Barbara Stanwyck, American Actress
Born Ruby Catherine Stevens
July 16, 1907 – January 20,1990

Considered one of the finest actresses to work in American film productions of the 20th century. She was a favorite actress for many directors because of her no-nonsense work ethic and dedication to professional standards. In particular, Frank Capra and Cecil B. DeMille named her as a favorite to work with.

Shuttled around through foster homes as a child, Ruby Catherine Stevens barely knew her parents, her mother (Catherine Ann McPhee) having died when Ruby was two, and her father (Byron Stevens) abandoning the family when she was four (Byron made an attempt to find work in the Panama Canal zone with a pledge to return to his family, but he apparently died there). Left under the direction of an old sister who was working in dance and theatre, Ruby was working full time by the age of 13, and was a dancing girl at 15.

In 1926 she was cast in the Willard Mack play "The Noose." Her first screen appearance is in a minor role in the 1927 film "Broadway Nights." This was followed with "The Locked Door," a film so ineptly made that Stanwyck's personal comment on the film was "They never should have unlocked that damn door." About to abandon Hollywood to return to find stage work in New York City, she met with Frank Capra and soon made "Ladies of Leisure" in 1930. Pauline Kael said about this film:

...the story is a museum piece of early talkies sentimentality, but, in a way, that only emphasizes Stanwyck's remarkable modernism. ...[she] seems to have an intuitive understanding of the fluid physical movements that work best on camera; perhaps she had been an unusually 'natural' actress even onstage. From Kael's book 5001 Nights At The Movies, published by Henry Holt, page 403.

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What's New Sept 23, 2008: I guess this isn't exactly gossip since its being put out by the Associated Press to promote Robert Wagner's new autobiography 'Pieces of My Heart': ...His love affair with Barbara Stanwyck, ...Wagner writes of his four-year romance with the star of such classics as "Stella Dallas" and "Double Indemnity." They met on the set of "Titanic," released in 1953, when he was 22 and she 45 and divorced from actor Robert Taylor. The press knew nothing about their relationship and neither did most of Hollywood, except for such friends as Nancy Sinatra, the first wife of Frank Sinatra; and Spencer Tracy, whose bond with Katharine Hepburn was the ultimate show business secret. "I would say she gave me self-esteem," writes the actor whose successful TV series included "It Takes a Thief" and "Hart to Hart," but the relationship didn't hold. They were both too busy working and the age difference was too great. Stanwyck eventually broke it off. "I would always have been Mr. Stanwyck," Wagner, now 78, writes, "and we both knew it. Sept 15, 2008: Check out "Highhurdler's" analysis of the ethics in the Barbara Stanwyck 1954 film Executive Suite. September 14, 2008: TCM film schedule of upcoming Stanwyck movies: Sept 30, 2008 Tuesday 9:45 PM Meet John Doe (1941) A reporter about to be laid-off invents a story about a common American "everyman" who pledges to commit suicide to protest the state of civilization. The resulting publicity forces the newspaper to hire an out-of-work ball player to pretend to be the fraudulent 'John Doe' who becomes a national hero and pawn of a corrupt political 3rd party. Cast: Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Arnold. Dir: Frank Capra. BW-122 mins, TV-G, CC, DVS A extensive page about Meet John Doe October 3, 2008 Friday 6:15 PM The File On Thelma Jordon (1950) A woman seduces a District Attorney and pulls him into a web of theft and murder. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Wendell Corey, Paul Kelly. Dir: Robert Siodmak. BW-100 mins, TV-PG October 13, 2008 Monday 7:15 AM Forbidden (1932) A frustrated librarian goes on an ocean voyage to combat her lonely life, only to fall into a lifelong affair with a married politician. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Adolphe Menjou, Ralph Bellamy. Dir: Frank Capra. BW-85 mins, TV-G An extensive page with information on the Capra / Stanwyck movie Forbidden October 15, 2008 Wednesday 10:00 PM The Mad Miss Manton (1938) A daffy socialite gets her friends mixed up in a murder investigation. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Sam Levene. Dir: Leigh Jason. BW-80 mins, TV-G, CC

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Barbara Stanwyck Internet Links

[Below] Screen shot of the New Yorker magazine article on
Stanwyck in regards to her 100 year centennial in 2007.

An excerpt from the New Yorker article on Stanwyck by Anthony Lane:

Besides the hundred years since Stanwyck’s birth, other statistics demand attention. There are the eighty-three films she made for the big screen. There are the hundred and five episodes, starting in 1965, of the TV series “The Big Valley” in which she starred as Victoria Barkley, thus reinforcing the moral of a lifetime: Don’t mess with the matriarch. And there are the four Oscar nominations, none of them crowned with a win, a scandal for which the Academy atoned in 1982 by bestowing an honorary award. Her appearance that night, sequined and immaculate, suggested that age was simply too awed to wither her, just as America’s love for her was always spiced with a pinch of fear. She built and buffed a screen persona whose unending task was to face down the schemings of weak men, to get a laugh for doing so, and to vent no more pity on the plight of others than she did on her own. Her wars with the world did not go unrewarded. Hence the most vital of all her statistics: in 1944, Stanwyck earned four hundred thousand dollars, making her the highest-paid woman in America.

Modern Times websites Barbara Stanwyck ("Ball of Fire") bio has been around for nearly a decade, I think, but it is still one of the very best articles on her.

Morlock "jeff" has a running commentary at MovieMorlocks on a few of the Stanwyck films TCM broadcast on their day-long Stanwyck Marathon in August 2008. For example this is what he has about The BItter Tea of General Yen:

...a very offbeat Pre-Code for Stanwyck. An interracial love story between a missionary and a Chinese warlord, it was a rather taboo topic for its era and director Frank Capra brings out the exotic sexuality of the pairing. Once you get used to the fact that a non-Chinese actor (Nils Asther in heavy Fu Manchu-like makeup) is playing General Yen, the stereotyped depiction, Hollywood style, of Asian culture gives way to an intriguing and unusual love story.

For a complete page on the Stanwyck / Frank Capra Bitter Tea of General Yen

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STANWYCK DVD FILMS AVAILABLE

Amazon.com is selling the box set for retail $33.49

The Barbara Stanwyck Signature Collection is a box set of 6 Stanwyck movies:

Annie Oakley (1935)
Directed by George Stevens: One of Stanwyck's most popular films from the 1930s.
Special Features: Main Street Follies, vintage 1935 short starring Hal Le Roy, Into Your Dance, vintage 1935 cartoon, Subtitles in English and French

My Reputation (1946)
Stanwyck made at least four films with co-star George Brent that I can think of right off the top of my head, and this is probably the best. He's going off to war, she's a widower who has slaved to the demands of her "reputation" as viewed by her family and friends. Not previously available on VHS or DVD.
Special Features: Jan Savitt and Band, vintage Warner Bros. musical short; Daffy Doodles, vintage Warner Bros. cartoon; Audio Only Bonuses: Vintage Radio Versions - Lux Radio Theater adaptation with Barbara Stanwyck (4/47) and Screen Guild Theater adaptation with Alexis Smith (7/47); Theatrical trailer
Subtitles: English, French & Spanish (Feature film only)

East Side, West Side (1949)
A film noir that has Stanwyck in Manhattan living with a philandering husband (James Mason). Ava Gardner shows up and everything goes dangerous quickly. Also includes the very good Van Heflin. Special Features:
Counterfeit Cat, vintage MGM Tex Avery cartoon; Stuff for Stuff, vintage MGM short subject; Original theatrical trailer; Subtitles: English and French

To Please a Lady (1950)
I have not seen this Clark Gable / Stanwyck film before. Includes original theatrical trailer.

Jeopardy (1953)
A very good 'thriller' in which Stanwyck's family is on a vacation that suddenly goes bad in a hurry when the husband gets his leg caught at the beach and the tide is rising. Leaving her son to keep an eye on the trapped man, she goes off in search of help and promptly becomes a hostage for a fleeing serial murderer with an army of police on his tail. The fugitive should've been more scared of Stanwyck: she will go to any extreme to rescue her family. Not previously available on VHS or DVD. Special features: original theatrical trailer, Audio Only Bonus: Jeopardy 1954 Lux Radio Theater Broadcast with Stanwyck. Subtitles: English, French & Spanish

Executive Suite (1954)
A very good film that doesn't really star Stanwyck, but instead her old "Golden Boy" co-star BIll Holden. She has a pivotal role, but the many business world mechanizations are the main focus of this well made movie. Special Features: Feature commentary by Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone; Out for Fun, vintage MGM Pete Smith Short; Billy Boy vintage MGM Tex Avery Cartoon; Original theatrical trailer; Subtitles: English & Spanish (feature film only)

Order from amazon.com