Barbara Bel Geddes
Photograph by Carl van Vechten , from the Van Vechten Collection of the Library of Congress
Barbara Bel Geddes (born October 31, 1922 in New York - † August 8, 2005 in Northeast Harbor , Maine ) was an American actress . She played the clan mother Miss Ellie in the television series Dallas , for which she was awarded an Emmy . She was also successful as a theater actress on Broadway and starred in well-known films such as Mother's Secret and Vertigo .
life and career
Bel Geddes was the daughter of Helen Belle Sneider and the architect and set designer Norman Bel Geddes , who designed the sets for more than two hundred productions. Barbara Bel Geddes grew up in this theatrical atmosphere and began her acting career on Broadway in the early 1940s . After the Second World War , she made her debut as a film actress alongside Henry Fonda in The Last Eat the Vultures (1947). In 1948, she was nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actress for her second film, The Mother's Secret .
Due to the hunt down of communists during the McCarthy era , she left Hollywood and returned to Broadway in the early 1950s, where she received numerous theater awards. She also played in the world premiere of The Cat on the Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams . She rarely appeared in films, although she is also remembered for her supporting role as the jealous friend of James Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock's classic film Vertigo - From the Realm of the Dead . She also worked alongside Danny Kaye in the biopic Five Pennies .
In the 1960s she withdrew from the theater and film life to take care of her husband, who was suffering from cancer. After he died in 1972, she wanted to return to the film business. Film offers were rare for her, however, and only through the portrayal of Miss Ellie in the television series Dallas did she become world famous. For this role she received her first cinematic award in the form of an Emmy . In the early 1970s, she had to undergo breast cancer surgery, which was later processed thematically in the series Dallas . In 1984 she had to undergo four bypass operations, so that she was temporarily replaced by Donna Reed at Dallas .
At the end of the series, Bel Geddes withdrew completely from show business . She wrote two children's books, I Like to Be Me and So Do I , and designed a popular series of greeting cards. Barbara Bel Geddes died of lung cancer on August 8, 2005, at her home in Northeast Harbor, Maine, aged 82 .
Filmography (selection)
- 1947: The vultures eat the last one (The Long Night)
- 1948: Mother's Secret (I Remember Mama)
- 1948: Night on the Prairie (Blood on the Moon)
- 1949. Trapped (Caught)
- 1950: Under secret orders (Panic in the Streets)
- 1951: Fourteen Hours (Fourteen Hours)
- 1958: Vertigo - From the realm of the dead (Vertigo)
- 1958–1960: Alfred Hitchcock presents (TV series, 4 episodes)
- 1959: Five Pennies (The Five Pennies)
- 1960: Jovanka and the others (Five Branded Women)
- 1961: And the Night Will Be Silent (By Love Possessed)
- 1969: Daniel Boone (TV series, 1 episode)
- 1971: Summertree
- 1978–1990: Dallas (TV series, 300 episodes)
Awards
- 1948: Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for the film Mother's Secret
- 1980: Emmy Awards for her role as the good-hearted Miss Ellie , wife of old Jock Ewing on the US series Dallas
literature
- Barbara Bel Geddes: I Like to Be Me. Viking Juvenile, 1963, ISBN 0-67039-059-3 .
- Barbara Bel Geddes: So Do I. Price Stern Sloan Pub, 1973, ISBN 0-44803-420-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bel Geddes, Barbara |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | US-american actress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 31, 1922 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 8, 2005 |
| Place of death | Northeast Harbor , Maine |