Ruth Chatterton
Ruth Chatterton ( born December 24, in either 1893 or 1892 in New York City, New York, United States, † November 24, 1961 in Norwalk, Connecticut, United States) was an American actress, writer of plays and novels and pilot. She was the biggest female star of the Paramount during the early 1930s.
Life
Ruth Chatterton was the daughter of a respected and successful architect. She made her stage debut at the age of twelve, had her first engagement on Broadway at 18 and two years later was through participation in Daddy Long Legs to a star of the stage.
Despite several offers She made her first film, and the only silent film, Sins of the Fathers on the side of Emil Jannings until 1928. With the advent of the talkies its clear pronunciation quickly became popular, and it was 1929 's biggest star of the studio by the film of the stage classic Madame X, in which Lionel Barrymore directed. It was loaned to MGM for it and was nominated for one of the first Oscars. The great success of the film brought Chatterton the title First Lady of the talkies a. The studio she sat in the aftermath often as easygoing lady with dubious background in melodramatic love stories or as elegant members of high society in comedies such as The Laughing Lady or Charming Sinners, both in 1929, a. Your biggest financial success they had in 1930 with Sarah and Son, which she showed as an Austrian singer who has to give up her illegitimate son and in the end will be happy. The critics praised its ability to modulate the heavy accent of the beginning of the course of action subtle. Given the still inadequate recording technology that was a significant achievement that earned her her second Oscar nomination. The Right to Love from the same year presented Chatterton in a dual role as a rigid missionary and their restless daughter.
End of 1931, Chatterton, whose position has been compromised as biggest star of the studio by Marlene Dietrich, let poach for a total salary of 675,000 dollars for six films Warner Brothers. The contract ran for two years and Chatterton received $ 35,000 immediately and the rest in order to gain tax advantages, spread over 80 weekly installments of U.S. $ 8,000. Chatterton had stipulated say in all scenarios as well as in the choice of occupation and the director. The first film she turned in 1932, was an elegant comedy, The Rich Are Always with Us, in which the young Bette Davis had a minor role. Davis later wrote in her autobiography that she had the Chatterton before the first scene together confessed: I have so damn afraid of you, I am speechless. The two actresses came after well together. However, the hoped-for career boost was made for Ruth Chatteron and the quality of the scripts had gradually. She turned the last movie Journal of a Crime at Warners in 1934 and left the studio in the dispute, after they had refused to act as a prostitute in Mandalay. After two cheaply produced films at Columbia and 20th Century Fox seemed to have ended her career in film as Samuel Goldwyn 1936 offered her the role of the aging wife of Walter Huston in time of love, time to say goodbye, directed by William Wyler. Dissatisfied with the role offers, which they afterwards received in the U.S., including the lead role in Stella Dallas, Ruth Chatterton went to England in 1937, where she made two films and occasional roles assumed at the theater. In 1939 she came back to the U.S. and then concentrated on her stage career. Numerous performances in the theater floor and touring theater occupied the actress until the late 1950s.
In the years Ruth Chatterton graduated sporadic appearances on television, including in 1953 alongside Maurice Evans in the first television production of Hamlet. She has published five novels from 1950. Her debut novel Homeward Bound dealt with anti-Semitism and made it to the bestseller list of the New York Times. The Betrayers treated critically the measures against Communists under Senator Joseph McCarthy. The other novels had partly controversial topics. Southern Wild, her last book, described the effects of racial prejudice and discrimination against members of the African-American population in the former southern United States.
The actress was also actively involved in the American League for a Free Palestine, which actively campaigned for the creation of Israel. In 1946 she participated in a small role in the play A Flag Is Born by Ben Hecht next Marlon Brando and Paul Muni.
In the same year 1946 Chatterton staged for her old friend Kay Francis a tour performance boulevard comedy Windy Hill. In two recent biographies of Francis, the sometimes dramatic, sometimes comical events can be read that accompanied the performances.
About her friendship with Amelia Earhart discovered Chatteron their passion for sport flying. She organized the mid-1930s flight competitions, the Los Angeles -to- Cleveland Ruth Chatterton Continental Air Derby in August 1935. Besides she gave herself flying lessons, including the actor Brian Aherne
Ruth Chatterton was married three times, including with the actors Ralph Forbes and George Brent. With the renewed interest in movies that were filmed before the entry into force of the Hays Code, also Chatterton became known to a wider public.
A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, height 6263 Hollywood Boulevard, recalls the actress.