The protagonist of 'Perdition', who had to wait until she was 75 to receive an honorary Oscar, was a versatile actress who always nailed strong characters
With a career spanning four decades, Stanwyck has always nailed strong, self-assured characters, whether in thrillers, comedies, or Westerns.
Ruby Catherine Stevens, the original name of the artist, was born on July 16, 1907, in Brooklyn (New York) and died on January 20, 1990, at her home in Santa Monica, California. She had a difficult childhood cut short by the death of her mother and the abandonment of her father. Her beginnings have nothing to do with the movies since she began as a telephone operator where she earned $14 a week. When she took her first steps into the world of vaudeville, which she entered as a showgirl, she decided to change her name to someone. She would not lack the great acting talent that she later demonstrated.
Her beginnings were on the Broadway stage, from where she soon jumped to the movies with a timid role in a silent film, 'The Wandering Duet (1927). Her first husband, the controversial actor Frank Ray, is determined to turn her into a diva rather than an actress. In Hollywood, she made sure that the script for 'A Star Is Born', by William A. Wellman, is based on the troubled marriage of Ray and Stanwyck. Her first great success came at the hands of Frank Capra, with 'light women' (1930). She soon became the director's favorite actress, and under his orders, she starred in other milestones such as 'The Miracle Woman' (1931), 'Forbidden Love (1932), 'The Bitterness of General Yen' (1933), and 'Juan Nadie'. , the latter in 1941.
Also in 1941, Preston Sturges offers her a delicious candy, the Eve of 'The Three Nights of Eve', and without changing the year Howard Hawks makes her the protagonist of 'Ball of Fire', a woman surrounded by wise old men and a handsome heartthrob (Gary Cooper), for which she is nominated for an Oscar for the second time. She had already been previously in 1937 for the drama, 'Stella Dallas', by the great King Vidor.
The actress married again in 1939 to the actor Robert Taylor, a marriage that lasted twelve years, until her divorce in 1951 due to Taylor's infidelities with Ava Gardner and Lana Turner which even led her to a suicide attempt. Billy Wilder, who had been the screenwriter of 'Ball of Fire', did not miss the actress's versatility and interpretative strength and in 1944 he turned her into the prototype of a femme fatale in 'Perdition', cold, provocative, and implacable. The perfidious Mrs. Dietrichson went down in film history, but not at the Hollywood Academy, which despite being nominated for an Oscar, once again fell short. Later would come 'The strange love of Martha Ivers' in 1946 and 'Voices of Death' in 1948, by Anatole Litvak. Fourth nomination and fourth disappointment.
He continued making magnificent films in unconventional roles, such as in 'Clash by Night', by Fritz Lang, together with a first-time Marilyn Monroe, in 1952, or in 'The Black Cat', in 1962, by Edward Dmytryk, a film in which he played the first declared lesbian in the history of cinema. After having given replicas, in every way, to the greatest in cinema, from Clark Gable to Errol Flint, from Gary Cooper to Humphrey Bogart, or from James Cagney to William Holden, at the end of the 50s it was called by television, where he has his own show, which earned him an Emmy Award.
Soon, when Hollywood no longer offers her roles, according to her age, like so many other actresses, her career is installed on the small screen. She appeared in series like 'The Untouchables, 'Charlie's Angels' or 'Dynasty'. She becomes the absolute protagonist of 'The Big Valley', and would later have roles in 'The Thorn Bird' or 'The Colbys. In 1982, the Hollywood Academy finally managed to repair her mistake of not having awarded her an Oscar and awarded her a statuette for her entire career, which she dedicated to Holden since he had died a short time before. On January 20, 1990, Barbara Stanwyck died at her home in Santa Monica at the age of 82, of heart disease, after leaving behind a long and rich career with more than a hundred films to her credit and unlimited admiration. all over the planet.
