COP11 Posted July 24, 2011 Posted July 24, 2011 Glenda Farrell (June 30, 1904 – May 1, 1971) was an American film actress. Career Farrell came to Hollywood towards the end of the silent era. Farrell began her career with a theatrical company at the age of 7. She played Little Eva in Uncle Tom's Cabin. She paused at times to continue her education but appeared with a number of theatrical companies and in several Broadway productions. She was in the cast of Cobra and The Best People with actress Charlotte Treadway, at the Morosco Theater in Los Angeles, California, in 1925. Farrell was first signed to a long-term contract by First National Pictures in July 1930. She was given the feminine lead in Little Caesar directed by Mervyn Leroy. Warner Brothers signed her to re-create on film the role she played in Life Begins on Broadway. Farrell worked on parts in twenty movies in her first year with the studio. She came to personify the wise-cracking, hard-boiled, and somewhat dizzy blonde of the early talkies, along with fellow Warner Brothers brassy blonde, Joan Blondell, with whom she would be frequently paired. Her brassy persona was used to great effect in Little Caesar (1931) opposite Edward G. Robinson, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) opposite Paul Muni, Havana Widows (1933) with Blondell, Bureau of Missing Persons (1933) opposite Pat O'Brien, Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) opposite Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray, and The Big Shakedown (1934) with Charles Farrell and Bette Davis. She became one of Warner Brothers’ most prolific actresses of the 1930s, solidifying her success with her own film film series, as Torchy Blane, "Girl Reporter". In this role Farrell was promoted as being able to speak 400 words in 40 seconds. Farrell would portray the character Torchy Blane in approximately eight films, from 1937 to 1939 when the role was taken over by Jane Wyman. In 1937 she starred opposite Dick Powell and Joan Blondell in the Academy Award nominated Lloyd Bacon and Busby Berkeley directed musical comedy Gold Diggers of 1937. When her Warner Brothers contact expired in 1939 she opted to focus on her stage career once again. She said that working in plays gave her more of a sense of individuality whereas in films you get frustrated because you feel you have no power over what you're doing. Farrell went out of vogue in the 1940s but made a comeback later in life, winning an Emmy Award in 1963, for her work in the television series Ben Casey. She was appearing on Broadway in Forty Carats in 1969 when she was diagnosed with lung cancer. She remained with the show until ill health forced her departure in November 1970. Glenda Farrell has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to Motion Pictures, at 6524 Hollywood Boulevard. Personal life Farrell was born to Charles and Wilhelmina "Minnie" Farrell of Irish and German descent in Enid, Oklahoma, and she had two brothers named Richard and Gene. Her son with her first husband Thomas Richards was B-Western "sidekick" actor Tommy Farrell. She dated Hollywood film writer Robert Riskin in the early 1930s and married Jack Durant of the Mitchell and Durant vaudeville team in June 1931. In 1941 Farrell became the wife of Dr. Henry Ross, a West Point graduate and Army physician who served on General Eisenhower's staff. In 1971, she died from lung cancer, aged 66, at her home in New York City and was interred in the West Point Cemetery, West Point, New York. When Dr. Ross died in 1991, he was buried with her. Filmography 1928 Lucky Boy Bit Part uncredited 1931 Little Caesar Olga Stassoff 1932 Scandal for Sale Stella Life Begins Florette Darien Three on a Match Mrs. Black, Prisoner at Checkers Table uncredited I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang Marie The Match King Babe 1933 Mystery of the Wax Museum Florence Dempsey Grand Slam Blondie Girl Missing Kay Curtis The Keyhole Dot How to Break 90#2: Position and Back Swing Golfer's Wife uncredited Gambling Ship Jeanne Sands Mary Stevens, M.D. Glenda Carroll Lady for a Day Missouri Martin Bureau of Missing Persons Belle Howard Saunders Man's Castle Fay La Rue Havana Widows Sadie Appleby 1934 The Big Shakedown Lily 'Lil' Duran Hi, Nellie! Gerry Krale I've Got Your Number Bonnie, aka Madame Francis Dark Hazard Valerie 'Val' Wilson Heat Lightning Mrs. 'Feathers' Tifton Merry Wives of Reno Bunny Fitch The Personality Kid Joan McCarty Kansas City Princess Marie Callahan The Secret Bride Hazel Normandie 1935 Gold Diggers of 1935 Betty Hawes Traveling Saleslady Claudette Ruggles Go Into Your Dance Molly Howard, aka Lucille Thompson In Caliente Mis Clara Thorne We're in the Money Dixie Tilton Little Big Shot Jean Miss Pacific Fleet Mae O'Brien 1936 Snowed Under Daisy Lowell, Wife #2 The Law in Her Hands Dorothy 'Dot' Davis Nobody's Fool Ruby Miller High Tension Edith McNeil Here Comes Carter Verna Kennedy Gold Diggers of 1937 Genevieve 'Gen' Larkin 1937 Smart Blonde Torchy Blane Fly Away Baby Torchy Blane Dance Charlie Dance Fanny Morgan You Live and Learn Mamie Wallis Breakfast for Two Carol Wallace The Adventurous Blonde Torchy Blane Hollywood Hotel Jonesie 1938 Blondes at Work Torchy Blane Stolen Heaven Rita Prison Break Jean Fenderson The Road to Reno Sylvia Shane Exposed 'Click' Stewart Torchy Gets Her Man Torchy Blane 1939 Torchy Blane in Chinatown Torchy Blane Torchy Runs for Mayor Torchy Blane 1942 Johnny Eager Mae Blythe Agridowski Twin Beds Sonya Cherupin The Talk of the Town Regina Bush 1943 City Without Men Billy LaRue A Night for Crime Susan Klondike Kate Molly 1944 Ever Since Venus Babs Cartwright 1947 Heading for Heaven Nora Elkins 1948 I Love Trouble Hazel Bixby Mary Lou Winnie Winford Lulu Belle Molly Benson 1952 Apache War Smoke Fanny Webson 1953 Girls in the Night Alice Haynes 1954 Secret of the Incas Mrs. Winston Susan Slept Here Maude Snodgrass 1955 The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing Mrs. Nesbit 1959 Middle of the Night Mrs. Mueller 1964 Kissin' Cousins Ma Tatum The Disorderly Orderly Dr. Jean Howard 1968 Tiger by the Tail Sarah Harvey Quote
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