Claudette Colbert (koʊlˈbɛər/ kohl-BAIR, to Jeanne (, with British Channel Islands heritage) and Georges Chauchoin.
Although christened "Émilie", she was called "Lily" after Jersey-born famous actress Lillie Langtry. Her mother had intended to name her daughter Lily, but the pastor mistakenly chose baptismal name
Émilie, so she was always called Lily in the family. Colbert's brother, Charles Chauchoin, was born in the Bailiwick of Jersey in 1898. Jeanne held various occupations, while Georges owned and managed a chain store of pastry and bonbon shops (more than eleven), and was also a major stockholder of an ink factory in which he suffered business setbacks. Colbert's grandmother Marie Loew had been to the U.S., and Colbert's uncle Charles Loew was living in New York City. Marie was willing to help Georges financially, but also encouraged him to try his luck in the U.S..
Colbert's legal name formally registered to Lily Claudette Chauchoin in the U.S.. They lived in a fifth-floor walk-up at 53rd Street. Colbert stated that she was always climbing those stairs until the age of 18. Georges worked as a minor official in the foreign department at First National City Bank, Already as a small child, she had read Shakespeare's plays and acquired an international sensibility. Inspired by the dressmaker Emily, Colbert began sketching people's fashions' design.
Colbert studied at Washington Irving High School, which was known for its strong arts program. Her speech teacher, Alice Rostetter, encouraged her to audition for a play Rostetter had written. In 1921, Colbert made her stage debut at the Provincetown Playhouse in revivals of Rostetter's The Widow's Veil and Aria da Capo by Edna St. Vincent Millay, at the age of 17. Her interests, though, still leaned towards painting, fashion design, and commercial art. and appeared on the Broadway stage in a small role in The Wild Westcotts (1923). She had used the name Claudette, instead of Lily, since high school; for her stage name, she added the maiden name (Colbert) of her father's grandmother, after her brother Charles used the surname Wendling, borrowed from their maternal grandmother's maiden name. Her father died in 1925;
Career
Beginnings, 1924–1928
Colbert joined a stock company, managing by Jessie Bonstelle, and worked in a string of mostly short-lived shows in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Boston and Connecticut in such plays as We've Got to Have Money, The Marionette Man, The Cat Came Back, High Stakes, and Leah Kleschna, which enabled her to gain experience in different genres. In 1924 the English actor Leslie Howard met her, was impressed by her ability to speak with both Mid-Atlantic and British accents, and contacted the producer Al Woods to cast her in Frederick Lonsdale's The Fake, but she was replaced by Frieda Inescort before it opened. After signing a five-year contract with Woods, Colbert played Ingénue roles on eleven
Broadway productions from 1925 to 1929. During this period she rejected being typecast such as a French maid. By 1925 she was having success in the comedy A Kiss in a Taxi, which ran for 103 performances over a two-month period. Columnists sang the praises of her unconventional beauty and her power to enrapture an audience. Colbert was again acclaimed as a carnival snake charmer for the 221 performances
on Broadway production of The Barker (1927), and she reprised the role in London's West End. She was noticed by theatrical producer Leland Hayward, who suggested her for the heroine role in the silent film For the Love of Mike (1927). Now believed to be lost, the film did not fare well at the box office. After that, she remained appearing on the theater, in several plays such as Fast Life (1928) and Dynamo (1929).
Her earliest films were produced in New York. During appearing nightly in the play See Naples and Die on the stage, she was also the filming of The Lady Lies (also 1929). The film was a box-office success. At this period, many film critics wrote her having potential to be the screen's next big star.
In 1930, Colbert starred opposite Maurice Chevalier in The Big Pond, which was a high-quality musical film that featured their songs.
which remained screenwriter-director George Abbott's favourite of his own films.
Those previous works had established her position within the studio system that dominated American filmmaking. She sang and played piano/violin in the Ernst Lubitsch musical The Smiling Lieutenant (1931), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture as well as being a box-office hit and critical success. March was also originally cast as her co-star in His Woman (1931), but was replaced by Gary Cooper. Cooper felt that her acting skills was so far greater than his own. For the next few years, she portrayed typically the bright women with witty dialogues, in such pictures as Secrets of a Secretary (1931, opposite Herbert Marshall), The Wiser Sex (1932, opposite Melvyn Douglas), and Misleading Lady (1932).
thumb|With Maurice Chevalier in [[The Smiling Lieutenant (1931)]]
In 1932, she was cast in the musical comedy film The Phantom President, which featured a famous entertainer George M. Cohan, with songs by Rodgers and Hart.
Colbert's career got a further boost when she played the supporting role as femme fatale Poppaea in Cecil B. DeMille's historical epic The Sign of the Cross (1932), opposite Fredric March and Charles Laughton. In one of the best-remembered scenes of her film career, she bathes nude in a marble pool filled with asses' milk. The film was the highest-grossing picture of the year in the United States.
In 1933, Colbert renegotiated her contract with Paramount to allow her to appear in films for other studios. The pioneering screwball comedy film Three-Cornered Moon reached No. 9 in the National Board of Review Awards in 1933. Her musical voice, a contralto that footnotes list as being coached by Bing Crosby, was also featured in Torch Singer (1933), co-starring Ricardo Cortez and David Manners. Partly as results, she was ranked as the year's 13th box-office star. She appeared with March for the fourth and final time with Tonight Is Ours. By 1933, she had appeared in 21 films, averaging three per year. Many of her early films were dramatics, and her performances were admired. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the film.
In Cleopatra (1934), Colbert took the title role opposite Warren William and Henry Wilcoxon. It was the second highest-grossing picture of that year in the United States. On loan to Universal Pictures for a one-picture deal, she was cast in John M. Stahl's notable melodrama Imitation of Life (1934), which was another box-office success. Those three films earned Best Picture Oscar nominations in the following year; Colbert is the only actress to date to star in three films which were nominated for Best Picture in the same year. The Gilded Lily (1935, directed by Wesley Ruggles) was popular, She did the Frank Lloyd's adventure film Under Two Flags (1936, featuring Ronald Colman), which also brought her back to the win a modest success at the box-office.
In 1936, Colbert signed a new contract with Paramount, making her Hollywood's highest-paid actress. When the studio renewed her contract in 1938, she was again reported to be Hollywood's top-paid actress, with a salary of $426,924. At the peak of her popularity in the late 1930s, she earned $150,000 per film. However, at that period, her representative works were those modern comedies, I Met Him in Paris (1937) taller than the average American woman at the time. Her early frequent co-star Fredric March said, "she was a wonderfully intelligent conversationalist, a really brainy woman." She had a discreet and scandal-free life, and was recognized as the least "actressy" of actresses.
Colbert was very particular about how she appeared on-screen, and believed her face was difficult to light and photograph. She insisted on having the right side of her face away from the camera when shooting close-up, because of a small bump from a broken nose as a child. This sometimes required movie sets to be redesigned.
thumb|upright|alt=|Early 1940s
Midnight (1939) with Don Ameche, directed by Mitchell Leisen and written by
Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, was one of her best comedy films. Colbert preferred a lighthearted, gentle directing style that would inspire spontaneous and inventive acting. She once said, "I know what's best for me—after all", who was otherwise known for maintaining high standards of professionalism.
Colbert learned about lighting and cinematography and refused to begin filming until she was satisfied that she would be shown to her best advantage. John Ford's
Drums Along the Mohawk (1939, with Henry Fonda) was her first color film, which was the 10th-grossing picture of the year in the United States. However, she mistrusted the relatively new Technicolor process, and fearing she would not photograph well, preferred thereafter to be filmed in black-and-white.
During this time, she began performing on CBS's popular radio program Lux Radio Theater, and was heard in 22 episodes between 1935 and 1954. She also participated in 13 episodes of radio's The Screen Guild Theater, between 1939 and 1952. From 1929 to 1950, she was selected for the Photoplay Award for Best Performances of the Month, in 30 films.
In 1940, Colbert was offered a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures that would have paid her $200,000 a year; she declined the offer after learning she could command $150,000 per film as a freelance artist. She secured roles in several prestigious films and this period marked the height of her earning power. It won the Academy Award for Best Story, which reflected on her credit with industry financiers. where she did one of the best performances of her film career, which featured such a thing as beauty that speaks of intelligence. She again became the industry's highest-paid star in 1942. in which her performance was the less overstated—and more effective, no matter how much the film centers her. The epic drama film being led to by John Cromwell's sensitively dynamic direction, made almost $5 million at the US box office and was the year's third highest-grossing picture, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Partly as a result, she earned a Best Actress
Oscar nomination.
Later that year she appeared in the lighthearted Practically Yours, again MacMurray, whom she was successfully co-starred in a number of films for nearly a decade up to that point. That year, Tomorrow Is Forever was one of the best dramatic performances of her film career,
For The Secret Heart (1946), her co-star June Allyson later wrote, Colbert "gave me the moral support and acting tips that made a world of difference."
The Douglas Sirk's suspense film Sleep, My Love (1948) with Robert Cummings was a modest commercial success. By 1949, she still ranked as the 22nd-highest box-office star.
The romantic comedy Bride for Sale (1949), where in Colbert played part of a love triangle that included Robert Young and George Brent, was well-reviewed. The Pacific war film Three Came Home (1950) was also modest success, and brought her to win the Laurel Awards for Best Dramatic Performance (Female). While Colbert still looked like a young woman, She said, "I'm a very good comedienne, but I was always fighting that image, too." In later life, Colbert said, "I just never had the luck to play bitches." She played a small role in Royal Affairs in Versailles (1954), her only film with a French director (Sacha Guitry). Colbert had found the directorial method disappointing, which was on the heavy-handed and ponderous.
In 1954, Colbert turned down a million-dollar broadcast deal with NBC-TV, Also, she got her share of praise from television critics in special productions of such as The Guardsman (1955), and Blithe Spirit (1956). A monthly information series The Women (for which she was host in 1959) did well enough.
One of her best TV roles was as a Seattle's widow on One Coast of White (1957), co-starring with Paul Henreid.
In 1957, she was cast as Lucy Bradford, wife of schoolteacher Jim Bradford (Jeff Morrow), in the Blood in the Dust episode of CBS's Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre. In the story, Jim refuses to back down when a gunman orders him to leave town, and Lucy is distressed because Jim hasn't fired a weapon since he was in the Civil War.
In the show's 1960 episode So Young the Savage Land, she played Beth Brayden, who becomes disillusioned with her rancher-husband Jim (John Dehner) when he turns to violence to protect their property.
In 1956, Colbert hosted the 28th Academy Awards ceremony. She returned to Broadway to replace Margaret Sullavan for Janus that year. but Colbert received little attention, and she directed her agent to end any further attempts to generate interest in her as a TV actress. Even at this period, she still looked younger than her actual age. In the same year, another her play on the stage, Julia, Jake and Uncle Joe lasted for only two performances. in The Kingfisher (1978), with co-star Rex Harrison; in A Talent for Murder (1981); and in Frederick Lonsdale's Aren't We All? (1985), also with Harrison, first in London and then the U.S. (including West Coast) and Australia.
Her final credit included the television miniseries The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987, as supporting role), which was a ratings success, and for which she earned a Golden Globe and also an Emmy Award nomination.
Modern critics have pointed out that Colbert had a unique set of assets—her heart-shaped face, distinct facial features,
Personal life
In 1928, Colbert married actor and director Norman Foster, with whom she co-starred in the Broadway show The Barker. Their marriage remained a secret for many years while they lived in separate homes. the latter disliked Foster and reputedly did not allow him into the home. Colbert and Foster divorced in 1935 in Mexico. and her husband kept show cattle.
Final years and death
For years, Colbert divided her time between her Manhattan apartment and her vacation home in Speightstown, Barbados.
thumb|left|upright|At a party honoring Lillian Hellman with the Dorothy Shaver Rose Award on 1977, New York City
Colbert was a long-time friend of Nancy Reagan, whom she first met in 1950,
Colbert suffered a series of small strokes during the last three years of her life. She died in 1996 in Barbados at the age of 92, and they became best friends around 1970.
|-
| 1960
| Hollywood Walk of Fame
| Star at 6812 Hollywood Blvd.
|
|
|
|-
| 1980
| Sarah Siddons Award
|
| The Kingfisher
|
|
|-
| 1984
| Film Society of Lincoln Center
| Lifetime Achievement Award
|
|
|
|-
| 1985
| Drama Desk Awards
| Drama Desk Special Award
| Aren't We All?
|
|
|-
| 1987
| Primetime Emmy Award
| Outstanding Supporting Actress
| rowspan="2" | The Two Mrs. Grenvilles
|
|
|-
| 1988
| Golden Globe Award
| Best Supporting Actress in a Series
|
|
|-
| 1989
| Kennedy Center Honors
| Lifetime Achievement Award
|
|
|
|-
| 1990
| San Sebastián International Film Festival
| Donostia Award
|
|
|
|-
| 1999
| American Film Institute
| Greatest Female Stars
|
|
|
|-
|2010
|Online Film & Television Association
|Film Hall of Fame
|
|
|
|-
|}
See also
- List of actors with Academy Award nominations