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IMDbPro

Gladys George(1900-1954)

  • Actress
  • Soundtrack
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Gladys George
Trailer for this classic drama
Play trailer1:59
Flamingo Road (1949)
4 Videos
53 Photos
One of the finest, if relatively short-lived, character actresses of Hollywood, during the 1930s and 1940, Gladys George was born into an acting family who were literally on the road at the time of her birth.

Her parents were actually English and touring with a Shakespearean theater company in Patten, Maine, when she was born (although usually noted as 1900, other sources put it as late as 1904). Her parents stayed in America, and by the time she was 3, they formed a vaudeville family act; The Three Clares (Gladys's middle name).

Beginning then, George would focus herself on developing an acting career.

As George gained experience, she developed an interest in the stage and while still in her teens, she first trod the Broadway boards in 1918 in the original play "The Betrothal", the star being Isadora Duncan. Her experience in stock meshed with her natural talent and a face to frame the emotion of great pathos as well as hard cased and worldly wise. She was in good hands when she worked for the famous Broadway star Pauline Frederick, who made a fortune on ' The Great White Way', and via her touring stock company.

Frederick's career took on new dimension when she turned to film as well (1915), and George was probably influenced to follow her.

George began working in silent films - first as the young female romantic lead in Red Hot Dollars (1919) and would steadily move in lead and good costarring roles through 1921.

Around this time, George was severely burned in an accident which caused a delay in her early film career. She returned to stock and married for the first time.

By 1934, she had a new husband - the millionaire manufacturer, Edward H Fowler who was able to further her career. After only a month into her next show (Queer People)'s run, George abruptly left the company, when Paramount offered her a screen test. After the test, MGM signed her for a contract. Her first film was not surprisingly an adapted play, Straight Is the Way (1934). In this, her first sound picture, George played the mouthy bad girl to good effect, displaying her acting ability.

In her personal life, she had a socialite's talent for partying, and alcohol, and romance on the edge. She had only been married to Fowler about a year when he found her with her leading man from her then-Broadway hit comedy, Personal Appearance (ironically, she played a carousing, man-hungry star, and the press loved the coincidence).

Her next film was not until 1936 and as a loan-out to Paramount, but it was pay-dirt for George, as the mother-against-the-world, in Valiant Is the Word for Carrie (1936),George made her role the film's focus, and she was so good at that she received a Best Actress nomination for that year. It and perhaps her personal life had much to do with her biggest role the next year, Madame X (1937), as the long suffering soap opera-like Jacqueline Floriot.

Though some mark it as the beginning of a downturn to character roles, George pulled out all the stops, and played the role of Madame du Barry, in Marie Antoinette (1938) (starring, Norma Shearer with real gumption

Sadly, over the next year, physical changes caused by her carousing lifestyle were becoming more apparent (as the speakeasy owner, Panama Smith in The Roaring Twenties (1939) with its famous ending of the fatally wounded James Cagney staggering up the church steps after having rubbed out old rival Humphrey Bogart. He staggers back down diagonally and falls professionally face up with George quickly kneeling next to him. 'He used to be a big shot', she says as the police arrive).

In the 1940s, George spent a year-or-so on Broadway,and was cast in several soap opera B-films, where she alternated between sympathetic, or tough-as-nails characters. She was usually right on, but the roles were throwaways, compared to what she was capable of doing.

Her most well-remembered role of this period was as the widow of murdered detective, Miles Archer, in the legendary The Maltese Falcon (1941) (with Humphrey Bogart, once again). One is hard-put to even recognize her in black lace, mourning profiles and the few lines she has.

The same year she had a good comedic lead role, displaying her range - from hard headed to soft hearted with the Dead End Kids in Hit the Road (1941).

But a standout role of the decade was so small, and yet it was subtlety nuanced for showing how she excelled at displaying pathos of the human condition, in the great classic of post-World War II homecoming, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). As Hortense Derry, she was the second wife of aging failure Pat Derry (played by Roman Bohnen). That they lived near poverty's starkly shown in their 'home'; a hovel under an overpass. George, frowzy with little makeup and clutching her old threadbare robe, eagerly patronizing and quick to speak, with a slight edge in her voice.

Except for showing some of the old fire in her supporting role in Flamingo Road (1949), George only appeared in a few more roles; including a couple of brief TV appearances in the early 1950s.

Sadly, Gladys George was worn out; her hard living lifestyle, having caused her serious afflictions, including cirrhosis of the liver, advancing throat cancer, and cumulative heart disease. Though she's listed as having passed away due to a stroke, there was suspicion that she had taken an overdose of sleeping pills to put an end to her story.
BornSeptember 13, 1900
DiedDecember 8, 1954(54)
BornSeptember 13, 1900
DiedDecember 8, 1954(54)
IMDbProStarmeter
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  • Nominated for 1 Oscar

Photos53

John Garfield and Gladys George in He Ran All the Way (1951)
John Garfield and Gladys George in He Ran All the Way (1951)
Gladys George in Christmas Holiday (1944)
Gladys George in The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Humphrey Bogart and Gladys George in The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Gladys George and Douglas MacLean in Chickens (1921)
James Cagney and Gladys George in The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Kirk Douglas, William Bendix, Frank Faylen, Bert Freed, Gladys George, George Macready, William 'Bill' Phillips, and Joseph Wiseman in Detective Story (1951)
Gladys George and John Howard in Valiant Is the Word for Carrie (1936)
Gladys George in The Way of All Flesh (1940)
Gladys George and Selena Royle in He Ran All the Way (1951)
James Cagney and Gladys George in The Roaring Twenties (1939)

Known for

Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Priscilla Lane in The Roaring Twenties (1939)
The Roaring Twenties
7.9
  • Panama Smith
  • 1939
Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor in The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The Maltese Falcon
8.0
  • Iva Archer
  • 1941
Dana Andrews, Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Virginia Mayo, and Teresa Wright in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
The Best Years of Our Lives
8.1
  • Hortense Derry
  • 1946
Joan Crawford and Zachary Scott in Flamingo Road (1949)
Flamingo Road
7.1
  • Lute Mae Sanders
  • 1949

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actress

  • The Lineup (1954)
    The Lineup
  • The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse (1953)
    The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse
  • William Boyd in Hopalong Cassidy (1952)
    Hopalong Cassidy
  • Mr. & Mrs. North (1952)
    Mr. & Mrs. North
  • Chevron Theatre (1952)
    Chevron Theatre
  • John Forsythe, Jane Darwell, Edgar Buchanan, Gladys George, Frank McHugh, and Loretta Young in It Happens Every Thursday (1953)
    It Happens Every Thursday
  • David Alpert and Frances Rafferty in Your Jeweler's Showcase (1952)
    Your Jeweler's Showcase
  • Yvonne De Carlo, Barry Fitzgerald, and Edmond O'Brien in Silver City (1951)
    Silver City
  • Kirk Douglas, William Bendix, Frank Faylen, Lee Grant, Horace McMahon, Cathy O'Donnell, Eleanor Parker, and Joseph Wiseman in Detective Story (1951)
    Detective Story
  • The Bigelow Theatre (1950)
    The Bigelow Theatre
  • Shelley Winters and John Garfield in He Ran All the Way (1951)
    He Ran All the Way
  • Doris Day and Gene Nelson in Lullaby of Broadway (1951)
    Lullaby of Broadway
  • Edmon Ryan, Scott Brady, Richard Egan, Gerald Mohr, and Alexis Smith in Undercover Girl (1950)
    Undercover Girl
  • Lauren Bacall, Gary Cooper, and Patricia Neal in Bright Leaf (1950)
    Bright Leaf
  • Joan Crawford and Zachary Scott in Flamingo Road (1949)
    Flamingo Road

Soundtrack

  • Doris Day and Gene Nelson in Lullaby of Broadway (1951)
    Lullaby of Broadway
    • (uncredited)
  • Joan Leslie, Ida Lupino, and Dennis Morgan in The Hard Way (1943)
    The Hard Way
    • (uncredited)
  • Geraldine Fitzgerald and Jeffrey Lynn in A Child Is Born (1939)
    A Child Is Born
    • (uncredited)
  • Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Priscilla Lane in The Roaring Twenties (1939)
    The Roaring Twenties
    • (uncredited)
  • Gladys George in Madame X (1937)
    Madame X

Videos4

Official Trailer
Trailer 1:58
Official Trailer
The Roaring Twenties
Trailer 3:29
The Roaring Twenties
Flamingo Road
Trailer 1:59
Flamingo Road
The Maltese Falcon
Trailer 2:43
The Maltese Falcon

Personal details

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    • September 13, 1900
    • Patten, Maine, USA
    • December 8, 1954
    • Los Angeles, California, USA(cerebral hemorrhage)
    • July 9, 1946 - February 6, 1951 (divorced)
    • Anna George(Not Related)
  • Other works
    Active on Broadway in the following productions:
  • Publicity listings
    • 8 Articles
    • 1 Pictorial

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    Daughter of Sir Arthur Evans Clare (c .1865-1939). Her father won his knighthood for service in India with the British army. He died in Hollywood several months after being injured in an automobile accident.

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