Gloria Stuart
 | This article has an unclear citation style. (June 2010) |
Gloria Stuart | |
|---|---|
 from the film Here Comes the Navy (1934) | |
| Born | Gloria Frances Stewart July 4, 1910 |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1932–1946; 1975–2004 |
| Spouse(s) |
Blair Gordon Newell
(m. 1930–1934)Arthur Sheekman (1934–1978) (his death) |
| Partner | Ward Ritchie (1983–1996) (his death) |
Gloria Stuart (born July 4, 1910) is an American actress. Over a Hollywood career that has spanned more than 70 years, Stuart appeared on stage, in television and film, and is best known for her roles as Claude Rains' sweetheart in The Invisible Man and as Old Rose in her Academy Award nominated role in the film Titanic.
Early life and career
A third-generation Californian, she was born Gloria Frances Stewart in Santa Monica, California to Frank Stewart, an attorney, and Alice Vaughan Deidrick Stewart, a homemaker. Gloria had a younger brother, Frank, born 11 months after her. A second brother, Thomas, died as an infant. Frank Stewart--about to take the bench as a judge--died from complications of an automobile accident in 1919. Alice worked in the local post office to support her children, then married Fred J. Finch, a local entrepreneur. Gloria's half-sister, Patricia Marie Finch, was born in 1914. Her brother Frank took Finch's name and became a noted sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times, following the Dodgers after they moved to Los Angeles. The Stewarts were descended from the royal clan of Scotland, but Gloria changed the spelling when she began her acting career because 'Stuart' fit better on a theater marquee.
She attended Santa Monica High School, graduating in 1927. She enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley but dropped out in her junior year to marry Blair Gordon Newell, a sculptor. They lived in Carmel, were part of a circle of artists including Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and Robinson Jeffers. Stuart acted at the local playhouse and worked on the local newspaper. Returning to Los Angeles, she appeared at the Pasadena Playhouse and was immediately signed to a contract by Universal Studios. She was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1932. Elegant, intelligent, and extraordinarily beautiful, she became a favorite of the English director, James Whale, appearing in his The Old Dark House, The Kiss Before The Mirror, The Invisible Man.
Stuart was an activist, became a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild, but her career with Universal failed to gain momentum. She moved to 20th Century Fox, and by the end of the decade she had starred in more than forty films, including Roman Scandals, the Busby Berkeley spectacular Gold Diggers of 1935 and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Some of her co-stars during the 1930s included Don Ameche, Lionel Barrymore, Dick Powell, Kay Francis, Raymond Massey, Paul Lukas, John Boles, John Beal, and Shirley Temple. Stuart was always a female lead rather than a major star.
In 1934, Stuart divorced Newell, then married screenwriter Arthur Sheekman, who was Groucho Marx's closest friend and a writer of many Marx Brothers movies. Their daughter, Sylvia, was born in 1935. The couple took a trip around the world in 1939, and returned to New York at the outbreak of World War II. While Sheekman wrote plays (collaborating with George S. Kaufman), Stuart worked in the theater, playing Emily to Thornton Wilder's Stage Manager in Our Town in summer stock. Neither Sheekman's nor Stuart's plays caught fire and they returned to Hollywood. Stuart worked for the war effort and made two more films, then retired from filmmaking in 1946 to turn her energies to decorating and art. She opened a shop called Décor Ltd. where she sold the découpage objects of art she created. In 1954, she and Sheekman decided to join a number of their friends who were living abroad. They settled in Rapallo on the Italian Riviera and she took up oil painting. Stuart had her first one-woman show at the Hammer Galleries in New York, sold most of the canvasses, which were of a charming primitive style.
Return to acting – 1970s to 2000s
After a thirty-year break from acting, with her husband in a nursing home suffering from what was then called "pre-senile dementia," Stuart got herself an agent and went back to work. Sheekman died in 1978, and over the next few years Stuart appeared regularly in small parts in both television and films. One of her favorite scenes in all her films is the one in 1982 when, as an elegant dowager, she had a solitary turn around the dance floor with a gorgeous Peter O'Toole in My Favorite Year. It was only a few minutes on the screen and she had no lines, but Stuart was still a beauty and O'Toole's eyes shimmer. She also began to travel again, going with friends or on her own to Europe, India, Africa, the Balkans.
In 1983, Stuart became reacquainted with the esteemed California printer, Ward Ritchie (The Ward Ritchie Press), whom she had known in her college years. Ritchie's wife had died and he looked Gloria up. They fell in love. She was fascinated by his hand press, and with her curiosity and artistic talent, she asked him to teach her how to do what he did. Soon she established her own press,"Imprenta Glorias," and began creating artists' books (books hand-made with a very limited run). She wrote the text, designed the book, set the type, printed the books, and finished pages with water colors or other media. Her books are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, the Library of Congress, The Huntington Library, The J. Paul Getty Museum, the Morgan Library, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and numerous private and university collections. No longer able to work with small type, she gave her press and collection of rare type to Mills College. Stuart and Ritchie were together until his death from cancer in 1996.
Out of the blue, lacking an agent (hers had retired), Stuart suddenly found herself with the role of a lifetime, Old Rose, who is at the heart of James Cameron's epic Titanic. Always yearning to be regarded as a fine actress, after seventy years, Stuart's name was among those nominated for an Oscar ]], Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award. At 87, Stuart became the oldest nominee for a Oscar. It was a bitter loss when the Oscar went to Kim Basinger, but Stuart tied with Basinger for the SAG Award, which meant a great deal.
Stuart published her autobiography, I Just Kept Hoping, in 1999, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2000. Her last appearance on film was a role in Wim Wenders' Land of Plenty in 2004, although she has given filmed interviews and audio commentaries as herself in 2007, 2008 and 2009. On July 4, 2010, Gloria celebrated her 100th birthday. She continues to work at her artist's books, finishing a miniature called, "I Dated Robert Oppenheimer." Stay tuned...
Awards and honors
On June 21, 2010 Stuart was honored by the Screen Actors Guild for her seventy years of service. She was given the Ralph Morgan Award by Titanic co-star Frances Fisher and in response to receiving this accolade Stuart replied by saying, "I'm very, very grateful. I've had a wonderful life of giving and sharing".[1]
On July 4, 2010 Stuart celebrated her 100th birthday at the ACE Gallery in Beverly Hills with a party hosted by the director of Titanic, James Cameron and his wife, Suzy Amis. Frances Fisher, Shirley MacLaine and Tom Arnold were among the guests.[2] On July 22 The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored her career with a program featuring film clips and a conversation between Stuart and film historian Leonard Maltin.[3] Stuart later said that she relates with her comeback character of Titanic's 100 year old Rose saying that she herself is an old woman whose heart is filled with love and she later said of this; "I think that's the important thing, if you're full of love, admiration, appreciation of the beautiful things there are in this life, you have it made, really. And I have it made."[4]
Filmography
Television
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References
- ^ http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/stuart-honoured-by-screen-actors-guild_1148669
- ^ "'Titanic' star Gloria Stuart turns 100". USA Today. July 6, 2010. Retrieved 2010-7-7.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ "Gloria Stuart to celebrate 100th birthday by being honored by the Academy". HollywoodNews.com. July 1, 2010. Retrieved 2010-7-7.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100722/ap_en_ot/us_people_gloria_stuart_5
Sources
- Stuart, Gloria (1999-09-08). Gloria Stuart: I Just Kept Hoping. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. ISBN 0316815713.
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External links
