- Shirley Booth
Infobox Actor
name = Shirley Booth
birthdate = birth date|1898|8|30
birthplace = city-state|New York City|New York
deathdate = Death date and age|1992|10|16|1898|8|30
deathplace = city-state|North Chatham|Massachusetts
birthname = Marjory Ford
spouse =Ed Gardner (1929-1942)
William H. Baker (1943-1951)
academyawards = Best Actress
1952 "Come Back, Little Sheba "
emmyawards = Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series
1962 "Hazel"
1963 "Hazel"
tonyawards = Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
1949 "Goodbye, Mr Fancy "
Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
1950 "Come Back, Little Sheba "
Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
1953 "The Time of the Cuckoo "
goldenglobeawards = Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
1953 "Come Back, Little Sheba "
awards = Best Actress Award -Cannes Film Festival
1953 "Come Back, Little Sheba "
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
1953 "Come Back, Little Sheba "
National Board of Review, Best Actress
1953 "Come Back, Little Sheba "Hollywood Walk of Fame
6840 Hollywood BoulevardShirley Booth (
August 30 1898 –October 16 1992 ) was an Americanactress .Primarily a theatre actress, Booth's Broadway career began in 1925. Her most significant success was as the tortured wife, Lola Delaney, in the
drama "Come Back, Little Sheba", for which she received aTony Award in 1950. She made her film debut, reprising her role in the 1952 film version, and won both theAcademy Award for Best Actress andGolden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance. Despite her successful entry into films, she preferred stage acting, and made only four more films.From 1961 until 1966, she played the title role in the
sitcom "Hazel", for which she won twoEmmy Awards , and was acclaimed for her performance in the 1966 television production of "The Glass Menagerie ". She retired in 1974.Biography
Booth was born Marjory Ford in
New York City the daughter of Albert James Ford and Virginia Martha Wright. Her sister was Jean Valentine Ford (born 1914). [A copy of her birth certificate reflecting the true birth name is located in Booth's clippings file at the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, NYC]Career
She began her
career on the stage as ateenager , acting instock company productions, and was briefly known as Thelma Booth Ford. Her Broadway debut was in the play "Hell's Bells" oppositeHumphrey Bogart onJanuary 26 ,1925 .Booth first attracted major notice as the female lead in the comedy hit "Three Men on a Horse" which ran almost two years in 1935 to 1937. During the 1930s and 1940s, she achieved popularity in dramas, comedies and, later, musicals. She acted with
Katharine Hepburn in "The Philadelphia Story" (1939) and withRalph Bellamy in "Tomorrow the World" (1943) and was a prolific Broadway performer for over three decades.Booth also starred on the popular radio series "
Duffy's Tavern ", playing the lighthearted, wisecracking, man-crazy daughter of the unseen tavern owner onCBS radio from 1941 to 1942 and onNBC -Blue Radio from 1942 to 1943. Her husband,Ed Gardner , created and wrote the show as well as playing its lead character, Archie, the malapropping manager of the tavern; Booth left the show not long after she and Gardner divorced, but they were said to have remained friends for the rest of Gardner's life. Booth auditioned unsuccessfully for the title role of "Our Miss Brooks " in 1948.Booth received her first Tony, for Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic), for her performance as Grace Woods in "Goodbye, My Fancy" (1948). Her second Tony was for Best Actress in a Play, which she received for her widely acclaimed performance as the tortured wife, Lola Delaney, in the poignant drama "Come Back, Little Sheba" (1950). Her leading man,
Sidney Blackmer , received the Tony for Best Actor in a Play for his performance as her husband, Doc.Her success in "Come Back, Little Sheba" was immediately followed by "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (1951), in which she played the feisty but lovable Aunt Cissy, which proved to be another major hit.
She then went to Hollywood and recreated her stage role in the motion picture version of "Come Back, Little Sheba" (1952), with
Burt Lancaster playing Doc. After that movie, her first of only four films in her career, was completed, she returned to New York and played Leona Samish in "The Time of the Cuckoo" (1952) on Broadway.In 1953, Booth received the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in "Come Back, Little Sheba", becoming the first actress ever to win both a Tony and an Oscar for the same role. The film also earned Booth "Best Actress" awards from The
Cannes Film Festival , theGolden Globe Awards , TheNew York Film Critics Circle Awards , andNational Board of Review . She also received her third Tony, which was her second in the Best Actress in a Play category, for her performance in the Broadway production ofArthur Laurents ' play "The Time of the Cuckoo".So prolific was Booth as an award winner at that time, that during her
May 3 ,1953 appearance on "What's My Line? ",John Charles Daly said, "I might say, if I may, without causing you too much embarrassment, that it's a great honor for us to have the young lady who got theOscar Award and theAntoinette Perry Award and just won the award inCannes , in fact I think one of our New York columnists, Mrs. Lyon, said the only thing that you hadn't won so far was theKentucky Derby ." Booth jokingly replied, "Well, I almost won it yesterday, but I drew the wrong ticket in the lottery." ["What's My Line", May 3, 1953.]Booth was 54 when she made her first movie, although she had successfully deleted a decade off her age, with her publicity stating 1907 as the year of her birth. The correct year of birth was known by only her closest associates until her actual age was announced at the time of her death. Her second starring film, a romantic drama "About Mrs. Leslie" (1954) opposite
Robert Ryan , was released in 1954 to good reviews. In 1953, Booth had made a cameo appearance as herself in the all-star comedy/drama movie "Main Street to Broadway ".She spent the next few years commuting between New York and
Southern California . On Broadway, she scored personal successes in the musical "By the Beautiful Sea" (1954) and the comedy "Desk Set" (1955). Although Booth had become well known to moviegoers during this period, the movie versions of both "Cuckoo", which was re-titled for the movie "Summertime" (1955), and "Desk Set" (1957) went to Katharine Hepburn.She returned to motion pictures in 1958 starring in two more films for
Paramount Pictures , playing Dolly Gallagher Levi inThornton Wilder 's romance/comedy "The Matchmaker" (1958) and playing Alma Duval in the drama "Hot Spell" (1958). She was named runner-up toSusan Hayward in "I Want to Live! " as the year's Best Actress by theNew York Film Critics Circle for her two 1958 films.In 1957, she won the
Sarah Siddons Award for her work on the stage in Chicago. She returned to the Broadway stage in 1959, starring as the long-suffering title character in theMarc Blitzstein musical "Juno", an adaptation ofSean O'Casey 's 1924 classic play, "Juno and the Paycock ".Frank Capra unsuccessfully attempted to bring Booth back to the screen with "Pocketful of Miracles " in 1961, but after screening Capra's original version, "Lady for a Day " (1933), Booth informed him there was no way she could matchMay Robson 's moving, Oscar-nominated performance in the original and so Capra signedBette Davis instead -- and, indeed, Davis was unfavorably compared to Robson by most reviewers when the film was released.)In 1961, Booth began starring in the television
situation comedy "Hazel", based onTed Key 's popularcomic strip from theSaturday Evening Post about domineering yet endearing housemaid, Hazel Burke. The show reunited her with Harry Ackerman, who produced the show, and she won two Emmys, in 1962 and 1963, She won two Emmys for the series, making her one of the few performers to win all three major entertainment awards (Oscar, Tony, Emmy), and new stardom with a younger audience. Booth received another Emmy nomination for her third season as "Hazel" in 1964 and in 1966 was also Emmy nominated for her performance as Amanda in a television adaptation of "The Glass Menagerie ".She told the
Associated Press in 1963, at the height of the show's popularity, "I liked playing Hazel the first time I read one of the scripts, and I could see all the possibilities of the character–the comedy would take care of itself. My job was to give her heart. Hazel never bores me. Besides, she's my insurance policy." She proved prescient with the last comment; the show was seen in syndicated reruns for many years after it ceased first-run production in 1966.Booth was a distinguished and versatile performer, equally at home acting in theatre, radio, and on the big and small screen. She had a long and prestigious list of stage credits and made numerous appearances in TV movies and programs. Her last Broadway appearances were in a revival of
Noel Coward 's play "Hay Fever" and the musical "Look to the Lilies ", both in 1970.After appearing as Grace Simpson in the TV series "A Touch of Grace" (1973), which was directed by
Carl Reiner , she did voice work for the animatedspecial "The Year Without a Santa Claus " (1974), playing Mrs. Santa, then retired.Personal life
Booth's second marriage, to William Baker in 1943, lasted until his death in 1951; the actress never remarried and had no children from either marriage. She died after a brief illness at age 94 at her home in North Chatham, Massachusetts. She is interred in Mount Hebron Cemetery,
Montclair, New Jersey .Shirley Booth has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6840 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.Work
tage
Bibliography
*
*References
External links
*ibdb|25899
*imdb|0095804
*amg name|2:7386
*voice actor|4489
*findagrave|7961
* [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0830.html Obituary, NY Times, October 21, 1992]###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
title=Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
before=Jane Wyman
for "The Blue Veil "
years=1953
for "Come Back, Little Sheba"
after=Audrey Hepburn
for "Roman Holiday "succession box
title=Award for Best Actress -Cannes Film Festival
before=Lee Grant
for "Detective Story "
years=1953
for "Come Back, Little Sheba"
after=Nonesuccession box
title =NYFCC Award for Best Actress
years = 1952
for" Come Back, Little Sheba"
before=Vivien Leigh
for "A Streetcar Named Desire
after =Audrey Hepburn
for "Roman Holiday"Persondata
NAME= Booth, Shirley
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Ford, Thelma Marjory
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Actress
DATE OF BIRTH=August 30 ,1898
PLACE OF BIRTH=New York City ,New York ,US
DATE OF DEATH=October 16 ,1992
PLACE OF DEATH= North Chatham, Massachusetts,US
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