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I remember everything, even the dates. But I don't want others to remember the details, just the image.
Gloria Grahame
Gloria Grahame was descended from royalty. Her father's family descended from King Edward III through John of Gaunt; her mother's, from the Scottish Kings of the Hebrides.
Gloria Grahame
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Gloria Hallward
28 November 1923, Los Angeles, California
5 October 1981, New York City, New York
Gloria Grahame (November 28, 1923 – October 5, 1981) was an American actress.
Grahame began her acting career in theatre, and in 1944 she made her first film for MGM. Despite a featured role in It's a Wonderful Life (1946), MGM did not believe she had the potential for major success, and sold her contract to RKO Studios. Often cast in film noir projects, Grahame received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Crossfire (1947), and she won this award for her work in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). She achieved her highest profile with Sudden Fear (1952), Human Desire (1953),The Big Heat (1953), and Oklahoma! (1955), but her film career began to wane soon afterwards.
She returned to work on the stage, but continued to appear in films and television productions, usually in supporting roles. Diagnosed with stomach cancer in 1980, Grahame refused to accept the diagnosis and travelled to England to work in a play. Her health rapidly failed and she returned to New York City, where she died in 1981.
Grahame was born Gloria Hallward in Los Angeles, California. Reginald Michael Bloxam Hallward, her father, was an architect and author and her mother, Jeanne McDougall, who used the stage name Jean Grahame, was a British stage actress and acting teacher. The couple had another daughter, Joy Hallward (1911-2003), an actress who married the brother of Robert Mitchum. McDougall taught her younger daughter acting during her childhood and adolescence.
Grahame was signed to a contract with MGM Studios under her professional name after Louis B. Mayer saw her performing on Broadway for several years.
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She made her film debut in Blonde Fever (1944) and scored one of her most widely praised roles as the promiscuous Violet, who is saved from disgrace by George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life (1946). MGM was not able to develop her potential as a star and her contract was sold to RKO Studios in 1947.
Grahame was often featured in film noir pictures as a tarnished beauty with an irresistible sexual allure. During this time, she made films for several Hollywood studios. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Crossfire (1947).
Grahame starred with Humphrey Bogart in the 1950 film In a Lonely Place, a performance which garnered her considerable praise. Though today it is considered among her finest performances, it wasn't a box-office hit and Howard Hughes, owner of RKO Studios, admitted that he never saw it. When she asked to be loaned out for roles in Born Yesterday and A Place in the Sun, Hughes refused and instead made her do a supporting role in Macao. However, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in MGM's The Bad and the Beautiful (1952).
Other memorable roles included the scheming Irene Nieves in Sudden Fear (1952), the femme fatale Vicki Buckley in Human Desire (1953), and mob moll Debby Marsh in Fritz Lang's The Big Heat (1953) in which, in a horrifying scene, she is scarred by hot coffee thrown in her face offscreen by Lee Marvin's character.
Grahame's career began to wane after her performance in the musical movie Oklahoma! (1955). Grahame, whom audiences were used to seeing as a film noir siren, was miscast as an ignorant country lass in a wholesome musical, and the paralysis of her upper lip from plastic surgery altered her speech and appearance. She began a slow return to the theater, and returned to films occasionally to play supporting roles, mostly in minor releases. She appeared on television too, including an episode of the ABC sitcom, Harrigan and Son, starring Pat O'Brien.
Grahame has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to Motion Pictures, at 6522 Hollywood Boulevard.
Grahame had a string of stormy romances and failed marriages during her time in Hollywood, including marriages to director Nicholas Ray and later to Ray's son, whom she had an affair with while still married to Ray. All of this took a toll on her career, as did a two-year hiatus taken after the birth of her daughter in 1956. Marital and child custody problems hampered her performance on the set of Oklahoma! Additionally, the actress's concern over the appearance of her upper lip led her to pursue plastic surgery and dental operations that caused visible scarring and ultimately rendered the lip largely immobile due to nerve damage, which affected her speech.
She married:
Stanley Clements (1926-1981), actor, married August 1945, divorced 1 June 1948.
Nicholas Ray, director, married 1 June 1948, separated 1951, divorced 1952. The couple had one child, Timothy (born November 1948, aka David Cyrus Howard during his mother's third marriage). Their marriage ended when Ray found Grahame in bed with his 13 year old son by his first marriage, Anthony, whom she later married.
Cy Howard, writer, married 1954, divorced 1957. They had one daughter, Marianna Paulette (born 1956).
Anthony Ray, her former stepson, married May 1960, divorced 1974. The Rays had two sons, Anthony Jr (born 1963) and James (born 1965).
In the late 1970s, Grahame travelled to England, performing plays, and there she met Liverpool actor Peter Turner with whom she had a romantic relationship. They moved to the USA and lived in New York and California, where their affair ended. Turner moved back to England.
In 1980, Grahame was diagnosed with stomach cancer but she refused surgery, insisting that she did not have cancer. In 1981, she traveled to England to perform in a play. While in England, she had fluid from her stomach drained, which resulted in a perforated bowel. This became apparent after she collapsed during a rehearsal for the play.
Peter Turner heard the news that Grahame was ill and staying in a hotel in Lancaster, England. Turner, accompanied by members of his family, collected her from the hotel and took her to his family home in Aigburth, Liverpool, where he and his family nursed her until some of her children arrived to take her back to New York where she died at the age of 57.
She is interred in Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California, as Gloria H Grahame.
Gloria's grandfather Reginald Francis Hallward gave Oscar Wilde the idea for 'The Picture of Dorian Gray.'
Mother, Jean MacDougall, stage actress as Jean Grahame (Gloria's grandmother's maiden name) and later acting coach. Father, Michael Hallward, decorator, architect and author.
Gloria was not born in 1925 as usually stated, but in 1923.
Younger sister of Joy Hallward.
Gloria's children: Timothy Ray, born 12 November 1948; Marianna Paulette Howard, born 1 October 1956; Anthony Ray Jr., born 30 April 1963; James Ray, born 21 September 1965.
In real life, she was nearsighted and often wore glasses.
Tone-deaf, she sang without dubbing in only one film, Oklahoma! (1955), where her songs were edited together from recordings made almost literally note by note.
Her unusual 1960 marriage to former stepson Anthony Ray made a great Hollywood scandal and led to a bitter child custody battle with former husbands.
Her film output totalled 39 feature films, 4 TV-movies and 2 miniseries.
Gloria spent her last days in the Liverpool (UK) home of her friend Peter Turner, then was flown back to New York by her children just hours before her death.
Unhappy with the tilt of her upper lip, she often stuffed cotton along her gumline to straighten it out. The effect was cosmetically less than flattering and made it difficult for her to speak. A leading man, after kissing her, ended up with a mouth full of cotton.
Buried at Oakwood Memorial Park, 22601 Lassen, Chatsworth, California. Pioneer Section Lot 242, Space 8.
In Italy, a great deal of her films were dubbed by Rina Morelli, but occasionally she was also dubbed by Renata Marini, most notably in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952); Lidia Simoneschi; Andreina Pagnani, in Fritz Lang's Human Desire (1954) and Wanda Tettoni in Crossfire (1947).
A very close friend of Jeff Donnell. They met on the set of Roughshod (1949), and appeared together the next year in In a Lonely Place (1950).
Profiled in "Killer Tomatoes: Fifteen Tough Film Dames" bu Ray Hagen and Laura Wagner (McFarland, 2004).
Campaigned for the Judy Holliday role in Born Yesterday (1950) and Shelley Winters role in A Place in the Sun (1951).
Reportedly did not get on with Humphrey Bogart during the filming of In a Lonely Place (1950) as Bogart had campaigned for the part of Laurel Gray to be given to his wife Lauren Bacall, which was instead given to Grahame.
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