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Barbara Stanwyck
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Barbara Stanwyck was a four-time Academy Award-nominated, three-time Emmy Award-winning, and Golden Globe-winning American actress of film, stage, and screen. In 1926, Stanwyck began performing at the Hudson Theatre in the drama The Noose, which became one of the biggest hit plays of the season. She co-starred with actors Rex Cherryman and Wilfred Lucas. Cherryman and Stanwyck began a romantic relationship. The relationship was cut short however, when in 1928, Cherryman died at the age of 30 of septic poisoning while vacationing in Le Havre, France. Her performance in The Noose earned rave reviews, and she was summoned by film producer Bob Kane to make a screen test for his upcoming 1927 silent film Broadway Nights where she won a minor part of a fan dancer after losing out the lead role, because she couldn't cry during the screen test. This marked Stanwyck's first film appearance.
Stanwyck and actor Robert Taylor began living together. Their 1939 marriage was arranged with the help of the studio, a common practice in Hollywood's golden age. She and Taylor enjoyed their time together outdoors during the early years of their marriage, and were the proud owners of many acres of prime West Los Angeles property. Their large ranch and home in the Mandeville Canyon section of Brentwood, Los Angeles, California is still to this day referred to by locals as the old "Robert Taylor ranch".
In 1926, a friend introduced Stanwyck (then kno
wn under her original name) to Willard Mack, who was casting his play The Noose. Asked to audition, she was hired on the spot. Willard thought a great deal of the actress and believed that to change her image, she needed a first class name, one that would stand out. He happened to notice a playbill for a play then running called Barbara Frietchie in which an actress named Jane Stanwyck appeared. He used this to come up with "Barbara Stanwyck" as Ruby's new stage name. She was an instant hit and he even re-wrote the script to give her a bigger part.
Stanwyck starred in almost a hundred films during her career and received four nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Stella Dallas (1937), Ball of Fire (1941), Double Indemnity (1944), and Sorry, Wrong Number (1948). In 1954 she appeared alongside Ronald Reagan in the western Cattle Queen of Montana. She received an Academy Honorary Award "for superlative creativity and unique contribution to the art of screen acting" in 1982.
When Stanwyck's film career declined in 1957, she moved to television. Her 1961 - 1962 series The Barbara Stanwyck Show was not a ratings success but earned the star her first Emmy Award. The 1965 - 1969 western series The Big Valley made her one of the most popular actresses on television, winning her another Emmy. Twenty years later, she earned her third Emmy for The Thorn Birds. Her last starring role was in 1985, on the TV series The Colbys alongside Charlton Heston, Stephanie Beacham and Katharine Ross.
In 1973, she was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Her retirement years were somewhat active, with charity work done completely out of the limelight. She became somewhat reclusive following a robbery in her home while she was present; she was pushed into a closet, but suffered no serious physical injury.
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