Barbara Stanwyck

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July 16, 1907

January 20, 1990 (aged 82) in Santa Monica, California of congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at Saint John's Health Center, in Santa Monica, California. Her body was cremated, and her ashes scattered in Lone Pine, California. She did not have a funeral and has no grave.

Ruby Catherine Stevens

Robert Taylor (14 May 1939 - 25 February 1952) (divorced)

Frank Fay (26 August 1928 - 30 December 1935) (divorced) 1 child

Stanwyck had an affair with actor Robert Wagner, whom she met on the set of Titanic. Wagner, who was 22, and Stanwyck, who was 45 at the beginning of the affair, had a four-year romance, as described in Wagner's 2008 memoir, Pieces of My Heart. Stanwyck broke off the relationship.

1941 had an affair with Henry Fonda

Actress

1985-1986 The Colbys (TV series)

1985 Dynasty (TV series)

1983 The Thorn Birds (TV mini-series)

1980 Charlie's Angels (TV series)

1973 The Letters (TV movie)

1971 A Taste of Evil (TV movie)

1970 The House That Would Not Die (TV movie)

1965-1969 The Big Valley (TV series)

1964 The Night Walker

1964 Roustabout

1961-1964 Wagon Train (TV series)

1964 Calhoun: County Agent (TV movie)

1962-1963 The Untouchables (TV series)

1962 The Dick Powell Show (TV series)

1962 Walk on the Wild Side

1962 Rawhide (TV series)

1961 General Electric Theater (TV series)

1960-1961 The Barbara Stanwyck Show (TV series)

1958-1959 Zane Grey Theater (TV series)

1958 Decision (TV series)

1958 Goodyear Theatre (TV series)

1958 Alcoa Theatre (TV series)

1957 Forty Guns

1957 Trooper Hook

1957 Crime of Passion

1956 The Ford Television Theatre (TV series)

1956 These Wilder Years

1956 The Maverick Queen

1956 There's Always Tomorrow

1955 Escape to Burma

1955 The Violent Men

1954 Cattle Queen of Montana

1954 Witness to Murder

1954 Executive Suite

1953 The Moonlighter

1953 Blowing Wild

1953 All I Desire

1953 Titanic

1953 Jeopardy

1952 Clash by Night

1951 The Man with a Cloak

1950 To Please a Lady

1950 The Furies

1950 No Man of Her Own

1950 The File on Thelma Jordon

1949 East Side, West Side

1949 The Lady Gambles

1948 Sorry, Wrong Number

1948 B.F.'s Daughter

1947 Cry Wolf

1947 The Other Love

1947 The Two Mrs. Carrolls

1947 California

1946 The Strange Love of Martha Ivers

1946 The Bride Wore Boots

1946 My Reputation

1945 Christmas in Connecticut

1944 Hollywood Canteen

1944 Double Indemnity

1943 Flesh and Fantasy

1943 Lady of Burlesque

1942 The Gay Sisters

1942 The Great Man's Lady

1941 Ball of Fire

1941 You Belong to Me

1941 Meet John Doe

1941 The Lady Eve

1940 Remember the Night

1939 Golden Boy

1939 Union Pacific

1938 The Mad Miss Manton

1938 Always Goodbye

1937 Breakfast for Two

1937 Stella Dallas

1937 This Is My Affair

1937 Internes Can't Take Money

1936 The Plough and the Stars

1936 Banjo on My Knee

1936 His Brother's Wife

1936 The Bride Walks Out

1936 A Message to Garcia

1935 Annie Oakley

1935 Red Salute

1935 The Woman in Red

1934 The Secret Bride

1934 A Lost Lady

1934 Gambling Lady

1933 Ever in My Heart

1933 Baby Face

1933 Ladies They Talk About

1933 The Bitter Tea of General Yen

1932 The Purchase Price

1932 So Big!

1932 Shopworn

1932 Forbidden

1931 The Miracle Woman

1931 Night Nurse

1931 Ten Cents a Dance

1931 Illicit

1930 Ladies of Leisure

1929 Mexicali Rose

1929 The Locked Door

1927 Broadway Nights (uncredited)

Appearances

1987 The American Film Institute Salute to Barbara Stanwyck (TV special documentary)

1986 The 43rd Annual Golden Globe Awards (TV special)

1983 The 35th Annual Emmy Awards (TV special)

1982 The 54th Annual Academy Awards (TV special)

1978 The 50th Annual Academy Awards (TV special)

1978 The American Film Institute Salute to Henry Fonda (TV special documentary)

1971 Film Night (TV series)

1967 The Merv Griffin Show (TV series)

1963 The World's Greatest Showman: The Legend of Cecil B. DeMille (TV documentary)

1961 The Joey Bishop Show (TV series)

1960-1961 The Barbara Stanwyck Show (TV series)

1952-1959 The Jack Benny Program (TV series)

1959 The Real McCoys (TV series)

1957 The Christophers (TV series)

1955 Letter to Loretta (TV series)

1949 The 21th Annual Academy Awards (TV special)

1947 Variety Girl

1945 Hollywood Victory Caravan (short)

1945 The 17th Annual Academy Awards (TV special)

1940 Screen Snapshots Series 19, No 6: Hollywood Recreations (documentary short)

1939 Screen Snapshots Series 18, No. 9 (documentary short)

1938 Hollywood Goes to Town (documentary short)

1938 Screen Snapshots Series 17, No. 6 (documentary short)

1931 Screen Snapshots Series 10, No. 8 (documentary short)

1931 The Slippery Pearls (short)

1930 The Voice of Hollywood No. 14 (short) (uncredited)

Academy Awards

1982 Won Honorary Award For superlative creativity and unique contribution to the art of screen acting.

1949 Nominated Oscar Best Actress in a Leading Role
for: Sorry, Wrong Number (1948).

1945 Nominated Oscar Best Actress in a Leading Role
for: Double Indemnity (1944).

1942 Nominated Oscar Best Actress in a Leading Role
for: Ball of Fire (1941).

1938 Nominated Oscar Best Actress in a Leading Role
for: Stella Dallas (1937).

American Film Institute

1987 Won Life Achievement Award

Emmy Awards

1983 Won Emmy Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Special for: "The Thorn Birds" (1983). For part 1.

1968 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series for: "The Big Valley" (1965).

1967 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series for: "The Big Valley" (1965).

1966 Won Emmy Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series
for: "The Big Valley" (1965).

1961 Won Emmy Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Series (Lead) for: "The Barbara Stanwyck Show" (1960).

Film Society of Lincoln Center

1981 Won Gala Tribute

Golden Apple Awards

1983 Won Golden Apple Female Star of the Year
Together with Ann-Margret.

1961 Won Golden Apple Most Cooperative Actress

Golden Boot Awards

1998 Won In Memoriam Award

Golden Globes

1986 Won Cecil B. DeMille Award

1984 Won Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV for: "The Thorn Birds" (1983).

1968 Nominated Golden Globe Best TV Star - Female
for: "The Big Valley" (1965).

1967 Nominated Golden Globe Best TV Star - Female
for: "The Big Valley" (1965).

1966 Nominated Golden Globe Best TV Star - Female
for: "The Big Valley" (1965).

Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards

1981 Won Career Achievement Award

Photoplay Awards

1967 Won Most Popular Female Star

1966 Won Most Popular Female Star

Screen Actors Guild Awards

1967 Won Life Achievement Award

Venice Film Festival

1954 Won Special Jury Prize for: Executive Suite (1954).
For ensemble acting.

Walk of Fame

1960 Star on the Walk of Fame Motion Picture
On 8 February 1960. At 1751 Vine Street.

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Barbara Stanwyck made her screen debut as a fan dancer in Broadway Nights (1927). Surprisingly often cast as a stripper, she was the sexiest of the grand dames of Hollywood's golden age, in comic mode as the con woman ensnaring Henry Fonda's snake expert in The Lady Eve (1941) and dead serious as Phyllis Dietrichson tempting Fred MacMurray into murder in Double Indemnity (1944). Often dubbed "The Best Actress who never won an Oscar," Stanwyck received four Academy Award nominations, including one for Double Indemnity, but - apart from an honorary award in 1981 - she never won.

After her mother's death when she was four, and the abandonment of her father, Stanwyck was raised in foster homes, working as a model and chorus girl from the age of thirteen. She had a flurry of provocative roles in pre-Code films, including Baby Face (1933), a frank, cynical picture about an amiably amoral tramp who sleeps her way to the top of a skyscraper. Proven as a star and a versatile actress who could play repressed spinsters (The Bitter Tea of General Yen, 1933) as well as uncorseted minxes, Stanwyck survived the arrival of heavier censorship in the mid-1930s to benefit from tailor-made roles like Annie Oakley (1935), in which she shows for the first time how well she looks in Western duds, and Stella Dallas (1937), where she is more honestly affecting in soap opera than Joan Crawford in similar roles.

The sass of Stanwyck's early roles translated well into screwball comedy: she's a hoot in The Mad Miss Manton (1938) and Christmas in Connecticut (1945). After Double Indemnity, she made a few more films noirs, including The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946). In The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947), Cry Wolf (1947), and Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), she is apparently or actually persecuted by husbands Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, and Burt Lancaster, and works up a fine line in repressed hysteria. In the 1950s, she played middle-aged nymphomaniacs (Clash by Night, 1952; Blowing Wild, 1953) and cattle baronesses (Cattle Queen of Montana, 1954; Forty Guns, 1957), then in the mid-1960s Stanwyck retired to a successful career in TV.

On The Small Screen

When her movie career declined, Barbara Stanwyck made the successful transition from big to small screen. Although The Barbara Stanwyck Show (1961-1962) was not a hit, it earned her an Emmy. She did, however, achieve great popularity (and another Emmy) in her role as the Barkley family matriarch of the Western series The Big Valley (1965-1969). In the 1980s she struck TV gold once more as Constance Colby in Dynasty and its spin-off series The Colbys. (She had turned down the role of Angela Channing in Falcon Crest, which went to Jane Wyman instead.) She gained a final Emmy for The Thorn Birds in 1983.

I couldn't remember my name for weeks. I'd be at the theater and hear them calling, 'Miss Stanwyck, Miss Stanwyck,' and I'd think, 'Where is that dame? Why doesn't she answer? By crickie, it's me!'

Her mother died when she was accidentally knocked off a trolley by a drunk. Barbara was four at the time.

In 1981 she was beaten and robbed in her bedroom by an intruder who woke her up at 1:00 in the morning.

In 1985, her house was destroyed in a fire. She was upset to lose all of Robert Taylor's love letters.

Godmother of Tori Spelling.

Salary

Titanic (1953) $75,000

Forbidden (1932) $50,000