BARBARA STANWYCK – known favorite perfume Jungle Gardenia
Barbara Stanwyck was born to Catherine McGee Stevens and Byron Stevens. She lost both parents when she was four. Her mother had a miscarriage as a result of a streetcar accident and died, and her father, so distraught from the loss of his wife and child, abandoned his remaining children. Barbara was the youngest of five children. She was raised by her eldest sister, but then later placed in foster care when her sister became a showgirl.
Born: July 16, 1907 in Brooklyn, New York
Died: January 20, 1990 in Santa Monica, California, due to congestive heart failure and emphysema.
Birth Name: Ruby Catherine Stevens
Husbands: Frank Fay (1928-1935(; Robert Taylor (1939-1952)
Children: One son, Dion Anthony Fay.
Height: 5’5” (1.65 m)
Net Worth: $1 million at the time of her death in 1990.
Zodiac Sign: Cancer
Trivia:
- She was named Hollywood’s highest paid woman in 1944.
- Once dated Robert Wagner. He was twenty years younger than she.
- Entertainment Weekly ranked her #40 on its “Greatest Movie Star of All Time” list.
- She was nominated four times for the Oscar: Stella Dallas (1937); Ball of Fire (1941); Double Indemnity (1944); Sorry, Wrong Number (1948).
- She was the godmother to Tori Spelling.
- Nicknamed the ‘Best Actress Who Never Won an Oscar”.
- She won three Emmy awards: The Barbara Stanwyck Show (1961); The Big Valley (1966); The Thorn Birds (1983).
- The American Film Institute name her #11 on it “100 Years of the Greatest Screen Legends” list.
- Briefly worked as a model.
- She made 84 films and 80 television appearances.
- Earned her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960.
- The movie A Star is Born is rumored to be based on her stormy marriage to Frank Fay.
Quotes:
- “Egotism – usually is just a case of mistaken nonentity.”
- “I couldn’t stand being passive. I couldn’t play the placid girl.”
- “A star is only as good as her last picture.”
- “Losing somebody you love by death or divorce is hard. But if they decide they want to be free, there’s nothing to battle for.”
- “I’m not a yesterday’s woman. I’m a tomorrow’s woman.”
- “Just be truthful, and if you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
- “Career is too pompous a word. It was a job, and I have always felt privileged to be paid for what I love doing.”
- “You have to know when you’ve had your hour, your place in the sun. I pity an actor who doesn’t understand that.”
- “Be glad you’re healthy. Be glad you can get out of bed on your own.”
- “I knew that after fourteen I’d have to earn my own living, but I was willing to do that. I’ve always been a little sorry for pampered people, and of course, they’re ‘very’ sorry for me.”
- “The more you kick something that’s dead, the worse it smells.”
- “My sister was like a mother to me. She is the one I wanted to please. The rest of them, I didn’t give a damn about.”