- Born
- DiedJuly 17, 2005 · Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA (complications from Alzheimer's disease)
- Birth nameGeraldine Mary Fitzgerald
- Height5′ 3″ (1.60 m)
- Geraldine Fitzgerald was the only actress to appear as both Laurence Olivier's wife and Rodney Dangerfield's mother-in-law, which surely qualifies her as running the gamut (if not the gauntlet, in the latter case) of A to Z for co-starring with cinema immortals. The Irish lass appeared in many masterpieces of Hollywood's Golden Age, including Wuthering Heights (1939) and Dark Victory (1939), to say nothing of her late-career screen work in the blue-collar white-trash classic, Easy Money (1983).
She was born in Dublin, Ireland, on November 24, 1913, and made her theatrical debut at her hometown's Gate Theater in 1932. She appeared in English films from 1934 to 1937 before emigrating to New York City, where she acted with Orson Welles (who had appeared at the Gate when he was all of 16 years old as a protégé of Micheál MacLiammóir). In 1938 she made her Broadway debut with Welles' Mercury Theater in their production of George Bernard Shaw's "Heartbreak House," but her connection with Welles was sundered when she was signed by a Warner Bros. talent scout and decamped to Hollywood. Her first American film turned out to be a masterpiece. Her portrayal of Isabella, the wife of Olivier's Heathcliff in William Wyler's "Wuthering Heights" brought her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination in her very first role in Tinseltown. She followed that up with a supporting turn in the Bette Davis three-hankie tearjerker "Dark Victory." Other major films she appeared in at Warner Bros. were Shining Victory (1941), The Gay Sisters (1942) and Watch on the Rhine (1943), but her career was stymied by a rebellious streak. Like Warner Bros. divas Davis and Olivia de Havilland, Fitzgerald refused roles she disliked and was put on suspension by the studio. Unlike Davis and de Havilland, however, she never won an Oscar, nor did she ever become a star. She matured into a character actress, appearing in a wide variety of quality movies, including Ten North Frederick (1958), The Pawnbroker (1964), Rachel, Rachel (1968) and Harry and Tonto (1974). In later years she appeared in several hit comedies, among them Arthur (1981).
Fitzgerald appeared on Broadway and off-Broadway in many plays, including revivals of the works of Irish-American playwright Eugene O'Neill (I)'; she was Mary Tyrone in a 1971 off-Broadway production of "Long Day's Journey into Night" opposite Robert Ryan and was in the 1977 Broadway revival of "A Touch of the Poet" with Jason Robards. She also appeared earlier that year on Broadway in the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play "The Shadow Box." The previous year she had performed in her own cabaret act for a one-week engagement on Broadway, which she then revived in New York nightclubs as "Streetsongs." In addition to singing, she would reminisce about her life. Later, she received Tony Award and Drama Desk nominations for directing "Mass Appeal," a play about Catholic priests.
Geraldine Fitzgerald died in New York City on July 19, 2005, of complications from Alzheimer's disease. She was 91 years old.- IMDb mini biography by: Jon C. Hopwood
- SpousesStuart Scheftel(September 10, 1946 - January 20, 1994) (his death, 1 child)Edward Lindsay-Hogg(November 18, 1936 - August 30, 1946) (divorced, 1 child)
- ChildrenSusan Scheftel
- ParentsEdward FitzgeraldEdith Fitzgerald
- RelativesShelah Richards(Aunt or Uncle)Tara Fitzgerald(Niece or Nephew)Jennifer Johnston(Cousin)Susan Fitzgerald(Niece or Nephew)
- She was not shown in the so-called Memorial Tribute during the telecast of The 78th Annual Academy Awards (2006), in which the Academy pays tribute to artists who passed away since the previous year's show, although she had been nominated for an Academy Award in 1940 and played roles in memorable movies.
- Due to her combative nature and refusal to appear in several Warner Bros. pictures, studio head Jack L. Warner would not allow her to take on the Mary Astor role in the classic The Maltese Falcon (1941) starring Humphrey Bogart.
- First husband Edward Lindsay-Hogg was an aristocrat who aspired to be a songwriter. The couple moved to New York from England in 1938 to further his ambitions. Second husband Stuart Scheftel was the grandson of Isador Straus, the co-owner of the R.H. Macy Co. who went down on the Titanic in 1912 along with Scheftel's grandmother. Scheftel, a baby at the time, was scheduled to sail with them, but caught a cold and was left behind in England with his nurse. He grew to become a prosperous businessman whose accomplishments include co-founding New York's Pan-Am Building. He first got a crush on Fitzgerald when he saw her on screen in Wilson (1944) and persuaded a mutual friend, actor / director Martin Gabel, to arrange an introduction.
- Was a redhead when she first went to Hollywood, but her hair photographed dark, so people have always assumed she was a brunette. In her only early color film, Wilson (1944), her hair was turned brown for her portrayal of Edith Wilson, so the public never saw her natural red hair.
- Once Vivien Leigh's schoolmate, she became a childhood and lifelong friend of Irish actress Maureen O'Sullivan.
- I am proud of my rebellious moments, but I wish I'd handled them with more wit.
- Dark Victory (1939) - $1,250 /week
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