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ColbertBorn Emilie Chauchoin on September 13, 1903 in Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne, France, the actress Claudette Colbert was one of the great stars of the golden age of Hollywood.

Her family emigrated to the U.S. in 1906, settling in New York where Colbert grew up aspiring to become a painter but was encouraged to go into acting by a high school speech teacher. She made her stage debut at the Provincetown Playhouse in The Widow’s Veil in 1919 and her Broadway debut, third billed, in The Wild Westcotts opening Christmas Eve, 1923.

Acclaim for her performance in The Barker on the Broadway and London stages led to her film debut in Frank Capra’s For the Love of Mike in 1927. She married actor, later director, Norman Foster in 1928. Ernst Lubitsch’s 1931 musical The Smiling Lieutenant opposite Maurice Chevalier made her a star. Capra’s 1934 film, It Happened One Night made her an Oscar winner the same year she had two other box office hits with Imitation of Life and Cleopatra. 1935 brought The Gilded Lily and another Oscar nomination for Private Worlds. It also brought her a divorce from Foster and a marriage to Dr. Joel Pressman to whom she would remain married until his death in 1968.

One of Hollywood’s most versatile actresses, she continued to alternate between comedy in such films as Tovarich, Midnight and The Palm Beach Story and drama in the likes of Drums Along the Mohawk, Remember the Day and So Proudly We Hail! . She received a third Oscar nomination for David O. Selznick’s ambitious 1944 film, Since You Went Away.

Colbert had a huge success with the 1947 comedy, The Egg and I opposite frequent co-star Fred MacMurray, but was most famous in this period for backing out of two major films, 1948’s State of the Union in which she was replaced by Katharine Hepburn and All About Eve in which she was replaced by Bette Davis.

The actress’s best films of the 1950s came early in the decade with Three Came Home and Thunder on the Hill, after which she was better served by TV with 1956’s Blithe Spirit along with Lauren Bacall, Noel Coward and Mildred Natwick and 1959’s The Bells of St. Mary’s opposite Robert Preston. On Broadway in 1959’s The Marriage-Go-Round opposite Charles Boyer, she was nominated for a Tony for her performance.

Colbert’s last theatrical film was 1962’s Parrish after which she retired to Barbados, while maintaining permanent residence in New York, where she continued to appear on Broadway from time to time Her last appearance was in 1985’s Aren’t We All? opposite Rex Harrison. She was back on film for the first time in 25 years in the two-part 1987 TV film, The Two Mrs. Glenvilles opposite Ann-Margret, for which she won a Golden Globe and later received an Emmy nomination.

Claudette Colbert died after a series of strokes on July 30, 1996 at her Barbados home. She was 92.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934), directed by Frank Capra

Neither Colbert nor Clark Gable wanted to make the film which had been turned down by Myrna Loy, Robert Montgomery and others, but that was before the script was changed making it the most popular comedy of the on-going Depression. Still, Colbert was not happy with the finished project and the night of the Academy Awards was on her way to New York convinced Bette Davis would win on a write-in for Of Human Bondage. They had to stop the train to bring her back to the Ambassador Hotel to accept her award.

PRIVATE WORLDS (1935), directed by Gregory La Cava

Made at a time when interest in psychiatry was on the rise, Colbert had one of her strongest roles as a progressive shrink opposite Charles Boyer as her conservative supervisor, Joel McCrea as a more sympathetic associate and Joan Bennett as McCrea’s wife, a woman with problems of her own.

Colbert and Boyer were together again two years later in the hit comedy, Tovarich and two decades later on Broadway in The Marriage-Go-Round.

This is one of those pre-1948 Paramount films controlled by Universal which if we wait logn enough may eventually be released on DVD.

SINCE YOU WENT AWAY (1944), directed by James Cromwell

David O. Selznick’s home-front during the war drama was almost as ambitious a project as his Gone With the Wind had been five years earlier.

Colbert earned her third Oscar nomination for her portrayal of the mother of teenagers Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple. Joseph Cotten as a family friend, Robert Walker as the young soldier who romances Jones, Monty Woolley as his grumpy grand-father, Hattie McDaniel as the family maid, Agnes Moorehead as Colbert’s firend, Lionel Barrymore as a preacher, Guy Madison as a sailor and Nazimova as an immigrant are all outstanding.

THREE CAME HOME (1950), directed by Jean Negulesco

The true story of American author Agnes Keith imprisoned by the Japanese from 1941 until the end of World War II gave Colbert another stirring role and provided Sessue Hayakawa with a strong role of the Japanese commandant which may have served as an audition for the more famous one he would play seven years later in The Bridge on the River Kwai.

The back injury Colbert suffered during the making of the film forced her to drop out of All About Eve, paving the way for Bette Davis’ unforgettable screen comeback after being let go by Warner Bros. after a series of late 1940s flops.

THUNDER ON THE HILL (1951), directed by Douglas Sirk

This murder mystery set in a convent gave us the director of the 1959 version of Imitation of Life with the star of the 1934 version.

Colbert is wonderful as the conscience stricken nun who helps convicted murderer Ann Blyth prove her innocence in this atmospheric thriller that also features fine performances from Robert Douglass, Anne Crawford and Gladys Cooper as the acerbic Mother Superior.

Colbert would go on to play an even more famous nun, Sister Benedict opposite Robert Preston’s Father O’Malley in the 1959 TV remake of The Bells of St. Mary’s.

CLAUDETTE COLBERT AND OSCAR

  • It Happened One Night (1934) – Oscar – Best Actress
  • Private Worlds (1935) – nominated – Best Actress
  • Since You Went Away (1944) – nominated – Best Actress

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