Constance Bennett
Encyclopedia
Early life
She 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 actor Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett (actor)
Richard Bennett was an American actor who became a stage and silent screen matinee idol over the early decades of the twentieth century.-Early Life:...
and actress Adrienne Morrison
Adrienne Morrison
Mabel Adrienne Morrison was a semi-successful stage actress of the early 20th century. She married actor Richard Bennett, with whom she had three daughters who later would become actresses. She was the daughter of actress and actor Lewis Morrison. She appeared as Nat-u-ritch, the Indian squaw, in...
, whose father was the stage actor Lewis Morrison (Morris W. Morris), a wealthy performer of English and Spanish ancestry. Constance's sister, actress Joan Bennett
Joan Bennett
Joan Geraldine Bennett was an American stage, film and television actress. Besides acting on the stage, Bennett appeared in more than 70 motion pictures from the era of silent movies well into the sound era...
, spoke of her famous acting family and their background in her autobiography "The Bennett Playbill." Constance's other sister was actress/dancer Barbara Bennett
Barbara Bennett
Barbara Jane Bennett was an American silent film actress.Born into an acting family, she was the daughter of actor Richard Bennett and actress Adrienne Morrison, whose father was the stage actor Lewis Morrison. Her sisters were actresses Constance and Joan Bennett.Bennett would never succeed to...
.
Career
She started off with a spell in a convent but decided to go into the family business. Independent, cultured, ironic and outspoken, Constance, the first Bennett sister to enter motion picturesFilm
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, appeared in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
-produced silent movies
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
before a meeting with Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn was an American film producer, and founding contributor executive of several motion picture studios.-Biography:...
led to her Hollywood debut in Cytherea
Cytherea (1924 film)
Cytherea is an American drama film which featured two dream sequences filmed in an early version of the Technicolor color film process.-Production background:...
(1924).
She abandoned a burgeoning career in silents for marriage to Philip Plant in 1925; She resumed her film career after divorce, with the advent of talking pictures (1929), and with her delicate blonde features and glamorous fashion style, quickly became a popular film star.
In 1931, a short-lived contract with Metro Goldwyn Mayer earned her $300,000 for two movies which included The Easiest Way
The Easiest Way
The Easiest Way is a 1931 American MGM drama film directed by Jack Conway. Adapted from the 1909 play of the same name by David Belasco, the film stars Constance Bennett, Adolphe Menjou, Robert Montgomery, Clark Gable, and Anita Page.-Plot:...
and made her one of the highest paid stars in Hollywood. The next year she moved to RKO, where she acted in What Price Hollywood?
What Price Hollywood?
What Price Hollywood? is a 1932 American drama film directed by George Cukor. The screenplay by Gene Fowler, Rowland Brown, Ben Markson, and Jane Murfin is based on a story by Adela Rogers St. Johns.-Plot:...
(1932), directed by George Cukor
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...
, an ironic and at the same time tragic behind-the-scenes looks at the old Hollywood studio system
Studio system
The studio system was a means of film production and distribution dominant in Hollywood from the early 1920s through the early 1960s. The term studio system refers to the practice of large motion picture studios producing movies primarily on their own filmmaking lots with creative personnel under...
, in which she gave her finest performance. In this movie she is a star-struck waitress, named Mary Evans, who manages to make a good impression on a prominent film director (played by Lowell Sherman
Lowell Sherman
Lowell Sherman was an American actor and film director....
); with his patronage she becomes a movie star. While the director has some serious alcohol problems, she marries a wealthy playboy (played by Neil Hamilton), who genuinely loves his wife but is jealous of the demands made on her by her career. He leaves her, but not before Mary has been impregnated. She begins to turn her attentions to her mentor, but it is too late: he kills himself in her bedroom. Hoping to heal her emotional wounds, Mary flees to Paris with her child, where she is reunited with her contrite husband.
Bennett next showed her versatility in the likes of Our Betters (1933), Bed of Roses
Bed of Roses (1933 film)
Bed of Roses is a Pre-Code comedy film featuring Constance Bennett and Pert Kelton as a pair of rollickingly wanton prostitutes who occasionally get hapless male pursuers drunk before robbing them, at least until the girls are caught and thrown back into jail...
(1933) with Pert Kelton
Pert Kelton
Pert Kelton was an American vaudeville, movie, radio and television actress. She was the first actress who played Alice Kramden in The Honeymooners with Jackie Gleason and was a prominent comedic supporting film actress in the 1930s...
, The Affairs of Cellini
The Affairs of Cellini
The Affairs of Cellini is a comedy film set in Florence over 400 years ago. This 1934 movie was adapted by Bess Meredyth from the play The Firebrand of Florence by Edwin Justus Mayer. It was directed by Gregory La Cava.-Plot:...
(1934), After Office Hours
After Office Hours
After Office Hours is a 1935 film starring Clark Gable and Constance Bennett and directed by Robert Z. Leonard.-Plot:Jim Branch , news editor, falls for Sharon Norwood while trying to uncover a murder mystery.-Cast:...
(1935) with Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
, the original Topper
Topper (film)
Topper is a 1937 American comedy film which tells the story of a stuffy, stuck-in-his-ways man who is haunted by the ghosts of a fun-loving married couple. It was adapted by Eric Hatch, Jack Jevne and Eddie Moran from the novel by Thorne Smith. The film was directed by Norman Z. McLeod, produced by...
(1937, in a career standout as Marian Kerby opposite Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
, a role she repeated in the 1939 sequel, Topper Takes a Trip
Topper Takes a Trip
Topper Takes a Trip is a 1938 film sequel of Topper . Constance Bennett, Roland Young, Billie Burke and Alan Mowbray reprised their roles from the earlier movie; only Cary Grant was missing . A ghost tries to reunite a couple who she had a hand in splitting up in the prior film...
), the ultimate madcap family comedy Merrily We Live
Merrily We Live
Merrily We Live is a 1938 comedy film directed by Norman Z. McLeod. It stars Constance Bennett and Brian Aherne and features Ann Dvorak, Bonita Granville, Billie Burke, Tom Brown, Alan Mowbray, Clarence Kolb and Patsy Kelly. The film was produced by Hal Roach for Hal Roach Studios, and was...
(1938) and Two-Faced Woman
Two-Faced Woman
Two-Faced Woman is a romantic comedy made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film stars Greta Garbo, in her final film role, and Melvyn Douglas, with Constance Bennett, Roland Young and Ruth Gordon...
(1941, supporting Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
).
By the 1940s, Bennett was working less frequently in film but was in demand in both radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
. Shrewd investments had made her a wealthy woman, and she founded a cosmetics and clothing company.
After World War II
She had a major supporting role in Warner Bros.'s The UnsuspectedThe Unsuspected
The Unsuspected is a film noir starring Claude Rains, Audrey Totter, and Joan Caulfield. The black-and-white film was directed by Michael Curtiz, based on the novel written by Charlotte Armstrong, and released by Warner Brothers.- Plot :...
(1947) opposite Claude Rains
Claude Rains
Claude Rains was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 66 years. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man , a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , Mr...
, in which she played the program director who helps prove that Rains is guilty of murder. She made no films from the early 1950s until 1965 when she made a comeback in the film Madame X
Madame X (1966 film)
Madame X is a 1966 drama film directed by David Lowell Rich and starring Lana Turner.-Plot:A lower class woman, Holly Parker , marries into the rich Anderson family. Her husband's mother looks down on her and keeps a watchful eye on her activities...
(released posthumously in 1966) playing Lana Turner
Lana Turner
Lana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...
's mother-in-law. Shortly after filming was completed, Bennett collapsed and died from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 60.
In recognition of her military contributions, and as the wife of Theron John Coulter, who had achieved the rank of brigadier general
Brigadier general (United States)
A brigadier general in the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, is a one-star general officer, with the pay grade of O-7. Brigadier general ranks above a colonel and below major general. Brigadier general is equivalent to the rank of rear admiral in the other uniformed...
, she was buried in Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...
. Coulter died in 1995 and was buried with her.
Bennett has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
for her contribution to motion pictures, at 6250 Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood Boulevard
-Revitalization:In recent years successful efforts have been made at cleaning up Hollywood Blvd., as the street had gained a reputation for crime and seediness. Central to these efforts was the construction of the Hollywood and Highland shopping center and adjacent Kodak Theatre in 2001...
, a short distance from the star of her sister, Joan
Joan Bennett
Joan Geraldine Bennett was an American stage, film and television actress. Besides acting on the stage, Bennett appeared in more than 70 motion pictures from the era of silent movies well into the sound era...
.
Personal life
Bennett was married five times.- In 1921 Bennett eloped with Chester Hirst Moorehead of Chicago, the son of a surgeon. The marriage was annulled in 1923.
- Bennett eloped with millionaire socialite Philip Morgan Plant (died 1941) in 1925; they divorced in 1929. In 1932, Bennett brought back from Europe a three-year-old child, whom she claimed to have adopted and named Peter Bennett Plant. In 1942, however, during a battle over a large trust fund established to benefit any descendants of her former husband, Bennett announced that her adopted son actually was her natural child by Plant, born after the divorce and kept hidden in order to ensure that the child's biological father did not get custody. During the court hearings, the actress told her former mother-in-law and her husband's widow that "if she got to the witness stand she would give a complete account of her life with Plant. The matter was settled out of court."
- She captured numerous headlines in 1931, when she married one of Gloria SwansonGloria SwansonGloria Swanson was an American actress, singer and producer. She was one of the most prominent stars during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille, made dozens of silents and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the...
's former husbands, Henri le Bailly, the Marquis de La Coudraye de La Falaise (1898–1972), a French nobleman and film director. Bennett and de la Falaise founded Bennett Pictures Corp. and co-produced two films which were the last filmed in Hollywood in the two-strip Technicolor process, Legong: Dance of the Virgins (1935) filmed in BaliBaliBali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east...
, and Kilou the Killer Tiger (1936), filmed in IndochinaIndochinaThe Indochinese peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly southwest of China, and east of India. The name has its origins in the French, Indochine, as a combination of the names of "China" and "India", and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory...
. They were divorced in 1940.
- In 1941, Bennett married the actor Gilbert RolandGilbert RolandGilbert Roland was a Mexican-born American film actor.He was born Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico and originally intended to become a bullfighter like his father. When the family moved to the United States, however, he became interested in acting when he was...
, by whom she had two daughters, Lorinda and Christina (a.k.a. Gyl). They were divorced in 1946.
- In June 1946, Bennett married US Air Force ColonelColonelColonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
(later Brigadier GeneralBrigadier general (United States)A brigadier general in the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, is a one-star general officer, with the pay grade of O-7. Brigadier general ranks above a colonel and below major general. Brigadier general is equivalent to the rank of rear admiral in the other uniformed...
) John Theron Coulter (1912–1995). After her marriage, she concentrated her efforts on providing relief entertainment to US troops still stationed in EuropeEuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, winning military honors for her services.
Filmography
- The Valley of Decision (1916)
- Reckless Youth (1922)
- Evidence (1922)
- What's Wrong with the Women?What's Wrong with the Women?What's Wrong with the Women? is a silent film Jazz Age drama, directed by Roy William Neill, produced by Daniel Carson Goodman, and starring Barbara Castleton and Constance Bennett....
(1922) - CythereaCytherea (1924 film)Cytherea is an American drama film which featured two dream sequences filmed in an early version of the Technicolor color film process.-Production background:...
(1924) - Into the NetInto the NetInto the Net is a 1924 film serial directed by George B. Seitz. The film is now considered to be lost.-Cast:* Edna Murphy - Natalie Van Cleef* Jack Mulhall - Bob Clayton* Constance Bennett - Madge Clayton* Bradley Barker - Bert Moore...
(1924) - Wandering Fires (1925)
- The Goose Hangs High (1925)
- Code of the West (1925)
- My Son (1925)
- My Wife and I (1925)
- The Goose WomanThe Goose WomanThe Goose Woman is a 1925 silent film drama directed by Clarence Brown and starring Louise Dresser with Jack Pickford as her son. The film was released by Universal Pictures...
(1925) - Sally, Irene and MarySally, Irene and MarySally, Irene, and Mary is a 1925 film starring Constance Bennett, Sally O'Neil, and Joan Crawford. The film takes a behind-the-scenes look at the romantic lives of three chorus girls and the way their preferences in men affect their lives....
(1925) - The Pinch Hitter (1925)
- Married? (1926)
- Rich People (1929)
- This Thing Called LoveThis Thing Called LoveThis Thing Called Love is a US romantic comedy film starring Edmund Lowe, Constance Bennett, Ruth Taylor, Roscoe Karns, Zazu Pitts, and Jean Harlow. Harlow appears in a cameo role, as she was not yet famous....
(1929) - Son of the GodsSon of the GodsSon of the Gods is a black-and-white romantic drama film with Technicolor sequences. It was adapted from the novel of the same name by Rex Beach...
(1930) - Three Faces East (1930)
- Common ClayCommon ClayCommon Clay is a 1930 film directed by Victor Fleming and starring Constance Bennett and Lew Ayres, based on the play of the same name by Cleves Kinkead. The film was about a young servant who is seduced by the master of the house but he won't have anything to do with her other than sex because of...
(1930) - Sin Takes a Holiday (1930)
- The Easiest WayThe Easiest WayThe Easiest Way is a 1931 American MGM drama film directed by Jack Conway. Adapted from the 1909 play of the same name by David Belasco, the film stars Constance Bennett, Adolphe Menjou, Robert Montgomery, Clark Gable, and Anita Page.-Plot:...
(1931) - Born to Love (1931)
- The Common Law (1931)
- Bought (1931)
- Screen Snapshots (1932) (short subject)
- Lady with a PastLady with a PastLady with a Past is a 1932 romantic comedy film starring Constance Bennett as a shy and very proper young lady who decides to invent a scandalous past for herself to spice up her life...
(1932) - What Price Hollywood?What Price Hollywood?What Price Hollywood? is a 1932 American drama film directed by George Cukor. The screenplay by Gene Fowler, Rowland Brown, Ben Markson, and Jane Murfin is based on a story by Adela Rogers St. Johns.-Plot:...
(1932) - Two Against the WorldTwo Against the World (1932 film)Two Against the World is a 1932 drama film starring Constance Bennett as a woman who tries her best to keep her sister and brother out of trouble...
(1932) - RockabyeRockabye (1932 film)Rockabye is a 1932 American drama film directed by George Cukor. The screenplay by Jane Murfin is based on a play by Lucia Bronder.-Plot:When stage actress Judy Carroll testifies on behalf of her former lover, accused embezzler Al Howard, she loses custody of Elizabeth, an orphan she had planned to...
(1932) - Our BettersOur BettersOur Betters is a 1933 American satirical comedy film directed by George Cukor. The screenplay by Jane Murfin and Harry Wagstaff Gribble is based on the 1923 play of the same title by W. Somerset Maugham.-Plot:...
(1933)
- Bed of RosesBed of Roses (1933 film)Bed of Roses is a Pre-Code comedy film featuring Constance Bennett and Pert Kelton as a pair of rollickingly wanton prostitutes who occasionally get hapless male pursuers drunk before robbing them, at least until the girls are caught and thrown back into jail...
(1933) - After TonightAfter TonightAfter Tonight is a 1933 World War I drama film starring Constance Bennett as a woman who falls in love with a captain, who is actually her enemy. They begin a romance, but when he finds out she is his enemy, he is forced to arrest her...
(1933) - Moulin Rouge (1934)
- The Affairs of CelliniThe Affairs of CelliniThe Affairs of Cellini is a comedy film set in Florence over 400 years ago. This 1934 movie was adapted by Bess Meredyth from the play The Firebrand of Florence by Edwin Justus Mayer. It was directed by Gregory La Cava.-Plot:...
(1934) - Outcast Lady (1934)
- After Office HoursAfter Office HoursAfter Office Hours is a 1935 film starring Clark Gable and Constance Bennett and directed by Robert Z. Leonard.-Plot:Jim Branch , news editor, falls for Sharon Norwood while trying to uncover a murder mystery.-Cast:...
(1935) - Starlit Days at the Lido (1935) (short subject)
- Everything Is Thunder (1936)
- Ladies in LoveLadies in LoveLadies in Love is a romantic comedy film directed by Edward H. Griffith. Starring Janet Gaynor, Constance Bennett and Loretta Young the film revolves around three roommates in exotic Budapest and their comical romantic adventures. Gaynor, Bennett, and Young were billed above the title, with...
(1936) - Daily Beauty Rituals (1937) (short subject)
- TopperTopper (film)Topper is a 1937 American comedy film which tells the story of a stuffy, stuck-in-his-ways man who is haunted by the ghosts of a fun-loving married couple. It was adapted by Eric Hatch, Jack Jevne and Eddie Moran from the novel by Thorne Smith. The film was directed by Norman Z. McLeod, produced by...
(1937) - Merrily We LiveMerrily We LiveMerrily We Live is a 1938 comedy film directed by Norman Z. McLeod. It stars Constance Bennett and Brian Aherne and features Ann Dvorak, Bonita Granville, Billie Burke, Tom Brown, Alan Mowbray, Clarence Kolb and Patsy Kelly. The film was produced by Hal Roach for Hal Roach Studios, and was...
(1938) - Service de Luxe (1938)
- Topper Takes a TripTopper Takes a TripTopper Takes a Trip is a 1938 film sequel of Topper . Constance Bennett, Roland Young, Billie Burke and Alan Mowbray reprised their roles from the earlier movie; only Cary Grant was missing . A ghost tries to reunite a couple who she had a hand in splitting up in the prior film...
(1938) - Tail Spin (1939)
- Escape to Glory (1940)
- Law of the Tropics (1941)
- Picture People No. 2: Hollywood Sports (1941) (short subject)
- Two-Faced WomanTwo-Faced WomanTwo-Faced Woman is a romantic comedy made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film stars Greta Garbo, in her final film role, and Melvyn Douglas, with Constance Bennett, Roland Young and Ruth Gordon...
(1941) - Wild Bill Hickok Rides (1942)
- Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 5 (1942) (short subject)
- Sin Town (1942)
- Madame Spy (1942)
- Paris Underground (1945)
- Madame Pimpernel (1945)
- Centennial SummerCentennial SummerCentennial Summer is a 1946 film directed by Otto Preminger. The musical, that stars Jeanne Crain and Cornel Wilde, is based on a novel by Albert E. Idell.It was produced in response to the hugely successful MGM musical Meet Me in St. Louis...
(1946) - The UnsuspectedThe UnsuspectedThe Unsuspected is a film noir starring Claude Rains, Audrey Totter, and Joan Caulfield. The black-and-white film was directed by Michael Curtiz, based on the novel written by Charlotte Armstrong, and released by Warner Brothers.- Plot :...
(1947) - Smart Woman (1948)
- Angel on the Amazon (1948)
- As Young As You Feel (1951)
- It Should Happen To YouIt Should Happen to YouIt Should Happen to You is a romantic comedy film starring Judy Holliday, notable as the first screen appearance of Jack Lemmon, who was then an aspiring young actor. The film was directed by George Cukor and filmed on location in New York City...
(1954) - Madame XMadame X (1966 film)Madame X is a 1966 drama film directed by David Lowell Rich and starring Lana Turner.-Plot:A lower class woman, Holly Parker , marries into the rich Anderson family. Her husband's mother looks down on her and keeps a watchful eye on her activities...
(1966)