Ruth Chatterton

Ruth Chatterton (December 24, 1892 – November 24, 1961) was an American stage, film, and television actress, aviator and novelist. She was at her most popular in the early to mid-1930s, and in the same era gained prominence as an aviator, one of the few female pilots in the United States at the time. In the late 1930s, Chatterton retired from film acting but continued her career on the stage. She had several TV roles beginning in the late 1940s and became a successful novelist in the 1950s.

Early life Chatterton was born in New York City on December 24, 1892 to Walter, an architect, and Lillian (née Reed) Chatterton. She was of English and French extraction. Her parents separated while she was young. Chatterton attended Mrs. Hagen's School in Pelham, New York. She soon dropped out of school to pursue a stage career.

Career

In 1911, Chatterton made her Broadway stage debut in The Great Name. Her greatest success onstage came in 1914, when she starred in the play Daddy Long Legs, adapted from the novel by Jean Webster.

Chatterton married her first husband, actor Ralph Forbes, on December 19, 1924, in Manhattan. They moved to Los Angeles. With the help of Emil Jannings, she was cast in her first film role in Sins of the Fathers in 1928. That same year, she was signed to a contract by Paramount Pictures. Chatterton's first film for Paramount was also her first sound film, The Doctor's Secret, released in 1929. Chatterton was able to make the transition from silents to sound because of her stage experience.

Later in 1929, Chatterton was loaned to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she starred in Madame X. The film was a critical and box-office success, and effectively launched Chatterton's career. For her work in the film, Chatterton received her first nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress. The following year, she starred in Sarah and Son, portraying an impoverished housewife who rises to fame and fortune as an opera singer. The film was another critical and financial success, and Chatterton received a second Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Later that year, Chatterton was voted the second female star of the year, behind only Norma Shearer, in a poll conducted by the West Coast film exhibitors. Her first novel, Homeward Borne, was published in 1950 and became a best seller. She went on to write three more novels: The Betrayers (1953), The Pride of the Peacock (1954), and The Southern Wild (1958).

In 1947 she narrated a four-sided 78 rpm disc set, The Revolt of the Alphabet, written by John Byrne, with music by Vladimir Selinsky.

Chatterton came out of retirement in the 1950s, and appeared on U.S. television in several plays, including a TV adaptation of Dodsworth on Prudential Playhouse, alongside Mary Astor and Walter Huston. Her last television appearance was as Gertrude in a 1953 adaptation of Hamlet, with Maurice Evans in the title role, on the anthology series Hallmark Hall of Fame.

Personal life

Flying Chatterton was one of the few woman aviators of her era, and was good friends with Amelia Earhart. She flew solo across the U.S. several times, and served as sponsor of the Sportsman Pilot Mixed Air Derby and the annual Ruth Chatterton Air Derby during the 1930s; she also opened the National Air Races in Los Angeles in 1936. She taught British film and stage actor Brian Aherne to fly, an experience he described at length in his 1969 autobiography A Proper Job.

Marriages Chatterton was married three times and had no children. In 1924, she married British actor Ralph Forbes, who starred opposite her that same year in The Magnolia Lady, a musical version of the A.E. Thomas and Alice Duer Miller hit Come Out of the Kitchen. Their divorce was finalized on August 12, 1932. The following day, August 13, Chatterton married George Brent, her The Rich Are Always with Us and The Crash co-star, in Harrison, New York. The couple separated in March 1934 and were divorced in October 1934.

Chatterton married actor Barry Thomson in 1942. They remained married until his death in 1960.

Death

After the death of her third husband in 1960, Chatterton lived alone in the home they shared in Redding, Connecticut. On November 21, 1961, she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while friends were visiting her home. She was cremated and is interred in a niche in the Lugar Mausoleum (Section 11, Lot 303) at Beechwoods Cemetery in New Rochelle, New York.

Honors For her contribution to the motion-picture industry, Ruth Chatterton has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6263 Hollywood Blvd. She is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame.

Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes 1928 Sins of the Fathers Greta Blanke Lost film 1929 The Doctor's Secret Lillian Garson Lost film 1929 The Dummy Agnes Meredith 1929 Madame X Jacqueline Alternative title: AbsintheNominated: Academy Award for Best Actress 1929 Charming Sinners Kathryn Miles 1929 The Laughing Lady Marjorie Lee 1930 Sarah and Son Sarah Storm Nominated: Academy Award for Best Actress 1930 Paramount on Parade Floozie (The Montmartre Girl) 1930 The Lady of Scandal Elsie 1930 Anybody's Woman Pansy Gray 1930 The Right to Love Brooks Evans / Naomi Kellogg 1931 Unfaithful Lady Fay Kilkerry 1931 The Magnificent Lie Poll 1931 Once a Lady Anna Keremazoff 1932 Tomorrow and Tomorrow Eve Redman 1932 The Rich Are Always with Us Caroline Grannard 1932 The Crash Linda Gault 1932 Frisco Jenny Frisco Jenny Sandoval 1933 Lilly Turner Lilly "Queenie" Turner Dixon 1933 Female Alison Drake 1934 Journal of a Crime Francoise Moliet 1936 Lady of Secrets Celia Whittaker 1936 Girls' Dormitory Professor Anna Mathe 1936 Dodsworth Fran Dodsworth 1937 The Rat Zelia de Chaumont 1938 A Royal Divorce Josephine de Beauharnais

Television Year Title Role Notes 1948 The Philco Television Playhouse Episode: "Suspect" 1950 Prudential Family Playhouse Fran Dodsworth Episode: "Dodsworth" 1951 Celanese Theatre Kit Marlowe Episode: "Old Acquaintance" 1952 Pulitzer Prize Playhouse Alison Stanhope Episode: "Alison's House" 1952 Kraft Television Theatre Episode: "Paper Moon" 1953 Hamlet Gertrude Television film, (final film role)