Shirley Booth

Shirley Booth was born on August 30,1898.She started her career in 1925 as a Broadway actress. Her prominent roles were Lola Delaney from Come Back, Little Sheba. She also bagged the Tony Award for this role. She recreated her same role into her debutant movie and went on winning the Academy Award as well as the Golden Globe Award for the role. She was a successful actress, but her love for the stage was deeper than anything else. May be this was the reason that she made it to only four movies while a countless number of plays.

She portrayed the lead role in sitcom Hazel from 1961 to 1966. This character earned her two Primetime Emmy Awards. Audiences saw and appreciated her in The Glass Menagerie. She was last spotted in the special animated movie The Year Without A Santa Claus as Mrs Claus in the year 1974.

She was born in New York City but, later, on she moved to Brooklyn. She did her schooling from a Public school. Her parents were Virginia M Ford and Albert James. She had a younger sister to her named Jean. At a very young age of seven, her passion for acting could be witnessed. When she was a teenager, her family shifted to Hartford. Here, she got involved with Summer stock. People saw her first time in Mother Carey's Chickens. After this, she put a halt to her education and left for New York City to build her career.

Booth made it to NBC comedy series Hazel. The show was based on Saturday Evening Post of Ted Key. The series was hilarious, and audiences enjoyed it a lot. Her role in the series is still eminent. She portrayed the character of domineering and funny housemaid so lively that people still spell praises for the role. After the cancellation of this comedy series Booth did The Glass Menagerie.

In 1929, she got married to Ed Gardner. He was famous as the host as well as the creator of Duffy's Tavern, a series on Radio. They got separated in 1942. The next year, she married William H Baker. He was United States Army personnel. They continued to be together through thick and thin until William’s death. Both never had children.

After her husband’s death, she was alone, and she decided to shift to Massachusetts.IThe neighbours  say that she was accompanied with her pets . She engaged herself in needlework and painting during this time, but she remained in contact with her friends through telephone. In 1979, she was felicitated as the American Theater Hall of fame. But because of her weak health, she could not attend the ceremony.1980’s was the period of her weak health. A stroke caused her eye impairment and hindered her mobility. While she could not cope up with her declining health, she died in the year 1992.

Another version of the bio...

Shirley Booth was born to Albert James Ford and Virginia M. in New York City. Her birth name was Marjory Ford. Her childhood was spent in Flatbush, Brooklyn with her parents and a younger sister. She attended the Public School 152 in Brooklyn. Her love for acting began when her family moved to Philadelphia when she was just seven years old. She was introduced to stage performances there. When she was 12, she joined the Hartford Stock Company. She performed plays, did road tours, etc. for the next six years in the stock company. When her father protested against her acting, she dropped out of school, left her father’s last name out of her full name and eventually changed it to Shirley Booth.

Her parents got divorced when she was a teenager and she did not maintain any contact with him since he caused a lot of pain to her and her mother while they were together. Through all the problems, her prime focus remained on acting. She got introduced to the world of Broadway in 1925 when she starred in Hell’s Bells which was a play in which she acted opposite Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart, or Humphrey Bogart, was >> Read More... . She gained a lot of popularity in comedies, dramas and even musicals between the 1930s and 1940s. She was highly appreciated for her character when she starred in a popular radio series as Miss Duffy on Duffy’s Tavern.

The series went on for a few years. In 1952, she became the first actress to win two awards for a single role - an Oscar and an award at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in Come Back, Little Sheba, the play that turned into a movie. She became the 4th performer to get the Triple Crown of Acting (with an Oscar, three Tony Awards and two Emmy Awards), making her one of the 14 actresses to have won the Triple Crown. Even after winning the Oscar, her heart and soul still belonged to Broadway and she only made four movies in her career. She married Ed Garner in 1929 but the marriage was difficult since Ed was a drinker and a womanizer.

She divorced him in the 1940s and married William H. Baker soon after. Her marriage with him was a happy one until Baker died suddenly of a heart ailment. Although her contribution to the film industry was a major one, it wasn’t until 2001 that she had a biography written in her respect. Her contribution is highly acknowledged as she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6840 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood.