Barbara Stanwyck

Has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 1751 Vine St.

Barbara Stanwyck was born Ruby Catherine Stevens on July 16, 1907, in Brooklyn, New York, to working class parents Catherine Ann (McPhee) and Byron E. Stevens. Her father, from Massachusetts, had English ancestry, and her Canadian mother, from Nova Scotia, was of Scottish and Irish descent. Stanwyck went to work at the local telephone company for fourteen dollars a week, but she had the urge (a dream--that was all it was) somehow to enter show business. When not working, she pounded the pavement in search of dancing jobs. The persistence paid off. Barbara was hired as a chorus girl for the princely sum of $40 a week, much better than the wages she was getting from the phone company. She was seventeen, and was going to make the most of the opportunity that had been given her.

Worked briefly as a fashion model in the late 1920s.

But she was known to millions of other fans for her movie career, which spanned the period from 1927 until 1964, after which she appeared on television until 1986. It was a career that lasted for 59 years.

In 1928 Barbara moved to Hollywood, where she was to start one of the most lucrative careers filmdom had ever seen. She was an extremely versatile actress who could adapt to any role.

Barbara was equally at home in all genres, from melodramas, such as Forbidden (1932) and Stella Dallas (1937), to thrillers, such as Double Indemnity (1944), one of her best films, also starring Fred MacMurray (as you have never seen him before).

Her stormy 7 year marriage to Frank Fay finally ended after a drunken brawl, during which he tossed their adopted son, Dion, into the swimming pool. Their divorce was finalized on December 30, 1935. The couple had adopted Dion on December 5, 1932. Dion (born John Charles Greene, February 5, 1932, Los Angeles County, California - died May 17, 2006, Van Nuys, Los Angeles County, California) became permanently estranged from Stanwyck in February 1951, when he was 19 years old; the rift never healed.In 1957, Dion was arrested for trying to sell lewd pictures while waiting to cash his unemployment check. When questioned by the press about his famous mother, he replied, "We don't speak." He and Stanwyck only saw each other a few times after their falling out. He was reportedly bequeathed some money from Stanwyck's estate on condition he never speak publicly about her.

A Star Is Born (1937) starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March is said to be modeled after Stanwyck's rise to stardom and first husband Frank Fay's descent into obscurity.

Another genre she excelled in was westerns, Union Pacific (1939) being one of her first and TV's The Big Valley (1965) (her most memorable role) being her last.

She also excelled in comedies such as Remember the Night (1940) and The Lady Eve (1941).

Picked up the starring role in Ball of Fire (1941) after Ginger Rogers dropped out.

In 1944, when she earned $400,000, the government listed her as the nation's highest-paid woman.

Planned to play the lead in Mildred Pierce (1945), but Joan Crawford was faster and got the role.

She twice played a character named Jessica Drummond in two completely different movies: My Reputation (1946) and Forty Guns (1957).

In Italy, almost all of her films were dubbed by Lydia Simoneschi. She was occasionally dubbed by Tina Lattanzi and Marcella Rovena. As Leona Stevenson in Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), she was dubbed by Andreina Pagnani. This was the only time the Italian actress lent her voice to Stanwyck.

Stanwyck, a staunch Republican, along with, among others, Ginger Rogers, Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, John Wayne and Irene Dunne, was a member of The Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a right-wing political action group during the McCarthy-era of the early to mid-1950s.

Throughout her career she was known for her kindness and patience with younger performers. Marilyn Monroe, who worked with Stanwyck in the 1952 film Clash by Night (1952) said that Stanwyck was the only member of Hollywood's older generation who was kind to her.

In February 1955 she was rumored to be one of the female stars of Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) but she didn't make the film.

Today Barbara Stanwyck is remembered primarily as the matriarch of the family known as the Barkleys on the TV western The Big Valley (1965), wherein she played Victoria, and from the hit drama The Colbys (1985).

She was replaced by Susan Hayward in Heat of Anger (1972), which was to have been a pilot for a prospective TV series to be called "Fitzgerald and Pride.".

Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1973.

On October 27, 1981, Stanwyck was awakened by a burglar at 1:00 in the morning. She was hit on the head with an unknown object then forced into a closet while the intruder ransacked the house and got away with $5,000 worth of jewels. She was treated for minor head wounds at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and released the next day. Four years later, in 1985, the house was destroyed in a fire. She expressed upset at losing personal keepsakes, including love letters from Robert Taylor.

However, in 1982 she was awarded an honorary Academy Award for "superlative creativity and unique contribution to the art of screen acting.

In 1983, she played in the ABC hit mini-series The Thorn Birds (1983), which did much to keep her in the eye of the public. She turned in an outstanding performance as Mary Carson. Barbara was considered a gem to work with for her serious but easygoing attitude on the set. She worked hard at being an actress, and she never allowed her star quality to go to her head. She was nominated for four Academy Awards, though she never won. She turned in magnificent performances for all the roles she was nominated for, but the "powers that be" always awarded the Oscar to someone else.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 796-798. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.

American Film Institute Life Achievement Award. [1987]

Was a heavy smoker who later developed bronchitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); the latter claimed her life in 1990, aged 82.

According to the biographical film Barbara Stanwyck: Fire and Desire (1991), Stanwyck became a role model for female actors. Such stars as Sally Field and Virginia Madsen have publicly declared Stanwyck their role model.

Profiled in "Back in the Saddle: Essays on Western Film and Television Actors", Gary Yoggy, ed. (McFarland, 1998).

Profiled in book "Funny Ladies" by Stephen Silverman. [1999]

Profiled in "Killer Tomatoes: Fifteen Tough Film Dames" by Ray Hagen and Laura Wagner (McFarland, 2004).

She was honored as Turner Classic Movie's Star of the Month for December 2012.

Forty of the movies she appeared in in her 35-year-long career were screened through the month of December 2013 in a special tribute at New York City's Film Forum.