Gloria Grahame

‘You go through in life with series of peak and valleys’ said Gloria Grahame which describes her life very well. Born in Los Angeles, California on 28 November 1923 to Reginald Michael Bloxam Hallward, her father and Jeanne McDougall, her mother. Her father was an architect but she got the genes of acting from her mother who was British stage actress and an acting teacher. She went to Hollywood high school.

Gloria was recognized by Louis B. Mayer during Broadway plays who offered her a contract with MGM studios. Debuting her career with Blonde fever in 1944 she was recognized for charming and sexy looks. Her first public recognition came after doing the film It’s a Wonderful Life released in 1946 with the character named Violet Bick and role played by her can make today’s sexually jaded art film audience flinch.

MGM sold her contract to RKO in 1947 often cast in Hollywood crime drama movies. She worked in Crossfire (1947) for which she was nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting actress, Song of the Man(1947), A Woman’s Secret (1949), Roughshod (1949) and In a Lonely Place (1950) before leaving RKO studios.

In 1950’s she saw the most glorious time of her life. She said: ‘I remember everything, even the dates. But I don't want others to remember the details, just the image’ and with her upcoming films she proved what she said. Her entrance on-screen generally accompanied by flipping her hair, hot jazz, extending those toned legs and pout face makes her irresistible image unforgettable. In 1952 she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in MGM’s The Bad and The Beautiful. Macao and Sudden Fear both in 1952, earned her more popularity and epic musical Oklahoma! In 1955 made her reach new heights of success. Her gaudy looks very well complemented her fancy name.

Her personal life was filled with ups and downs. She married to actor Stanley Clements in 1945 but soon divorced him in 1945 after which she married Nicholas Ray. Not going so well with Ray too she divorced him in 1952 and decided to marry writer and television producer CyHoward in 1954. Grahame filed divorced against him in 1957 for mental cruelty. Grahame finally married actor Anthony Ray, the son of her second husband and his first wife. The marriage was not so well received, scandalized the image of Grahame and put her career in jeopardy. Her career received a fall after this.

In 1959, she made an appearance in Odds Against Tomorrow in 1959 before filming her last movie Ride Beyond Vengeance in 1966. She tried to come back with Melvin and Howard in 1980 and The Nesting in 1981 but could not make an impact now.

In 1974, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Although it was treated with continuous treatment within a year but it returned in 1980 and this time she refused to seek radiation treatment. She continued with some stage production. In 1981, she went treatment to remove fluids from her abdomen due to which she developed peritonitis undergoing wrong treatment and after that there was no coming back.

Quoting her words ‘There's always a race against time. I don't think for one moment that life gets better. How can it? One's body starts to fall apart’. Her body also started falling apart and she died on October 5, 1981 at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City at the age of 57.