Gloria Stuart

1.1. Birth and Childhood

Gloria Frances Stewart was born at 11:00 p.m. on the Fourth of July, 1910, on her family's kitchen table in Santa Monica, California. She was the first child of Alice (née Deidrick) and Frank Stewart. Her mother, Alice, was a third-generation Californian whose grandmother had relocated to California from Missouri in a covered wagon in 1852. Stuart's father, Frank, a native of The Dalles, Oregon, was of Scottish descent and studied law in San Francisco. At the time of her birth, he worked as an attorney representing The Six Companies.

Stuart had two younger brothers: Frank Jr., born eleven months after her, who later became a respected sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times under the name Frank Finch; and Thomas, born two years after Frank Jr., who tragically died at age three from spinal meningitis. As a child, Stuart attended a Church of Christ with her mother and later a Catholic school. Her father, originally a Presbyterian, converted to Christian Science during her childhood. When Stuart was nine years old, her father died from an infection after an automobile grazed his leg. She was also expelled from grade school for kicking her teacher, an act she later justified by saying, "to be honest, she deserved it." Struggling to support two young children, her mother soon married local businessman Fred J. Finch. Stuart's half-sister, Patricia Marie Finch, was born in 1924. For a period, Stuart attended school under the name Gloria Fae Finch. She adopted "Frances" as her middle name, a feminine form of her father's name, as her parents had not given her one.

1.2. Education

Stuart attended Santa Monica High School, where she actively participated in theater, performing the lead role in her senior class play, The Swan. Her passion extended beyond acting to writing; she spent her last two high school summers taking short story and poetry writing classes and working as a cub reporter for the Santa Monica Outlook.

As a teenager, she had a difficult relationship with her stepfather, which motivated her to attend college and leave home. After high school, Stuart enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in philosophy and drama. During her college years, she appeared in plays, worked on the Daily Californian, contributed to the campus literary journal Occident, and posed as an artist's model. It was at Berkeley that she began signing her name Gloria "Stuart," believing the symmetry of the six letters would look better on a marquee than "Stewart." While a student at UC Berkeley, Stuart expressed a desire to join the Young Communist League, attracted by its stated mission to support "the poor and the oppressed." However, she was too young to join. She noted that her friendship with muckraker Lincoln Steffens provided her with "much deeper insight into the abuses of laborers and blue-collar workers," preparing her for future work in liberal causes in Hollywood.

At the end of her junior year, in June 1930, Stuart married Blair Gordon Newell, a young sculptor who apprenticed with Ralph Stackpole on the facade of the San Francisco Stock Exchange building. The Newells moved to Carmel-by-the-Sea, a vibrant artistic community that included figures like Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Robinson Jeffers, and Lincoln Steffens and his wife Ella Winter. In Carmel-by-the-Sea, Stuart performed in productions at the Theatre of the Golden Bough and worked as a staff member on The Carmelite newspaper. She also made hand-sewn aprons, patchwork pillows, and tea linens, and created bouquets of dried flowers for a tea shop where she also worked as a waitress. Newell laid brick, chopped wood, taught sculpture and woodworking, and managed a miniature golf course. They lived in a shack in a wood yard, serving as night watchmen. Stuart later described this period of her life as "wonderfully bohemian."

2.1. Early Film Career (1930s)

Stuart's performance in the theater in Carmel-by-the-Sea caught the attention of Gilmor Brown's private theater, The Playbox, in Pasadena, California. She was invited to appear as Masha in Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. On opening night, casting directors from Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures were in the audience. Both studios sought to sign her; Universal won a coin toss. Although Stuart considered herself a serious theater actress, she and Newell were "stony broke," prompting her to sign with Universal, which offered a slightly better salary than Paramount.

Stuart began her film career with Street of Women, a Pre-Code film from Warner Bros. for which she was loaned by Universal, playing an ingénue confronting her father's mistress. Her second film, The All-American, also featured her as an ingénue in a football-hero story. In early December 1932, the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers recognized Gloria Stuart as one of fifteen new movie actresses "Most Likely to Succeed," naming her a WAMPAS Baby Star, alongside future stars like Ginger Rogers.

Her career significantly advanced when English director James Whale cast her in his critically praised horror film The Old Dark House (1932). Stuart played the glamorous role of a sentimental wife stranded among strangers in a spooky mansion, alongside an ensemble cast including Boris Karloff, Melvyn Douglas, and Charles Laughton. The New York Times praised her performance as "clever and charming," and the film later became a cult classic. Stuart's experience during the filming of The Old Dark House was instrumental in the formation of the Screen Actors Guild in 1933. She recalled the disparity between the English actors, who had their "elevensies" and "foursies" breaks, and herself and Melvyn Douglas, who were not invited. Douglas suggested forming a union for better working conditions, as they were often working from 5 AM until the next morning without overtime or proper meal breaks. After filming, Stuart actively canvassed for supporters and became one of the union's first founding members. In June 1936, she helped Paul Muni, Franchot Tone, Ernst Lubitsch, and Oscar Hammerstein II establish the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League. That same year, she and writer Dorothy Parker co-founded the League to Support the Spanish Civil War Orphans.

Stuart received her first co-starring role from director John Ford in Air Mail (1932), opposite Pat O'Brien and Ralph Bellamy. The New York Times noted her strong performance. In her early career, it was common for two of Stuart's films to be in theaters simultaneously. In 1932, she had four film releases, followed by nine in 1933, and six in 1934. In 1935, while pregnant, she had four films released, and six in 1936. While her performances in films like Laughter in Hell, Sweepings, and Private Jones received brief positive mentions, her work in The Kiss Before the Mirror, where she had only one scene, was also highlighted by critics. After receiving good notices for The Girl in 419 and Secret of the Blue Room, James Whale cast her opposite Claude Rains in The Invisible Man (1933), Rains' first Hollywood film. Stuart became friends with Whale and his partner, David Lewis.

Stuart's first husband, Gordon Newell, was unhappy with Hollywood life, leading to their amicable separation and divorce. In 1933, while on the set of Roman Scandals, a comedy starring Eddie Cantor, Stuart met Arthur Sheekman, one of the film's writers. They were "instantly attracted to each other" and married in August 1934. In 1934, Universal loaned Stuart to Warner Brothers for Here Comes the Navy, where she co-starred with James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. The New York Times praised her "very creditable" performance.

2.2. 20th Century Fox and Mid-Career

In 1935, Stuart was cast as Dick Powell's love interest in Busby Berkeley's musical Gold Diggers of 1935. Due to her pregnancy, she did not dance or sing in the film. Later that year, Stuart left Universal and joined Twentieth Century-Fox. Her first assignment from studio head Darryl F. Zanuck was in Professional Soldier, supporting child star Freddie Bartholomew and Victor McLaglen. She also co-starred with Warner Baxter in John Ford's The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), playing the wife of the doctor who treated John Wilkes Booth. Stuart felt privileged to work with Ford again.

Stuart often found herself in supporting roles to child stars. In Poor Little Rich Girl and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, she supported Shirley Temple, and in Keep Smiling, she supported Jane Withers. Critics often noted her presence but rarely focused on her performance in these films. Other films during this period included The Girl on the Front Page, Girl Overboard, The Lady Escapes, Life Begins in College, Change of Heart, Island in the Sky, Time Out for Murder, The Lady Objects, The Three Musketeers (1939), Winner Take All, and It Could Happen to You. Despite some lukewarm reviews for the films themselves, Stuart had amassed a loyal fan base. In 1937, a fan with her portrait tattooed on his chest was featured with her in a Life magazine profile.

In November 1938, it was announced that Stuart had terminated her contract with Fox. In fact, Darryl Zanuck chose not to renew it. Early in 1939, Stuart and her husband Sheekman spent four months traveling in Asia, Egypt, and Italy, arriving in France just as France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany. Their request to stay, with Sheekman as a war correspondent and Stuart as a hospital volunteer, was denied by the American consul, who ordered their return to the United States. They caught the SS President Adams, the last American passenger ship to cross the Atlantic, arriving in New York City in September.

In New York, Stuart sought to return to stage acting, hoping for a Broadway career. She found opportunities in summer stock theater on the East Coast, performing in various productions between 1940 and 1942, including Man and Superman, The Animal Kingdom, The Night of January 16th, Accent on Youth, Mr. and Mrs. North, Arms and the Man, and Sailor Beware!. In August 1940, she starred as Emily Webb opposite Thornton Wilder-under Wilder's own direction-in his play Our Town, staged at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. To support the war effort in the 1940s, Stuart took singing and dancing lessons and toured the country with actress Hillary Brooke for the USO, visiting hospitals, dancing with servicemen, and selling war bonds. She wanted to volunteer for overseas service but her husband opposed it. On September 16, 1942, Stuart voiced Claire Winton in the Suspense (radio drama) episode 'The Kettler Method'.

Stuart returned to film with Here Comes Elmer (1943), a comedy starring Dale Evans. She then co-starred with Richard Dix in The Whistler (1944), an early directing credit for horror specialist William Castle. In her next film, Enemy of Women (1944), a war-themed drama, she was seventh in billing. Two years later, Stuart took one more role, wearing a redhead's wig in She Wrote the Book (1946), a comedy starring Joan Davis and Jack Oakie.

2.3. Return to Acting (Late 1970s-1990s)

In 1975, after nearly three decades away from the film industry, Stuart decided to return to acting. She secured an agent and was immediately cast in a small role as a store customer in the ABC television film The Legend of Lizzie Borden, starring Elizabeth Montgomery. From there, she landed bit parts, primarily in television, including guest appearances on series such as The Waltons and Murder, She Wrote. Her friend, director Nancy Malone, gave her a leading role in Merlene of the Movies, a quirky television film, and other friends offered her parts in their shows. In 1982, she appeared in My Favorite Year. Although her scene was brief and she had no lines, she was dancing with Peter O'Toole, an experience she described as a "great privilege." Following this, Stuart appeared in Jack Lemmon's drama Mass Appeal and Goldie Hawn's comedy Wildcats, along with more minor television roles. A vintage publicity photo of her was also used for the image of 'Peg', the sister of butler Alfred Pennyworth, in the 1997 film Batman & Robin.

2.4. Titanic and Career Resurgence

In May 1996, Stuart received a message about a film role from Lightstorm Entertainment regarding a movie about the Titanic, directed by James Cameron. The next afternoon, Cameron's casting director, Mali Finn, visited Stuart's house with a video camera. The following morning, Cameron himself came with his own video camera. Stuart later recalled feeling "not the least bit nervous," confident she would read Old Rose with the "sympathy and tenderness that Cameron had intended." Five days after her eighty-sixth birthday, Finn called to offer her the role of the 100-year-old elder Rose Dawson Calvert.

Most of Stuart's filming for Titanic was completed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, over approximately three weeks in early summer 1996. She also filmed and made recordings for several documentaries, did additional looping and dubbing for Cameron, and received offers for more films. The publicity blitz for Titanic began on April 7, 1997, and continued relentlessly. On December 17, 1997, Stuart was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. She also received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination, becoming one of the few Golden Age stars to attend the ceremony, alongside contemporaries like Fay Wray and Bob Hope. As of 2022, she remains the oldest nominee in an acting category. Stuart later parodied her role in the music video for the Hanson song "River," which was directed by "Weird Al" Yankovic.

On March 8, 1998, the Screen Actors Guild honored Stuart with its Founders Award. She also won the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, tying with Kim Basinger for L.A. Confidential. For both awards, Stuart received a standing ovation from her peers. The following May, People magazine included Stuart on their list of "The 50 Most Beautiful People in the World in 1998." Also in May, Stuart was the guest of honor at the Great Steamboat Race between the Belle of Louisville and the Delta Queen and served as Grand Marshal of the 1998 Kentucky Derby Festival's Pegasus Parade. She then signed a contract with Little, Brown and Company to write her autobiography, I Just Kept Hoping. Stuart made her debut at The Hollywood Bowl on July 19, 1998, reading the poem Standing Stone from Paul McCartney's oratorio.

2.5. Later Film and Television Appearances

Following her Titanic success, Stuart continued to act. She was invited by producer and star Kate Capshaw to join the cast of The Love Letter (1999), which she filmed in Rockport, Massachusetts. In October 1999, her native city of Santa Monica issued a Commendation, signed by Mayor Pam O'Connor, recognizing Gloria Stuart for her worldwide contributions and "inspirational message to always keep hoping." In September 2000, Stuart unveiled her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located in front of the Pig 'n Whistle café, which had opened in 1927 when she was still in high school.

She also made guest appearances on several television series, including the 2000 science fiction series The Invisible Man, Touched by an Angel, and General Hospital. Although she was once again cast in minor roles, Stuart's final two films were for director Wim Wenders. In 1999, she worked on The Million Dollar Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. In 2004, she appeared in Wenders' Land of Plenty, which marked her final film performance.

In 2006, Stuart donated her screen printing equipment to Mills College, where an exhibition of her work was held. On June 19, 2010, despite her illness, Stuart personally attended an event to be honored by the Screen Actors Guild for her years of service. At a luncheon, she was presented the Ralph Morgan Award by her Titanic co-star Frances Fisher. James Cameron and Shirley MacLaine were among the attendees. On July 22, 2010, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences celebrated Stuart's career with a program featuring film clips and conversations between Stuart and film historian Leonard Maltin, portrait artist Don Bachardy, and David S. Zeidberg, the Avery Director of the Huntington Library. One thousand people filled the Samuel Goldwyn Theater for the event. From the moment her casting in Titanic was announced, Stuart frequently appeared for interviews, discussing diverse subjects such as Groucho Marx, Shirley Temple, James Whale, horror movies, and friends Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy.

3.1. Early Artistic Pursuits

After abandoning her acting career in 1945, Stuart traveled to New York with her husband Sheekman, who was sent by Paramount to adapt the new play Dream Girl for the screen. While there, a friend introduced Stuart to the studio of a découpage artist. Drawn to the art form, Stuart felt it could replace acting in her life. With Sheekman's encouragement, she opened a shop called Décor, Ltd. on Los Angeles's decorators' row. Stuart created unique objets d'art such as découpaged lamps, mirrors, tables, and chests. Over the next four years, her work gained attention, and her pieces were carried by prestigious stores like Lord & Taylor in New York, Neiman Marcus in Dallas, Bullock's in Pasadena, and Gump's in San Francisco. However, the intensive labor involved in "the fine fine cutting, applying sixteen coats of lacquer" to each piece, along with other costs, proved prohibitive, leading Stuart to close her shop.

After living in rented spaces for ten years, Stuart and Sheekman purchased an old craftsman-style house. Stuart redesigned the interior, supervised the remodeling, designed all the furniture, and had it custom-made. In the garden, she planned the landscaping, including a greenhouse for orchids and a lath house for grafting fruit trees, spending hours cultivating and planting. Stuart described this period as becoming "a whirling dervish of creative renovation."

3.2. Painting and Serigraphy

In early 1954, during a visit to Paris, Stuart first encountered the Impressionist paintings at the Jeu de Paume museum. Much like her initial experience with découpage, she felt an immediate desire to pursue painting. The Sheekmans were en route to Italy, taking advantage of a tax incentive for American artists living abroad for at least eighteen months. Sheekman, now a very successful screenwriter, wanted to try writing another play. For the next eighteen months, Stuart dedicated herself to painting while Sheekman worked on his play.

Sheekman's comedy, The Joker, was scheduled to open in New York in April 1957 but was "taken off for repairs" during a pre-Broadway tour and never reopened. After seven years of daily painting, Stuart was ready to exhibit her work. In September 1961, Victor Hammer gave Stuart a debut one-woman show at his Hammer Galleries in New York, where nearly all forty of her canvases sold. In subsequent years, Stuart exhibited her primitive-style paintings in numerous shows, including at the Bianchini Gallery in New York, the Simon Patrich Galleries and The Egg and the Eye in Los Angeles, the Galerie du Jonelle in Palm Springs, and the Staircase Gallery in Beverly Hills. Stuart's paintings are part of many private collections and the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museum of New Mexico (Santa Fe), the Desert Museum of Palm Springs, and the Belhaven Museum (Jackson, Mississippi).

Stuart had been painting for almost thirty years when she found the challenges of primitive painting "wearing a little thin," becoming fascinated by the complex art form of serigraphy (silk screening). She studied with serigrapher Evelyn Johnson and subsequently created vivid serigraphs, which are also held in private collections.

3.3. Bonsai and Artist's Books

In the late 1960s, Stuart embraced another art form: bonsai. She took classes from Frank Nagata, a colleague of John Naka, a renowned bonsai master in Los Angeles. She joined Nagata's bonsai club, Baiko-En, and became one of the first Anglo members of the California Bonsai Society. Eventually, Stuart's collection grew to over one hundred miniature trees.

Stuart's husband Arthur Sheekman died in January 1978. Five years later, Ward Ritchie, a close friend of Stuart's first husband, Gordon Newell, sent Stuart one of his books. Ritchie had become a celebrated printer, book designer, and printing historian. With his commercial Ward Ritchie Press and private Laguna Verde Imprenta press, Ritchie produced distinguished books on the arts, poetry, cookery, and the American West. Stuart invited him to dinner, and they fell in love. Ritchie was seventy-eight and Stuart seventy-two. When Stuart first followed Ritchie into his studio and watched him pull a printed page from his 1839 English iron Albion hand press, she was inspired to learn the craft herself. After studying typesetting at the Women's Workshop in Los Angeles, Stuart purchased her own hand press, a Vandercook SP15, and established her private press, Imprenta Glorias. In 1984, Stuart was diagnosed with breast cancer, but successfully treated the disease with a lumpectomy followed by radiation therapy.

In the late 1980s, Stuart began experimenting with making Artist's books. She designed several, wrote the text (often poetry), set the type-carefully selecting the style to match the subject-printed the pages, and then decorated them with watercolors, silk screen, découpage, or a combination of these techniques. She created both large and miniature artist's books, some of which took years to complete. One notable collaboration, completed in 1996 with artist Don Bachardy, is owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Through Ritchie, Stuart was introduced to prestigious librarians and bibliophiles from San Francisco to Paris. Imprenta Glorias books can be found in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Huntington Library, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Library of Congress, the Los Angeles Public Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Morgan Library & Museum, the New York Public Library, the Occidental College Library, the Princeton University Library, the UCLA Clark Library, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as in private collections. Stuart and Ritchie were together for thirteen years until his death from pancreatic cancer in 1996.

4.1. Unionization and Political Engagement

Stuart was a lifelong Democrat. Her early experience with demanding working conditions in Hollywood, particularly during the filming of The Old Dark House, spurred her involvement in labor rights. She became a co-founding member of the Screen Actors Guild in 1933, actively canvassing for supporters to establish the union and work for better conditions for actors.

In 1936, she co-founded the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League alongside prominent figures like Paul Muni, Franchot Tone, Ernst Lubitsch, and Oscar Hammerstein II. This organization actively opposed Nazism and promoted democratic values. That same year, she and writer Dorothy Parker helped establish the League to Support the Spanish Civil War Orphans, demonstrating her commitment to international humanitarian causes. In 1938, as a member of the Hollywood Democratic Committee, Stuart served on the executive board of the California State Democratic Committee, further solidifying her political engagement.

4.2. Environmental Advocacy

Stuart was also an avid environmentalist, passionately committed to conservation efforts. She stated, "I belong to every organization that has to do with saving the environment." She was outspoken in her criticism of industries she viewed as exploitative, declaring, "I'm fed up with venal and avaricious forestry people, mining people, oil people, gas people. I think the abuse of the environment is sinful." Her advocacy highlighted her deep concern for ecological preservation and her willingness to speak out against practices she deemed harmful to the planet.

5.1. Marriages and Family

Stuart married twice. Her first marriage was to Blair Gordon Newell, a sculptor, from June 1930 to 1934. They separated amicably and divorced. During their time together in Carmel-by-the-Sea, they lived a "wonderfully bohemian" life, engaging with a vibrant community of artists.

In 1933, while working on the film Roman Scandals, Stuart met Arthur Sheekman, one of the movie's writers. They were "instantly attracted to each other" and married in August 1934. Stuart gave birth to their daughter, Sylvia Vaughn Thompson, in June 1935. Sylvia was named after Princess Sylvia, Stuart's character in Roman Scandals. Arthur Sheekman died in January 1978.

5.2. Later Relationships

Five years after Sheekman's death, in 1983, Ward Ritchie, a close friend of Stuart's first husband, sent her one of his books. Ritchie had become a celebrated printer, book designer, and printing historian. Stuart invited him to dinner, and they fell in love. Ritchie was seventy-eight and Stuart seventy-two. They shared a deep connection, particularly through their mutual passion for fine printing and artist's books. They remained together for thirteen years until Ritchie's death from pancreatic cancer in 1996.

Stuart was also a skilled amateur chef and frequently hosted dinner parties in Hollywood. She was close friends with American food writer M. F. K. Fisher, who was the godmother to Stuart's daughter, Sylvia Vaughn Thompson. Thompson later described her mother's cooking style as "based on the intricacies of composition. It borders on the baroque. Everyone adores it." After tasting Stuart's goose in Kirschwasser aspic, the writer Samuel Hoffenstein composed a poem, comically claiming it was inspired by "hearing the wings of all the poets brush thro' Gloria's kitchen." Stuart's mother, Alice, was also an avid cook, producing specialties from the San Joaquin Valley, where her family had lived for generations.

8.1. Filmography

8.2. Television Works

8.3. Selected Artwork

Screen prints

Artist's books