Gloria Grahame

Gloria Grahame (born Gloria Penelope Hallward; November 28, 1923 – October 5, 1981) was an American actress. She began her acting career in theater and in 1944 made her first film for MGM. Many biographies indicate she was born Gloria Grahame Hallward, but she adopted the surname Grahame, her mother's acting name, as her professional name.

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. Often cast in film noir projects, Grahame was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Crossfire (1947) and later won the award for her work in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). After starring opposite Humphrey Bogart in In a Lonely Place (1950), she achieved her highest profile with Sudden Fear (1952), The Big Heat (1953), Human Desire (1954), 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.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1974. It went into remission less than a year later and Grahame returned to work. The cancer returned in 1980, but she continued working and traveled to the United Kingdom to appear in a play. By 1981, her health had declined rapidly, and at her family's insistence, she returned to New York City on October 5, 1981, dying the same day at St. Vincent's Hospital at the age of 57.

Grahame was born in Los Angeles, the younger child of Michael and Jean Hallward. She was raised a Methodist. Her English father, Reginald Michael Bloxam Hallward (later known as Michael Hallward) was an architect and author; her Scottish mother, Jean McDougall, who used the stage name Jean Grahame, was a stage actress and acting teacher. Grahame's only sibling, her elder sister Joy Hallward, was an actress who married John Mitchum (younger brother of actor Robert Mitchum). During Gloria's childhood and adolescence, her mother taught her acting. Grahame attended Hollywood High School before dropping out to pursue acting.

An early stage appearance by her was in the long-running farce Good Night, Ladies at Chicago's Blackstone Theatre, starring Buddy Ebsen, which opened on April 12, 1942.

Grahame made her Broadway debut on December 6, 1943, at the Royale Theatre as Florrie in Nunnally Johnson's The World's Full of Girls, which was adapted from Thomas Bell's 1943 novel Till I Come Back to You. She was signed to a contract with MGM Studios under her professional name after Louis B. Mayer saw her performance. Another Broadway role was in April-May 1944's Highland Fling. She made her film debut in Blonde Fever (1944) and then achieved one of her most widely praised roles as the vixenish Violet Bick, saved from disgrace by George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life (1946). MGM felt unable 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 film In a Lonely Place (1950) for Columbia Pictures, a performance for which she gained praise. Though today it is considered among her finest performances, it was not a box-office hit, and Howard Hughes, owner of RKO, admitted that he never saw it. When she asked to be lent out for roles in Born Yesterday (also 1950) and A Place in the Sun (1951), Hughes refused and instead made her perform a supporting role in Macao (1952).

Despite appearing for only a little over nine minutes on screen, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in MGM's The Bad and the Beautiful (also 1952); she long held the record for the shortest performance on screen to win an acting Oscar until Beatrice Straight won for Network (1976) with a five-minute performance.

Over time, Grahame became increasingly concerned with her physical appearance; she particularly felt her upper lip was too thin and had ridges that were too deep. She began stuffing cotton or tissues under it, which she felt gave her a sexier look. Several co-stars discovered this during kissing scenes. In the mid-1940s, Grahame began undergoing small cosmetic procedures on her lips and face. According to her niece, Vicky Mitchum, Grahame's obsession with vanity led her to undergo more cosmetic procedures that rendered her upper lip immobile because of nerve damage. Mitchum said, "Over the years, she [Grahame] carved herself up, trying to make herself into an image of beauty she felt should exist but didn't. Others saw her as a beautiful person, but she never did, and crazy things spread from that."

Grahame was married four times and had four children. Her first marriage was to actor Stanley Clements in August 1945. They divorced in June 1948.

The day after her divorce from Clements was final, Grahame married director Nicholas Ray. They had a son. After several separations and reconciliations, Grahame and Ray divorced in 1952.

Grahame was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 1974. She underwent radiation treatment, changed her diet, stopped smoking and drinking alcohol, and sought homeopathic remedies and Christian Science treatment. In less than a year, the cancer went into remission but returned in 1980. Grahame fell ill while performing at The Dukes in Lancaster, England, in the fall of 1981.

She contacted her former lover, actor Peter Turner, and asked him not to contact doctors or her family (which he did anyway). According to Turner's memoir, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, Turner's local family physician told Grahame she had a cancerous tumor "the size of a football" in her abdomen. Breast cancer is not mentioned in the book. Turner informed Grahame's children of her illness; they brought her back to the United States against her wishes and those of her doctor and Turner. She was immediately admitted to St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan on October 5, 1981, where she died a few hours later of stomach cancer and peritonitis at age 57.

Grahame's remains were interred at Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, Los Angeles.

For her contributions to the motion-picture industry, Grahame had a star placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6522 Hollywood Boulevard on February 8, 1960.

The movie Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (2017), based on Peter Turner's account of the final years of Grahame's life, was released in the United Kingdom on November 16, 2017. The film was released in the United States on December 29, 2017. In the film, Grahame was portrayed by Annette Bening.

Grahame had kept an apartment at the Manhattan Plaza residential complex, and its community room, where her portrait hangs, is dedicated to her.