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Miriam Hopkins

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For the Irish Olympic swimmer, see Miriam Hopkins (swimmer).
Miriam Hopkins
Hopkins in the 1930s
Born
Ellen Miriam Hopkins

(1902-10-18)October 18, 1902
Savannah, Georgia, U.S.
DiedOctober 9, 1972(1972-10-09) (aged 69)
New York City, U.S.
OccupationActress
Years active1921–1970
Political partyDemocratic
Spouses
  • Brandon Peters (1926–1927)
  • Austin Parker (1928–1931)
  • Anatole Litvak (1937–1939)
  • Raymond B. Brock (1945–1951)
Children1

Ellen Miriam Hopkins (October 18, 1902 – October 9, 1972) was an American actress known for her versatility.[1] She signed with Paramount Pictures in 1930.

She portrayed a pickpocket in Ernst Lubitsch's romantic comedy Trouble in Paradise, a bar singer Ivy in Rouben Mamoulian's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the titular character in the controversial drama The Story of Temple Drake. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for the 1935 film Becky Sharp, becoming the first performer nominated for a color picture. She was nominated for a Golden Globe for The Heiress. She co-starred with Joel McCrea in five films.

Her long-running feud with actress Bette Davis was publicized for effect. Hopkins later became a pioneer of TV drama. She was considered a distinguished hostess in Hollywood and moved in intellectual and creative circles.

Early life

Hopkins was born in Savannah, Georgia, to Homer Hopkins and Ellen Cutler.[2] Her early childhood home was located at 321 Whitaker St (since demolished).[3] She was raised in Bainbridge, near the Alabama border. She had an older sister, Ruby (1900–1990).[4] Her maternal great-grandfather, the fourth mayor of Bainbridge, had helped establish St. John's Episcopal Church in the city.[5] Hopkins sang in the choir as a girl.[6]

In 1909, she briefly lived in Mexico with her family. After her parents separated, Hopkins moved as a teen with her mother to Syracuse, New York, to be near her paternal uncle, Thomas Cramer Hopkins, head of the geology department at Syracuse University.[7]

Hopkins attended Goddard Seminary in Plainfield, Vermont (later renamed Goddard College), and Syracuse University in New York State.[7]

Career

With Fredric March in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
With Fredric March and Gary Cooper in Design for Living (1933)
Hopkins and Herbert Marshall in a publicity photo for Trouble in Paradise (1932)
Miriam Hopkins in the Broadway production of Jezebel (1933), an Owen Davis play. It was later adapted as a 1938 film but Hopkins lost the lead role to Bette Davis.

At age 20, Hopkins became a chorus girl in New York City; she also acted regularly on the stage throughout the 1920s, including in the 1926 stage adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy. In 1930, she starred on Broadway in the play Ritzy by Sidney Toler. She starred on Broadway in the lead of Jezebel, a 1933 play by Owen Davis. When it was adapted as a 1938 film of the same name, Hopkins was bitterly disappointed that Bette Davis was chosen for the role she had played on stage. This began a feud between them, which the motion picture studios publicized.

In 1930, Hopkins signed with Paramount Pictures and made her official film debut in Fast and Loose. Her first great success was in the 1931 horror drama film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, where she portrayed Ivy Pearson, a prostitute who becomes entangled with Jekyll and Hyde. She received rave reviews, including one from Mordaunt Hall of the New York Times, saying she portrayed Ivy "splendidly".[8]

Her career ascended swiftly. In 1932, she made her breakthrough in Ernst Lubitsch's Trouble in Paradise, where she proved her charm and wit as a beautiful and jealous pickpocket.[9] During the pre-code Hollywood of the early 1930s, she appeared in The Smiling Lieutenant, The Story of Temple Drake, and Design for Living, all of which were box-office successes and critically acclaimed.[10] Design for Living ranked as one of the top ten highest-grossing films of 1933.

Hopkins' early films were considered sexually risqué; produced in the years before the Motion Picture Production Code was rigorously enforced, they featured issues that would be prohibited after 1934. For instance, The Story of Temple Drake depicted a rape scene, and Design for Living featured a ménage à trois with Fredric March and Gary Cooper. Her successes continued during the remainder of the decade with the romantic comedy The Richest Girl in the World (1934); the historical drama Becky Sharp (1935), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress; Barbary Coast (1935); These Three (1936) (the first of four films with the director William Wyler); and The Old Maid (1939).

Hopkins was one of the early actresses approached to play the role of Ellie Andrews in It Happened One Night (1934). She rejected the part, and Claudette Colbert was cast.[11] Hopkins auditioned for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind; she was the only candidate to be a native Georgian, but the part went to British actress Vivien Leigh.

Hopkins had well-publicized fights with Bette Davis. Hopkins and Davis co-starred in The Old Maid (1939) and Old Acquaintance (1943). In this period, she believed that Davis was having an affair with her husband Anatole Litvak.[12] Davis resented her jealousy and said that she had enjoyed shaking Hopkins in a scene in Old Acquaintance after Hopkins's character makes unfounded allegations against Davis's. Press photos featured the two divas in a boxing ring, gloves up, with the director Vincent Sherman between them like a referee. In later interviews, Davis described Hopkins as a "terribly good actress", but also "terribly jealous".[citation needed]

After Old Acquaintance, Hopkins did not work in films again until The Heiress (1949), where she played the lead character's aunt. In Mitchell Leisen's 1951 comedy The Mating Season, she gave a comic performance as the mother of Gene Tierney's character. She also acted in The Children's Hour (1961), a remake of her film These Three (1936). In the remake, she played the aunt to Shirley MacLaine, who took Hopkins' original role.[13] Her last film roles included Robert Redford's mother in The Chase (1966) and as an ageing former Hollywood star in the horror film Savage Intruder (1970).

Hopkins was a television pioneer. She performed in teleplays from the late 1940s through the late 1960s, in such programs as The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre (1949), Pulitzer Prize Playhouse (1951), Lux Video Theatre (1951–1955), and in episodes of The Investigators (1961) and The Outer Limits (1964), and even in an episode of The Flying Nun ("Bertrille and the Silent Flicks") in 1969.

She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for film at 1709 Vine Street and one for television at 1716 Vine Street.[14]

Personal life

Hopkins married four times. Her first marriage was to actor Brandon Peters, second to aviator and screenwriter Austin Parker, third to the director Anatole Litvak, and fourth to war correspondent Raymond B. Brock.[15] In 1932, she adopted a son, Michael T. Hopkins (March 29, 1932 – October 5, 2010), who had a career in the U.S. Air Force.[16]

She was known for hosting elegant parties. John O'Hara, a frequent guest, noted that

most of her guests were chosen from the world of the intellect ... Miriam knew them all, had read their work, had listened to their music, had bought their paintings. They were not there because a secretary had given her a list of highbrows.[17]

She was a staunch Democrat who strongly supported the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt.[9]

Death

Hopkins died in New York City from a heart attack on October 9, 1972. She is buried in Oak City Cemetery in Bainbridge, Georgia.[18]

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1928 The Home Girl short Paramount film
1930 Fast and Loose Marion Lenox Hopkins's feature film debut
1931 The Smiling Lieutenant Princess Anna The first of three films Hopkins made with Lubitsch
24 Hours Rosie Duggan
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Ivy Pearson
1932 Two Kinds of Women Emma Krull
Dancers in the Dark Gloria Bishop
The World and the Flesh Maria Yaskaya
Trouble in Paradise Lily Second film directed by Lubitsch and starring Hopkins
1933 The Story of Temple Drake Temple Drake Based on Faulkner's scandalous novel Sanctuary
The Stranger's Return Louise Starr
Design for Living Gilda Farrell Third and final film Hopkins and Lubitsch made together
1934 All of Me Lydia Darrow
She Loves Me Not Curly Flagg
The Richest Girl in the World Dorothy Hunter First of five films Hopkins and Joel McCrea made together
1935 Becky Sharp Becky Sharp Nominated – Academy Award for Best Actress
The first feature film made in three-strip Technicolor
Barbary Coast Mary 'Swan' Rutledge Second film starring Hopkins and McCrea
Splendor Phyllis Manning Lorrimore Third film starring Hopkins and McCrea
1936 These Three Martha Dobie The film was adapted from the 1934 play The Children's Hour by Lillian Hellman.
Fourth film starring Hopkins and McCrea
Men Are Not Gods Ann Williams
1937 The Woman I Love Madame Helene Maury Hopkins married director Anatole Litvak shortly after this film was made.
Woman Chases Man Virginia Travis Final film Hopkins and Joel McCrea made together
Wise Girl Susan 'Susie' Fletcher
1939 The Old Maid Delia Lovell Ralston The first of two films Hopkins made with Bette Davis
1940 Virginia City Julia Hayne Hopkins co-starred with Errol Flynn
Lady with Red Hair Mrs. Leslie Carter
1942 A Gentleman After Dark Flo Melton
1943 Old Acquaintance Millie Drake Second of two films Hopkins made with Bette Davis.
1949 The Heiress Lavinia Penniman Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
1951 The Mating Season Fran Carleton
1952 The Outcasts of Poker Flat Mrs. Shipton / 'The Duchess'
Carrie Julie Hurstwood
1961 The Children's Hour Lily Mortar Hopkins had starred in the original film adaptation of the play The Children's Hour titled These Three in the role of Martha Dobie. In this film, Shirley MacLaine played Martha, and Miriam Hopkins played her Aunt Lily.
1964 Fanny Hill Mrs. Maude Brown
1966 The Chase Mrs. Reeves Hopkins played the mother of Robert Redford's character
1970 Savage Intruder Katharine Parker

Sources

  • Ellenberger, Allan R. (2017). Miriam Hopkins: Life and Films of a Hollywood Rebel. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131743-1-0

References

  1. ^ Obituary Variety, October 11, 1972, p. 71.
  2. ^ Virginia, Marriage Records 1936–2014
  3. ^ "GHS 1360 Cordray-Foltz Photography Studio photographs, Georgia Historical Society". georgiahistory.com. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
  4. ^ 1910 United States Federal Census
  5. ^ "St. John's Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA". Episcopal Church. June 13, 2011.
  6. ^ "Miriam Hopkins (1902–1972)". Georgiaencyclopedia.org. August 28, 2013. Retrieved October 17, 2015.
  7. ^ a b T.C. Hopkins Faculty Profile Archived 2014-11-13 at the Wayback Machine, archives.syr.edu; accessed June 27, 2015.
  8. ^ The New York Times Book of Movies: The Essential 1,000 Films to See, Universe Publishing, 2019, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", p. 310, first published January 2, 1932
  9. ^ a b Michael Janeway (August 22, 2009). The Fall of the House of Roosevelt: Brokers of Ideas and Power from FDR to LBJ. Columbia University Press. p. 102. ISBN 9780231505772. Retrieved October 17, 2015.
  10. ^ Douglas W. Churchill (December 30, 1934). "The Year in Hollywood: 1984 May Be Remembered as the Beginning of the Sweetness-and-Light Era". New York Times. p. X5.
  11. ^ Wiley, Mason; Damien Bona (1987). Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards. Ballantine Books. p. 54. ISBN 0-345-34453-7.
  12. ^ Soares, Andre (December 3, 2006). "Miriam Hopkins Biography in the Works". Alternative Film Guide.
  13. ^ "The Children's Hour (1961)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
  14. ^ "Miriam Hopkins". Hollywood Walk of Fame. 25 October 2019. Archived from the original on November 20, 2019. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
  15. ^ "Miriam Hopkins' Third Wedding". Adelaide News. 25 October 1945. p. 3. Retrieved 20 October 2024. The film and stage actress Miriam Hopkins married Raymond Brock, war correspondent, in the Methodist Church at Alexandria (Virginia). It was her third marriage and Brock's second.
  16. ^ Ellenberger 2017, pp. 231, 249, 256, 273
  17. ^ "TimesMachine". Timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved October 17, 2015.
  18. ^ Ellenberger 2017, p. 272
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