Evelyn Keyes-Actress (Hollywood Classic Era)

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Monday 09, February 2026, 20:30.

Keyes c. 1940s

About:

Born- Evelyn Louise Keyes, November 20, 1916 Port Arthur, Texas, U.S.

Died- July 4, 2008 (aged 91), Montecito, California, U.S.

Occupation Actress

Years active 1938–1993

Spouses:

1.Barton Bainbridge - (m. 1938; died 1940)​

2.Charles Vidor- (m. 1944; div. 1945)​

3.John Huston-(m. 1946; div. 1950)​

4.Artie Shaw-(m. 1957; div. 1985)​

5.Partner: Michael Todd (1953–1956)

Introduction: 

Evelyn Louise Keyes (November 20, 1916 – July 4, 2008) was an American film actress. She is best known for her role as Suellen O'Hara in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind.

Early life:

Evelyn Keyes was born in Port Arthur, Texas, to Omar Dow Keyes and Maude Ollive Keyes, the daughter of a Methodist minister. After Omar Keyes died when she was three years old, Keyes moved with her mother to Atlanta, Georgia, where they lived with her grandparents. According to her memoir, Keyes was sexually molested by one of her brother's friends when she was five years old. As a teenager, Keyes took dancing lessons and performed for local clubs such as the Daughters of the Confederacy.

Film career:

Pin-up photo of Keyes for Yank, the Army Weekly in 1944

A chorus girl by age 18, Keyes came out to Hollywood and was introduced to Cecil B. DeMille who in her own words "signed me to a personal contract without even making a test". After a handful of B movies at Paramount Pictures, she was cast in Say It in French (1938). However, Keyes had to drop out to have an abortion and was replaced by Olympe Bradna. Later, she auditioned for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). Though she failed to get the part, Selznick was impressed by her Southern accent and cast her as Scarlett O'Hara's sister Suellen in January 1939.

Columbia Pictures signed her to a contract. In 1941, she played an ingenue in Here Comes Mr. Jordan. She spent most of the early 1940s playing leads in many of Columbia's B dramas and mysteries. She appeared as the female lead opposite Larry Parks in Columbia's blockbuster hit The Jolson Story (1946). She followed this up with an enjoyable minor screwball comedy, The Mating of Millie, with Glenn Ford. She was then in a 1949 role as Kathy Flannigan in Mrs. Mike.

While under contract at Columbia, Keyes had long complained about the lack of challenging roles offered to her. When Sam Spiegel had bought the story for the film noir thriller The Prowler, John Huston (Spiegel's partner at Horizon Pictures) thought it would be the perfect project for Keyes, his then estranged wife, who went on to star in the 1951 movie alongside Van Heflin. Keyes felt it to be the best role and performance of her career. Keyes' last role in a major film was a small part as Tom Ewell's vacationing wife in The Seven Year Itch (1955). Keyes officially retired in 1956 but continued to act.

Personal life:

In her autobiography Scarlett O'Hara's Younger Sister: My Lively Life In and Out of Hollywood, Keyes described being sexually harassed by her director Andrew Stone while working on Say It in French. She soon found out she was pregnant (presumably by her boyfriend Barton Bainbridge), and had an abortion before filming of Say It in French resumed. She wasn't at her best on set, and Stone humiliated her for her poor work. She was fired from the picture, replaced by Olympe Branda.

Only weeks later, she was cast in Gone with the Wind. She married Barton Bainbridge shortly after. Bainbridge was an alcoholic, and threatened Keyes with a gun on at least one occasion. They separated and in 1940, he committed suicide with a shotgun in her car, leaving a note. Keyes wrote: "The note said it was because I had left him. I never left a man again. I made them leave me."

Later, she married and divorced director Charles Vidor (1943–1945), actor/director John Huston (23 July 1946 – February 1950), and bandleader Artie Shaw (1957–1985). Keyes said of her many love affairs: "I always took up with the man of the moment and there were many such moments." During her marriage to Huston, the couple adopted a twelve-year-old Mexican child, Pablo, whom Huston had discovered while filming on location in Mexico for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. In her memoir, Keyes claimed that her adoptive son sexually molested her and that they lost contact after only a few years.

Keyes expressed her opinion that Mrs. Mike was her best film. Among her many love affairs in Hollywood she recounted in Scarlett O'Hara's Younger Sister, were those with film producer Michael Todd (who left Evelyn for Elizabeth Taylor), actors Glenn Ford, Sterling Hayden, Dick Powell, Anthony Quinn, David Niven and Kirk Douglas. She had to regularly fend off Columbia Pictures studio head Harry Cohn's advances during her career at the studio.

Keyes died of uterine cancer on July 4, 2008, at the Pepper Estates in Montecito, California, and was cremated. Half her ashes were sent to Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas and the rest were divided among relatives and buried in a family plot at Waco Baptist Church Cemetery, Waco, Georgia, with a small tombstone bearing the epitaph Gone with the Wind.

Died July 4, 2008 (aged 91)

Filmography:

Evelyn Keyes in The Seven Year Itch (1955) Excluding appearances as herself.

Film

Year Title Role Notes

1938 The Buccaneer Madeleine

Sons of the Legion Linda Lee

1939 Sudden Money Mary Patterson

Union Pacific Mrs. Calvin

Gone with the Wind Suellen O'Hara

Slightly Honorable Miss Vlissigen

1940 The Lady in Question Francois Morestan

Before I Hang Martha Garth

Beyond the Sacramento Lynn Perry

1941 The Face Behind the Mask Helen Williams

Here Comes Mr. Jordan Bette Logan

Ladies in Retirement Lucy

1942 The Adventures of Martin Eden Ruth Morley

Flight Lieutenant Susie Thompson

1943 The Desperadoes Allison McLeod

Dangerous Blondes Jane Craig

There's Something About a Soldier Carol Harkness

1944 Nine Girls Mary O'Ryan

Strange Affair Jacqueline 'Jack' Harrison

1945 A Thousand and One Nights Babs

1946 Renegades Hannah Brockway

The Thrill of Brazil Vicki Dean

The Jolson Story Julie Benson

1947 Johnny O'Clock Nancy Hobson

1948 The Mating of Millie Millie McGonigle

Enchantment Grizel Dane

1949 Mr. Soft Touch Jenny Jones

Mrs. Mike Kathy O'Fallon Flannigan

1950 The Killer That Stalked New York Sheila Bennet

1951 Smuggler's Island Vivian Craig

The Prowler Susan Gilvray

Iron Man Rose Warren Mason

1952 One Big Affair Jean Harper

It Happened in Paris Patricia Moran

1953 Rough Shoot Cecily Paine

99 River Street Linda James

1954 Hell's Half Acre Donna Williams

1955 Top of the World Virgie Rayne

The Seven Year Itch Helen Sherman

1956 Around the World in 80 Days Cameo appearance

1987 A Return to Salem's Lot Mrs. Axel

1989 Wicked Stepmother Witch Instructor

Television:

Year Title Role Notes

1951 Lux Video Theatre Jane Episode: "Wild Geese"

1955 Climax! Drusilla Cayley Episode: "Wild Stallion"

1968 Playhouse Mrs. Panzack Episode: "A Matter of Diamonds"

1968 The Ugliest Girl in Town Mrs. Blair Episode: "Visitors from a Strange Planet"

1971 From a Bird's Eye View Mrs. Beal Episode: "The Matchmakers"

1983 The Love Boat Mrs. Parker Episode: "Bricker's Boy/Lotions of Love/The Hustlers"

1985, 1987, 1993 Murder, She Wrote Edna, Sister Emily, Wanda Polaski Episodes: "Sticks & Stones", "Old Habits Die Hard", "Dead to Rights"

1986 Amazing Stories Evelyn Chumsky Episode: "Boo!"

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