Gloria Grahame

Posted July 27, 201113 yr

Gloria Grahame (November 28, 1923 – October 5, 1981) was an American Academy Award–winning actress.

Grahame began her acting career in theatre, and in 1944 she made her first film for MGM. Despite a featured role in It's a Wonderful Life (1946), MGM did not believe she had the potential for major success, and sold her contract to RKO Studios. Often cast in film noir projects, Grahame received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Crossfire (1947), and she won this award for her work in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). She achieved her highest profile with Sudden Fear (1952), Human Desire (1953),The Big Heat (1953), and Oklahoma! (1955), but her film career began to wane soon afterwards.

She returned to work on the stage, but continued to appear in films and television productions, usually in supporting roles. Diagnosed with stomach cancer in 1980, Grahame refused to accept the diagnosis and travelled to England to work in a play. Her health rapidly failed and she returned to New York City, where she died in 1981.

Early life

Grahame was born Gloria Hallward in Los Angeles, California. Reginald Michael Bloxam Hallward, her father, was an architect and author and her mother, Jeanne McDougall, who used the stage name Jean Grahame, was a British stage actress and acting teacher. McDougall taught her younger daughter acting during her childhood and adolescence. The couple had another daughter, Joy Hallward (1911–2003), an actress who married John Mitchum (the younger brother of actor Robert Mitchum).

Grahame was signed to a contract with MGM Studios under her professional name after Louis B. Mayer saw her performing on Broadway for several years.

Career

She made her film debut in Blonde Fever (1944) and then scored one of her most widely praised roles as the promiscuous Violet, saved from disgrace by George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life (1946). MGM was not able to develop her potential as a star and her contract was sold to RKO Studios in 1947.

Grahame was often featured in film noir pictures as a tarnished beauty with an irresistible sexual allure. During this time, she made films for several Hollywood studios. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Crossfire (1947).

in her Academy Award–winning role in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

Grahame starred with Humphrey Bogart in the 1950 film In a Lonely Place, a performance which garnered her considerable praise. Though today it is considered among her finest performances, it wasn't a box-office hit and Howard Hughes, owner of RKO Studios, admitted that he never saw it. When she asked to be loaned out for roles in Born Yesterday and A Place in the Sun, Hughes refused and instead made her do a supporting role in Macao. However, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in MGM's The Bad and the Beautiful (1952).

Other memorable roles included the scheming Irene Nieves in Sudden Fear (1952), the femme fatale Vicki Buckley in Human Desire (1953), and mob moll Debby Marsh in Fritz Lang's The Big Heat (1953) in which, in a horrifying off-screen scene, she is scarred by hot coffee thrown in her face by Lee Marvin's character.

Grahame's career began to wane after her performance in the musical film Oklahoma! (1955). Grahame, whom audiences were used to seeing as a film noir siren, was miscast as an ignorant country lass in a wholesome musical, and the paralysis of her upper lip from plastic surgery altered her speech and appearance. She began a slow return to the theater, and returned to films occasionally to play supporting roles, mostly in minor releases. She appeared on television too, including an episode of the ABC sitcom, Harrigan and Son, starring Pat O'Brien, and a memorable episode of the gothic sci-fi series The Outer Limits, in which she spoofed her own career by playing a forgotten film star living in the past.

Grahame has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6522 Hollywood Boulevard for her contribution to Motion Pictures.

Personal life

Grahame had a string of stormy romances and failed marriages during her time in Hollywood, including marriages to director Nicholas Ray and later to Ray's son, Anthony, with whom she had an affair while still married to Ray. All of this took a toll on her career, as did a two-year hiatus after the birth of her daughter in 1956. Marital and child custody problems hampered her performance on the set of Oklahoma! Additionally, the actress's concern over the appearance of her upper lip led her to pursue plastic surgery and dental operations that caused visible scarring and ultimately rendered the lip largely immobile because of nerve damage, which affected her speech.

She married:

Stanley Clements (1926–1981), actor, married August 1945, divorced 1 June 1948.

Nicholas Ray, director, married 1 June 1948, separated 1951, divorced 1952. The couple had one child, Timothy (born November 1948, aka David Cyrus Howard during his mother's third marriage). Their marriage ended when Ray found Grahame in bed with his 13 year old son by his first marriage, Anthony, whom she later married.

Cy Howard, writer, married 1954, divorced 1957. They had one daughter, Marianna Paulette (born 1956).

Anthony Ray, her former stepson, married May 1960, divorced 1974. The Rays had two sons, Anthony Jr (born 1963) and James (born 1965).

In the late 1970s, Grahame traveled to England to perform in plays. While there, she met Liverpool actor Peter Turner with whom she had a romantic relationship. They moved to the USA and lived in New York and California, where their affair ended. Turner subsequently returned to England.

Death

In 1980, Grahame was diagnosed with stomach cancer but refused surgery, insisting that she did not have the disease. In 1981, she traveled to England to perform in a play. While there, a procedure to have fluid drained from her stomach resulted in a perforated bowel. This became apparent only after she collapsed during a rehearsal.

Peter Turner heard the news that Grahame was ill in a hotel in Lancaster, England. Accompanied by members of his family, he collected her and took her to his home in Aigburth, Liverpool. There, he and his family nursed her until some of her children arrived to take her back to New York where, at the age of 57, she died.

She is interred in Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California, as Gloria H. Grahame.

Bibliography

Vincent Curcio, Suicide Blonde: The Life of Gloria Grahame (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1989)

Peter Turner, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (New York: Grove Press, 1987)

Filmography

1944 Blonde Fever Sally Murfin

1945 Without Love Flower girl

1946 It's a Wonderful Life Violet Bick

1947 It Happened in Brooklyn Nurse

Crossfire Ginny Tremaine Nominated - Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Song of the Thin Man Fran Ledue Page

Merton of the Movies Beulah Baxter