Claudette Colbert

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Claudette Colbert on the cover of the Mexican magazine Negro y Blanco in 1947

Claudette Colbert (born September 13, 1903 as Emilie Claudette Chauchoin in Saint-Mandé , France ; † July 30, 1996 in Speightstown , Barbados ) was a French - American actress who became the most popular and highest paid female in the 1930s and 1940s Stars in Hollywood counted. For her appearance in It Happened in One Night , she was awarded the Oscar for best actress . During her career she received two other nominations in this category.

Life

Claudette Colbert was born under the baptismal name Émilie Claudette Chauchoin as the daughter of Jeanne Marie (née Loew, 1877-1970) and Georges Claude Chauchoin (1867-1925) in Saint-Mandé. Her family immigrated to the United States in 1906 and settled in New York City. Colbert's father worked in a subordinate position at a commercial bank, the mother tried unsuccessfully to start a career as an opera singer. Claudette Colbert graduated from the artistically oriented Washington Irving High School. Then she wanted to become a fashion designer, but received by their acquaintance with the author Anne Morrison, a three-line role in the Broadway -Stück The Wild Westcott . She signed a five-year contract with theater producer Albert H. Woods and had her breakthrough in 1927 in the play The Barker . In the same year she also made her film debut alongside Ben Lyon in the now-lost silent film For the Love of Mike by Frank Capra . However, the film was unsuccessful and she was dissatisfied with her performance, which is why she declared that she would never want to make a film again.

A lucrative offer led Colbert to work for the film again at the New York Astoria Ateliers of Paramount Pictures . In the early 1930s, she often made the French-language version films of studio productions, a common practice at the time. Overall, she remained contractually linked to the studio for over 15 years. With her role in The Smiling Lieutenant alongside Maurice Chevalier , she had her first success under the direction of Ernst Lubitsch . She then performed in a colorful sequence in melodramas, comedies and as a historical figure in monumental films. Cecil B. DeMille used her in 1932 as Poppaea Sabina alongside Charles Laughton and Fredric March in In the Sign of the Cross . The director was so taken with the actress that he engaged her for a number of films, particularly spectacular as Cleopatra in the 1934 film adaptation of the same name.

In the same year, Colbert, who had been a busy actress of medium popularity by then, had her breakthrough as a Hollywood star. After being paid double her previous salary for $ 50,000 at Columbia Pictures and assurances that she would finish filming in three weeks, she took on the lead role in Frank Capra's comedy It Happened in One Night (all established actresses in Hollywood had declined to do so Constance Bennett , Miriam Hopkins and Margaret Sullavan ). The male lead went to Clark Gable , who was personally 'punished' by studio boss Louis B. Mayer and loaned to Columbia Pictures by MGM . After a moderate start, the film developed into one of the biggest successes of the year. Colbert and Gable were each awarded an Oscar for best leading actor.

Memorial plaque to Claudette Colbert's place of birth

Colbert turned the tearful melodrama of Racial Prejudice and Maternal Love, Imitation of Life , for Universal Pictures later that year, directed by John M. Stahl , which made her another box office hit. After returning to the studio, Paramount gave her a larger wardrobe and substantial roles in successful comedies such as The Bride Comes Home , The Gilded Lily and Senior Physician Dr. Monet , a drama about a psychiatrist starring Charles Boyer , Joel McCrea and Frances Dee that earned the actress another Academy Award nomination in 1935. After The Gilded Lily , Colbert made a total of seven films with Fred MacMurray until 1949 and the duo rivaled William Powell and Myrna Loy for the title of the perfect screen couple .

By 1936, Colbert was earning $ 306,000, making it the country's highest paid female film star. After occasional forays into dramatic roles, such as a puritan accused of witchcraft in Maid of Salem in 1937 , which were less appreciated by the audience, Colbert concentrated on light comedies. These included classics like Bluebeard's Eighth Wife , Midnight - Midnight Reveal , Breathless To Florida , Practically Yours, and Guest Wife . Her career peaked in the mid-1940s. With her fee per film of $ 250,000, she was one of the highest paid in Hollywood. She presented courageous women in 1943 as a nurse who went through terrible agony among the Japanese after the fall of Bataan . Paulette Goddard and Veronica Lake played supporting roles. A year later, Colbert was in Farewell , a Selznick production that grossed nearly $ 5.5 million and earned her another Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. In 1946 she was successful with the psychological thriller Secret of the Heart , which showed Colbert as a lovesick widow. In the same year she played alongside George Brent and Orson Welles in Tomorrow Is Eternity , whose first husband, believed to be dead, played by Welles, unexpectedly appears again.

After the success of Das Ei und ich , which was distributed in 1947 and brought in a spin-off of several films for the supporting actors Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride as Ma and Pa Kettle , the actress's career led surprisingly quickly to mediocrity . In 1948, participation in the film adaptation of the Broadway hit The Best Man failed because producer Frank Capra did not respond to Colbert's request for another day of paid vacation. Katharine Hepburn took on the role. In 1950 the actress was first choice for the lead role in All About Eva , but she sprained in a fall while filming Three Returned Home and was eventually replaced by Bette Davis .

At the beginning of the 1960s, Colbert first ended her career in front of the camera; in previous years she had only worked as a television and theater actress. They played occasionally at various theaters and took in 1987 after a quarter-century break in the two-part TV movie The Two Mrs. Grenville on the side of Ann-Margret one last time before the camera. She received a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress and an Emmy nomination in the same category for her performance .

Private

Colbert was known for showing only the left half of her face in profile shots, which led to expensive modifications on the sets. Like Greta Garbo , she is said to have rigorously urged adherence to the contractually agreed working hours as an actress; she never shot after 5 p.m. and didn't shoot close-ups in the afternoon.

From 1928 Colbert was married to director Norman Foster for around seven years . A few months after the divorce, she married the doctor Joel Pressman, with whom she was together until his death in 1968. The actress spent her retirement in great luxury on the Caribbean island of Barbados , where she owned a villa in a splendid location.

Filmography

  • 1927: For the Love of Mike (now lost)
  • 1929: The Hole in the Wall
  • 1929: The Lady Lies
  • 1930: Young Man of Manhattan
  • 1930: The Big Pond
  • 1930: Manslaughter
  • 1930: La grande mare
  • 1930: L'énigmatique Monsieur Parkes
  • 1931: Honor Among Lovers
  • 1931: The Smiling Lieutenant (The Smiling Lieutenant)
  • 1931: Secrets of a Secretary
  • 1931: His Woman
  • 1932: The Wiser Sex
  • 1932: The Misleading Lady
  • 1932: The Man from Yesterday
  • 1932: Make Me a Star
  • 1932: The Phantom President
  • 1932: Under the Sign of the Cross (The Sign of the Cross)
  • 1933: Riots in Utopia (Tonight Is Ours)
  • 1933: I Cover the Waterfront
  • 1933: Three Cornered Moon
  • 1933: Torch Singer
  • 1934: Four Frightened People
  • 1934: It Happened One Night (It Happened One Night)
  • 1934: Cleopatra (Cleopatra)
  • 1934: Imitation of Life
  • 1935: The Girl Who Didn't Want The Lord (The Gilded Lily)
  • 1935: Senior physician Dr. Monet (Private Worlds)
  • 1935: She Married Her Boss
  • 1935: Women - Whims (The Bride Comes Home)
  • 1936: Under Two Flags
  • 1937: Cross-examined (Maid of Salem)
  • 1937: Acquaintance from Paris (I Met Him in Paris)
  • 1937: Tovarich
  • 1938: Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (Bluebeard's Eighth Wife)
  • 1939: Zaza
  • 1939: Unveiling at midnight (Midnight)
  • 1939: Above and Above (It's a Wonderful World)
  • 1939: Drums Along the Mohawk (Drums Along the Mohawk)
  • 1940: The Daredevil (Boom Town)
  • 1940: Arise, My Love
  • 1941: Marriage Posse (Skylark)
  • 1941: Echo der Jugend (Remember the Day)
  • 1942: Breathless to Florida (The Palm Beach Story)
  • 1943: No Time for Love (No Time for Love)
  • 1943: Courageous Women (So ​​Proudly We Hail!)
  • 1944: Since You Went Away (Since You Went Away)
  • 1944: Swooping Into Happiness (Practically Yours)
  • 1945: His wife is my wife (Guest Wife)
  • 1946: Tomorrow Is Forever (Tomorrow Is Forever)
  • 1946: Without Reservations
  • 1946: The Secret Heart
  • 1947: The Egg and I (The Egg and I)
  • 1948: Snares of Fear (Sleep, My Love)
  • 1948: Five on their honeymoon (Family Honeymoon)
  • 1949: Bride for Sale
  • 1950: Three returned home (Three Came Home)
  • 1950: The Secret Fury
  • 1951: Sister Maria Bonaventura (Thunder on the Hill)
  • 1951: Let's Make It Legal
  • 1952: White Woman in the Jungle (The Planter's Wife)
  • 1954: love, women and soldiers (Destinées)
  • 1954: Versailles - Kings and Women (Si Versailles m'était conté)
  • 1954/1955: The Best of Broadway (TV series, 2 episodes)
  • 1955: The Ford Television Theater (TV series, 2 episodes)
  • 1955: Climax! (TV series, 2 episodes)
  • 1955: The Devil's Right Hand (Texas Lady)
  • 1956: Ford Star Jubilee (TV series, 1 episode)
  • 1956: Blithe Spirit (TV movie)
  • 1956: Robert Montgomery Presents (TV series, 1 episode)
  • 1957: Playhouse 90 (TV series, 1 episode)
  • 1957: Telephone Time (TV series, 1 episode)
  • 1957/1960: Adventures in the Wild West ( Zane Gray Theater ; TV series, 2 episodes)
  • 1958: General Electric Theater (TV series, 1 episode)
  • 1958: Colgate Theater (TV series, 1 episode)
  • 1958: Suspicion (TV series, 1 episode)
  • 1959: The Bells of St. Mary's (TV movie)
  • 1961: His name was Parrish (Parrish)
  • 1987: Society ( The Two Mrs. Grenvilles ; two-part television film)

Awards

Oscar for best leading actress

  • 1935 - Oscar for It happened in one night
  • 1936 - nominated for gynecologist Dr. Monet
  • 1945 - nominated for When you said goodbye

Emmy Award

  • 1987 - Nominated in the category "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Special" for The Two Mrs. Grenvilles

Golden Globe Award

Tony Award

literature

Web links

Commons : Claudette Colbert  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Liz Sonneborn: A to Z of American Women in the Performing Arts . Infobase Publishing, 2014, ISBN 978-1-4381-0790-5 ( google.de [accessed January 2, 2019]).
  2. ↑ Amy Fine Collins: A Perfect Star. Accessed January 2, 2019 .
  3. ^ Liz Sonneborn: A to Z of American Women in the Performing Arts . Infobase Publishing, 2014, ISBN 978-1-4381-0790-5 ( google.de [accessed January 2, 2019]).
personal data
SURNAME Colbert, Claudette
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chauchoin, Lily Claudette (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French-American actress
BIRTH DATE September 13, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH July 30, 1996
PLACE OF DEATH Speightstown , Barbados