The Los Angeles native was among the best noir dames of the 1940s and 50s. But she'll always be known for a supporting role in just her fifth film. As Violet Bick, the bad girl of Bedford Falls, Grahame will forever be remembered for It’s a Wonderful Life.
Gloria Grahame's Mother Was Also Her Acting Teacher
She was born Gloria Hallward in the fall of 1923. Graham’s father was an architect and author; her mother, Jean McDougall, was a British stage actress and acting teacher who used the stage name Grahame.
Little Gloria began acting on stage in Los Angeles as a child and made it to Broadway in 1943. She soon segued to movies, going uncredited in two films before a key role in the MGM misfire Blonde Fever in 1944. MGM showed little faith in Grahame’s ability to break out, and sold her contract to RKO.
Oscar Nomination at Age 24
After vamping it up in It’s a Wonderful Life, her career took off. One year and two movies later, Grahame earned her first Oscar nomination, for a supporting role in the noir morality tale about anti-semitism, Crossfire.
In 1950, she was effective as Humphrey Bogart’s tough-tender girlfriend in the character study In a Lonely Place. And in The Big Heat, she played a mob moll memorably disfigured by Lee Marvin, who splattered her face with scalding hot coffee. (Not to worry -- she returned the favor before the end credits.)
Grahame Snags Oscar Statuette For Playing Dick Powell's Wife
And Grahame took home the supporting actress Oscar for 1952’s The Bad and the Beautiful. In the backstage Hollywood melodrama, she played the unfaithful Southern belle wife to Dick Powell. Offscreen, Gloria Graham’s real marital life was gathering no small bit of accumulated drama.
Her first marriage, to actor Stanley Clements, ended June 1, 1948 after nearly three years. Not coincidentally, that same day, she wed director Nicholas Ray, still seven years away from shooting the James Dean classic Rebel Without a Cause. Five months later, Grahame gave birth to their son, Timothy Ray.
Gloria Grahame Caught in Bed With 13-Year-Old Stepson
But the marriage to Nicholas Ray was troubled and already unraveling when Ray directed his wife in In a Lonely Place. The relationship effectively ended when Ray walked in on Grahame while she was in bed with another man. Or, rather, with a boy.
He was 13-year-old Anthony Ray, Nick’s son from a previous marriage.
The divorce became final in 1952 – around the time of Grahame’s Oscar success in The Bad and the Beautiful. But Gloria Grahame liked saying, “I do..” So she did – twice more – to writer Cy Howard in 1954 (it lasted three years, producing a daughter) and then, in 1960, to her ex-tweener lover and former stepson, Anthony Ray.
"I married Nicholas Ray, the director. People yawned,” she once remarked. “Later on I married his son, and from the press's reaction - you'd have thought I was committing incest or robbing the cradle!"
Grahame's Marriage to Ex-Stepson Causes Furor, Custody Fights
Indeed, the controversial wedding stunned the Hollywood community and also sparked a child custody battle with Grahame’s ex-husbands. But the marriage between the glamorous actress and the barely-legal Anthony lasted 14 years and produced two sons. It ended in 1974.
Professionally, Gloria Grahame’s film career sputtered in the mid-50s. When she was making Oklahoma! in 1955, there were reports she was “difficult” on the set. But there was another problem: she was having increasing difficulties with her speech.
Grahame's Vanity Contributed to Career Collapse
The actress had never liked how her upper lip looked -- and insisted on plastic surgery. But the results produced visible scarring, nerve damage and immobility which impaired her ability to speak clearly. It also changed her looks, not for the better.
By 1960, starring roles were gone for Grahame. She slowly returned to the stage, taking occasional supporting roles on television and in features throughout the sixties and seventies.
Stomach Cancer Goes Untreated
In 1980, Grahame was diagnosed with stomach cancer. But she also suffered a serious case of denial. Refusing to acknowledge the reality of the cancer, Grahame went to England for a play. But she never made it through rehearsals before collapsing. The actress had fluid drained from her stomach, but suffered a perforated bowel.
A former lover, Liverpool actor Peter Turner, learned of Grahame's condition and cared for her at his family home until some of her children could arrive from the U.S. to take her home. Once back in the states, her health deteriorated quickly.
Grahame once observed, "I don't think I ever understood Hollywood." It’s likely Hollywood never understood her, either.
Gloria Grahame died in New York City on Oct. 5, 1981. She was 57 years old.
Barry M. Grey - Barry M. Grey is a non-fiction TV writer-producer in Los Angeles whose love of classic film borders on the dangerously obsessive.
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