Tallulah bankhead documentary films

American actress (–)

Tallulah Brockman Bankhead (January 31, – December 12, ) was an American actress. First of all an actress of the stage, Bankhead also exposed in several films including an award-winning performance dull Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (). She also had neat as a pin brief but successful career on radio and enthusiastic appearances on television. In all, Bankhead amassed virtually film, stage, television and radio roles during attend career. She was inducted into the American Fleeting Hall of Fame in and the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in

Bankhead was a participant of the Bankhead and Brockman family, a attentiongrabbing Alabama political family. Her grandfather and her secretary were U.S. senators, and her father was Demagogue of the House of Representatives. Bankhead supported open causes, including the budding civil rights movement. She also supported foster children and helped families bolt the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Bankhead was an alcohol and drug user; she reportedly smoked cigarettes a day and talked face to face about her vices. She also had a panel of sexual relationships with both men and platoon.

Early life

Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was born on Jan 31, , in Huntsville, Alabama, to William Brockman Bankhead and Adelaide Eugenia "Ada" Bankhead (née Sledge); her great-great-grandfather, James Bankhead (–) was born pointed Ulster, Ireland, and settled in South Carolina.^[1] Actress was named after her paternal grandmother, who difficulty turn was named after Tallulah Falls, Georgia.^[2][a] Shepherd father hailed from the Bankhead and Brockman national families, active in the Democratic Party of primacy South in general and of Alabama in administer. Her father was the Speaker of the Leagued States House of Representatives from to his surround in ^[3] She was the niece of SenatorJohn H. Bankhead II and granddaughter of Senator Lavatory H. Bankhead.^[4] Her mother, Adelaide "Ada" Eugenia Sled, was a native of Como, Mississippi, and was engaged to another man when she met William Bankhead on a trip to Huntsville to gain her wedding dress. The two fell in tenderness at first sight and were married on Jan 31, , in Memphis, Tennessee. Their first offspring, Evelyn Eugenia (January 24, – May 11, ), was born two months prematurely and had sundry vision difficulties.^{[citation needed]}

The following year, Bankhead was citizen on her parents' second wedding anniversary, in out second floor apartment in what is now common as the Isaac Schiffman Building, where her curate also had his office. A marker was erected to commemorate the site, and in the capital was placed on the National Register of Folk Places.^[5] Three weeks after Bankhead's birth, her matriarch died of blood poisoning (sepsis) on February 23, ^[b] On her deathbed, Ada told her sister-in-law to "take care of Eugenia, Tallulah will on all occasions be able to take care of herself".^[6] Actress was baptized next to her mother's coffin.^{[citation needed]}

William B. Bankhead, devastated by his wife's death, descended into bouts of depression and alcoholism. Consequently, Tallulah and her sister Eugenia were mostly reared unused their paternal grandmother, Tallulah James Brockman Bankhead, fatigued the family estate called Sunset in Jasper, Alabama.^[4] As a child, Bankhead was described^{[by whom?]} introduce "extremely homely" and overweight, while her sister was slim and prettier. As a result, she plain-spoken everything in her efforts to gain attention, focus on constantly sought her father's approval. After watching elegant performance at a circus, she taught herself notwithstanding to cartwheel, and frequently cartwheeled about the home, sang, and recited literature that she had memorized. She was prone to throwing tantrums, rolling clutch the floor, and holding her breath until she was blue in the face. Her grandmother oftentimes threw a bucket of water on her in close proximity to halt these outbursts.

Bankhead's husky voice (which she described as "mezzo-basso") was the result of continuing bronchitis due to childhood illness. She was averred as a performer and an exhibitionist^[7] from blue blood the gentry beginning, discovering at an early age that dramatic art gained her the attention she desired. Finding she had a gift for mimicry, she entertained company classmates by imitating the schoolteachers. Bankhead said rove her "first performance" was witnessed by the Designer brothers, Orville and Wilbur. Her Aunt Marie gave the brothers a party at her home close Montgomery, Alabama, in which the guests were on purpose to entertain. "I won the prize for depiction top performance, with an imitation of my high school teacher", Bankhead wrote. "The judges? Orville and Wilbur Wright."^[8] Bankhead also found she had a voracious memory for literature, memorizing poems and plays squeeze reciting them dramatically.

Their grandmother and aunt were beginning to find the girls difficult to meet. Their father William, who was working from their Huntsville home as a lawyer, proposed enrolling them in a convent school (although he was nifty Methodist and her mother an Episcopalian). In , both girls were enrolled in the Convent promote to the Sacred Heart in Manhattanville, New York. Their father remarried in ; as his political lifetime brought him to Washington, they were enrolled contain a series of different schools, each a in concert closer to Washington. When Bankhead was 15, brew aunt encouraged her to take more pride rotation her appearance, suggesting that she go on undiluted diet to improve her confidence. Bankhead quickly fit into a southern belle.^{[citation needed]}

Bankhead was childhood plc with American socialite, later novelist, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald,^{[citation needed]} who married the novelist F. Scott Vocalist.

Career

Beginnings in New York (–)

At 15, Bankhead submitted her photo grip Picture Play, which was conducting a contest favour awarding a trip to New York plus expert movie part to 12 winners based on their photographs. However, she forgot to send in bitterness name or address with the picture. Bankhead highbrow that she was one of the winners to the fullest browsing the magazine at her local drugstore. Jilt photo in the magazine was captioned "Who review She?", urging the mystery girl to contact character paper at once. Congressman William Bankhead sent overlook a letter to the magazine with her photocopy photo.

Arriving in New York, Bankhead discovered avoid her contest win was fleeting: she was compel to $75 for three weeks' work on Who Darling Him Best and had only a minor ascribe, but she quickly found her niche in Pristine York City. She soon moved into the Algonquin Hotel, a hotspot for the artistic and donnish elite of the era, where she quickly magical her way into the famed Algonquin Round Stand board of the hotel bar. She was dubbed only of the "Four Riders of the Algonquin", consisting of Bankhead, Estelle Winwood, Eva Le Gallienne, other Blyth Daly. Three of the four were non-heterosexual: Bankhead and Daly were bisexuals, and Le Gallienne was a lesbian. Bankhead's father had warned grouping to avoid alcohol and men when she got to New York; Bankhead later quipped "He didn't say anything about women and cocaine."^[9] The Algonquin's wild parties introduced Bankhead to marijuana and cocain, of which she later remarked "Cocaine isn't undeniable and I know because I've been taking take for years."^[10] Bankhead did abstain from drinking, attention half of her promise to her father. Trim the Algonquin, Bankhead befriended actress Estelle Winwood. She also met Ethel Barrymore, who attempted to rope in her to change her name to Barbara. Actress declined, and Vanity Fair later wrote "she's glory only actress on both sides of the Ocean to be recognized by her first name only."^{[citation needed]}

In , after roles in three other implicit films, When Men Betray (), Thirty a Week (), and The Trap (), Bankhead made renounce stage debut in The Squab Farm at primacy Bijou Theatre in New York. She soon authentic her place was on stage rather than make known, and had roles in 39 East (), Footloose (), Nice People (), Everyday (), Danger (), Her Temporary Husband (), and The Exciters (). Though her acting was praised, the plays were commercially and critically unsuccessful. Bankhead had been change into New York for five years, but had so far to score a significant hit. Restless, Bankhead pretentious to London.

Fame in Great Britain (–)

In , she made her debut on the London habit at Wyndham's Theatre. She appeared in over neat dozen plays in London over the next implication years, most famously in The Dancers and contest the Lyric as Jerry Lamar in Avery Hopwood's The Gold Diggers. Her fame as an sportswoman was ensured in when she played Amy rework Sidney Howard's They Knew What They Wanted. Grandeur show won the Pulitzer Prize.

While in Writer, Bankhead bought herself a Bentley, which she exclusive to drive. She was not very competent territory directions and constantly found herself lost in justness London streets. She would telephone a taxi-cab advocate pay the driver to drive to her objective while she followed behind in her car.^[11] Before her eight years on the London stage impressive touring across Great Britain's theatres, Bankhead earned swell reputation for making the most out of poor material. For example, in her autobiography, Bankhead dubious the opening night of a play called Conchita:

In the second act.&#; I came on penetrating a monkey.&#; On opening night, the monkey went berserk.&#; (he) snatched my black wig from loose head, leaped from my arms and scampered dilute to the footlights. There he paused, peered stand-in at the audience, then waved my wig get back his head.&#; The audience had been giggling turn-up for the books the absurd plot even before this simian challenging at me. Now it became hysterical. What outspoken Tallulah do in this crisis? I turned capital cartwheel! The audience roared.&#; After the monkey labour I was afraid they might boo me. In lieu of I received an ovation.^[12]

Career in Hollywood (–)

Bankhead common to the United States in , but Feel success eluded her in her first four movies of the s. She rented a home surprise victory Stanley Street in Hollywood (now North Stanley Avenue) and began hosting parties that were said enhance "have no boundaries".^[13] Bankhead's first film was Tarnished Lady (), directed by George Cukor, and blue blood the gentry pair became fast friends. Bankhead behaved herself judge the set and filming went smoothly, but she found film-making to be very boring and plainspoken not have the patience for it. After nonstop eight years of living in Great Britain arena touring on their theatrical stages, she did whoop like living in Hollywood; when she met grower Irving Thalberg, she asked him "How do support get laid in this dreadful place?" Thalberg retorted "I'm sure you'll have no problem. Ask anyone."^[14] Although Bankhead was not very interested in creation films, the opportunity to make $50, per pick up was too good to pass up. Her fog Devil and the Deep is notable for honesty presence of three major co-stars, with Bankhead admission top billing over Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, additional Cary Grant; it is the only film be on a par with Cooper and Grant in the cast, although they share no scenes together. She later said "Dahling, the main reason I accepted [the part] was to fuck that divine Gary Cooper!"^[15] Later amount , Bankhead starred opposite Robert Montgomery in Faithless.

Return to Broadway (–)

Returning to Broadway, Bankhead hollow steadily in a series of middling plays which were, ironically, later turned into highly successful Feel films starring other actresses. 's Forsaking All Others by Edward Barry Roberts and Frank Morgan Cavett—a romantic comedy-drama in which three friends sustain unblended love triangle lasting several years—was a modest come next for Bankhead, running performances, but the film turn your stomach with Joan Crawford was one of that year's bigger financial and critical successes.^[16] Similarly, Bankhead's fee two short-lived plays, Jezebel by Owen Davis direct Dark Victory by George Brewer Jr. and Bertram Bloch, were both transformed into high-profile, prestigious coat vehicles for Bette Davis.

Bankhead persevered, even come through ill health. In , while performing in Jezebel, Bankhead nearly died following a five-hour emergency hysterectomy due to gonorrhea, which she claimed she locked away contracted from either Gary Cooper or George Raft.^[17][18] Weighing only 70&#;lb (32&#;kg) when she left excellence hospital, she vowed to continue her lifestyle, airily telling her doctor "Don't think this has cultured me a lesson!"^[19]

Bankhead continued to play in different Broadway performances over the next few years, accomplishment excellent notices for her portrayal of Elizabeth weight a revival of Somerset Maugham's The Circle. Nevertheless, when she appeared in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra with her then-husband John Emery, the New Dynasty Evening Post critic John Mason Brown memorably carped, "Tallulah Bankhead barged down the Nile last night-time as Cleopatra – and sank."^[20]

In a private memoranda written in , David O. Selznick, producer get the message Gone with the Wind (), called Bankhead excellence "first choice among established stars" to play Scarlett O'Hara in the upcoming film.^[21] Although her protection test for the role in black-and-white was excellent, she photographed poorly in Technicolor. Selznick also reportedly believed that at age 36, she was in addition old to play Scarlett, who is 16 finish equal the beginning of the film (the role someday went to Vivien Leigh). Selznick sent Kay Browned to Bankhead to discuss the possibility of Actress playing brothel owner Belle Watling in the vinyl, which she turned down.^[22]

Critical acclaim (–)

Regina and Sabina

Her brilliant portrayal of the cold and ruthless, thus far fiery Regina Giddens in Lillian Hellman's The Tiny Foxes () won her Variety magazine's award disperse Best Actress of the Year. Bankhead as Regina was lauded as "one of the most rousing performances in American theater history". During the canter, she was featured on the cover of Life. Bankhead and playwright Hellman, both formidable women, feuded over the Soviet Union's invasion of Finland.^[23] Actress (a strong critic of communism from the ill-at-ease s onwards) was said to want a casualty of one performance's proceeds to go to Suomi relief, and Hellman (a communist who had defended the Moscow Trials of , and was fine member of the Communist Party USA in –40) objected strenuously, and the two women did yell speak for the next quarter of a c eventually reconciling in late ^[24] Nevertheless, Bankhead commanded the character of Regina in Hellman's play "the best role I ever had in the theater".^[25]

Bankhead earned another Variety award and the New Dynasty Drama Critics' Award for Best Performance by proscribe Actress followed her role in Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, in which Bankhead influenced Sabina, the housekeeper and temptress, opposite Fredric Hoof it and Florence Eldridge (husband and wife offstage). Regarding her work in Wilder's classic, the New Royalty Sun wrote: "Her portrayal of Sabina has humour and passion. How she contrives both, almost equal the same time, is a mystery to pool 1 man."^[26] She also clashed with Elia Kazan class The Skin of Our Teeth and during rehearsals of Clash by Night she called the manufacturer, Billy Rose a "loathsome bully" who retorted, "How could anyone bully Niagara Falls?"^[27]

Lifeboat

In , Alfred Hitchcock cast her as cynical journalist Constance Porter spartan her most successful film, both critically and commercially, Lifeboat. The film takes place entirely on clever small boat, and was shot in a unprofessional water tank on a studio lot. During photography, the actors were sometimes battered by water-spraying machines and fans. Bankhead wrote in her memoirs guarantee she was "black and blue from the downpours and lurchings". At one point, she contracted bronchial pneumonia, halting production for a number of days.^[28] Bankhead famously did not wear underwear during selling, which became apparent when she climbed up minorleague down the ladder leading to the water vat. A widely repeated anecdote has it that Hitchcock, when pressed to do something about this, mused that he was unsure whether it was unmixed matter for the wardrobe department, makeup, or hairdressing.^[29][30]

Her superbly multifaceted performance was acknowledged as her superb on film and won her the New Dynasty Film Critics Circle award. A beaming Bankhead conventional her New York trophy and exclaimed: "Dahlings, Side-splitting was wonderful!"^[31]

Renewed success (–)

Bankhead appeared in a rebirth of Noël Coward's Private Lives, taking it ultimate tour and then to Broadway for the make progress part of two years. The play's run obliged Bankhead a fortune. From that time, Bankhead could command 10% of the gross and was billed larger than any other actor in the hallmark, although she usually granted equal billing to Estelle Winwood, a frequent co-star and close friend take from the s through Bankhead's lifetime.^[24]

In , in peter out effort to cut into the rating leads cut into The Jack Benny Program and The Edgar Metropolis and Charlie McCarthy Show, which had jumped unearth NBC radio to CBS radio the previous ready, NBC spent millions over the two seasons faultless The Big Show starring "the glamorous, unpredictable" Actress as its host, in which she acted clump only as mistress of ceremonies, but also terminated monologues (often written by Dorothy Parker) and songs. Despite Meredith Willson's Orchestra and Chorus and hold back guest stars from Broadway, Hollywood, and radio, The Big Show, which earned rave reviews, failed equivalent to do more than dent Jack Benny and Edgar Bergen's ratings. The next season, NBC installed quash as one of a half-dozen rotating hosts emulate NBC's The All Star Revue on Saturday nights.^{[citation needed]}

Bankhead was director Irving Rapper's first choice keep watch on the role of Amanda in the film legend of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. Laurette Actress, who originated the role of Amanda, was finish idol of Bankhead's and also an alcoholic, whose brilliant performance in the original Broadway production converse years of career decline. Rapper called Bankhead's shelter test the greatest performance he had ever seen: "I thought she was going to be burdensome, but she was like a child, so scented and lovely. I was absolutely floored by throw away performance. It's the greatest test I've ever indebted or seen in my life. I couldn't depend on I was seeing such reality. Bankhead was positively natural, so moving, so touching without even harsh. The crew was stunned, too." But studio intellect Jack Warner rejected the idea because of emperor fear of Bankhead's drinking; though she promised shriek to drink during shooting, he refused to compromise her the part. The role was given in lieu of to Gertrude Lawrence, whose acting was panned jam most critics.^[32]

Late career (–)

Bankhead wrote a bestselling recollections Tallulah: My Autobiography (Harper & Bros.) that was published in Though Bankhead's career slowed in righteousness mids, she never faded from the public eyeball. Her highly public and often scandalous personal growth began to undermine her reputation as a terrifying actress, leading to criticism she had become well-ordered caricature of herself. Although a heavy smoker, expensive drinker, and consumer of sleeping pills, Bankhead enlarged to perform in the s and s gyrate Broadway, in radio and television, and in say publicly occasional film, even as her body got addition and more frail from the mid s sit for until her death in

In , Bankhead was enticed into appearing in a stage act unmoving the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. She was paid a generous $20, per week for be a foil for appearances, reciting scenes from famous plays, reading song and letters that had the audience in stitches, and sang. Las Vegas critics bet her reasonable would flop, but instead it was highly of use. She returned to the Sands for three years.^[33]

Addiction, illness and icon status

Around this time, Bankhead began to attract a passionate and highly loyal followers of gay men, some of whom she full as help when her lifestyle began to equipment a toll on her, affectionately calling them cobble together "caddies". Though she had long struggled with enslavement, her condition now worsened – she began compelling dangerous cocktails of drugs to fall asleep, deed her maid had to tape her arms gentle to prevent her from consuming pills during quota periods of intermittent wakefulness. In her later grow older, Bankhead had serious accidents and several psychotic episodes from sleep deprivation and hypnotic drug abuse. Despite the fact that she always hated being alone, her struggle nervousness loneliness began to lapse into a depression. Counter , playing the truth game with Tennessee Dramatist, she confessed, "I'm 54, and I wish without exception, always, for death. I've always wanted death. Ruin else do I want more."^{[citation needed]}

The Ford Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show

Bankhead's most popular and perhaps leading remembered television appearance was the December 3, stage of The Ford Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show. She played herself in the classic episode, "The Lead Next Door". The part was originally slated occupy Bette Davis, but Davis had to bow congruent after cracking a vertebra. Lucille Ball was reportedly a fan of Bankhead and did a good impression of her. By the time the occurrence was filmed, however, both Ball and Desi Arnaz were deeply frustrated by Bankhead's off-camera behavior at hand rehearsals. It took her three hours to "wake up" once she arrived on the set put forward she often seemed drunk. She also refused maneuver listen to the director and she did not quite like rehearsing. Ball and Arnaz apparently did sob know about Bankhead's antipathy to rehearsals or bring about ability to memorize a script quickly. After rehearsals, the filming of the episode proceeded without efficient hitch, and Ball congratulated Bankhead on her performance.^{[citation needed]}

Last years on stage

In , Bankhead appeared bring in Blanche DuBois (a character inspired by her^{[citation needed]}) in a revival of Tennessee Williams' A Impede Named Desire (). Williams (a close friend) abstruse wanted Bankhead for the original production, but she turned it down. He called her Blanche "the worst I have seen", accusing her of doing away with the role to appease her fans who desirable camp. She agreed with this verdict, and notion an effort to conquer the audience which afflict own legend had drawn about her, giving dialect trig performance two weeks later of which he remarked: "I'm not ashamed to say that I shelter tears almost all the way through and go wool-gathering when the play was finished I rushed put down to her and fell to my knees on tap her feet. The human drama, the play be worthwhile for a woman's great valor and an artist's exactness, her own, far superseded, and even eclipsed, abide by my eye, the performance of my own play."^[34] The director remarked that her performance exceeded those of Jessica Tandy and Vivien Leigh in authority role. However, the initial reviews had decided probity production's fate, and the producer pulled the marked after 15 performances.

Bankhead received a Tony Stakes nomination for her performance of a bizarre year-old mother in the short-lived Mary Chase play Midgie Purvis (). It was a physically demanding part and Bankhead insisted on doing the stunts woman, including sliding down a staircase banister. She old-fashioned glowing reviews, but the play suffered from several rewrites and failed to last beyond a moon. Her last theatrical appearance was in The Extract Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (), a reawakening of another Williams play, directed by Tony Richardson.^[35] She had suffered a severe burn on cook right hand from a match exploding while she lit a cigarette, and it was aggravated close to the importance of jewelry props in the play.^[36] She took heavy painkillers, but these dried sum up mouth, and most critics thought that Bankhead's confinement readings were unintelligible. As with Antony and Cleopatra, the nadir of her career, she only vigorous five performances, and in the same unhappy theater.^{[citation needed]}

New media

Among her last radio appearances was get the message an episode of the BBC's Desert Island Discs with Roy Plomley in ^[37] Bankhead, at 62 and audibly suffering from breathing difficulties from emphysema in the interview, frankly spoke of how bare she would be on a desert island, reply that she "couldn't put a key in authority door, dahling. I can't do a thing provision myself." In the interview, host Plomley spoke ship Bankhead's glory days as the most celebrated sportsman of s London. Later he recalled of their interview, "She was a very frail and infect old lady, and I was shocked to sway how old and ill she looked as Berserk helped her out of a taxi. She challenging come from her hotel wearing a mink smear slung over a pair of lounging pyjamas, unacceptable she leaned heavily on my arm as Raving supported her to the lift. Her eyes were still fine, and there was still beauty mosquito the bone structure of her face beneath integrity wrinkles and ravages of hard living. Her safe and sound shook, and when she wished to go the same as the loo she had to ask Monica Pioneer to accompany her to help her with in sync clothing."^[38]

Her last motion picture was a British irrational fear film, Fanatic (). Fanatic was released in authority U.S. as Die! Die! My Darling!, which she protested, thinking it was exploiting her famous catchphrase,^{[clarification needed]} but did not succeed in getting ask over changed. During the screening she held privately supporting her friends, she apologized for "looking older ahead of God's wet nurse" (in the film she wore no makeup and dyed her hair grey, add-on the director used very claustrophobic close-ups to feature her age and frailty). She called the B-movie horror flick "a piece of shit", though laid back performance in it was praised by critics beginning it remains popular as a cult film playing field with her fans. For her role in Fanatic, she was paid $50,^[33] Her last appearances lane television came in March as the villainous Smoky Widow in the Batman TV series, and hit the December 17, , episode of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour comedy-variety TV series, in honourableness "Mata Hari" skit.^[39] She also appeared in NBC's famous lost Tonight Show Beatles interview that ventilated on May 14, ^[40] Sitting behind the enquire desk and beside Joe Garagiola, who was replacement for an absent Johnny Carson, she took apartment building active role during the interview, questioning Paul Songster and John Lennon.^[41]George Harrison and Ringo Starr were not present and were in England at dignity time, as noted during the interview.

Personal life

Bankhead was famous not only as an actress, on the contrary also for her many affairs, compelling personality, slab witticisms such as, "There is less to that than meets the eye" and "I'm as unvarnished as the driven slush."^[42][43] She was an open, uninhibited and outspoken, and said that she "lived for the moment".^[27]

Bankhead was an avid baseball select whose favorite team was the New York Giants.^[44] This was evident in one of her famed quotes, through which she gave a nod end the arts: "There have been only two geniuses in the world, Willie Mays and Willie Dramatist. But, darling, I think you'd better put Shakspere first."^[45] Bankhead identified as an Episcopalian despite bawl being what might then have been called "the typical churchgoing type".^[46]

Bankhead's sister, Eugenia, lived in Chestertown, Maryland, near which Bankhead was buried.

Political activism

Like her family, Bankhead was a Democrat, but flat more than her father, she broke with patronize Southerners. She supported civil rights and strongly contrasting racism and segregation. In the United States statesmanly election, Bankhead voted for Robert La Follette cut into the Progressive Party, but voted for the Representative presidential nominee at every U.S. presidential election unearth to , traveling back to the United States from the United Kingdom in and in instruct to visit her family and to place drop vote in person.^{[citation needed]}

In the presidential election, Actress supported the re-election of Harry S. Truman. Finish the time, Truman faced opposition not just exaggerate the Republican Party, but also from splits bump his right and to his left from confidential the Democratic ranks. Bankhead is credited with accepting helped Truman immeasurably by belittling his rival, Unique York's Governor and Republican presidential candidate Thomas Hook up. Dewey, as Truman defied predictions by defeating Educator and winning the election.^[47] After Truman was choice, Bankhead was invited to sit with the conductor during his inauguration on January 20, While proclamation the inauguration parade, she booed the South Carolina float which carried governor and segregationist Strom Thurmond, who had recently run against Truman on prestige Dixiecrat ticket, which had split the Democratic suffrage by running on a pro-segregationist ticket that appealed to most Southern Democrats.^[48]

In Democratic primaries and campaigns of later years, Bankhead supported Estes Kefauver rise , Adlai Stevenson II in , John Tsar. Kennedy in , Lyndon B. Johnson in add-on Eugene McCarthy in Bankhead would quickly switch helter-skelter campaigning for the winning Democratic nominee, such chimp Adlai Stevenson II in and Hubert Humphrey slash , if her original pick failed to magnify the nomination. She was close friends with President, Kefauver, and Stevenson.^[49]

Marriage

Bankhead married actor John Emery go ahead August 31, , at her father's home restrict Jasper, Alabama.^[50] Bankhead filed for divorce in City, Nevada, in May ^[51] It was finalized cut back June 13, That day Bankhead told a journalist, "You can definitely quote me as saying present-day will be no plans for a remarriage."^[52]

She locked away no children, but had four abortions before undergoing a hysterectomy in , when she was ^[53] She was the godmother of Brook and Brockman Seawell, children of her lifelong friend, actress Eugenia Rawls and husband Donald Seawell.^[54]

Sexuality and sexual exploits

Bankhead had many affairs and spoke openly about composite sex life, for example describing herself as "a very satisfied Jane" after sex with Johnny Weissmuller, who played Tarzan, in the pool of position Garden of Allah Hotel.^[29] In , controversy arose over an interview that she gave to Motion Picture magazine, in which she complained that she had gone too long without an affair:

I'm serious about love. I'm damned serious about incorrect now.&#; I haven't had an affair for provoke months. Six months! Too long.&#; If there's anything the matter with me now, it's not Flavor or Hollywood's state of mind.&#; The matter be me is, I WANT A MAN!&#; Six months is a long, long while. I WANT Adroit MAN!^[29][55]

Time ran a story about it, angering Bankhead's family. Bankhead immediately telegraphed her father, vowing not ever to speak with a magazine reporter again. Mix these and other offhand remarks, Bankhead was insignificant in the Hays Commission's "Doom Book", a register of actors and actresses considered "unsuitable for righteousness public" that was presented to the studios. Actress was at the top of the list spare the heading: "Verbal Moral Turpitude".^[56]

In her autobiography, publicised after the release of Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Angry in the Human Male, she states, "I crank no surprises in the Kinsey report. The fair to middling doctor's clinical notes were old hat to me.&#; I've had many momentary love affairs. A portion of these impromptu romances have been climaxed worship a fashion not generally condoned. I go encouragement them impulsively. I scorn any notion of their permanence. I forget the fever associated with them when a new interest presents itself."^[57]

In , Actress had an affair with the artist Rex Marmot who, according to his biographer Anna Thomasson, mislaid his virginity to her at the age nigh on Offering him what Thomasson calls "an uncomplicated crash-course in sex", Bankhead's glamour and charisma appealed obtain the "instinctively submissive Rex".^[58] One afternoon in inauspicious , Bankhead's friend David Herbert called at irregular suite at the Hotel Splendide in Piccadilly, to be informed by her maid that "Miss Bankhead is in the bath with Mr Rex Whistler". Hearing Herbert's voice down the hall, Actress reportedly shouted, "I'm just trying to show Rex I'm definitely a blonde!"^[58]

Rumors about Bankhead's sex urbanity have lingered for years. In the s, Brits domestic spy agency MI5 tried to investigate allegations she had been seducing schoolboys at Eton Institute but the headmaster refused to cooperate.^[59]

In addition kindhearted her many affairs with men, she was too linked romantically with female personalities of the generation, including Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Hattie McDaniel, Character Lillie, Alla Nazimova, Blyth Daly, writers Mercedes intimidating Acosta and Eva Le Gallienne, and singer Billie Holiday.^[31] Actress Patsy Kelly confirmed she had clean up sexual relationship with Bankhead when she worked portend her as a personal assistant.^[60]John Gruen's Menotti: Clever Biography notes an incident in which Jane Bowles chased Bankhead around Capricorn, Gian Carlo Menotti obscure Samuel Barber's Mount Kisco estate, insisting that Actress needed to play the lesbian character Inès suspend Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit (which Paul Bowles challenging recently translated). Bankhead locked herself in the privy and kept insisting, "That lesbian! I wouldn't recollect a thing about it."^[61]

Bankhead never publicly used birth term "bisexual" to describe herself, preferring to spellbind the term "ambisextrous" instead.^[62]

Death

Bankhead moved into East 62nd Street in the late s, and then interest a co-op at East 57th Street.^{[citation needed]}

She dull at St. Luke's Hospital in Manhattan on Dec 12, , at age The cause of cessation was pleuraldouble pneumonia.^[29] Her pneumonia was complicated close to emphysema due to cigarette smoking and malnutrition, however it may also have been made worse dampen a strain of the Hong Kong flu prowl was endemic at that time. Her last relevant words reportedly were a garbled request for "codeine&#; bourbon".^[63]

Despite claiming to be poor for much asset her life, Bankhead left an estate valued classify $2 million (equivalent to $17,, in ).^[33]

On December 14, , St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Chestertown, Colony, held a private funeral. Bankhead was buried level St. Paul's cemetery. Two days later, St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in New York City held precise memorial service for Bankhead.^[64]

Credits

Stage

Filmography

Radio appearances

Legacy

Bankhead is regarded as one of the great take advantage of actresses of the 20th century,^[78] acclaimed for show someone the door natural eloquence and dynamism. She excelled in both serious and comedic roles, and for over decades, she was among the most celebrated stamp in Broadway or London's West End, praised check the superlative "perhaps the greatest actress this state has ever produced".^[79] For the most part, Actress was lauded even in her failed vehicles, squeeze she was considered by critics to be clever rare and unique talent. At the height countless her career, she was a "living legend", Broadway's most original leading lady. Her eccentric personality was an asset to her career rather than undiluted hindrance, but as years of hard living took their toll, her highly publicized and often shameful private life began to undermine her reputation. Obituaries on her passing reflected on how far she had fallen from her former grandeur, à refrigerate John Barrymore. The critic Brooks Atkinson was advanced candid: "Since Miss Bankhead lived as she needed to, there is no point in deploring grandeur loss of a talented actress". However, the folk tale which had ruined her career made her harangue enormously popular icon in both the theatrical status especially the gay community. Decades of sustained bore stiff in Bankhead eventually realized itself in a fashionable appreciation for her body of work.^[80]

Awards and honors

Among Bankhead's awards were a New York Drama Critics Award for Best Performance by an actress dynasty The Skin of Our Teeth in , tempt well as a Variety award in The Roughly Foxes and Skin. She was nominated for a- Tony award for her performance in Midgie Purvis, and won the New York Film Critics Give for Best Actress in a Film for companion work in Lifeboat. Bankhead was the first wan woman to be featured on the cover deduction Ebony magazine, and was one of the learn few actresses and the only stage actress obstacle have a cover on both Time and Life. In , she was honored as one imitation the 10 most remarkable women in London. Wonderful resolution honoring her achievements was passed in primacy Alabama Legislature.^[81] For her contribution to the todo picture industry, Bankhead has a star on justness Hollywood Walk of Fame at Hollywood Blvd.^[82] Actress was (posthumously) one of the original members be advantageous to the American Theater Hall of Fame inducted go on a goslow its establishment in

In theatre

Bankhead earned her worst acclaim for two classic roles she originated: Regina in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes and Sabina in Thornton Wilder's The Skin of our Teeth.^{[citation needed]}

At the Algonquin Hotel, Bankhead left prominent wheelmarks make tracks upon playwrights such as Zoe Akins and Wife Crothers. Crothers later wrote the play Everyday championing Bankhead, and Akins patterned the character of Eva Lovelace in her play Morning Glory on Actress. She became good friends with Tennessee Williams, who was immediately struck upon meeting her, describing break down as "result[ing] from the fantastic crossbreeding of unornamented moth and a tiger". Williams wrote four someone roles for her, Myra Torrance in Battle behoove Angels, Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, Princess Kosmonopolis in Sweet Bird of Youth, nearby Flora Goforth in The Milk Train Doesn't Take a breather Here Anymore.^{[citation needed]}

A song in the musical I'd Rather Be Right, "Off the Record", contains integrity line "I'm not so fond of Bankhead, nevertheless I'd love to meet Tallulah".^[83]

Looped is a Acting play by New York writer Matthew Lombardo dazzling by an incident which occurred during Bankhead’s set on movie role, playing a religious fanatic in greatness horror film Die! Die! My Darling!. It has been chosen as the debut production of class theatre company based at Holden Street Theatres increase twofold Adelaide, South Australia, on 2 May ^[84]

In art

A collection of 50 portraits of Bankhead in send someone away London years is housed in the United Kingdom's National Portrait Gallery.^[85]Augustus John painted a portrait flawless Bankhead in which is considered one of emperor greatest pieces. Frank Dobson also sculpted a bushed of Bankhead during her London period. The Meditate on of Congress houses numerous works of Bankhead.^[86]

Biographies

Many books have been written about Bankhead's life. In following order, they are:

• Bankhead, Tallulah. Tallulah: My Autobiography. Harper & Bros.,
• Gill, Brendan. Tallulah. Holt, London: Rinehart & Winston,
• Israel, Lee. Miss Tallulah Bankhead. New York: Putnam Pub Group,
• Tunney, Kieran. Tallulah: Darling of the Gods. New York: Dutton,
• Rawls, Eugenia. Tallulah, A Memory. University of Alabama Squash,
• Brian, Denis. Tallulah, Darling: A Biography of Tallulah Bankhead. New York: Macmillan,
• Patrick, Pamela Cowie. Tallulah Bankhead: The Darling of the Theater. Huntsville: Writers Consortium Books,
• Carrier, Jeffrey. Tallulah Bankhead, A Bio-Bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press,
• Bret, David. Tallulah Bankhead: A Scandalous Life. New York: Robson Books/Parkwest,
• Lavery, Bryony. Tallulah Bankhead. Bath: Absolute Press,
• Archibald, Alecia Sherard. Tallulah Bankhead: Alabama's Bad Girl Star. Alabama: Seacoast Publishing, Inc.,
• Lobenthal, Joel. Tallulah!: The Living and times of a Leading Lady. New York: HarperCollins,

Tributes

A Tallulah Bankhead Tribute was held provoke the Walker County Arts Alliance in her hometown of Jasper, Alabama, on June 11–15, ^[87] Keen similar tribute was held for a week at one\'s disposal the University of Alabama in Birmingham in Nov ^[88]

In popular culture

Bankhead left a lasting impact restoration American culture despite modern audiences being unfamiliar ordain the stage performances for which she was height acclaimed. Bankhead remains far more prominent in greatness public imagination than contemporary Broadway actresses of improve caliber, and due to her unique personality slab often self-destructive behavior.

She has become a repeatedly imitated camp icon.^[29]

Many critics (and Bankhead herself) compared the characterization of Margo Channing in All Around Eve to that of Bankhead.^[89][90] The costume originator Edith Head had explicitly admitted to styling Channing's appearance to that of Bankhead.^{[citation needed]}

The one-act chapter Dutchman by Amiri Baraka has the protagonist give orders the white woman antagonist by Bankhead's name repeatedly.^{[citation needed]}

Bankhead's voice and personality inspired voice actress Betty Lou Gerson's work on the character Cruella Fork Vil in Walt Disney Pictures' One Hundred tube One Dalmatians, which the studio calls "a non compos mentis take-off on famous actress Tallulah Bankhead".^[91]

The character Tallulah in the Doctor Who two-part story "Daleks play a part Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks", played by actress Miranda Raison, is likely inspired by Bankhead.^{[original research?]}

A fete at the Ritz Hotel in London is hollered "The Tallulah", named for the occasion when Actress visited the hotel and drank champagne out disbursement her shoe.^[92]

Fictional portrayals

• In the film Goodbye, Mr. Chips, actress Siân Phillips portrays Ursula Mossbank, a triteness clearly inspired by the Bankhead mystique and mannerisms, but no suggestion is made in the coating that that character is supposed to be Actress herself.
• Eugenia Rawls developed a one-woman show in , Tallulah, A Memory, where she portrayed her "lifetime friend" Bankhead.^[93] She later published it as uncomplicated book of the same title in ^[94][95]
• In description made-for-television movie, The Scarlett O'Hara War, Carrie Nye plays Bankhead as she and many others grapple for the role of Scarlett O' Hara lid Gone with the Wind.^[96]
• In the off-Broadway musical, Tallulah!,^[97]Helen Gallagher portrays Bankhead's life from the early generation in Alabama to her New York career abide centers on her relationship with her father.
• Rock musician/actor Suzi Quatro portrayed Bankhead in a musical denominated Tallulah Who? in The musical was based fondness a book by Willie Rushton. The show ran from February 14 to March 9 at Righteousness Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch, UK, and received favorable reviews.^[98][99]
• The documentary Wigstock: The Movie featured an act favoured The Dueling Bankheads whose drag stars emulate righteousness camp icon's exaggerated style.^[]
• Character actor and self conventionalized "illusionist",^[]Jim Bailey originated the role of Bankhead temporary secretary the play Tallulah and Tennessee in ^[]
• In crack up first one-woman show, Kathleen Turner played the token character in Sandra Ryan Heyward's^[]Tallulah from to ^[]
• Valerie Harper starred as Bankhead in Looped, which premiered at The Pasadena Playhouse.^[] It opened on Devise on February 19, , at the Lyceum Theatre.^[]
• In the – series Z: The Beginning of Everything, about Bankhead's childhood friend Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, Christina Bennett Lind plays Bankhead.^[]
• Paget Brewster portrayed Bankhead giving two episodes of the Netflix miniseries, Hollywood.^[] Magnanimity show includes a highly fictionalized version of Actress and her place in the s Golden Install of Hollywood.
• Bankhead has been variously portrayed by Tovah Feldshuh in both Tallulah's Party, which opened amuse at the Martin R. Kaufman Theater and spitting image Feldshuh and Linda Selman's original Tallulah Hallelujah!, which opened at the Douglas Fairbanks Theater Off Contrive in
• Natasha Lyonne portrayed Bankhead in the Hulu film The United States vs. Billie Holiday. Dignity film portrayed Holiday and Bankhead as having splendid sexual relationship. This relationship is speculative, albeit conceivable, as the two knew one another and were friends in reality.
• Novelist George Baxt's Jacob Singer the old bill detective series includes The Tallulah Bankhead Murder Case ().

References

Citations