Claudette Colbert

Claudette Colbert, formerly known as Émilie "Lily" Chauchoin, was a highly celebrated Hollywood actress. She was born on September 13, 1903, in Saint - Mandé, France. Colbert sought her schooling from Washington Irving High School. While in school, she was encouraged by her speech teacher to audition for a theatrical play and Colbert made her stage debut at the mere age of 15. But Colbert intended to pursue fashion designing as a career and thus attended the Art Students League of New York Click to look into! >> Read More... . Though fortunate turn of events led her first to appear on the Broadway stage in a small role in 1923. Colbert's forte was her speaking skills. Thus, in 1928, Paramount Pictures signed her while seeking stage actors who would manage to pick up dialogue delivery in the then new "talkies" medium of movies. In 1930, she received critical acclaim for her movie Manslaughter. She starred as the Roman empire Poppea in the historical epic The Sign of the Cross (1932). A scene of the movie was regarded as a paramount example of the decline in moral depravity of Hollywood movies before the legalisation of the Production Code. In the scene, as her character was shown taking a bath in asses’ milk, brief glimpses of her bare breasts were noticeable. In 1934, she played the title role of Cleopatra in the movie Cleopatra.

But, Colbert did not feel comfortable being exhibited as overtly sexual. Thus, she later did not accept any such roles. Colbert jubilantly won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in It Happened One Night (1934). Later, she also received a nomination for the Academy Award for her critically appreciated roles in Private Worlds (1935) and Since You Went Away (1944). Colbert’s dazzling career included her starring in more than sixty Hollywood movies. For the years 1938 and 1942, she is often regarded as Hollywood industry's biggest box-office star. Around the 1950s, Colbert retired from movies to work in theatre and television. In 1959, she received a Tony Award nomination for The Marriage-Go-Round. In 1980, she jubilantly received a Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre. She also has a Golden Globe Award to her name and an Emmy Award nomination for her work in the television series The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987).

Finally, to commemorate her successful acting career, the American Film Institute voted Colbert as the 12th Greatest Female star of classic Hollywood cinema, in 1999. Colbert, after a failed marriage to Norman Foster, married Joel Pressman, with whom, her marriage lasted for 33 years. Colbert took her last breaths in 1996 in Barbados, after a series of strokes in the last three years of her life. Her body was shipped to and cremated in New York. Her ashes were buried in the Godings Bay Church Cemetery in Barbados, along with that of her mother and second husband.