Claudette Colbert (koʊlˈbɛər/kohl-BAIR,[1] bornÉmilie "Lily" Claudette Chauchoin (ʃoʃwɛ̃/show-shwan); September 13, 1903 – July 30, 1996)[2][1] was an American actress. Colbert began her career inBroadway productions during the late 1920s and progressed to films with the advent oftalking pictures. Initially contracted toParamount Pictures, Colbert became one of the few major actresses of the period who worked freelance; that is to say, independently of the studio system. In 1999, theAmerican Film Institute named Colbert the12th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema.
With herMid-Atlantic accent,[3] versatility, witty dialogues, aristocratic demeanor, and flair[4] for light comedy and emotional drama, Colbert became one of the popular stars of the 1930s and 1940s.[2][1] In all, Colbert acted in more than 60 movies. Among her frequent co-stars wereFred MacMurray in seven films (1935–1949), andFredric March in four (1930–1933).
By the mid-1950s Colbert had turned from motion pictures to television and stage work; she earned aTony Award nomination forThe Marriage-Go-Round in 1959. Her career began to wane in the early 1960s. In the late 1970s she experienced a comeback in the theater, and received aSarah Siddons Award for her Chicago theater work in 1980. Her television appearance inThe Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987) earned her aGolden Globe Award and anEmmy Award nomination.
Émilie "Lily" Claudette Chauchoin was born in 1903 inSaint-Mandé, France,[5] to Jeanne (née Loew, with BritishChannel Islands heritage) and Georges Chauchoin.[1][6]
Although christened "Émilie", she was called "Lily" afterJersey-born actressLillie Langtry.[7] Her mother had intended to name her daughter Lily, but the pastor mistakenly chose Émilie, so she was always called Lily in the family.[7] Colbert's brother, Charles Chauchoin, was also born in theBailiwick of Jersey. Jeanne held various occupations, while Georges owned and managed achain store of pastry andbonbon shops (more than eleven), and was also a major stockholder of an ink factory in which he suffered business setbacks.[8] Colbert's grandmother Marie Loew had been to the U.S., and Colbert's uncle Charles Loew was living in New York City. Marie was willing to help Georges financially, but also encouraged him to try his luck in the U.S.[7]
During her high school days, 1920
To pursue more employment opportunities, Colbert and her family, including Marie and her aunt Emily Loew, immigrated toManhattan in 1906.[6][9]
They lived in a fifth-floor walk-up at53rd Street. Colbert stated that she was always climbing those stairs until the age of 18.[10] Her parents formally changed her legal name to Lily Claudette Chauchoin.[4] Georges worked as a minor official in the foreign department atFirst National City Bank,[8] and the family was naturalized in 1912. Before Colbert entered public school, she quickly learntChannel Island English from Marie,[11] and grew up bilingual, speaking both English and French.[2][12] Already as a small child, she had read Shakespeare's plays and acquired an international sensibility.[8] She had hoped to become a painter ever since she first gripped a pencil. Her brother was drafted in 1917 as aprivate first class. After the First World War, he studied at the School of Military Aeronautics atCornell University. Colbert's mother was an opera music fan, and her aunt was a dressmaker.[7]
Colbert studied atWashington Irving High School, which was known for its strong arts program. Her speech teacher, Alice Rostetter, encouraged her to audition for a play Rostetter had written. In 1921, Colbert made her stage debut at theProvincetown Playhouse in revivals of Rostetter'sThe Widow's Veil andAria da Capo by Edna St. Vincent Millay, at the age of 17.[4] Her interests, though, still leaned towards painting, fashion design, and commercial art.[10]
Intending to become a fashion designer, she attended theArt Students League of New York, where she paid for her art education by working in a dress shop. After attending a party with writerAnne Morrison, Colbert was offered a bit part in Morrison's play,[13] and appeared on the Broadway stage in a small role inThe Wild Westcotts (1923). She had used the name Claudette, instead of Lily, since high school; for her stage name, she added her paternal grandmother's maiden name, Colbert.[2][14] Her father died in 1925;[4] her grandmother died in New York in the mid-1930s at the age of 88.[15]
Colbert worked in a string of mostly short-lived shows in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Boston and Connecticut, which enabled her to gain experience in different genres. In 1924 the actorLeslie Howard met her, was impressed by her ability to speak with both Mid-Atlantic and British accents, and contacted the producerAl Woods to cast her inFrederick Lonsdale'sThe Fake, but she was replaced byFrieda Inescort before it opened.[16][3] After signing a five-year contract with Woods, Colbert playedingenue roles on Broadway from 1925 to 1929. During this period she rejected being typecast as a French maid.[17] By 1925 she was having success in the comedyA Kiss in a Taxi, which ran for 103 performances over a two-month period.[18] Columnists sang the praises of her unconventional beauty and her power to enrapture an audience.[19] Colbert was again acclaimed as a carnival snake charmer in the Broadway production ofThe Barker (1927), and she reprised the role inLondon's West End.[20] She was noticed by theatrical producerLeland Hayward, who suggested her for the heroine role in the silent filmFor the Love of Mike (1927). Now believed to belost,[21] the film did not fare well at the box office.[1][22]
In 1928, Colbert signed a contract withParamount Pictures.[4] A demand existed for stage actors who could handle dialogue in the new "talkies", and Colbert's elegance and musical voice were among her best assets.[1] Her distinctive high-cheekbonedbeauty drew attention inThe Hole in the Wall (1929), but at first she did not like film acting.[13] Her earliest films were produced in New York. During the filming ofThe Lady Lies (also 1929), she was also appearing nightly in the playSee Naples and Die.The Lady Lies was a box-office success.[1] Colbert's acting looks much more natural in these films than her later ones. At this period, many film critics wrote her having potential to be the screen's next big star.[19] In 1930, she starred oppositeMaurice Chevalier inThe Big Pond, which was better quality musical film, which featured their songs.[16] With her first husbandNorman Foster she co-starred in the filmYoung Man of Manhattan (1930), for which he received negative reviews as one of her weakest leading men.[12]
Colbert co-starred with Fredric March inManslaughter (1930), acclaimed again by critics[23] for her performance as a woman charged withvehicular manslaughter.[24] She was paired with March again inHonor Among Lovers (1931), which was popular at that time;[25] he was also originally cast as her co-star inHis Woman (1931), but was replaced byGary Cooper.[26] Colbert also starred inMysterious Mr. Parkes (1931), a French-language version ofSlightly Scarlet for the European market, although her French was tinged with an English accent after American life. It was also screened in the United States. She sang and played piano/violin in theErnst Lubitsch musicalThe Smiling Lieutenant (1931), which was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Picture as well as being a box-office hit and critical success.[1][27]
In 1933, Colbert renegotiated her contract with Paramount to allow her to appear in films for other studios. The pioneering screwball comedy film[31]Three-Cornered Moon reached No. 9 in theNational Board of Review Awards in 1933.[32] Her musical voice, acontralto that footnotes list as being coached byBing Crosby, was also featured inTorch Singer (1933),[33] co-starringRicardo Cortez andDavid Manners. Partly as results, she was ranked as the year's 13th box-office star.[34][35] By 1933, she had appeared in 21 films, averaging four per year. Many of her early films were dramatics, and her performances were admired.[2] Colbert's leading roles were down-to-earth and diverse, highlighting her versatility.[17]
Colbert was initially reluctant to appear in thescrewball comedyIt Happened One Night (1934). The studio agreed to pay her $50,000 for the role and guaranteed filming would be done within four weeks so she could take a planned vacation.[36] She won theAcademy Award for Best Actress for the film.[37]
InCleopatra (1934), Colbert played the title role oppositeWarren William andHenry Wilcoxon. It wasthe second highest-grossing picture of that year in the United States.[30][1][22] Thereafter, Colbert did not wish to be portrayed as overtly sexual and later refused such roles.[38] She was loaned toUniversal Pictures forImitation of Life (1934), which was another box-office success.[12][22][39] Those three films were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in the next year; Colbert is the only actress to date to star in three films nominated for Best Motion Picture in the same year.
Colbert's rising profile internationally allowed her to renegotiate her contract, which raised her salary. For 1935 and 1936, she was listed sixth and eighth in Quigley's annual "Top-Ten Money-Making Stars Poll".[40]The Gilded Lily (1935) was popular at that time,[1][4] but she received an Academy Award nomination for her role in the hospital dramaPrivate Worlds (1935).[41]
In 1936, Colbert signed a new contract with Paramount, making her Hollywood's highest-paid actress.[42] When the studio renewed her contract in 1938, she was again reported to be Hollywood's top-paid actress, with a salary of $426,924.[43] At the peak of her popularity in the late 1930s, she earned $150,000 per film.[44] In 1937 and 1938, she was listed as the fourteenth and sixth (respectively) top money-making woman in the U.S.[4]
Colbert was 5 ft 5 in (165 cm) tall,[45] higher than the average American woman at the time. One columnist wrote that Colbert placed her career "ahead of everything, save possibly her marriage", and that she had a strong sense of what was best for her, and a "deep-rooted desire to be in shape, efficient, and under control".[46] A biographer wrote that Colbert "helped define femininity for her generation with her chic manner".[47] Colbert once said, "I know what's best for me—after all."[48][49]
Colbert was very particular about how she appeared on-screen, and believed her face was difficult to light and photograph. She insisted on having the right side of her face away from the camera when shooting close-up, because of a small bump from a broken nose as a child.[50] This sometimes required movie sets to be redesigned.[13] During the filming ofTovarich (1937), directorAnatole Litvak favored co-starring Charles Boyer over her in the camera angles, so she got very frustrated.[51]
Early 1940s
Gary Cooper was terrified at the prospect of working with Colbert in his first comedy,Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938), considering Colbert an expert in the genre.[52]
Colbert learnt about lighting and cinematography, and refused to begin filming until she was satisfied that she would be shown to her best advantage.[54]Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) withHenry Fonda was her first color film, and wasthe 10th-grossing picture of the year in the United States.[55] However, she mistrusted the relatively newTechnicolor process, and fearing she would not photograph well, preferred thereafter to be filmed in black-and-white.[56]
During this time, she began performing onCBS's popular radio programLux Radio Theater, and was heard in 22 episodes between 1935 and 1954.[57] She also participated in 13 episodes of radio'sThe Screen Guild Theater, between 1939 and 1952.[58]
In 1940, Colbert was offered a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures that would have paid her $200,000 a year; she declined the offer after learning she could command $150,000 per film as a freelance artist. She secured roles in several prestigious films and this period marked the height of her earning power.[42] As a supporting role, Colbert co-starred withClark Gable andSpencer Tracy inBoom Town, released byMGM in 1940 and wasthe highest-grossing picture of the year in the United States. However, Colbert once often said thatArise, My Love (1940) was her favorite of all her movies.[59][16] It won theAcademy Award for Best Story.
Preston Sturges' matureThe Palm Beach Story (1942) had been accepted some re-evaluation over the years as a comedic classic,[60] where she did one of the best performances of her film career,[61] which featured such a thing as beauty that speaks of intelligence.[62] She again became the industry's highest-paid star in 1942.[1] In the next year,No Time for Love (1943) was popular.[1][4]
During filming ofSo Proudly We Hail! (1943), her co-starPaulette Goddard preferred working with the other co-starVeronica Lake, over Colbert; Colbert felt that the younger actress had treated her like an "old lady". Goddard said that Colbert "was at [my] eyes at every moment". Goddard insisted that portions of the script be rewritten so that her role was as large as Colbert's.[46] This was unusual for Colbert, who was otherwise known for maintaining high standards of professionalism.[48][2] For example, from her early film career, she offered acting advice to her less experienced co-stars.[63]
Impressed by Colbert's role inSo Proudly We Hail!,David O. Selznick approached her to play the lead inSince You Went Away (1944). Colbert was initially reluctant to appear as a mother of teenaged children, but Selznick eventually convinced her to take the role.[64] Released in June 1944, the film made almost $5 million at the US box office and wasthe year's third highest-grossing picture. One critic praised aspects of the film, but particularly Colbert's work.[65] Partly as a result, she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.[66]
During the World War II, she also volunteered with the Red Cross.[19]
In 1945, Colbert ended her association with Paramount and continued to freelance in such films asGuest Wife (1945) with Don Ameche. She starred oppositeJohn Wayne inRKO'sWithout Reservations (1946), which grossed $3 million in the U.S. While working on it, directorMervyn LeRoy described Colbert as an "interesting" lady to work with, recalling her habit of not watching where she was going and constantly bumping into things.[67] Praised for her sense of style and fashion, Colbert ensured throughout her career that she was impeccably groomed and costumed. For the melodramaTomorrow Is Forever (1946),Jean Louis was hired to create 18 changes of wardrobe for her.[68]Tomorrow is Forever andThe Secret Heart (also 1946) were also substantial commercial successes,[22] and Colbert's popularity during 1947 led her to place 9th in Quigley's "Top Ten Money-Making Stars Poll".[40]
She achieved great success opposite Fred MacMurray in the comedyThe Egg and I (1947), which wasthe year's second-highest grossing picture, and later acknowledged as the 12th-most profitable American film of the 1940s.[69] The suspense filmSleep, My Love (1948) withRobert Cummings was a modest commercial success. By 1949, she still ranked as the 22nd-highest box-office star.[70]
The romantic comedyBride for Sale (1949), wherein Colbert played part of a love triangle that includedGeorge Brent andRobert Young, was well-reviewed.[71] Her performance in the Pacific war filmThree Came Home (1950) was also praised by critics.[1] However, the mystery melodramaThe Secret Fury (1950), distributed by RKO Studios, received mixed reviews.[71] During this period, Colbert was unable to work beyond 5 p.m. each day due to orders from her doctor.[72] While Colbert still looked like a young woman,[10] she found it difficult making the transition to playing more mature characters as she entered middle age.[46] She said, "I'm a very good comedienne, but I was always fighting that image, too."[44]
In 1949, Colbert was asked to play the lead role inAll About Eve, because the producer felt that she best represented the style he envisioned for the part. However, Colbert severely injured her back, forcing her to abandon the picture shortly before filming began.Bette Davis was cast, instead. In later life, Colbert said, "I just never had the luck to play bitches."[44]
Patric Knowles and Colbert inThree Came Home, 1950
In the early 1950s, Colbert traveled to Europe for tax purposes[10] and joined fewer films.The Planter's Wife (1952) was a success in British market.[73] She played a small role inRoyal Affairs in Versailles (1954), her only film with a French director (Sacha Guitry). Colbert had found the directorial method disappointing, which was on the heavy-handed and ponderous.[74] It was screened in the United States in 1957.[75]
In 1957, she was cast as Lucy Bradford, wife of schoolteacher Jim Bradford (Jeff Morrow), in the "Blood in the Dust" episode ofCBS'sDick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre. In the story, Jim refuses to back down when a gunman orders him to leave town, and Lucy is distressed because Jim hasn't fired a weapon since he was in theCivil War.[76]In the show's 1960 episode "So Young the Savage Land", she played Beth Brayden, who becomes disillusioned with her rancher-husband Jim (John Dehner) when he turns to violence to protect their property.[77]
She made a brief return to the screen, played the supporting role as the mother ofTroy Donahue inParrish (1961). It was her last appearance on the big screen. The film was a commercial success,[78] but Colbert received little attention, and she directed her agent to end any further attempts to generate interest in her as a TV actress.[79] Even at this period, she still looked younger than her actual age.[80]
Colbert made successful Broadway appearances inThe Irregular Verb to Love (1963); inThe Kingfisher (1978), with co-starRex Harrison; and inFrederick Lonsdale'sAren't We All? (1985), also with Harrison. She told an interviewer, "Audiences always sound like they're glad to see me, and I'm damned glad to see them."[1]
She appeared in a supporting role in the televisionminiseriesThe Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987), which was a ratings success, and for which she won aGolden Globe and was nominated for anEmmy Award. Towards the end of her life, she explained why she had never written her autobiography, "I've been happy, and that's no story."[81]
Modern critics have pointed out that Colbert had a unique set of assets—her heart-shaped face, distinct facial features,[4] curly hair,[1] aristocratic manner, relaxed acting, little mysterious, and intelligent style,[82]—that distinguishes her from other classic cinema stars through the 1930s and 1940s.[48] In her comedies, she invariably played shrewd, self-reliant women; unlike many of her contemporaries, though, she rarely engaged in physical comedy. Her characters were more likely to be observers and commentators.[83]
In 1928, Colbert married actor and director Norman Foster, with whom she co-starred in the Broadway showThe Barker. Their marriage remained a secret for many years while they lived in separate homes.[4]
In Los Angeles, Colbert shared a home with her mother, Jeanne Chauchoin,[84] who disliked Foster and reputedly did not allow him into the home.[85] Colbert and Foster divorced in 1935 in Mexico.[4]
Colbert and her mother, Jeanne, in early 1930s
On Christmas Eve, 1935, inYuma, Arizona, Colbert married Dr. Joel Pressman, who eventually became a professor and chief of the head and neck surgery department ofUCLA Medical School. She gave Pressman aBeechcraft airplane as a present. They purchased a ranch in northern California,[10] where Colbert enjoyed horseback riding[86] and her husband keptshow cattle. During this time, Colbert drove aLincoln Continental and aFord Thunderbird.[10] The marriage lasted 33 years, until Pressman's death fromliver cancer in 1968.
Jeanne reportedly envied her daughter,[10] preferred her son's company, and made Colbert's brother Charles serve as his sister's agent. Charles used the surname Wendling, borrowed from Jeanne's paternal grandmother Rose Wendling.[7] He served as Colbert's business manager for a time,[6] and was credited with negotiating some of her more lucrative contracts in the late 1930s and early 1940s.[42][7] In 1942, Charles enlisted to take part in World War Two. Colbert's uncle Charles Loew died in 1953, and her aunt Emily Loew in 1954.[87]
Although virtually retired from motion pictures since the mid-1950s, Colbert continued to maintain an upscale lifestyle. She had a country house inPalm Springs for weekends. An advertising executive said, "Claudette was extravagant; I never, ever saw her question the price of anything." In 1963, Colbert sold herLloyd Wright-designed residence inHolmby Hills, and she and Dr. Pressman rented a small house in Beverly Hills.[10]
In 1958, she met Verna Hull, a wealthy painter, photographer, and the stepdaughter of aSears Roebuck heiress. They had a nine-year friendship that included travel, and an interest in art, and they rented twin New York penthouses. When Colbert bought a house in Barbados in the early 1960s, Hull bought a house next door, amid rumors that their friendship was a romantic one, which Colbert denied.[10] The friendship ended after an argument that took place as Colbert's husband lay dying, during which Hull insisted that Pressman would not only take his own life, but Colbert's as well, rather than die alone.[10] Pressman died on February 26, 1968.[10]
At a party honoring Lillian Hellman with the Dorothy Shaver Rose Award on Nov. 9, 1977, New York City
For years, Colbert divided her time between her Manhattan apartment and her vacation home inSpeightstown,Barbados.[1] The latter, purchased from a British gentleman and nicknamed Bellerive, was the island's only plantation house fronting the beach.[10] Her permanent address remained Manhattan.
When her mother Jeanne died in 1970,[4] and her brother Charles in 1971, Colbert's only surviving relative was her brother's daughter, Coco Lewis.[44][89]
Colbert suffered a series of small strokes during the last three years of her life. She died in 1996 in Barbados at the age of 92,[1] where she had employed a housekeeper and two cooks. Her remains were transported to New York City for cremation and funeral services.[10]
Colbert never had children. She left most of her estate, estimated at $3.5 million and including her Manhattan apartment and Bellerive, to longtime friend Helen O'Hagan, a retired director of corporate relations atSaks Fifth Avenue. Colbert had met O'Hagan in 1961 on the set ofParrish, her last film,[91][92] and they became best friends around 1970.[4]
After Pressman's death, Colbert instructed her friends to treat O'Hagan as they had Pressman, "as her spouse".[93] Although O'Hagan was financially comfortable without the generous bequest, Bellerive was sold for over $2 million toDavid Geffen. Colbert's will also left $150,000 to her niece Coco Lewis; a trust of over $100,000 to UCLA, in Pressman's memory; and $75,000 to Marie Corbin, her Bajan housekeeper.[10]
^Springer, John (1978).They Had Faces Then, Annabella to Zorina, the Superstars, Stars and Starlets of the 1930s. Citadel Press. p. 62.ISBN0-8065-0657-1.
^abBirchard, Robert S. (2004).Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood. University Press of Kentucky.ISBN9780813123240.
^Schallert, Edwin. "Stars' Box-Office Ratings for Past Season Given: Survey Shows Sophisticates Slipping Fast. Will Rogers Tops All; Shirley Temple and Crosby Shoot Up",Los Angeles Times, December 9, 1934, p. A1.
Finler, Joel W. (1989).The Hollywood Story: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the American Film Industry But Didn't Know Where to Look. Pyramid Books.ISBN1-85510-009-6.
