I thought my first encounter with screen siren Gloria Grahame was in the movie The Bad & The Beautiful, Vincente Minnelli's inside view of Hollywood circa 1952. In it she plays southern belle/flirt/wife of Dick Powell. The role is not really typical Gloria Grahame for generally in the movies { and in life? } she was the bad girl par excellence. In B & B, Gloria is a coquette, not really bad. No, I was wrong. I first saw her, without knowing anything of her or her filmography, in 1946's It's A Wonderful Life. Not knowing what I had stumbled upon { the film was about half way in }, It's A Wonderful Life and George Bailey's story captured my imagination from that first accidental viewing long ago. I thought Donna Reed was a babe, but that Gloria Grahame was the kinda doll I couldn't take home to momma and I wouldn't want to, but I would want to take her to bed. Even, or especially, in that film's environment, there was something lethal about her attitude, strut, and the way she was ready to go with George on a wild ride, but wasn't ready to go up to the falls and watch the sun rise. Not her idea of a scandal, probably because it wouldn't be scandalous or, to be more specific, sleazy enough. By the time. Because Gloria Grahame knew all about sleaze.
With hubby number two, Nicholas Ray.
Born in 1924, Gloria Grahame began her film career in 1944 at MGM. Even with her success with Wonderful Life, Metro didn't see much potential in her and sold her contract to RKO in 1947. What at the time must have seemed to be a setback to her became one of the most important moves of her life and career, for RKO was the home of film noir with talents like stars Robert Mitchum, Dick Powell, Robert Ryan and up and coming directors like Edward Dmytryk and Nicholas Ray. Ray, who would become her second husband, would make two films with her. 1949's A Woman's Secret and 1950's noir classic In A Lonely Place. Gloria would gain prominence and her first Oscar nomination for Dmytryk's classic noir Crossfire made in 1947 at her new studio. While making A Woman's Secret Nick Ray and Grahame, who had both been married before { Ray had a son from wife number one }, had a whirlwind romance and were wed about six weeks into the filming. They had a son born in November 1948. By the time they started Lonely Place in late 1949, Ray and Grahame's marriage was on the brink of collapse, due in no small part to Gloria's teasing and pushing Ray's jealousy button's. Patrick McGilligan's biography on Ray, sites how " many of those who knew Grahame considered her a nymphomaniac who lusted after multiple sex partners." According to actress Jeff Donnell, Grahame expected Ray to be " possessive and temperamental, and when he wasn't she would create situations to make that happen." McGilligan's book goes on to say "at one point in their relationship Gloria pulled a gun out of her handbag and ordered him to fuck or die." The couple separated for a time, reconciled, only to divorce in 1952 after Nick Ray caught Gloria in bed with his 13 year old son, Anthony, shortly after her turn in C.B. DeMille's circus epic, 1952's Best Picture Oscar winner The Greatest Show On Earth.
Gloria, no doubt leaving town on a rail, in Fritz Lang's Human Desire.
At the time of this scandal, which was generally known in Hollywood but discussed only in hushed terms, Gloria's career was riding the crest of a huge wave. In 1952 alone her credits included not only the DeMille and Minnelli films, but also the Joan Crawford thriller Sudden Fear and a small bit in Josef Von Sternberg's farewell to Hollywood filmmaking Macao opposite Jane Russell and noir icon { and former brother-in-law }, Robert Mitchum. Gloria nabbed the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Bad & The Beautiful, but the award was something of a career win for her stellar work that year.
1953, 1954 and 1955 would bring even more outstanding turns in such films as Elia Kazan's Man On A Tightrope as Fredric March's slutty wife; getting a coffee pot full of experience from Lee Marvin in Fritz Lang's crime classic The Big Heat and Lang's 1954 noir on infidelity Human Desire; Naked Alibi, playing a bar singer; back to Minnelli-land for the The Cobweb as shrink Richard Widmark's meddling wife; lost among the many stars in Stanley Kramer's maiden directing effort, the dismal, yet popular Not As A Stranger; and as Ado Annie in Fred Zinnemann's uneven adaptation of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma!
After this slew of A-status films and performances, Grahame's film career took a dive. She would appear in only four more films over the next fifteen years, the best of the bunch being a return to noir with Odds Against Tomorrow for director Robert Wise in 1959. Over the years Grahame, besides addicted to sex, was obsessed with her looks, particularly her lips, which she would have surgery after surgery on to help achieve just the right pouty look she wanted to express. Grahame would have so many of these operations, mainly to her upper lip, that according to Wikipedia it left her mouth partially immobile and made speech difficult at times. After leaving Nicholas Ray, Grahame would marry two more times, in 1954 to Cy Howard which ended in divorce in 1957 and in 1960 to Anthony Ray, so in a way she kind of married her son. They were to have two sons before divorcing in 1974.
Great poster art for the Minnelli melo about the doctors, patients and significant others of a mental institution.
In the 1970's Grahame began working in film and television with more frequency, though mostly in low-budget affairs. One of the more high profile parts for Gloria was the mini-series Rich Man, Poor Man and the Howard Hughes-Melvin Dumar comedy Melvin & Howard directed with a deft hand by Jonathan Demme. While working in England in 1981, Grahame under went surgery for fluid that had developed in her abdomen. During the procedure the doctor accidentally punctured her bowel and she came down with peritonitis and died on October 5, 1981, age 57.
Gloria and her gun.
Gloria Grahame's life was without a doubt a bumpy ride, but with the rediscovery of film noir and the various websites and film festivals around the world, Gloria and here siren-sisters of the silver screen like Marie Windsor, Audrey Totter and Lizbeth Scott { to name just a few } have been rediscovered by millions of new fans and their work will continue to live on movie screens, big and small, of cineaste's the world over.
Sources : Media : Wikipedia page on Gloria Grahame
Turner Classic Movies
Books : Nicholas Ray : The Glorious Failure of an American Director by Patrick McGilligan
Enjoyed your post. Wow, she was a piece of work... Her life off screen was just a dramatic as on screen. Great read!
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