Barbara Bel Geddes
Encyclopedia
Barbara Bel Geddes was an American actress, artist
and children's author
. She is best known for her role in the television drama series Dallas
as matriarch Eleanor "Miss Ellie" Ewing. Bel Geddes also starred in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
in the role of Maggie. Her films included Alfred Hitchcock
's Vertigo
(1958) and I Remember Mama
(1948). She was the recipient of several awards and award nominations for her thespian performances.
, the daughter of Helen Belle (née Schneider) and stage and industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes
. She married theatrical manager Carl Sawyer (aka Carl Schreuer) in 1944; they had one daughter, Susan. They divorce
d in 1951. Later that year, she married stage director Windsor Lewis with whom she had a daughter, Betsy. When Lewis became ill in 1967, Bel Geddes suspended her career to care for him until his death in 1972.
, for "Outstanding Achievement in The Theatre". From 1951 to 1953, Bel Geddes starred in 924 performances of the Otto Preminger
smash hit comedy The Moon Is Blue
. In 1956, she created the role of Maggie "The Cat" in Elia Kazan
's original Broadway
production of Tennessee Williams
' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
, and in 1961 created the title role in the Jean Kerr
comedy
Mary, Mary
which became Broadway's longest-running show with over 1,500 performances. Both roles earned her Tony Award
nominations. Other highlights include John Steinbeck
's Burning Bright, Edward Albee
's Everything in the Garden
and Silent Night, Lonely Night with Henry Fonda
.
In 1952, she received the prestigious "Woman of the Year" Award from Harvard University
's Hasty Pudding Theatricals
, America's oldest theater company; In 1993, having appeared in fifteen Broadway productions, she was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame
(located in the Gershwin Theatre in New York City), a distinction she shared with her father, stage and industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes
.
in The Long Night
(1947), a remake of the 1939 French film Le Jour se lève
. "I went out to California awfully young," she remarked. "I remember Lillian Hellman
and Elia Kazan
telling me, 'Don't go, learn your craft.' But I loved films." The following year, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
for her performance in the George Stevens
classic film I Remember Mama
. In 1958, Alfred Hitchcock cast her with James Stewart
in Vertigo
as the long-suffering bohemian, Midge. Bel Geddes also starred with Danny Kaye
and Louis Armstrong
in the screen musical The Five Pennies
.
When a House Un-American Activities Committee
investigation stalled her film career for a short time, Bel Geddes found new opportunity in television when Alfred Hitchcock
cast her in four episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents
, including "Lamb to the Slaughter
", in which she played a housewife who killed her husband by bludgeoning him to death with a frozen leg of lamb, cooking the murder weapon, and then serving it to the investigating police. She appeared in series such as Playhouse 90
, CBS Playhouse, Dr. Kildare
and Death Valley Days
. In 1977, she starred in the highly-acclaimed production of the Thornton Wilder classic, Our Town
with Hal Holbrook.
. The role of the family matriarch, 'Miss Ellie' Ewing, brought her renewed international recognition. She appeared on the series from 1978 to 1990 (absent during the 1984–85 season) and remains the only cast member to win the Emmy Award (Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Drama Series
) and the Golden Globe (List of Golden Globe Awards: Television, Best Actress, Drama). In 1985 she also received Germany's Golden Camera Award.
Larry Hagman
, who played J.R. Ewing
, told the Associated Press
that "She was the rock of Dallas. She was just a really nice woman and a wonderful actress. She was kind of the glue that held the whole thing together." In a later interview for the website "Ultimate Dallas", Hagman said, "The reason I took the show, they said Barbara Bel Geddes is going to play your mother, and I said, 'Well, that's a touch of class, you know,' so of course I wanted to work with her."
In the early 1970s, Bel Geddes had undergone a radical mastectomy
, an experience she relived in the 1979–80 season of Dallas. The performance garnered her the Emmy Award. She was also honored by First Lady Betty Ford
for helping to raise breast cancer awareness.
In March 1983, Bel Geddes underwent quadruple by-pass heart surgery and subsequently missed a third of the 1983–84 season. The following year, still contending with compromised health, she found it necessary to step down from the role and was replaced with actress Donna Reed
for the 1984–85 season. However, with the rival show Dynasty
finally surpassing Dallas
in the ratings, the producers made efforts to stabilize the show's slow decline. With health improved, Bel Geddes was restored to the roll of Miss Ellie in time for the 1985–86 season where she remained through the series penultimate season.
, where she continued to work as a fine artist. She was the author of two children's books, I Like to Be Me and So Do I, as well as the creator of a popular line of greeting cards. Looking back on her career, Bel Geddes told People
: "They're always making me play well-bred ladies. I'm not very well bred, and I'm not much of a lady."
She died of lung cancer
in Northeast Harbor on August 8, 2005.
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
and children's author
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
. She is best known for her role in the television drama series Dallas
Dallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
as matriarch Eleanor "Miss Ellie" Ewing. Bel Geddes also starred in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a play by Tennessee Williams. One of Williams's best-known works and his personal favorite, the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955...
in the role of Maggie. Her films included Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
's Vertigo
Vertigo (film)
Vertigo is a 1958 psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A...
(1958) and I Remember Mama
I Remember Mama
I Remember Mama is a play by John Van Druten. Based on the fictionalized memoir Mama's Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes, it focuses on the Hanson family, a loving family of Norwegian immigrants living on Steiner Street in San Francisco in the 1910s.Produced by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein...
(1948). She was the recipient of several awards and award nominations for her thespian performances.
Personal life
Bel Geddes was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, the daughter of Helen Belle (née Schneider) and stage and industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes
Norman Bel Geddes
Norman Melancton Bel Geddes was an American theatrical and industrial designer who focused on aerodynamics....
. She married theatrical manager Carl Sawyer (aka Carl Schreuer) in 1944; they had one daughter, Susan. They divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
d in 1951. Later that year, she married stage director Windsor Lewis with whom she had a daughter, Betsy. When Lewis became ill in 1967, Bel Geddes suspended her career to care for him until his death in 1972.
Broadway Years
Bel Geddes came to prominence in the 1946 Broadway production of Deep Are The Roots. The performance garnered her the Clarence Derwent Award, and the Donaldson Award (forerunner of the Tony Awards) presented to her by Laurette TaylorLaurette Taylor
Laurette Taylor was an American stage and silent film actress.-Personal life:Laurette Taylor was born in New York City of Irish extraction as Loretta Helen Cooney.-Personal life:...
, for "Outstanding Achievement in The Theatre". From 1951 to 1953, Bel Geddes starred in 924 performances of the Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...
smash hit comedy The Moon Is Blue
The Moon Is Blue
The Moon Is Blue is a 1953 American comedy film produced and directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by F. Hugh Herbert, based on his 1951 play of the same title, focuses on a young woman who meets an architect on the observation deck of the Empire State Building and quickly turns his life...
. In 1956, she created the role of Maggie "The Cat" in Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan was an American director and actor, described by the New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". Born in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Greek parents originally from Kayseri in Anatolia, the family emigrated...
's original Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production of Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a play by Tennessee Williams. One of Williams's best-known works and his personal favorite, the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955...
, and in 1961 created the title role in the Jean Kerr
Jean Kerr
Jean Kerr was an American author and playwright born in Scranton, Pennsylvania and best known for her humorous bestseller, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, and the plays King of Hearts and Mary, Mary...
comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
Mary, Mary
Mary, Mary (play)
Mary, Mary is a play by Jean Kerr. The play became one of the longest-running productions of the decade. After two previews, the Broadway production opened on March 8, 1961 at the original Helen Hayes Theatre , where it ran for nearly three years and nine months before transferring to the Morosco...
which became Broadway's longest-running show with over 1,500 performances. Both roles earned her Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
nominations. Other highlights include John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
's Burning Bright, Edward Albee
Edward Albee
Edward Franklin Albee III is an American playwright who is best known for The Zoo Story , The Sandbox , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and a rewrite of the screenplay for the unsuccessful musical version of Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's . His works are considered well-crafted, often...
's Everything in the Garden
Everything In The Garden
Everything in the Garden is a play by Giles Cooper, first produced by The Royal Shakespeare Company on 13 March 1962 at the Arts Theatre, London....
and Silent Night, Lonely Night with Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
.
In 1952, she received the prestigious "Woman of the Year" Award from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
's Hasty Pudding Theatricals
Hasty Pudding Theatricals
The Hasty Pudding Theatricals, known informally simply as The Pudding, is a theatrical student society at Harvard University, known for its burlesque musicals and for its status as the oldest collegiate theatrical organization in the United States...
, America's oldest theater company; In 1993, having appeared in fifteen Broadway productions, she was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame
American Theatre Hall of Fame
The American Theatre Hall of Fame in New York City was founded in 1972. Earl Blackwell was the first head of the Executive Committee. In an announcement at a luncheon meeting on March 1972, he said that the new Theater Hall of Fame would be located in the Uris Theatre . James M...
(located in the Gershwin Theatre in New York City), a distinction she shared with her father, stage and industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes
Norman Bel Geddes
Norman Melancton Bel Geddes was an American theatrical and industrial designer who focused on aerodynamics....
.
Hollywood
Bel Geddes began her film career starring with Henry FondaHenry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
in The Long Night
The Long Night (1947 film)
The Long Night is a 1947 film noir directed by Anatole Litvak and produced by RKO. It is a remake of Le Jour se lève by Marcel Carné. The drama features Henry Fonda, Barbara Bel Geddes, Vincent Price, Ann Dvorak, and others.-Plot:...
(1947), a remake of the 1939 French film Le Jour se lève
Le Jour se lève
Le Jour se lève is a 1939 French film directed by Marcel Carné and written by Jacques Prévert, based on a story by Jacques Viot. It is considered one of the principal examples of the French film movement known as poetic realism....
. "I went out to California awfully young," she remarked. "I remember Lillian Hellman
Lillian Hellman
Lillian Florence "Lily" Hellman was an American playwright, linked throughout her life with many left-wing causes...
and Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan was an American director and actor, described by the New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". Born in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Greek parents originally from Kayseri in Anatolia, the family emigrated...
telling me, 'Don't go, learn your craft.' But I loved films." The following year, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
for her performance in the George Stevens
George Stevens
George Stevens was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer.Among his most notable films were Diary of Anne Frank , nominated for Best Director, Giant , winner of Oscar for Best Director, Shane , Oscar nominated, and A Place in the Sun , winner of Oscar for Best...
classic film I Remember Mama
I Remember Mama
I Remember Mama is a play by John Van Druten. Based on the fictionalized memoir Mama's Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes, it focuses on the Hanson family, a loving family of Norwegian immigrants living on Steiner Street in San Francisco in the 1910s.Produced by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein...
. In 1958, Alfred Hitchcock cast her with James Stewart
James Stewart
James Stewart was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart may also refer to:-Noblemen:*James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland*James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn James Stewart (1908–1997) was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart...
in Vertigo
Vertigo (film)
Vertigo is a 1958 psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A...
as the long-suffering bohemian, Midge. Bel Geddes also starred with Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye was a celebrated American actor, singer, dancer, and comedian...
and Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
in the screen musical The Five Pennies
The Five Pennies
The Five Pennies was a semi-biographical 1959 film starring Danny Kaye as cornet player and bandleader Red Nichols. Other cast members included Barbara Bel Geddes, Harry Guardino, Bob Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Susan Gordon, and Tuesday Weld...
.
When a House Un-American Activities Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...
investigation stalled her film career for a short time, Bel Geddes found new opportunity in television when Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
cast her in four episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
, including "Lamb to the Slaughter
Lamb to the Slaughter
"Lamb to the Slaughter" is a short story by Roald Dahl. It was initially rejected, along with four other stories, by The New Yorker, but was ultimately published in Harper's Magazine in September 1953. It was adapted for an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and starred Barbara Bel Geddes...
", in which she played a housewife who killed her husband by bludgeoning him to death with a frozen leg of lamb, cooking the murder weapon, and then serving it to the investigating police. She appeared in series such as Playhouse 90
Playhouse 90
Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology series that was telecast on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. It originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California...
, CBS Playhouse, Dr. Kildare
Dr. Kildare
Dr. James Kildare is a fictional character, the primary character in a series of American theatrical films in the late 1930s and early 1940s, an early 1950s radio series, a 1960s television series of the same name and a comic book based on the TV show, and a short-lived 1970s television series...
and Death Valley Days
Death Valley Days
Death Valley Days is an American radio and television anthology series featuring true stories of the old American West, particularly the Death Valley area. Created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman, the program was broadcast on radio until 1945. It continued from 1952 to 1975 as a syndicated television series...
. In 1977, she starred in the highly-acclaimed production of the Thornton Wilder classic, Our Town
Our Town
Our Town is a three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder. It is a character story about an average town's citizens in the early twentieth century as depicted through their everyday lives...
with Hal Holbrook.
Dallas
In 1978, Bel Geddes was the first performer contracted to star in DallasDallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
. The role of the family matriarch, 'Miss Ellie' Ewing, brought her renewed international recognition. She appeared on the series from 1978 to 1990 (absent during the 1984–85 season) and remains the only cast member to win the Emmy Award (Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Drama Series
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Drama Series
This is a list of winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – a Drama Series.-Superlatives:-1950s:*1952: Helen Hayes*1953: no award*1954: Loretta Young – The Loretta Young Show*1955: no award...
) and the Golden Globe (List of Golden Globe Awards: Television, Best Actress, Drama). In 1985 she also received Germany's Golden Camera Award.
Larry Hagman
Larry Hagman
Larry Martin Hagman is an American film and television actor, producer and director known for playing J.R. Ewing in the 1980s primetime television soap opera Dallas and Major Anthony "Tony" Nelson in the 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie.-Early life and career:Hagman was born in Fort Worth, Texas...
, who played J.R. Ewing
J.R. Ewing
John Ross Ewing, Jr., more commonly known as J. R. Ewing, played by Larry Hagman, was a central, nefarious figure on the hit CBS television series Dallas . J. R...
, told the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
that "She was the rock of Dallas. She was just a really nice woman and a wonderful actress. She was kind of the glue that held the whole thing together." In a later interview for the website "Ultimate Dallas", Hagman said, "The reason I took the show, they said Barbara Bel Geddes is going to play your mother, and I said, 'Well, that's a touch of class, you know,' so of course I wanted to work with her."
In the early 1970s, Bel Geddes had undergone a radical mastectomy
Mastectomy
Mastectomy is the medical term for the surgical removal of one or both breasts, partially or completely. Mastectomy is usually done to treat breast cancer; in some cases, women and some men believed to be at high risk of breast cancer have the operation prophylactically, that is, to prevent cancer...
, an experience she relived in the 1979–80 season of Dallas. The performance garnered her the Emmy Award. She was also honored by First Lady Betty Ford
Betty Ford
Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford , better known as Betty Ford, was First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977 during the presidency of her husband Gerald Ford...
for helping to raise breast cancer awareness.
In March 1983, Bel Geddes underwent quadruple by-pass heart surgery and subsequently missed a third of the 1983–84 season. The following year, still contending with compromised health, she found it necessary to step down from the role and was replaced with actress Donna Reed
Donna Reed
Donna Reed was an American film and television actress.With appearances in over 40 films, Reed received the 1953 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as the tramp Lorene in the war drama From Here to Eternity. She is also noted for her role in the perennial Christmas...
for the 1984–85 season. However, with the rival show Dynasty
Dynasty (TV series)
Dynasty is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 12, 1981 to May 11, 1989. It was created by Richard & Esther Shapiro and produced by Aaron Spelling, and revolved around the Carringtons, a wealthy oil family living in Denver, Colorado...
finally surpassing Dallas
Dallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
in the ratings, the producers made efforts to stabilize the show's slow decline. With health improved, Bel Geddes was restored to the roll of Miss Ellie in time for the 1985–86 season where she remained through the series penultimate season.
Life after Dallas
Bel Geddes retired from acting in 1990 and settled in her home in Northeast Harbor, MaineNortheast Harbor, Maine
Northeast Harbor is a village on Mount Desert Island, located in the town of Mount Desert in Hancock County, Maine, United States. The village has a significant summer population, and has long been a quiet enclave of the rich and famous. Summer residents include the Rockefeller family, as well as...
, where she continued to work as a fine artist. She was the author of two children's books, I Like to Be Me and So Do I, as well as the creator of a popular line of greeting cards. Looking back on her career, Bel Geddes told People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
: "They're always making me play well-bred ladies. I'm not very well bred, and I'm not much of a lady."
She died of lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
in Northeast Harbor on August 8, 2005.
Broadway credits
- Out of the Frying Pan 1941
- Little Darling 1942
- Nine Girls 1943
- Mrs. January and Mr. X 1944
- Deep Are the Roots 1946
- Burning BrightBurning BrightBurning Bright is a 1950 novella by John Steinbeck written as an experiment with producing a play in novel format. Rather than providing only the dialogue and brief stage directions as would be expected in a play, Steinbeck fleshes out the scenes with details of both the characters and the...
1950 - The Moon Is BlueThe Moon Is BlueThe Moon Is Blue is a 1953 American comedy film produced and directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by F. Hugh Herbert, based on his 1951 play of the same title, focuses on a young woman who meets an architect on the observation deck of the Empire State Building and quickly turns his life...
1951 - The Living Room 1954
- Cat on a Hot Tin RoofCat on a Hot Tin RoofCat on a Hot Tin Roof is a play by Tennessee Williams. One of Williams's best-known works and his personal favorite, the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955...
1956 - The Sleeping Prince 1956
- Silent Night, Lonely Night 1959
- Mary, MaryMary, Mary (play)Mary, Mary is a play by Jean Kerr. The play became one of the longest-running productions of the decade. After two previews, the Broadway production opened on March 8, 1961 at the original Helen Hayes Theatre , where it ran for nearly three years and nine months before transferring to the Morosco...
1961 - Luv 1964
- Everything in the GardenEverything In The GardenEverything in the Garden is a play by Giles Cooper, first produced by The Royal Shakespeare Company on 13 March 1962 at the Arts Theatre, London....
1967 - Finishing Touches 1973
Filmography
- The Long NightThe Long Night (1947 film)The Long Night is a 1947 film noir directed by Anatole Litvak and produced by RKO. It is a remake of Le Jour se lève by Marcel Carné. The drama features Henry Fonda, Barbara Bel Geddes, Vincent Price, Ann Dvorak, and others.-Plot:...
(1947) - I Remember MamaI Remember MamaI Remember Mama is a play by John Van Druten. Based on the fictionalized memoir Mama's Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes, it focuses on the Hanson family, a loving family of Norwegian immigrants living on Steiner Street in San Francisco in the 1910s.Produced by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein...
(1948) - Blood on the MoonBlood on the MoonBlood on the Moon is an RKO black-and-white "psychological" western directed by Robert Wise with cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca. The film, starring Robert Mitchum, Barbara Bel Geddes, and Robert Preston has many film noir elements. It was shot in California and some of the more scenic shots...
(1948) - Caught (1949)
- Panic in the StreetsPanic in the Streets (film)Panic in the Streets is a 1950 film noir directed by Elia Kazan. It was shot exclusively on location in New Orleans, Louisiana and features numerous New Orleans citizens in speaking and non-speaking roles....
(1950) - Fourteen HoursFourteen HoursFourteen Hours is a 1951 drama film directed by Henry Hathaway, which tells the story of a New York police officer trying to stop a despondent man from jumping to his death from the fifteenth floor of a hotel....
(1951) - VertigoVertigo (film)Vertigo is a 1958 psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes. The screenplay was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A...
(1958) - Five Branded Women (1959)
- The Five PenniesThe Five PenniesThe Five Pennies was a semi-biographical 1959 film starring Danny Kaye as cornet player and bandleader Red Nichols. Other cast members included Barbara Bel Geddes, Harry Guardino, Bob Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Susan Gordon, and Tuesday Weld...
(1959) - By Love PossessedBy Love Possessed (film)By Love Possessed is a 1961 drama film distributed by United Artists. The movie was directed by John Sturges, and written by Charles Schnee, based on the novel by James Gould Cozzens...
(1961) - SummertreeSummertreeSummertree is a 1971 film directed by Anthony Newley. The screenplay was written by Edward Hume and Stephen Yafa, based on the 1967 play of the same name by Ron Cowen.-Plot:...
(1971) - The Todd Killings (1971)
Further reading
- Barbara Bel Geddes: I Like to Be Me, Viking Juvenile (1963) – ISBN 0-67039-059-3
- Barbara Bel Geddes: So Do I, Price Stern Sloan Pub (1973) – ISBN 0-44803-420-4