Barbara Stanwyck facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Barbara Stanwyck
Stanwyck in 1939
Born	Ruby Catherine Stevens (1907-07-16)July 16, 1907 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	January 20, 1990(1990-01-20) (aged 82) Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress model dancer
Years active	1922–1986
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Frank Fay ​ ​ (m. 1928; div. 1935)​ Robert Taylor ​ ​ (m. 1939; div. 1952)​
Children	1

Barbara Stanwyck (born Ruby Catherine Stevens; July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was a famous American actress. She was also a model and dancer. Over her 60-year career, she was known for her strong and realistic acting. She could play many different types of characters. Directors like Cecil B. DeMille and Frank Capra loved working with her. She made 85 movies in 38 years before she started working in television.

She began her career as a dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies in 1923 when she was 16. Soon after, she started acting in plays. Her first main role in the play Burlesque (1927) made her a Broadway star.

In 1929, she started acting in movies with sound. Director Frank Capra chose her for his movie Ladies of Leisure (1930). This led to many other important roles. Some of her famous early films include Night Nurse (1931) and Baby Face (1933). In 1937, she starred in Stella Dallas, which earned her first Academy Award nomination.

She also starred in comedies like Ball of Fire (1941) with Gary Cooper and The Lady Eve (1941) with Henry Fonda. The Lady Eve is now seen as a comedy classic. She received another Academy Award nomination for Ball of Fire. Other successful films from this time were Meet John Doe (1940) and You Belong to Me (1941).

In 1944, she starred in the famous crime film Double Indemnity with Fred MacMurray. This role earned her a third Oscar nomination. She also starred in the romantic comedy Christmas in Connecticut (1945). She got her fourth Oscar nomination for Sorry, Wrong Number (1948). By the 1950s, her movie career slowed down.

In the 1960s, she moved to television. She won three Emmy Awards for her work. These were for The Barbara Stanwyck Show (1961), the western series The Big Valley (1966), and the miniseries The Thorn Birds (1983).

Barbara Stanwyck received an Honorary Oscar in 1982. She also received the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1986. The American Film Institute ranked her as the 11th greatest female star of classic American cinema.

Early Life and Beginnings

Barbara Stanwyck was born Ruby Catherine Stevens on July 16, 1907, in Brooklyn, New York. She was the youngest of five children. Her parents, Kathryn Ann and Byron E. Stevens, were working-class.

When Ruby was four years old, her mother passed away. A few weeks later, her father left to work on the Panama Canal and never returned. Ruby and her older brother, Malcolm Byron (called "By"), were raised by their oldest sister, Laura Mildred.

When Mildred became a showgirl, Ruby and Byron lived in many different foster homes. Young Ruby often ran away from these homes. She went to public schools in Brooklyn but did not get good grades. She also often got into fights with other students.

Ruby spent summers in 1916 and 1917 touring with Mildred. She practiced her sister's dance routines backstage. She also loved watching movies starring Pearl White. These experiences made her want to become a performer. At 14, she left school and got a job wrapping packages at a department store.

She then worked at a telephone office, which helped her become independent. She did not like this job. Her real dream was to be in show business. Her sister Mildred tried to stop her, but Ruby was determined. She also worked cutting dress patterns for Vogue magazine. Later, she became a typist for a music company.

Becoming a Star on Broadway

Stanwyck as a Ziegfeld girl in a 1924 photo by Alfred Cheney Johnston

In 1923, just before her 16th birthday, Ruby tried out for a dance group. She got a job as a dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies in 1922 and 1923. She said she "just wanted to survive and eat and have a nice coat." For several years, she worked as a chorus girl. She also taught dance sometimes.

In 1926, Ruby met a theater producer named Willard Mack. He was looking for an actress for his play The Noose. Ruby got the part. The play was not very good at first. Mack decided to make Ruby's part bigger. The Noose reopened and became a big hit. It ran on Broadway for nine months.

During this time, Ruby changed her name to Barbara Stanwyck. She got the name from a play called Barbara Frietchie and an actress named Jane Stanwyck.

Barbara Stanwyck became a Broadway star when she got her first main role in Burlesque (1927). Critics loved her performance, and the play was a huge success.

Stanwyck made her first movie appearance in 1927. It was a small role as a fan dancer in the silent film Broadway Nights. She did not get the main role because she could not cry during the screen test.

While working on Burlesque, Stanwyck met actor Frank Fay. They married on August 26, 1928, and soon moved to Hollywood.

A Successful Film Career

Photoplay magazine cover

Barbara Stanwyck's first movie with sound was The Locked Door (1929). Her next film was Mexicali Rose (1929). Neither of these movies was very successful. However, director Frank Capra chose Stanwyck for his film Ladies of Leisure (1930). This movie started a long friendship with Capra and led to more roles in his films.

She played other important roles, like a nurse in Night Nurse (1931). In this movie, she saves two little girls from a bad chauffeur. She also played a teacher and farm woman in So Big! (1932).

Stanwyck in her award-nominated role as Stella Dallas in 1937

In Stella Dallas (1937), she played a mother who gives up her daughter so the daughter can have a better life. This role earned her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She then played Molly Monahan in Union Pacific (1939). In Meet John Doe (1941), she played a newspaper writer with Gary Cooper.

In the romantic comedy The Lady Eve (1941), she played a clever con-woman. She falls in love with the rich and innocent man she plans to trick, played by Henry Fonda. Film critics have called her performance one of the best in American comedy. The Lady Eve is considered one of the top 100 movies of all time.

Next, she played a successful doctor named Helen Hunt in You Belong to Me (1941), also with Fonda. Stanwyck then played a nightclub singer in the comedy Ball of Fire (1941). She taught a professor about "modern English" in this movie. She received an Academy Award nomination for this role.

In Double Indemnity (1944), a crime thriller, she played a woman who convinces an insurance salesman to kill her husband. This movie is considered one of the top 100 films of all time. It is also on the list of 100 Years...100 Thrills.

Fred MacMurray and Stanwyck in the famous crime film Double Indemnity

She played a homemaker columnist in the comedy Christmas in Connecticut (1945). This movie was a hit and is still a holiday classic. In 1946, she starred in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. Stanwyck also played a pianist in The Other Love (1947). For this role, she practiced piano for hours each day. This made it look like she was really playing the music in the film.

Film critic Pauline Kael admired Stanwyck's natural acting style. She said Stanwyck had an "intuitive understanding of the fluid physical movements that work best on camera."

Meet John Doe (1941)

Many of her roles were strong characters. But Stanwyck was also known for being kind to everyone on set. She knew the names of the crew members' families. Director Frank Capra said she was "beloved by all directors, actors, crews and extras."

She performed some of her own stunts. In Cattle Queen of Montana (1954), she swam in an icy lake. At 50, she did a very difficult stunt in Forty Guns. The scene required her to fall from a horse and be dragged. It was so dangerous that the professional stuntman refused to do it. She was later made an honorary member of the Hollywood Stuntmen's Hall of Fame.

William Holden and Stanwyck were good friends. When they presented an Oscar together in 1977, he thanked her. She had saved his career when he was about to be fired from Golden Boy (1939). Stanwyck stood up for him and convinced the producers to keep him. When she received her honorary Oscar, she remembered Holden. She said, "my golden boy, you got your wish."

Television Career Highlights

As her movie career slowed down in the 1950s, Barbara Stanwyck moved to television. In 1958, she appeared in a Western show called Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre.

In 1961, she hosted a show called The Barbara Stanwyck Show. It won her an Emmy Award. The show had 36 episodes. She also appeared on other TV shows like The Untouchables and Wagon Train.

She returned to movies for the 1964 Elvis Presley film Roustabout. In this movie, she played a carnival owner.

Stanwyck as matriarch Victoria Barkley on The Big Valley

The Western TV series The Big Valley made Stanwyck very popular on television. It aired from 1965 to 1969. She played Victoria, the head of the wealthy Barkley family. This role won her another Emmy Award.

In 1983, Stanwyck won her third Emmy for the miniseries The Thorn Birds. In 1985, she appeared in the TV show Dynasty. She then starred in its spin-off series The Colbys with Charlton Heston. She was not happy with the experience and left after the first season. This was her last acting role.

Personal Life

Marriages and Family

With Robert Taylor in 1941

On August 26, 1928, Stanwyck married her Burlesque co-star Frank Fay. They adopted a ten-month-old boy named Anthony Dion in 1932. Their marriage was difficult because Fay's career was not as successful as Stanwyck's. They divorced on December 30, 1935. Stanwyck raised their son, but they grew apart when he became an adult.

In 1936, Stanwyck started a relationship with her co-star Robert Taylor. She helped guide his career and taught him about Hollywood life. They started living together, which was unusual at the time. Stanwyck was hesitant to marry again. However, their marriage in 1939 was arranged by Taylor's movie studio. This was common for stars in Hollywood's golden age.

Stanwyck and Taylor divorced in 1950. There were many rumors about why they divorced. After World War II, Taylor wanted a life away from acting, but Stanwyck did not share that goal. They remained friends after the divorce. They even acted together in Stanwyck's last movie, The Night Walker (1964). She never remarried. Her friend Linda Evans said Stanwyck called Taylor the love of her life. She was very sad when he passed away in 1969.

Friendships and Kindness

Barbara Stanwyck was one of the most liked actresses in Hollywood. She was friends with many actors and crew members. These friends included Joel McCrea, Henry Fonda, William Holden, and Gary Cooper.

She was known for her kindness. During the filming of To Please a Lady, she insisted that her African-American maid, Harriet Coray, stay in the same hotel as the rest of the cast and crew. After much effort from Stanwyck, Coray was allowed to stay in the best hotel in Indianapolis.

Political Views

Stanwyck was a Republican. She believed that if she could succeed from a difficult background, others should also be able to without much government help. She thought "hard work with the prospect of rich reward was the American way."

She was an early member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. This group worked to fight against influences that they felt would harm the American way of life in Hollywood. She supported investigations by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Religion

Stanwyck was originally a Protestant. She later converted to Roman Catholicism when she married Frank Fay. However, she did not seem to remain Catholic after their marriage ended.

Her Brother, Bert Stevens

Stanwyck's older brother, Malcolm Byron Stevens (1905–1964), also became an actor. He used the name Bert Stevens. He mostly played small roles, often without being credited. He appeared in two movies that also starred Barbara Stanwyck: The File on Thelma Jordon and No Man of Her Own, both released in 1950.

Later Years and Passing

Barbara Stanwyck spent her retirement years doing charity work. She stayed out of the public eye.

She passed away on January 20, 1990, at 82 years old. She died from heart failure and lung disease in Santa Monica, California. She had asked for no funeral service. Her ashes were scattered from a helicopter over Lone Pine, California. This was a place where she had filmed some of her Western movies.

Awards and Recognitions

Images for kids

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  Meet John Doe (1941)

See also

In Spanish: Barbara Stanwyck para niños