Shirley Booth

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Biography

Character actress Shirley Booth could play everything in all facets of show business, whether it was a smart-mouthed cashier on radio's "Duffy's Tavern", the sassy maid on TV's _"Hazel" . For those who only know her through her sitcom, it might be hard to believe she was a seasoned theatrical veteran, having appeared on Broadway from 1925-70. She was highly regarded as a stage actress and ranks as one of the premier talents of the 20th-century theatre.

  • Primary profession
  • Actress·soundtrack
  • Country
  • United States
  • Nationality
  • American
  • Gender
  • Female
  • Birth date
  • 30 August 1898
  • Place of birth
  • New York City
  • Death date
  • 1992-10-16
  • Death age
  • 94
  • Place of death
  • Chatham· Massachusetts
  • Spouses
  • Ed Gardner

Music

Movies

TV

Books

Awards

Trivia

Born to Albert James Ford and his wife Virginia Martha Wright, she had one sister, Jean Valentine Ford (born in 1914).

Made her Broadway debut in the play "Hells Bells" opposite Humphrey Bogart (26 January 1925).

Known for a while as Thelma Booth Ford.

Is interred in Mount Hebron Cemetery, Montclair, New Jersey.

Portrayed Miss Duffy on "Duffys Tavern" (CBS Radio: 1941-1942; NBC-Blue Radio: 1942-1943).

One of only nine actors to have won both the Tony and the Oscar for the same role on stage and film. The others are Yul Brynner ( The King and I ), Joel Grey ( Cabaret ), Rex Harrison ( My Fair Lady ), Anne Bancroft ( The Miracle Worker ), Paul Scofield ( A Man for All Seasons ), Jos Ferrer ( Cyrano de Bergerac ), Jack Albertson for The Subject Was Roses and Viola Davis ( Fences ).

Became the fourth performer to receive the Triple Crown of Acting, winning an Academy Award in 1953, three Tony Awards (1949, 1950 and 1953) and two Emmy Awards (1962, 1963).

Won three Tony Awards: in 1949, as Best Supporting or Featured Actress for "Goodbye, My Fancy;" in 1950, as Best Actress for "Come Back, Little Sheba," a role she recreated in an Oscar-winning performance in the film version of the same name, Come Back, Little Sheba (1952) ; and in 1953, as Best Actress for "Time of the Cuckoo."

First actress to win an award at the Cannes Film Festival and an Oscar for the same role ( Come Back, Little Sheba (1952) )

Is mentioned by Jason Alexander s character "George Constanza" on the "Seinfeld" episode "The Subway".

Three actresses earned Academy Awards nominations for playing the same character in motion picture versions of her plays: Ruth Hussey in The Philadelphia Story , Rosalind Russell in My Sister Eileen and Katharine Hepburn in Summertime .

Died at her home in North Chatham, Massachusetts.

Lived next to Julie Harris.

Later auditioned for but did not win the title role of radios "Our Miss Brooks", the role that made Eve Arden a star in 1948.

Divorced from Ed Gardner in the 1940s, the marriage was a rocky one as Gardner was a drinker and inveterate womanizer. She remarried in 1943 to William H. Baker, a kindly investment banker. The union was a happy but relatively short one. She was in rehearsals for "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" when he died suddenly of a heart ailment. She had no children from either marriage.

At age 12 she joined the Hartford Stock Company. For the next six years she did up to three plays a week, sometimes walk-ons, touring road and stock companies.

Her father, Albert J. Ford, was a "martinet," a salesman for I.B.M. Corporation, and was a stern taskmaster. She was closer to her mother, Virginia Wright Ford. Her parents separated when Shirley was in her teens, and her mother died in 1933. Her father remarried and lived his life out in Brooklyn. When Shirley decided to act for a living, her father forbade her to use the family name, thereby losing the "Ford" and the "Thelma" in her name and becoming "Shirley Booth." After her parents divorce, Shirley never saw or spoke to her father again out of the cruelties he inflicted on both her and her mother.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 3, 1991-1993, pages 67-70. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 2001.

Campaigned for the lead roles in Summertime and Desk Set , both of which she originated on stage, but lost both parts to Katharine Hepburn.

Is one of 16 actresses to have won the Triple Crown of Acting (an Oscar, Emmy and Tony); the others in chronological order are Helen Hayes , Ingrid Bergman , Liza Minnelli , Rita Moreno , Maureen Stapleton , Jessica Tandy , Audrey Hepburn , Anne Bancroft , Vanessa Redgrave , Maggie Smith , Ellen Burstyn , Helen Mirren , Frances McDormand , Jessica Lange and Viola Davis.

Shirley Booth was the first actress to win the Oscar, the New York Film Critics Circle Award, and the National Board of Review Award as Best Actress all for the same performance as Lola Delaney in "Come Back, Little Sheba".

Was the 38th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Actress Oscar for Come Back, Little Sheba (1952) at The 25th Annual Academy Awards on March 19, 1953.

Is one of 4 actresses to win the Best Actress Oscar for her film debut (for Come Back, Little Sheba (1952) ). The others are Julie Andrews (for Mary Poppins ), Barbra Streisand (for Funny Girl ), and Marlee Matlin (for Children of a Lesser God ).

In 1960 Shirley Booth was announced for the role of Melissa Frake in the forthcoming 20th Century-Fox Picture "State Fair", eventually released in March 1962, with Alice Faye having replaced Shirley Booth.

Is one of 22 Oscar-winning actresses to have been born in the state of New York. The others are Alice Brady , Teresa Wright , Anne Revere , Celeste Holm , Claire Trevor , Judy Holliday , Susan Hayward , Patty Duke , Anne Bancroft , Barbra Streisand , Jane Fonda , Lee Grant , Beatrice Straight , Whoopi Goldberg , Mercedes Ruehl , Marisa Tomei , Mira Sorvino , Susan Sarandon , Jennifer Connelly , Melissa Leo and Anne Hathaway.

Shirley was originally penciled in to be Carols mother on The Brady Bunch but the role was re-cast by Sherwood Schwartz.

Although she was well into her 50s by the time she entered films, Booth knocked 9 years off the year of her birth, thereby claiming to be almost an entire decade younger than her actual age. Most contemporary journals published prior to her retirement determinedly accepted her birth year as 1907 and it was not until many years later than the correct year, 1898, was finally made public.

Is one of 3 actresses to have won the Best Actress Oscar (hers being for Come Back, Little Sheba (1952) ) and the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy (hers being for "Hazel" ). The other actresses are Loretta Young and Helen Hunt.

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