Born Today February 27: Joan Bennett

 

1910-1990

 

Actress Joan Bennett is instantly recognizable as the matriarch of the cult gothic television series "Dark Shadows," but she got her start in films at a very young age and very much in the silent era. Bennett was born on this day in the Palisades area of film studio town Fort Lee, New Jersey. Her career was a long a varied one that started when she was just six years old. Bennett was one of three acting daughters of actor Richard Bennett and his second wife actress/writer Adrienne Morrison. The Bennett's were from a long line of actors, with Richard being the first to enter films. As far as silent films go, it is Joan's older sister Constance is much more associated with the era. Her other older sister Barbara, was also an actress, though much lesser known, with a very short career. All three of them made their motion picture debut in The Valley of Decision, starring both of their parents, in 1916. Joan is also listed as having a small part in the 1923 Bert Lytell/Barbara La Marr war drama The Eternal City at the age of 13. She was married and divorced, and had a child, all before making her actual professional acting debut at the age of 18.  And, her debut came on the stage in 1928; acting again with her father, she had a major part in a Broadway production that ran for more than 130 performances. She also started her film career in earnest that same year, starting out in the fully silent comedy Power with William Boyd (later Hopalong Cassidy) and Alan Hale Sr. (father of "The Skipper" on Gilligan's Island). Though she only had a supporting role (Jacqueline Logan had the female lead), her performance got her noticed, making her instantly an in-demand actor for film work.  She was almost instantly cast in the early talkie Bulldog Drummond (May 1929) starring Ronald Colman; following close on with Three Live Ghosts (September 1929) and the Oscar winning Disraeli (November 1929).  At just 19, Joan Bennett was a full fledged film star; and appeared in one additional talkie in 1929, taking the female lead in The Mississippi Gambler opposite Austrian born actor Joseph Schildkraut (there was a silent version of this film and that released simultaneously with the all talking version). She quickly followed this up with the leading lady role of Dolores Fenton in the romantic nightlife film Puttin' on the Ritz in March of 1930. Just a few of her leading roles in the 1930's include: Moby Dick (1930) with John Barrymore, Doctors' Wives (1931) with Warner Baxter, She Wanted a Millionaire (1932) with Spencer Tracy, Little Women (1933) with Katherine Hepburn, The Pursuit of Happiness (1934) with Francis Lederer, Two For Tonight (1935) with Bing Crosby, Wedding Present (1936) with Cary Grant, I Met My Love Again (1938) with Henry Fonda and The Man In The Iron Mask (1939) with Louis Hayward. In 1940, she appeared in James Whale's adventure film Green Hell with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., John Howard, Alan Hale Sr., and Vincent Price. She next appeared in the gangster film The House Across the Bay (1940) with George Raft, worked with director Fritz Lang in Man Hunt (1941) and Otto Preminger in Margin For Error (1943).  She would work with Lang three more times during the decade. But, Bennett is best known today for her television work, and she made her television debut in 1951 in an episode of Nash Airflyte Theatre (which aired on the 8th of February).  The series was live. Though she did act in a handful of films during the 1950's, most of her work during that decade was for the small screen. In 1959 she was given her own series "Too Young to Go Steady," made for NBC, though it was cancelled after seven episode. In 1966, she was cast as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard in the supernatural soap "Dark Shadows" created by Dan Curtis for ABC. Bennett appeared in nearly 400 episodes during the six years of the show's run.  Her other famous role of Madame Blanc came in Dario Argento's 1977 witch horror Suspiria.  She had just three more acting jobs after appearing in Argento's film; all of them were made for television films. The last of these was Divorce Wars: A Love Story, made for ABC, it stars Tom Selleck and Jane Curtin (yes the SNL alum) and aired on the 1st of March in 1982.  She then retired and lived in New York state until her death from natural causes on the 7th of December in 1990 at her home in Scarsdale. She was 80.  She is interred at the Pleasant View Cemetery in Lyme, Connecticut. During her career, Bennett also acted through at least the 1960's on the stage as well.  

 

[Source: Jan Franco (Find A Grave)]

[Source: Jeanne Stewart (Find A Grave)]

 

with Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins in Dark Shalows

Suspiria (1977) lobby card

 

 

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Born Today October 22: Constance Bennett

1904-1965

Actress Constance Campbell Bennett was born on this day in New York City, she was born into a well known acting family, as she was the daughter of actors Richard Bennett and Adrienne Morrison (herself the daughter of a well known stage actress).  Constance was the older sister was actresses Joan Bennett and Barbara Bennett.  Growing up the daughters of actors, it's hardly surprising that the sisters would themselves go into the profession.  Constance being the oldest entered public acting first. Though the 1924 marriage drama Cyntherea is often cited as her film debut, she actually appeared in the motion pictures filmed in her birth place of New York before this.  She made her film debut as a child in one of her parent's films. At the age of of 12 she made an appearance in The Valley of Decision, a feature length melodrama that also marked the debuts of both of her sisters; the film was directed by Rae Berger and released in December of 1916.  She would be a young adult (or near enough to it) before she again appeared in a film, but this was still two years out from her appearance Cyntherea (she was "old enough" to already be married--eloping in early 1921 at still the age of 16--she was in 1922 on her way to being someone's ex-wife--actually her first marriage was annulled).  In 1922, she appeared in three dramas (two of which were Selznick productions). The first of these was Reckless Youth (March 1922), in which she had a small, but named role, as "The Chorus Girl;" she next appeared in Evidence (May 1922) a melodrama based in high society--both starred Elaine Hammerstein. Finally, she in appeared in the female lead in What's Wrong with the Women? (September 1922) opposite Wilton Lackaye.  When she finally made her appearance in Cyntherea--a film released just two days before her 20th birthday!--she had relocated to Hollywood, which did make for a kind of film debut--the Hollywood kind. It stars Irene Rich and Lewis Stone; Bennett has a down list supporting role.  It would also be her only film appearance in 1924. Her next on camera appearance came in the 1925 serial Into The Net in the top supporting role to Jack Mulhall's "Bob" Clayton character.  And, she had quite the career in 1925, appearing in eight productions in addition to the serial. Behind the scenes though, her life had been one drama after another. After her first marriage was dissolved,  she had fallen for a rich boy, the son of an a multimillionaire, and was determined to marry him. This she did on the 3rd of November in 1925, as a result, her film career came to a screeching halt. Her last silent film appearance came, ironically, in the comedy entitled simply Married?, released on the 17th of February, 1926. By the time she reappeared in the films in late 1929, sound had already arrived. She had roles in two full talkies in 1929: Rich People  and This Thing Called Love, both--again ironically--based on marriages gone wrong (because she was again in the throes of getting out of another bad marriage). Both films are also lost. Son of the Gods, released in March of 1930, and has her starring opposite Richard Barthelmess, is the first film to survive that she acted in with full sound. Despite personal upheavals in her personal life, she had a remarkably prolific career during the 1930's. Casual fans of classic films will no doubt recognize her as the whimsical female ghost Marion Kerby in Topper played opposite Cary Grant in 1937.  It is a role that she reprised, minus Grant, the following year in Topper Takes A Trip.  She did not have nearly as many roles in the 1940's, in part due to a family of three children, but also because she spent time doing live theatrical work (she also went into radio work and at one point had her own show).  As far as film work went, she went close to three years (from the end of 1942 to near the end of 1945) without making a picture at all.  She was famously in the supporting role in Two-Faced Woman in 1941 and what turned out to be Greta Garbo's last film before retirement; the film also starred the ever flexible talents of Melvyn Douglas. I have to say that one of my favorites is the 1947 film noir featuring Claude Rains The Unsuspected; it is not nearly as well known as Rains' other noir appearances, but Bennett's Jane Moynihan is well played...and it directed by Michael Curtiz.  After this, she only had two film roles, before making her television debut in 1951 in the season 2 episode Avalanche of the live drama series Cameo Theatre which aired on July 9.  After this, her one camera roles were mostly on the small screen, including one appearance on the series Suspense (in the late 1953 episode "Mr. Nobody" with Art Carney). Her last role came in the Lana Turner film Madame X in 1966.  The film was released almost a year after her untimely death. Bennett died of a massive brain hemorrhage on the 24th of July 1965. Her fifth and final marriage had been to a military officer (she in fact died in a military hospital at Fort Dix in New Jersey); as a result she had done a great deal of work with the troops, for this, she was awarded burial at Arlington National Cemetery. She was just 60 years old at the time of her death. 

 

[Source Ron Williams (Find A Grave)]
 

 

 

 

 

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