Barbara Stanwyck Among Finest Film Actors Ever

Star of Double Indemnity, The Lady Eve Showed Remarkable Range

Nov 11, 2009

She never won a competitive Oscar, but Barbara Stanwyck remains among Hollywood's most loved and admired film actors, thanks to an astonishingly diverse filmography.

It's impossible to pigeonhole Stanwyck. She was so good, in so many movies, over such a long period -- 38 years in pictures, then a quarter-century in television -- that she defied classification.

Stanwyck's talent was matched by her modesty. "Career is too pompous a word," she once said. "It was a job, and I have always felt privileged to be paid for doing what I love doing." (From imdb.com)

Barbara Stanwyck Born, Bred in Brooklyn

With her impoverished background, stardom seemed unlikely for Ruby Catherine Stevens, born in Brooklyn in 1907.

She was the fifth and last child of a working class couple. When Ruby was four, her pregnant mother was killed when a drunken stranger jostled her off a moving trolley car. Two weeks after the funeral, Ruby's father went to work on the Panama Canal -- and was never heard from again.

Ruby wound up in various foster homes, from which she often fled. At school, Ruby was a poor student who frequently got into fights.

She yearned to emulate big sister Mildred, who was a dancer. Ruby dropped out of school and worked variously in a Brooklyn department store, for the phone company, with a dress cutter and as a typist.

But her dancing dreams persisted. At 16, Ruby snagged a small part in the 1922 Ziegfeld Follies and also worked for years as an all-night dancer at New York clubs owned by the legendary Tex Guinan.

Ruby stood out as a chorus girl in the 1926 Broadway show The Noose, taking her stage name from an illustration for the play Barbara Frietchie, starring the English actress Jane Stanwyck.

In 1928, she met stage star Frank Fay. They married that summer, before moving to Hollywood.

Four years later, Stanwyck and Fay adopted an infant boy, Dion Anthony "Tony" Fay. But his presence could not salvage a stormy marriage marked by Fay's heavy drinking, erratic behavior and career collapse.

Some claim the backstage drama A Star is Born was inspired by Fay and Stanwyck. Their marriage officially ended a day before New Year's Eve, 1935.

Meantime, Stanwyck's screen career really was gaining traction, thanks to director Frank Capra, who cast her in pre-Code gems like Ladies of Leisure, The Miracle Woman and Forbidden.

Other outstanding roles included the steely man-eater in Baby Face and the self-sacrificing mother of Stella Dallas.

Marriage to Megastar Robert Taylor

In 1939, Stanwyck married dashing matinee idol Robert Taylor, in a ceremony arranged by his studio, MGM. The 12-year marriage coincided with Stanwyck's personal Golden Era. She made an astonishing array of classics during this period, including:

Of Stanwyck's acting, film critic Pauline Kael wrote the former dancer possessed "an intuitive understanding of the fluid physical movements that work best on camera." (5001 Nights at the Movies, by Pauline Kael, Henry Holt, 1991)

Marilyn Monroe, William Holden Among Stanwyck's Grateful Co-Stars

At work, Stanwyck was known for kindness to co-stars and crew members alike and reportedly knew the names of everyone's spouses and children.

(When shooting Clash by Night, a young Marilyn Monroe said Stanwyck was the only performer on set who was kind to her.

(And at the 1978 Oscars, Stanwyck and William Holden were presenting the award for best sound when he stopped the show to publicly thank her for saving his career. Holden explained Stanwyck had demanded his casting in Golden Boy -- despite the producers' doubts. The visibly moved Stanwyck kissed him onstage, to thunderous approval from the audience.)

Gay Rumors Followed Both Stanwyck, Taylor

Stanwyck's marriage to Taylor weathered sexual innuendo about both of them. However, there also were reports he often strayed, with actresses Ava Gardner and Lana Turner, among others.

They divorced in 1951. That same year, Stanwyck became estranged from adopted son Tony. They apparently never reconciled, but Stanwyck remained close with Taylor -- they even co-starred in 1964's The Night Walker, Stanwyck's last feature.

With her movie career winding down in the late 50s, Stanwyck turned to TV. In the mid-60s, The Big Valley made her a household name once again. As the matriarch of a ranching family, Stanwyck helped make television stars of cast mates Linda Evans, Richard Long and Lee Majors.

Later came the memorable mini-series The Thorn Birds, in which Stanwyck proved that, even as an older woman, she could project bold sexual desire in a remarkable performance opposite Richard Chamberlain.

Stanwyck Receives Honorary Academy Award

The star's sad final years included a 1981 home invasion robbery and beating in Beverly Hills. And in 1985, she was devastated to lose all of Robert Taylor's love letters in a fire.

The actress known on set as "Missy" received an honorary Academy Award in 1982 "for superlative creativity and unique contributions to the art of screen acting."

Barbara Stanwyck died of various ailments in Santa Monica, California in 1990. There was no funeral, and her ashes were scattered in Lone Pine, California, where movies have been shot since the silent days.

The copyright of the article Barbara Stanwyck Among Finest Film Actors Ever in Classic Films is owned by Barry M. Grey. Permission to republish Barbara Stanwyck Among Finest Film Actors Ever in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.