Ruth Chatterton
Encyclopedia
Ruth Chatterton was an American actress, novelist, and early aviatrix
.
, on Christmas Eve
1892, to Walter Smith and Lillian Reed Chatterton. She was of English and French extraction, and a descendant of the English poet Thomas Chatterton
.
Her parents separated while she was still quite young. In order to help support her family financially, she left school at fourteen and began her career on Broadway
.
.
In 1924, she married British actor Ralph Forbes, who starred opposite her that same year in The Magnolia Lady, a musical versional of the A.E. Thomas and Alice Duer Miller
hit Come Out of the Kitchen. Chatterton moved to Hollywood with Forbes in 1928, and with the help of Emil Jannings
, was cast in her first film role in Sins of the Fathers
. That same year she was signed to a contract by Paramount Pictures
. This was followed by roles in The Doctor's Secret (1929), The Dummy (1929), and MGM's
Madame X
(1929). She received her first nomination for Academy Award for Best Actress
for her role in the latter film. The following year she received a second Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role in Sarah and Son
(1930), portraying an impoverished housewife who rises to fame and fortune as an Opera
singer.
Her stage experience enhanced many of her film performances when the "silents" segued to the "talkies". Although her first "talkies" were merely filmed stage productions, her enunciation and acting were appreciated by the public and critics alike. When she left Paramount
, her initial studio, for Warner Brothers (along with Kay Francis
and William Powell
), it was noted that the brothers Warner needed an infusion of "class".
She co-starred in the film Dodsworth
(1936), for Samuel Goldwyn
and United Artists
, which is widely regarded as her finest film (giving what many consider an Oscar worthy performance, though she wasn't nominated). Due to her age and the studios' focus on younger, more bankable stars, she moved to England and continued to star in films there. Chatterton's final film was A Royal Divorce (1938).
She came out of retirement in the 1950s, and appeared on U.S. television
in several plays, including a TV adaptation of Dodsworth on CBS's
Prudential Playhouse, alongside Mary Astor
and Walter Huston
. Her last television appearance was as Gertrude in a 1953 adaptation of Hamlet
, with Maurice Evans
in the title role, on the Hallmark Hall of Fame
.
. Chatterton crisscrossed the U.S. several times solo. She served as sponsor of the Sportsman Pilot Mixed Air Derby and the annual Ruth Chatterton Air Derby during the 1930s; she also opened the National Air Races in Los Angeles in 1936. She taught British film and stage actor Brian Aherne
to fly, an experience he described at length in his autobiography.
Chatterton's first husband was actor Ralph Forbes; they were married from 1924 to 1932. The day after her divorce from Forbes was finalized, Chatterton married her frequent film co-star and fellow Warners player, Irish-born actor George Brent
. They divorced in 1934. Chatterton's third and last husband was Barry Thomson, to whom she was married from 1942 to his death in 1960. She had no children.
Chatterton died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 68 in Norwalk, Connecticut
in 1961. She was cremated and is interred in a niche in the Lugar Mausoleum (Section 11, Lot 303) at Beechwoods Cemetery
in New Rochelle, NY.
Occasional, much-younger co-star Bette Davis
recalled that Chatterton was "very kind" to her at Warners when Davis was starting out on her career. Pauline Kael
referred to her as "the great Ruth Chatterton".
Chatterton has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
at 6263 Hollywood Blvd.
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
.
Early life
Chatterton was born in New York CityNew 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...
, on Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
1892, to Walter Smith and Lillian Reed Chatterton. She was of English and French extraction, and a descendant of the English poet Thomas Chatterton
Thomas Chatterton
Thomas Chatterton was an English poet and forger of pseudo-medieval poetry. He died of arsenic poisoning, either from a suicide attempt or self-medication for a venereal disease.-Childhood:...
.
Her parents separated while she was still quite young. In order to help support her family financially, she left school at fourteen and began her career on Broadway
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...
.
Career
Chatterton started off as a chorus girl in a stage play and by the age of eighteen had become a star of the American stage. Her greatest success onstage came in 1914 when she starred in the play Daddy Long Legs, adapted from the novel by Jean WebsterJean Webster
Jean Webster was an American writer and author of many books including Daddy-Long-Legs and Dear Enemy...
.
In 1924, she married British actor Ralph Forbes, who starred opposite her that same year in The Magnolia Lady, a musical versional of the A.E. Thomas and Alice Duer Miller
Alice Duer Miller
Alice Duer Miller was an American writer and poet.-Biography:Alice Duer was born in New York City on July 28, 1874 into a wealthy family. She was the daughter of James Gore King Duer and Elizabeth Wilson Meads. Elizabeth was the daughter of Orlando Meads of Albany, New York...
hit Come Out of the Kitchen. Chatterton moved to Hollywood with Forbes in 1928, and with the help of Emil Jannings
Emil Jannings
Emil Jannings was a German actor. He was not only the first actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, but also the first person to be presented an Oscar...
, was cast in her first film role in Sins of the Fathers
Sins of the Fathers (1928 film)
Sins of the Fathers is a 1928 silent film produced by Famous Players-Lasky and released by Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by Ludwig Berger and stars Emil Jannings and Ruth Chatterton in her motion picture debut.-Cast:...
. That same year she was signed to a contract by 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...
. This was followed by roles in The Doctor's Secret (1929), The Dummy (1929), and MGM's
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
Madame X
Madame X (1929 film)
Madame X is a 1929 drama film directed by Lionel Barrymore, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. Ruth Chatterton was nominated for Best Actress for her performance as a fallen woman.-Plot:...
(1929). She received her first nomination for 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...
for her role in the latter film. The following year she received a second Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role in Sarah and Son
Sarah and Son
Sarah and Son is a 1930 film which tells the story of a woman who searches for the son that her abusive husband sold to a wealthy family. It stars Ruth Chatterton, Fredric March, Fuller Mellish Jr., Gilbert Emery and Doris Lloyd....
(1930), portraying an impoverished housewife who rises to fame and fortune as an Opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
singer.
Her stage experience enhanced many of her film performances when the "silents" segued to the "talkies". Although her first "talkies" were merely filmed stage productions, her enunciation and acting were appreciated by the public and critics alike. When she left Paramount
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...
, her initial studio, for Warner Brothers (along with Kay Francis
Kay Francis
Kay Francis was an American stage and film actress. After a brief period on Broadway in the late 1920s, she moved to film and achieved her greatest success between 1930 and 1936, when she was the number one female star at the Warner Brothers studio, and the highest paid American film actress...
and William Powell
William Powell
William Horatio Powell was an American actor.A major star at MGM, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the popular Thin Man series in which Powell and Loy played Nick and Nora Charles...
), it was noted that the brothers Warner needed an infusion of "class".
She co-starred in the film Dodsworth
Dodsworth (film)
Dodsworth is a 1936 American drama film directed by William Wyler. Sidney Howard based the screenplay on his 1934 stage adaptation of the 1929 novel of the same name by Sinclair Lewis...
(1936), for Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn was an American film producer, and founding contributor executive of several motion picture studios.-Biography:...
and United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
, which is widely regarded as her finest film (giving what many consider an Oscar worthy performance, though she wasn't nominated). Due to her age and the studios' focus on younger, more bankable stars, she moved to England and continued to star in films there. Chatterton's final film was A Royal Divorce (1938).
She came out of retirement in the 1950s, and appeared on U.S. television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
in several plays, including a TV adaptation of Dodsworth on CBS's
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...
Prudential Playhouse, alongside Mary Astor
Mary Astor
Mary Astor was an American actress. Most remembered for her role as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s.She eventually made a successful transition to talkies, but almost...
and Walter Huston
Walter Huston
Walter Thomas Huston was a Canadian-born American actor. He was the father of actor and director John Huston and the grandfather of actress Anjelica Huston and actor Danny Huston.-Life and career:...
. Her last television appearance was as Gertrude in a 1953 adaptation of Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, with Maurice Evans
Maurice Evans (actor)
Maurice Herbert Evans was an English actor noted for his interpretations of Shakespearean characters. In terms of his screen roles, he is probably best known as Dr...
in the title role, on the Hallmark Hall of Fame
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The second longest-running television program in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2011...
.
Later life
Having left acting, she began a successful writing career, producing several novels. She was also one of the few aviatrices at the time, and was good friends with Amelia EarhartAmelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...
. Chatterton crisscrossed the U.S. several times solo. She served as sponsor of the Sportsman Pilot Mixed Air Derby and the annual Ruth Chatterton Air Derby during the 1930s; she also opened the National Air Races in Los Angeles in 1936. She taught British film and stage actor Brian Aherne
Brian Aherne
Brian Aherne was a British actor of both stage and screen, who found success in Hollywood.-Early life and stage career:...
to fly, an experience he described at length in his autobiography.
Chatterton's first husband was actor Ralph Forbes; they were married from 1924 to 1932. The day after her divorce from Forbes was finalized, Chatterton married her frequent film co-star and fellow Warners player, Irish-born actor George Brent
George Brent
George Brent was an Irish film and television actor in American cinema.-Early life:He was born George Brendan Nolan in Raharabeg, County Roscommon on the opposite bank of the River Shannon from the town of Shannonbridge, County Offaly, Ireland, the son of a British Army officer.During the Irish...
. They divorced in 1934. Chatterton's third and last husband was Barry Thomson, to whom she was married from 1942 to his death in 1960. She had no children.
Chatterton died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 68 in Norwalk, Connecticut
Norwalk, Connecticut
Norwalk is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of the city is 85,603, making Norwalk sixth in population in Connecticut, and third in Fairfield County...
in 1961. She was cremated and is interred in a niche in the Lugar Mausoleum (Section 11, Lot 303) at Beechwoods Cemetery
Beechwoods Cemetery (New Rochelle, New York)
Beechwoods Cemetery is a non-denominational cemetery located in New Rochelle, New York. The cemetery was incorporated in 1854.-Notable interments:...
in New Rochelle, NY.
Occasional, much-younger co-star 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...
recalled that Chatterton was "very kind" to her at Warners when Davis was starting out on her career. Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael
Pauline Kael was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. Earlier in her career, her work appeared in City Lights, McCall's and The New Republic....
referred to her as "the great Ruth Chatterton".
Chatterton 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...
at 6263 Hollywood Blvd.
Filmography
|
Once A Lady Once A Lady is a 1931 sound feature film produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Guthrie McClintic and starred Ruth Chatterton. It is a remake of a Pola Negri silent film Three Sinners from 1928... (1931) The Rich Are Always with Us The Rich Are Always with Us is a 1932 American drama film directed by Alfred E. Green. The screenplay by Austin Parker is based on the novel by Ethel Pettit.-Plot:... (1932) The Crash (film) The Crash is a 1932 drama film directed by William Dieterle. The film is based on the 1932 novel Children of Pleasure written by Larry Barretto, and stars Ruth Chatterton as a luxury loving wife devastated by the crash of 1929.-Plot:... (1932) Frisco Jenny Frisco Jenny is a Pre-Code drama film starring Ruth Chatterton and directed by William A. Wellman.-Plot:In 1906 San Francisco, Frisco Jenny Sandoval , a denizen of the notorious Tenderloin district, wants to marry piano player Dan McAllister , but her saloonkeeper father Jim is adamantly opposed... (1932) Lilly Turner Lilly Turner is a 1933 melodrama about a woman who marries a bigamist, then a drunk, and falls in love with another man, all while working at a carnival... (1933) Female (film) Female is a 1933 Warner Bros. pre-code film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Ruth Chatterton and George Brent. It is based on the novel of the same name by Donald Henderson Clarke.-Plot:... (1933) Girls' Dormitory Girls' Dormitory is a 1936 American romance film directed by Irving Cummings.-Plot:Set in the fictional Montreaux School for Girls in Switzerland, the main focus of the film is Dr. Stephen Dominick, the school's popular director who is secretly admired by teacher Professor Anna Mathe and the... (1936) Dodsworth (film) Dodsworth is a 1936 American drama film directed by William Wyler. Sidney Howard based the screenplay on his 1934 stage adaptation of the 1929 novel of the same name by Sinclair Lewis... (1936) |