Geraldine Fitzgerald
Encyclopedia
Geraldine Fitzgerald, Lady Lindsay-Hogg (24 November 1913 – 17 July 2005) was an Irish
-American actress and a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame
.
, County Wicklow
, south of Dublin, the daughter of Edith and Edward Fitzgerald, who was an attorney. Her father was Catholic
and her mother a Protestant who converted to Catholicism. She was a great-aunt of the actress Tara FitzGerald
, and a cousin of the British novelist Nevil Shute
.
She studied painting at the Dublin School of Art and inspired by her aunt, the actress/director Shelah Richards, Geraldine Fitzgerald began her acting career in 1932 in theatre in her native Dublin before moving to London
where she studied painting at the Polytechnic School of Art in London
and was taken to Twickenham
Studios (London) where she played a small role in a British
film 1934
. She quickly came to be regarded as one of the British film industry's most promising young performers and her most successful film of this period was The Mill on the Floss
(1937
).
Her success led her to America and Broadway
in 1938, and while appearing opposite Orson Welles
in the Mercury Theatre
production of Heartbreak House
, she was seen by the film producer Hal B. Wallis
who signed her to a seven-year film contract. She achieved two significant successes in 1939
; she received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
for her role as Isabella Linton
in Wuthering Heights
and had an important role in Dark Victory
, with both films achieving great box office success.
She appeared in Shining Victory
(1941
) and Watch on the Rhine
(1943
) for Warner Bros.
, and Wilson (1944
) for Fox
, but her career was hampered by her frequent clashes with the management of the studio, and the suspensions that resulted. She lost the role of 'Brigid O'Shaughnessy', the villainess of The Maltese Falcon
due to her clashes with Jack Warner
. Although she continued to work frequently throughout the 1940
s, the quality of her roles diminished and her career began to lose momentum. She became a U.S. citizen during World War II
in a display of solidarity with her adopted country. In 1946, shortly after completing work on Three Strangers
, she left Hollywood to return to New York City
where she married her second husband Stuart Scheftel, a grandson of Isidor Straus
. She returned to Britain to film So Evil My Love
(1948
) and received strong reviews for her performance as an alcoholic
adultress
. In 1951
she appeared in The Late Edwina Black
before returning to America.
The 1950s provided her with very few opportunities in film, but in the 1960s she asserted herself as a character actress, and her career enjoyed a revival. Among her successful films of this period were Ten North Frederick
(1958
), The Pawnbroker
(1964
) and Rachel, Rachel
(1968
). Her other films include The Mango Tree
(1977
) (for which she received an Australian Film Institute
"Best Actress" nomination), Arthur (1981
), Poltergeist II: The Other Side
(1986
) and Arthur 2: On the Rocks
(1988
).
From the 1940s she began to act more on stage and she won acclaim for her performance in the 1971 revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night
. She also achieved success as a theatre director, becoming one of the first women to receive a Tony Award
nomination for directing (1982) for the production Mass Appeal
.
She also appeared frequently on television in such series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents
, Robert Montgomery Presents
, Naked City
, St. Elsewhere
and Cagney and Lacey. In 1983, she played Rose Kennedy in the mini-series Kennedy. In 1986, Fitzgerald starred alongside Tuesday Weld
and River Phoenix
in the critically acclaimed CBS
television movie Circle of Violence
about domestic elder abuse
, and in 1987, she played the title role in the TV pilot Mabel and Max, (Barbra Streisand
's first television pilot production). She received an Emmy Award
nomination for a guest role playing Anna in The Golden Girls
Mother's Day episode in 1988 (Fitzgerald played another character in the episode Not Another Monday). She won a Daytime Emmy award
for her appearance in the episode 'Rodeo Red and the Runaways' on NBC Special Treat.
In 1976 she began a career as a cabaret
singer with the show Streetsongs which played three successful runs on Broadway and was the subject of a PBS television special.
Geraldine Fitzgerald has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
for her contributions to television, at 6353 Hollywood Boulevard.
Michael Lindsay-Hogg
(Let It Be
and Brideshead Revisited
) by her first marriage (to Sir Edward Lindsay-Hogg, 4th Bt.) and a daughter, Susan Scheftel by her second marriage to American businessman Stuart Scheftel. Her son's resemblance to Orson Welles
, with whom she had worked and been linked with romantically in the late 1930s, led to rumors Welles was the boy's father. Fitzgerald never confirmed this to her son, but in his 2011 autobiography Lindsay-Hogg reported Welles had acknowledged being his birth father. She was a great aunt of actress Tara FitzGerald
.
Fitzgerald died at age 91 in New York City
following a long battle with Alzheimer's Disease
.
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
-American actress and a member of 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...
.
Early life
Fitzgerald was born in GreystonesGreystones
Greystones is a coastal town and small seaside resort in County Wicklow, Ireland. It is located on Ireland’s east coast, south of Bray and south of Dublin , with a population in the region of 15,000....
, County Wicklow
County Wicklow
County Wicklow is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Wicklow, which derives from the Old Norse name Víkingalág or Wykynlo. Wicklow County Council is the local authority for the county...
, south of Dublin, the daughter of Edith and Edward Fitzgerald, who was an attorney. Her father was Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
and her mother a Protestant who converted to Catholicism. She was a great-aunt of the actress Tara FitzGerald
Tara Fitzgerald
Tara Anne Cassandra Fitzgerald is an English actress who has appeared in feature films, television, radio and the stage....
, and a cousin of the British novelist Nevil Shute
Nevil Shute
Nevil Shute Norway was a popular British-Australian novelist and a successful aeronautical engineer. He used his full name in his engineering career, and 'Nevil Shute' as his pen name, in order to protect his engineering career from any potential negative publicity in connection with his novels.-...
.
She studied painting at the Dublin School of Art and inspired by her aunt, the actress/director Shelah Richards, Geraldine Fitzgerald began her acting career in 1932 in theatre in her native Dublin before moving to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
where she studied painting at the Polytechnic School of Art in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and was taken to Twickenham
Twickenham
Twickenham is a large suburban town southwest of central London. It is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan...
Studios (London) where she played a small role in a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
film 1934
1934 in film
-Events:*January 26 - Samuel Goldwyn purchases the film rights to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the L. Frank Baum estate for $40,000.*February 19 - Bob Hope marries Dolores Reade...
. She quickly came to be regarded as one of the British film industry's most promising young performers and her most successful film of this period was The Mill on the Floss
The Mill on the Floss (film)
The Mill on the Floss is a 1937 British drama film directed by Tim Whelan and starring Frank Lawton, Victoria Hopper, Geraldine Fitzgerald and James Mason...
(1937
1937 in film
The year 1937 in film involved some significant events, including the Walt Disney production of the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US....
).
Career
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...
in 1938, and while appearing opposite Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
in the Mercury Theatre
Mercury Theatre
The Mercury Theatre was a theatre company founded in New York City in 1937 by Orson Welles and John Houseman. After a string of live theatrical productions, in 1938 the Mercury Theatre progressed into their best-known period as The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a radio series that included one of the...
production of Heartbreak House
Heartbreak House
Heartbreak House is a play written by George Bernard Shaw, first published in 1919 and first played at the Garrick Theatre in 1920. According to A. C. Ward, the work argues that "cultured, leisured Europe" was drifting toward destruction, and that "Those in a position to guide Europe to safety...
, she was seen by the film producer Hal B. Wallis
Hal B. Wallis
Hal B. Wallis was an American film producer.-Career:Harold Brent Wallis was born in Chicago in 1898. His family moved in 1922 to Los Angeles, California, where he found work as part of the publicity department at Warner Bros...
who signed her to a seven-year film contract. She achieved two significant successes in 1939
1939 in film
The year 1939 in motion pictures can be justified as being called the most outstanding one ever, when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiered in the year .- Events :Motion picture historians and film often rate...
; she received a nomination 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 role as Isabella Linton
Isabella Linton
Isabella Linton is a female character in Emily Brontë's only novel Wuthering Heights. She is the sister of Edgar Linton and the wife of Heathcliff.- Story :...
in Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights (1939 film)
Wuthering Heights is a 1939 American black-and-white film directed by William Wyler and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. It is based on the novel, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The film depicts only sixteen of the novel's thirty-four chapters, eliminating the second generation of characters. The...
and had an important role in Dark Victory
Dark Victory
Dark Victory is a 1939 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, and Ronald Reagan...
, with both films achieving great box office success.
She appeared in Shining Victory
Shining Victory
Shining Victory is a 1941 film based on the play, Jupiter Laughs, by A. J. Cronin. It stars James Stephenson, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Donald Crisp, and Barbara O'Neil, and it was the first film directed by Irving Rapper. Bette Davis makes a brief cameo appearance as a nurse in the film.-Plot...
(1941
1941 in film
The year 1941 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Citizen Kane, consistently rated as one of the greatest films of all time, was released in 1941.-Top grossing films :-Academy Awards:...
) and Watch on the Rhine
Watch on the Rhine
Watch on the Rhine is a 1943 American drama film directed by Herman Shumlin. The screenplay by Dashiell Hammett is based on the 1941 play of the same title by Lillian Hellman.-Plot:...
(1943
1943 in film
The year 1943 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 3 - 1st missing persons telecast * February 20 - American film studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor films....
) for Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
, and Wilson (1944
1944 in film
The year 1944 in film involved some significant events, including the wholesome, award-winning Going My Way plus popular murder mysteries such as Double Indemnity, Gaslight and Laura.-Events:*July 20 - Since You Went Away is released....
) for Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
, but her career was hampered by her frequent clashes with the management of the studio, and the suspensions that resulted. She lost the role of 'Brigid O'Shaughnessy', the villainess of The Maltese Falcon
The Maltese Falcon (1941 film)
The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 Warner Bros. film based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett and a remake of the 1931 film of the same name...
due to her clashes with Jack Warner
Jack Warner
Jack Leonard "J. L." Warner , born Jacob Warner in London, Ontario, was a Canadian American film executive who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California...
. Although she continued to work frequently throughout the 1940
1940 in film
The year 1940 in film involved some significant events, including the premieres of the Walt Disney classics Pinocchio and Fantasia.-Events:*February 7 - Walt Disney's animated film Pinocchio is released....
s, the quality of her roles diminished and her career began to lose momentum. She became a U.S. citizen during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in a display of solidarity with her adopted country. In 1946, shortly after completing work on Three Strangers
Three Strangers
Three Strangers is a Warner Bros. crime drama, starring Peter Lorre, Geraldine Fitzgerald, and Sydney Greenstreet, featuring Joan Lorring and Alan Napier. It was directed by Jean Negulesco from a script by John Huston and Howard Koch.-Plot:...
, she left Hollywood to return to New York City
New 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...
where she married her second husband Stuart Scheftel, a grandson of Isidor Straus
Isidor Straus
Isidor Straus —a German Jewish American—was co-owner of the Macy's department store with his brother Nathan. He also served briefly as a member of the United States House of Representatives...
. She returned to Britain to film So Evil My Love
So Evil My Love
So Evil My Love is a 1948 British psychological thriller film, directed by Lewis Allen and starring Ray Milland, Ann Todd and Geraldine Fitzgerald. The film is a period drama set in the Victorian era, and shot in film noir style in the late-1940s sub-genre often referred to as "Gaslight noir"...
(1948
1948 in film
The year 1948 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Laurence Olivier's Hamlet becomes the first British film to win the American Academy Award for Best Picture.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :...
) and received strong reviews for her performance as an alcoholic
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
adultress
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
. In 1951
1951 in film
The year 1951 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Sweden - May Britt is scouted by Italian film-makers Carlo Ponti and Mario Soldati-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:...
she appeared in The Late Edwina Black
The Late Edwina Black
The Late Edwina Black is a 1951 British drama film, directed by Maurice Elvey and starring David Farrar, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Roland Culver...
before returning to America.
The 1950s provided her with very few opportunities in film, but in the 1960s she asserted herself as a character actress, and her career enjoyed a revival. Among her successful films of this period were Ten North Frederick
Ten North Frederick (film)
Ten North Frederick is a 1958 American drama film starring Gary Cooper, written and directed by Philip Dunne. The screenplay is based on the 1955 novel of the same name by John O'Hara.-Plot:...
(1958
1958 in film
The year 1958 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 16- "In the Money" by William Beaudine is released on this date. It would be the last installment of The Bowery Boys series which began back in 1946....
), The Pawnbroker
The Pawnbroker
The Pawnbroker is a novel by Edward Lewis Wallant which tells the story of Sol Nazerman, a concentration camp survivor who suffers flashbacks of his past Nazi imprisonment as he tries to cope with his daily life operating a pawn shop in East Harlem...
(1964
1964 in film
The year 1964 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 29 - The film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is released....
) and Rachel, Rachel
Rachel, Rachel
Rachel, Rachel is a 1968 American drama film produced and directed by Paul Newman. The screenplay by Stewart Stern is based on the 1966 novel A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence.-Plot:...
(1968
1968 in film
The year 1968 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 30 - The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, debuts.* November 1 - The MPAA's film rating system is introduced.-Top grossing films :- Awards :...
). Her other films include The Mango Tree
The Mango Tree (film)
The Mango Tree is a 1977 Australian drama film directed by Kevin James Dobson and starring Geraldine Fitzgerald and Sir Robert Helpmann.The film is about Jamie, a young man in his formative teen years, growing up in rural subtropical town of Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia, set around World War I...
(1977
1977 in film
The year 1977 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*In the Academy Awards, Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight win Best Actor and Actress and Supporting Actress awards for Network....
) (for which she received an Australian Film Institute
Australian Film Institute
The Australian Film Institute was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry...
"Best Actress" nomination), Arthur (1981
1981 in film
-Events:*January 19 - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquires beleaguered concurrent United Artists. UA was humiliated by the astronomical losses on the $40,000,000 movie Heaven's Gate, a major factor in the decision of owner Transamerica to sell it....
), Poltergeist II: The Other Side
Poltergeist (film series)
The Poltergeist movies are a trilogy of American horror films distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during the 1980s. The films revolve around the members of the Freeling family, who are stalked and terrorized by a group of ancient ghosts that are attracted to the youngest daughter, Carol Anne. The...
(1986
1986 in film
-Events:*April 12 - Actor Morgan Mason marries The Go-Go's Belinda Carlisle.*April 26 - Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger marries television journalist Maria Shriver.*May - Actress Heather Locklear marries Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee....
) and Arthur 2: On the Rocks
Arthur 2: On the Rocks
Arthur 2: On the Rocks is the 1988 sequel to the 1981 film Arthur. Lead actors Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli reprised their roles.John Gielgud, who won an Academy Award for his role in the original film, reappears briefly in a drunken hallucination on Arthur's part.The film co-stars Kathy Bates as...
(1988
1988 in film
-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:* Act of Piracy* Action Jackson, starring Carl Weathers, Craig T. Nelson, Vanity, Sharon Stone* The Adventures of Baron Munchausen* Akira* Alice...
).
From the 1940s she began to act more on stage and she won acclaim for her performance in the 1971 revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night
Long Day's Journey Into Night
Long Day's Journey Into Night is a 1956 drama in four acts written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The play is widely considered to be his masterwork...
. She also achieved success as a theatre director, becoming one of the first women to receive a 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...
nomination for directing (1982) for the production Mass Appeal
Mass Appeal
Mass Appeal is a two-character play by Bill C. Davis. The comedy-drama focuses on the conflict between a complacent Roman Catholic pastor and the idealistic young deacon who is assigned to his affluent, suburban parish.-Plot:...
.
She also appeared frequently on television in such series as 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...
, Robert Montgomery Presents
Robert Montgomery Presents
Robert Montgomery Presents is an American dramatic television series which was produced by NBC from January 30, 1950 until June 24, 1957. The live show had several sponsors during its seven-year run, and the title was altered to feature the sponsor, usually Lucky Strike cigarettes, for example,...
, Naked City
Naked City (TV series)
Naked City is a police drama series which aired from 1958 to 1963 on the ABC television network. It was inspired by the 1948 motion picture of the same name, and mimics its dramatic "semi-documentary" format....
, St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...
and Cagney and Lacey. In 1983, she played Rose Kennedy in the mini-series Kennedy. In 1986, Fitzgerald starred alongside Tuesday Weld
Tuesday Weld
Tuesday Weld is an American actress.Weld began her acting career as a child, and progressed to more mature roles during the late 1950s. She won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Female Newcomer in 1960...
and River Phoenix
River Phoenix
River Jude Phoenix was an American film actor, musician, and teen icon. He was the oldest brother of fellow actors Rain, Joaquin, Liberty, and Summer Phoenix.Phoenix began acting at age 10 in television commercials...
in the critically acclaimed CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
television movie Circle of Violence
Circle of Violence: A Family Drama
Circle of Violence: A Family Drama is a 1986 CBS television movie starring Tuesday Weld, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Peter Bonerz and River Phoenix that tells the tragic story of the seldom addressed issue of elder parent abuse.-Synopsis:Georgia Benfield is at a...
about domestic elder abuse
Elder abuse
Elder abuse is a general term used to describe certain types of harm to older adults. Other terms commonly used include: "elder mistreatment," "senior abuse," "abuse in later life," "abuse of older adults," "abuse of older women," and "abuse of older men."...
, and in 1987, she played the title role in the TV pilot Mabel and Max, (Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
's first television pilot production). She received an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
nomination for a guest role playing Anna in The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris, which originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, the show centers on four older women sharing a home in Miami, Florida...
Mother's Day episode in 1988 (Fitzgerald played another character in the episode Not Another Monday). She won a Daytime Emmy award
Daytime Emmy Award
The Daytime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming...
for her appearance in the episode 'Rodeo Red and the Runaways' on NBC Special Treat.
In 1976 she began a career as a cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
singer with the show Streetsongs which played three successful runs on Broadway and was the subject of a PBS television special.
Geraldine Fitzgerald 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 contributions to television, at 6353 Hollywood Boulevard.
Personal life
She was the mother of the TV, film and theater directorFilm director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Michael Lindsay-Hogg
Michael Lindsay-Hogg
Sir Michael Edward Lindsay-Hogg, 5th Baronet is a British television and stage director and an occasional writer and actor.-Background and early work:...
(Let It Be
Let It Be (film)
Let It Be is a 1970 documentary film about The Beatles rehearsing and recording songs for the album Let It Be in January 1969. The film features an unannounced rooftop concert by the group, their last performance in public...
and Brideshead Revisited
Brideshead Revisited
Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder is a novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. Waugh wrote that the novel "deals with what is theologically termed 'the operation of Grace', that is to say, the unmerited and unilateral act of love by...
) by her first marriage (to Sir Edward Lindsay-Hogg, 4th Bt.) and a daughter, Susan Scheftel by her second marriage to American businessman Stuart Scheftel. Her son's resemblance to Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
, with whom she had worked and been linked with romantically in the late 1930s, led to rumors Welles was the boy's father. Fitzgerald never confirmed this to her son, but in his 2011 autobiography Lindsay-Hogg reported Welles had acknowledged being his birth father. She was a great aunt of actress Tara FitzGerald
Tara Fitzgerald
Tara Anne Cassandra Fitzgerald is an English actress who has appeared in feature films, television, radio and the stage....
.
Fitzgerald died at age 91 in New York City
New 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...
following a long battle with Alzheimer's Disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
.
Selected filmography
- Blind JusticeBlind Justice (1934 film)Blind Justice is a 1934 British thriller film directed by Bernard Vorhaus and starring Eva Moore, Frank Vosper, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Roger Livesey and John Mills. A woman is blackmailed by a criminal, who has discovered that her brother was shot as a coward during the First World War...
(1934) - Open All NightOpen All Night (film)Open All Night is a 1934 British drama film directed by George Pearson and starring Frank Vosper, Margaret Vines, Gillian Lind, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Michael Shepley...
(1934) - Department StoreDepartment Store (film)Department Store is a 1935 British crime film directed by Leslie S. Hiscott and starring Geraldine Fitzgerald, Eve Gray, Garry Marsh and Sebastian Shaw....
(1935) - Debt of HonourDebt of HonourDebt of Honour is a 1936 British drama film directed by Norman Walker and starring Leslie Banks, Will Fyffe, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Garry Marsh.-Plot:A Colonel's daughter steals from the regimental mess funds to pay off her gambling debts...
(1936) - The Mill on the FlossThe Mill on the Floss (film)The Mill on the Floss is a 1937 British drama film directed by Tim Whelan and starring Frank Lawton, Victoria Hopper, Geraldine Fitzgerald and James Mason...
(1937) - Wuthering HeightsWuthering Heights (1939 film)Wuthering Heights is a 1939 American black-and-white film directed by William Wyler and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. It is based on the novel, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The film depicts only sixteen of the novel's thirty-four chapters, eliminating the second generation of characters. The...
(1939) - Dark VictoryDark VictoryDark Victory is a 1939 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Bette Davis, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, and Ronald Reagan...
(1939) - 'Til We Meet Again'Til We Meet Again'Til We Meet Again is a 1940 romance film starring Merle Oberon and George Brent as two doomed, star-crossed lovers. It is a remake of the 1932 film One Way Passage and itself was remade into the 1954 Mexican 3-D film El valor de vivir.-Plot:...
(1940) - The Gay SistersThe Gay SistersThe Gay Sisters is a 1942 American drama film directed by Irving Rapper, and starring Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Donald Crisp, Gig Young and Nancy Coleman. The Warner Bros. motion picture was based on a novel by Stephen Longstreet....
(1942) - Watch on the RhineWatch on the RhineWatch on the Rhine is a 1943 American drama film directed by Herman Shumlin. The screenplay by Dashiell Hammett is based on the 1941 play of the same title by Lillian Hellman.-Plot:...
(1943) - The Strange Affair of Uncle HarryThe Strange Affair of Uncle HarryThe Strange Affair of Uncle Harry is a 1945 film noir directed by Robert Siodmak, starring George Sanders as an aging bachelor who looks after his two sisters, one of whom tries to sabotage his romance with his co-worker...
(1945) - Nobody Lives Forever (1946)
- Arthur (1981)
- Easy Money (1983)
External links
- Portrait of Geraldine Fitzgerald c. 1936 by George HurrellGeorge HurrellGeorge Hurrell was a photographer who made a significant contribution to the image of glamour presented by Hollywood during the 1930s and 1940s.-Early life:...
. - Portrait of Geraldine Fitzgerald c. 1939 by George Hurrell.
- Independent's obituary
- CNN.com 'Wuthering' actress Fitzgerald dead