Jeanne Eagels

Jeanne Eagles in the 1917 play Disraeli

Jeanne Eagels (born June 26, 1890 in Kansas City , Missouri , † October 3, 1929 in New York City , New York ) was an important American theater and film actress of her generation.

Life

Jeanne Eagels was born as Amelia Jeannine Eagles in 1890 . Her parents were Edward and Julia Sullivan Eagles. She had five siblings. In Kansas City, she began her acting career at the age of seven when she played the gravedigger in William Shakespeare's Hamlet . Her ambitions were so great that she left her hometown at the age of twelve and joined the Dubinsky Brothers traveling theater show and toured the midwestern United States with this theater company. At first she appeared as a dancer, but soon played leading roles in comedies and dramas .

Around 1911 she went to New York City to pursue her career. Because of the tough competition for a role on Broadway , she had to start all over again. At some point she got an engagement as a revue girl in the Ziegfeld Follies Broadway shows . During this time she took acting lessons from Beverly Sitgreaves, who was already on stage with Eagle's great idol Sarah Bernhardt . Eagels changed the spelling of her real name to "Eagles" because she thought it would look better on posters.

Although she was struggling to gain recognition as a character actress, her beauty, talent, and a little luck tended to bring her bigger roles in better plays. Her stage career was progressing well and in 1915 she appeared in her first film The house of fear , a silent film . In 1916/1917 she made three films for the Thanhouser Film Corporation.

Eagels earned recognition and honor together with her stage partner George Arliss in three successful Broadway productions. In 1918 she took part in Daddies , a David Belasco production, and became more and more popular. She ended this engagement because of an illness and then went to Europe . Between 1919 and 1921 she reappeared on a few Broadway shows. In 1922 she became the star in the play Rain , that she played the role of Sadie Thompson almost 900 times in sold-out halls until 1924. She toured the piece for two more years and returned to Broadway as Sadie in 1926 for a farewell performance .

In 1925 she married Edward Harris Coy, a former football player of Yale University . In 1928 the childless marriage was divorced again.

In 1926, Eagels was offered the role of Roxie Hart in Maurine Dallas Watkins play Chicago . She was rehearsing for the play when she finally declined the role, probably because of a disagreement with the director . Her next engagement was a comedy, Her Cardboard Lover (1927), in which she co- starred with Leslie Howard . The play was only a modest success and after a season on Broadway she stopped working there to make a film. She starred with John Gilbert in the MGM film Man, Woman and Sin , directed by Monta Bell . Then she went on tour again, this time with the piece Her Cardboard Lover . In 1928, after missing an appearance in Milwaukee , the Actors Union banned her from performing for 18 months. This ban did not stop Eagels from making films. She worked on two sound films for Paramount Pictures . The Letter and Jealousy both appeared in 1929. Her acting as Leslie Crosbie in The Letter received critical acclaim.

Just before she wanted to return to Broadway, Eagels died suddenly at the age of 39 in a New York hospital. The examining pathologists could not agree on the exact cause of death, toxicology was not as advanced then as it is today. However, the facts indicated death from alcohol or heroin . Eagle's remains were returned to her hometown and buried in Calvary Cemetery.

Award

Jeanne Eagels in 1930 posthumously as best actress in the film The Letter for the Academy Award nominated. Her portrayal in this film inspired many actors (including Bette Davis ) to devote themselves to the sound film. Bette Davis played the role of Leslie Crosbie in a 1940 remake .

Filmography

• 1915: The House of Fear
• 1916: The World and the Woman
• 1917: The Fires of Youth
• 1917: Under False Colors
• 1918: The Cross Bearer
• 1919: The Madonna of the Slums
• 1927: Man, Woman and Sin
• 1929: The Letter
• 1929: Jealousy

Theater (selection)

• Jumping Jupiter
• The Mind the Paint Girl
• The Crinoline Girl
• 1917: The Professors Love Story
• 1918: Daddies
• 1919: A young mans fancy
• 1920: The Wonderful Thing
• 1921: In the Night Watch
• 1922: Rain

Web links

Commons : Jeanne Eagels  - Collection of Images

• Jeanne Eagels in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Jeanne Eagels in the Internet Broadway Database (English)
• Jeanne Eagels website (English)