Gloria Stuart
 | This article has an unclear citation style. (June 2010) |
Gloria Stuart | |
|---|---|
 from the film Here Comes the Navy (1934) | |
| Born | 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) |
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
On July 4th, 1910, Gloria Frances Stewart was born in Santa Monica, a third generation Californian. Her mother, Alice Vaughn Stewart, was born in Angel's Camp. Her father, Frank Stewart, was an attorney representing many of the Chinese Tongs in San Francisco. Gloria's brother, Frank, came 11 months later...a second brother, Thomas, died in infancy. Frank Stewart had been appointed a judge and was about to take the bench when he was hit by a car and died. Gloria was nine. Alice got a job in the Ocean Park U.S. Post Office to support her children, then accepted a proposal of marriage from Fred J. Finch, a rough-and-tumble Kentuckian who loved the horses, owned a local funeral parlor and oil leases in Texas. Gloria's half-sister, Patsy--Patricia Marie Finch--came along in 1914. Young Frank took Finch's name and became a noted sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times, following the Dodgers until his retirement. Frank Stewart was descended from royal Scots (Alice was related to Jesse James), but Gloria changed the spelling when she began her career because 'Stuart' fit better on a marquee.
Gloria attended Santa Monica High School, graduating in 1927, then immediately ran off to Berkeley and the university. At Cal, she majored in drama and philosophy but dropped out in her junior year to marry Gordon Newell, a San Francisco sculptor working under Ralph Stackpole on the facade of the San Francisco Stock Exchange. The Newells lived a bohemian life in Carmel, were part of a circle of artists including Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and Robinson Jeffers. Gloria acted at the Carmel playhouse and worked on the Carmel newspaper. Returning to Los Angeles, she appeared at the Pasadena Playhouse and was immediately signed to a contract by Universal Studios. 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, and The Invisible Man.
Stuart was an activist and became a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild, but her career with Universal was disappointing. She moved to 20th Century Fox, and by the end of the decade had appeared in forty-two films, including Busby Berkeley's Gold Diggers of 1935 and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Among the stars she appeared with was Melvyn Douglas, Lionel Barrymore, Dick Powell, Raymond Massey, Boris Karloff, and Shirley Temple. Stuart was a versatile female lead but was never given the roles that would make her a major star, a source of great frustration.
In 1934, Stuart and Newell divorced amicably and she married screenwriter Arthur Sheekman, one of the writers on Roman Scandals. Arthur was Groucho Marx's best friend and was collaborating--sometimes without credit--on Marx Brothers movies. Later Arthur ghosted several of Groucho's books--Groucho called him "The Fastest Wit in The West." The Sheekmans' daughter, Sylvia, was born in 1935, and in 1939, both between commitments, Gloria convinced Arthur they should go around the world. He was game and off they went, he with his typewriter and she with four trunks of clothes. Gloria was delighted when, arriving in faraway train stations, the glamorous Hollywood movie star and her husband were met by the town mayor with armloads of flowers and a brass band. In the Orient, Gloria and Arthur had seen signs of war coming, and when they reached France, they tried to volunteer for the French Resistance, but were turned down, so they caught the last ship sailing to New York. They decided to stay in New York and work in the theater, Gloria's first love. In the next few years, Arthur wrote several plays (two with George S. Kaufman), Gloria got roles mostly in summer stock--she played Emily to Thornton Wilder's Stage Manager in Our Town. When Arthur's third play flopped he told Gloria it was time to return to Hollywood. They did and he was quickly hired by Paramount. But Gloria had not appeared on the screen for four years and she was only offered second-rate roles in second-rate movies. She took singing lessons and toured the country entertaining the troops in hospitals and selling war bonds. She campaigned for the Democrats...cooked legendary dinners for friends on meager war ration stamps...worked at the nearby Actors' Lab (where Jessica Tandy was trying out scenes from a new play, A Streetcar Named Desire). The Sheekmans lived at the fabled Garden of Allah and knew and entertained most everyone in town...at parties, George Gershwin played the piano, Judy Garland sang, and Dorothy Parker and Groucho Marx zinged zingers. Finally in 1946, a dispirited Gloria had enough of B movies and turned her considerable talent to art. She had discovered decoupage and soon opened a small shop called Décor, Ltd, where she sold the lamps, tables, chests and other objets d'art of decoupage she created. Her pieces sold to decorators and were in stores from New York to Dallas to Beverly Hills. Arthur's career was also going smoothly. He wrote seventeen screenplays in the next sixteen years.
Then in 1954, with Sylvia away at Berkeley, the Sheekmans decided to join a number of friends who were living abroad (tempting tax break at that time). They settled in Rapallo on the Italian Riviera. Inspired by the success of the primitive paintings of Grandma Moses, Gloria took up oil painting. She loved it, worked as hard as she had at acting, and her first one-woman show at the Hammer Galleries in New York all but sold out. Gloria was launched as an artist of note and her enchanting work appeared in many shows after that.
Return to acting – 1970s to 2000s
In 1975, after twenty-nine years away from acting, with her husband in a nursing home suffering from what was then called "pre-senile dementia," Gloria got herself an agent and hoped for work. Over the next few years she appeared in small parts in television but could not get a movie. Then in 1982 came an offer for a plummy bit. One of her favorite scenes in all her films is her role as a gray-haired dowager taking a solitary turn around a dance floor with a gorgeous Peter O'Toole in My Favorite Year. Only a few minutes on the screen--and no lines!--but Gloria was still elegant and a beauty and O'Toole's eyes shimmer.
During this period, Gloria took up the Japanese art of bonsai, became the first Anglo member of the California Bonsai Society. And she began to travel again, going with friends or on her own to Europe, India, Africa, the Balkans. Arthur died in 1978. Five years later, Gloria became reacquainted with the esteemed California printer, Ward Ritchie (The Ward Ritchie Press), whom she had known in her college years. Ward's wife had died and he looked Gloria up. They fell in love. She was fascinated by his antique hand press and asked him to teach her how to run it. Soon she put away her oil paints and bought her own hand press. She established "Imprenta Glorias," and began creating artists' books (books hand-made, labor intensive, usually with a very limited run). Gloria wrote the text, designed the book, set the type, printed the pages, and finished pages with water colors or silk screen or her old friend, decoupage. Books from Imprenta Glorias are in the Metropolitan Museum, Library of Congress, Huntington Library, J. Paul Getty Museum, Morgan Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and numerous private and university collections. No longer able to work with small type and a large heavy press, she gave her press and sets of rare type to Mills College. Stuart and Ritchie kept company (each in their own house) until his death from cancer in 1996.
Not long after Ward's death, out of the blue, lacking an agent (hers had retired), Gloria found herself landing the role of a lifetime. The character of Old Rose is at the heart of James Cameron's epic Titanic. Always yearning to be regarded as a fine actress, it had taken seventy years, but now Gloria's name was among those nominated for an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award. Gloria was the oldest nominee ever for a Oscar. Everyone seemed to think it was hers, and it was a blow when the Oscar went to Kim Basinger. Still Gloria tied with Basinger for the SAG Award, which meant a great deal, coming from her peers.
Gloria 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 numerous filmed and audio interviews. On July 4, 2010, Gloria celebrated her 100th birthday. She continues to work at her artist's books, finishing a miniature about a time when she was in Berkeley: "I Dated J. Robert Oppenheimer." Stay tuned...
Awards and honors
On June 19, 2010 Stuart was honored by the Screen Actors Guild for her years of service. She was presented the Ralph Morgan Award by Titanic co-star Frances Fisher and in response Gloria replied, "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 with a gala party hosted by James Cameron and his wife, Suzy Amis. It was at the ACE gallery in Beverly Hills, and all of Gloria's works of art that remain in her collection were displayed along with some of her bonsai and works of decoupage. On July 22 The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored her birthday with a program featuring film clips, commentary from David Zeidberg of the Huntington Library speaking about Gloria's artist's books, and Don Bachardy speaking about her painting. Over 1,000 people were enchanted when, in a conversation with old friend and film historian Leonard Maltin.[2] Gloria turned and spoke to them with charm, wit, and verve, as comfortably as though they were in her living room.
Earlier in an interview Gloria had said, "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."[3]
Filmography
Television
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References
- ^ http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/stuart-honoured-by-screen-actors-guild_1148669
- ^ "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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This page edited by Sylvia (Sheekman) Thompson, 1 August 2010.
External links
