Gloria Grahame

Gloria Grahame (born Gloria Penelope Hallward; November 28, 1923 – October 5, 1981) was an American actress. She began her acting career in theater, and in 1944 made her first film for MGM.<ref name="eunice"/> Many biographies indicate she was born Gloria Grahame Hallward, but she adopted the surname Grahame, her mother's acting name, as her professional name.<ref name="beaver1">Template:Cite news</ref>

Despite a featured role in It's a Wonderful Life (1946), MGM did not believe she had the potential for major success and sold her contract to RKO. Often cast in film noir projects, Grahame was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Crossfire (1947), and later won the award for her work in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). After starring opposite Humphrey Bogart in In a Lonely Place (1950), she achieved her highest profile with Sudden Fear (1952), The Big Heat (1953), Human Desire (1954), and Oklahoma! (1955), but her film career began to wane soon afterwards. She returned to work on the stage, but continued to appear in films and television productions, usually in supporting roles.<ref name="remembering"/>

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1974. It went into remission less than a year later and Grahame returned to work. The cancer returned in 1980, but Grahame refused to accept the diagnosis or seek treatment. Choosing instead to continue working, she traveled to the United Kingdom to appear in a play. Her health, however, declined rapidly. At her family's insistence, she returned to New York City on October 5, 1981, dying the same day at St. Vincent's Hospital at the age of 57.

Early life

Gloria Penelope Hallward was born in Los Angeles, the younger child of Michael and Jean Hallward.<ref name="beaver">Template:Cite news</ref> She was raised a Methodist.<ref name="eunice">Template:Cite web</ref> Her English father, Reginald Michael Bloxam Hallward (later known as Michael Hallward) was an architect and author; her Scottish mother, Jean McDougall, who used the stage name Jean Grahame, was a stage actress and acting teacher.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Grahame's only sibling, her elder sister Joy Hallward (December 31, 1911 – February 23, 2003), was an actress who married John Mitchum (younger brother of actor Robert Mitchum). During Gloria's childhood and adolescence, her mother taught her acting. Grahame attended Hollywood High School before dropping out to pursue acting.<ref name="beaver1"/>

Career

Grahame (1947)

An early stage appearance was in the long-running farce Good Night, Ladies at Chicago's Blackstone Theatre, starring Buddy Ebsen, which opened on April 12, 1942.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Grahame made her Broadway debut on December 6, 1943, at the Royale Theatre as Florrie in Nunnally Johnson's The World's Full of Girls, which was adapted from Thomas Bell's 1943 novel Till I Come Back to You.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> She was signed to a contract with MGM Studios under her professional name after Louis B. Mayer saw her performance.Template:Citation needed Another Broadway role was in April-May 1944's Highland Fling.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She made her film debut in Blonde Fever (1944) and then achieved one of her most widely praised roles as the vixenish Violet Bick, saved from disgrace by George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life (1946). MGM felt unable to develop her potential as a star, and her contract was sold to RKO Studios in 1947.<ref name="remembering"/>

Grahame with Philip Reed in Song of the Thin Man (1947)

Grahame was often featured in film noir pictures as a tarnished beauty with an irresistible sexual allure. During this time, she made films for several Hollywood studios. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Crossfire (1947).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Grahame and Humphrey Bogart in In a Lonely Place (1950)

Grahame starred with Humphrey Bogart in the film In a Lonely Place (1950) for Columbia Pictures, a performance for which she gained praise. Though today it is considered among her finest performances, it was not a box-office hit, and Howard Hughes, owner of RKO, admitted that he never saw it. When she asked to be lent out for roles in Born Yesterday (also 1950) and A Place in the Sun (1951), Hughes refused and instead made her perform a supporting role in Macao (1952).<ref name="imdb">Template:IMDb name</ref>

Gloria Grahame in her Academy Award-winning role in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

Despite appearing for only a little over nine minutes on screen, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in MGM's The Bad and the Beautiful (also 1952);<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> she long held the record for the shortest performance on screen to win an acting Oscar until Beatrice Straight won for Network (1976) with a five-minute performance.<ref name="imdb"/>

Grahame's other memorable roles included the scheming Irene Neves in Sudden Fear (also 1952); mob moll Debby Marsh in Fritz Lang's The Big Heat (1953) in which, in a horrifying off-screen scene, she is scarred by hot coffee thrown in her face by Lee Marvin's character; and the femme fatale Vicki Buckley in Fritz Lang's Human Desire (1954). Grahame appeared as wealthy seductress Harriet Lang in Stanley Kramer's Not as a Stranger (1955) starring Olivia de Havilland, Robert Mitchum, and Frank Sinatra. Grahame also did her own stunts as Angel the Elephant Girl in Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth, which won the Oscar for best film of 1952.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Grahame's career began to wane after her performance in the musical film Oklahoma! (1955). She, whom audiences were used to seeing as a film noir siren, was viewed by some critics to be miscast as an ignorant country lass in a wholesome musical, and the paralysis of her upper lip from plastic surgery altered her speech and appearance. Additionally, she was rumored to have been difficult on the set of Oklahoma!, upstaging some of the cast and alienating her co-stars.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Grahame also guest-starred in television series, including the science-fiction series The Outer Limits. In the 1964 episode of that series titled "The Guests", Grahame plays a forgotten film star living in the past. She also appears in an episode of The Fugitive ("The Homecoming", 1964) and an episode of Burke's Law ("Who Killed The Rabbit's Husband", 1965). Grahame can be seen also in a 1970 episode of Mannix titled “Duet for Three” (season four, episode 13) and in small roles in the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man and Seventh Avenue.<ref name="imdb"/>

The play The Time of Your Life was revived on March 17, 1972, at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles with Grahame, Henry Fonda, Richard Dreyfuss, Lewis J. Stadlen, Ron Thompson, Jane Alexander, Richard X. Slattery, and Pepper Martin among the cast, and Edwin Sherin directing.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

Over time, Grahame became increasingly concerned with her physical appearance; she particularly felt her upper lip was too thin and had ridges that were too deep. She began stuffing cotton or tissues under it, which she felt gave her a sexier look. Several co-stars discovered this during kissing scenes.<ref>Template:Harv</ref> In the mid-1940s, Grahame began undergoing small cosmetic procedures on her lips and face. According to her niece, Vicky Mitchum, Grahame's obsession with vanity led her to undergo more cosmetic procedures that rendered her upper lip immobile because of nerve damage. Mitchum said, "Over the years, she [Grahame] carved herself up, trying to make herself into an image of beauty she felt should exist but didn't. Others saw her as a beautiful person, but she never did, and crazy things spread from that."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Relationships, marriages, and children

Grahame was married four times and had four children. Her first marriage was to actor Stanley Clements in August 1945. They divorced in June 1948.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The day after her divorce from Clements was final, Grahame married director Nicholas Ray. They had a son in November 1948. After several separations and reconciliations, Grahame and Ray divorced in 1952.<ref>Template:Harv</ref>

According to Glenn Ford's son Peter, Grahame had an affair with Ford during the filming of Human Desire in 1954.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Grahame's third marriage was to writer and TV producer Cy Howard. They married in August 1954 and had a daughter in 1956.<ref name=miami>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref><ref name="timesdaily">Template:Cite news</ref> Grahame filed for divorce from Howard in May 1957, citing mental cruelty.<ref name=miami/> Their divorce was final as of November 1957.<ref name="timesdaily"/>

Grahame's fourth and final marriage was to actor Anthony "Tony" Ray, when he was 23 years old and she was 37.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was the son of her second husband Nicholas Ray and his first wife Jean Evans, and was Grahame's former stepson. According to Nicholas Ray, he caught Grahame and a 13-year-old Tony in bed together, which effectively ended their marriage in 1950.<ref>Template:Harv</ref><ref>Joey Nolfi (February 21, 2018). "How an Oscar and a sex scandal rattled Gloria Grahame's career Template:Webarchive". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved September 15, 2018.</ref> However, Grahame's former partner and biographer, Peter Turner, disputed this, saying the story of Tony being underage when Grahame began a sexual relationship with him is "fiction".<ref>Barbara Hoffman (January 1, 2018). "The tragic romance of a Hollywood star and her young leading man". New York Post. Retrieved September 15, 2018.</ref> Grahame and Anthony Ray began dating in 1958 and married in Tijuana, Mexico, in May 1960. The couple had two children: boys born in 1963 and 1965.<ref>Template:Harv</ref>

News of the 1960 marriage to Tony was kept private until 1962, when it was written about in the tabloids. The ensuing scandal damaged Grahame's reputation and affected her career. After learning of her marriage to Anthony Ray, Grahame's third husband, Cy Howard, attempted to gain sole custody of the couple's daughter. Howard claimed Grahame was an unfit mother, and the two fought over custody of their daughter for years. The stress of the scandal, her waning career, and her custody battle with Howard took its toll on Grahame and she had a nervous breakdown. She later underwent electroconvulsive therapy in 1964.<ref name=lentz7>Template:Harv</ref>

Despite the scandal, Grahame's marriage to Anthony Ray was the only one of four to last beyond four years, ending a few days short of their 14th anniversary in May 1974.<ref name=lentz7/>

From 1979 to 1981, Grahame had a relationship with British actor Peter Turner. Turner authored a book about his time with Grahame called Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, which was later turned into a movie of the same name.

Death

Grahame was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 1974. She underwent radiation treatment, changed her diet, stopped smoking and drinking alcohol, and sought homeopathic remedies. In less than a year, the cancer went into remission<ref>Template:Harv</ref> but returned in 1980. Grahame fell ill while performing at The Dukes in Lancaster, England, in the fall of 1981.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

She contacted her former lover, actor Peter Turner, and asked him not to contact doctors or her family (which he did anyway). According to Turner's memoir, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, Turner's local family physician told Grahame she had a cancerous tumor "the size of a football" in her abdomen. Breast cancer is not mentioned in the book.<ref name="Boyce">Template:Cite news</ref> Turner informed Grahame's children of her illness; they brought her back to the United States against her wishes and those of her doctor and Turner. She was immediately admitted to St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan on October 5, 1981, where she died a few hours later of stomach cancer and peritonitis at age 57.<ref name=lentz>Template:Harv</ref>

Grahame's remains were interred at Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, Los Angeles.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Legacy

For her contributions to the motion-picture industry, Grahame had a star placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6522 Hollywood Boulevard on February 8, 1960.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="starsite">Template:Cite web</ref>

The movie Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (2017), based on Peter Turner's account of the final years of Grahame's life, was released in the United Kingdom on November 16, 2017. The film was released in the United States on December 29, 2017. In the film, Grahame was portrayed by Annette Bening.<ref name="Boyce"/>

Grahame had kept an apartment at the Manhattan Plaza residential complex, and its community room, where her portrait hangs, is dedicated to her.<ref name="remembering">Template:Cite news</ref>

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1944	Blonde Fever	Sally Murfin	Alternative title: Autumn Fever
1945	Without Love	Flower girl
1946	It's a Wonderful Life	Violet Bick
1947	It Happened in Brooklyn	Nurse
	Crossfire	Ginny Tremaine	Nominated – Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
	Song of the Thin Man	Fran Ledue Page
	Merton of the Movies	Beulah Baxter
1949	A Woman's Secret	Susan Caldwell aka Estrellita
	Roughshod	Mary Wells
1950	In a Lonely Place	Laurel Gray
1952	The Greatest Show on Earth	Angel
	Macao	Margie
	Sudden Fear	Irene Neves
	The Bad and the Beautiful	Rosemary Bartlow	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
1953	The Glass Wall	Maggie Summers
	Man on a Tightrope	Zama Cernik
	The Big Heat	Debby Marsh
	Prisoners of the Casbah	Princess Nadja aka Yasmin
1954	The Good Die Young	Denise Blaine
	Human Desire	Vicki Buckley
	Naked Alibi	Marianna
1955	The Cobweb	Karen McIver
	Not as a Stranger	Harriet Lang
	Oklahoma!	Ado Annie Carnes
1956	The Man Who Never Was	Lucy Sherwood
1957	Ride Out for Revenge	Amy Porter
1959	Odds Against Tomorrow	Helen
1966	Ride Beyond Vengeance	Bonnie Shelley
1971	Blood and Lace	Mrs. Deere
	The Todd Killings	Mrs. Roy
	Black Noon	Bethia
	Chandler	Selma	Alternative title: Open Shadow
1972	The Loners	Annabelle
1973	The Magician	Natalie	Alternative title: Tarot
1974	Mama's Dirty Girls	Mama Love
1976	Mansion of the Doomed	Katherine	Alternative title: The Terror of Dr. Chaney
1979	A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square	Ma Fox
	Chilly Scenes of Winter	Clara	Alternative title: Head Over Heels
1980	Melvin and Howard	Mrs. Sisk
1981	The Nesting	Florinda Costello	Alternative titles: Phobia and Massacre Mansion
1984	Tales of the Unexpected (Episode: "Sauce for the Goose")	Olivia

Awards and nominations

Year	Organization	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
1948	Academy Awards	Best Supporting Actress	Crossfire	Template:Nominated	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1953			The Bad and the Beautiful	Template:Won	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1953	Golden Globe Awards	Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture		Template:Nominated	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1960	Hollywood Walk of Fame	Star - Motion Pictures	Template:N/a	Template:Honored	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Footnotes

Sources

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Further reading

• Peter Turner. Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (New York: Grove Press, 1987; Picador Reprint, 2017) Template:ISBN

External links

• Template:IMDb name
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• Gloria Grahame at Film Reference
• Template:Webarchive – Article by Donald Chase
• Gloria Grahame at Virtual History
• Template:Rotten Tomatoes