Donna Reed (born Donna Belle Mullenger; January 27, 1921 – January 14, 1986) was an American actress. Her career spanned more than 40 years and included appearances in over 40 films. She is best known for playing Mary Hatch Bailey in Frank Capra's Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946), and for her Academy Award–winning performance as Lorene in Fred Zinnemann's war drama From Here to Eternity (1953).
Reed is also known for her work in television, notably as Donna Stone, a middle-class American mother and housewife in the sitcom The Donna Reed Show (1958–1966) whose character was more assertive and complex than most other television mothers of the era. She received numerous Emmy Award nominations for this role and the Golden Globe Award for Best TV Star in 1963. Later in her career, Reed replaced Barbara Bel Geddes as Miss Ellie Ewing Farlow in the 1984–1985 season of the television melodrama Dallas; she successfully sued the production company for breach of contract when she was abruptly fired upon Bel Geddes' decision to return to the show.
Early life
Reed was born Donna Belle Mullenger in Denison, Iowa, the daughter of Hazel Jane (née Shives) and William Richard Mullenger. The eldest of five children, she was raised as a Methodist. In 1936, while she was a sophomore at Denison High School, her chemistry teacher gave her the book How to Win Friends and Influence People. The book is said to have greatly influenced her life. Upon reading it she won the lead in the school play, was voted Campus Queen and was in the top 10 of the 1938 graduating class.
After graduating from Denison High School, Reed planned to become a teacher but was unable to pay for college. She moved to California to attend Los Angeles City College on her aunt's advice. While attending college, she performed in various stage productions, although she had no plans to become an actress. After receiving several offers to take screen tests for studios, Reed eventually signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; however, she insisted on finishing her education first. She completed her associate degree, then signed with an agent.
Career
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
In 1941, after signing with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Reed made her film debut in The Get-Away opposite Robert Sterling; she was then billed as Donna Adams.
MGM didn't care for her name and soon changed it to Donna Reed.
Reed had a supporting role in Shadow of the Thin Man (1941) and in Wallace Beery's The Bugle Sounds (1942). Like many starlets at MGM, she played opposite Mickey Rooney in an Andy Hardy film, in her case the hugely popular The Courtship of Andy Hardy (1942). She was second-billed in the children's film, Mokey (1942). Reed starred in Calling Dr. Gillespie (1942) and Apache Trail (1942), then did a thriller with Edward Arnold, Eyes in the Night (1942), directed by Fred Zinnemann.
Reed appeared in The Human Comedy (1943) with Mickey Rooney, Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case (1943) and The Man from Down Under (1943). She was one of many MGM stars to make cameos in Thousands Cheer (1943). Her "girl-next-door" good looks and warm onstage personality made her a popular World War II pin-up, and she personally answered letters from American servicemen overseas. Reed starred in See Here, Private Hargrove (1944) and Gentle Annie (1945), a Western. She was in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) and played a nurse in John Ford's They Were Expendable (1945), opposite John Wayne. MGM was very enthusiastic about Reed's prospects at this time.
thumb|right|Reed with [[James Stewart in the classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946)]]
Reed collaborated with her Denison High School chemistry teacher Edward R. Tompkins (who worked on the Manhattan Project) on the 1947 MGM film The Beginning or the End, which dealt with the history and concerns of the atom bomb. Reed contributed to the story but does not appear in the final film. Reed was top-billed in a romantic comedy Faithful in My Fashion (1946) with Tom Drake.
MGM lent Reed to RKO for the role of Mary Bailey in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. The film has since been named as one of the 100 best American films ever made by the American Film Institute and is regularly aired on television during the Christmas season. Reed later said it was "the most difficult film I ever did. No director ever demanded as much of me." and Chicago Deadline (1949). In 1949, Reed expressed a desire for better roles.
Columbia
thumb|For her performance in [[From Here to Eternity, Reed (at left, beside co-star Frank Sinatra) received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.]]
In June 1950 Reed signed a contract with Columbia Studios. She appeared in two films which teamed her with John Derek, Saturday's Hero (1951) and Scandal Sheet (1952). She had a cameo in Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder (1952).
Reed was the love interest of Randolph Scott in Hangman's Knot (1952), then was borrowed by Warner Bros for Trouble Along the Way (1953) with Wayne. She was loaned out to play John Payne's love interest in Edward Small's Raiders of the Seven Seas (1953).
Reed played the role of Alma "Lorene" Burke, girlfriend of Montgomery Clift's character, in the World War II drama From Here to Eternity (1953). The role earned Reed an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1953. Reed and her husband Tony Owen set up their own company, Todon, which produced a number of films shot in Britain.
She continued to appear in features, usually as the love interest, in The Far Horizons (1955) at Pine-Thomas Productions with Fred MacMurray and Charlton Heston as Lewis and Clark, playing Native American Sacagawea; The Benny Goodman Story (1956) with Steve Allen at Universal, playing Goodman's wife; Ransom! (1956) at MGM as Glenn Ford's wife; Backlash (1956), a Western at Universal with Richard Widmark; Beyond Mombasa (1957), shot in Kenya with Cornel Wilde, during which she was injured while making the film; and The Whole Truth (1958), shot in England with Stewart Granger for Romulus Pictures.
The Donna Reed Show
From 1958 to 1966, Reed starred in The Donna Reed Show on ABC, a television series produced by her then-husband, Tony Owen.
The show ran for eight seasons on ABC. Reed won a Golden Globe Award and earned four Emmy Award nominations for her work on the series.
Reed described her show as "[...] a realistic picture of small-town life with an often humorous twist. Our plots revolve around the most important thing in America—a loving family." In the show, Reed's character, Donna Stone, is a loving mother and wife, but also a strong, smart woman with feelings and a sense of humor.
Some feminists criticized the show, asserting that it promoted submissiveness among housewives. In a 1979 interview, Reed, who had raised four children, responded, "I played a strong woman who could manage her family. That was offensive to a lot of people."
In a 1984 television interview, Reed said of her show, "I felt that I was making, for women, a statement. This mother was not stupid. She wasn't domineering, but she was bright and I thought rather forward-thinking, happily married."
In a 2008 interview, Paul Petersen, who portrayed her son Jeff Stone in the series, also shared his opinions about the production's significance,
Later career
When The Donna Reed Show ended its run in 1966, Reed took time off from acting to concentrate on raising her children and engaging in political activism. She returned to acting in the late '70s, appearing in the TV movies The Best Place to Be (1979) and Deadly Lessons (1983), as well as in a guest stint on The Love Boat.
In the 1984–85 season of the TV series Dallas, Reed replaced Barbara Bel Geddes, who left the show due to illness, as Miss Ellie Ewing. Of the show, Reed explained in a 1984 interview,