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Jean Arthur 1900 - 1991

Jean Arthur of Carmel-by-the-Sea, Monterey County, California United States was born on October 17, 1900 at Pittsburgh, PA, and died at age 90 years old on June 19, 1991 at Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA, USA in Carmel-by-the-Sea.

Jean Arthur

Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA, USA in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Monterey County, California 93921, United States

October 17, 1900

Pittsburgh, PA

June 19, 1991

Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA, USA in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Monterey County, California, 93921, United States

Female

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Jean Arthur Jean Arthur (1900 - 1991)

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Jean Arthur's History: 1900 - 1991

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Introduction

Jean Arthur Born October 17, 1900 in Plattsburgh, New York, USA Died June 19, 1991 in Carmel, California, USA (heart failure) Birth Name Gladys Georgianna Greene Height 5' 3" (1.6 m) This marvelous screen comedienne's best asset was only muffled during her seven years' stint in silent films. That asset? It was, of course, her squeaky, frog-like voice, which silent-era cinema audiences had simply no way of perceiving, much less appreciating. Jean Arthur, born Gladys Georgianna Greene in upstate New York, 20 miles south of the Canadian border, has had her year of birth cited variously as 1900, 1905 and 1908. Her place of birth has often been cited as New York City! (Herein we shall rely for those particulars on Miss Arthur's obituary as given in the authoritative and reliable New York Times. The date and place indicated above shall be deemed correct.) Following her screen debut in a bit part in John Ford's Cameo Kirby (1923), she spent several years playing unremarkable roles as ingénue or leading lady in comedy shorts and cheapie westerns. With the arrival of sound she was able to appear in films whose quality was but slightly improved over that of her past silents. She had to contend, for example, with the consummately evil likes of Dr. Fu Manchu (played by future "Charlie Chan" Warner Oland). Her career bloomed with her appearance in Ford's The Whole Town's Talking (1935), in which she played opposite Edward G. Robinson, the latter in a dual role as a notorious gangster and his lookalike, a befuddled, well-meaning clerk. Here is where her wholesomeness and flair for farcical comedy began making themselves plain. The turning point in her career came when she was chosen by Frank Capra to star with Gary Cooper in the classic social comedy Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936). Here she rescues the hero - thus herself becoming heroine! - from rapacious human vultures who are scheming to separate him from his wealth. In Capra's masterpiece Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), she again rescues a besieged hero (James Stewart), protecting him from a band of manipulative and cynical politicians and their cronies and again she ends up as a heroine of sorts. For her performance in George Stevens' The More the Merrier (1943), in which she starred with Joel McCrea and Charles Coburn, she received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination, but the award went to Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette (1943) (Coburn, incidentally, won for Best Supporting Actor). Her career began waning toward the end of the 1940s. She starred with Marlene Dietrich and John Lund in Billy Wilder's fluff about post-World War II Berlin, A Foreign Affair (1948). Thereafter, the actress would return to the screen but once, again for George Stevens but not in comedy. She starred with Alan Ladd and Van Heflin in Stevens' western Shane (1953), playing the wife of a besieged settler (Heflin) who accepts help from a nomadic gunman (Ladd) in the settler's effort to protect his farm. It was her silver-screen swansong. She would provide one more opportunity for a mass audience to appreciate her craft. In 1966 she starred as a witty and sophisticated lawyer, Patricia Marshall, a widow, in the TV series The Jean Arthur Show (1966). Her time was apparently past, however; the show ran for only 11 weeks. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Bill Takacs Spouse (2) Frank Ross (11 June 1932 - 14 March 1949) ( divorced) Julian Aster Ancker (1928 - 1928) ( annulled) Trade Mark (5) A distinctive voice: sometimes high-pitched, sometimes husky Light blonde hair Distinctive unconventional looks Always played willful, uncompromising women. She was often cast as independent "career women" when many actress were restricted to playing housewives, damsel in distress or femme fatales Ashes scattered off of Point Lobos, California, USA. Wore her natural brunette hair color throughout the silent film portion of her career, then began bleaching her hair blonde shortly after she started making talkies. Department of Strange Coincidences: Jean Arthur's former spouse, producer Frank Ross, next married the actress Joan Caulfield. On the very day following Caulfield's death on 18 June 1991, Arthur died. Marriage to Julian Anker was annulled after 1 day. After retiring from films she taught drama at Vassar and North Carolina School of the Arts from the late 1960s to 1973. Was a leading contender for the coveted role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). As her star began to decline, she was replaced by Rita Hayworth as Columbia Pictures' top female star. Coincidentally, the two stars share the same birthday (October 17). Turned down the role of the lady missionary in Lost Horizon (1973), the unsuccessful musical remake of the 1937 classic of the same name. Director George Stevens famously called her "one of the greatest comediennes the screen has ever seen" while Frank Capra credited her as "my favorite actress". On the completion of her Columbia contract in 1944, she reportedly ran through the studio's streets, shouting "I'm free, I'm free!". As a result of being in the doghouse with studio boss Harry Cohn, her fee for starring in The Talk of the Town (1942) was only $50,000 while her male co-stars (Ronald Colman, Cary Grant) received upwards of $100,000 each. Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. pg. 30-31. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387 Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 15-16. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Allegedly took her stage name from two of her greatest heroes: Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc) and King Arthur.
10/17

1900

Birthday

October 17, 1900

Birthdate

Pittsburgh, PA

Birthplace

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Ethnicity & Family History

Norwegian Mother.
Professional Career

The classic films she graced included three by Frank Capra -- "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town," "You Can't Take It With You" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" -- and also George Stevens's "More the Merrier" and Billy Wilder's "Foreign Affair." She began acting on the Broadway stage and returned in 1950 for a widely praised performance in the title role of "Peter Pan," Sir James M. Barrie's 1904 fantasy about the lad who refused to grow up. The production had 321 performances, one of the longest runs for the classic. Quit movies at the height of her career in 1944, following an Oscar nomination and while still Columbia Pictures' top female box-office attraction. She appeared in only two more films, for Oscar-winning directors Billy Wilder (A Foreign Affair (1948)) and George Stevens (Shane (1953)). According to John Oller's biography "Jean Arthur: The Actress Nobody Knew" (1997), Arthur was a shy person who came to loathe making movies, having developed a kind of stage fright (something not uncommon in even great and accomplished actors; Laurence Olivier said he developed stage fright in 1964, while playing in "Othello," after 40 years on stage) that made acting in movies agony for her. After she quit movies, she tried to make a go at a stage career, being part of the original cast of "Born Yesterday," but she dropped out during previews and was replaced by Judy Holliday. She later gave television a crack in the mid-'60s, but The Jean Arthur Show (1966) was canceled after half a season. At the Yale Law School Film Society weekend with Frank Capra in 1972, she attended a small afternoon symposium on Saturday, February 5, at Capra's invitation. He urged her to stay for the screening that night and assured her the audience would be delighted and overwhelmingly enthusiastic. She declined because, she said, she had to go home and feed her cats. Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 3, 1991-1993, pages 29-31. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. Gary Cooper was her favorite leading man. Even though Jean and James Stewart never bonded off-screen, Jimmy called Jean "the finest actress I ever worked with. No one had her humor, her timing". She was teaching at Vassar at the same time that Meryl Streep was studying there in her junior year. Upon seeing the young drama major rehearsing August Strindberg's play "Miss Julie", Arthur remarked it was "just like watching a movie star". Turned down Donna Reed's role in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) because she didn't want to work with James Stewart again. Profiled in the book, "Funny Ladies", by Stephen M. Silverman. [1999] Rita Hayworth said Arthur didn't speak to her when they worked together on Only Angels Have Wings (1939), a snubbing Arthur later said she would regret. She taught drama at Vassar from 1968 to 1973. Arthur's family regarded the Washington Heights Section of Manhattan as home. Appeared in three Frank Capra movies: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can't Take It with You (1938) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). For years, during her lifetime, her date of birth listed in the World Almanac was 1905. Starred in six Oscar Best Picture nominees: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can't Take It with You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), The Talk of the Town (1942), The More the Merrier (1943) and Shane (1953). You Can't Take It With You won in 1938. Like other well-known actresses, most notably Claudette Colbert, Arthur was most frequently photographed from the left side, cinematographers having determined that this was her most favorable angle. As evidence of this fact, just take a look at Arizona (1940). She has appeared in four films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Iron Horse (1924), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and Shane (1953). Personal Quotes (21) It's a strenuous job every day of your life to live up to the way you look on the screen. I guess I became an actress because I didn't want to be myself. I am not an adult, that's my explanation of myself. Except when I am working on a set, I have all the inhibitions and shyness of the bashful, backward child . . . unless I have something very much in common with a person, I am lost. I am swallowed up in my silence. The fact that I did not marry George Bernard Shaw is the only real disappointment I've had. [on Hollywood] I hated the place - not the work, but the lack of privacy, those terrible prying fan magazine writers, and all the surrounding exploitation. If people don't like your work, all the still pictures in the world can't help you and nothing written about you, even oceans of it, will make you popular. (on doing interviews) Quite frankly, I'd rather have my throat slit. I bumped into every kind of disappointment and was frustrated at every turn. Roles promised to me were given to other players, pictures that offered me a chance were shelved, no one was particularly interested in me, and I had not developed a strength of personality to make anyone believe I had special talents. I wanted so desperately to succeed that I drove myself relentlessly, taking no time off for pleasures, or friendships - yet aiming at the stars, I was still floundering. First I played ingénues and westWesternoines; then I played Western heroines and ingénues. That diet of roles became as monotonous as a diet of spinach. The studio wouldn't trust me with any other kind of role, because I had no experience in any other kind. And I didn't see how I was ever going to acquire any other experience if I couldn't get any other kind of role. It was a vicious circle. It's hardly fair for women to do the same things at the same hours every day of their lives, while men have new experiences, and meet new people every day. I felt that way as a little girl, with two older brothers around the house. It seemed to me that they led adventurous lives, compared with mine. I felt cheated and frustrated. I became a tomboy in self-defense. I decided that I was going to do things that were exciting, or at least interesting. [speaking in the 1930s] I've never had a single close intimate girlfriend in all my life. I never had a chum to whom I could confide my secrets. I suppose that accounts for the fact that now it is so painfully difficult for me to open my heart and confide in people who are, so often, almost strangers. You have to learn so very young to open your heart. [in her early acting days] My very "naturalness" was my undoing. I had to learn that to appear natural on the screen requires a vast amount of training, which is the test of an actor's art. It would be more spectacular if I could say that out of the hurt and humiliation of that failure was born a determination to succeed, to prove I had the makings of an actress. But it wouldn't be true. That urge came later. [on her first marriage, which only lasted a day] Julian [Julian Anckner] looked a lot like Abraham Lincoln, and that's probably why I fell in love with him. One day we were out driving and he suddenly said, "Hey, why don't we get married?" So we lied about our ages and got married in a sheriff's office. You should have heard our families' reactions - all sorts of screaming and shouting and carrying on about suicide. Well, neither Julian nor I had enough income to make it possible for us to live together, so our marriage lasted one day. [on making Only Angels Have Wings (1939)] I loved sinking my head into Cary Grant's chest. [1977 comment on Gary Cooper] I loved working with Gary Cooper. Gary was my favorite. He was so terrific-looking and so easy to work with. [on director George Stevens] George Stevens started as a cameraman with Laurel and Hardy, and he learned so many wonderful tricks, like having us walk forward while looking backward and then bumping into something. George was a darling man, so great with comedy. It's too bad he got serious. [In 1940] Those two and a half years on Broadway were the happiest years of my life. I loved the stage. I think every girl who wants to become an actress should put in some years on the stage. [About her first marriage] There was nothing tragic about it - it was a case of willfulness. I wanted to become a accomplished actress, but I didn't know how to act and had no chance to learn. In those days the studios didn't have coaches or drama schools and it was almost impossible to get on the sets to watch the older players. I finally decided there was only one thing to do: go back to New York and try to get into some plays there. [About her early career] I was all right in long shots, but when it came to close-ups, sustained emotion was beyond me. I knew nothing about acting and often wondered why I had not continued with my plan to become a teacher of modern languages. [While she was a model] Someone in the studio noticed me sitting in the background. They asked me whether I would pose for girls' hats, and with some diffidence, I consented. My first posing was self-conscious. The photographer liked my type and employed me steadily that summer. I got $5 an hour and sometimes had five or six sittings in a day. Salary (3) Horse Shoes (1927) $700 The Talk of the Town (1942) $50,000 The More the Merrier (1943) $2,500 /week
Personal Life & Family

From TCM: "Capra claimed she vomited before and after every scene, and hid crying in her dressing room between takes. When called for the next scene, she would drum up every sort of excuse for not being ready. 'And it wasn't an act,' [Capra] said. 'Those weren't butterflies in her stomach. They were wasps. But put that neurotic girl forcibly, but gently, in front of the camera and turn out the lights - and the whining mop would magically blossom into a warm, lovely, poised and confident actress.' Despite all this, Capra often said that of all the actresses he directed, she was his favorite." - I love all her films, but Only Angels Have Wings is my favorite.
06/19

1991

Death

June 19, 1991

Death date

Heart problems.

Cause of death

Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA, USA in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Monterey County, California 93921, United States
Death location

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Obituary

Jean Arthur, Actress Who Starred In Films by Capra, Is Dead at 90 By Peter B. Flint June 20, 1991 Jean Arthur, the buoyant actress whose piquant charm and infectious laughter enriched some of the finest comedy dramas of the 1930s and 40s, died yesterday at the Carmel Convalescent Hospital in Carmel, Calif., where she lived for 35 years. She was 90 years old. Miss Arthur died of a heart ailment, a family spokeswoman said. Miss Arthur had a bubbly flair for reflecting the absurdities of life, a subtle vulnerability, and a voice that wavered unpredictably between the spunky and the amiable. The classic films she graced included three by Frank Capra -- "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town," "You Can't Take It With You" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" -- and also George Stevens's "More the Merrier" and Billy Wilder's "Foreign Affair." A Marshmallow Heart Miss Arthur's winsome talent was brightest in roles where her hard-boiled career woman's exterior masked a marshmallow heart, as when she first exploited and then inspired such country bumpkins as Gary Cooper as Mr. Deeds and James Stewart as Mr. Smith in their uphill challenges to greed and corruption. The actress's honesty made even implausible scenes and films appear credible. A shy perfectionist, she was invariably self-critical of her performances, refused to pose for cheesecake photographs, rarely granted interviews, and was often suspended by Columbia Pictures for rejecting roles. "I just couldn't act in a bad picture," she once said. She began acting on the Broadway stage and returned in 1950 for a widely praised performance in the title role of "Peter Pan," Sir James M. Barrie's 1904 fantasy about the lad who refused to grow up. The production had 321 performances, one of the longest runs for the classic. Interpreting 'Peter Pan' The hit prompted Miss Arthur to drop her guard and give an interviewer this interpretation of the theme: "Peter represents the youth in all of us: the freshness and originality of childhood before our parents and schoolteachers have pressed us into a mold. Barrie meant that we should not let that 'genius of childhood' escape us, not let our neighbors and the man at the corner grocery store do our thinking for us. If I can get over the message that we should all try to be ourselves, to be free individuals, then I'm sure I'll have accomplished what Barrie wanted." The actress, who was originally named Gladys Georgianna Greene, was born on Oct. 17, 1900, in Plattsburg, N.Y., and grew up in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. Her father was a photographer. When pressed by Hollywood to choose a stage name, she selected one honoring two idols: Jeanne d'Arc and King Arthur. She attended George Washington High School and soon became a successful advertising model, which led to a movie test and contract. She acted in dozens of silent two-reel comedies, melodramas and westerns. Easily transitioning to sound, she played ingenues in a spate of comedies, adventure yarns, and melodramas. In three of them, she had to cope with the insidious Dr. Fu Manchu (played by Warner Oland). Back to Hollywood But unhappy with her roles and determined to master her art, Miss Arthur returned to New York in the early 1930s and acted for several years on the summer theater circuit and Broadway in a total of 14 plays. Most were flops, but critics began to laud her maturing talent. She won a contract with Columbia Pictures, returned to Hollywood and her comic talents blossomed in "The Whole Town's Talking," a 1935 gangster yarn of mistaken identity. Miss Arthur credited Frank Capra with nurturing her skill in "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" (1936) and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939). In the first comedy, playing a reporter, she humiliates a naive well-meaning heir -- played by Mr. Cooper -- and then saves him from his greedy tormentors at a sanity hearing. In "Mr. Smith," as a secretary, she deceives an artless young senator (Mr. Stewart), but later uses her parliamentary expertise to aid his filibuster and defeat his foes. Other comedy successes included "Easy Living," "You Can't Take It With You," "The Devil and Miss Jones," "The Talk of the Town," "The More the Merrier," in which she, with Joel McCrea and Charles Coburn, wrestled with the housing shortage in World War II Washington, and "A Foreign Affair." She was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in "More the Merrier." The actress also won plaudits for roles in such films as "Diamond Jim," "The Plainsman," "History Is Made at Night," "Only Angels Have Wings," "Arizona" and later, in 1953, in "Shane," about the disturbing effect of a gunfighter (Alan Ladd) on a frontier family, with Miss Arthur playing a gentle and loyal wife and mother. At the peak of her career, in the mid-1940s, she began studying many liberal arts subjects at colleges. "All my life," she said, "I've wanted to make enough money so I could stop and be a student for a while. The only real reason for living is doing what you want to do, or trying to, anyway." Years later, she taught acting at Vassar College. Her later stage appearances were frustrated by directorial and cast disputes and illnesses. On television, she played an urbane lawyer in "The Jean Arthur Show" in 1966, but the scripts were more far-fetched than funny. Her elusiveness led to contrasting stories about her self-doubts and later psychoanalysis with Dr. Erich Fromm. In 1972, she remarked, "I guess I became an actress because I didn't want to be myself." Miss Arthur was married twice, to Julian Anker, a photographer, in 1928, and to Frank Ross, a producer, from 1932 to 1949. Both marriages ended in divorce. In later decades, she spent most of her time at her coastal retreat in Carmel, where she once remarked, "I have a very good life" with some good friends, a brood of cats, and "the sea on three sides of me." There are no immediate survivors.

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