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  • Home
  • Action
    • 1920 Action
    • 1930 Action
    • 1940 Action
    • 1950 Action
    • 1960 Action
  • Comedy
    • 1920 Comedy
    • 1930 Comedy
    • 1940 Comedy
    • 1950 Comedy
    • 1960 Comedy
  • Drama
    • 1920 Drama
    • 1930 Drama
    • 1940 Drama
    • 1950 Drama
    • 1960 Drama
  • Horror-SciFi
    • 1920 Horror-Scifi
    • 1930 Horror-Scifi
    • 1940 Horror-Scifi
    • 1950 Horror-Scifi
    • 1960 Horror-Scifi
  • Suspense
    • 1920 Suspense
    • 1930 Suspense
    • 1940 Suspense
    • 1950 Suspense
    • 1960 Suspense
  • The Stars
    • The Stars A - E
    • The Stars F - J
    • The Stars K - O
    • The Stars P - R
    • The Stars S - Z
  • Title Index
Picture
Gloria Grahame
Active - 1944 - 1980  |   Born - Nov 28, 1923 in Los Angeles, CA  |   Died - Oct 5, 1981 in New York City, NY  |   Genres - Drama, Crime, Mystery  | Height: 5’ 6”

Gloria Hallward, an acting pupil of her mother (stage actress and teacher Jean Grahame), acted professionally while still in high school. In 1944 Louis B. Mayer saw her on Broadway and gave her an MGM contract under the name Gloria Grahame. Her debut in the title role of Blonde Fever (1944) was auspicious, but her first public recognition came on loan-out in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). Though her talent and sex appeal were of star quality, she did not fit the star pattern at MGM, who sold her contract to RKO in 1947. Here the same problem resurfaced; her best film in these years was made on loan-out, In a Lonely Place (1950). Soon after, she left RKO. The 1950s, her best period, brought Gloria a supporting actress Oscar and typecast her as shady, inimitably sultry ladies in seven well-known film-noir classics. Rumors of being difficult to work with on the set of Oklahoma! (1955) sidelined her film career from 1956 onward. She also suffered from marital and child-custody troubles.

For her portrayal of a somewhat classy tart in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Grahame won a “Best Supporting Actress” Oscar. Until the mid-’50s she landed a number of excellent roles, but her career gradually diminished and she retired from the screen in the late ‘50s. Years later she returned to play character roles, mostly in low-budget films. She married and divorced actor Stanley Clements, director Nicholas Ray, and writer Cy Howard; later she raised eyebrows by marrying Nicholas Ray’s son (her former step-son), actor-producer Tony Ray. Gloria Grahame spent her last days working on the stage in England while battling cancer.

Available Films:

BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, THE
BIG HEAT, THE
BLONDE FEVER
COBWEB, THE
CROSSFIRE
GLASS WALL, THE
GOOD DIE YOUNG, THE
HUMAN DESIRE
IN A LONELY PLACE
MACAO
NAKED ALIBI
NOT AS A STRANGER
ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW
RIDE OUT FOR REVENGE
ROUGHSHOD
SONG OF THE THIN MAN
SUDDEN FEAR
WOMAN'S SECRET, A
Trivia:

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.

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.

"I married Nicholas Ray, the director. People yawned. Later on I married his son, and from the press's reaction you'd have thought I was committing incest or robbing the cradle!"
Explore the simpler time of yesteryear... 
A time when men and women were truly glamorous. A time when you could watch any movie with your children and not have to worry about gratuitous sex or violence – yet enjoy all the lustful inferences and edge-of-your-seat suspense.
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