Barbara Stanwyck

Born: 16 July 1907
Where: Brooklyn, New York
Died: 20 January 1990

Born Ruby Stevens, she was orphaned at a young age and raised by an older sister. She quit school at 13 and, after working in several menial jobs, wangled a spot in a chorus line.

Intent on becoming an actress, she worked hard and eventually landed the female lead in Broadway melodrama, The Noose.

Stanwyck changed her name from Ruby Stevens, with the inspiration said to come from a theatrical poster which announced "Jane Stanwyck in Barbara Frietchie".

In 1931, she made impressive appearances in Frank Capra's Miracle Woman, William Wellman's Night Nurse, and later in the classic Stella Dallas.

Stanwyck hit her peak in the 1940s, alternating between comic roles, in classics such as The Lady Eve and Ball of Fire, and tough femme fatale parts in Double Indemnity and The Strange Love of Martha Ivers.

Her often sultry manner made her ideal for film noir, while her forthright quality and gutsy screen characters also worked well in Westerns ranging from Annie Oakley to Cattle Queen of Montana and Forty Guns.

Though her big-screen career had faltered by the late 1950s, she remained popular on TV, winning several Emmy awards.

She made several TV-movies in the late 1960s and early 70s and was lured out of semi-retirement in 1983 to costar in TV's The Thorn Birds, for which she won another Emmy, and also in Dynasty II: The Colbys.

Nominated for four Academy Awards, it wasn't until 1982 that Barbara was awarded an honorary Academy Award for "superlative creativity and unique contribution to the art of screen acting."