Ona Munson

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Ona Munson (born June 16, 1903 or 1910 in Portland , Oregon , † February 11, 1955 in New York City ; actually Owena Wolcott ) was an American actress .

Life

Ona Munson began her career in the theater. Mid-1920s, she was awarded the Broadway - musical No, No, Nanette known. The piece marked the beginning of her quite successful stage and radio career. Later she also received offers in film. After she first appeared on the screen in the silent film The Head of the Family , she was given the female lead in the musical film Going Wild (1930). This was followed by further appearances in The Hot Heiress and Broadminded in 1931 ; but after the late edition ( Five Star Final , 1931), for the sake of her first husband, she withdrew into private life for several years.

Soon after their divorce, she resumed her screen career in 1938 with His Exciting Night . Less than a year later, she was entrusted with the role of prostitute Belle Watling in Gone with the Wind , although her slim, pale-blonde appearance did not correspond to the usual notions of a Southern beauty. But after test shots , David O. Selznick was convinced that she had found the right actress. Not only the skill of the costume and make-up artists, but also the seductive, smoky voice of Munson contributed to this impression, which gave the figure the necessary sex appeal .

In the following years, the actress was often offered similar roles in westerns such as Wagons Westward , Lady from Louisiana and Idaho . Probably the most interesting job of her entire film career she received in 1941 in The Shanghai Gesture . In this dark drama, which is considered the last significant work of the director Josef von Sternberg , she played the Chinese gambling den owner Mother Gin Sling, who takes revenge on her ex-lover in a perfidious way. Thanks to her mask-like make-up and the fancy hairstyle, however, she was hardly recognizable.

In 1947 she shot her last feature film with the thriller The Red House , after the film offerings had become increasingly rare since the mid-1940s. She also appeared on television in the 1950s and was each seen in an episode of the Broadway Television Theater (1952) and Armstrong Circle Theater (1953) series.

Plagued by increasingly poor health in the last few years of her life, Ona Munson committed suicide in 1955 with an overdose of sleeping pills . The actress was married a total of three times: her first marriage to the screenwriter and film director Edward Buzzell from 1927 to 1937, from 1941 to 1947 to Stewart McDonald and from 1949 until her death to the surrealist painter Eugene Berman .

Filmography

Silent films

  • 1928: The Head of the Family (not mentioned in the opening credits)

Sound films

  • 1930: Going Wild
  • 1931: The Hot Heiress
  • 1931: Broadminded
  • 1931: late edition (Five Star Final)
  • 1938: His Exciting Night
  • 1938: Dramatic School (not mentioned in the opening credits)
  • 1938: Scandal Sheet
  • 1939: Legion of Lost Flyers
  • 1939: Gone with the Wind (Gone with the Wind)
  • 1939: The Big Guy
  • 1940: Westward Wagons
  • 1941: Lady from Louisiana
  • 1941: Settlement in Shanghai (The Shanghai Gesture)
  • 1941: Wild Geese Calling
  • 1942: Drums of the Congo
  • 1943: Idaho
  • 1943: The Cheaters
  • 1945: love in the wild (also blood on the Fargo River , cowboy love , OT Dakota )
  • 1947: The Red House
  • 1952: Broadway Television Theater - Episode: Craig's Wife (TV series)
  • 1953: Armstrong Circle Theater - Episode: The Right Approach (TV series)

Web links

Commons : Ona Munson  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ According to imdb
  2. ↑ On her tombstone, however, the year of birth is given as "1910". see findagrave (web links)
personal data
SURNAME Munson, Ona
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wolcott, Owena (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH June 16, 1903 or 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Portland , Oregon , United States
DATE OF DEATH February 11, 1955
Place of death New York City , New York , United States