Actors and Actresses

Jean Arthur (1900-1991)

Jean Arthur

Jean Arthur was a marvellous screen comedienne and a beautiful and talented actress who appeared in a total of 89 films, and who made her name with some memorable performances in classic Hollywood movies of the Golden Age including 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' in 1939 and 'Shane' in 1953.

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Her distinctive asset, apart from her great beauty, was her husky, sexy and instantly identifiable voice. Director George Stevens called her "one of the greatest comediennes the screen has ever seen" while Frank Capra for whom she made two classic movies, described her as "my favorite actress".

Her other unique quality, highly unusual in an Hollywood actress, was her shy, introverted nature which eventually caused her to turn her back on the publicity machine.

Jean received one Academy Award nomination, for Best Actress in 1944 for her performance in 'The More the Merrier'.

Biography

Jean Arthur was born Gladys Georgianna Greene in Plattsburgh, New York on October 17, 1900, the youngest of four children. The year of her birth has been disputed but 1900 is generally accepted.

The family moved several times, ending up in New York City where she worked as a stenographer in lower Manhattan during World War I to help the family's finances. She later became a model in New York City and her great beauty made her popular with many of the city's most prominent photographers. She was selected for a screen test with Fox Studios in 1923 and in that year she made her movie debut in 'Cameo Kirby' directed by John Ford. Her stage name is believed to have been taken from two of her heroes, Joan of Arc and King Arthur.

She spent the last few years of the Silent era in low-budget comedies and westerns and in 1929 she was chosen as one of the 13 WAMPAS (The Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers) Baby stars, along with Loretta Young, amongst others. She was getting noticed and with the arrival of sound her career prospects improved considerably, as her distinctive husky voice made her transition to the new medium much easier than many of her contemporaries. It was at this time that Jean began to bleach her naturally dark hair blonde.

The studio mishandled her career at first. In 'Paramount on Parade' in 1930, Jean was given two numbers despite her obvious lack of musical talent. She realised she needed to do someting to get herself out of the rut of cheap westerns and love interest parts. As she, herself said,"First I played ingénues and western heroines; 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." She had the good sense in the early 1930's to spend time working in the theatre in order to improve her vocal technique.

Her personality and skill did show through and in 1935 she started a series of memorable performances which were to make her a star. First, in 1935 she starred opposite Edward G. Robinson in the gangster comedy-drama 'The Whole Town's Talking', again directed by John Ford, and her ability as a comedienne began to show through. The following year she appeared in Frank Capra's 'Mr. Deeds Goes to Town' with Gary Cooper, followed in 1938 by 'You Can't Take It With You' and 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' in 1939, both with James Stewart. Frank Capra could see the comedic talent in her acting and he made fine use of the femininity evident just beneath the veneer of toughness expressed by her trademark husky voice.

She played opposite Gary Cooper again, in the role of Calamity Jane in Cecil B. DeMille's 'The Plainsman' in 1936 followed the next year by Mitchell Leisen's screwball comedy 'Easy Living' opposite Ray Milland. It seemed that she could do no wrong and she was a strong contender for the highly sought-after role of Scarlett O'Hara in 'Gone with the Wind' in 1939.

She continued to star in other films in the early 1940's, such as Wesley Ruggles's 'Arizona' and Howard Hawks's 'Only Angels Have Wings' with Cary Grant and she was at her comedic best in classics such as 'The Devil and Miss Jones' in 1941, and two romantic comedies directed by George Stevens, 'The Talk of the Town' in 1942 and 1943's 'The More the Merrier', with Joel McCrea and Charles Coburn for which she received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination, losing out to Jennifer Jones in 'The Song of Bernadette'.

In 1944 when her contract with Columbia Pictures ended she was their top female box-office attraction, but her love affair with movies had ended. She had developed a nervous reaction to performing, a type of stage fright and also an intense dislike of the movie star system itself. She said she didn't like having to "live up to the way you look on the screen".

She also had just won a fierce, long-running battle with Harry Cohn, the head of Columbia Pictures, against the restrictions of her contract. She objected to being treated like a commodity and she fought bitterly against the studio contract system, as did other strong actresses of the era like Olivia de Havilland and Bette Davis. Her contract with Columbia ended in 1944 and was the cause of great celebration.

In 1945,in one of several attempts to find herself through the theatre, she was part of the original cast of "Born Yesterday," but her nerve failed and she dropped out before the play reached Broadway and was replaced by Judy Holliday.

One of her stage performances which was a great success was as the lead in Leonard Bernstein’s 1950 musical version of 'Peter Pan', co-starring Boris Karloff. In 1954 she left the production of 'Joan of Arc' after a nervous breakdown and a confrontation with director Harold Clurman.

Jean made only two more movies. In 1948 she was tempted by Billy Wilder to star with Marlene Dietrich in Wilder's movie about Berlin after the war, 'A Foreign Affair'. Wilder noticed the difference between his two female stars, saying that Marlene revelled in her sexuality whilst Jean tried to hide from hers.

Jean made one final film, the magnificent 'Shane' with Alan Ladd and Jack Pallance, a classic Western, directed by George Stevens, which became the biggest box-office hit of her career. The movie was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won one, for Best Cinematography.

In 1966 she flirted briefly with television, starring as a lawyer in the series 'The Jean Arthur Show' but the show ran for only 11 weeks.

Arthur next became a drama teacher, first at Vassar College and then the North Carolina School of the Arts. In the final years of her life her introverted nature took over and she turned down all requests from fans and journalists alike.

Jean was married twice. Her first marriage in 1928, to Julian Anckner, lasted for only one day. She explained that she was attracted to him because he looked like Abraham Lincoln. The horrified reaction of their families was what ended the marriage. It is a surprising incident considering that Jean was 28 when the marriage occurred.

Her second marriage, in 1932, to Frank Ross lasted 17 years. He was the producer of several of Jean's films and was the scriptwriter of 'The More the Merrier'. They divorced in 1949. There were no children.

For the last decades of her life Jean lived in her oceanfront home in California with Ellen Mastroianni, an unmarried friend. Rumours circulated that Jean was a lesbian or bisexual but her sexuality was, as was everything else about her, her own private affair. Jean suffered a stroke in 1989 and was bedridden for two years until her death in 1991. She was 90.

Jean Arthur Filmography