| Margaret
Sullavan |
from Three Comrades (1938) |
| Birth name |
Margaret Brooke Sullavan |
| Born |
May 16 1909(1909--)
Norfolk, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died |
January 1 1960 (aged 50)
New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Spouse(s) |
Henry Fonda (1931-1932)
William Wyler (1934-1936)
Leland Hayward (1936-1947); three children
Kenneth Wagg (1950-1960)
|
Margaret Brooke Sullavan (May 16, 1909 – January 1, 1960) was an Oscar-nominated
American actress.
Early years
Sullavan was born in Norfolk, Virginia, the
daughter of a wealthy stockbroker, Cornelius Sullavan and his wife Garland, nee Brooke. She
attended boarding school at Chatham Episcopal Institute (now Chatham Hall), where she was
president of the student body and delivered the salutory oration in 1927. She moved to Boston and lived with her half-sister,
Weedie, and where she became involved with the Harvard Dramatic Club. She debuted in
Close Up in 1929. Another member of the class was Henry Fonda. Charlie Leatherbee and Josh Logan were in the audience and
invited her to join them in Falmouth, Massachusetts, to be in the University Players. She appeared in their first production,
The Devil in the Cheese, her debut in the professional stage. Eventually she was cast by Lee
Shubert in her first Broadway play, A Modern Virgin (1931).
Career
Sullavan arrived in Hollywood on May 16, 1933, her 24th birthday. Her film debut came in 1933 in
Only Yesterday and she received her sole Oscar nomination as Best Actress for the WWI-era romance Three
Comrades (1938). She co-starred in four films with James Stewart, with
whom she and Fonda had acted in a stock company when they were all unknowns: Next Time We
Love (1936), Shopworn Angel (1938), The
Mortal Storm and The Shop Around the Corner (both 1940).
Other major films during this period include Little Man, What Now? (1934),
The Good Fairy (1935, directed by Wyler), The
Shining Hour (1938, with Joan Crawford), So Ends
Our Night, Back Street, Appointment for Love (all 1941) and Cry 'Havoc'
(1943).
Her last screen performance was in the film No Sad Songs for Me (1950), directed
by Rudolph Maté and written by Howard
Koch. She came out of retirement in 1952 to appear in Terence Rattigan's
dramaThe Deep Blue Sea on Broadway, followed the next year by the Broadway
premiere of Samuel Taylor's comedy, Sabrina
Fair. She also appeared on TV in Chevrolet Tele-Theater, Studio One, Magnavox Theater, and
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1751 Vine Street.
| Awards |
Preceded by
Greta Garbo
for Camille |
NYFCC Award for Best Actress
1938
forThree Comrades |
Succeeded by
Vivien Leigh
for Gone with the Wind |
Marriages
Sullavan was married four times. She married Henry Fonda on December 25, 1931. The marriage ended the following year, although Sullavan
and "Hank" remained lifelong friends. Her next marriage, to director William Wyler, was
equally brief. Her third marriage, to agent and producer Leland Hayward, lasted eleven
years and produced three children: Brooke, born July 5, 1937; Bridget, born 1939; and William Leland, born 1941. Sullavan and
Hayward divorced in 1947, and three years later she married Kenneth Wagg, to whom she was married at the time of her death.
Death
Sullavan suffered from depression and a congenital hearing defect in her left ear called otosclerosis
that worsened as she aged, making her more and more deaf. She was found dead in a hotel room in
New Haven, Connecticut, having succumbed to a deliberate overdose of
barbiturates at the age of 50, January 1, 1960. (A daughter, Bridget Hayward, died nine
months later from an overdose.)
Her daughter, actress Brooke Hayward, wrote Haywire, a memoir about her family.[1] It was made into a television movie starring Lee Remick.
Quotation
- "Most actors are basically neurotic people. Terribly, terribly unhappy. That's one of the reasons they become actors. Nobody
well adjusted would ever want to expose himself or herself to a large group of strangers. Think of it. Insanity! Generally, by
their very nature - that is if they're at all dedicated - actors do not make good parents. They are altogether egotistical and
selfish. The better the actor - and I hate to say it, the bigger the star - why, the more that seems to be true. Honestly, I
don't think I've ever known one - not one! - star who was successfully able to combine a career and family life." - Margaret
Sullavan[2]
References
- ^ Hayward, Brooke.
Haywire. A.Knopf (1977).
- ^ Hayward, Brooke.
Haywire. A.Knopf (1977), 218.
External links
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