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Claudette Colbert

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Claudette Colbert
Colbert in 1944
Born
Émilie "Lily" Claudette Chauchoin

(1903-09-13)September 13, 1903
Saint-Mandé, France
DiedJuly 30, 1996(1996-07-30) (aged 92)
Speightstown, Barbados
Other nameLily Claudette Chauchoin
EducationArt Students League of New York
OccupationActress
Years active1924–1987
Known forIt Happened One Night
Cleopatra
The Palm Beach Story
Since You Went Away
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1928; div. 1935)​
Joel Pressman
​
​
(m. 1935; died 1968)​
AwardsSee below
Signature

Claudette Colbert (koʊlˈbɛər kohl-BAIR,[1] September 13, 1903 – July 30, 1996), also known as Lily Claudette Chauchoin (ʃoʃwɛ̃ show-shwan),[1] was a French-American stage and film actress. She began her career in Broadway productions during the late 1920s and progressed to films with the advent of talking pictures. Initially associated with Paramount Pictures, Colbert had a string of successes as she gradually shifted to working as a freelance actress.

With her Mid-Atlantic accent,[2] versatility, aristocratic demeanor, and flair for light comedy and emotional drama,[3][4] Colbert became one of the most popular stars of the 1930s and 1940s.[1][5] In all, she was cast in more than 60 movies, in most of which she had top billing. Among her frequent co-stars were Fred MacMurray in seven films (1935–1949), and Fredric March in four (1930–1933).

Colbert won the Academy Award for Best Actress for It Happened One Night (1934), and earned two other Oscar nominations, for Private Worlds (1935) and Since You Went Away (1944). Her other especially notable films include Midnight (1939) and The Palm Beach Story (1942). From 1929 to 1950, she was selected for the Photoplay Award for Best Performances of the Month in 30 films.[6][7]

By the mid-1950s Colbert had turned from motion pictures to television and stage work; she earned a Tony Award nomination for The Marriage-Go-Round in 1959. Her career began to wane in the early 1960s. In the mid-1970s[3] she experienced a career resurgence in the theater and received a Sarah Siddons Award for her Chicago theater work in 1980. Her television appearance in The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987) earned her a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy nomination.

In 1999, Colbert was named the 12th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute.

Early life

[edit]

Émilie "Lily" Claudette Chauchoin was born in 1903 in Saint-Mandé, France,[8] to Jeanne (née Loew, with British Channel Islands heritage), and Georges Chauchoin.[1][9] Although christened "Émilie", she was called "Lily" after the famous Jersey-born actress Lillie Langtry.[10] Her mother had intended to name her daughter Lily, but the pastor mistakenly chose the baptismal name Émilie; she was always called Lily in the family.[11] Colbert's brother, Charles Chauchoin, was born in the Bailiwick of Jersey in 1898. Georges owned and managed a chain store of pastry and bonbon shops (more than eleven), and was also a major stockholder of an ink factory in which he suffered business setbacks.[12] Colbert's grandmother Marie Loew had been to the U.S., and Colbert's uncle Charles Loew was living in New York City. Marie was willing to help Georges financially, but also encouraged him to try his luck in the U.S.[10]

During her high school days, 1920

To pursue more employment opportunities, Colbert and her family, including her grandmother Marie and her aunt Emily Loew, immigrated to Manhattan in 1906.[9][13] Colbert adopted the name Lily Claudette Chauchoin in the U.S.[9][14] Each member of the family was later naturalized as a U.S. citizen. Georges worked in the foreign department at First National City Bank.[12] The family lived in a fifth-floor walk-up at 53rd Street. Colbert later claimed that climbing those stairs every day until the age of 18 is what made her legs so beautiful.[15] Her brother was drafted in 1917. After the First World War, he studied at the School of Military Aeronautics at Cornell University. Her father died in 1925.[3] Her grandmother died in New York in the mid-1930s at the age of 88.[16]

Colbert grew up bilingual, having learnt Channel Island English from Marie before she entered public school.[14][5][17] As a small child she had read Shakespeare's plays and acquired an international sensibility.[12] Colbert's mother was an opera music fan, who had an excellent singing voice,[9] and her aunt was a dressmaker.[18] Inspired by the dressmaker Emily, Colbert began sketching people's fashion designs.[19]

Colbert had hoped to become a painter ever since she first gripped a pencil. She studied at Washington Irving High School, which was known for its strong arts program. Her speech teacher, Alice Rostetter, encouraged her to audition for a play Rostetter had written. In 1921, at the age of 17, Colbert made her stage debut at the Provincetown Playhouse in revivals of Rostetter's The Widow's Veil and Aria da Capo by Edna St. Vincent Millay.[3] Her interests, though, still leaned towards painting, fashion design, and commercial art.[15] Intending to become a fashion designer, she attended the Art Students League of New York, where she paid for her art education by working in a dress shop. After attending a party with writer Anne Morrison, Colbert was offered a bit part in Morrison's play,[20][21] The Wild Westcotts (1923). She had used the name Claudette, instead of Lily, since high school; for her stage name, she added the maiden name (Colbert) of her father's grandmother, after her brother Charles used the surname Wendling, borrowed from their maternal grandmother's maiden name.[22]

Career

[edit]

Beginnings, 1924–1928

[edit]
Colbert in the Broadway production La Gringa, 1928

Colbert joined a stock company, managed by Jessie Bonstelle,[23] and worked in a string of mostly short-lived shows in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Boston and Connecticut in plays such as We've Got to Have Money, The Marionette Man, The Cat Came Back, High Stakes, and Leah Kleschna,[14][24] which enabled her to gain experience in different genres. In 1924 the English actor Leslie Howard met her, was impressed by her ability to speak with both Mid-Atlantic and British accents, and contacted the producer Al Woods to cast her in Frederick Lonsdale's The Fake, but she was replaced by Frieda Inescort before it opened.[2][25] After signing a five-year contract with Woods, Colbert played feminine roles in eleven Broadway productions from 1925 to 1929.[26] During this period she rejected being typecast such as a French maid.[27]

By 1925 she was having success in the comedy A Kiss in a Taxi, which ran for 103 performances over a two-month period.[28] Columnists sang the praises of her unconventional beauty and her power to enrapture an audience.[29] Colbert was again acclaimed for The Ghost Train (1926, thriller),[30] and The Barker (1927, as a carnival snake charmer).[31] The latter ran for 221 performances on Broadway,[32] and she reprised the role in London's West End.[30]

She was noticed by theatrical producer Leland Hayward, who suggested her for the heroine role in the silent film For the Love of Mike (1927), directed by Frank Capra. Now believed to be lost,[33] the film was such a disaster at the box office that neither wanted to work with the other again.[1][34] After that, she resumed appearing in the theater in several plays such as Fast Life (1928) and Eugene O’Neill's Dynamo (1929).[26]

Early films, 1929–1934

[edit]

In 1928, Colbert signed a contract with Paramount Pictures.[3] A demand existed for stage actors who could handle dialogue in the new "talkies", and Colbert's elegance and musical voice were among her best assets.[1] One of her co-stars later reminisced, "She knew how to project, how to use her voice and posture and general look to highlight her best features."[35] Her distinctive high-cheekboned beauty also drew attention in The Hole in the Wall (1929).

While at first she did not like film acting,[21] Edward G. Robinson, her co-star in The Hole in the Wall, later said, "She was one grand trouper—a pro all the way".[36] Her earliest films were produced in New York. While appearing nightly in the play See Naples and Die on the stage, she was also filming The Lady Lies. The film was a box-office success.[1] When the Great Depression shut down most of the theaters, she decided to make other films.[37] As Colbert later wrote, "When I was still the toast of Broadway, the stock market crashed, talking pictures were in, and the night only 37 people showed up in the audience of the Elmer Rice play See Naples and Die I knew it was time to see Hollywood or die."[15]

Her acting appears much more natural in these films than her later ones, by which point her acting style was recognized as the "Claudette Colbert manner".[38] Many of her early films were dramas,[3][5] and her leading roles were down-to-earth and diverse, highlighting her versatility.[27] At this period, film critics wrote of her potential to be the screen's next big star.[29] In 1930, Colbert starred opposite Maurice Chevalier in The Big Pond, which was a high-quality musical film that featured their songs.[7] She co-starred with her first husband, Norman Foster, in Young Man of Manhattan (1930). However, he received negative reviews as one of her weakest leading men.[17] She was cast in the critically acclaimed crime drama Manslaughter (1930, co-starring Fredric March),[39][40] which remained screenwriter-director George Abbott's favourite of his own films.[41]

With Maurice Chevalier in The Smiling Lieutenant (1931)

Those previous works had established her position within the studio system that dominated American filmmaking.[14] Colbert starred in Mysterious Mr. Parkes (1930), a French-language version of Slightly Scarlet for the European market, although her French was tinged with an English accent after American life. It was also screened in the United States. She was paired with March again in Dorothy Arzner's romantic drama Honor Among Lovers (1931), which was well-received by the public.[42] She sang and played piano/violin in the Ernst Lubitsch musical The Smiling Lieutenant (1931), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture as well as being a box-office hit and critical success.[1][43]

For the next few years, she typically portrayed bright women with witty dialogue in such pictures as Secrets of a Secretary (1931, opposite Herbert Marshall), The Wiser Sex (1932, opposite Melvyn Douglas), and Misleading Lady (1932).[4][14] Her early frequent co-star Fredric March said, "she was a wonderfully intelligent conversationalist, a really brainy woman."[44] Douglas later said, "Claudette worked for the good of the whole (filmmaking) and it showed in the result (quality)."[35]

March was also originally cast as her co-star in His Woman (1931), but was replaced by Gary Cooper.[45] Cooper felt that her acting skills were far greater than his own.[46] In 1932, she was cast in the wartime drama The Man from Yesterday, and the musical comedy film The Phantom President, which featured famous entertainer George M. Cohan and songs written by Rodgers and Hart. Colbert's career got a further boost when she played the supporting role as the Roman empress Poppaea in Cecil B. DeMille's historical epic The Sign of the Cross (1932), opposite Fredric March and Charles Laughton. In one of the best-remembered scenes of her film career, she bathes nude in a marble pool filled with asses' milk.[47][48] The film was the highest-grossing picture of the year in the United States.[49]

Colbert appeared with March for the fourth and final time with Tonight Is Ours (1933). Around that time, she renegotiated her contract with Paramount to allow her to appear in films for other studios. The romantic melodrama I Cover the Waterfront (1933), based on the then-best-selling novel, was one of the highlights of her early career.[50][3] Her co-star Ben Lyon later reminisced, "She was a delight to work with—always professional and inventive".[51] The pioneering screwball comedy film[52][53] Three-Cornered Moon reached No. 9 in the National Board of Review Awards in 1933.[54] Her musical voice, a contralto that footnotes list as being coached by Bing Crosby, was also featured in Torch Singer (1933),[55] co-starring Ricardo Cortez and David Manners. Consequently, she was ranked as the year's 13th box-office star.[56][57] By 1933, she had appeared in 21 films, averaging three per year. She then went on to do an adventure film Four Frightened People (1934).

The hitchhiking scene in It Happened One Night

Colbert was initially reluctant to appear in the screwball comedy It Happened One Night (1934). She accepted only after Columbia Pictures agreed to pay her $50,000, double her usual salary at the time, and guaranteed filming would be done within four weeks so she could take a planned vacation.[58] Both Colbert and her costar Clark Gable disliked the script, and kept insisting on changes. Colbert also loathed the finished product, telling a friend "I just finished the worst picture in the world."

Colbert was also so certain that she would not win an Oscar for her performance that she decided not to attend the ceremony and instead planned to take her long-awaited vacation. When she was unexpectedly named the winner, a member of the Academy's Press Committee went to Union Station to bring her back to the Biltmore Hotel to accept the award; even then she was reluctant to do so until the railroad agreed to hold the train until she returned.[59] Colbert accepted the award from Shirley Temple, then hurried back to the train station.[60]

Screen capture of Colbert
Colbert in the title role of Cleopatra, 1934

In Cleopatra (1934), Colbert played the title character opposite Warren William and Henry Wilcoxon. It was the second highest-grossing picture of that year in the United States.[1][34][49] Thereafter, Colbert did not wish to be portrayed as overtly sexual and refused such roles.[61] On loan to Universal Pictures for a one-picture deal, she was cast in John M. Stahl's notable melodrama Imitation of Life (1934), which was another box-office success.[17][34][62] Those three films earned Best Picture Oscar nominations in the following year; Colbert is the only actress to date to star in three films which were nominated for Best Picture in the same year.[3]

Mid-career, 1935–1944

[edit]

Colbert's rising profile internationally allowed her to renegotiate her contract, which raised her salary. For 1935 and 1936, she was listed sixth and eighth in Quigley's annual "Top-Ten Money-Making Stars Poll".[63]

The Gilded Lily (directed by Wesley Ruggles) was popular[1][3]and was ranked the fifth best English language film by the National Board of Review in 1935.[64] She earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her role in the Gregory La Cava's pioneering psychological drama Private Worlds (1935).[3][65] She starred in Frank Lloyd's adventure film Under Two Flags (1936, featuring Ronald Colman), which also won box-office success for her.[14][66]

In 1936, Colbert signed a new contract with Paramount, making her Hollywood's highest-paid actress.[67] When the studio renewed her contract in 1938, she was again reported to be Hollywood's top-paid actress, with a salary of $426,924.[68] At the peak of her popularity in the late 1930s, she earned $150,000 per film.[69] In 1937 and 1938, she was listed as the fourteenth and sixth (respectively) top money-making woman in the U.S..[3]

The historical drama Maid of Salem (1937) enhanced her esteem.[70] However, at that period, her representative works were those modern comedies, I Met Him in Paris (1937)[14] and Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938).[1][34] Colbert spent the rest of the 1930s deftly alternating between romantic comedies and dramas: She Married Her Boss (1935) with Melvyn Douglas; The Bride Comes Home (1935), with Fred MacMurray; George Cukor's Zaza (1939) with Herbert Marshall; and It's a Wonderful World (1939) with James Stewart. From 1934 to 1939, she had appeared in 17 films, averaging more than 2.5 per year.

Early 1940s

Midnight (1939) with Don Ameche, directed by Mitchell Leisen and written by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, was one of her best comedy films.[7] Ernst Lubitsch and Mitchell Leisen were her favorite film directors to work with,[71] as she preferred a lighthearted, gentle directing style that would inspire spontaneous and inventive acting.[72] She once said, "I know what's best for me—after all",[73][74] but she also offered acting advice to her less experienced co-stars from early in her film career.[75]

Colbert learned about lighting and cinematography and refused to begin filming until she was satisfied that she would be shown to her best advantage.[76] She believed her face was difficult to light and photograph and insisted on having the right side of her face away from the camera when shooting close-ups because of a small bump from a broken nose as a child.[77]

This sometimes required movie sets to be redesigned.[21] She grew very frustrated with director Anatole Litvak during the filming of Tovarich (1937), when he favored co-star Charles Boyer in the selection of camera angles.[78]

John Ford's Drums Along the Mohawk (1939, with Henry Fonda) was her first color film, which was the 10th-grossing picture of the year in the United States.[79] However, she mistrusted the relatively new Technicolor process and, fearing she would not photograph well, preferred thereafter to be filmed in black and white.[80] She also exercised strict control over her makeup, hairdo and wardrobe, warning anyone who tried to modify her signature style by telling them "I’ve been in the Claudette Colbert business a long time."[15]

During this time, she began performing on CBS's popular radio program Lux Radio Theater and was heard in 22 episodes between 1935 and 1954.[81] She also participated in 13 episodes of radio's The Screen Guild Theater between 1939 and 1952.[82]

In 1940, Colbert was offered a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures that would have paid her $200,000 a year; she declined the offer after learning she could command $150,000 per film as a freelance artist. She secured roles in several prestigious films and this period marked the height of her earning power.[67]

Colbert played a supporting role in Boom Town (1940, featuring Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy), released by MGM, and which was the highest-grossing picture of the year in the United States. However, she said that Arise, My Love (1940) was her favorite of all her movies.[7][83] It won the Academy Award for Best Story.[14]

The following year, two films, light comedy Skylark and Henry King's Remember the Day (her portrayal of a schoolteacher), kept her busy.[14]

Preston Sturges' madcap comedy The Palm Beach Story (1942) has been lauded as a comedic classic,[84] featuring one of the best performances of her film career,[7][85][86][87] exemplifying beauty that speaks of intelligence.[88] She again became the industry's highest-paid star in 1942.[1] In the following year, No Time for Love was also a box office success.[1][3]

The war drama So Proudly We Hail! (1943) was also well received,[89] in which her performance was the less overstated, and more effective, no matter how much the film centers her.[14] Impressed by her role in the film, David O. Selznick approached her to play the lead in Since You Went Away (1944). She was initially reluctant to appear as a mother of teenaged children, but he eventually convinced her to take the role.[90] The epic drama film, led by John Cromwell's sensitively dynamic direction,[91] made almost $5 million at the US box office and was the year's third highest-grossing picture. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and Colbert received an Oscar nomination for her performance.[92]

Later that year she appeared in the lighthearted Practically Yours, again costarring with Fred MacMurray, with whom she had been successfully paired in a number of films for nearly a decade up to that point.[14] He said, "I learned more from her about screen acting than I have ever picked up since."[7]

During World War II, she volunteered with the Red Cross[29] and sold war bonds while her husband served as a Navy lieutenant.[7]

Middle years, 1945–1961

[edit]
Colbert on Screenland cover before release of Guest Wife (1945)

In 1945, Colbert ended her association with Paramount and continued to freelance in such films as Guest Wife (1945) with Don Ameche. She starred opposite John Wayne in RKO's Without Reservations (1946), which grossed $3 million in the U.S. While working on it, director Mervyn LeRoy described Colbert as an "interesting" lady to work with, recalling her habit of not watching where she was going and constantly bumping into things.[93]

That year, Tomorrow Is Forever was one of the best dramatic performances of her film career,[94] and it was her second husband's favorite.[95] She also appeared that year in the psychological drama The Secret Heart (1946). Her co-star June Allyson later wrote, Colbert "gave me the moral support and acting tips that made a world of difference."[7] These two films were also substantial commercial successes,[96][97] and Colbert's popularity during 1947 led her to place 9th in Quigley's "Top Ten Money-Making Stars Poll".[63] One critic praised her at the time for "her consistently excellent playing in mediocre pictures".[14]

She achieved great success opposite Fred MacMurray in the comedy The Egg and I (1947), which was the year's second-highest grossing picture, and later acknowledged as the 12th-most profitable American film of the 1940s.[98] Douglas Sirk's suspense film Sleep, My Love (1948, with Robert Cummings) was modestly successful. By 1949, she still ranked as the 22nd-highest box-office star.[99]

Colbert appeared with MacMurray for the seventh and final time with Family Honeymoon (1949). The romantic comedy Bride for Sale (1949), in which she played part of a love triangle that included Robert Young and George Brent, was well-reviewed.[100] The Pacific war film Three Came Home (1950) was also a success,[101] and brought her to win the Laurel Awards for Best Dramatic Performance (Female).[6] However, the mystery melodrama The Secret Fury (1950), distributed by RKO Studios, received mixed reviews.[100] During this period, Colbert was unable to work beyond 5 p.m. each day due to orders from her doctor.[102] While Colbert still looked like a young woman,[15] she found it difficult making the transition to playing more mature characters as she entered middle age.[103] She said, "I'm a very good comedienne, but I was always fighting that image, too."[69]

Colbert severely injured her back, which cost her the lead role in All About Eve (1950), and a recurrence of the injury after that killed the other movie she was planning to direct.[104] In later life, Colbert said, "I just never had the luck to play bitches."[69]

Patric Knowles and Colbert in Three Came Home, 1950

Apart from making two more Hollywood movies (Thunder on the Hill and Let's Make It Legal), in 1951 Colbert went on to guest-star on the TV show The Jack Benny Program, and starred in a successful stage production of Noël Coward's Island Fling in Connecticut.[3] From 1940 to 1951, she had appeared in 21 films, averaging more than 1.5 per year.

From 1952 to 1954, she worked mostly in Europe for tax purposes,[15] and made fewer films. The Planter's Wife (1952) was a big success in the British market.[7][105] She then did two French films, Daughters of Destiny (1954, segment "Elizabeth" in the trilogy) and Royal Affairs in Versailles (1954, in a small role). The latter was a letdown for her with its heavy-handed and ponderous direction;[72] it was finally screened in the United States in 1957.[106]

In 1954, Colbert turned down a million-dollar broadcast deal with NBC-TV,[15] but made a pact with CBS-TV to star in several teleplays. After a successful appearance in a television version of The Royal Family (1954, co-starring Fredric March)—a parody of the Barrymore family featured on The Best of Broadway series[3]—she took on more than 25 television appearances, including talk shows, through the end of the decade. She starred in major television adaptation of The Bells of St. Mary's in 1959,[3] and guest-starred on anthology drama series such as Robert Montgomery Presents and Playhouse 90.[107] She also garnered praise from television critics in special productions such as The Guardsman (1955), and Blithe Spirit (1956). A monthly information series The Women (for which she was host in 1959) did well enough.[3][108]

One of her best TV roles was as a Seattle widow on One Coast of White (1957), co-starring Paul Henreid.[109]

In 1957, she was cast as Lucy Bradford, wife of schoolteacher Jim Bradford (Jeff Morrow), in the Blood in the Dust episode of CBS's Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre. In the story, Jim refuses to back down when a gunman orders him to leave town, and Lucy is distressed because Jim hasn't fired a weapon since he was in the Civil War.[110] In the show's 1960 episode So Young the Savage Land, she played Beth Brayden, who becomes disillusioned with her rancher-husband Jim (John Dehner) when he turns to violence to protect their property.[111] Around 1960, she said that American audiences are much harder to entertain nowadays. With so much free (TV) theater coming into the home they have become critics.[112]

In 1956, Colbert hosted the 28th Academy Awards ceremony. She returned to Broadway to replace Margaret Sullavan in Janus that year.[14] This was followed by the 1958 play The Marriage-Go-Round, for which she was nominated for a Best Actress Tony Award.

Colbert during TV production in 1959

Her last starring film was the western Texas Lady (1955), followed by a one-shot return to film appearance in a supporting role in Delmer Daves' soap opera Parrish (1961). The latter was a commercial success,[113] but Colbert received little attention, and she directed her agent to end any further attempts to generate interest in her as a TV actress.[114] Even at this period, she still looked younger than her actual age.[115] In the same year, another her play on the stage, Julia, Jake and Uncle Joe lasted for only two performances.[14]

Later career, 1963–1987

[edit]

Colbert made successful Broadway and other theater appearances in The Irregular Verb to Love (1963-1964) opposite Cyril Ritchard;[14] in Miami, Diplomatic Relations (1965) opposite Brian Aherne; in Manhattan, Fabulous Forties (1972); in Philadelphia, A Community of Two (1974);[3] in Detroit, recreated The Marriage Go-Round (1976) with Michael Evans;[116] in The Kingfisher (1978), with co-star Rex Harrison; in A Talent for Murder (1981); and in Frederick Lonsdale's Aren't We All? (1985), also with Harrison, first in London and then the United States and Australia.[1] She told an interviewer, "Audiences always sound like they're glad to see me, and I'm damned glad to see them."[1]　

She also appeared in Maxwell House Coffee TV commercials from 1963 to 1965.[14] In 1969 she expressed her intention to write a book entitled How to Run a House for her friend Bennett Cerf's Random House Press. This project was never completed.[3] Towards the end of her life, she explained why she had never written her autobiography, "I've been happy, and that's no story." [117]

Her final credits included the audiobook Gift from the Sea (1986, as narrator)[118] and the television miniseries The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987, in a supporting role). The latter was a ratings success, and for which she earned a Golden Globe and also an Emmy nomination.

Modern critics have pointed out that Colbert had a unique set of assets—her heart-shaped face, distinct facial features,[3] curly hair,[1] aristocratic manner, relaxed acting, an air of mystery, and intelligent style,[4]—that distinguishes her from other classic cinema stars through the 1930s and 1940s.[73] In her comedies, she invariably played shrewd, self-reliant women; as Billy Wilder noted "Claudette always knew where the joke was. She got the laughs."[15] Unlike many of her contemporaries, though, she rarely engaged in physical comedy. Her characters were more likely to be observers and commentators.[119]

Personal life

[edit]

In 1928, Colbert married actor and director Norman Foster, with whom she co-starred in the Broadway show The Barker. Their marriage remained a secret for many years while they lived in separate homes.[3] Colbert shared a home with her aunt Emily and her mother Jeanne.[120] Her mother disliked Foster and reputedly did not allow him into the home.[121]

Colbert and Foster divorced in 1935 in Mexico.[3] Until the early 1950s, Colbert's confidante was always her aunt, because her mother was imperious and indifferent to her daughter's work.[16]

Colbert and her mother, Jeanne, in 1932

On Christmas Eve, 1935, Colbert married Dr. Joel Pressman, who eventually became a professor and chief of the head and neck surgery department of UCLA Medical School. She gave him a Beechcraft airplane as a present. They purchased a ranch in northern California,[15] where she enjoyed horseback riding,[122] and he kept show cattle.[15] Colbert also built a house for her mother nearby their Southern California home.[15]

In 1964, Colbert also got to go on a safari trip with Pressman.[123] The marriage lasted 33 years, until his death from liver cancer in 1968.

Jeanne made Colbert's brother Charles serve as his sister's agent for a time.[15][3] He was credited with negotiating some of her more lucrative contracts in the late 1930s and early 1940s.[67] In 1942, Charles enlisted to take part in World War Two. Colbert's uncle Charles Loew died in 1953, and her aunt Emily Loew in 1954.[16]

Although virtually retired from motion pictures since the mid-1950s, Colbert continued to maintain an upscale lifestyle. She had a country house in Palm Springs for weekends. An advertising executive said, "Claudette was extravagant; I never, ever saw her question the price of anything." In 1963, Colbert sold her Lloyd Wright-designed residence in Holmby Hills, and she and Dr. Pressman rented a small house in Beverly Hills.[15]

In 1958, she met Verna Hull, a wealthy painter, photographer, and the stepdaughter of a Sears Roebuck heiress. They had a nine-year friendship that included travel, and an interest in art, and they rented twin New York penthouses. When Colbert bought a house in Barbados in the early 1960s, Hull bought a house next door, amid rumors that their friendship was a romantic one, which Colbert denied.[15] The friendship ended after an argument that took place as Colbert's husband lay dying, during which Hull insisted that Pressman would not only take his own life, but Colbert's as well, rather than die alone.[15]

Colbert was a lifelong Republican.[124]

Final years and death

[edit]
At a party honoring Lillian Hellman with the Dorothy Shaver Rose Award on 1977, New York City

For years, Colbert divided her time between her Manhattan apartment and her vacation home in Speightstown, Barbados.[1] The latter, purchased from a British gentleman and nicknamed Bellerive, was the island's only plantation house fronting the beach.[15] Her permanent address remained Manhattan. When her mother Jeanne died in 1970,[3] and her brother Charles in 1971, Colbert's only surviving relative was her brother's daughter, Coco Lewis.[15][69] After that, Marie Wendling, the widow and second wife of Charles, moved from Florida to Barbados to live with Colbert.[125]

Colbert was a long-time friend of Nancy Reagan, whom she first met in 1950,[15] and Ronald Reagan, with whom she starred in the TV show General Electric Theater episode The Dark, Dark Hours (1954). Colbert's other celebrity friends included Kirk Douglas, Jack Benny, Slim Keith, Lillian Hellman, Frank Sinatra, and Mia Farrow.[126]

Colbert suffered a series of small strokes during the last three years of her life. She died in 1996 at the age of 92 in Barbados,[1] where she had employed a housekeeper and two cooks. Her remains were transported to New York City for cremation and funeral services.[15] A requiem mass was later held at Church of St. Vincent Ferrer in Manhattan.[122] Her ashes are laid to rest in the Godings Bay Church Cemetery, Speightstown, Saint Peter, Barbados, alongside her mother and second husband.[15]

Colbert never had children. She left most of her estate, estimated at $3.5 million and including her Manhattan apartment and Bellerive, to longtime friend Helen O'Hagan, a retired director of corporate relations at Saks Fifth Avenue. Colbert had met O'Hagan in 1961 on the set of Parrish, her last film,[127][128] and they became good friends in 1970.[3] Although O'Hagan was financially comfortable without the generous bequest, Bellerive was sold for over $2 million to David Geffen. Colbert's will also left $150,000 to her niece Coco Lewis; a trust of over $100,000 to UCLA, in Dr. Pressman's memory; and $75,000 to Marie Corbin, her Bajan housekeeper.[15]

Selected filmography

[edit]

The following is a list of feature films in which Colbert had top billing.

Awards and honors

[edit]
Year Award Category Film Result Ref
1935 Academy Award Best Actress It Happened One Night Won [60]
1936 Private Worlds Nominated [65]
1945 Since You Went Away Nominated [92]
1950 Photoplay Awards Most Popular Female Star Three Came Home Nominated [6]
1951 Laurel Awards Best Dramatic Performance (Female) Three Came Home Won [6]
1959 Tony Award Best Actress The Marriage-Go-Round Nominated [129]
1960 Hollywood Walk of Fame Star at 6812 Hollywood Blvd. N/a Inducted [130]
1980 Sarah Siddons Award The Kingfisher Won [131]
1984 Film Society of Lincoln Center Lifetime Achievement Award N/a Won [132]
1985 Drama Desk Awards Drama Desk Special Award Aren't We All? Won [133]
1987 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Supporting Actress The Two Mrs. Grenvilles Nominated [134]
1988 Golden Globe Award Best Supporting Actress in a Series Won [135]
1989 Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Achievement Award N/a Won [136]
1990 San Sebastián International Film Festival Donostia Award N/a Won [137]
1999 American Film Institute Greatest Female Stars N/a 12th [138]
2010 Online Film & Television Association Film Hall of Fame N/a Inducted　 [139]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Pace, Eric (July 31, 1996). "Claudette Colbert, Unflappable Heroine of Screwball Comedies, Is Dead At 92". The New York Times. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  2. 1 2 Dick, pp. 24–25.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 "Claudette Colbert profile". TCM. Archived from the original on August 19, 2011. Retrieved February 9, 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 Parish, James Robert (1972). The Paramount Pretties. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House. p. 92. ISBN 9780870001802.
  5. 1 2 3 "Claudette Colbert – Britannica Concise". Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Claudette Colbert Biography. TV GUIDE. A FANDOM COMPANY. Retrieved February 4, 2026.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Vallance, Tom (August 1, 1966). "Obituary:Claudette Colbert". The Independent Thursday 01 August 1996 00:02 BST. Retrieved July 30, 2026.
  8. ↑ COLBERT, Claudette. British Film Institute. BFI.org.uk.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Quirk, p. 5.
  10. 1 2 Dick, p. 3.
  11. ↑ Dick, p. 2.
  12. 1 2 3 Adrian, Iacob (November 6, 2014). Film Actresses Vol.15 CLAUDETTE COLBERT: Part 1. Publisher: Publishing Platform. ISBN 1502930811
  13. ↑ "Ellis Island National Monument: Destined For Fame". American Park Network. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 "Hollywood Legend Claudette Colbert Dies". Los Angeles Times. July 31, 1996. Retrieved May 18, 2026.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Collins, Amy Fine (April 23, 2010) [January 1998]. "A Perfect Star". Vanity Fair. Retrieved May 13, 2018.
  16. 1 2 3 Dick, p. 61.
  17. 1 2 3 Shipman, pp. 114–115.
  18. ↑ Dick, pp. 3, 10.
  19. ↑ Quirk, p. 10.
  20. ↑ Quirk, p. 7.
  21. 1 2 3 Erickson, Hal. "Claudette Colbert biography". All Movie Guide. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
  22. ↑ Quirk, pp. 5–6.
  23. ↑ Quirk, p. 8.
  24. ↑ Dick, pp. 23–24.
  25. ↑ Vallance, Tom (August 1, 1996). "Obituary:Claudette Colbert". The Independent. Archived from the original on November 28, 2025. Retrieved August 21, 2023.
  26. 1 2 Claudette Colbert. IBDB. Retrieved May 18, 2026
  27. 1 2 Richardson, Jan. "Claudette Colbert". The Movie Profiles & Premiums Newsletter – Immortal Ephemera. Retrieved March 25, 2013.
  28. ↑ "A Kiss in a Taxi". IBDB. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
  29. 1 2 3 Patrick, James David. Claudette Colbert The French Lady of Hollywood Archived September 14, 2021, at the Wayback Machine. Netflix. Retrieved May 9, 2023.
  30. 1 2 Everson, p. 29.
  31. ↑ Basinger, Jeanine; Audrey E. Kupferberg. "Claudette Colbert – Films as actress". Retrieved December 3, 2007.
  32. ↑ The Barker. IBDB. Retrieved May 18, 2026
  33. ↑ Classic Film Guide.
  34. 1 2 3 4 "Claudette Colbert Movies". Ultimate Movie Rankings. January 29, 2016. Retrieved October 22, 2016.
  35. 1 2 Quirk, p. 97.
  36. ↑ Quirk, p. 20.
  37. ↑ Quirk, pp. 17, 20.
  38. ↑ Dick, p. 41.
  39. ↑ Quirk, pp. 32–34.
  40. ↑ Erickson, Hal. "Manslaughter". All Movie Guide. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  41. ↑ Dick, p. 49.
  42. ↑ Quirk, p. 36.
  43. ↑ Quirk, p. 37.
  44. ↑ Quirk, p. 32.
  45. ↑ "His Woman". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Archived from the original on March 28, 2014. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  46. ↑ Quirk, p. 40.
  47. ↑ Everson, pp. 55–57.
  48. ↑ "Claudette Colbert (1903–1996)". Hollywood's Golden Age. Retrieved July 24, 2012.
  49. 1 2 Birchard, Robert S. (2004). Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 9780813123240.
  50. ↑ Everson, pp. 58–60.
  51. ↑ Quirk, p. 57.
  52. ↑ Quirk, p. 58.
  53. ↑ Butler, Craig. Three-Cornered Moon. All Movie Guide. Retrieved October 28, 2023.
  54. ↑ Three-Cornered Moon profile Archived September 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, nbrmp.org; Retrieved August 4, 2015.
  55. ↑ Bradley, Edwin M. (2016). Unsung Hollywood Musicals of the Golden Era: 50 Overlooked Films and Their Stars, 1929–1939. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-9833-8.
  56. ↑ Schallert, Edwin. "Stars' Box-Office Ratings for Past Season Given: Survey Shows Sophisticates Slipping Fast. Will Rogers Tops All; Shirley Temple and Crosby Shoot Up", Los Angeles Times, December 9, 1934, p. A1.
  57. ↑ Motion Picture Herald, December 1, 1934; Retrieved October 13, 2016
  58. ↑ Hirschnor, Joel (1983). Rating the Movie Stars for Home Video, TV and Cable. Publications International Limited. p. 87. ISBN 0-88176-152-4.
  59. ↑ Wiley, Mason; Bona, Damien (1993). Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards. New York: Ballantine Books. p. 57. ISBN 0345381777.
  60. 1 2 "The 7th Academy Awards (1935) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Retrieved August 27, 2013.
  61. ↑ Chaneles, Sol (1974). The Movie Makers. Octopus Books. p. 97. ISBN 0-7064-0387-8.
  62. ↑ "Early Years". University of Virginia. 2002. Archived from the original on October 1, 2002. Retrieved October 9, 2016.
  63. 1 2 "The 2006 Motion Picture Almanac, Top Ten Money-Making Stars". Quigley Publishing Company. Archived from the original on January 14, 2013. Retrieved August 18, 2006.
  64. ↑ "1935 Award Winners". National Board of Review. Retrieved May 21, 2014.
  65. 1 2 "The 8th Academy Awards (1936) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Retrieved August 27, 2013.
  66. ↑ Liebfriend, Philip. Films of the French Foreign Legion. Bear Manor Media 2011.
  67. 1 2 3 Shipman, p. 117.
  68. ↑ The Movie Stars Story, An Illustrated Guide to 500 of the World's Most Famous Stars of the Cinema. Octopus Books. 1984. p. 53. ISBN 0-7064-2092-6.
  69. 1 2 3 4 "Oscar-Winner Claudette Colbert dead at 92". Tributes.com. Retrieved February 20, 2012.
  70. ↑ Quirk, p. 95.
  71. ↑ Quirk, pp. 102, 107.
  72. 1 2 Quirk, p. 176.
  73. 1 2 Soares, Andre (August 12, 2011). "Claudette Colbert Q&A Pt. 1: 'The Claudette Colbert Business'". Alt Film Guide. Retrieved May 13, 2018.
  74. ↑ Legends of Hollywood: The Life Claudette Colbert. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. p. 39. ISBN 1497538424.
  75. ↑ Quirk, pp. 43, 180.
  76. ↑ Kotsilibas-Davis and Loy, Myrna (1988). Being and Becoming. Donald I. Fine Inc. p. 119. ISBN 1-55611-101-0.
  77. ↑ Dudar, Helen. "Claudette Colbert Revels in a Happy, Starry Past". The New York Times. October 27, 1991, p. A-1.
  78. ↑ Quirk, pp. 100–101.
  79. ↑ "All-time Film Rental Champs". Variety. October 15, 1990. p. M162 to 166.
  80. ↑ Finler, p. 24.
  81. ↑ "Audio Classics Archive Radio Logs: 'Lux Radio Theater'". Retrieved November 23, 2007.
  82. ↑ "The Screen Guild Radio Programs". Radio Program Logs – The Digital Deli Online. Archived from the original on May 11, 2011. Retrieved February 15, 2013.
  83. ↑ Quirk, p. 115.
  84. ↑ ULATOWSKI, RACHEL (June 11, 2023). An 80-Year-Old Romantic Comedy Leaves VFX Artists Baffled By Mystery Of One Key Shot. SCREEN RANT. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  85. ↑ Everson, p. 22.
  86. ↑ Quirk, p. 123.
  87. ↑ Gilliam, Richard. The Palm Beach Story. All Movie Guide. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  88. ↑ Zacharek, Stephanie (January 21, 2015). The Palm Beach Story: Love in a Warm Climate The Criterion Collection. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  89. ↑ By, T. S. (September 12, 1943) "HEROINES WITHOUT MASCARA" The New York Times
  90. ↑ Haver, Ronald (1980). David O. Selznick's Hollywood. New York: Bonanza Books. p. 338–340. ISBN 0-517-47665-7.
  91. ↑ Quirk, p. 3.
  92. 1 2 "The 17th Academy Awards (1945) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Retrieved August 27, 2013.
  93. ↑ Thames, Stephanie. "Without Reservations (1946)". TCM. Archived from the original on July 29, 2011. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
  94. ↑ Ortega, Leonor Mayor (July 30, 2023). . Claudette Colbert, la actriz mejor pagada del cine clásico. La Vanguardia. Retrieved 2026-04-29.
  95. ↑ Quirk, p. 2.
  96. ↑ Golden, Herb (January 1, 1947). "Metro, Par Top Distribs' Take". Variety. Vol. 165, no. 4. New York City. p. 8. Retrieved August 27, 2020 – via Internet Archive.
  97. ↑ The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  98. ↑ Finler, p. 216.
  99. ↑ "Filmdom Ranks Its Money-Spinning Stars Best At Box-Office". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. March 30, 1950. p. 12. Retrieved October 13, 2016.
  100. 1 2 Jewell and Harbin, p. 248.
  101. ↑ "The Top Box Office Hits of 1950". Variety. January 3, 1951.
  102. ↑ Anderson, Christopher (1997). An Affair to Remember, The Remarkable Love Story of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. William Morrow and Co. Inc. pp. 191–192. ISBN 0-688-15311-9.
  103. ↑ Shipman, David (1988). Movie Talk. St. Martin's Press. p. 126. ISBN 0-312-03403-2.
  104. ↑ Bryant, P. M. (February 28, 2025). Claudette Colbert, Director?. Bright Lights Film Journal. Retrieved January 5, 2026.
  105. ↑ "Phillip to see 'Cruel Sea' premiere". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 33, 225. Victoria, Australia. February 27, 1953. p. 16. Retrieved September 5, 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  106. ↑ Crowther, Bosley (March 9, 1957). "Screen: 'Royal Affairs in Versailles'; French Import Aims at Palace Pageantry Guitry, the Director, Stars as Louis XIV The Cast". The New York Times.
  107. ↑ Claudette Colbert Credits. TV GUIDE. A FANDOM COMPANY. Retrieved May 18, 2026.
  108. ↑ Quirk, p. 187.
  109. ↑ Dick, p. 228.
  110. ↑ "Blood in the Dust on 'Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre'". IMDb. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  111. ↑ "So Young the Savage Land on Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre". tv.com. Archived from the original on November 3, 2016. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  112. ↑ Bettmann (May 13, 2020). "Claudette Colbert In Her Dressing Room". Fine Art America. Retrieved January 4, 2026.
  113. ↑ "All-Time Top Grossers", Variety, January 8, 1964, p. 69.
  114. ↑ Shipman, p. 119.
  115. ↑ Quirk, p. 181.
  116. ↑ The Marriage Go-Round Souvenir Program from the Fisher Theatre Detroit in 1976, Theatregold by BigCommerce, Retrieved April 24, 2026
  117. ↑ Sonneborn, Liz (January 1, 2001). A to Z of American Women in the Performing Arts. New York: Facts on File. p. 43. ISBN 0816043981.
  118. ↑ Gift from the Sea: 50th Anniversary Edition. Random House Audio. September 12, 1986. ISBN 9780394556741. Archived from the original on January 2, 2022. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
  119. ↑ Di Battista, Maria (2001). Fast Talking Dames. Yale University Press. p. 210. ISBN 0-300-09903-7.
  120. ↑ Dick, p. 30.
  121. ↑ DiLeo, John (October 5, 2008). "Star Light, Star Bright". The Washington Post. p. BW08. Retrieved October 8, 2008.
  122. 1 2 Dick, p. 211.
  123. ↑ THE DIPLOMATIC SET; Claudette Colbert to Be Courted by Foreign Service Man. The New York Times. November 22, 1964. Retrieved June 12, 2026.
  124. ↑ Granger, Derek (August 2, 1996). "Obituary: Claudette Colbert". The Independent. London. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
  125. ↑ Actress's Brother Succumbs, The Orlando Sentinel, March 30, 1971.
  126. ↑ "Colbert Wealth Left to Neighbor". The Cincinnati Post. August 10, 1996.
  127. ↑ Harvin, Stephanie (August 23, 1996). "O'Hagan, a Legend at Saks". Post and Courier.
  128. ↑ "Colbert's Will Provides for Long-Time Friends". Austin American-Statesman. August 10, 1996, p. B12.
  129. ↑ "The Tony Award Nominations". www.tonyawards.com. Retrieved September 1, 2025.
  130. ↑ "Walk of Fame Stars-Claudette Colbert". Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. Archived from the original on April 3, 2016. Retrieved October 13, 2016.
  131. ↑ "Sarah Siddons Society Awardees". Archived from the original on November 7, 2008. Retrieved January 18, 2008.
  132. ↑ Robertson, Nan. "Film Society of Lincoln Center". The New York Times. Retrieved January 18, 2008.
  133. ↑ Drama Desk Award winners. Deprecated link archived October 20, 2006, at archive.today
  134. ↑ "Claudette Colbert". Television Academy. Retrieved September 1, 2025.
  135. ↑ "Claudette Colbert". Golden Globes. Retrieved September 1, 2025.
  136. ↑ "The Kennedy Center, Biography of Claudette Colbert". Archived from the original on January 6, 2008. Retrieved January 19, 2008.
  137. ↑ "Archive of awards, juries and posters". San Sebastián International Film Festival. Archived from the original on February 9, 2012. Retrieved January 18, 2008.
  138. ↑ "AFI's 100 Years, 100 Stars, American's Greatest Legends" (PDF). American Film Institute. Retrieved January 18, 2008.
  139. ↑ Film Hall of Fame inductee. Online Film & Television Association. Retrieved February 4, 2026.

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Dick, Bernard F. (2008). Claudette Colbert: She Walked in Beauty. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-60473-087-6.
  • Everson, William K. (1976). Claudette Colbert (Pyramid illustrated history of the movies). Pyramid Publications. ISBN 0-515-03960-8.
  • Finler, Joel W. (1989). The Hollywood Story: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the American Film Industry But Didn't Know Where to Look. Pyramid Books. ISBN 1-85510-009-6.
  • Jewell, Richard B.; Harbin, Vernon (1982). The RKO Story. Octopus Books. ISBN 0-7064-1285-0.
  • Quirk, Lawrence J. (1985). Claudette Colbert An Illustrated Biography. Crown Publishers. ISBN 0-517-55678-2.
  • Shipman, David (1989). The Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years. London/Boston, Mass: Macdonald/Little, Brown. ISBN 0-356-18146-4.
[edit]
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