Gloria Grahame: A talented actress and a tragic life

Gloria Grahame: A memorable face with familiar roles

Gloria Grahame Hallward's name may not be familiar but her face has graced many movie screens and televisions from the 1940s through the 1980s. She was born on November 28, 1923 in Los Angeles, California, and was raised as a Methodist. She dropped out of Hollywood High School in order to pursue her acting career and passed away from cancer on October 5, 1981, at the age of 57.

The actress and singer began her career with her Broadway debut on December 6, 1943 as Florrie in The World's Full of Girls, at the Royale Theatre. She made her first film for MGM, Blonde Fever in 1944 and was signed to a contract after Louis B. Mayer saw her perform. Her next role is one of her most famous and widely praised characters as the flirtatious , sassy, Violet Bick, in Its A Wonderful Life in 1946. Grahame was often featured in film noir movies as a tarnished yet irresistible beauty with sex appeal and charm.

For whatever reason MGM was not able to develop Gloria's star potential and sold her contract to RKO Studios which was owned by Howard Hughes. In 1947 the actress was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Crossfire and won the honor for The Bad and the Beautiful in 1952. Grahame only appeared in the film for a little over nine minutes and held the record for the shortest on-screen performance to win an Oscar for acting.

Beatrice Straight beat the record in 1976 when she won for Network with a five-minute performance. Grahame also did her own stunts as Angel the Elephant Girl in Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth, which won the Oscar for best film of 1952. She starred opposite Humphrey Bogart in 1950s In A Lonely Place and her career was at its height with the films Sudden Fear in 1952, The Big heat, 1953, Human Desire in 1954 and Oklahoma! in 1955. Critics attacked her performance in the musical saying she was miscast as Ado Annie who was a country bumpkin. There were also rumors that Grahame was difficult to work with and rude to the rest of the Oklahoma! cast.

Gloria returned to the stage, but continued to appear in films and television productions, guest-starring in television series, including The Outer Limits, The Fugitive, Burke's Law, Mannix and in small roles in the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man, and Seventh Avenue. Rumors spread that she had undergone a lot of plastic surgery and that it had caused her upper lip to become paralyzed.

The actress married Stanley Clements in 1945 and they divorced in 1948. later that same year she wed Nicholas Ray and they divorced in 1952. She married Cy Howard in 1954 and that marriage ended in 1957. In 1960 she married Anthony Ray who was her stepson when she was married to his father Nicholas and that marriage lasted until 1974.

In March 1974, Grahame was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent radiation treatment, changed her diet, stopped smoking and drinking alcohol. She also sought homeopathic remedies and in less than a year, the cancer went into remission but returned in 1980. Grahame refused to acknowledge her diagnosis or seek radiation a second time.

Despite her failing health, she continued working in stage productions in the United States and the United Kingdom. Her health declined rapidly, and in September 1981 she developed peritonitis after a procedure was performed to remove fluid from her abdomen. The actress returned to New York City, where she passed away on October 5, 1981, at the age of 57.