Barbara Stanwyck (/ˈstænwɪk/; bornRuby Catherine Stevens; July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American actress and dancer. A stage, film, and television star, during her 60-year professional career, she was known for her strong, realistic screen presence and versatility. She was a favorite of directors, includingCecil B. DeMille,Fritz Lang, andFrank Capra, and made 86 films in 38 years before turning to television. She received numerous accolades, including threePrimetime Emmy Awards and aGolden Globe Award, and was nominated for fourAcademy Awards.
Orphaned at the age of four and partially raised in foster homes, she always worked. One of her directors,Jacques Tourneur, said of her, "She only lives for two things, and both of them are work."[1] She made her debut on stage in the chorus as aZiegfeld girl in 1923 at age 16, and within a few years was acting in plays. Her first lead role, which was in the hitBurlesque (1927), established her as a Broadway star. In 1929, she transitioned from the stage to the film industry, and began acting intalking pictures. Frank Capra chose her for his romantic dramaLadies of Leisure (1930), and Stanwyck later became a favorite of Capra’s, leading to another three collaborations. This led to additional leading roles which raised her profile, such asNight Nurse (1931),Baby Face (1933), the controversialThe Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933), andGambling Lady (1934).
By the late 1930s, Stanwyck had moved to more mature roles in critically and commercially successful comedies and dramas. For her performance as the titular character inStella Dallas (1937), she earned her first Academy Award nomination forBest Actress. In 1941, she starred in twoscrewball comedies:Ball of Fire withGary Cooper, andThe Lady Eve withHenry Fonda. She received her second Academy Award nomination forBall of Fire, and in the decades since its release,The Lady Eve has come to be regarded as a comedic classic, with Stanwyck's performance widely hailed as one of the best in American comedy.[2] Other successful films during this period areRemember the Night (1940),Meet John Doe (1940) andYou Belong to Me (1941), reteaming her with Cooper and Fonda, respectively,The Gay Sisters (1942), andLady of Burlesque (1943).
By 1944, Stanwyck had become the highest-paid actress in the United States. That year, she received a third Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in thefilm noirDouble Indemnity, playing a wife who persuades an insurance salesman to kill her husband. In 1945, she played a homemaker columnist in the holiday classicChristmas in Connecticut, and the following year, starred as the titular femme fatale inThe Strange Love of Martha Ivers. For the remainder of the decade, Stanwyck starred in additional successes ranging from romantic dramas and comedies, to suspenseful, crime-noirs. Her films during this period includeMy Reputation (1946),The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947),Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), for which she received her fourth and final Academy Award nomination, andEast Side, West Side (1949). By the early 1950s, Stanwyck’s career began to decline, despite a fair number of leading and major supporting roles, the most successful beingClash by Night (1952),Jeopardy (1953), andExecutive Suite (1954). In the 1960s, Stanwyck had made a successful transition to television, where she won threeEmmy Awards, forThe Barbara Stanwyck Show (1961), theWestern seriesThe Big Valley (1966), and the miniseriesThe Thorn Birds (1983).
Stanwyck was born Ruby Catherine Stevens on July 16, 1907, inBrooklyn, New York.[4][5] She was the fifth and youngest child of Kathryn Ann "Kitty" (née McPhee) and Byron E. Stevens. Both parents' families had been in North America since the 1740s.[6] Byron, of English descent, was a native ofLanesville, Massachusetts, where his father was a significant landowner.[7] He had aimed to become a lawyer, but had dropped out of college in favor of work after his father's death, eventually becoming a bricklayer and stonesetter.[7] Stanwyck's mother Kitty was a Canadian immigrant of Scottish-Irish descent fromSydney, Nova Scotia.[8] They had met when Kitty was visiting family inBoston.[7]
Stanwyck had three older sisters, Laura Mildred (called Millie, b. 1886), Viola Maud (b. 1889) and Mabel (b. 1890), and one older brother, Malcolm Byron (b. 1905).[7][9] The family had relocated fromNew England toFlatbush, Brooklyn the year before Stanwyck was born in search of better work opportunities for Byron.[10] In July 1911, four-year-old Stanwyck and her six-year-old brother were riding a streetcar with their mother when a drunk passenger fell and pushed the mother off the vehicle.[11] Kitty Stevens was heavily pregnant at the time, and the accident induced early labor, which caused fatalsepsis.[11] Byron Stevens' alcoholism worsened after his wife's death, and he left the family soon after.[12] He joined a work crew digging thePanama Canal in 1912, dying there some years later in an epidemic.[13]
Stanwyck's sisters were already adults when their mother died, but while they stayed closely involved in their younger siblings' lives, they could not take care of them full-time.[14] In the years following the disintegration of their family, Stanwyck and her brother lived in a series of unofficial foster homes (mostly friends of the family) in Flatbush.[15] As the foster homes could only accommodate one child at a time, the siblings were separated, which caused them additional distress.[14] Around 1919, Stanwyck and her brother moved in with their older sister Viola Maud and her family.[16]
I knew that after fourteen I'd have to earn my own living, but I was willing to do that ... I've always been a little sorry for pampered people, and of course, they're "very" sorry for me.
Stanwyck attendedPublic School 152 in Brooklyn.[18] She hated school with the exception of literature, and received generally poor grades.[19] She was bullied and routinely picked fights with the other students.[19] Stanwyck started to dream about entering show business in childhood. Her sister Millie had become a successful vaudeville dancer and took Stanwyck with her on summer tours.[20] She also idolized film starPearl White, whose serialThe Perils of Pauline (1914) was popular at the time.[21] As a teenager, Stanwyck began performing in amateur theater and in shows at film theaters in Flatbush.[22]
After graduating from P.S. 152, Stanwyck decided to not attend high school.[23] Starting at 14, she took a series of customer-service and secretarial positions, which allowed her to gain financial independence while pursuing her goal of becoming a celebrated dancer.[24]
In 1923, a few months before her 16th birthday, Stanwyck auditioned for a place in the chorus at the Strand Roof, a nightclub over theStrand Theatre inTimes Square.[25] A few months later, she obtained a job as a dancer in the 1922 and 1923 seasons of theZiegfeld Follies, dancing at theNew Amsterdam Theater.[26][27] For the next several years, she worked as a chorus girl, performing from midnight to seven in the morning at nightclubs owned byTexas Guinan. She also occasionally served as a dance instructor at aspeakeasy for gays and lesbians owned by Guinan.[28] One of her good friends during those years was pianistOscar Levant, who described her as being "wary of sophisticates and phonies".[26]
Billy LaHiff, who owned a popular pub frequented by show people, introduced Stanwyck in 1926 toimpresarioWillard Mack, who was casting his playThe Noose.[29] Stanwyck successfully auditioned for the part of the chorus girl.[30] As initially staged, the play was not a success.[31] In an effort to improve it, Mack decided to expand Stanwyck's part to include more pathos.[32]The Noose reopened in October 1926, and became one of the most successful plays of the season, running onBroadway for nine months and 198 performances.[27] At the suggestion ofDavid Belasco, Stanwyck changed her name to Barbara Stanwyck by combining the first name of the title character in the playBarbara Frietchie with the last name of the actress in the play, Jane Stanwyck; both were found on a 1906 theater program.[31][33]
Stanwyck had her first leading role inBurlesque (1927), which was a critical and commercial success.[34] Its producerArthur Hopkins later described casting her because she had "a sort of rough poignancy. She at once displayed more sensitive, easily expressed emotion than I had encountered sincePauline Lord."[35] The same year, Stanwyck made her first film appearance as afan dancer inBroadway Nights (1927).[36] While playing inBurlesque, Stanwyck had begun a relationship with actorFrank Fay.[37] Soon after marrying on August 26, 1928, the couple moved to Los Angeles, where Stanwyck hoped to pursue a career in films.[38]
Stanwyck's first sound film wasThe Locked Door (1929), followed byMexicali Rose, released in the same year. Neither film was successful; nonetheless,Frank Capra chose Stanwyck for his filmLadies of Leisure (1930). Her work in that production established an enduring friendship with the director and led to future roles in his films.[27] Other prominent roles followed, among them as a nurse who saves two little girls from the villainous chauffeur (Clark Gable) inNight Nurse (1931). InEdna Ferber's novel brought to screen byWilliam Wellman, she portrays small-town teacher and valiant Midwest farm woman Selena inSo Big! (1932). She followed with a performance as an ambitious woman sleeping her way to the top from "the wrong side of the tracks" inBaby Face (1933), a controversialpre-code thriller.[39] InThe Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933), another controversial pre-code film by director Capra, Stanwyck portrays an idealistic Christian caught behind the lines of theChinese Civil War kidnapped by warlordNils Asther. A flop at the time, though it received some critical success,[40] the lavish film is "dark stuff, and it's difficult to imagine another actress handling this ... philosophical conversion as fearlessly as Ms. Stanwyck does. She doesn't make heavy weather of it."[41]
Regarding her pre-code work,Mick LaSalle, movie critic for theSan Francisco Chronicle, said, "If you've never seen Stanwyck in a pre-code film, you've never seen Stanwyck. [The code began to be enforced seriously beginning in July 1934.] Never in her career, includingDouble Indemnity, was she ever as hard-boiled as she was in the early 1930s. She had a wonderful quality of being both incredibly cool and yet blazingly passionate. Her cynicism was profound, and then, without warning, she would explode into shrieking, sobbing."[42]
Stanwyck in her award-nominated role asStella Dallas in 1937
InStella Dallas (1937), she plays the self-sacrificing title character who eventually allows her teenaged daughter to live a better life somewhere else. She landed her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress when she was able to portray her character as vulgar, yet sympathetic, as required by the movie. Next, she played Molly Monahan inUnion Pacific (1939) withJoel McCrea. Stanwyck was reportedly one of the many actresses considered for the role ofScarlett O'Hara inGone with the Wind (1939), although she did not receive a screen test.[27] InMeet John Doe, she plays an ambitious newspaperwoman withGary Cooper (1941).
InPreston Sturges's romantic comedyThe Lady Eve (1941), she plays a slinky, sophisticated confidence woman who "gives off an erotic charge that would straighten a boa constrictor",[43] while falling in love with her intended mark, a guileless, wealthyherpetologist, played byHenry Fonda.[44] Film criticDavid Thomson described Stanwyck as "giving one of the best American comedy performances",[2] and she was reviewed as brilliantly versatile in "her bravura double performance" byThe Guardian.[45]The Lady Eve is among the top 100 movies of all time onTime andEntertainment Weekly's lists,[46][47] and is considered to be both a great comedy and a great romantic film with its placement at #55 on theAFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs list and #26 on its100 Years...100 Passions list.[48]
Next, she was the extremely successful, independent doctor Helen Hunt inYou Belong to Me (1941), also with Fonda. Stanwyck then played nightclub performer Sugarpuss O'Shea in theHoward Hawks-directed, but Billy Wilder-written comedyBall of Fire (1941). In this update of the Snow White and Seven Dwarfs tale, she gives professor Bertram Potts (played by Gary Cooper) a better understanding of "modern English" in the performance for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.[49][50]
"That is the kind of woman that makes whole civilizations topple." -- Kathleen Howard of Stanwyck's character inBall of Fire.[51]
InDouble Indemnity (1944), the seminalfilm noir thriller directed byBilly Wilder, she playsPhyllis Dietrichson, who lures an infatuated insurance salesman (Fred MacMurray), into killing her husband.[52] Stanwyck was critically hailed for bringing out the cruel nature of the "grim, unflinching murderess", marking her as the "most notoriousfemme fatale" in the film noir genre.[53]Double Indemnity is usually considered to be among the top 100 films of all time, though it did not win any of its seven Academy Award nominations. It is the number 38 film of all time on the American Film Institute's list, as well as the number 24 on its100 Years...100 Thrills list and number 84 on its 100 Years...100 Passions list.[54][55]
Fred MacMurray and Stanwyck in the seminal noir filmDouble Indemnity
She plays a columnist touted as the "greatest cook in the country" caught up in white lies while trying to pursue a romance in the comedyChristmas in Connecticut (1945).[56] It was a hit upon release and remains a treasured holiday classic today.[57] In 1946, she was "liquid nitrogen" as Martha, a manipulative murderess, starring withVan Heflin and newcomerKirk Douglas inThe Strange Love of Martha Ivers.[58][59] Stanwyck was also the vulnerable, invalid wife who overhears her own murder being plotted inSorry, Wrong Number (1948)[60] and the doomed concert pianist inThe Other Love (1947). In the latter film's soundtrack, the piano music is actually being performed byAnia Dorfmann, who drilled Stanwyck for three hours a day until the actress was able to synchronize the motion of her arms and hands to match the music'stempo, giving a convincing impression that Stanwyck is playing the piano.[61]
Pauline Kael, a longtime film critic forThe New Yorker, admired the natural appearance of Stanwyck's acting style on screen, noting that she "seems to have an intuitive understanding of the fluid physical movements that work best on camera".[62] In reference to the actress's film work during the earlysound era, Kael observed that the "[e]arly talkies sentimentality ... only emphasizes Stanwyck's remarkable modernism."[62]
Stanwyck was known for her accessibility and kindness to the backstage crew on any film set. She knew the names of many of their wives and children. Frank Capra said of Stanwyck: "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."[63] While working on 1954'sCattle Queen of Montana (also starringRonald Reagan) on location inGlacier National Park, she performed some of her own stunts, including a swim in the icy lake.[58] At the age of 50, she performed an extremely difficult stunt inForty Guns. The scene called for her character to fall from and be dragged by a horse, and the stunt was so dangerous that the film's professional stuntman refused to perform it.[64] She was later named an honorary member of the Hollywood Stuntmen's Hall of Fame.[65]
William Holden and Stanwyck were longtime friends, and when they were presenting theBest Sound Oscar for1977, he paused to pay a special tribute to her for saving his career when Holden was cast in the lead forGolden Boy (1939). After a series of unsteady daily performances, he was about to be fired, but Stanwyck staunchly defended him, successfully standing up to the film producers. Shortly after Holden's death, Stanwyck recalled the moment when receiving her honorary Oscar: "A few years ago, I stood on this stage with William Holden as a presenter. I loved him very much, and I miss him. He always wished that I would get an Oscar. And so, tonight, my golden boy, you got your wish."[66]
As Stanwyck's film career declined during the 1950s, she moved to television. In 1958, she guest-starred in "Trail to Nowhere", an episode of theWesternanthology seriesDick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre, playing a wife who kills a man to avenge her husband.[67][68] In 1961, she hosted an anthology drama series titledThe Barbara Stanwyck Show that was not a ratings success, but earned her anEmmy Award.[27] The show ran for a total of 36 episodes.[69] During this period, she also guest-starred on other television series, such asThe Untouchables and four episodes ofWagon Train.
She stepped back into film for the 1964Elvis Presley filmRoustabout, in which she plays a carnival owner.
The Western television seriesThe Big Valley, which was broadcast onABC from 1965 to 1969, made Stanwyck one of the most popular actresses on television, winning her another Emmy.[27] She was billed in the series' opening credits as Miss Barbara Stanwyck for her role as Victoria, the widowedmatriarch of the wealthy Barkley family.
In 1983, Stanwyck won an Emmy forThe Thorn Birds, her third such award.[27] In 1985, she made three guest appearances in the primetime soap operaDynasty prior to the launch of its short-lived spinoff seriesThe Colbys, in which she starred alongsideCharlton Heston,Stephanie Beacham, andKatharine Ross. Unhappy with the experience, Stanwyck remained with the series for only the first season, and her role as Constance Colby Patterson was her last.[27]Earl Hamner Jr., former producer ofThe Waltons, was rumored to have initially wanted Stanwyck for the role ofAngela Channing in the 1980s soap operaFalcon Crest, and she turned it down, with the role going to her friendJane Wyman, but Hamner assured Wyman that it was only a rumor.[70]
While playing inThe Noose, Stanwyck reportedly fell in love with her married co-starRex Cherryman.[38][71] When Cherryman took ill in early 1928, his doctor advised him to take a sea voyage, so Cherryman set sail forLe Havre intending to continue on to Paris, where Stanwyck and he had arranged to meet. While at sea, he contractedseptic poisoning and died shortly after arriving in France at the age of 31.[72]
On August 26, 1928, Stanwyck married herBurlesque co-starFrank Fay. Fay and she later claimed that they had disliked each other at first, but became close after Cherryman's death.[38] Fay was Catholic, so Stanwyck converted for their marriage. She was reportedly unable to have children, and one biographer alleges the cause of her infertility was a botchedabortion at the age of 15 that resulted in complications.[73] After moving to Hollywood, the couple adopted a boy. The marriage was troubled; Fay's successful Broadway career did not translate to the big screen, whereas Stanwyck achieved Hollywood stardom. Fay was reportedly physically abusive to Stanwyck, especially when he was inebriated.[74][75] Some claim that the marriage was the basis for dialogue written byWilliam Wellman, a friend of the couple's, forA Star Is Born (1937) starringJanet Gaynor andFredric March.[76] The couple divorced on December 30, 1935. Stanwyck won custody of their son, whom she raised with a strict, authoritarian hand and demanding expectations.[77] Stanwyck and her son became estranged after his childhood, meeting only a few times after he became an adult. WroteRichard Corliss, the child "resembled her in just one respect: both were, effectively, orphans."[78]
In 1936, while making the filmHis Brother's Wife (1936), Stanwyck became involved with her co-star,Robert Taylor. Rather than a torrid romance, their relationship was more one of mentor and pupil. Stanwyck served as support and adviser to the younger Taylor, who had come from a small Nebraska town; she guided his career and acclimated him to the sophisticated Hollywood culture. The couple began living together, sparking newspaper reports. Stanwyck was hesitant to remarry after the failure of her first marriage, but their 1939 marriage was arranged with the help of Taylor's studio,Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, a common practice in Hollywood'sgolden age.Louis B. Mayer had insisted that Stanwyck and Taylor marry and went as far as presiding over arrangements at the wedding.[79][80] Stanwyck and Taylor enjoyed time together outdoors during the early years of their marriage and owned acres of prime West Los Angeles property. Their large ranch and home in theMandeville Canyon section ofBrentwood, Los Angeles, is still referred to by the locals as "the old Robert Taylor ranch".[81]
Stanwyck and Taylor decided in 1950 to divorce, and at his insistence, she proceeded with the official filing of the papers.[82] Many rumors exist regarding the cause of the divorce, but afterWorld War II, Taylor attempted to create a life away from the entertainment industry, and Stanwyck did not share that goal.[83] Taylor allegedly had extramarital affairs, and unsubstantiated rumors suggested that Stanwyck had, also. After the divorce, they remained friendly and acted together in Stanwyck's last feature film,The Night Walker (1964). She never remarried. According to her friend andBig Valley co-starLinda Evans, Stanwyck cited Taylor as the love of her life. She took his death in 1969 very hard, and took a long break from film and television work.[84]
Stanwyck was one of the best-liked actresses in Hollywood and maintained friendships with many of her fellow actors (as well as crew members of her films and TV shows), includingJoel McCrea and his wifeFrances Dee,George Brent,Robert Preston,Henry Fonda (who had a longtime crush on her),[85][86]James Stewart, Linda Evans,Joan Crawford,Jack Benny and his wifeMary Livingstone,William Holden,Gary Cooper, andFred MacMurray.[87] During filming ofTo Please a Lady, Stanwyck refused to leave her African-American maid Harriet Coray in a hotel only for African-American people and insisted that Harriet stay in the same hotel as she did. After much pressure from Stanwyck, Coray was allowed to stay in the best hotel in Indianapolis with Stanwyck and the rest of the cast and crew.[88]
Stanwyck, at age 45, had a four-year romantic affair with 22-year-old actorRobert Wagner that had begun on the set ofTitanic (1953)[89] before Stanwyck ended the relationship.[90] The affair is described in Wagner's 2008 memoirPieces of My Heart:[91]
Barbara and I were together for four years. What ultimately broke it up was the fact that it couldn’t go anywhere—it was a classic backstreet romance. I was going on location to make movies, she was going on location to make movies, and there was no chance of a marriage in that place and time, so it was bound to run out of steam. She finally sat me down and told me that it was too difficult for her. She loved me, but….
I couldn’t argue with her reasoning. There was simply no way we could have been married at that time. I would have always been Mr. Stanwyck, and we both knew it.
A conservativeRepublican, Stanwyck opposed the presidency ofFranklin D. Roosevelt. She felt that if someone from her disadvantaged background had risen to success, others should be able to prosper without government intervention or assistance.[92] For Stanwyck, "hard work with the prospect of rich reward was the American way." She became an early member of theMotion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals (MPA) after its founding in 1944. The mission of this group was to "combat ... subversive methods [used in the industry] to undermine and change the American way of life."[93][94] It opposed communist influences in Hollywood. She publicly supported the investigations of theHouse Un-American Activities Committee, and her husband Robert Taylor testified as a friendly witness.[95] Stanwyck supportedThomas E. Dewey in the 1944 and 1948 United States presidential elections.[96][97]
Stanwyck was originally a Protestant, and wasbaptized in June 1916 bythe Reverend J. Frederic Berg of the Protestant Dutch Reformed Church.[99] She converted to Roman Catholicism when she married first husband Frank Fay, but does not appear to have remained an adherent after the marriage ended.[100]
Stanwyck's older brother, Malcolm Byron Stevens (1905–1964), became an actor, using the name Bert Stevens. He appeared mostly in supporting roles, often uncredited. He appeared in two films that starred Stanwyck:The File on Thelma Jordon andNo Man of Her Own, both released in 1950.[101] He appeared in two episodes ofAlfred Hitchcock Presents: (season six, episode eight (1960): "O Youth and Beauty!" as uncredited Club Member) and (season seven, episode 21 (1962): "Burglar Proof" as uncredited Demonstration Guest). He also appeared in one episode ofThe Alfred Hitchcock Hour: (season two, episode 25 (1964): "The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow" as uncredited Carl the Butler).
Stanwyck's retirement years were active, with charity work outside the limelight.[citation needed]
In 1981, in her home in the exclusive Trousdale section ofBeverly Hills, she was awakened during the night by an intruder who struck her on the head with his flashlight, forced her into a closet, and absconded with $40,000 in jewelry.[102]
In 1982, while filmingThe Thorn Birds, Stanwyck inhaled special-effects smoke on the set that may have caused her to contractbronchitis, which was compounded by her cigarette-smoking habit. She began smoking at the age of nine and stopped just four years before her death.[103]
^"Trail to Nowhere", full episode ofDick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre guest-starring Barbara Stanwyck, S03E01, originally broadcast October 2, 1958. Episode uploaded or "published" September 21, 2018, by RocSoc Classic TV on YouTube. Retrieved December 14, 2018.
^"Trail to Nowhere",Zane Grey Theatre, episode guide (S03E01).TV Guide, CBS Interactive, Inc., New York, N.Y. Retrieved December 14, 2018.
^Lane, Anthony."Lady Be Good".The New Yorker. RetrievedJanuary 24, 2020.
^Wagner, Robert (2016).I Loved Her in the Movies. New York, NY: Viking. p. 124.ISBN9780525429111.
^King, Susan. "Wagner Memoir Tells of Wood Death, Stanwyck Affair".San Jose Mercury News (California) October 5, 2008, p. 6D. Retrieved: viaAccess World News: June 16, 2009.
^Wilson, Scott.Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Location 44716). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.
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