Born January 27, 1921 in Denison, Iowa as Donna Belle Mullenger, the future Donna Reed was discovered by a Hollywood talent scout while attending Los Angeles City College.

Signed by MGM, she was in three films in 1941, her first year in films, including a major supporting turn in Shadow of the Thin Man with William Powell and Myrna Loy. In 1942 she would appear in major roles in two other films from long-running MGM series in The Courtship of Andy Hardy with Mickey Rooney and Calling Dr. Gillepsie with Lionel Barrymore. She made a strong impression that same year as Edward Arnold’s daughter in Eyes in the Night. Important roles in major MGM films soon followed, including 1943’s The Human Comedy and 1945’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and They Were Expendable.

While returning from Mexico in 1945 where she went to obtain a quickie divorce from makeup artist William Tuttle, her husband of two years, she was bumped from her flight by an American serviceman. All on board the flight were killed. She then married producer Tony Owen with whom she had four children.

On loan to RKO, she starred opposite James Stewart in Frank Capra’s now classic 1947 film, It’s a Wonderful Life. From there it was back to MGM for one of that studio’s best films of 1947, Green Dolphin Street based on an enormously successful best-seller.

In fairly routine films until 1953, she was in two standout films that year, the domestic drama Trouble Along the Way in which she played her customary nice girl opposite John Wayne and From Here to Eternity in which she played against type as a hard-bitten prostitute, for which she won an Oscar.

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Born September 20, 1927 in Wales, Rachel Roberts had a strict Baptist upbringing against which she rebelled. Following her studies at the University of Wales and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, she had a successful career on the London stage and entered films in 1953. Her screen career, however, did not take off until Karel Reisz’s 1960 film, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning in which she played Albert Finney’s older, married lover. The performance won her a BAFTA for Best British Actress, an accomplishment she repeated three years later with a second win for Lindsay Anderson’s This Sporting Life in which she played Richard Harris’ older lover.

Married to actor Alan Dobie, five years her junior, from 1955 to 1961, she became the fourth wife of actor Rex Harrison in 1962 three years after the death of his third wife, actress Kay Kendall.

On the British stage in the hit musical Maggie May in 1964, she was seen mostly on TV for the remainder of the decade with an occasional foray into film. It wasn’t, however, until
Lindsay Anderson’s 1973 film, O Lucky Man! opposite Malcolm McDowell that she had another screen role of major importance.

Her delightful portrayal of Wendy Hiller’s maid in Sidney Lumet’s 1974 film of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express brought her some of her best notices.

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