Miriam Hopkins
Encyclopedia
Ellen Miriam Hopkins was an American actress known for her versatility in a wide variety of roles.

Hopkins was born in Savannah, Georgia
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...

, and raised in Bainbridge
Bainbridge, Georgia
As of the census of 2000, there were 11,722 people, 4,444 households, and 3,013 families residing in the city. The population density was 255.6/km² . There were 5,051 housing units at an average density of 285.2 per square mile...

, a town in the state's southwest near the Alabama border. She attended a finishing school
Finishing school
A finishing school is "a private school for girls that emphasises training in cultural and social activities." The name reflects that it follows on from ordinary school and is intended to complete the educational experience, with classes primarily on etiquette...

 in Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...

 and later Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...

 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...

.

Career

At the age of 20, she became a chorus girl
Chorus line
A chorus line is a substantial group of dancers who together perform synchronized routines, usually in musical theatre. Sometimes, singing is also performed. Chorus line dancers in Broadway musicals and revues have been referred to by slang terms such as ponies, gypsies and twirlies...

 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...

. In 1930, she signed with Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

, and made her official film debut in Fast and Loose
Fast and Loose (film)
Fast and Loose is a 1930 romantic comedy film directed by Fred C. Newmeyer and starring Miriam Hopkins, Carole Lombard and Frank Morgan. The film was written by Doris Anderson, Jack Kirkland and Preston Sturges, based on the 1924 play The Best People by David Gray and Avery Hopwood...

. Her first great success was in the 1931 horror drama film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931 film)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1932 American Pre-Code horror film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Fredric March. The film is an adaptation of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde , the Robert Louis Stevenson tale of a man who takes a potion which turns him from a mild-mannered man of...

, in which she portrayed the character Ivy Pearson
Ivy Pearson
Ivy Pearson is a fictional character in the 1931 horror film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde portrayed originally by Miriam Hopkins. She was also played by Ingrid Bergman in the 1941 remake.-Character Summary:...

; a prostitute who becomes entangled with the lead protagonists Jekyll and Hyde. Hopkins received rave reviews, however due to the controversy that surrounded the finished film and in particular, her character, many of Hopkins's scenes were cut before the official release. This reduced Hopkins to approximately five minutes of screen time. Nevertheless her career ascended swiftly thereafter and in 1932 she scored her breakthrough in Ernst Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch was a German-born film director. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having "the Lubitsch touch."In 1947 he received an Honorary Academy Award for his...

's Trouble in Paradise, where she proved her charm and wit as a beautiful and jealous pickpocket. During the pre-code Hollywood era in the early 1930s, she appeared in such other films as The Smiling Lieutenant
The Smiling Lieutenant
The Smiling Lieutenant is an American film directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Maurice Chevalier and Claudette Colbert, and released by Paramount Pictures.-Production background:...

, The Story of Temple Drake
The Story of Temple Drake
The Story of Temple Drake is a 1933 Pre-Code drama film adapted from the highly controversial novel Sanctuary by William Faulkner. Though watered down, the movie was still so scandalous, it was one of reasons for the introduction of the Hays Code...

and Design for Living
Design for Living (film)
Design for Living is a 1933 American comedy film produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch. The screenplay by Ben Hecht is based on the 1933 play of the same name by Noël Coward. It concerns a trio of artistic Americans in Paris and their complicated three-way relationship.The film stars Fredric...

, all of which were box office successes and critically acclaimed. Her pre-code films were also considered quite risqué for their time, with The Story of Temple Drake depicting a rape scene and Design for Living featuring a menage-a-trois plot with Fredric March
Fredric March
Fredric March was an American stage and film actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr...

 and Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...

. Hopkins also had great success during the remainder of the decade with the romantic screwball comedy The Richest Girl in the World (1934), the historical drama Becky Sharp
Becky Sharp (film)
Becky Sharp is a 1935 film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Miriam Hopkins. Other supporting cast were Frances Dee, Cedric Hardwicke, Billie Burke, Alison Skipworth, Nigel Bruce, and Alan Mowbray. It is based on the play of the same name by Langdon Mitchell, which in turn is based on...

(1935), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading 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...

, Barbary Coast
Barbary Coast (film)
Barbary Coast is a period film directed by Howard Hawks. Shot in black-and-white and set in San Francisco during the Gold Rush era, the film combines elements of crime, Western, melodrama and adventure genres, features a wide range of actors, from good-guy Joel McCrea to bad-boy Edward G...

(1935), These Three
These Three
These Three is a 1936 American drama film directed by William Wyler. The screenplay by Lillian Hellman is based on her 1934 play The Children's Hour....

(1936) (the first of four films with director William Wyler
William Wyler
William Wyler was a leading American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.Notable works included Ben-Hur , The Best Years of Our Lives , and Mrs. Miniver , all of which won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, and also won Best Picture...

) and The Old Maid (1939). Hopkins was one of the first actresses approached to play the role of Ellie Andrews in It Happened One Night
It Happened One Night
It Happened One Night is a 1934 American romantic comedy film with elements of screwball comedy directed by Frank Capra, in which a pampered socialite tries to get out from under her father's thumb, and falls in love with a roguish reporter . The plot was based on the story Night Bus by Samuel...

(1934), however she famously rejected the part. The role went to Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...

 and resulted in an Academy Award win.

Hopkins had well-publicized fights with her arch-enemy Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...

 (Davis was having an affair with Hopkins' husband at the time, Anatole Litvak
Anatole Litvak
Anatole Litvak was a Ukrainian-born filmmaker who wrote, directed, and produced films in a various countries and languages...

), when they co-starred in their two films The Old Maid (1939) and Old Acquaintance
Old Acquaintance
Old Acquaintance is a 1943 film drama made by Warner Bros. It was directed by Vincent Sherman and produced by Henry Blanke with Jack L. Warner as executive producer from a screenplay by John Van Druten, Lenore Coffee and Edmund Goulding based on Van Druten's play.The film starred Bette Davis and...

(1943). Davis admitted to enjoying very much a scene in Old Acquaintance in which she shakes Hopkins forcefully during a scene where Hopkins' character makes unfounded allegations against hers. There were even press photos taken with both divas in boxing rings with gloves up and director Vincent Sherman
Vincent Sherman
Vincent Sherman was an American director, and actor, who worked in Hollywood. His movies include Mr. Skeffington , Nora Prentiss , and The Young Philadelphians ....

 between the two.

After Old Acquaintance, she did not work again in films until The Heiress
The Heiress
The Heiress is a 1949 American drama film. It was written by Ruth and Augustus Goetz, adapted from their 1947 play of the same title that was based on the 1880 novel Washington Square by Henry James. The film was directed by William Wyler, with starring performances by Olivia de Havilland as...

(1949), where she played the lead character's aunt. In Mitchell Leisen
Mitchell Leisen
Mitchell Leisen was an American director, art director, and costume designer.-Film career:He entered the film industry in the 1920s, beginning in the art and costume departments...

's 1951's screwball comedy
Screwball Comedy
Screwball Comedy is an album by the Japanese band Soul Flower Union. The album found the band going into a simpler, harder-rocking direction, after several heavily world-music influenced albums.-Track listing:...

 The Mating Season
The Mating Season (film)
The Mating Season is a 1951 classic farce with elements of screwball comedy. A film made by Paramount Pictures, it was directed by Mitchell Leisen and produced by Charles Brackett from a screenplay by Charles Brackett, Richard Breen and Walter Reisch, based on the play Maggie by Caesar Dunn...

, she gave a comic performance as Gene Tierney
Gene Tierney
Gene Eliza Tierney was an American film and stage actress. Acclaimed as one of the great beauties of her day, she is best remembered for her performance in the title role of Laura and her Academy Award-nominated performance for Best Actress in Leave Her to Heaven .Other notable roles include...

's character's mother. She also acted in The Children's Hour
The Children's Hour (1961 film)
The Children's Hour is a 1961 American drama film directed by William Wyler. The screenplay by John Michael Hayes is based on the 1934 play of the same title by Lillian Hellman...

, which is the theatrical basis of her film These Three
These Three
These Three is a 1936 American drama film directed by William Wyler. The screenplay by Lillian Hellman is based on her 1934 play The Children's Hour....

(1936). In the remake, she played the aunt to Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career...

, while MacLaine took Hopkins' original role.

Hopkins auditioned for the role of Scarlett O'Hara
Scarlett O'Hara
Scarlett O' Hara is the protagonist in Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind and in the later film of the same name...

 in Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind (film)
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...

, having one advantage none of the other candidates had: she was a native Georgian. However, the part went to Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh, Lady Olivier was an English actress. She won the Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire , a role she also played on stage in London's West End, as well as for her portrayal of the southern belle Scarlett O'Hara, alongside Clark...

.

She was a television pioneer, performing in teleplays in three decades, spanning the late 1940s through the late 1960s, in such programs as The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre
The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre
The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre is an American anthology series that aired on NBC Mondays at 8 pm EST from September 27, 1948 to June 26, 1950. Guests who appeared on the series included Faye Emerson, Edward Everett Horton, Basil Rathbone, Nina Foch, and Boris Karloff.-Episode status:One episode from...

(1949), Pulitzer Prize Playhouse
Pulitzer Prize Playhouse
The Pulitzer Prize Playhouse is an American television anthology drama series which offered adaptations of Pulitzer Prize winning plays, stories and novels. The distinguished journalist Elmer Davis was the host and narrator of this 1950-52 ABC series....

(1951), Lux Video Theatre
Lux Video Theatre
Lux Video Theatre, is a weekly television anthology series that was produced from 1950 until 1959. The series presented both comedy and drama in original teleplays, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays....

(1951–1955), and even an episode of The Flying Nun
The Flying Nun
The Flying Nun is an American sitcom produced by Screen Gems for ABC based on the 1965 book The Fifteenth Pelican, by Tere Rios, which starred Sally Field as Sister Bertrille...

in 1969.

Though she is best remembered for her film work, she has two stars 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...

: one for motion pictures
Film
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...

 at 1701 Vine Street, and one for television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 at 1708 Vine Street.

Private life

Hopkins was married and divorced four times: first to actor Brandon Peters, second to aviator Austin Parker, third to the director Anatole Litvak
Anatole Litvak
Anatole Litvak was a Ukrainian-born filmmaker who wrote, directed, and produced films in a various countries and languages...

, and fourth to war correspondent Raymond B. Brock. In 1932, Hopkins adopted a son, Michael Hopkins.

Hopkins died in New York, New York from a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...

 nine days before her 70th birthday.

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1930 Fast and Loose
Fast and Loose (film)
Fast and Loose is a 1930 romantic comedy film directed by Fred C. Newmeyer and starring Miriam Hopkins, Carole Lombard and Frank Morgan. The film was written by Doris Anderson, Jack Kirkland and Preston Sturges, based on the 1924 play The Best People by David Gray and Avery Hopwood...

Marion Lenox Hopkins's film debut
1931 Princess Anna The first of three films Hopkins made with Lubitsch
1931 24 Hours Rosie Duggan
1931 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931 film)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1932 American Pre-Code horror film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Fredric March. The film is an adaptation of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde , the Robert Louis Stevenson tale of a man who takes a potion which turns him from a mild-mannered man of...

Ivy Pearson
Ivy Pearson
Ivy Pearson is a fictional character in the 1931 horror film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde portrayed originally by Miriam Hopkins. She was also played by Ingrid Bergman in the 1941 remake.-Character Summary:...

Fredric March won an Oscar for his performance
1932 Two Kinds of Women Emma Krull
1932 Dancers in the Dark
Dancers in the Dark
Dancers in the Dark is a 1932 film about a taxi dancer , a big band leader , and a gangster . The movie was written by Herman J...

Gloria Bishop
1932 World and the Flesh Maria Yaskaya
1932 Trouble in Paradise Lily Second film directed by Lubitsch and starring Hopkins
1933 Temple Drake
1933 Louise Starr
1933 Design for Living
Design for Living (film)
Design for Living is a 1933 American comedy film produced and directed by Ernst Lubitsch. The screenplay by Ben Hecht is based on the 1933 play of the same name by Noël Coward. It concerns a trio of artistic Americans in Paris and their complicated three-way relationship.The film stars Fredric...

Gilda Farrell Third and final film Hopkins and Lubitsch made together
1934 All of Me
All of Me (1934 film)
All of Me is a 1934 drama film starring Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, and George Raft. The film was written by actor Thomas Mitchell and Sidney Buchman from Rose Porter's play Chrysalis, and directed by James Flood.-Cast:*Fredric March as Don Ellis...

Lydia Darrow
1934 She Loves Me Not
She Loves Me Not (1934 film)
She Loves Me Not is a 1934 comedy film adapted from the novel of the same name by Edward Hope. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures and starred Miriam Hopkins and Bing Crosby...

Curly Flagg
1934 Dorothy Hunter First of five films Hopkins and McCrea made together
1935 Becky Sharp
Becky Sharp (film)
Becky Sharp is a 1935 film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Miriam Hopkins. Other supporting cast were Frances Dee, Cedric Hardwicke, Billie Burke, Alison Skipworth, Nigel Bruce, and Alan Mowbray. It is based on the play of the same name by Langdon Mitchell, which in turn is based on...

Becky Sharp Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading 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...


The first feature film made in the three strip technicolor process
1935 Barbary Coast
Barbary Coast (film)
Barbary Coast is a period film directed by Howard Hawks. Shot in black-and-white and set in San Francisco during the Gold Rush era, the film combines elements of crime, Western, melodrama and adventure genres, features a wide range of actors, from good-guy Joel McCrea to bad-boy Edward G...

Mary 'Swan' Rutledge Second film starring Hopkins and McCrea
1935 Splendor Phyllis Manning Lorrimore Third film starring Hopkins and McCrea
1936 These Three
These Three
These Three is a 1936 American drama film directed by William Wyler. The screenplay by Lillian Hellman is based on her 1934 play The Children's Hour....

Martha Dobie The film was adapted from the 1934 play The Children's Hour by Lillian Hellman.
Fourth film starring Hopkins and McCrea
1936 Men Are Not Gods
Men Are Not Gods
Men Are Not Gods is a 1936 British film starring Miriam Hopkins and co-starring Gertrude Lawrence, Sebastian Shaw and Rex Harrison. It was a success in the UK when released largely due to the popularity of the two female stars Hopkins and Lawrence. This also brought to attention the talents of Rex...

Ann Williams
1937 Madame Helene Maury Hopkins married director Anatole Litvak shortly after this film was made.
It is the only film Hopkins made with Paul Muni
1937 Woman Chases Man
Woman Chases Man
Woman Chases Man is a 1937 romantic comedy film starring Miriam Hopkins and Joel McCrea. The plot concerns a former millionaire and his wealthy son Kenneth. The millionaire enlists the help of a young female architect named Virginia to con money out of his son in order to start up a housing project...

Virginia Travis Final film Hopkins and McCrea made together
1937 Wise Girl
Wise Girl (film)
Wise Girl is a 1937 romantic comedy film starring Miriam Hopkins and Ray Milland. A wealthy socialite tries to gain custody of her orphaned nieces.-Plot:...

Susan 'Susie' Fletcher
1939 Delia Lovell Ralston The first of two films Hopkins made with Bette Davis
1940 Virginia City
Virginia City (film)
Virginia City is a 1940 black-and-white movie starring Errol Flynn, Miriam Hopkins, and Randolph Scott, and featuring a mustachioed Humphrey Bogart in the role of the real-life outlaw John Murrell. The film was directed by Michael Curtiz...

Julia Hayne Hopkins co-starred with Errol Flynn
1940 Lady with Red Hair
Lady with Red Hair
Lady with Red Hair is a 1940 film released by Warner Bros. and starring Miriam Hopkins as Mrs. Leslie Carter.-Plot:A messy divorce leaves Mrs. Leslie Carter shunned by Chicago society for being an adulteress and forbidden from having custody of her son. She's determined to return to her hometown in...

Mrs. Leslie Carter
Mrs. Leslie Carter
Caroline Louise Dudley was an American silent film and stage actress who used her married name, Mrs. Leslie Carter, as her stage name to spite her former husband. She was called "The American Sarah Bernhardt"....

1942 Flo Melton
1943 Old Acquaintance
Old Acquaintance
Old Acquaintance is a 1943 film drama made by Warner Bros. It was directed by Vincent Sherman and produced by Henry Blanke with Jack L. Warner as executive producer from a screenplay by John Van Druten, Lenore Coffee and Edmund Goulding based on Van Druten's play.The film starred Bette Davis and...

Millie Drake Second of two films Hopkins made with Bette Davis.
1949 Aunt Lavinia Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
The Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in 1944 for a performance in a motion picture released in the previous year....

1951 Fran Carleton
1952 Mrs. Shipton/'The Duchess'
1952 Carrie
Carrie (1952 film)
Carrie is a 1952 feature film based on the novel Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser.Directed by William Wyler, the film stars Jennifer Jones in the title role and Laurence Olivier as Hurstwood. Carrie received two Academy Award Nominations: Costume Design, and Best Art Direction...

Julie Hurstwood
1961 Lily Mortar Hopkins had starred in the original film adaptation of the play The Children's Hour entitled These Three in the role of Martha Dobie. In this film Shirley MacLaine played Martha and Miriam Hopkins played her Aunt Lily.
1964 Fanny Hill
Fanny Hill (1964 film)
Fanny Hill is a 1964 American comedy film directed by Russ Meyer and starring Letícia Román, Miriam Hopkins and Ulli Lommel. Filmed in Berlin, the film is an adaptation of the 1748 John Cleland novel of the same name.-Cast:* Letícia Román - Fanny Hill...

Mrs. Maude Brown
1966 Mrs. Reeves Hopkins played the mother of Robert Redford's character
1970 Savage Intruder Katharine Parker Hopkins's last film


Short Subjects:
  • "The Home Girl" (1928)
  • "Hollywood on Parade No. B-1" (1933)

External links

  • Photographs of Miriam Hopkins
  • Miriam Hopkins Interview with Biographer Allan Ellenberger
  • Miriam Hopkins in June 1933 Vanity Fair
    Vanity Fair (magazine)
    Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...

     photographed by Edward Steichen
    Edward Steichen
    Edward J. Steichen was an American photographer, painter, and art gallery and museum curator. He was the most frequently featured photographer in Alfred Stieglitz' groundbreaking magazine Camera Work during its run from 1903 to 1917. Steichen also contributed the logo design and a custom typeface...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK