Claudette Colbert
Beatrice "Bea" Pullman
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Imitation of Life is a 1934 American drama film directed by John M. Stahl. The screenplay by William Hurlbut, based on Fannie Hurst's 1933 novel of the same name, was augmented by eight additional uncredited writers, including Preston Sturges and Finley Peter Dunne.
With Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Rochelle Hudson, Ned Sparks. A struggling widow and her daughter take in a Black housekeeper and her fair-skinned daughter; the two women start a successful business but face familial, identity, and racial issues along the way.
Through a chance meeting, two widowed mothers - one white, Beatrice Pullman (Claudette Colbert), and one black, Delilah Johnson (Louise Beavers) - decide to pool their talents and go into business together, opening a waffle shop.
Jan 10, 2023 · Directed by John M. Stahl for Universal Pictures, and based on Fannie Hurst’s best-selling 1933 prefeminist rags-to-riches novel of the same name, the film raises issues of gender roles, labor, race, identity, and the American dream in a melodramatic framework that might have otherwise been regarded as that of a mere “ladies’ picture.”
Imitation of Life (1934) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more.
The lives of a widow and her housekeeper are united first in mutual need, then success and ultimately, in heartache in this Academy Award-nominated Best Picture.
Widow Bea Pullman (Claudette Colbert) and her daughter, Jessie, take in a fair-skinned black girl and her mother, housekeeper Delilah Johnson (Louise Beavers). Struggling to make ends meet ...
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A struggling widow and her daughter take in a Black housekeeper and her fair-skinned daughter; the two women start a successful business but face familial, identity, and racial issues along the way. Bea Pullman and her daughter Jessie have had a hard time making ends meet since Bea's husband died.
Imitation of Life. Melodrama master John M. Stahl brings his exquisite restraint and almost spiritually pure visual style to this devastating, enduringly relevant story of mothers and daughters. Imitation of Life explores the friendship between two struggling single mothers: one (Claudette Colbert) a working-class white woman who ascends to the ...
Imitation of Life, based on Fannie Hurst’s 1933 novel, focuses on single mother Bea (Claudette Colbert), who successfully markets her Black maid Delilah’s (Louise Beavers) pancake recipe but fails to improve the plight of Delilah’s daughter, Peola (Fredi Washington), who “passes” for white.
