Fay Bainter

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fay Bainter in 1918, portrayed by Robert Henri

Fay Okell Bainter (born December 7, 1893 in Los Angeles , California - † April 16, 1968 ) was an American actress . In addition to a successful stage career, she appeared in over 60 film and television productions, mostly dramas. She won an Oscar for her supporting role in William Wyler's feature film Jezebel - The Malicious Lady (1938) .

Life

Fay Bainter was born Fay Okell Bainter in Los Angeles in 1893 . Her parents were Charles Bainter, an inventor, and his wife Mary (birth name: Okell). Bainter was the aunt of actress Dorothy Burgess. She was introduced to acting by her mother and was seen on stage at touring theaters in her hometown at the age of six (other sources report that she was four). From 1904 to 1907 Bainter attended the Girl Collegiate Institute and, after many years of working in traveling theater, became a member of the theater company of the well-known impresario David Belasco at the age of 19 .

Her debut at New York's Broadway she graduated in 1912 in The Rose of Panama , was listed only twenty-four times. Bainter was able to establish herself as a theater actress in the following years and was often cast in the roles of the innocent-naive or the romantic. After appearances in twenty-five Broadway plays, most recently in Dodsworth , which brought it to 168 performances from August 1934 to January 1935, Fay Bainter switched to film. She made her cinema debut in 1934 at the age of 41 in William K. Howard's drama This Side of Heaven , starring Lionel Barrymore . After supporting roles in George Stevens ' Quality Street alongside Katharine Hepburn and in Leo McCarey's Make Way For Tomorrow (both 1937), Bainter made film history in 1939 when she was the first actress for the dramas White Banners and Jezebel to be nominated for two different actor categories ( Best Lead Actress and Best Supporting Actress ). At the Academy Awards on February 23, 1939, the actress had to admit defeat in the category Best Actress Bette Davis in Jezebel . However, she won the Best Supporting Role Award for her appearance in the film.

After the great success of her fifth and sixth film role, Fay Bainter shot with Frank Borzage , Michael Curtiz , Clarence Brown and Jean Negulesco , but was limited to supporting roles in maternal characters as wife, girlfriend or aunt ( “There are not enough roles for to establish fame for a woman of my type. ” ). For example, as Mickey Rooney's mother in The Young Edison (1940), in The Woman We Talked About (1942) with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in the leading roles and The Double Life of Mr Mitty . During the Second World War , Bainter performed as an entertainer in hospitals and in 1944 she played one of her few malicious roles in André De Toth's film noir Dark Waters with Merle Oberon .

Until the early 1950s, Fay Bainter concentrated on her film career, apart from sporadic trips to the theater, before she devoted herself more to television . In 1958, Bainter's role as a morphine-addicted wife and mother in Eugene O'Neill's play One Long Day, Journey into the Night , was a major critical hit , in which she toured with the National Company. In 1961, the actress managed to return to the big screen with Infam . For her appearance in the film adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play The Children's Hour , Bainter was again nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, after playing the part of Amelia Tilford years earlier on the stage. She made her last theater appearance in 1962 with a performance of The Girls in 509 in Miami . In her last television role, Bainter starred in the 1965 episode Power of Attorney in The Alfred Hitchcock Hour alongside Geraldine Fitzgerald .

From 1921 until his death, Fay Bainter was married to Reginal S. Venable (1890-1964), a former Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy . The only son, Richard Venable (1926–1974), who worked as an actor like his mother, came from the marriage. Bainter lived with her family in Los Angeles and Palm Springs and made cooking one of her hobbies. After a long illness, she died of pneumonia at the age of 75 in her hometown . She was buried next to her husband in Arlington National Cemetery. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (7021 Hollywood Boulevard) commemorates the actress .

Plays (selection)

year Play role stage
1911 Mrs. Bumpstead Leigh Violet de Salle tour
1912 The Rose of Panama Celine Marinter Daly's ( New York )
1913 The bridal path Alice Weston 39th Street Theater (New York)
1916 Arms and the Girl Ruth Sherwood Fulton Theater (New York)
1917 The Willow Tree Image / Mary Temple Cohan and Harris Theater (New York)
1918 The Kiss Burglar Aline George M. Cohan's Theater (New York)
1918 East is West Ming Toy Astor Theater (New York)
1922 The Lady Cristilinda Lady Cristilinda Broadhurst Theater (New York)
1923 The Other Rose Rose Coe Morosco Theater (New York)
1924/25 The Dream Girl Elspeth Ambassador Theater (New York) / Tour
1925 The enemy Pauli Arndt Times Square Theater (New York)
1925 The Two Orphans Louise Cosmopolitan Theater (New York)
1926 First love Maica Booth Theater (New York)
1927 Pygmalion Galatea Actor's Theater (New York)
1927 Fallen Angels Julia Sterrol 49th Street Theater (New York)
1928 She Stoops to Conquer Kate Hardcastle Erlanger's Theater (New York) / Tour
1928 The Beaux 'Stratagem Mrs. Sullen Hampden's Theater (New York)
1928/29 Jealousy Valerie Maxine Elliott 'Theater (New York) / Tour
1930 Caprice Ilsa Von Ilsen Curran Theater (San Francisco)
Mason Theater (Los Angeles)
1930 Lysistrata Kalonika 44th Street Theater (New York)
1931/32 The Admirable Crichton Lady Mary Lasenby New Amsterdam Theater (New York) / Tour
1931 The way of the world Mrs. Millamant Guild Theater (New York)
1932 The Man Who Changed His Name Mrs. Selby Clive Broadhurst Theater (New York)
1932 The Perfect Marriage Louise Morel Bijou Theater (New York)
1933 For Services Rendered Eva Ardsley Booth Theater (New York)
1933 Uncle Tom's Cabin Topsy Alvin Theater (New York)
1933 Gay Divorce Mimi Apollo Theater ( Chicago )
1933 Move on, sister Mrs. Bell Playhouse Theater (New York)
1934 Dodsworth Fran Dodsworth Shubert Theater (New York)
1935 The Lambent Flame Marcia Williams White Plains Theater (New York)
1945 The Next Half-Hour Margaret Brennan Tour / Empire Theater (New York)
1947 The Skull Beneath Kitty McCracken Westport, Connecticut
1949 Gayden Grace Sibley Plymouth Theater (New York)
1949 O Mistress Mine Olivia Brown Lakewood Theater ( Skowhegan )
1950 Nothing Serious / House on the Cliff Sarah Locust St. Theater ( Philadelphia )
1952 Swallow's nest Sophie Van Eyck Cape May Playhouse ( Cape May ) / Niagara Falls
1953 The Velvet Glove Mother Hildebrand Berkshire Playhouse ( Stockbridge, Massachusetts )
1953 The Children's Hour Mrs. Amelia Tilford tour
1954/55 Put Them All Together Mrs. Hall tour
1955,
1956/57 		The Glass Menagerie Amanda Alley Theater ( Houston ) / Tour
1957/58 Long Day's Journey Into Night Mary Cavan Tyrone tour
1958 Fever for Live Dorey Bigberry Westport Country Playhouse ( Westport, Connecticut )
1959 Look homeward, Angel Eliza Gant tour
1962 The Girls in 509 Aunt Hettie Sombrero Playhouse ( Phoenix )
Coconut Grove Playhouse ( Miami )

Filmography (selection)

Awards

Web links

Commons : Fay Bainter  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Nelson, Elizabeth R .: Fay Bainter . In: American National Biography Online (accessed March 1, 2008)
personal data
SURNAME Bainter, Fay
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bainter, Fay Okell (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH December 7, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California , United States
DATE OF DEATH April 16, 1968
Place of death Los Angeles , California , United States