Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert | |
---|---|
Born | Émilie Claudette Chauchoin September 13, 1903 |
Died | July 30, 1996 | (aged 92)
Resting place | Godings Bay Church Cemetery, Speightstown, Saint Peter, Barbados 13°14′28″N 59°38′32″W / 13.241235°N 59.642320°W |
Nationality | American |
Other names | Lily Claudette Chauchoin |
Education | Art Students League of New York |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1925–1987 |
Political party | Republican |
Spouses | |
Awards | See below |
Claudette Colbert (/koʊlˈbɛər/ kohl-BAIR;[1] born Émilie Claudette Chauchoin; September 13, 1903 – July 30, 1996) was a French-born American stage and film actress.
Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the late 1920s and progressed to motion pictures with the advent of talking pictures. Initially associated with Paramount Pictures, she gradually shifted to working as a freelance actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in It Happened One Night (1934), and received two other Academy Award nominations. Other notable films include Cleopatra (1934) and The Palm Beach Story (1942).
With her round face, big eyes, charming, aristocratic manner, and flair[2] for light comedy, as well as emotional drama, Colbert was known for a versatility that led to her becoming one of the industry's best-paid stars of the 1930s and 1940s[3] and, in 1938 and 1942, the highest-paid star.[1] During her career, Colbert starred in more than 60 movies. Among her frequent co-stars were Fred MacMurray in seven films (1935−49), and Fredric March in four films (1930−33).
By the early 1950s, Colbert had basically retired from the screen in favor of television and stage work, and she earned a Tony Award nomination for The Marriage-Go-Round in 1959. Her career tapered off during the early 1960s, but in the late 1970s she experienced a career resurgence in theater, earning a Sarah Siddons Award for her Chicago theater work in 1980. For her television work in The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987), she won a Golden Globe Award and received an Emmy Award nomination.
In 1999, the American Film Institute voted Colbert the 12th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema.
Early life
Émilie Claudette Chauchoin (pronounced "show-shwan") was born in 1903 in Saint-Mandé, France,[4] to Jeanne Marie (née Loew, 1877–1970) and Georges Claude Chauchoin (1867–1925).[1][5]
Although christened "Émilie", she was called "Lily" after Jersey-born actress Lillie Langtry,[6] and because an unmarried aunt of the same name, her maternal grandmother's adopted child, Émilie Loew (1878–1954) was living with the family. Jeanne, Emilie Loew, and Colbert's grandmother, Marie Augustine Loew (1842–1930),[7] were born in the Channel Islands between England and France, thus were already fluent English speakers before coming to the U.S., though French and English were spoken in the family circle.
Colbert's brother, Charles Auguste Chauchoin (1898–1971), was also born in the Bailiwick of Jersey. Jeanne held various occupations. While Georges Chauchoin had lost the sight in his right eye and had not settled into a profession, he worked as investment banker, suffering business setbacks. Marie Loew had already been to the U.S., and Georges' brother-in-law (surname Vedel) was already living in New York City. Marie was willing to help Georges financially, but also encouraged him to try his luck in the U.S.[6]
To pursue more employment opportunities, Colbert and her family, including Marie and Emilie Loew, emigrated to Manhattan in 1906.[5][8]
They lived in a fifth-floor walk-up at 53rd Street. Colbert stated that climbing those stairs to the fifth floor every day until 1922 made her legs beautiful.[9] Her parents formally changed her legal name to Lily Claudette Chauchoin'.[2] Georges Chauchoin worked as a minor official at First National City Bank.[6] Before Colbert entered public school, she quickly learned English from her grandmother Marie Loew[10] and continued to be fluent in French.[11] She had hoped to become a painter ever since she had grasped her first pencil. Her family was naturalized in the U.S. in 1912. Her mother wanted to become an opera singer.[6]
Colbert studied at Washington Irving High School (known for having a strong arts program), where her speech teacher, Alice Rossetter, encouraged her to audition for a play Rossetter had written. In 1919, Colbert made her stage debut at the Provincetown Playhouse in The Widow's Veil at the age of 15.[2] However, Colbert's interest still leaned towards painting, fashion design, and commercial art.[9]
Intending to become a fashion designer, she attended the Art Students League of New York, where she paid for her art education by working as a dress-shop employee. After attending a party with writer Anne Morrison, Colbert was offered a bit part in Morrison's play[12] and appeared on the Broadway stage in a small role in The Wild Westcotts (1923). She had been using the name Claudette instead of her first name Lily since high school, and for her stage name, she added her maternal grandmother's maiden name, Colbert.[13] Her father, Georges, died in 1925 and her grandmother, Marie Loew, died in New York in 1930.[6]
Career
Early theater roles, 1925–1927
After signing a five-year contract with producer Al Woods, Colbert played ingenue roles on Broadway from 1925 through 1929. Through the influence of Woods, she was originally cast in Frederick Lonsdale's The Fake, but was replaced by Frieda Inescort before it opened. Initially, Woods tried to promote Colbert as his "British discovery".[14] During this period she disliked being typecast as a French maid.[15] Colbert later said, "In the very beginning, they wanted to give me French roles … That's why I used to say my name Col-bert just as it is spelled instead of Col-baire. I did not want to be typed as 'that French girl.'"[16] She received critical acclaim on Broadway in the production of The Barker (1927) as a carnival snake charmer. She reprised this role for the play's run in London's West End.[17] Colbert was noticed by the theatrical producer Leland Hayward, who suggested her for the heroine role in For the Love of Mike (1927), a silent film now believed to be lost.[18] The film didn't fare well at the box-office.[1][19]
Movie stardom, 1928–1934
In 1928, Colbert signed a contract with Paramount Pictures;[2] there was a demand for stage actors who could handle dialogue in the new "talkies" medium. Colbert's elegance and musical voice were among her best assets.[1] In The Hole in the Wall (1929), audiences noticed her beauty, but at first she did not like film acting.[12] Her earliest films were produced in New York. During production of the film The Lady Lies (also 1929), she was appearing nightly in the play See Naples and Die. The Lady Lies was also a box-office success.[1] In 1930, she starred opposite Maurice Chevalier in The Big Pond, which was filmed in both English and French. She co-starred with Fredric March in Manslaughter (1930), receiving critical acclaim[20] for her performance as a woman charged with vehicular manslaughter.[21] She was paired with March again in Honor Among Lovers (1931) and also starred in Mysterious Mr. Parkes (1931), which was a French-language version of Slightly Scarlet for the European market, although it was also screened in the United States. She sang and played piano in the Ernst Lubitsch musical The Smiling Lieutenant (1931), which was one of the year's biggest domestic box-office successes.[1][19] Colbert's ability to "hold her man" (Maurice Chevalier again) surpassed "Queen" Miriam Hopkins, according to David Shipman.[11] Colbert concluded the year with appearance in a modestly successful film, His Woman, with Gary Cooper.[19]
Colbert's career received a boost when Cecil B. DeMille cast her as femme fatale Poppaea in the historical epic The Sign of the Cross (1932), opposite Fredric March and Charles Laughton. In one of the best remembered scenes of her movie career, she bathes nude in a marble pool filled with asses' milk.[22][23] The film was one of her biggest box-office hits.[19]
In 1933, Colbert renegotiated her contract with Paramount to allow her to appear in films for other studios. Her musical voice, a contralto that footnotes list as being coached by Bing Crosby was also featured in the film Torch Singer (1933),[24] which co-starred Ricardo Cortez and David Manners.
For 1933, she was already ranking as the 13th box-office star.[25][26] By 1933, she had appeared in 20 films, averaging around four films per year. Many of her early films were commercial successes,[1] and her performances were admired.[3] Her leading roles were serious and diverse, which proved her versatility.[15]
Colbert was initially reluctant to appear in the screwball comedy It Happened One Night (1934). The studio accepted Colbert's demand that she be paid $50,000 and that filming was to be completed within four weeks to allow her to take a planned vacation.[27] Colbert won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the film.[28]
In Cleopatra (1934), she played the title role opposite Warren William and Henry Wilcoxon. The film was one of the year's biggest domestic box-office hits.[1][19] Thereafter, Colbert did not wish to be portrayed as overtly sexual, and later refused such roles.[29] Imitation of Life (1934), when she was on loan to Universal, was another box office success.[11][19][30]
Post-Oscar career, 1935–1944
Colbert's rising profile again allowed her to renegotiate her contract, which raised her salary. For 1935 and 1936, she was listed sixth and eighth in Quigley's annual "Top Ten Money-Making Stars Poll".[31] Then, she received an Academy Award nomination for her role in the hospital drama Private Worlds (1935).[32]
In 1936, Colbert signed a new contract with Paramount Pictures, which made her Hollywood's highest-paid actress.[33] This was followed by a contract renewal in 1938, after which she was reported to be the best-paid star in Hollywood with a salary of $426,924.[34] At the peak of her popularity in the late 1930s, Colbert earned $150,000 a film.[35]
Colbert spent the rest of the 1930s deftly alternating between romantic comedies and dramas, and found success in both: She Married Her Boss (1935) with Melvyn Douglas; The Gilded Lily (1935) and The Bride Comes Home (1935), both with Fred MacMurray; Under Two Flags (1936) with Ronald Colman; Zaza (1939) with Herbert Marshall; Midnight (1939) with Don Ameche; and It's a Wonderful World (1939) with James Stewart.[citation needed]
Colbert was 5 ft 5 in (165 cm) tall.[36] Hedda Hopper wrote that Colbert placed her career "ahead of everything, save possibly her marriage", with a strong sense of what was best for her, and a "deep-rooted desire to be in shape, efficient, and under control".[37] The writer A. Scott Berg remarked that Colbert had "helped define femininity for her generation with her chic manner".[38] Colbert once said, "I know what's best for me, after all I have been in the Claudette Colbert business longer than anybody."[39][40]
Colbert was a stickler for perfection regarding the way she appeared on screen. She believed that her face was difficult to light and photograph, and was obsessed with not showing the right side of her face to the camera, because of a small bump resulting from a childhood broken nose.[41] She often refused to be filmed from the right side of her face, and this sometimes necessitated redesigning movie sets.[12] During the filming of Tovarich (1937), one of her favored cameramen was dismissed by the director, Anatole Litvak. After seeing the rushes filmed by the replacement, Colbert refused to continue. She insisted on hiring her own cameraman, and offered to waive her salary if the film went over budget as a result.[33] Gary Cooper was terrified at the prospect of working with Colbert in his first comedy, Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938). Cooper respected Colbert to be an expert in the genre.[42] She learned about lighting and cinematography, and refused to begin filming until she was satisfied that she would be shown to her best advantage.[43] Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) with Henry Fonda was Colbert's first color film and one of the top twenty grossing pictures of that year. However, she distrusted the relatively new Technicolor process and feared that she would not photograph well, preferring thereafter to be filmed in black and white.[44]
During this time, she began appearing for CBS's popular radio program Lux Radio Theater, making 22 episodes between 1935 and 1954.[45] She appeared for another radio program, The Screen Guild Theater, making 13 episodes between 1939 and 1952.[46]
In 1940, Colbert refused a seven-year contract with Paramount, that would have paid her $200,000 a year, after finding out that she could command a fee of $150,000 per film as a freelance artist. With her manager, Colbert was able to secure roles in prestigious films, and this period marked the height of her earning ability.[33] Boom Town, released in August 1940, was the highest-grossing picture of that year in the United States. However, Colbert once said that Arise, My Love (1940) was her favorite of all her movies.[47][48] The film won the Academy Award for Best Story.
During filming of So Proudly We Hail! (1943), a rift occurred between Colbert and co-star Paulette Goddard, who preferred another co-star, Veronica Lake, rather than Colbert. Goddard commented that Colbert "flipped" and "was at [my] eyes at every moment", and said that they continued their feud throughout the duration of filming.[37] Colbert was otherwise known for maintaining particularly high standards of professionalism and qualities during shooting.[39][3]
Impressed by Colbert's role in So Proudly We Hail!, David O. Selznick approached her to play the lead role in Since You Went Away (1944). She was initially reluctant to appear as a mother of teenaged children, but Selznick eventually overcame her sensitivity.[49] Released in June 1944, the film made almost $5 million at the US box office and was the third highest-grossing picture of that year. The critic James Agee praised aspects of the film, but particularly Colbert's work.[50] Partly as a result, she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.[51]
Postwar career, 1945–1965
In 1945, Colbert ended her association with Paramount Studios and continued to freelance in such films as Guest Wife (1945), with Don Ameche. She starred opposite John Wayne in the RKO film Without Reservations (1946), which grossed $3 million in the U.S. While working on Without Reservations, director Mervyn LeRoy described Colbert as an interesting lady to work with, recalling her habit of not watching where she was going and constantly bumping into things.[52] Praised for her sense of style and awareness of fashion, Colbert ensured throughout her career that she was impeccably groomed and costumed. For the melodrama Tomorrow Is Forever (1946), Jean Louis was hired to create 18 changes of wardrobe for her.[53] Tomorrow is Forever and The Secret Heart (also 1946) were also substantial commercial successes,[19] and the overall popularity of Colbert during 1947 led her to place 9th in Quigley's "Top Ten Money-Making Stars Poll".[31]
She achieved great success opposite Fred MacMurray in the comedy The Egg and I (1947). The film was the second highest-grossing picture of that year in the United States and was later acknowledged as the 12th-most profitable American film of the 1940s.[54] The suspense film Sleep, My Love (1948) with Robert Cummings was a modest commercial success. By 1949, she was still ranking as the 22nd-highest box-office star.[55]
The romantic comedy, Bride for Sale (1949), in which Colbert played part of a love triangle that included George Brent and Robert Young, was well-reviewed.[56] Her performance in the Pacific war film Three Came Home (1950) was also praised by the critics.[1] However, The Secret Fury (1950), distributed by RKO Studios, was a mystery melodrama that received mixed reviews.[56] During this period Colbert was unable to work beyond 5p.m. each day due to orders from her doctor.[57] While Colbert still looked like a young woman,[9] she found it difficult to make the transition to playing more mature characters as she entered middle age.[37] Colbert once said, "I'm a very good comedienne, but I was always fighting that image, too."[35]
In 1949, Colbert was selected to play Margo Channing in All About Eve, because producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz felt that she best represented the style he envisioned for the part. However, Colbert severely injured her back, which led her to abandon the picture shortly before filming began. Bette Davis, who was Oscar nominated for her performance, was cast instead. In later life, Colbert said, "I just never had the luck to play bitches."[35]
For tax reasons[9] Colbert traveled to Europe, making fewer films in the early 1950s. She appeared in Royal Affairs in Versailles (1954), the only film where she had a French director (Sacha Guitry), although she only had a supporting role, rather than top billing.[58] This film was screened in the United States in 1957.[59]
In 1954, Colbert turned down a million-dollar broadcast deal with NBC-TV,[9] but made a pact with CBS-TV to star in several teleplays. After a successful appearance in a television version of The Royal Family (a parody of the Barrymore family in The Best of Broadway series),[2] she began acting in television programs.
From 1954-1960, she starred in television adaptations of Blithe Spirit in 1956 and The Bells of St. Mary's in 1959. She also guest-starred on Robert Montgomery Presents and Playhouse 90.
In 1956, Colbert hosted the 28th Academy Awards ceremony.
In 1957, she was cast as Lucy Bradford, the wife of schoolteacher Jim Bradford (Jeff Morrow), in the episode, "Blood in the Dust", on CBS's Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre. In the story line, Jim will not back down when a gunman orders him to leave town, and Lucy is particularly distressed because Jim has not fired a weapon since he was in the Civil War.[60] In a 1960 episode of Zane Grey Theatre, "So Young the Savage Land", Colbert played Beth Brayden, who becomes disillusioned with her rancher-husband, Jim Brayden (John Dehner), because he has turned to violence to protect their property.[61]
In 1958, she returned to Broadway in The Marriage-Go-Round, for which she was nominated for a Best Actress Tony Award.
She made a brief return to the screen, opposite Troy Donahue in Parrish (1961). The movie was her last appearance on the big screen, and she played the supporting role of the mother. The film was a box office success but Colbert received little attention from the press and she directed her agent to desist from any further attempts to generate interest in her as a film actress.[62]
Later career, 1962–1987
Colbert made occasional successful acting ventures in Broadway appearances in The Irregular Verb to Love (1963), The Kingfisher (1978) in which she co-starred with Rex Harrison, and Frederick Lonsdale's Aren't We All? (1985), also with Rex Harrison. Colbert once said to an interviewer, "Audiences always sound like they're glad to see me, and I'm damned glad to see them."[1]
Colbert appeared in a supporting role in the television miniseries The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987). The production was a ratings success. Colbert won a Golden Globe and received a nomination for an Emmy Award.
Modern critics have pointed out that Colbert had a mixture of unique physical assets (her round apple-face,[2] big eyes, curly hair,[1] slender body), an elegant voice, aristocratic manner, relaxed acting, a tongue-in-cheek vivacity, intelligent style, comedic timing, and ladylike alluring charm,[63] that distinguishes her from other screwball comediennes of the 1930s.[39] In her comedy films, she invariably played shrewd and self-reliant women, but unlike many of her contemporaries, Colbert rarely engaged in physical comedy. Her characters were more likely to be observers and commentators.[64]
Personal life
In 1928, Colbert married Norman Foster, an actor and director, with whom she co-starred in the Broadway show The Barker, and in the film Young Man of Manhattan (1930), for which he received negative reviews as one of her weakest leading men.[11] Their marriage remained a secret for many years while they lived in separate homes.[2]
In Los Angeles, Colbert shared a home with her mother, Jeanne Chauchoin,[65] but her domineering mother disliked Foster and reputedly did not allow him into the home.[66] Colbert and Foster divorced in 1935 in Mexico.[2]
On Christmas Eve, 1935 in Yuma, Arizona, Colbert married Dr Joel Pressman, who eventually became a professor and chief of the head and neck surgery section at the UCLA Medical School. She gave a Beechcraft single-engined plane to Pressman as a present. They purchased a ranch in Northern California,[9] where Colbert enjoyed horseback riding[67] and her husband kept show cattle. During this period, Colbert drove a Lincoln Continental and a Ford Thunderbird.[9] The marriage lasted 33 years, until Pressman's death from liver cancer in 1968.
Jeanne Chauchoin reportedly envied her daughter[9] and preferred her son's company, making Colbert's brother Charles serve as his sister's agent. Charles used the surname Wendling, which was borrowed from Jeanne's paternal grandmother, Rose Wendling.[6] He served as Colbert's business manager for a time,[5] and was credited with negotiating some of her more lucrative contracts in the late 1930s and early 1940s.[33][6]
Although virtually retired from the motion-picture industry since the mid-1950s, Colbert was still financially solvent enough to maintain an upscale lifestyle. Despite already having a country house in Palm Springs for staying on weekends, she rented a cottage in Cap Ferrat in southeastern France. Adman Peter Rogers said, "Claudette was extravagant; I never, ever saw her question the price of anything." In 1963, Colbert sold her Lloyd Wright-designed residence in Holmby Hills (West Los Angeles), so Joel Pressman rented a small house in Beverly Hills.[9]
In 1958, she met Verna Hull, a wealthy painter/photographer and the stepdaughter of a Sears Roebuck heiress. They had a nine-year friendship that included travel, an interest in art and rented twin penthouses in New York. When Colbert bought a house in Barbados in the early 1960s, Hull bought a house next door, amid rumors that their friendship was a romantic one, which Colbert denied.[9] The friendship ended after an argument that took place as Colbert's husband lay dying, wherein Hull insisted Pressman would not only take his life but Colbert's too rather than die alone.[9] Professor Pressman died from his illness, without incident, on 26 February 1968.[9]
She was a Republican throughout her life.[68]
Later years and death
For years, Colbert divided her time between her apartment in Manhattan and her vacation home in Speightstown, Barbados.[1] The latter, purchased from a British gentleman and nicknamed "Bellerive", was the island's only plantation house fronting the beach.[9] However, her permanent address remained Manhattan.
Colbert's mother Jeanne died in 1970 and her brother Charles died in 1971,[2] so her only surviving relative was a niece, Coco Lewis, Charles' daughter.[35][69]
Colbert sustained a series of small strokes during the last three years of her life. She died in 1996 at her second home in Barbados,[1] where she had employed a housekeeper and two cooks. She was 92. Colbert's remains were transported to New York City for cremation and funeral services.[9]
A requiem mass was later held at Church of St. Vincent Ferrer in Manhattan.[70] Her ashes are laid to rest in the Godings Bay Church Cemetery, Speightstown, Saint Peter, Barbados, alongside her mother and second husband.[9]
Colbert never had children. She left most of her estate, estimated at $3.5 million and including her Manhattan apartment and Bellerive, to a long-time friend, Helen O'Hagan, a retired director of corporate relations at Saks Fifth Avenue. Colbert had met O'Hagan in 1961 on the set of Parrish, her last film,[71][72] and the pair became best friends around 1970.[2]
After the death of Pressman, Colbert instructed her friends to treat O'Hagan as they had Pressman, "as her spouse".[73] Although O'Hagan was financially comfortable without the generous bequest, Bellerive was sold for over $2 million to David Geffen. Colbert's remaining assets were distributed among three heirs: $150,000 to her niece Coco Lewis; a trust worth more than $100,000 to UCLA for Pressman's memory; and $75,000 to Marie Corbin, Colbert's Barbadian housekeeper.[9]
Awards and honors
Year | Award | Category | Film | Result | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1935 | Academy Award | Best Actress | It Happened One Night | Won | [28] |
1936 | Academy Award | Best Actress | Private Worlds | Nominated | [32] |
1945 | Academy Award | Best Actress | Since You Went Away | Nominated | [51] |
1959 | Tony Award | Best Actress | The Marriage-Go-Round | Nominated | [citation needed] |
1960 | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Star at 6812 Hollywood Blvd. | — | Inducted | [74] |
1980 | Sarah Siddons Award | The Kingfisher | Won | [75] | |
1984 | Film Society of Lincoln Center | Lifetime Achievement Award | — | Won | [76] |
1985 | Drama Desk | Drama Desk Special Award | Aren't We All | Won | [77] |
1987 | Primetime Emmy Award | Outstanding Supporting Actress | The Two Mrs. Grenvilles | Nominated | [citation needed] |
1988 | Golden Globe Award | Best Supporting Actress in a Series | The Two Mrs. Grenvilles | Won | [citation needed] |
1989 | Kennedy Center Honors | Lifetime Achievement Award | — | Won | [78] |
1990 | San Sebastián International Film Festival | Donostia Award | — | Won | [79] |
1999 | American Film Institute | Greatest Female Stars | — | 12th | [80] |
Selected filmography
The following is a list of feature films in which Colbert had top billing.
- The Hole in the Wall (1929)
- Young Man of Manhattan (1930)
- Manslaughter (1930)
- Honor Among Lovers (1931)
- Secrets of a Secretary (1931)
- The Wiser Sex (1932)
- Misleading Lady (1932)
- The Man from Yesterday (1932)
- Tonight Is Ours (1933)
- Three-Cornered Moon (1933)
- Torch Singer (1933)
- Four Frightened People (1934)
- It Happened One Night (1934)
- Cleopatra (1934)
- Imitation of Life (1934)
- The Gilded Lily (1935)
- Private Worlds (1935)
- She Married Her Boss (1935)
- The Bride Comes Home (1935)
- Maid of Salem (1937)
- I Met Him in Paris (1937)
- Tovarich (1937)
- Zaza (1939)
- Midnight (1939)
- It's a Wonderful World (1939)
- Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
- Arise, My Love (1940)
- Skylark (1941)
- Remember the Day (1941)
- The Palm Beach Story (1942)
- No Time for Love (1943)
- So Proudly We Hail! (1943)
- Since You Went Away (1944)
- Practically Yours (1944)
- Guest Wife (1945)
- Tomorrow Is Forever (1946)
- Without Reservations (1946)
- The Secret Heart (1946)
- The Egg and I (1947)
- Sleep, My Love (1948)
- Family Honeymoon (1949)
- Bride for Sale (1949)
- Three Came Home (1950)
- The Secret Fury (1950)
- Thunder on the Hill (1951)
- Let's Make It Legal (1951)
- The Planter's Wife (1952)
- Texas Lady (1955)
See also
References
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Pace, Eric (July 31, 1996). "Claudette Colbert, Unflappable Heroine of Screwball Comedies, Is Dead At 92". The New York Times. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Claudette Colbert profile". TCM. Retrieved February 9, 2013.
- ^ a b c "Claudette Colbert - Britannica Concise". Retrieved October 23, 2016.
- ^ COLBERT, Claudette, British Film Institute. BFI.org.uk.
- ^ a b c Quirk, Claudette Colbert", p. 5.
- ^ a b c d e f g Dick, Bernard F. (2008). "CHAPTER 1. Lily of Saint-Mandé". Claudette Colbert: She Walked in Beauty. University Press of Mississippi.
- ^ "MyHeritage Family Trees". WorldVitalRecords.com. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
- ^ "Ellis Island National Monument: Destined For Fame". American Park Network. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "A Perfect Star". Vanity Fair. January 1998. Retrieved May 13, 2018.
- ^ "Hollywood Legend Claudette Colbert Dies". Los Angeles Times. July 31, 1996.
- ^ a b c d Shipman, The Great Movie Stars, p. 114–15.
- ^ a b c Hal Erickson. "Claudette Colbert biography". All Movie Guide. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
- ^ "Claudette Colbert, actress". The Beaver County Times. The Associated Press. July 31, 1996.
- ^ Dick, Bernard F. Claudette Colbert: She Walked in Beauty. p.24-25
- ^ a b Jan Richardson. "CLAUDETTE COLBERT". The Movie Profiles & Premiums Newsletter – Immortal Ephemera. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
- ^ Quirk, Lawrence J. Claudette Colbert: An Illustrated Biography. New York: Crown, 1985.
- ^ Basinger, Jeanine; Audrey E. Kupferberg. "Claudette Colbert — Films as actress". Retrieved December 3, 2007.
- ^ Classic Film Guide.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Claudette Colbert Movies". Ultimate Movie Rankings. Retrieved October 22, 2016.
- ^ Quirk, p. 64 citing The New York Times.
- ^ Hal Erickson. "Manslaughter". All Movie Guide. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
- ^ "Claudette Colbert (1903–1996)". Hollywood's Golden Age. Retrieved July 24, 2012.
- ^ Springer, John (1978). They Had Faces Then, Annabella to Zorina, the Superstars, Stars and Starlets of the 1930s. p. 62. ISBN 0-8065-0657-1.
- ^ Bradley, Edwin M. (February 18, 2016). Unsung Hollywood Musicals of the Golden Era: 50 Overlooked Films and Their Stars, 1929-1939. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-9833-8.
- ^ Schallert, Edwin. "STARS' BOX-OFFICE RATINGS FOR PAST SEASON GIVEN: Survey Shows Sophisticates Slipping Fast. Will Rogers Tops All; Shirley Temple and Crosby Shoot Up", Los Angeles Times, December 9, 1934, p. A1.
- ^ Motion Picture Herald, December 1, 1934; accessed 13 October 2016
- ^ Hirschnor, Joel (1983). Rating the Movie Stars for Home Video, TV and Cable. Publications International Limited. p. 87. ISBN 0-88176-152-4.
- ^ a b "The 7th Academy Awards (1935) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Retrieved August 27, 2013.
- ^ Chaneles, Sol (1974). The Movie Makers. Octopus Books. p. 97. ISBN 0-7064-0387-8.
- ^ "EARLY YEARS". University of Virginia. 2002. Retrieved October 9, 2016.
- ^ a b "The 2006 Motion Picture Almanac, Top Ten Money-Making Stars". Quigley Publishing Company. Archived from the original on January 14, 2013. Retrieved August 18, 2006.
- ^ a b "The 8th Academy Awards (1936) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Retrieved August 27, 2013.
- ^ a b c d Shipman, The Great Movie Stars, p. 117.
- ^ The Movie Stars Story, An Illustrated Guide to 500 of the World's Most Famous Stars of the Cinema. Octopus Books. 1984. p. 53. ISBN 0-7064-2092-6.
- ^ a b c d "Oscar-Winner Claudette Colbert dead at 92". Tributes.com. Retrieved February 20, 2012.
- ^ "Claudette Colbert Biography". listal.com. Retrieved October 9, 2016.
- ^ a b c Shipman, David (1988). Movie Talk. St. Martin's Press. p. 126. ISBN 0-312-03403-2.
- ^ Berg, A. Scott (1989). Goldwyn. Sphere Books. p. 190. ISBN 0-7474-0593-X.
- ^ a b c Andre Soares (August 12, 2011). "Claudette Colbert Q&A Pt.1: 'The Claudette Colbert Business'". Alt Film Guide. Retrieved May 13, 2018.
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Bibliography
- Finler, Joel W. (1989). The Hollywood Story: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the American Film Industry But Didn't Know Where to Look. Pyramid Books. ISBN 1-85510-009-6.
- Haver, Ronald (1980). David O. Selznick's Hollywood. New York: Bonanza Books. ISBN 0-517-47665-7.
- Jewell, Richard B.; Harbin, Vernon (1982). The RKO Story. Octopus Books. ISBN 0-7064-1285-0.
- Quirk, Lawrence J. (1974). Claudette Colbert An Illustrated Biography. Crown Publishers. ISBN 0-517-55678-2.
- Shipman, David (1989). The Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years. London/Boston, Mass: Macdonald/Little, Brown. ISBN 0-356-18146-4.
External links
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