Edgar W. James, a lumber industrialist, and soon sought fame in Hollywood. She played a series of chorus and other bit parts, joined the Hal Roach stock company and met Mr. Chaplin, from whom she became inseparable.
Miss Goddard’s later film roles included ”North West Mounted Police” (1940), ”Nothing But the Truth” (1941), ”So Proudly We Hail” (1943), ”Kitty” (1946), ”Unconquered” (1947) and ”Anna Lucasta” (1949).
Her roles in the 1950’s were disappointing, and, except for a 1964 Italian film, ”Time of Indifference,” she lived in retirement with Mr. Remarque from the time of her marriage to the novelist in 1958 until his death. Her other marriges ended in divorce.
There are no immediate survivors.
The above “New York Times” obituary can also be accessed online here.
An Ideal Husband, poster, US poster, Paulette Goddard, 1947. (Photo by LMPC via Getty Images)
Margaret O’Brien was a child star of the 1940s was best known for her natural, emotional style and her startling facility for tears. As Maxine O’Brien (her birth name), she first appeared in a civil defense film starring James Cagney, then in a bit in “Babes on Broadway” (both 1941). Sensing her potential, MGM signed her, changed her first name to Margaret and starred her in the tour de force “Journey for Margaret” (1942), as a terrified London war orphan who “adopts” reporter Robert Young. It was an adult, intelligent and slightly scary performance which made her an overnight star. The studio didn’t quite know what to do with her after that as she wasn’t an adorable Shirley Temple type. She was loaned out to Fox for “Jane Eyre” (1944) and was pretty much wasted in such MGM films as “Dr. Gillespie’s Criminal Case”, “Lost Angel” and “Madame Curie” (all 1943), although she had a slightly better part in “The Canterville Ghost” (1944), opposite Charles Laughton.
O’Brien’s next big showcase came with “Meet Me in St. Louis” (1944). As Tootie Smith, the feisty but fragile little sister of Judy Garland, she was a bright point in a very good film, especially in her musical numbers with Garland and during a Halloween sequence in which she confronts a grouchy neighbor. For her performance, she was awarded a special juvenile Oscar. Her next two features, “Music for Millions” (1944) and the drama “Our Vines Have Tender Grapes” (1945) were also impressive, but her luck pretty much wore out after that. Her last MGM films were generally unimpressive: the Western “Bad Bascombe” and the comedy “Three Wise Fools” (both 1946) and the melodrama “The Big City” (1948). Two good roles came her way in 1949, as the tragic Beth in an otherwise unremarkable remake of “Little Women” and as Mary Lennox in “The Secret Garden.”
O’Brien left MGM after that and her film career pretty much tapered off. She played her first love scene (at age 14) in the appropriately-titled low-budget “Her First Romance” (1951) for Columbia and had ingenue roles in “Glory” (1955) and in the all-star Western “Heller in Pink Tights” (1960). Her only other films to date have been the Disney-produced period drama “Amy” (1981) and a cameo in the direct-to-video horror spoof “Sunset After Dark” (1994).
TENTH AVENUE ANGEL, US poster, from left: George Murphy, Angela Lansbury, Margaret O Brien, 1948 Courtesy Everett Collection ACHTUNG AUFNAHMEDATUM GESCHÄTZT PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xCourtesyxEverettxCollectionx MCDTEAV EC006
But as soon as her film contract had ended, the teenaged actress plunged into “the Golden Age of Television”. Deluged with offers, O’Brien acted on such anthology series as “Studio One”, “The Lux Video Theater”, “Ford Television Theater”, “Playhouse 90” and “The June Allyson Show”. O’Brien reprised her big screen role of Beth in a TV musical version of “Little Women” (CBS, 1958), alongside Florence Henderson, Jeanie Carson and Joel Grey. A pilot for her own series, the domestic sitcom “Maggie” (CBS, 1960), did not fly. But as she aged from teen to slightly plump young lady and into svelte, lovely middle age, O’Brien continued to appear on the small screen from time to time, turning up in such longforms as the “Ironside” TV-movie “Split Second to an Epitaph” (NBC, 1968) and the miniseries “Testimony of Two Men” (syndicated, 1977) and making guest appearances on such series as “Love, American Style” (1968), “Adam-12” (1971), “Marcus Welby, M.D.” (1972) and “Murder, She Wrote” (1991). O’Brien has also appeared onstage in summer stock and cruise ship productions of “Barefoot in the Park”, “Under the Yum-Yum Tree”, “A Thousand Clowns” and others.
The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here
Although Margaret O’Brien’s career as a top star was brief, retrospectively she is regarded as one of the best child actors ever, second only to Shirley Temple. Indeed many people consider O’Brien to be more talented than Temple.
Her first main role was in “Journey for Margaret” in 1942 and throughout the World War Two years, she was in the Top Ten most popular actors in the U.S. Career highlights include “Meet Me in St. Louis”, “The Canterville Ghost”, “Little Women” and “The Secret Garden”. As she grew into her teenage years, she found it difficult to obtain leading roles. She tested for “Rebal Without A Caouse” but lost out to her friend Natalie Wood. Recently she has been seen regularly on television and at film conventions talking about the Golden Days of Film. Her website can be assessed here.
Paulette Goddard was born in 1910 in Queens, Long Island. In 1932 she met Charles Chaplin and she starred with him in the classic “Modern Times” in 1936. The final scene in the film when they walk jauntily arm-in-arm and chins held high is one of the iconic scenes on celluloid. Paulette Goddard was the firm favourite to win the part of Scalet O’Hara in “Gone With the Wind” but lost the role to Vivien Leigh at the last hurdle. She did though star in many fine films in the 1940;s including “Hold Back the Dawn”, “So Proudly We Hail” and “Unconquered”. She married the novelist Erich MariaRemarque (All Quiet At the Western Front) in 1958 and retired to live in Switzerland where she died in 1990.
