Ruth Chatterton

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Ruth Chatterton (1921)

Ruth Chatterton (born December 24, 1892 in New York City , New York , United States , † November 24, 1961 in Norwalk , Connecticut , United States) was an American actress , writer of plays and novels and pilot. She was the Paramount's biggest female star during the early 1930s .

Life

Ruth Chatterton was the daughter of a respected and successful architect. She made her stage debut at the age of twelve, got her first engagement on Broadway at 18, and became a stage star two years later by starring in Daddy Long Legs .

Despite several offers, she made her first film, and only silent film , Sins of the Fathers alongside Emil Jannings in 1928. With the advent of talkies, her clear pronunciation quickly became popular, and in 1929 she became the studio's biggest star through the filming of the stage classic Madame X , directed by Lionel Barrymore . She was loaned to MGM and nominated for one of the first Oscars . The great success of the film earned Chatterton the title First Lady of the Talkies . In the following years, the studio often used her as a light-hearted lady with a dubious background in melodramatic love stories or as an elegant member of society in comedies such as The Laughing Lady or Charming Sinners , both in 1929. She had her greatest financial success in 1930 with Sarah and Son , who showed her as an Austrian singer who has to give up her illegitimate son and is happy in the end. Critics praised her ability to subtly modulate the heavy accent of the beginning as the plot progresses. Given the still inadequate recording technique, that was a significant achievement that earned her her second Oscar nomination. The Right to Love from the same year presented Chatterton in a dual role as a stiff missionary and her restless daughter.

At the end of 1931, Chatterton, whose position as the studio's biggest star was endangered by Marlene Dietrich , was lured away for a total of $ 675,000 for six films by Warner Brothers , which corresponded to a fee of $ 112,500 per film. The contract ran for two years and Chatterton received $ 35,000 instantly and the remainder to gain tax benefits, spread over 80 weekly installments of $ 8,000. Chatterton had stipulated a say in all scripts as well as in the choice of cast and director. The first film she made in 1932 was an elegant comedy, The Rich Are Always with Us , in which the young Bette Davis had a supporting role. Davis later wrote in her biography that she had stood the Chatterton before the first scene they shared: I'm so damn scared of you, I'm speechless . The two actresses got along well afterwards.

Ruth Chatterton (1917)

The hoped-for career boost failed to materialize for Ruth Chatterton and the quality of the scripts gradually deteriorated. She made the last film Journal of a Crime for Warners in 1934 and left the studio after an argument after refusing to perform as a prostitute in Mandalay . After two cheaply produced films at Columbia and 20th Century Fox , her career in film seemed to be over when Samuel Goldwyn offered her the role of the aging wife of Walter Huston in Time of Love, Time of Farewell , directed by William Wyler in 1936 . The drama, which is based on a novel by Sinclair Lewis , is perhaps her best-known film today and has garnered outstanding reviews. Dissatisfied with the role offers that she then received in the USA, including the lead in Stella Dallas , Ruth Chatterton went to England in 1937, where she made two films and occasionally took roles in the theater. Her status as a movie star has been lost to younger actresses.

In 1939 she came back to the USA and then concentrated on her stage career. In 1946 she worked alongside Marlon Brando and Paul Muni in a supporting role in the play A Flag Is Born by Ben Hecht . That same year, 1946, Chatterton directed a touring performance of the tabloid Windy Hill for her old friend Kay Francis . In two current biographies about Francis you can read about the sometimes dramatic, sometimes comic events that accompanied the performances. Numerous appearances in the stock theater and in touring theater occupied the actress until the end of the 1950s. Ruth Chatterton also made sporadic appearances on television, including in 1953 alongside Maurice Evans in the first television production of Hamlet .

Chatterton published five novels from 1950. Her debut novel, Homeward Bound , dealt with anti-Semitism and made it onto the New York Times bestseller list . The Betrayers was critical of the actions taken against communists under Senator Joseph McCarthy . The other novels also had some controversial topics. Southern Wild , her last book, described the effects of racial prejudice and discrimination against members of the African-American population in the former southern United States. The actress was also involved in the American League for a Free Palestine, which actively campaigned for the establishment of the State of Israel .

Private

Ruth Chatterton was married three times: Her marriages to actors Ralph Forbes and George Brent were divorced, her third and final marriage to Barry Thomson lasted from 1942 until his death in 1960. In November 1961, she died unexpectedly of one at the age of 68 Cerebral hemorrhage in her Connecticut country home.

It was through her friendship with Amelia Earhart that Chatterton discovered her passion for recreational aviation. She organized aviation competitions in the mid-1930s, such as the Los Angeles-to-Cleveland Ruth Chatterton Continental Air Derby in August 1935. She also gave flight lessons herself, including actor Brian Aherne .

A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6263 Hollywood Boulevard commemorates the actress. With the renewed interest in " pre-code " films made before the Hays Code came into effect , Chatterton became known to a wider public again.

Filmography

  • 1928: Sins of the Fathers
  • 1929: The Doctor's Secret
  • 1929: The Dummy
  • 1929: Madame X
  • 1929: Charming Sinners
  • 1929: The Laughing Lady
  • 1930: Lullaby (Sarah and Son)
  • 1930: Paramount Parade (Paramount on Parade)
  • 1930: The Lady of Scandal
  • 1930: Anybody's Woman
  • 1930: The Right to Love
  • 1931: Unfaithful
  • 1931: The Magnificent Lie
  • 1931: Once a Lady
  • 1932: Tomorrow and Tomorrow
  • 1932: The Rich Are Always with Us
  • 1932: The Crash
  • 1932: Frisco Jenny
  • 1933: Lilly Turner
  • 1933: The boss is a beautiful woman (female)
  • 1934: Journal of a Crime
  • 1936: Lady of Secrets
  • 1936: Girls' Dormitory
  • 1936: time of love, time of parting (Dodsworth)
  • 1937: The rat (The Rat)
  • 1938: A Royal Divorce

literature

  • Scott O'Brien: Ruth Chatterton, Actress, Aviator, Author. BearManor Media, Albany GA 2013, ISBN 978-1-59393-248-0 .

Web links

Commons : Ruth Chatterton  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ US Passport Applications, 1795-1925 at www.ancestry.com
  2. ↑ compare in detail here: Emily Susan Carman: Independent Stardom. Female Stars and Freelance Labor in 1930s Hollywood. 2008, p. 43 , (Los Angeles CA, University of California, Thesis).
  3. ↑ Kentucky New Era - Google News Archive Search. Retrieved May 24, 2020 .
  4. ↑ compare Brian Aherne : A Proper Job. Houghton Mifflin, Boston MA 1969, pp. 230-231.
personal data
SURNAME Chatterton, Ruth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actress, playwright and novelist, and pilot
DATE OF BIRTH December 24, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York , United States
DATE OF DEATH November 24, 1961
Place of death Norwalk , Connecticut , United States