Gloria Stuart profile

Gloria Frances Stuart,

Gloria Stuart
Gloria Stuart (1937)
Born	Gloria Frances Stewart July 4, 1910 Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Died	September 26, 2010 (aged 100) Brentwood, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1932-1946; 1975-2004
Spouse	Blair Gordon Newell (1930–1934)(divorced) Arthur Sheekman (1934–1978)(his death)

Gloria Frances Stuart (July 4, 1910 – September 26, 2010) was an American actress. Over a Hollywood career that spanned more than 70 years, Stuart appeared on stage, in television and film, and was best known for her roles as Claude Rains' sweetheart in The Invisible Man and as 101-year-old Rose in her Academy Award nominated role in the film Titanic.

Early life and career

Stewart was born in Santa Monica, California, a third-generation Californian. Her mother, Alice Vaughan Deidrick Stewart, was born in Angels Camp, California. Her father, Frank Stewart, was an attorney representing many of the Chinese Tongs in San Francisco. Gloria's brother, Frank, came 11 months later. A second brother, Thomas, died in infancy. Frank Stewart had been appointed a judge and was about to take the bench when he was hit by a car and died. Gloria was nine. Alice got a job in the Ocean Park Post Office to support her children, then accepted a proposal of marriage from Fred J. Finch, a rough-and-tumble Kentuckian who loved horses, owned a local funeral parlor and oil leases in Texas. Gloria's half-sister, Patsy — Patricia Marie Finch — came along in 1924. Young Frank took Finch's name and became a noted sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times, following the Dodgers until his retirement. Frank Stewart was descended from royal Scots (Alice was related to Jesse James), but Gloria changed the spelling when she began her career, because "Stuart" fit better on a marquee.

Gloria Stuart with the rest of the 1932 WAMPAS Baby Stars

Gloria attended Santa Monica High School, graduating in 1927, then immediately ran off to Berkeley to attend the University of California, Berkeley. At Berkeley, she majored in drama and philosophy but dropped out in her junior year to marry Blair Gordon Newell, a San Francisco sculptor working under Ralph Stackpole on the facade of the San Francisco Stock Exchange. The Newells lived a bohemian life in Carmel, were part of a circle of artists including Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and Robinson Jeffers. Gloria acted at the Carmel Playhouse and worked on the Carmel newspaper.

Returning to Los Angeles, she appeared at the Pasadena Playhouse and was immediately signed to a contract by Universal Studios. Elegant, intelligent, and extraordinarily beautiful, she became a favorite of the English director, James Whale, appearing in his The Old Dark House (1932), The Kiss Before the Mirror (1933), and The Invisible Man (1933).

Stuart was an activist and became a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild, but her career with Universal was disappointing. She moved to 20th Century Fox, and by the end of the decade had appeared in 42 films, including Busby Berkeley's Gold Diggers of 1935 and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Among the stars she appeared with was Melvyn Douglas, Lionel Barrymore, Dick Powell, Raymond Massey, Boris Karloff, and Shirley Temple. Stuart was a versatile female lead, but was never given the roles that would make her a major star, a source of great frustration.

In 1934, Stuart and Newell divorced amicably and she married screenwriter Arthur Sheekman, one of the writers on Roman Scandals. Sheekman was Groucho Marx's best friend and was collaborating (sometimes without credit) on Marx Brothers movies. Later Sheekman ghost wrote several of Marx's books; Marx called him "The Fastest Wit in The West". The Sheekmans' daughter, Sylvia, was born in 1935, and in 1939, both between commitments, Stuart convinced her husband they should travel around the world. When they reached France, they tried to volunteer for the French Resistance, but were turned down, so they caught the last ship sailing to New York. They decided to stay in New York and work in the theater, Stuart's first love.

In the next few years, Sheekman wrote several plays (two with George S. Kaufman) and Stuart got roles mostly in summer stock, including Emily to Thornton Wilder's Stage Manager in Our Town. When Sheekman's third play flopped, they returned to Hollywood, and he was hired by Paramount Pictures. Stuart took singing lessons and toured the country entertaining the troops in hospitals and selling war bonds. In 1946, Stuart turned her talent to art. She had discovered decoupage and soon opened a small shop called Décor, Ltd, where she sold the lamps, tables, chests and other objets d'art of decoupage she created. Sheekman wrote 17 screenplays in the next 16 years.

Then in 1954, with Sylvia away at UC Berkeley, the Sheekmans decided to join a number of friends who were living abroad. They settled in Rapallo on the Italian Riviera. Inspired by the success of the primitive paintings of Grandma Moses, Stuart took up oil painting. She loved it, worked as hard as she had at acting, and her first one-woman show at the Hammer Galleries in New York all but sold out.

Return to acting – 1970s to 2000s

In 1975, after 29 years away from acting, with her husband in a nursing home suffering from Alzheimer's, Gloria got herself an agent and hoped for work. Over the next few years she appeared in small parts in television. Then in 1982 came an offer for what was to be one of her favorite scenes in all her films: playing a silver-haired dowager taking a solitary turn around a dance floor with Peter O'Toole in My Favorite Year.

During this period, Gloria took up the Japanese art of bonsai, becoming the first Anglo member of the California Bonsai Society. And she began to travel again, going with friends or on her own to Europe, India, Africa, the Balkans. Arthur died in 1978. Five years later, Gloria became reacquainted with the esteemed California printer, Ward Ritchie (The Ward Ritchie Press), whom she had known in her college years. Ward's wife had died and he looked Gloria up. They fell in love. She was fascinated by his antique hand press and asked him to teach her how to run it. Soon she put away her oil paints and bought her own hand press. She established "Imprenta Glorias", and began creating artists' books (books hand-made, labor intensive, usually with a very limited run). Gloria wrote the text, designed the book, set the type, printed the pages, and finished pages with water colors or silk screen or her old friend, decoupage. Books from Imprenta Glorias are in the Metropolitan Museum, Library of Congress, Huntington Library, J. Paul Getty Museum, Morgan Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and numerous private and university collections. No longer able to work with small type and a large heavy press, she gave her press and sets of rare type to Mills College. Stuart and Ritchie kept company (each in their own house) until his death from cancer in 1996.

Not long after Ritchie's death, Stuart landed the character of 101-year-old Rose, at the heart of James Cameron's epic Titanic. Stuart was nominated for an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She is still the the oldest person ever to have been nominated for an Oscar. Suzy Amis credited Stuart for bringing her together on the set with her eventual husband, director James Cameron.

Stuart published her autobiography, I Just Kept Hoping, in 1999, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2000. Her last appearance on film was a role in Wim Wenders Land of Plenty in 2004, and afterward she gave numerous filmed and audio interviews. Stuart continued to work at her artist's books, finishing a miniature about a time when she was in Berkeley, called I Dated J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Death

Stuart died in her sleep of respiratory failure on September 26, 2010 at the age of 100.

Awards and honors

On June 19, 2010, Stuart was honored by the Screen Actors Guild for her years of service. She was presented the Ralph Morgan Award by Titanic co-star Frances Fisher and in response Gloria replied, "I'm very, very grateful. I've had a wonderful life of giving and sharing".

On July 4, 2010, Stuart celebrated her 100th birthday at the ACE Gallery in Beverly Hills with a party hosted by the director of Titanic, James Cameron and his wife, Suzy Amis. Frances Fisher, Shirley MacLaine and Tom Arnold were among the guests.[4] On July 22 The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored her career with a program featuring film clips and a conversation between Stuart and film historian Leonard Maltin.

Stuart later said that she relates with her comeback character of Titanic's 101-year-old Rose saying that she herself is an old woman whose heart is filled with love and she later said of this; "I think that's the important thing, if you're full of love, admiration, appreciation of the beautiful things there are in this life, you have it made, really. And I have it made."

Filmography

Street of Women (1932)
Back Street (1932)
The All-American (1932)
The Old Dark House (1932)
Airmail (1932)
Laughter in Hell (1933)
Sweepings (1933)
Private Jones (1933)
The Kiss Before the Mirror (1933)
The Girl in 419 (1933)
It's Great to Be Alive (1933)
Secret of the Blue Room (1933)
The Invisible Man (1933)
Roman Scandals (1933)
Beloved (1934)
I Like It That Way (1934)
I'll Tell the World (1934)
The Love Captive (1934)
Here Comes the Navy (1934)
Gift of Gab (1934)
Maybe It's Love (1935)
Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935)
Laddie (1935)
Professional Soldier (1935)
The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936)
The Crime of Dr. Forbes (1936)
Poor Little Rich Girl (1936)
36 Hours to Kill (1936)
The Girl on the Front Page (1936)
Wanted: Jane Turner (1936)
Girl Overboard (1937)
The Lady Escapes (1937)
Life Begins in College (1937)
Change of Heart (1938)
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938)
Island in the Sky (1938)
Keep Smiling (1938)
Time Out for Murder (1938)
The Lady Objects (1938)
The Three Musketeers (1939)
Winner Take All (1939)
It Could Happen to You (1939)
Here Comes Elmer (1943)
The Whistler (1944)
Enemy of Women (1944)
She Wrote the Book (1946)
My Favorite Year (1982)
Mass Appeal (1984)
Wildcats (1986)
Titanic (1997)
The Titanic Chronicles (1999)
The Love Letter (1999)
The Million Dollar Hotel (2000)
Land of Plenty (2004)




(source:wikipedia)