Barbara Stanwyck

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Barbara Stanwyck (born July 16, 1907 in Brooklyn , New York City , New York - † January 20, 1990 in Santa Monica , California ; actually Ruby Catherine Stevens ) was an American actress . In her over 60-year film and television career, according to the British Film Institute, "versatility, professionalism and ingenuity made Stanwyck one of the most successful and memorable Hollywood actresses of all time". In a 1999 American Film Institute poll , she was ranked 11th among the greatest female movie stars of the past century. She was awarded both an Emmy and a Golden Globe and an honorary Oscar in 1983 for her life's work.

Life

Barbara Stanwyck was born as Ruby Stevens as the fifth child of a Scottish-Irish couple in Brooklyn. At the age of four, she lost her mother when she was pushed off the tram by a drunk man. The mother suffered fatal head injuries. After the mother's funeral, the father left the family and Barbara grew up in children's homes. She began her career as a revue dancer. Between 1922 and 1923 she performed as a dancer for the Ziegfeld Follies in the New Amsterdam Theater . She became an actress when her part as a dancer in the drama The Noose was rewritten to a dramatic role. Shortly thereafter, she took the stage name Barbara Stanwyck after reading the announcement "Barbara Fritchie in Jane Stanwyck " on a theater poster . After her first film appearance on Broadway Nights in 1927 , she married comedian Frank Fay in 1928 . The couple adopted a boy who stayed with Stanwyck after the divorce in 1933.

As a film actress, Barbara Stanwyck made her breakthrough as a star in 1930 with her role in Ladies of Leisure , directed by Frank Capra . The film tells a dramatic love story and Stanwyck delighted the critics with her mixture of vulnerability and harshness. Immediately afterwards she had a huge financial success with the film Illicit , which she directed for Warner Brothers. The studio announced her on their posters as Miss Barbara Stanwyck, an honor otherwise only due to Mr. George Arliss and Mr. John Barrymore . She signed non-exclusive deals with Warner Brothers and Columbia later that year, where she directed The Miracle Woman , Forbidden and The Bitter Tea of ​​General Yen with Frank Capra . Stanwyck became one of the heroines for the working class alongside Sylvia Sidney during the Great Depression. In films like The Purchase Price , Night Nurse and especially Baby Face , she played women who were able to improve their social situation despite the most adverse circumstances. She had a much rougher and more robust image than, for example, Constance Bennett , Joan Crawford - with whom she was privately lifelong friends - Ann Harding and other actresses who also came to fame in these days. Towards the middle of the decade, the actress found it increasingly difficult to find challenging roles. Only after Ruth Chatterton retired from the production of Stella Dallas in 1937 and Barbara Stanwyck took over her role, she made a comeback. She was nominated for the Oscar for best leading actress, but lost to Luise Rainer . Her romance with Robert Taylor , whom she later married, did not detract from her newfound popularity. With the financial success of Always Goodbye , the 1934 remake of Gallant Lady starring Ann Harding, Stanwyck was able to consolidate her star status.

Stanwyck, who was called "Missy" by her friends, peaked in popularity in the mid-1940s. At the beginning of the decade, she was directed by Frank Capra in the film Here's John Doe with Gary Cooper in front of the camera. She took on the role after Jean Arthur was unavailable. One of Stanwyck's most famous roles was in the comedy The Cardsharp , in which she starred opposite Henry Fonda , directed by Preston Sturges . In 1944, according to the National Treasury, Barbara Stanwyck was the highest paid woman in the United States, ahead of Deanna Durbin and Bette Davis with an annual income of more than $ 400,000. In the same year she directed the film noir classic Woman Without a Conscience, directed by Billy Wilder . The film was a great success with both critics and audiences. In the following years, Barbara Stanwyck repeatedly played unscrupulous women like in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers with Kirk Douglas and Van Heflin or in the criminal case Thelma Jordon . By their own account, however, the film My Reputation , which was shot in 1944 but did not go on sale until 1946, was her personal favorite. In it the problems of a war widow with two children were discussed. She had an untypically passive role for her in 1948 in You live for 105 minutes as a partner of Burt Lancaster as a murder victim. For this role she was nominated again for an Oscar .

In 1950 she made one of her best films, Derailed , which she directed by Mitchell Leisen in a typical Joan Crawford role: A woman takes on a false identity after a train accident, experiences happy hours in a new family and ends up being blackmailed by her former lover. In the 1950s, Barbara Stanwyck shot the thriller Seconds of Fear and worked in the disaster film Downfall of the Titanic . The rest of the decade was spent mostly as the heroine of countless westerns in the saddle, including forty rifles . Among her better roles this time included two appearances in the films of Douglas Sirk : All my desire and it always is a tomorrow and in the schemer , a film star cast about the succession in a successful company. The musical King of Hot Rhythms with Elvis Presley is one of the few appearances in the cinema after 1957 . In 1962, she played the lesbian owner of a brothel in the drama Auf Gühendem Pflaster .

After initially sporadic television assignments, she performed the The Barbara Stanwyck Show from 1961 to 1962 , which was quickly discontinued due to low audience ratings. Stanwyck received her first Emmy for Best Actress in a Series for her performance in 1961 . After only a few film roles, her film career ended in 1964 after He only came at night . The actress began a second career in television in 1965 in the western series Big Valley , which ran until 1969 and earned her a second Emmy in 1968. From the mid-1970s, however, she increasingly withdrew into private life for health reasons. In October 1981, Stanwyck was robbed her Beverly Hills home. The burglar hit her on the head with his flashlight and then locked her in the closet. He then searched the house and left with $ 40,000 worth of jewels. The then 74-year-old Stanwyck suffered minor head injuries. Four years later, a fire broke out in her home. The damage was estimated at one and a half million dollars at the time.

Stanwyck's last significant role was in 1983 in the television novel The Thorn Birds starring Richard Chamberlain . Stanwyck received her third Emmy and a Golden Globe for portraying an energetic millionaire . During her acceptance speech, the actress openly admitted that the award was actually Ann-Margret for her portrayal in What will become of the children? awarded to belong. In 1985 she was on television again, in the television series The Empire - The Colbys , a spin-off from The Denver Clan . She played in the first season, but then resigned from her contract and later confessed that this production was the worst she had ever been on.

Barbara Stanwyck died in 1990 at the age of 82. She was married to actors Frank Fay from 1928 to 1935 and to Robert Taylor from 1939 to 1951. Both marriages ended in divorce.

Filmography (selection)

Awards

Oscar / Best Actress
Emmy
  • 1961: Emmy for Outstanding Performance by an Actress (in a Leading Role) in a Series - The Barbara Stanwyck Show
  • 1966: Emmy for Repeatedly Outstanding Performance by an Actress (in a Leading Role) in a Dramatic Series - The Big Valley
  • 1967: Nomination in the category of Repeatedly Outstanding Achievement by an Actress (in a Leading Role) in a Dramatic Series - The Big Valley
  • 1968: Nomination in the category of Repeatedly Outstanding Achievement by an Actress (in a Leading Role) in a Dramatic Series - The Big Valley
  • 1983: Emmy in the category Outstanding Achievement by an Actress (in a leading role) in a series (Special) - Die Dornenvögel
Golden Globe
Further honors

literature

  • Homer Dickens: The films of Barbara Stanwyck . Citadel Press, Secaucus, NJ 1984, ISBN 0-8065-0932-5 .
  • Albert J. DiOrio: Barbara Stanwyck . Coward-McCann, New York 1983, ISBN 0-698-11247-4 .
  • Jerry Vermilye: Barbara Stanwyck. Your films, your life . Heyne, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-453-02833-3 .
  • Jane E. Wayne: Stanwyck . Robson Books, London 1985, ISBN 0-86051-405-6 .

Web links

Commons : Barbara Stanwyck  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Starring Barbara Stanwyck at BFI - The Vintage Woman. Retrieved January 20, 2020 (American English).
  2. ↑ cf. here AFI recognizes the 50 greatest american screen legends
  3. ^ Dan Callahan: Barbara Stanwyck: The Miracle Woman . University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, Mississippi 2012, ISBN 978-1-61703-183-0 (English). Page 9.
  4. ↑ Actress Barbara Stanwyck was awakened by a robber, hit ... Accessed January 20, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Ball of Fire: Barbara Stanwyck. Accessed January 20, 2020 (English).
  6. ↑ Blaze Hits Home of Barbara Stanwyck. June 22, 1985. Retrieved January 20, 2020 (American English).
personal data
SURNAME Stanwyck, Barbara
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stevens, Ruby (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH July 16, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn , New York City, New York, United States
DATE OF DEATH January 20, 1990
Place of death Santa Monica , California, United States