Isabel Jewell (July 19, 1907 – April 5, 1972) was an American actress who rose to prominence in the 1930s and early 1940s. Some of her more famous films were '' Ceiling Zero'', ''

Marked Woman ''Marked Woman'' is a 1937 American dramatic crime film directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart, with featured performances by Lola Lane, Isabel Jewell, Rosalind Marquis, Mayo Methot, Jane Bryan, Eduardo Ciannell ...

'', ''

A Tale of Two Cities ''A Tale of Two Cities'' is a historical novel published in 1859 by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in ...

'', and '' Gone with the Wind''.

Early life

Born in

Shoshoni, Wyoming Shoshoni is a town in Fremont County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 471 at the 2020 census, down from 649 at the 2010 census. The town is named for the Shoshone Indian tribe, most of whom live on the nearby Wind River Indian Reserva ...

on July 19, 1907, Jewell was the daughter of Emory Lee Jewell and Livia A. Willoughby Jewell. Her father was "a prominent...doctor and medical researcher." She was educated at St. Mary's Academy in Minnesota and at Hamilton College in Kentucky.

Career

After years in theater stock companies, including an 87-week stint in Lincoln, Nebraska, she got a part on Broadway in ''Up Pops the Devil'' (1930). She received glowing critical reviews for ''Blessed Event'' (1932) as well. Jewell's film debut came in ''

Blessed Event ''Blessed Event'' is a 1932 American pre-Code comedy-drama film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Lee Tracy as a newspaper gossip columnist who becomes entangled with a gangster. The Tracy character (Alvin Roberts) was reportedly patterned a ...

'' (1932). She had been brought to Hollywood by Warner Brothers for the film version of ''

Up Pops the Devil ''Up Pops the Devil'' is a 1931 American pre-Code comedy drama film directed by A. Edward Sutherland. The screenplay concerns an advertising man (Norman Foster) who quits his job to become a novelist, upsetting his wife (Carole Lombard) and stra ...

''. Jewell gained other supporting roles, appearing in a variety of films in the early 1930s. She played stereotypical gangsters' women in such films as ''

Manhattan Melodrama ''Manhattan Melodrama'' is a 1934 American pre-Code crime film, produced by MGM, directed by W. S. Van Dyke, and starring Clark Gable, William Powell, and Myrna Loy. The movie also provided one of Mickey Rooney's earliest film roles. (Rooney ...

'' (1934) and ''

'' (1937). She was well-received playing against type as the seamstress sentenced to death on the guillotine with Sydney Carton (

Ronald Colman Ronald Charles Colman (9 February 1891 – 19 May 1958) was an English-born actor, starting his career in theatre and silent film in his native country, then immigrating to the United States and having a successful Cinema of the United States, ...

in ''

'' (1935). Her most significant role was Sally Bates in ''

She Had to Choose ''She Had to Choose'' is a 1934 American romantic comedy crime drama film directed by Ralph Ceder and starring Buster Crabbe, Isabel Jewell and Sally Blane. Distributed by Majestic Pictures, it is set in California during The Depression. Plot ...

''. Jewell's films included '' Gone with the Wind'' (1939) (in the role of "that white trash, Emmy Slattery"), ''

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The eastern route along the ...

'' (1940), '' High Sierra'' (1941), and the low-budget ''

The Leopard Man ''The Leopard Man'' is a 1943 American horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur, and starring Dennis O'Keefe, Jean Brooks, and Margo. Based on the book ''Black Alibi'' by Cornell Woolrich, it follows a series of violent murders in a small Ne ...

'' (1943). By the end of the 1940s, her roles had reduced in significance to the degree that her performances often were uncredited, e.g. ''

The Snake Pit ''The Snake Pit'' is a 1948 American psychological drama film directed by Anatole Litvak and starring Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, Celeste Holm, Beulah Bondi, and Lee Patrick. Based on Mary Jane Ward's 1946 semi-autobiogra ...

''. She performed in radio dramas in the 1950s, including '' This Is Your FBI''. In February 1965, she played Madame Ahr, a member of a bank-robbing circus troupe, in an episode of ''

Gunsmoke ''Gunsmoke'' is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centers on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central chara ...

'' entitled "Circus Trick." In 1972, Jewell appeared opposite Edie Sedgwick in the film ''

Ciao! Manhattan ''Ciao! Manhattan'' is a 1972 American avant garde film starring Edie Sedgwick. A scripted drama in which most of the actors play themselves, it centers on a character very closely based on Sedgwick, and deals with the pain of addiction and the ...

''. Her final film was the

B movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...

'' Sweet Kill'' (1973), the directorial debut of Curtis Hanson.

Personal life

Jewell's first marriage (which "was not generally known during Jewell's lifetime... ormentioned in the press during her heyday in American films") occurred when she wed Lovell "Cowboy" Underwood when she was 19. In the mid to late 1930s, Jewell was seen at nightclubs with actor

William Hopper William DeWolf Hopper Jr. (January 26, 1915 – March 6, 1970) was an American stage, film, and television actor. The only child of actor DeWolf Hopper and actress and Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper, he appeared in predominantly minor r ...

. In 1936, she wed Owen Crump, divorcing in 1941 to facilitate her next wedding. In 1941, Jewell married actor Paul Marion, who was then a private in the Army. They separated in 1943 and were divorced on May 12, 1944. Jewell was a Democrat who supported Adlai Stevenson's campaign during the 1952 presidential election. She was also a practicing

Episcopalian Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...

Death

Jewell died in Los Angeles, California on April 5, 1972, aged 64, from suicide after taking an overdose of

barbiturates Barbiturates are a class of depressant drugs that are chemically derived from barbituric acid. They are effective when used medically as anxiolytics, hypnotics, and anticonvulsants, but have physical and psychological addiction potential as we ...

. Her ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.

Legacy

In 1960, Jewell was recognized with 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, Calif ...

for her contribution to motion pictures. The star is located at 1560 Vine Street.

Filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jewell, Isabel 1907 births 1972 suicides American film actresses American stage actresses American television actresses People from Fremont County, Wyoming Actresses from Wyoming 20th-century American actresses Barbiturates-related deaths Drug-related suicides in California Wyoming Democrats California Democrats 1972 deaths American Episcopalians