Barbara Stanwyck

Lore & Background

Orphaned at the age of four and partially raised in foster homes, she always worked. One of her directors, Jacques Tourneur, said of her, "She only lives for two things, and both of them are work." She made her debut on stage in the chorus as a Ziegfeld girl in 1923 at age 16, and within a few years was acting in plays. Her first lead role, which was in the hit Burlesque (1927), established her as a Broadway star. In 1929 she transitioned from the stage to the film industry and began acting in talking pictures, the first of which was George Archainbaud's The Locked Door, where her naturalistic acting style and unaffected vocal delivery were instantly evident. Frank Capra chose her for his romantic drama Ladies of Leisure (1930), and Stanwyck later became a favorite of Capra’s, leading to another three collaborations. This led to additional leading roles which raised her profile, such as Night Nurse (1931), Baby Face (1933), the controversial The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933), and Gambling Lady (1934). By the late 1930s, Stanwyck had moved to more mature roles in critically and commercially successful comedies and dramas. For her performance as the titular character in Stella Dallas (1937), she earned her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. In 1941, she starred in two screwball comedies: Ball of Fire with Gary Cooper, and The Lady Eve with Henry Fonda. She received her second Academy Award nomination for Ball of Fire, and in the decades since its release, The Lady Eve has come to be regarded as a comedic classic, with Stanwyck's performance widely hailed as one of the best in American comedy. Other successful films during this period are Remember the Night (1940), Meet John Doe (1941) and You Belong to Me (1941), reteaming her with Cooper and Fonda, respectively, The Gay Sisters (1942), and Lady of Burlesque (1943). By 1944, Stanwyck had become the highest-paid actress in the United States. That year she received a third Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in the film noir Double Indemnity, playing a wife who persuades an insurance salesman to kill her husband. In 1945 she played a homemaker columnist in the holiday classic Christmas in Connecticut, and the following year starred as the titular femme fatale in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. For the remainder of the decade Stanwyck starred in additional successes, ranging from romantic

Reader's Guide

Stanwyck was born Ruby Catherine Stevens on July 16, 1907, in New York City. She was the fifth and youngest child of Kathryn Ann "Kitty" (née McPhee) and Byron E. Stevens. Both parents' families had been in North America since the 1740s. Byron, of English descent, was a native of Lanesville, Massachusetts, where his father was a significant landowner. He had aimed to become a lawyer, but had dropped out of college in favor of work after his father's death, eventually becoming a bricklayer and stonesetter. Stanwyck's mother Kitty was a Canadian immigrant of Scottish-Irish descent from Sydney, Nova Scotia. They had met when Kitty was visiting family in Boston. Stanwyck had three older sisters and one older brother. The family had relocated from New England to Flatbush, Brooklyn the year before Stanwyck was born in search of better work opportunities for Byron. In July 1911, four-year-old Stanwyck and her six-year-old brother were riding a streetcar with their mother when a drunk passenger fell and pushed their mother off the vehicle. Kitty Stevens was heavily pregnant at the time, and the accident induced early labor, which caused fatal sepsis. Byron Stevens' alcoholism worsened after his wife's death, and he left the family soon after. He joined a work crew digging the Panama Canal in 1912, dying there some years later in an epidemic. Stanwyck's sisters were already adults when their mother died, but while they stayed closely involved in their younger siblings' lives, they could not take care of them full-time. In the years following the disintegration of their family, Stanwyck and her brother lived in a series of unofficial foster homes (mostly friends of the family) in Flatbush. As the foster homes could only accommodate one child at a time, the siblings were separated, which caused them additional distress. Around 1919, Stanwyck and her brother moved in with their older sister and her family. Stanwyck attended Public School 152 in Brooklyn. She hated school with the exception of literature, and received generally poor grades. She was bullied and routinely picked fights with the other students. Stanwyck started to dream about entering show business in childhood. One of her sisters had become a successful vaudeville dancer and took Stanwyck with her on summer tours. She also idolized film star Pearl White, whose serial The Perils of Pauline (1914) was popula

Did You Know?

• Stanwyck's first film appearance was in the silent film Broadway Nights (1927), not The Locked Door.
• By 1944, Stanwyck had become the highest-paid actress in the United States, according to the source.
• She received an Honorary Oscar in 1982 and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1986.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Barbara Stanwyck (born Ruby Catherine Stevens, July 16 1907 – January 20 1990) was an American actress of film, stage, and screen." — Barbara Stanwyck "I'm a tough old broad from Brooklyn. Don't try to make me into something I'm not. If you want someone to tiptoe down the Barkley staircase in crinoline and politely ask where the cattle went, get another girl." — Barbara Stanwyck "People talk about 'my career,' but 'career' is too pompous a word. It was a job, and I have always felt very privileged to be paid for what I love doing." — Barbara Stanwyck "I never got a Oscar. I never had an acting lesson. Life was my only training." — Barbara Stanwyck