Geraldine Mary Wilma Fitzgerald (November 24, 1913 – July 17, 2005) was an <!-- Do not add awards info. -->Irish American actress. She received the Daytime Emmy Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. She was a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2020 she was listed at number 30 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
She made her film debut in the British thriller Blind Justice (1934). She went on to receive a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Isabella Linton in the William Wyler-directed romantic drama Wuthering Heights (1939). She acted in classic Hollywood films such as Dark Victory (1939), Watch on the Rhine (1943), and Wilson (1944). Her later films included The Pawnbroker (1964), Rachel, Rachel (1968), Harry and Tonto (1974), Arthur (1981), Easy Money (1983), and Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986).
Early life
Fitzgerald was born at 85 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin, The family would later live in Greystones, County Wicklow. where she found success in British films including The Mill on the Floss, Turn of the Tide, and Cafe Mascot. She had two significant successes in 1939: a role in the Bette Davis film Dark Victory
The 1950s provided her with few opportunities in film. However, during the 1960s she asserted herself as a character actor, and her career enjoyed a revival. Among her successful films during this period were Ten North Frederick (1958), The Pawnbroker (1964), and Rachel, Rachel (1968). Her later films included The Mango Tree (1977), for which she received an Australian Film Institute Best Actress nomination, and Harry and Tonto (1974), in a scene opposite Art Carney. In the comedy Arthur (1981) she portrayed Dudley Moore's wealthy and eccentric grandmother, even though she was only 22 years older than Moore. In 1983 she portrayed Rose Kennedy in the miniseries Kennedy, with Martin Sheen, and co-starred as Joanne Woodward's mother in the 1985 drama Do You Remember Love. Fitzgerald appeared in the 1983 Rodney Dangerfield comedy Easy Money, the horror film Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986), and the comedy Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988). In 1986 she starred alongside Tuesday Weld and River Phoenix in Circle of Violence, a television film about elder abuse.
thumb|right|upright|Trailer for Shining Victory (1941)
Fitzgerald returned to stage acting and won acclaim for her performance in the 1971 revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night. In 1976 she performed as a cabaret singer with the show Streetsongs, which played three successful runs on Broadway and was the subject of a PBS television special. She recorded an album of the show for Harbinger Records, produced by Bill Rudman and Ken Bloom and distributed by Ben Bagley's Painted Smiles Records. She also achieved success as a theatre director; in 1982, she became one of the first women to receive a Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Play for a production of Mass Appeal. While in New York, Fitzgerald collaborated with playwright and Franciscan brother Jonathan Ringkamp to found the Everyman Theater of Brooklyn, a street theater company. The company performed throughout the city, including at Ethical Culture and La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. Their first performance took place at La MaMa in September 1972 with a production called Everyman at La MaMa. They then performed The Francis-Day, a musical about Francis of Assisi, at La MaMa in July 1973.
She appeared on television in such series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Robert Montgomery Presents, Naked City, St. Elsewhere, The Golden Girls, and Cagney and Lacey. She had a regular role in the short-lived 1965 CBS serial Our Private World. In 1987 she played a title role in the television pilot Mabel and Max, produced by Barbra Streisand. She received an Emmy Award nomination for a guest role playing Anna in The Golden Girls Mother's Day episode in 1988 and played a different character in the episode "Not Another Monday". She won a Daytime Emmy Award as best actress for her appearance in the NBC Special Treat episode "Rodeo Red and the Runaways". On February 8, 1960, Fitzgerald was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6353 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to motion pictures.
Personal life
thumb|Geraldine Fitzgerald and son Michael Lindsay-Hogg aged 3 in 1944
Fitzgerald married Sir Edward Lindsay-Hogg, 4th Bt., in London on November 18, 1936. She was granted a divorce in Reno on August 30, 1946, after three years of separation. She had one son, director Sir Michael Lindsay-Hogg, with Edward and a daughter, Susan Scheftel, during her second marriage
Her son's resemblance to Orson Welles, with whom she worked and was linked romantically in the late 1930s, led to rumors that Welles was his biological father. Fitzgerald never confirmed this to her son, but in his 2011 autobiography Lindsay-Hogg wrote that this question was resolved by his mother's close friend Gloria Vanderbilt, who had written that Fitzgerald told her that Welles was his father.
A 2015 biography of Welles by Patrick McGilligan argues that Welles' paternity is unlikely. Fitzgerald left the United States for Ireland in late May 1939, and her son was born in early May 1940, meaning that he was conceived before her return to the U.S. in late October. Welles did not travel overseas during that period.
English actress Tara Fitzgerald is Fitzgerald's great-niece.
Death
Fitzgerald died at age 91 in New York City, following a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. She is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, in The Bronx, next to her husband, Stuart Straus Scheftel.
Acting credits
Film
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Notes
|-
|rowspan=2|1934 || Blind Justice || Peggy Summers ||
|-
| Open All Night || Jill ||
|-
|rowspan=6|1935 || The Lad ||Joan Fandon ||
|-
| Three Witnesses || Diana Morton ||
|-
| Department Store|| Jane Grey ||
|-
| The Ace of Spades || Evelyn Daventry ||
|-
| Turn of the Tide || Ruth Fosdyck ||
|-
| Lieutenant Daring R.N. || Joan Fayre ||
|-
|rowspan=3|1936 || Debt of Honour || Peggy Mayhew ||
|-
| Cafe Mascot || Moira O'Flynn ||
|-
| The Mill on the Floss || Maggie Tulliver ||
|-
| rowspan=3|1939 ||Wuthering Heights || Isabella ||
|-
| Dark Victory || Ann King ||
|-
| A Child Is Born || Grace Sutton ||
|-
|1940 ||Til We Meet Again || Bonny Coburn ||
|-
|rowspan=2|1941 || Flight from Destiny || Betty Farroway ||
|-
| Shining Victory || Dr. Mary Murray ||
|-
|1942 || The Gay Sisters || Evelyn Gaylord ||
|-
|1943 || Watch on the Rhine || Marthe de Brancovis ||
|-
|rowspan=2|1944 || Ladies Courageous || Virgie Alford ||
|-
| Wilson || Edith Bolling Galt ||
|-
|1945 || The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry || Lettie Quincey ||
|-
|rowspan=3|1946 || Three Strangers || Crystal Shackleford ||
|-
| O.S.S. || Ellen Rogers / Elaine Duprez ||
|-
| Nobody Lives Forever || Gladys Halvorsen ||
|-
|1948 || So Evil My Love || Susan Courtney ||
|-
|1951 || The Late Edwina Black|| Elizabeth ||
|-
|1958 || Ten North Frederick || Edith Chapin ||
|-
|1961 || The Fiercest Heart || Tante Maria ||
|-
|1964 || The Pawnbroker|| Marilyn Birchfield ||
|-
|1968 || Rachel, Rachel || Reverend Wood ||
|-
|1973 || The Last American Hero|| Mrs. Jackson ||
|-
|1974 || Harry and Tonto || Jessie ||
|-
|rowspan=2|1976 || Echoes of a Summer || Sara ||
|-
| Diary of the Dead || Maud Kennaway ||
|-
|1977 || The Mango Tree || Grandma Carr ||
|-
|1978 || Bye Bye Monkey || Mrs. Toland ||
|-
|rowspan=2|1981 || Arthur || Martha Bach ||
|-
| Lovespell || Bronwyn ||
|-
|1982 || Blood Link || Mrs. Thomason ||
|-
|1983 || Easy Money || Mrs. Monahan ||
|-
|1986 || Poltergeist II: The Other Side || Gramma-Jess ||
|-
|1988 || Arthur 2: On the Rocks || Martha Bach ||
|}
Television
{| class="wikitable"
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Notes
|-
|1951–1955 || Robert Montgomery Presents|| Elizabeth || 6 episodes
|-
|1960 || Shirley Temple's Storybook || Aunt Rosa || Season 2 Episode 13: "The Black Sheep"
|-
|1961 || Alfred Hitchcock Presents || Elizabeth Burton || Season 6 Episode 24: "A Woman's Help"
|-
|1964 ||The Nurses || Nurse Carrie Bruno || Season 2 Episode 23: "For the Mice and the Rabbits"
|-
|1965 || The Alfred Hitchcock Hour || Agatha Tomlin || Season 3 Episode 24: "Power of Attorney"
|-
|1970 || The Best of Everything || Violet Jordan || 114 episodes
|-
|1973 || Me || Ma || TV movie (aka Untold Damage)
|-
|1975 ||NBC Special Treat ||Ella McCune ||
|-
|rowspan=2|1977 || The Quinns || Peggy Quinn || TV movie
|-
|Yesterday's Child || Emma Talbot || TV movie
|-
|1983 || Kennedy || Rose Kennedy || TV Miniseries
|-
|1985 || Do You Remember Love || Lorraine Wyatt || TV movie
|-
|1986 ||Circle of Violence: A Family Drama || Charlotte Kessling ||TV movie
|-
|1988–1989 ||The Golden Girls || Anna / Martha || 2 episodes: "Mothers' Day" (1988) / "Not Another Monday" (1989)
|-
|1991 || Bump in the Night || Mrs. Beauchamps || TV movie, (final film role)
|}
Radio
{| class="wikitable"
! Year !! Program !! Episode !! Ref.
|-
| 1941|| Philip Morris Playhouse || Stage Door ||
|}
Awards and nominations
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Award
! Category
! Work
! Result
!class="unsortable"| Ref.
|-
| 1939 || Academy Award || Best Supporting Actress || Wuthering Heights || ||
|-
| 1939 || National Board of Review || Best Acting || Dark Victory / Wuthering Heights || ||
|-
| 1960 || Hollywood Walk of Fame || Motion Picture Star || || ||
|-
| 1975 || Daytime Emmy Awards || Outstanding Individual Achievement in Children's Programming || NBC Special Treat || ||
|-
| 1982 || Tony Award || Best Direction of a Play || Mass Appeal (1982) || ||
|-
| 1988 || Primetime Emmy Awards || Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series || The Golden Girls <small> (episode "Mother's Day") </small> || ||
|-
|}
References
External links
- Portrait of Geraldine Fitzgerald c. 1936 by George Hurrell
- Portrait of Geraldine Fitzgerald c. 1939 by Hurrell
- Fitzgerald's page on La MaMa Archives Digital Collections
- Geraldine Fitzgerald papers, 1944-1990s (bulk 1970s-1980s), held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.