Line #54 Creator/BarbaraStanwyck


1	[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/red_salute_barbara_stanwyck_1935.jpg]]
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3	->''"I'm a tough old broad from Brooklyn. I intend to go on acting until I'm 90 and they won't need to paste my face with make-up."''
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5	Barbara Stanwyck (born Ruby Catherine Stevens; July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was one of the greatest screen actors of Hollywood's studio era, who appeared in both films and television and had many successes during UsefulNotes/ThePreCodeEra and UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood.
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7	[[DarkAndTroubledPast She had a rough childhood]]. Stanwyck was orphaned at the age of four when her mother died from a car crash caused by a drunk and her father disappeared while working at the Panama Canal. Stanwyck's sister Mildred got a PromotionToParent at the ripe old age of nine. Mildred got a job as a dancer in a traveling theater troupe, and Ruby tagged along sometimes, thus getting a taste for show business. At age 16 she got a job dancing in the Ziegfeld Follies. This led to parts on the stage, and starring roles on Broadway by the time she was 20. That, in turn, led to parts in movies in the late silent era, and by 1930, starring roles.
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9	Stanwyck made 85 films over a 38-year motion picture career. She continued to be a leading actor for decades, at a time when fellow stars such as Creator/GretaGarbo, Creator/MarleneDietrich, Creator/KatharineHepburn, and Creator/IngridBergman ebbed and flowed in their fortunes and star power. Her incredible range was the main reason – she could play anything from a self-sacrificing, noble mother (''Film/{{Stella Dallas\|1937}}'') to a slutty, [[GoldDigger gold-digging]] schemer (''Film/BabyFace''), a {{con artist}} with a heart of gold (''Film/TheLadyEve''), a murderous {{femme fatale}} (''Film/DoubleIndemnity''), or a {{screwball comedy}} heroine (''Film/BallOfFire'').
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11	Directors almost unanimously praised her, whether it was Creator/FrankCapra, Creator/WilliamAWellman, Creator/PrestonSturges, Creator/SamuelFuller, or Creator/DouglasSirk, and even a notoriously prickly actor-hating director like Creator/FritzLang called her "an angel".
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13	Stanwyck was nominated for four competitive UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s but never won. As she got older she moved to television roles (her last film was in 1964), most notably the steely family matriarch Victoria Barkley in the {{Western}} series ''Series/TheBigValley'', and won three UsefulNotes/{{Emmy\|Award}}s. She also received an honorary Oscar in 1982 for her body of work, and in 1999 the Creator/AmericanFilmInstitute named her the eleventh-greatest female star of classic Hollywood.
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15	She was married to actor-comedian Frank Fay from 1928 to 1935 and to Creator/RobertTaylor from 1939 to 1951. She had one adopted son with Fay. She died of congestive heart failure and COPD at the age of 82 in 1990.
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18	!!Barbara Stanwyck's works:
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20	[[AC:Filmography]]
21	* ''Film/LadiesOfLeisure'' (1930)
22	* ''Film/{{Illicit}}'' (1931)
23	* ''Film/TheMiracleWoman'' (1931)
24	* ''Film/NightNurse'' (1931)
25	* ''Film/{{Forbidden\|1932}}'' (1932)
26	* ''Film/ThePurchasePrice'' (1932)
27	* ''[[Literature/SoBig So Big!]]'' (1932)
28	* ''Film/BabyFace'' (1933)
29	* ''Film/TheBitterTeaOfGeneralYen'' (1933)
30	* ''Film/LadiesTheyTalkAbout'' (1933)
31	* ''Film/{{Stella Dallas\|1937}}'' (1937)
32	* ''Film/TheMadMissManton'' (1938)
33	* ''Film/{{Golden Boy\|1939}}'' (1939)
34	* ''Film/UnionPacific'' (1939)
35	* ''Film/RememberTheNight'' (1940)
36	* ''Film/BallOfFire'' (1941)
37	* ''Film/TheLadyEve'' (1941)
38	* ''Film/MeetJohnDoe'' (1941)
39	* ''Film/LadyOfBurlesque'' (1943)
40	* ''Film/DoubleIndemnity'' (1944)
41	* ''Film/ChristmasInConnecticut'' (1945)
42	* ''Film/MyReputation'' (1946)
43	* ''Film/TheStrangeLoveOfMarthaIvers'' (1946)
44	* ''Film/{{Cry Wolf\|1947}}'' (1947)
45	* ''Film/SorryWrongNumber'' (1948)
46	* ''Film/{{No Man of Her Own\|1950}}'' (1950)
47	* ''Film/TheFuries'' (1950)
48	* ''Film/ClashByNight'' (1952)
49	* ''{{Film/Titanic\|1953}}'' (1953)
50	* ''Film/ExecutiveSuite'' (1954)
51	* ''Film/FortyGuns'' (1957)
52	* ''Film/TheNightWalker'' (1964)
53	* ''Film/{{Roustabout}}'' (1964)
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55	[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
56	* ''Series/TheBarbaraStanwyckShow''
57	* ''Series/TheBigValley'' (TV series, 1965-69)
58	* ''Series/TheThornBirds'' (TV miniseries, 1983)
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60	!!Tropes
61	* DeadpanSnarker: Much of her movie and television roles, often in an OnlySaneWoman way.
62	* DramaticHalfHour: ''Series/TheBarbaraStanwyckShow'' was formatted in half-hour emissions.
63	* LegFocus: She danced occasionally and had gorgeous, shapely legs that made her a popular pinup girl.
64	* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Barbara's voice stuck out in her film career because she spoke in her natural Brooklyn accent, whereas other Hollywood actors at the time were taught to speak in a more genteel sounding Mid-Atlantic accent.
65	* SmokyVoice: Stanwyck apparently started smoking at ''nine''. She didn't quit until a few months before her death.
66	* StageNames: An interesting case of someone born with a fairly generic name (Ruby Stevens) choosing a more unusual stage name, with "Barbara" coming from a character she played in a Broadway play, and "Stanwyck" from the surname of one of the other actors in the play.
67	* ThoseTwoActors: Did...
68	** Three films with Creator/GaryCooper.
69	** Three films with Creator/HenryFonda.
70	** Four films with Creator/FredMacMurray.
71	** ''Six'' films with Creator/JoelMcCrea.
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73	->''"[[WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy Barbara Stanwyck and I used to take the trolley.]]"''

Context Creator / BarbaraStanwyck