Claire Trevor
| Claire Trevor | |
|---|---|
 Trevor in Murder, My Sweet (1944) |
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| Born | Claire Wemlinger March 8, 1910 Brooklyn, New York, United States |
| Died | April 8, 2000 (aged 90) Newport Beach, California, United States |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1933–1987 |
| Spouse | Clark Andrews (1938-1942) Cylos William Dunsmoore (1943 -1947) 1 son Milton H. Bren (1948-1979) (his death) |
Claire Trevor (March 8, 1910[1][2] – April 8, 2000) was an Academy Award-winning American actress. She was nicknamed the "Queen of Film Noir" because of her many appearances in "bad girl” roles in film noir and other black-and-white thrillers. She appeared in over 60 films.
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[edit] Early life
Trevor was born as Claire Wemlinger in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York in 1910 (some sources state 1909, 1911 or 1912),[3][4] the only child of Noel and Betty Wemlinger, a Fifth Avenue merchant tailor and his wife, and grew up in Larchmont, New York.[5] Her family was of German, Irish American and French American descent.
[edit] Career
According to her biography on the website of Claire Trevor School of the Arts, "Trevor's acting career spanned more than seven decades and included successes in stage, radio, television and film. . . . [S]he often played the hard-boiled blonde, and every conceivable type of 'bad girl' role."[6]
After completing high school, Trevor began her career with six months of art classes at Columbia University and six months at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, performing in stock in the late 1920s . By 1932 she was starring on Broadway; that same year she began appearing in Brooklyn-filmed Vitaphone shorts. Her first credited film role was in the 1933 film Life in the Raw, with her feature film debut coming that same year in Jimmy and Sally (1933), with her portraying "Sally Johnson".
From 1933 through 1938, Trevor starred in 29 films, often having either the lead role or the role of heroine. In 1937, she starred with Humphrey Bogart in Dead End, which would lead to her being nominated for Best Supporting Actress. From 1937 to 1940, she appeared with Edward G. Robinson in the popular radio series Big Town, while continuing to make movies.
By 1939, she was well established as a solid "leading lady". Some of her most memorable performances during this period were opposite John Wayne, including the classic 1939 western Stagecoach, which was Wayne's breakthrough role. She also starred opposite Wayne in Allegheny Uprising that same year, and again in 1940 in Dark Command. Over a decade later, she would again costar with Wayne, gaining her final Oscar nomination for The High and the Mighty.
Two of Trevor's memorable roles were starring opposite Dick Powell in Murder, My Sweet and Born to Kill, in the latter playing a divorcee who gets more than she bargained for by falling in love with a bad boy who impulsively commits a murder. Key Largo, the following year, gave Trevor the role of Gaye Dawn, the washed-up nightclub singer and gangster's moll, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
In 1957 she won an Emmy for her role in the Producers' Showcase episode entitled Dodsworth.[7]
Trevor moved into supporting roles in the 1950s, with her appearances becoming increasingly rare after the mid-1960s. She returned for one final theatrical film, playing Sally Field's caustic mother, Charlotte in Kiss Me Goodbye (1982). Her last film was the 1987 television movie Norman Rockwell's Breaking Home Ties. She made a special appearance at the 70th annual Academy Awards in 1998.
[edit] Personal life
Trevor married Clark Andrews, director of her radio show, in 1938, but they divorced four years later. Her second marriage, in 1943, to Navy lieutenant Cylos William Dunsmoore produced a son, Charles. The marriage ended in divorce in 1947. The next year, Trevor married Milton Bren, a film producer with two sons from a previous marriage, and soon after moved to Newport Beach, California.
In 1978, her son Charles Dunsmoore Bren died in the crash of PSA Flight 182 in San Diego, followed by the death of her husband Milton Bren from a brain tumor in 1979. Devastated by these losses, she returned to New York for a number of years, living in a Fifth Avenue apartment and taking a few acting roles amid a busy social life. Eventually she returned to California, where she became a generous supporter of the arts.[8]
[edit] Death
Claire Trevor died of respiratory failure in Newport Beach, April 8, 2000 at the age of 90.[9] For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Claire Trevor has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6933 Hollywood Blvd.
[edit] Legacy
The Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine was named in Trevor's honor. Both her Oscar and Emmy statuettes are on display in the Arts Plaza there, next to the Claire Trevor Theatre.
[edit] Filmography
| Film | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
| 1933 | Jimmy and Sally | Sally Johnson | |
| The Mad Game | Jane Lee | ||
| The Last Trail | Patricia Carter | ||
| Life in the Raw | Judy Halloway | ||
| 1934 | Elinor Norton | Elinor Norton | |
| Baby Take a Bow | Kay Ellison | ||
| Wild Gold | Jerry Jordan | ||
| Hold That Girl | Tonie Bellamy | ||
| 1935 | Spring Tonic | Betty Ingals | |
| Black Sheep | Jeanette Foster | ||
| My Marriage | Carol Barton | ||
| Navy Wife | Vicky Blake | ||
| Dante's Inferno | Betty McWade | ||
| 1936 | Career Woman | Carroll Aiken | |
| Star for a Night | Nina Lind | ||
| To Mary - with Love | Kitty Brant | ||
| Human Cargo | Bonnie Brewster | ||
| Song and Dance Man | Julia Carroll | ||
| 15 Maiden Lane | Jane Martin | ||
| 1937 | Big Town Girl | Fay Loring | |
| Second Honeymoon | Marcia | ||
| One Mile from Heaven | Lucy 'Tex' Warren | ||
| King of Gamblers | Dixie Moore | ||
| Time Out for Romance | Barbara Blanchard | ||
| Dead End | Francey | Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress | |
| 1938 | Five of a Kind | Christine Nelson | |
| Valley of the Giants | Lee Roberts | ||
| Walking Down Broadway | Joan Bradley | ||
| The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse | Jo Keller | ||
| 1939 | Stagecoach | Dallas | |
| I Stole a Million | Laura Benson | ||
| Allegheny Uprising | Janie MacDougall | ||
| 1940 | Dark Command | Miss Mary Cloud | |
| 1941 | Texas | Mike King | |
| Honky Tonk | 'Gold Dust' Nelson | ||
| 1942 | The Adventures of Martin Eden | Connie Dawson | |
| Crossroads | Michelle Allaine | ||
| Street of Chance | Ruth Dillon | ||
| 1943 | The Woman of the Town | Dora Hand | |
| Good Luck, Mr. Yates | Ruth Jones | ||
| The Desperadoes | Countess Maletta | ||
| 1944 | Murder, My Sweet | Mrs. Helen Grayle | |
| 1945 | Johnny Angel | Lilah 'Lily' Gustafson | |
| 1946 | The Bachelor's Daughters | Cynthia | |
| Crack-Up | Terry Cordell | ||
| 1947 | Born to Kill | Helen Trent | |
| 1948 | Raw Deal | Pat Cameron | |
| The Velvet Touch | Marian Webster | ||
| The Babe Ruth Story | Claire (Hodgson) Ruth | ||
| Key Largo | Gaye Dawn | Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress | |
| 1949 | The Lucky Stiff | Marguerite Seaton | |
| 1950 | Borderline | Madeleine Haley, aka Gladys LaRue | |
| 1951 | Best of the Badmen | Lily | |
| Hard, Fast and Beautiful | Millie Farley | ||
| 1952 | Stop, You're Killing Me | Nora Marko | |
| My Man and I | Mrs. Ansel Ames | ||
| Hoodlum Empire | Connie Williams | ||
| 1953 | The Stranger Wore a Gun | Josie Sullivan | |
| 1954 | The High and the Mighty | May Holst | Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| 1955 | Man Without a Star | Idonee | |
| Lucy Gallant | Lady MacBeth | ||
| 1956 | The Mountain | Marie | |
| 1958 | Marjorie Morningstar | Rose Morgenstern | |
| 1962 | Two Weeks in Another Town | Clara Kruger | |
| 1963 | The Stripper | Helen Baird | |
| 1965 | How to Murder Your Wife | Edna | |
| 1967 | The Cape Town Affair | Sam Williams | |
| 1982 | Kiss Me Goodbye | Charlotte Banning | |
| Television | |||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1953–1954 | The Ford Television Theatre | Felicia Crandell | 2 episodes |
| 1954–1955 | Lux Video Theatre | 2 episodes | |
| 1954–1956 | General Electric Theater | Cora Leslie | 2 episodes |
| 1955 | Stage 7 | 1 episode | |
| 1956 | Climax! | 1 episode | |
| Schlitz Playhouse of Stars | 1 episode | ||
| Producers' Showcase | Fran Dodsworth | 1 episode Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Drama |
|
| 1956–1961 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Mary Prescott Mrs. Meade |
2 episodes |
| 1957 | Playhouse 90 | Elizabeth Owen | 1 episode |
| 1959 | Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse | Savannah Brown | 1 episode |
| Wagon Train | C.L. Harding | 1 episode | |
| The Untouchables | Kate Clark 'Ma' Barker | 1 episode | |
| 1960 | The United States Steel Hour | 1 episode | |
| 1961 | The Investigators | Kitty Harper | 1 episode |
| 1962 | Dr. Kildare | Veronica Johnson | 1 episode |
| 1983 | The Love Boat | 1 episode | |
| 1987 | Murder, She Wrote | Judith Harlan | 1 episode |
| Breaking Home Times | Grace Porter | Television movie | |
[edit] References
- ^ Drew, William M. (1999). At the Center of the Frame: Leading Ladies of the Twenties and Thirties. Vestal Press. pp. 319. ISBN 1-879-51142-8.
- ^ Hagen, Ray; Laura Wagner (2004). Killer Tomatoes: Fifteen Tough Film Dames. McFarland. pp. 222. ISBN 0-786-41883-4.
- ^ "Oscar Winner Claire Trevor Dies". highbeam.com. 2000-04-08. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-25742873.html. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
- ^ "Claire Trevor Biography (1909-2000)". filmreference.com. http://www.filmreference.com/film/5/Claire-Trevor.html. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
- ^ "Claire Trevor, 91, Versatile Actress, Dies". New York Times. 2000-04-10. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06EFDB163EF933A25757C0A9669C8B63&n=Top%2FFeatures%2FMovies%2FNews%20and%20Features%2FObituaries. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
- ^ "About Claire Trevor," Claire Trevor School of the Arts, University of California, Irvine
- ^ The Complete Directory to Prime Netwok and Cable TV Shows, 1946- Present. Ballantine Books. 2003. pp. 1413. ISBN 0-345-45542-8.
- ^ "Claire Trevor, 91, Versatile Actress, Dies". New York Times. 2000-04-10. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06EFDB163EF933A25757C0A9669C8B63&n=Top%2FFeatures%2FMovies%2FNews%20and%20Features%2FObituaries. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
- ^ "Claire Trevor, 91, Versatile Actress, Dies". New York Times. 2000-04-10. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06EFDB163EF933A25757C0A9669C8B63&n=Top%2FFeatures%2FMovies%2FNews%20and%20Features%2FObituaries. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Claire Trevor |
- "Claire Trevor, 91, Versatile Actress, Dies" The New York Times, April 10, 2000
- Claire Trevor at the Internet Movie Database
- Claire Trevor at the Internet Broadway Database
- Claire Trevor School of the Arts
- Photographs of Claire Trevor
- Claire Trevor at Find a Grave
- Claire Trevor and her young son
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