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In this light, her work in “Mildred Pierce” (1945) gains a deeper meaning as it concerns the price women pay for caring about their careers, the tricky emotional dynamics of the domestic sphere, and a fraught mother/daughter dynamic which predicts issues Crawford would deal with personally later in life. Joan Crawford was a good, sometimes ...
- She Could Not Be Overshadowed
- She Had High Ambitions
- She Endured Family Hardships
- Her Resolve Strengthened
- She Brushed Off Body-Shaming Comments
- Her Appetite For Stardom Was Fierce
- She Made The Most of Opportunity
- She Worked on Self-Improvement
- She Was Biding Her Time
- She Used What God Gave Her
Andrew and Edith Shearer waited until their third child was born to give her Edith's name—but right from birth, that namesake would not define Edith Norma Shearer. She was determined to blaze her own path as “Norma.” She had everything a little girl could ever ask for, thanks to her father’s successful lumber business. Sadly, this “pleasant dream” ...
Shearer’s parents’ marriage was a tinderbox, and it was in danger of blowing at any minute. Her father suffered from manic depression, while her flamboyant mother had an unflagging zest for life. Edith focused her attention on her youngest child and hoped her daughter would be a famous concert pianist. Not wanting to live someone else’s dream, Shea...
When the economy slumped after WWI, the Shearer family fell on hard times. Shearer’s father had to sell his company and then lost almost everything in bad investments. On top of that, her sister Athole had a mental breakdown. The family moved into modest housing, but her mother wasn’t going to happily accept her new abode. So, she sold the piano an...
All dolled-up for their entrance on the NY scene, the Shearer party of three didn’t like their living conditions, which went from modest to bleak. Crammed like sardines into a one-room apartment, you can only imagine what they thought of the communal washroom shared by the whole floor! Shearer had entered the world with a taste of the good life, an...
Her first stop was to see Florenz Ziegfeld of the Ziegfeld Follies, a big name in the theater business—but she was in for a major disappointment. He blatantly rejected her, reportedly calling her a “dog,” and citing problematic physical traits such as crossed eyes and short legs. Shearer was well aware of her eye condition, crooked teeth, and a stu...
Shearer went with her sister for an audition to be extras in a film. The studio only needed a handful of extras, but there were 50 looking for the part. The casting agent wanted the most attractive and shapely young women. By the time he was one away from his limit, Shearer used her quick wits and coughed to get his attention, producing a big smile...
While working as an extra, Shearer snatched an opportunity to approach blockbuster director D.W. Griffith during a break to tell him about her ambitions. Considering lighting and angles, he knew exactly what to look for, and frankly stated that her eyes were no good. “You’ll never make it,” he said. Tell us what you really think, Griffith! Well, Sh...
Shearer sought out Dr. William Bates, a pioneer in the treatment of the eye condition strabismus. She used his daily muscle-strengthening exercises to prevent her eye from wandering in order to be ready for her time in the limelight. She further practiced poses that would conceal her physical flaws, always keeping her end goal in sight. But was it ...
Norma Shearer headed to the theater balconies of Broadway in order to study the physical movements of the actresses, particularly their entrances, to use in her roles in silent motion pictures. One of the actresses she studied was Katharine Cornell. Later, Shearer would play the role that Cornell originated in The Barretts of Wimpole Streetto much ...
Desperate for money, Shearer became a model. She was really good at holding a pose and sharpened her acting skills by being enthusiastic about the products she was promoting. She secured a title role for Kelly-Springfield Tires and became known as “Miss Lotta Miles”—a billboard beauty. However, this would come back to bite her much later… Flickr
Edith Norma Shearer (August 11, 1902 – June 12, 1983) was a Canadian-American actress who was active on film from 1919 through 1942. Shearer often played spunky, sexually liberated women. [5] She appeared in adaptations of Noël Coward , Eugene O'Neill , and William Shakespeare , [6] and was the first five-time Academy Award acting nominee ...
The prospect hardly satisfied her, however, and she pushed for more work, eventually securing a screen test and her first Hollywood job, as Norma Shearer’s body double in 1925’s Lady of the Night.
- Clarisse Loughrey
Feb 8, 2022 · Shearer retired in 1942 and married a former ski instructor, Martin Arrougé, a man 11 years younger than her. They remained together until her death in 1983 of pneumonia at the age of 80 at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California. She is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, her grave marked Norma Arrougé.
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She appeared in episodes of anthology television series in the 1950s, and, in 1959, made a pilot for The Joan Crawford Show. Later career In 1953 with Louis B. Mayer at the premiere of Torch Song. "To me, L.B. Mayer was my father, my father confessor, the best friend I ever had", Crawford was quoted as saying.
Mar 1, 2009 · The theme of virtually all this coverage was the nastiness among the women—the term “cat-fight” appears frequently—and this includes not just the characters on screen but the actresses themselves. Particularly highlighted was an alleged feud for top billing between Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, and Rosalind Russell.
