Born Ruby Catherine Stevens in Brooklyn, New York on July 17, 1907, Barbara Stanwyck has often been dubbed “the best actress who never won an Oscar.” Her stage name was inspired by a theatrical poster that read “Jane Stanwyck in “Barbara Freitchie.” Her parents, Byron and Catherine McGee Stevens, were poor Scots-Irish immigrants, and Barbara and her siblings (Maude, Mable. Mildred and Malcolm Byron) became motherless when she was only four, when her mother was accidentally knocked off a trolley car by a drunk and killed.
She graduated from Erasmus Hall High and took a job at the local phone company for $14 a week to help support herself and her four brothers and sisters. When not working, she pounded the pavement in search of dancing jobs and soon she was hired as a chorus girl at the age of 17 and was earning 40 dollars a week. She also worked briefly as a fashion model in the late 1920s.
She moved to Hollywood in 1928 and soon began one of the most lucrative careers the world of cinema has ever seen. She was very versatile and appeared in comedies, melodramas and westerns. One of her best films, “Double Indemnity,” in which she starred opposite Fred MacMurray, was made in 1944. She was a hard working actress who always performed to the best of her ability and she was considered very easygoing and a pleasure to work with. She did much work in television as well, notably as the matriarch, Victoria Barclay, of “The Big Valley” (1965). She also starred in the hit mini-series, “The Thorn Birds,” in 1983. She died on January 20, 1990.
Her career spanned almost sixty decades and she appeared in 93 movies.
What are some of YOUR favorite Barbara Stanwyck performances?