Gloria Grahame Hallward (November 28, 1923 – October 5, 1981) was an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
-winning American actress and singer. She began her acting career in theatre, and in 1944 made her first film for
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
.
Despite a featured role in ''
It's a Wonderful Life
''It's a Wonderful Life'' is a 1946 American Christmas by medium#Films, Christmas Fantasy film, fantasy drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra, based on the short story and booklet ''The Greatest Gift'', which Philip Van Doren Stern se ...
'' (1946), MGM did not believe she had the potential for major success, and sold her
contract
A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...
to
RKO Studios
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheu ...
. Often cast in
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...
projects, Grahame was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for ''
Crossfire
A crossfire (also known as interlocking fire) is a military term for the siting of weapons (often automatic weapons such as assault rifles or sub-machine guns) so that their arcs of fire overlap. This tactic came to prominence in World War I.
S ...
'' (1947), and later won the award for her work in ''
The Bad and the Beautiful
''The Bad and the Beautiful'' is a 1952 American melodrama that tells the story of a film producer who alienates everyone around him. The film was directed by Vincente Minnelli, written by George Bradshaw (writer), George Bradshaw and Charles Sch ...
'' (1952). After starring opposite
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film In ...
in ''
In A Lonely Place
''In a Lonely Place'' is a 1950 American film noir directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame, produced for Bogart's Santana Productions. The script was written by Andrew P. Solt from Edmund H. North's adaptation o ...
'' (1950), she achieved her highest profile with ''
Sudden Fear
''Sudden Fear'' is a 1952 American film noir thriller film directed by David Miller, and starring Joan Crawford and Jack Palance in a tale about a successful woman who marries a murderous man. The screenplay by Lenore J. Coffee and Robert Smit ...
'' (1952), ''
The Big Heat
''The Big Heat'' is a 1953 American film noir crime film directed by Fritz Lang starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, and Jocelyn Brando about a cop who takes on the crime syndicate that controls his city. William P. McGivern's serial in ''The ...
'' (1953), ''
Human Desire
''Human Desire'' is a 1954 American film noir drama film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame and Broderick Crawford. It is loosely based on Émile Zola's 1890 novel ''La Bête humaine''. The story had been filmed twice ...
'' (1954), and ''
Oklahoma!
''Oklahoma!'' is the first musical theater, musical written by the duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, ''Green Grow the Lilacs (play), Green Grow the Lilacs''. Set in farm country outside the town of ...
'' (1955), but her film career began to wane soon afterwards.
Grahame returned to work on the stage, but continued to appear in films and television productions, usually in supporting roles.
In 1974, she was diagnosed with
breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...
. It went into remission less than a year later and Grahame returned to work. In 1980, the cancer returned, 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. She returned to New York City, where she died in October 1981, aged 57.
Early life
Grahame was born in Los Angeles.
She was raised a
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
. Her English father, Reginald Michael Bloxam Hallward (known as Michael Hallward) was an
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
and author; her Scottish mother, Jean (or Jeanne) McDougall, who used the stage name Jean Grahame, was a British stage actress and acting teacher. The couple had an elder daughter, Joy Hallward, an actress who married
John Mitchum
John Mitchum (September 6, 1919 – November 29, 2001) was an American actor from the 1940s to the 1970s in film and television. The younger brother of the actor Robert Mitchum, he was credited as Jack Mitchum early in his career.
Early years ...
(the younger brother of actor
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for ''The Story of G.I. Joe'' (1945), followed by his starring in ...
). During Gloria's childhood and adolescence, her mother taught her acting. Grahame attended
Hollywood High School before dropping out to pursue acting.
Career
An early stage appearance was in the long-running farce ''Good Night, Ladies'' at Chicago's Blackstone Theater, starring
Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen (born Christian Ludolf Ebsen Jr., April 2, 1908 – July 6, 2003), also known as Frank "Buddy" Ebsen, was an American actor and dancer, whose career spanned seven decades. One of his most famous roles was as Jed Clampett in the CBS ...
, which opened on April 12, 1942.
![Philip Reed and Gloria Grahame in Song of the Thin Man](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Philip_Reed_and_Gloria_Grahame_in_Song_of_the_Thin_Man.jpg)
Grahame made her
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
debut on December 6, 1943 at the
Royale Theatre
The Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre (formerly the Royale Theatre and the John Golden Theatre) is a Broadway theater at 242 West 45th Street ( George Abbott Way) in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1927, the thea ...
as Florrie in
Nunnally Johnson
Nunnally Hunter Johnson (December 5, 1897 – March 25, 1977) was an American screenwriter, film director, producer, and playwright. As a filmmaker, he wrote the screenplays to more than fifty films in a career that spanned from 1927 to 1967. He ...
's ''
The World's Full of Girls
''The World's Full of Girls'' is a play in three acts by Nunnally Johnson which was adapted from Thomas Bell's 1943 novel ''Till I Come Back to You''. The work premiered on Broadway on December 6, 1943 at the Royale Theatre. The cast included Thom ...
'', which was adapted from
Thomas Bell's 1943 novel ''Till I Come Back to You''. She was signed to a contract with
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
Studios under her professional name after
Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer (; born Lazar Meir; July 12, 1882 or 1884 or 1885 – October 29, 1957) was a Canadian-American film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios (MGM) in 1924. Under Mayer's management, MGM became the film industr ...
saw her performance.
Another Broadway role was in April-May 1944's ''Highland Fling''.
Grahame made her film debut in ''
Blonde Fever'' (1944) and then achieved one of her most widely praised roles as the flirtatious Violet Bick, saved from disgrace by
George Bailey in ''
It's a Wonderful Life
''It's a Wonderful Life'' is a 1946 American Christmas by medium#Films, Christmas Fantasy film, fantasy drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra, based on the short story and booklet ''The Greatest Gift'', which Philip Van Doren Stern se ...
'' (1946). MGM was not able to develop her potential as a star, and her contract was sold to
RKO Studios
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheu ...
in 1947.
She 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
Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to:
People
* Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms.
* Oscar (Irish mythology) ...
nomination for
Best Supporting Actress for ''
Crossfire
A crossfire (also known as interlocking fire) is a military term for the siting of weapons (often automatic weapons such as assault rifles or sub-machine guns) so that their arcs of fire overlap. This tactic came to prominence in World War I.
S ...
'' (1947).
Grahame starred with
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film In ...
in the film ''
In a Lonely Place
''In a Lonely Place'' is a 1950 American film noir directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame, produced for Bogart's Santana Productions. The script was written by Andrew P. Solt from Edmund H. North's adaptation o ...
'' (1950) for
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
, 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
Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in th ...
, 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
Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...
'' (1952).
![Gloria Grahame in The Bad and the Beautiful trailer](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Gloria_Grahame_in_The_Bad_and_the_Beautiful_trailer.jpg)
Despite only appearing for a little over nine minutes on screen, she won the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in MGM's ''
The Bad and the Beautiful
''The Bad and the Beautiful'' is a 1952 American melodrama that tells the story of a film producer who alienates everyone around him. The film was directed by Vincente Minnelli, written by George Bradshaw (writer), George Bradshaw and Charles Sch ...
'' (also 1952); she long held the record for the shortest performance on screen to win an acting Oscar until
Beatrice Straight
Beatrice Whitney Straight (August 2, 1914 – April 7, 2001) was an American theatre, film and television actress and a member of the prominent Whitney family. She was an Academy Award and Tony Award winner as well as an Emmy Award nominee.
...
won for ''
Network
Network, networking and networked may refer to:
Science and technology
* Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects
* Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks
Mathematics
...
'' with a five-minute performance.
Her other memorable roles included the scheming Irene Neves in ''
Sudden Fear
''Sudden Fear'' is a 1952 American film noir thriller film directed by David Miller, and starring Joan Crawford and Jack Palance in a tale about a successful woman who marries a murderous man. The screenplay by Lenore J. Coffee and Robert Smit ...
'' (also 1952), the ''femme fatale'' Vicki Buckley in ''
Human Desire
''Human Desire'' is a 1954 American film noir drama film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame and Broderick Crawford. It is loosely based on Émile Zola's 1890 novel ''La Bête humaine''. The story had been filmed twice ...
'' (1953), and mob moll Debby Marsh in
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...
's ''
The Big Heat
''The Big Heat'' is a 1953 American film noir crime film directed by Fritz Lang starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, and Jocelyn Brando about a cop who takes on the crime syndicate that controls his city. William P. McGivern's serial in ''The ...
'' (1953) in which, in a horrifying off-screen scene, she is scarred by hot coffee thrown in her face by
Lee Marvin
Lee Marvin (born Lamont Waltman Marvin Jr.; February 19, 1924August 29, 1987) was an American film and television actor. Known for his bass voice and premature white hair, he is best remembered for playing hardboiled "tough guy" characters. Alth ...
's character. Grahame appeared as wealthy seductress Harriet Lang in
Stanley Kramer
Stanley Earl Kramer (September 29, 1913February 19, 2001) was an American film director and producer, responsible for making many of Hollywood's most famous "message picture, message films" (he would call his movies ''heavy dramas'') and a libera ...
's ''
Not as a Stranger
''Not as a Stranger'' is a 1955 American film noir drama film produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, starring Olivia de Havilland, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra and Gloria Grahame. It is based on the 1954 novel of the same name by Morton Thomp ...
'' (1955) starring
Olivia de Havilland
Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland (; July 1, 1916July 26, 2020) was a British-American actress. The major works of her cinematic career spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading actresses of her time. ...
, Robert Mitchum, and
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
. Grahame also did her own stunts as Angel the Elephant Girl in
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...
's ''
The Greatest Show on Earth'', which won the
Oscar for best film of 1952.
Grahame's career began to wane after her performance in the musical film ''
Oklahoma!
''Oklahoma!'' is the first musical theater, musical written by the duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, ''Green Grow the Lilacs (play), Green Grow the Lilacs''. Set in farm country outside the town of ...
'' (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. She began a slow return to the theatre, returning to films occasionally to play supporting roles, mostly in minor releases.
![Gloria Grahame-still 1947](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Gloria_Grahame-still_1947.JPG)
She 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
''Mannix'' is an American detective television series that ran from 1967 to 1975 on CBS. It was created by Richard Levinson and William Link, and developed by executive producer Bruce Geller. The title character, Joe Mannix, is a private inves ...
'' titled “Duet for Three” (Season 4 Episode 13) and in small roles in the miniseries ''
Rich Man, Poor Man'' and ''
Seventh Avenue''.
The play ''
The Time of Your Life
''The Time of Your Life'' is a 1939 five-act play by American playwright William Saroyan. The play is the first drama to win both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. The play opened on Broadway theatre, Broa ...
'' was revived on March 17, 1972, at the
Huntington Hartford Theater Huntington may refer to:
Places
Canada
* Huntington, Nova Scotia
New Zealand
* Huntington, New Zealand a suburb in Hamilton, New Zealand
United Kingdom
* Huntington, Cheshire, England
* Huntington, East Lothian, Scotland
* Huntingto ...
in Los Angeles with Grahame,
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was an American actor. He had a career that spanned five decades on Broadway and in Hollywood. He cultivated an everyman screen image in several films considered to be classics.
Born and rai ...
,
Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Stephen Dreyfuss (; born Dreyfus; October 29, 1947) is an American actor. He is known for starring in popular films during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, including ''American Graffiti'' (1973), ''Jaws'' (1975), ''Close Encounters of the T ...
,
Lewis J. Stadlen
Lewis J. Stadlen (born March 7, 1947) is an American stage and screen character actor. He is best known for playing Ira Fried in '' The Sopranos''.
Career
Born in Brooklyn, New York, to voice actor Allen Swift, Stadlen studied acting with S ...
,
Ron Thompson,
Jane Alexander
Jane Alexander (née Quigley; born October 28, 1939) is an American actress and author. She is the recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and nominations for four Academy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. From 1993 to 1997 ...
,
Richard X. Slattery
Richard Xavier Slattery (June 26, 1925 – January 27, 1997) was an American character actor in film, theater and television. Slattery appeared in such films as '' A Distant Trumpet'', '' The Boston Strangler'', '' Walking Tall'', '' The No Merc ...
, and
Pepper Martin
Johnny Leonard Roosevelt "Pepper" Martin (February 29, 1904 – March 5, 1965) was an American professional baseball player and minor league manager. He was known as the "Wild Horse of the Osage" because of his daring, aggressive baserunning ab ...
among the cast, and
Edwin Sherin
Edwin Sherin (January 15, 1930 – May 4, 2017) was an American director and producer. He is best known as the director and executive producer of the NBC drama series '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' (1991–2005).
Early life
Sherin was ...
directing.
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. 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 her looks led her to undergo more cosmetic procedures that rendered her upper lip largely immobile because of nerve damage. Mitchum said, "Over the years, she
rahamecarved 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."
Grahame was a
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
who supported
Adlai Stevenson's campaign in the
1952 presidential election.
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. The day after her divorce from Clements was made final, Grahame married director
Nicholas Ray
Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle Jr., August 7, 1911 – June 16, 1979) was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor best known for the 1955 film ''Rebel Without a Cause.'' He is appreciated for many narrative features pr ...
. They had a son, Timothy, in November 1948. After several separations and reconciliations, Grahame and Ray divorced in 1952. Grahame's third marriage was to writer and television producer Cy Howard. They married in August 1954 and had a daughter, Marianna Paulette in 1956.
Grahame filed for divorce from Howard in May 1957, citing mental cruelty.
[ Their divorce became final in November 1957.]
Grahame's fourth and final marriage was to actor Anthony "Tony" Ray (b. 1937), the son of her second husband Nicholas Ray and his first wife Jean Evans; Anthony Ray was her former stepson. According to Nicholas Ray, their relationship reportedly began when Tony Ray was 13 years old and Grahame was still married to his father (Nicholas Ray allegedly caught the two in bed together, which he claimed effectively ended the marriage to Grahame in 1950.) However, Grahame's former partner and biographer, Peter Turner, has disputed this, saying that the story of Tony being underage when Grahame began her sexual relationship with him is "fiction". Grahame and Anthony Ray reconnected in 1958 and married in Tijuana
Tijuana ( ,["Tijuana"](_blank)
(US) and [< ...]
, Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, in May, 1960. The couple went on to have two children: Anthony, Jr. (born 1963) and James (born 1965).
News of the marriage was kept private until 1962, when it was written about in the tabloids and 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, Marianna. Howard claimed Grahame was an unfit mother, and the two fought over custody of Marianna 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 electroshock therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatric treatment where a generalized seizure (without muscular convulsions) is electrically induced to manage refractory mental disorders.Rudorfer, MV, Henry, ME, Sackeim, HA (2003)"Electroconvulsive the ...
in 1964. Despite the surrounding scandal, Grahame's marriage to Anthony Ray was her only one, of four, to last well beyond four years (her marriage to his father lasted 4 years 2 months), as they did not divorce until a few days short of their 14th anniversary, in May 1974.[
From 1979 to 1981, Grahame had a relationship with Peter Turner. Turner authored a book about his relationship with Grahame called ''Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool'', which was later turned into a movie with the same name.
Grahame had an affair with her leading man ]Glenn Ford
Gwyllyn Samuel Newton "Glenn" Ford (May 1, 1916 – August 30, 2006) was a Canadian-American actor who often portrayed ordinary men in unusual circumstances. Ford was most prominent during Classical Hollywood cinema, Hollywood's Golden Age as ...
during the filming of ''Human Desire
''Human Desire'' is a 1954 American film noir drama film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame and Broderick Crawford. It is loosely based on Émile Zola's 1890 novel ''La Bête humaine''. The story had been filmed twice ...
'' in 1954.
Death
In March 1974, Grahame was diagnosed with breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...
. She underwent radiation treatment, changed her diet, stopped smoking and drinking alcohol, and also sought homeopathic
Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a dise ...
remedies. In less than a year, the cancer went into remission. The cancer returned in 1980, but Grahame refused to acknowledge her diagnosis or seek radiation treatment. Despite her failing health, Grahame continued working in stage productions in the United States and the United Kingdom.
In the autumn of 1981, while performing at The Dukes in Lancaster, England, Grahame was taken ill. The local hospital wanted to perform surgery immediately, but she refused. Contacting her former lover, actor Peter Turner, she requested to live in Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
at the home of Turner's mother, where she would remain for six days.
Grahame requested that Turner not contact doctors or her family, but Turner did so, for he was concerned about her health. According to Turner's book ''Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
''Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool'' is a 2017 biographical romantic drama film directed by Paul McGuigan and starring Annette Bening and Jamie Bell, with a cast that includes Vanessa Redgrave and Julie Walters. It is based on the memoir o ...
'', his local family doctor told Grahame that she had a cancerous tumor in her abdomen "the size of a football." Breast cancer is not mentioned in the book.
Turner informed Grahame's children Timothy and Marianna of her illness, and they brought Grahame back to the U.S., against her wishes and those of her doctor and Turner, on October 5, 1981. She was immediately admitted to St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan, New York City, where she died a few hours later at the age of 57.
Grahame's remains were interred at Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery
The Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery is located at 22601 Lassen Street, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California. It is the resting place for several movie stars such as Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Gloria Grahame, and Stephen Boyd.
History and descri ...
in Chatsworth, Los Angeles
Chatsworth is a suburban neighborhood in the City of Los Angeles, California, in the San Fernando Valley.
The area was home to Native Americans, some of whom left caves containing rock art. Chatsworth was explored and colonized by the Spanish be ...
. Her death came just 11 days before that of her first husband Stanley Clements, who died from emphysema on October 16. Grahame had kept an apartment at the Manhattan Plaza
Manhattan Plaza is a large federally subsidized residential complex of 46 floors and at 400 and 484 West 43rd Street in midtown Manhattan, New York City. Opened in 1977, it has 1,689 units and about 3,500 tenants. 70% of the tenants are from ...
residential complex; and its community room, where her portrait hangs, is dedicated to her.
Legacy
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Gloria Grahame has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Californ ...
at 6522 Hollywood Boulevard.
The motion picture ''Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
''Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool'' is a 2017 biographical romantic drama film directed by Paul McGuigan and starring Annette Bening and Jamie Bell, with a cast that includes Vanessa Redgrave and Julie Walters. It is based on the memoir o ...
'', based on Peter Turner's account of the final years of Grahame's life, was released in the United Kingdom on November 16, 2017, and in the United States on December 29, 2017. In the film, Grahame is portrayed by Annette Bening
Annette Carol Bening (born May 29, 1958) is an American actress. She has received various accolades throughout her career spanning over four decades, including a British Academy Film Award and two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominat ...
.
Filmography
Footnotes
Sources
*
*
Further reading
* Peter Turner, ''Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
''Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool'' is a 2017 biographical romantic drama film directed by Paul McGuigan and starring Annette Bening and Jamie Bell, with a cast that includes Vanessa Redgrave and Julie Walters. It is based on the memoir o ...
'' (New York: Grove Press
Grove Press is an United States of America, American Imprint (trade name), publishing imprint that was founded in 1947. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, and Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it in ...
, 1987)
External links
*
*
*
In Loving Memory Of Gloria Grahame
at Film Reference
* – Article by Donald Chase
Gloria Grahame
at Virtual History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grahame, Gloria
1923 births
1981 deaths
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
Actresses from Los Angeles
American film actresses
Methodists from California
American people of English descent
American stage actresses
American television actresses
Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winners
Burials at Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery
Deaths from cancer in New York (state)
Deaths from breast cancer
Deaths from peritonitis
Hollywood High School alumni
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players
California Democrats
American people of Scottish descent