Joan Geraldine Bennett (February 27, 1910 – December 7, 1990) was an American stage, film, and television actress. She came from a showbiz family, one of three acting sisters. Beginning her career on the stage, Bennett then appeared in more than 70 films from the era of silent movies, well into the sound era. She is possibly best-remembered for her film noir femme fatale roles in director Fritz Lang's movies such as Man Hunt (1941), The Woman in the Window (1944), and Scarlet Street (1945).
========================================================================
========================================================================
24/12/2019.
Joan Bennett - Actress
========================================================================
1. Profile :
#Joan Bennett in Photoplay December 1932
Born Joan Geraldine Bennett, February 27, 1910, Fort Lee, New Jersey, U.S.
Died December 7, 1990 (aged 80), Scarsdale, New York, U.S.
Resting place Pleasant View Cemetery, Lyme, Connecticut, U.S.
Nationality American
Occupation Actress
Years active 1916–1982
Spouse(s)
1.John Marion Fox
(m. 1926; div. 1928)
2.Gene Markey
(m. 1932; div. 1937)
3.Walter Wanger
(m. 1940; div. 1965)
4.David Wilde
(m. 1978)
Children 4
Parent(s) Richard Bennett, Adrienne Morrison
Relatives Lewis Morrison (grandfather), Constance Bennett (sister), Barbara Bennett (sister), Morton Downey Jr. (nephew)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Introduction :
Joan Geraldine Bennett (February 27, 1910 – December 7, 1990) was an American stage, film, and television actress. She came from a showbiz family, one of three acting sisters. Beginning her career on the stage, Bennett then appeared in more than 70 films from the era of silent movies, well into the sound era. She is possibly best-remembered for her film noir femme fatale roles in director Fritz Lang's movies such as Man Hunt (1941), The Woman in the Window (1944), and Scarlet Street (1945).
Bennett's career had three distinct phases: first as a winsome blonde ingenue, then as a sensuous brunette femme fatale (with looks that movie magazines often compared to those of Hedy Lamarr), and finally as a warmhearted wife-and-mother figure.
In 1951, Bennett's screen career was marred by scandal after her third husband, film producer Walter Wanger, shot and injured her agent Jennings Lang. Wanger suspected that Lang and Bennett were having an affair, a charge which she adamantly denied. Bennett married four times.
In the 1960s, she achieved success for her portrayal of Elizabeth Collins Stoddard on TV's gothic fan favorite, Dark Shadows, for which she received an Emmy nomination (1968). For her final movie role, as Madame Blanc in Dario Argento's cult horror film Suspiria (1977), she received a Saturn Award nomination. In her New York Times obituary, she was said to be "one of the most underrated actresses of her time".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Early life :
#Richard Bennett with his three daughters (from left), Constance, Joan, and Barbara (1918)
Joan Geraldine Bennett was born in the Palisade section of Fort Lee, New Jersey, on February 27, 1910, the youngest of three daughters of actor Richard Bennett and actress/literary agent Adrienne Morrison. Her older sisters were actress Constance Bennett and actress/dancer Barbara Bennett, who was the first wife of singer Morton Downey and the mother of Morton Downey Jr. Part of a famous theatrical family, Bennett's maternal grandfather was Jamaica-born Shakespearean actor Lewis Morrison, who embarked on a stage career in the late 1860s. He was of English, Spanish, Jewish, and African ancestry. On the side of her maternal grandmother, actress Rose Wood, the profession dated back to traveling minstrels in 18th century England.
Bennett first appeared in a silent movie as a child with her parents and sisters in her father's drama The Valley of Decision (1916), which he adapted for the screen. She attended Miss Hopkins School for Girls in Manhattan, then St. Margaret's, a boarding school in Waterbury, Connecticut, and L'Hermitage, a finishing school in Versailles, France.
On September 15, 1926, 16-year-old Bennett married John M. Fox in London. They were divorced on July 30, 1928 in Los Angeles on charges of his alcoholism. They had one child, Adrienne Ralston Fox (born February 20, 1928), for whom Bennett fought successfully in court to rename Diana Bennett Markey, when the child was eight years old. Her name changed to Diana Bennett Wanger in 1944.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Career :
#Bennett in the trailer for Disraeli (1929)
Bennett's stage debut was at age 18, acting with her father in Jarnegan (1928), which ran on Broadway for 136 performances and for which she received good reviews. By age 19, she had become a movie star through such roles as Phyllis Benton in Bulldog Drummond starring Ronald Colman, which was her first important role, and Lady Clarissa Pevensey opposite George Arliss in Disraeli (both 1929).
She moved quickly from movie to movie throughout the 1930s. Bennett appeared as a blonde (her natural hair color) for several years. She starred in the role of Dolores Fenton in the United Artists musical Puttin' On The Ritz (1930) opposite Harry Richman and as Faith Mapple, his beloved, opposite John Barrymore in an early sound version of Moby Dick (1930) at Warner Brothers.
Under contract to Fox Film Corporation, she appeared in several movies. Receiving top billing, she played the role of Jane Miller opposite Spencer Tracy in She Wanted a Millionaire (1932). She was billed second, after Tracy, for her role as Helen Riley, a personable waitress who trades wisecracks, in Me and My Gal (1932).
On March 16, 1932, she married screenwriter/film producer Gene Markey in Los Angeles, but the couple divorced in Los Angeles on June 3, 1937. They had one child, Melinda Markey (born February 27, 1934, on Bennett's 24th birthday).
#Bennett in the trailer for Little Women (1933)
Bennett left Fox to play Amy, a pert sister competing with Katharine Hepburn's Jo in Little Women (1933), which was directed by George Cukor for RKO. This movie brought Bennett to the attention of independent film producer Walter Wanger, who signed her to a contract and began managing her career. She played the role of Sally MacGregor, a psychiatrist's young wife slipping into insanity, in Private Worlds (1935) with Joel McCrea. She starred in the film Vogues of 1938 (1937), including the title sequence, where she donned a diamond and platinum bracelet set with the Star of Burma ruby. Wanger and director Tay Garnett persuaded Bennett to change her hair from blonde to brunette as part of the plot for her role as Kay Kerrigan in the scenic Trade Winds (1938) opposite Fredric March.
With her change in appearance, Bennett began an entirely new screen career as her persona evolved into that of a glamorous, seductive femme fatale. She played the role of Princess Maria Theresa in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) opposite Louis Hayward, and the role of the Grand Duchess Zona of Lichtenburg in The Son of Monte Cristo (1940) opposite Hayward.
During the search for an actress to play Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, Bennett was given a screen test and impressed producer David O. Selznick to such an extent that she was one of the final four actresses, along with Jean Arthur, Vivien Leigh and Paulette Goddard.
On January 12, 1940, Bennett and Walter Wanger were married in Phoenix, Arizona.[12] They were divorced in September 1965 in Mexico. They had two children together, Stephanie Wanger (born June 26, 1943) and Shelley Wanger (born July 4, 1948). The following year on March 13, 1949, she became a grandmother at age 39, similar to her co-star Elizabeth Taylor who became a grandmother at the same age (she and Taylor also shared a February 27 birthday, and each gave birth to one of their children on their birthdays. They both also played Amy March in Little Women - Bennett in the 1933 RKO version; Taylor in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer remake in 1949.).
#Bennett in the trailer for The Woman in the Window (1944)
Combined with her sultry eyes and husky voice, Bennett's new brunette look gave her an earthier, more arresting persona. She won praise for her performances as Brenda Bentley in The House Across the Bay (1940), also featuring George Raft, and as Carol Hoffman in the anti-Nazi drama The Man I Married, a film in which Francis Lederer also starred.
She then appeared in a sequence of highly regarded film noir thrillers directed by Fritz Lang, with whom she and Wanger formed their own production company. Bennett appeared in four movies under Lang's direction, including as Cockney Jerry Stokes in Man Hunt (1941) opposite Walter Pidgeon, as mysterious model Alice Reed in The Woman in the Window (1944) with Edward G. Robinson, and as vulgar blackmailer Katharine "Kitty" March in Scarlet Street (1945), another film with Robinson.
Bennett was the shrewish, cuckolding wife, Margaret Macomber, in Zoltan Korda's The Macomber Affair (1947) opposite Gregory Peck, as the deceitful wife, Peggy, in Jean Renoir's The Woman on the Beach (also 1947) opposite Robert Ryan and Charles Bickford, and as the tormented blackmail victim Lucia Harper in Max Ophüls' The Reckless Moment (1949) opposite James Mason. Then, easily shifting images again, she changed her screen persona to that of an elegant, witty and nurturing wife and mother in two comedies directed by Vincente Minnelli.
Playing the role of Ellie Banks, the wife of Spencer Tracy and mother of Elizabeth Taylor, Bennett appeared in both Father of the Bride (1950) and Father's Little Dividend (1951).
She made a number of radio appearances from the 1930s to the 1950s, performing on such programs as The Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show, Duffy's Tavern, The Jack Benny Program, Ford Theater, Suspense and the anthology series Lux Radio Theater and Screen Guild Theater.
With the increasing popularity of television, Bennett made five guest appearances in 1951, including an episode of Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca's Your Show of Shows.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Political views :
She was a very active member of both the Hollywood Democratic Committee and The Hollywood Anti-Nazi League and donated her time and money to many liberal causes (such as the Civil Rights Movement) and political candidates (including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Henry Wallace, Adlai Stevenson, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Jimmy Carter) during her lifetime.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Scandal :
For 12 years, Bennett was represented by agent Jennings Lang. She and the onetime vice-president of the Sam Jaffe Agency, who now headed MCA's West Coast television operations, met on the afternoon of December 13, 1951, to talk over an upcoming TV show.
Bennett parked her Cadillac convertible in the lot at the back of the MCA offices, at Santa Monica Boulevard and Rexford Drive, across the street from the Beverly Hills Police Department, and she and Lang drove off in his car. Meanwhile, her husband Walter Wanger drove by at about 2:30 p.m. and noticed his wife's car parked there. Half an hour later, he again saw her car there and stopped to wait. Bennett and Lang drove into the parking lot a few hours later and he walked her to her convertible. As she started the engine, turned on the headlights, and prepared to drive away, Lang leaned on the car, with both hands raised to his shoulders, and talked to her.
In a fit of jealousy, Wanger walked up and twice shot and wounded the unsuspecting agent. One bullet hit Jennings in the right thigh, near the hip, and the other penetrated his groin. Bennett said she did not see Wanger at first. She said she suddenly saw two vivid flashes, then Lang slumped to the ground. As soon as she recognized who had fired the shots, she told Wanger, "Get away and leave us alone." He tossed the pistol into his wife's car.
She and the parking lot's service station manager took Lang to the agent's doctor. He was then taken to a hospital, where he recovered. The police station was located across the lot, officers had heard the shots, and came to the scene and found the gun in Bennett's car when they took Wanger into custody. Wanger was booked and fingerprinted, and underwent lengthy questioning.
"I shot him because I thought he was breaking up my home," Wanger told the chief of police of Beverly Hills. He was booked on suspicion of assault with intent to commit murder. Bennett denied a romance. "But if Walter thinks the relationships between Mr. Lang and myself are romantic or anything but strictly business, he is wrong," she declared. She blamed the trouble on financial setbacks involving film productions Wanger was involved with, and said he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The following day Wanger, out on bond, returned to their Holmby Hills home, collected his belongings and moved out. Bennett, however, said there would not be a divorce.
On December 14, Bennett issued a statement in which she said she hoped her husband "will not be blamed too much" for wounding her agent. She read the prepared statement in the bedroom of her home to a group of newspapermen while TV cameras recorded the scene.
Wanger's attorney Jerry Giesler mounted a "temporary insanity" defense. He then decided to waive his rights to a jury and threw himself on the mercy of the court. Wanger served a four-month sentence in the County Honor Farm at Castaic, California, 39 miles north of Downtown Los Angeles, quickly returning to his career to make a series of successful films.
Meanwhile, Bennett went to Chicago to appear on the stage in the role as the young witch Gillian Holroyd in Bell, Book, and Candle, then went on national tour with the production.
After the 1951 shooting, Bennett made only five movies in the decade that followed, and only two films in the 1970s, as the shooting incident was a stain on her career and she became virtually blacklisted. Blaming the scandal that occurred for destroying her career in the motion picture industry, she once said, "I might as well have pulled the trigger myself." Although Humphrey Bogart, a longtime friend of Bennett, pleaded with Paramount Pictures on her behalf to keep her after her role as Amelie Ducotel in We're No Angels (1955), that movie proved to be one of her last.
As the movie offers dwindled after the scandal, Bennett continued touring in stage successes, such as Susan and God, Once More, with Feeling, The Pleasure of His Company and Never Too Late. Her next TV appearance was in the role as Bettina Blane for an episode of General Electric Theater in 1954. Other roles include Honora in Climax! (1955) and Vickie Maxwell in Playhouse 90 (1957). In 1958, she appeared as the mother in the short-lived television comedy/drama Too Young to Go Steady to teenagers played by Brigid Bazlen and Martin Huston.
She starred on Broadway in the comedy Love Me Little (1958), which ran for only eight performances.
Of the scandal, in a 1981 interview, Bennett contrasted the judgmental 1950s with the sensation-crazed 1970s and 1980s. "It would never happen that way today," she said, laughing. "If it happened today, I'd be a sensation. I'd be wanted by all studios for all pictures."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Later years :
Despite the shooting scandal and the damage it caused Bennett's career, she and Wanger remained married until 1965. She continued to work steadily on the stage and in television, including her guest role as Denise Mitchell in an episode of TV's Burke's Law (1965).
#Bennett in TV's Dark Shadows
Bennett received star billing on the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows for its entire five-year run, 1966 to 1971, receiving an Emmy Award nomination in 1968 for her performance as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, mistress of the haunted Collinwood Mansion. Her other roles on Dark Shadows were Naomi Collins, Judith Collins Trask, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard PT (parallel time, as the show described its alternate reality), Flora Collins, and Flora Collins PT. In 1970, she appeared as Elizabeth in House of Dark Shadows, the feature film adaptation of the series. She declined to appear in the sequel Night of Dark Shadows however, and her character Elizabeth was mentioned as being recently deceased.
Her autobiography The Bennett Playbill, written with Lois Kibbee, was published in 1970.
Other TV guest appearances include Bennett's roles as Joan Darlene Delaney in an episode of The Governor & J.J. (1970) and as Edith in an episode of Love, American Style (1971). She starred in five made-for-TV movies between 1972 and 1982.
Bennett also appeared in one more feature film, as Madame Blanc in director Dario Argento's horror film Suspiria (1977), for which she received a 1978 Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Bennett and retired publisher/movie critic David Wilde were married on February 14, 1978, in White Plains, New York. Their marriage lasted until her death.
#Bennett's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6300 Hollywood Blvd
Celebrated for not taking herself too seriously, Bennett said in a 1986 interview, "I don't think much of most of the films I made, but being a movie star was something I liked very much."
Bennett has a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to the film industry. Her star is located at 6300 Hollywood Boulevard, a short distance from the star of her sister Constance.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
8. Death :
Bennett died of heart failure on Friday evening, December 7, 1990, at age 80 at her home in Scarsdale, New York.] She is interred in Pleasant View Cemetery, Lyme, Connecticut,[25] with her parents.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
9. Filmography :
Bennett appeared in a large number of movies and television productions, listed below in their entirety.
Film :
#Bennett in the trailer for Father's Little Dividend (1951)
Year Title Role Notes
1916 The Valley of Decision unborn soul
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1923 The Eternal City Page uncredited
1928 Power a dame
1929 The Divine Lady extra uncredited
1929 Bulldog Drummond Phyllis Benton
1929 Three Live Ghosts Rose Gordon
1929 Disraeli Lady Clarissa Pevensey
1929 The Mississippi Gambler Lucy Blackburn
1930 Puttin' On the Ritz Delores Fenton
1930 Crazy That Way Ann Jordan
1930 Moby Dick Faith Mapple, his beloved
1930 Maybe It's Love (a.k.a. Eleven Men and a Girl) Nan Sheffield
1930 Scotland Yard Xandra, Lady Lasher
------------------------------------------------------------
1931 Many a Slip Pat Coster
#1931 Doctors' Wives Nina Wyndram
1931 Hush Money Joan Gordon
1932 She Wanted a Millionaire Jane Miller
1932 Careless Lady Sally Brown
1932 The Trial of Vivienne Ware Vivienne Ware
1932 Week Ends Only Venetia Carr
1932 Wild Girl Salomy Jane
1932 Me and My Gal Helen Riley
1933 Arizona to Broadway Lynn Martin
1933 Little Women Amy March
1934 The Pursuit of Happiness Prudence Kirkland
1934 The Man Who Reclaimed His Head Adele Verin
1935 Private Worlds Sally MacGregor
#1935 Mississippi Lucy Rumford
1935 Two for Tonight Bobbie Lockwood
#1935 She Couldn't Take It Carol Van Dyke
1935 The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo Helen Berkeley
1936 Big Brown Eyes Eve Fallon
1936 Thirteen Hours by Air Felice Rollins
1936 Two in a Crowd Julia Wayne
1936 Wedding Present Monica "Rusty" Fleming
1937 Vogues of 1938 Wendy Van Klettering
1938 I Met My Love Again Julie
#1938 The Texans Ivy Preston
1938 Artists and Models Abroad Patricia Harper
1938 Trade Winds Kay Kerrigan
1939 The Man in the Iron Mask Princess Maria Theresa
1939 The Housekeeper's Daughter Hilda
1940 Green Hell Stephanie Richardson
1940 The House Across the Bay Brenda Bentley
1940 The Man I Married Carol Hoffman
1940 The Son of Monte Cristo Grand Duchess Zona of Lichtenburg
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WATCH THE CLIP : https://youtu.be/naNaqOj-pJ4
1941 She Knew All the Answers Gloria Winters
1941 Man Hunt Jerry Stokes
1941 Wild Geese Calling Sally Murdock
1941 Confirm or Deny Jennifer Carson
1942 The Wife Takes a Flyer Anita Woverman
1942 Twin Beds Julie Abbott
1942 Girl Trouble June Delaney
1943 Margin for Error Sophia Baumer
1944 The Woman in the Window Alice Reed
1945 Nob Hill Harriet Carruthers
1945 Scarlet Street Katharine "Kitty" March
1946 Colonel Effingham's Raid Ella Sue Dozier
1947 The Macomber Affair Margaret Macomber
#1947 The Woman on the Beach Peggy
#1948 Secret Beyond the Door... Celia Lamphere
1948 Hollow Triumph (aka The Scar) Evelyn Hahn
1949 The Reckless Moment Lucia Harper
1950 Father of the Bride Ellie Banks
1950 For Heaven's Sake Lydia Bolton
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#1951 Father's Little Dividend Ellie Banks;;
1951 The Guy Who Came Back Kathy Joplin
1954 Highway Dragnet Mrs. Cummings
1955 We're No Angels Amelie Ducotel
1956 There's Always Tomorrow Marion Groves
1956 Navy Wife Peg Blain
1960 Desire in the Dust Mrs. Marquand
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#1970 House of Dark Shadows Elizabeth Collins Stoddard
1977 Suspiria Madame Blanc
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10. Television :
The Nash Airflyte Theater (1951) episode: Peggy
Your Show of Shows (1951) 1 episode
Danger (1951) episode: A Clear Case of Suicide
Somerset Maugham TV Theatre (1951) episode: Smith Serves
Somerset Maugham TV Theatre (1951) episode: The Dream
General Electric Theater (1954) episode: You Are Young Only Once, as Bettina Blane
The Best of Broadway (1954) episode: The Man Who Came to Dinner, as Lorraine Sheldon
Climax! (1955) episode: The Dark Fleece, as Honora
The Ford Television Theatre (1955) episode: Letters Marked Personal, as Marcia Manners
The Ford Television Theatre (1956) episode: Dear Diane, as Marion
Playhouse 90 (1957) episode: The Thundering Wave, as Vickie Maxwell
The DuPont Show of the Month (1957) episode: Junior Miss, as Grace Graves
Pursuit (1958) episode: Epitaph for a Golden Girl
Too Young to Go Steady (1959) (own series), as Mary Blake
Burke's Law (1965) episode: Who Killed Mr. Colby in Ladies' Lingerie?, as Denise Mitchell
Dark Shadows (1966–1971) (series regular, 386 episodes), as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard / Naomi Collins / Judith Collins / Flora Collins
The Governor & J.J. (1970) episode: Check the Check, as Joan Darlene Delaney
Love, American Style (1971) episode segment: Love and the Second Time, as Edith
Dr. Simon Locke (1972) episode: The Cortessa Rose, as Cortessa
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11. Made-for-TV movies :
Gidget Gets Married (1972), as Claire Ramsey
The Eyes of Charles Sand (1972), as Aunt Alexandra
Suddenly, Love (1978), as Mrs. Graham
This House Possessed (1981), as Rag Lady
Divorce Wars: A Love Story (1982), as Adele Burgess
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------'
12. As herself :
Screen Actors (1950) (uncredited)
The Colgate Comedy Hour (1951) 1 episode
What's My Line? (1951) 1 episode
The Ken Murray Show (1951) 1 episode
Ford Festival (1951)
Climax! (1956) episode: The Louella Parsons Story
To Tell the Truth (1958) 1 episode
The Mike Douglas Show (1964, 1967, 1970, 1970, 1977) 5 episodes
The Merv Griffin Show (1967) 1 episode
Personality (1968) 1 episode
The Hollywood Squares (1970) 1 episode
The Virginia Graham Show (1970) 1 episode
The Hollywood Greats (1977) 2 episodes: Humphrey Bogart; Spencer Tracy
The Guiding Light (1982) 1 episode
The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn (1986)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13. Short subject :
Screen Snapshots (1932)
Hollywood on Parade No. A-12 (1933)
The Fashion Side of Hollywood (1935)
Hollywood Party (1937)
Screen Snapshots Series 19, No. 9: Sports in Hollywood (1940)
Hedda Hopper's Hollywood, No. 6 (1942)
Screen Actors (1950) (uncredited)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14. Radio appearances :
Year Program Episode/source
1941 Philip Morris Playhouse Girl in the News
1946 Screen Guild Players Experiment Perilous
1947 Suspense "Overture in Two Keys"
THE END.
=======================================================================
========================================================================
24/12/2019.
Joan Bennett - Actress
========================================================================
1. Profile :
Born Joan Geraldine Bennett, February 27, 1910, Fort Lee, New Jersey, U.S.
Died December 7, 1990 (aged 80), Scarsdale, New York, U.S.
Resting place Pleasant View Cemetery, Lyme, Connecticut, U.S.
Nationality American
Occupation Actress
Years active 1916–1982
Spouse(s)
1.John Marion Fox
(m. 1926; div. 1928)
2.Gene Markey
(m. 1932; div. 1937)
3.Walter Wanger
(m. 1940; div. 1965)
4.David Wilde
(m. 1978)
Children 4
Parent(s) Richard Bennett, Adrienne Morrison
Relatives Lewis Morrison (grandfather), Constance Bennett (sister), Barbara Bennett (sister), Morton Downey Jr. (nephew)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Introduction :
Joan Geraldine Bennett (February 27, 1910 – December 7, 1990) was an American stage, film, and television actress. She came from a showbiz family, one of three acting sisters. Beginning her career on the stage, Bennett then appeared in more than 70 films from the era of silent movies, well into the sound era. She is possibly best-remembered for her film noir femme fatale roles in director Fritz Lang's movies such as Man Hunt (1941), The Woman in the Window (1944), and Scarlet Street (1945).
Bennett's career had three distinct phases: first as a winsome blonde ingenue, then as a sensuous brunette femme fatale (with looks that movie magazines often compared to those of Hedy Lamarr), and finally as a warmhearted wife-and-mother figure.
In 1951, Bennett's screen career was marred by scandal after her third husband, film producer Walter Wanger, shot and injured her agent Jennings Lang. Wanger suspected that Lang and Bennett were having an affair, a charge which she adamantly denied. Bennett married four times.
In the 1960s, she achieved success for her portrayal of Elizabeth Collins Stoddard on TV's gothic fan favorite, Dark Shadows, for which she received an Emmy nomination (1968). For her final movie role, as Madame Blanc in Dario Argento's cult horror film Suspiria (1977), she received a Saturn Award nomination. In her New York Times obituary, she was said to be "one of the most underrated actresses of her time".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Early life :
Joan Geraldine Bennett was born in the Palisade section of Fort Lee, New Jersey, on February 27, 1910, the youngest of three daughters of actor Richard Bennett and actress/literary agent Adrienne Morrison. Her older sisters were actress Constance Bennett and actress/dancer Barbara Bennett, who was the first wife of singer Morton Downey and the mother of Morton Downey Jr. Part of a famous theatrical family, Bennett's maternal grandfather was Jamaica-born Shakespearean actor Lewis Morrison, who embarked on a stage career in the late 1860s. He was of English, Spanish, Jewish, and African ancestry. On the side of her maternal grandmother, actress Rose Wood, the profession dated back to traveling minstrels in 18th century England.
Bennett first appeared in a silent movie as a child with her parents and sisters in her father's drama The Valley of Decision (1916), which he adapted for the screen. She attended Miss Hopkins School for Girls in Manhattan, then St. Margaret's, a boarding school in Waterbury, Connecticut, and L'Hermitage, a finishing school in Versailles, France.
On September 15, 1926, 16-year-old Bennett married John M. Fox in London. They were divorced on July 30, 1928 in Los Angeles on charges of his alcoholism. They had one child, Adrienne Ralston Fox (born February 20, 1928), for whom Bennett fought successfully in court to rename Diana Bennett Markey, when the child was eight years old. Her name changed to Diana Bennett Wanger in 1944.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Career :
Bennett's stage debut was at age 18, acting with her father in Jarnegan (1928), which ran on Broadway for 136 performances and for which she received good reviews. By age 19, she had become a movie star through such roles as Phyllis Benton in Bulldog Drummond starring Ronald Colman, which was her first important role, and Lady Clarissa Pevensey opposite George Arliss in Disraeli (both 1929).
She moved quickly from movie to movie throughout the 1930s. Bennett appeared as a blonde (her natural hair color) for several years. She starred in the role of Dolores Fenton in the United Artists musical Puttin' On The Ritz (1930) opposite Harry Richman and as Faith Mapple, his beloved, opposite John Barrymore in an early sound version of Moby Dick (1930) at Warner Brothers.
Under contract to Fox Film Corporation, she appeared in several movies. Receiving top billing, she played the role of Jane Miller opposite Spencer Tracy in She Wanted a Millionaire (1932). She was billed second, after Tracy, for her role as Helen Riley, a personable waitress who trades wisecracks, in Me and My Gal (1932).
On March 16, 1932, she married screenwriter/film producer Gene Markey in Los Angeles, but the couple divorced in Los Angeles on June 3, 1937. They had one child, Melinda Markey (born February 27, 1934, on Bennett's 24th birthday).
Bennett left Fox to play Amy, a pert sister competing with Katharine Hepburn's Jo in Little Women (1933), which was directed by George Cukor for RKO. This movie brought Bennett to the attention of independent film producer Walter Wanger, who signed her to a contract and began managing her career. She played the role of Sally MacGregor, a psychiatrist's young wife slipping into insanity, in Private Worlds (1935) with Joel McCrea. She starred in the film Vogues of 1938 (1937), including the title sequence, where she donned a diamond and platinum bracelet set with the Star of Burma ruby. Wanger and director Tay Garnett persuaded Bennett to change her hair from blonde to brunette as part of the plot for her role as Kay Kerrigan in the scenic Trade Winds (1938) opposite Fredric March.
With her change in appearance, Bennett began an entirely new screen career as her persona evolved into that of a glamorous, seductive femme fatale. She played the role of Princess Maria Theresa in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) opposite Louis Hayward, and the role of the Grand Duchess Zona of Lichtenburg in The Son of Monte Cristo (1940) opposite Hayward.
During the search for an actress to play Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, Bennett was given a screen test and impressed producer David O. Selznick to such an extent that she was one of the final four actresses, along with Jean Arthur, Vivien Leigh and Paulette Goddard.
On January 12, 1940, Bennett and Walter Wanger were married in Phoenix, Arizona.[12] They were divorced in September 1965 in Mexico. They had two children together, Stephanie Wanger (born June 26, 1943) and Shelley Wanger (born July 4, 1948). The following year on March 13, 1949, she became a grandmother at age 39, similar to her co-star Elizabeth Taylor who became a grandmother at the same age (she and Taylor also shared a February 27 birthday, and each gave birth to one of their children on their birthdays. They both also played Amy March in Little Women - Bennett in the 1933 RKO version; Taylor in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer remake in 1949.).
Combined with her sultry eyes and husky voice, Bennett's new brunette look gave her an earthier, more arresting persona. She won praise for her performances as Brenda Bentley in The House Across the Bay (1940), also featuring George Raft, and as Carol Hoffman in the anti-Nazi drama The Man I Married, a film in which Francis Lederer also starred.
She then appeared in a sequence of highly regarded film noir thrillers directed by Fritz Lang, with whom she and Wanger formed their own production company. Bennett appeared in four movies under Lang's direction, including as Cockney Jerry Stokes in Man Hunt (1941) opposite Walter Pidgeon, as mysterious model Alice Reed in The Woman in the Window (1944) with Edward G. Robinson, and as vulgar blackmailer Katharine "Kitty" March in Scarlet Street (1945), another film with Robinson.
Bennett was the shrewish, cuckolding wife, Margaret Macomber, in Zoltan Korda's The Macomber Affair (1947) opposite Gregory Peck, as the deceitful wife, Peggy, in Jean Renoir's The Woman on the Beach (also 1947) opposite Robert Ryan and Charles Bickford, and as the tormented blackmail victim Lucia Harper in Max Ophüls' The Reckless Moment (1949) opposite James Mason. Then, easily shifting images again, she changed her screen persona to that of an elegant, witty and nurturing wife and mother in two comedies directed by Vincente Minnelli.
Playing the role of Ellie Banks, the wife of Spencer Tracy and mother of Elizabeth Taylor, Bennett appeared in both Father of the Bride (1950) and Father's Little Dividend (1951).
She made a number of radio appearances from the 1930s to the 1950s, performing on such programs as The Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show, Duffy's Tavern, The Jack Benny Program, Ford Theater, Suspense and the anthology series Lux Radio Theater and Screen Guild Theater.
With the increasing popularity of television, Bennett made five guest appearances in 1951, including an episode of Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca's Your Show of Shows.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Political views :
She was a very active member of both the Hollywood Democratic Committee and The Hollywood Anti-Nazi League and donated her time and money to many liberal causes (such as the Civil Rights Movement) and political candidates (including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Henry Wallace, Adlai Stevenson, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Jimmy Carter) during her lifetime.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Scandal :
For 12 years, Bennett was represented by agent Jennings Lang. She and the onetime vice-president of the Sam Jaffe Agency, who now headed MCA's West Coast television operations, met on the afternoon of December 13, 1951, to talk over an upcoming TV show.
Bennett parked her Cadillac convertible in the lot at the back of the MCA offices, at Santa Monica Boulevard and Rexford Drive, across the street from the Beverly Hills Police Department, and she and Lang drove off in his car. Meanwhile, her husband Walter Wanger drove by at about 2:30 p.m. and noticed his wife's car parked there. Half an hour later, he again saw her car there and stopped to wait. Bennett and Lang drove into the parking lot a few hours later and he walked her to her convertible. As she started the engine, turned on the headlights, and prepared to drive away, Lang leaned on the car, with both hands raised to his shoulders, and talked to her.
In a fit of jealousy, Wanger walked up and twice shot and wounded the unsuspecting agent. One bullet hit Jennings in the right thigh, near the hip, and the other penetrated his groin. Bennett said she did not see Wanger at first. She said she suddenly saw two vivid flashes, then Lang slumped to the ground. As soon as she recognized who had fired the shots, she told Wanger, "Get away and leave us alone." He tossed the pistol into his wife's car.
She and the parking lot's service station manager took Lang to the agent's doctor. He was then taken to a hospital, where he recovered. The police station was located across the lot, officers had heard the shots, and came to the scene and found the gun in Bennett's car when they took Wanger into custody. Wanger was booked and fingerprinted, and underwent lengthy questioning.
"I shot him because I thought he was breaking up my home," Wanger told the chief of police of Beverly Hills. He was booked on suspicion of assault with intent to commit murder. Bennett denied a romance. "But if Walter thinks the relationships between Mr. Lang and myself are romantic or anything but strictly business, he is wrong," she declared. She blamed the trouble on financial setbacks involving film productions Wanger was involved with, and said he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The following day Wanger, out on bond, returned to their Holmby Hills home, collected his belongings and moved out. Bennett, however, said there would not be a divorce.
On December 14, Bennett issued a statement in which she said she hoped her husband "will not be blamed too much" for wounding her agent. She read the prepared statement in the bedroom of her home to a group of newspapermen while TV cameras recorded the scene.
Wanger's attorney Jerry Giesler mounted a "temporary insanity" defense. He then decided to waive his rights to a jury and threw himself on the mercy of the court. Wanger served a four-month sentence in the County Honor Farm at Castaic, California, 39 miles north of Downtown Los Angeles, quickly returning to his career to make a series of successful films.
Meanwhile, Bennett went to Chicago to appear on the stage in the role as the young witch Gillian Holroyd in Bell, Book, and Candle, then went on national tour with the production.
After the 1951 shooting, Bennett made only five movies in the decade that followed, and only two films in the 1970s, as the shooting incident was a stain on her career and she became virtually blacklisted. Blaming the scandal that occurred for destroying her career in the motion picture industry, she once said, "I might as well have pulled the trigger myself." Although Humphrey Bogart, a longtime friend of Bennett, pleaded with Paramount Pictures on her behalf to keep her after her role as Amelie Ducotel in We're No Angels (1955), that movie proved to be one of her last.
As the movie offers dwindled after the scandal, Bennett continued touring in stage successes, such as Susan and God, Once More, with Feeling, The Pleasure of His Company and Never Too Late. Her next TV appearance was in the role as Bettina Blane for an episode of General Electric Theater in 1954. Other roles include Honora in Climax! (1955) and Vickie Maxwell in Playhouse 90 (1957). In 1958, she appeared as the mother in the short-lived television comedy/drama Too Young to Go Steady to teenagers played by Brigid Bazlen and Martin Huston.
She starred on Broadway in the comedy Love Me Little (1958), which ran for only eight performances.
Of the scandal, in a 1981 interview, Bennett contrasted the judgmental 1950s with the sensation-crazed 1970s and 1980s. "It would never happen that way today," she said, laughing. "If it happened today, I'd be a sensation. I'd be wanted by all studios for all pictures."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Later years :
Despite the shooting scandal and the damage it caused Bennett's career, she and Wanger remained married until 1965. She continued to work steadily on the stage and in television, including her guest role as Denise Mitchell in an episode of TV's Burke's Law (1965).
Bennett received star billing on the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows for its entire five-year run, 1966 to 1971, receiving an Emmy Award nomination in 1968 for her performance as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, mistress of the haunted Collinwood Mansion. Her other roles on Dark Shadows were Naomi Collins, Judith Collins Trask, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard PT (parallel time, as the show described its alternate reality), Flora Collins, and Flora Collins PT. In 1970, she appeared as Elizabeth in House of Dark Shadows, the feature film adaptation of the series. She declined to appear in the sequel Night of Dark Shadows however, and her character Elizabeth was mentioned as being recently deceased.
Her autobiography The Bennett Playbill, written with Lois Kibbee, was published in 1970.
Other TV guest appearances include Bennett's roles as Joan Darlene Delaney in an episode of The Governor & J.J. (1970) and as Edith in an episode of Love, American Style (1971). She starred in five made-for-TV movies between 1972 and 1982.
Bennett also appeared in one more feature film, as Madame Blanc in director Dario Argento's horror film Suspiria (1977), for which she received a 1978 Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Bennett and retired publisher/movie critic David Wilde were married on February 14, 1978, in White Plains, New York. Their marriage lasted until her death.
Celebrated for not taking herself too seriously, Bennett said in a 1986 interview, "I don't think much of most of the films I made, but being a movie star was something I liked very much."
Bennett has a motion pictures star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to the film industry. Her star is located at 6300 Hollywood Boulevard, a short distance from the star of her sister Constance.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
8. Death :
Bennett died of heart failure on Friday evening, December 7, 1990, at age 80 at her home in Scarsdale, New York.] She is interred in Pleasant View Cemetery, Lyme, Connecticut,[25] with her parents.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
9. Filmography :
Bennett appeared in a large number of movies and television productions, listed below in their entirety.
Film :
Year Title Role Notes
1916 The Valley of Decision unborn soul
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1923 The Eternal City Page uncredited
1928 Power a dame
1929 The Divine Lady extra uncredited
1929 Bulldog Drummond Phyllis Benton
1929 Three Live Ghosts Rose Gordon
1929 Disraeli Lady Clarissa Pevensey
1929 The Mississippi Gambler Lucy Blackburn
1930 Puttin' On the Ritz Delores Fenton
1930 Crazy That Way Ann Jordan
1930 Moby Dick Faith Mapple, his beloved
1930 Maybe It's Love (a.k.a. Eleven Men and a Girl) Nan Sheffield
1930 Scotland Yard Xandra, Lady Lasher
------------------------------------------------------------
1931 Many a Slip Pat Coster
1931 Hush Money Joan Gordon
1932 She Wanted a Millionaire Jane Miller
1932 Careless Lady Sally Brown
1932 The Trial of Vivienne Ware Vivienne Ware
1932 Week Ends Only Venetia Carr
1932 Wild Girl Salomy Jane
1932 Me and My Gal Helen Riley
1933 Arizona to Broadway Lynn Martin
1933 Little Women Amy March
1934 The Pursuit of Happiness Prudence Kirkland
1934 The Man Who Reclaimed His Head Adele Verin
1935 Private Worlds Sally MacGregor
1935 Two for Tonight Bobbie Lockwood
1935 The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo Helen Berkeley
1936 Big Brown Eyes Eve Fallon
1936 Thirteen Hours by Air Felice Rollins
1936 Two in a Crowd Julia Wayne
1936 Wedding Present Monica "Rusty" Fleming
1937 Vogues of 1938 Wendy Van Klettering
1938 I Met My Love Again Julie
1938 Artists and Models Abroad Patricia Harper
1938 Trade Winds Kay Kerrigan
1939 The Man in the Iron Mask Princess Maria Theresa
1939 The Housekeeper's Daughter Hilda
1940 Green Hell Stephanie Richardson
1940 The House Across the Bay Brenda Bentley
1940 The Man I Married Carol Hoffman
1940 The Son of Monte Cristo Grand Duchess Zona of Lichtenburg
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WATCH THE CLIP : https://youtu.be/naNaqOj-pJ4
1941 She Knew All the Answers Gloria Winters
1941 Man Hunt Jerry Stokes
1941 Wild Geese Calling Sally Murdock
1941 Confirm or Deny Jennifer Carson
1942 The Wife Takes a Flyer Anita Woverman
1942 Twin Beds Julie Abbott
1942 Girl Trouble June Delaney
1943 Margin for Error Sophia Baumer
1944 The Woman in the Window Alice Reed
1945 Nob Hill Harriet Carruthers
1945 Scarlet Street Katharine "Kitty" March
1946 Colonel Effingham's Raid Ella Sue Dozier
1947 The Macomber Affair Margaret Macomber
1948 Hollow Triumph (aka The Scar) Evelyn Hahn
1949 The Reckless Moment Lucia Harper
1950 Father of the Bride Ellie Banks
1950 For Heaven's Sake Lydia Bolton
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#1951 Father's Little Dividend Ellie Banks;;
1951 The Guy Who Came Back Kathy Joplin
1954 Highway Dragnet Mrs. Cummings
1955 We're No Angels Amelie Ducotel
1956 There's Always Tomorrow Marion Groves
1956 Navy Wife Peg Blain
1960 Desire in the Dust Mrs. Marquand
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#1970 House of Dark Shadows Elizabeth Collins Stoddard
1977 Suspiria Madame Blanc
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10. Television :
The Nash Airflyte Theater (1951) episode: Peggy
Your Show of Shows (1951) 1 episode
Danger (1951) episode: A Clear Case of Suicide
Somerset Maugham TV Theatre (1951) episode: Smith Serves
Somerset Maugham TV Theatre (1951) episode: The Dream
General Electric Theater (1954) episode: You Are Young Only Once, as Bettina Blane
The Best of Broadway (1954) episode: The Man Who Came to Dinner, as Lorraine Sheldon
Climax! (1955) episode: The Dark Fleece, as Honora
The Ford Television Theatre (1955) episode: Letters Marked Personal, as Marcia Manners
The Ford Television Theatre (1956) episode: Dear Diane, as Marion
Playhouse 90 (1957) episode: The Thundering Wave, as Vickie Maxwell
The DuPont Show of the Month (1957) episode: Junior Miss, as Grace Graves
Pursuit (1958) episode: Epitaph for a Golden Girl
Too Young to Go Steady (1959) (own series), as Mary Blake
Burke's Law (1965) episode: Who Killed Mr. Colby in Ladies' Lingerie?, as Denise Mitchell
Dark Shadows (1966–1971) (series regular, 386 episodes), as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard / Naomi Collins / Judith Collins / Flora Collins
The Governor & J.J. (1970) episode: Check the Check, as Joan Darlene Delaney
Love, American Style (1971) episode segment: Love and the Second Time, as Edith
Dr. Simon Locke (1972) episode: The Cortessa Rose, as Cortessa
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11. Made-for-TV movies :
Gidget Gets Married (1972), as Claire Ramsey
The Eyes of Charles Sand (1972), as Aunt Alexandra
Suddenly, Love (1978), as Mrs. Graham
This House Possessed (1981), as Rag Lady
Divorce Wars: A Love Story (1982), as Adele Burgess
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------'
12. As herself :
Screen Actors (1950) (uncredited)
The Colgate Comedy Hour (1951) 1 episode
What's My Line? (1951) 1 episode
The Ken Murray Show (1951) 1 episode
Ford Festival (1951)
Climax! (1956) episode: The Louella Parsons Story
To Tell the Truth (1958) 1 episode
The Mike Douglas Show (1964, 1967, 1970, 1970, 1977) 5 episodes
The Merv Griffin Show (1967) 1 episode
Personality (1968) 1 episode
The Hollywood Squares (1970) 1 episode
The Virginia Graham Show (1970) 1 episode
The Hollywood Greats (1977) 2 episodes: Humphrey Bogart; Spencer Tracy
The Guiding Light (1982) 1 episode
The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn (1986)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13. Short subject :
Screen Snapshots (1932)
Hollywood on Parade No. A-12 (1933)
The Fashion Side of Hollywood (1935)
Hollywood Party (1937)
Screen Snapshots Series 19, No. 9: Sports in Hollywood (1940)
Hedda Hopper's Hollywood, No. 6 (1942)
Screen Actors (1950) (uncredited)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14. Radio appearances :
Year Program Episode/source
1941 Philip Morris Playhouse Girl in the News
1946 Screen Guild Players Experiment Perilous
1947 Suspense "Overture in Two Keys"
THE END.
=======================================================================
Comments
Post a Comment