Hollywood Studio Magazine (October 1972)

15505 ROSCOE BLVD. <// Sitt/1 )ic^o l rn u\t v • SEPULVEDA approval and she proved that she had more than enough for better things. But upon returning to RKO they cast her in a pot-boiler titled “Macao.” She was great in “Sudden Fear” — she all but stole the film with her snappy dialogue. She was fast becoming “The Best of the Bad Girls”! Cecil B. DeMille cast her in “The Greatest Show on Earth” This marked her first technicolor film. Her chilling study of the self-willed, flirtatious Southern belle who left her husband for an escapade with a movie star and a nasty end in “The Bad and the Beautiful” won her a much deserved Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress of 1952. “Greatest Show” won as best picture that year, and, in addition, she won Film Daily’s supporting performance award in their poll of the nation’s movie critics. Her stock was soaring upward . . . at long last. After the Oscar, she worked continually in one picture after another — “The Glass Wall,” “On a Tightrope,” “The Big Heat,” “Prisoners of the Casbah,” “Human Desire,” “Naked alibi” and “The Good Die Young.” In 1954 she married writer, Cy Howard, after a two-year courtship. She did “The Cobweb” (as Richard Widmark’s neglected wife), “Not as a Stranger” and in “Oklahoma” she stole the acting honors as Ado Annie with her comedy technique and her off-key rendition of “I Cain’t Say No.” Oddly enough, this was not one of her favorite films. She said “I couldn’t sing a note — still can’t — and I didn’t think it was one of my better performances.” She gave a sensitive performance in “The Man Who Never Was.” She went to London to do the film and after it was completed she and her husband decided to remain in Europe. They settled in Paris. “I loved it - I studied art and dramatics — and enjoyed Paris.” Her daughter, Mariana, was born there in 1956. Returning to the U.S.A. in 1957, she filed for divorce from Howard shortly thereafter. She did “Rideout for Revenge” and “Odds Against Tomorrow.” She also did occasional television guestings. In 1961 she married assistant director, Tony Ray and she limited herseif to rare TV appearances and some stage work “just to keep my hand in.” Getting back into regulär film action came about in the latter part of Gloria Grahame in Columbia’s “Human Desire” (1954) with Glenn Ford. This was the second teaming of Grahame and Ford. They previously co-starred in the very successful “The Big Heat.” 1970 when Barry Shear thought of her for the role of Richard Thomas’ mother in “The Todd Killings.” She says “I’U never forget his kindness for thinking of me” and adds “It isn’t that you forget your craft — it’s just that so many things today seem different.” She did two movies-for-television, “Escape” and “Black Noon” and then a cameo in “Chandler,” but this film was badly edited and the final result was confusing. “The Loners” is currently in release. She recently completed a limited tour in “The Time of Your Life” — it opened in Washington, D.C. and moved on to Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles — to excellent reviews. In the late 40’s and early and mid 50’s she was hot and now in the 70’s her career is beginning to flourish all over again. There never was anyone eise quite like her. She’s always been a fine actress and a versatile one. She looks upon the future with anticipation. After too long an absence from regulär screen work, it’s great to be able to welcome her back — and in competent films she should have no trouble conquering new audiences and even greater heights. *** f Leonard Katzman, Gunsmoke producer, has been set for the Auditions Board for Non-Profit, State Chartered Film Industry Workshops, Inc. Auditions for new members for actors training are set for the first Friday of each month. Others on board for this month are Universal Producer Jay Benson, Director Harry Harris, Casting Executive Pat Daruty and Talent Managers Bryon Raphael and Julius Nirenstein. 10