{{short description|American actress (1892–1961)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2015}} {{Infobox person | name = Ruth Chatterton | image = File:Chatterton NM330.jpg | image_size = | caption = Ruth Chatterton in 1930 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1892|12|24|mf=y}} | birth_place = New York City, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1961|11|24|1892|12|24}} | death_place = Norwalk, Connecticut, U.S. | resting_place = Beechwoods Cemetery | occupation = Actress, novelist | years_active = 1908–1953 | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Ralph Forbes|1924|1932|end=divorced}} * {{marriage|George Brent|1932|1934|end=divorced}} * {{marriage|Barry Thomson|1942|1960|end=died}} }} }}
'''Ruth Chatterton''' (December 24, 1892 – November 24, 1961) was an American stage, film, and television actress, aviator and novelist. She was at her most popular in the early to mid-1930s, and in the same era gained prominence as an aviator, one of the few female pilots in the United States at the time. In the late 1930s, Chatterton retired from film acting but continued her career on the stage. She had several TV roles beginning in the late 1940s and became a successful novelist in the 1950s.
==Early life== Chatterton was born in New York City on December 24, 1892 to Walter, an architect, and Lillian (née Reed) Chatterton.<ref name="blum">{{harvnb|Blum|1954|p=1919}}</ref> She was of English and French extraction. Her parents separated while she was young. Chatterton attended Mrs. Hagen's School in Pelham, New York.<ref name="blum"/>
In 1908, Chatterton and her friends were attending a play in Washington, D.C. Chatterton later criticized the acting of the lead actress to her friends, who challenged her to become a stage actress herself or "shut up". Chatterton accepted the challenge, and a few days later, joined the chorus of the stage show.<ref name="sentinel">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19611125&id=3XxhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BxEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3806,2491491&hl=en|title=Noted Actress Chatterton Dies at 68|date=November 25, 1961|work=The Milwaukee Sentinel|page=4|access-date=March 22, 2015|location=Milwaukee, Wisconsin}}</ref> She soon dropped out of school to pursue a stage career.<ref name="blum"/> Aged 16, Chatterton joined the Friend Stock Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she remained for six months.<ref name="sentinel"/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19180123&id=rJUWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DCEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3906,3585760&hl=en|title=Ruth Chatterton Tells The Bashful Lady of Happy Days|date=January 23, 1918|work=The Milwaukee Journal|page=9|access-date=March 22, 2015|location=Milwaukee, Wisconsin|archive-date=April 15, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415041709/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19180123&id=rJUWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DCEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3906,3585760&hl=en|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Career== [[File:Madame-X-Chatterton.jpg|thumb|left|Ullrich Haupt and Chatterton in ''Madame X'' (1929)]] In 1911, Chatterton made her Broadway stage debut in ''The Great Name''. Her greatest success onstage came in 1914, when she starred in the play ''Daddy Long Legs'', adapted from the novel by Jean Webster.<ref name="deseret">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=336&dat=19611125&id=RmQvAAAAIBAJ&sjid=g0gDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4955,5339004&hl=en|title=Ruth Chatterton Dies; Was Actress 4 Decades|date=November 25, 1961|work=The Deseret News|page=A7|access-date=March 22, 2015|location=Salt Lake City, Utah}}</ref>
Chatterton married her first husband, actor Ralph Forbes, on December 19, 1924, in Manhattan.<ref>New York City, Marriage Indexes, 1907-1995</ref> They moved to Los Angeles. With the help of Emil Jannings, she was cast in her first film role in ''Sins of the Fathers'' in 1928. That same year, she was signed to a contract by Paramount Pictures. Chatterton's first film for Paramount was also her first sound film, ''The Doctor's Secret'', released in 1929. Chatterton was able to make the transition from silents to sound because of her stage experience.<ref name="mclean">{{harvnb|McLean|2011|p=23}}</ref>
Later in 1929, Chatterton was loaned to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she starred in ''Madame X''. The film was a critical and box-office success, and effectively launched Chatterton's career. For her work in the film, Chatterton received her first nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress.<ref>{{harvnb|Turner Classic Movies, Inc.|Corliss|2014|p=70}}</ref> The following year, she starred in ''Sarah and Son'', portraying an impoverished housewife who rises to fame and fortune as an opera singer. The film was another critical and financial success, and Chatterton received a second Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Later that year, Chatterton was voted the second female star of the year, behind only Norma Shearer, in a poll conducted by the West Coast film exhibitors.<ref name="mclean"/>
[[File:Ruth Chatterton in Female trailer.jpg|thumb|Chatterton in the trailer for ''Female'' (1933)]] In 1933, Chatterton starred in the successful Pre-Code comedy-drama ''Female'', in which she plays the head of an automobile factory who uses handsome men in her employ for sex and then drops them. When she left Paramount Pictures, her initial home studio, for Warner Bros., along with Kay Francis and William Powell, the brothers Warner were said to then need an infusion of "class". Chatterton's last picture for Warner Brothers was the 1934 drama ''Journal of a Crime'', co-starring Adolphe Menjou and Claire Dodd. In this late pre-Coder, Chatterton plays a jealous wife who murders her husband's mistress. Chatterton is well-remembered for the types of roles that came to an end with implementation of the Production Code in July 1934, but she went on to co-star in the film ''Dodsworth'' (1936), for Samuel Goldwyn. This is widely regarded as her finest film, with what many considered an Oscar-worthy performance, although she was not nominated. Due to her age and the studios' focus on younger, more bankable stars, she moved to England and made only two more pictures, ending with ''A Royal Divorce'' (1938). She came back in 1948 to do television until 1953.
==Later years== By 1938, Chatterton had tired of motion picture acting and retired from films. She moved back to the Eastern United States, where she lived with her third husband, Barry Thomson. In 1940 she returned to the Broadway stage to star in John Van Druten's ''Leave Her to Heaven''. She continued acting in Broadway productions and appeared in the London production of ''The Constant Wife'', for which she received good reviews. Chatterton also raised French poodles and began a successful writing career.<ref name="lowry">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19580826&id=ktNNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=a4oDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7048,3812019&hl=en|title=Ruth Chatterton, Once a Star, In Second Career As Writer|last=Lowry|first=Cynthia|date=August 26, 1958|work=The Free Lance-Star|page=5|access-date=March 22, 2015|location=Fredericksburg, Virginia}}</ref> Her first novel, ''Homeward Borne'', was published in 1950 and became a best seller. She went on to write three more novels: ''The Betrayers'' (1953), ''The Pride of the Peacock'' (1954), and ''The Southern Wild'' (1958). [[File:Ruth Chatterton ad - The Film Daily, Jan-Jun 1932 (page 397 crop).jpg|left|thumb|Ruth Chatterton ad from ''The Film Daily'', 1932]] In 1947 she narrated a four-sided 78 rpm disc set, ''The Revolt of the Alphabet'', written by John Byrne, with music by Vladimir Selinsky.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/78_the-revolt-of-the-alphabet_ruth-chatterson-john-bryne-vladimir-selinsky_gbia0000929b ''The Revolt of the Alphabet'' at Archive.org]</ref>
Chatterton came out of retirement in the 1950s, and appeared on U.S. television in several plays, including a TV adaptation of ''Dodsworth'' on ''Prudential Playhouse'', alongside Mary Astor and Walter Huston.<ref>{{harvnb|Roberts|2003|p=260}}</ref> Her last television appearance was as Gertrude in a 1953 adaptation of ''Hamlet'', with Maurice Evans in the title role, on the anthology series ''Hallmark Hall of Fame''.
==Personal life==
===Flying=== Chatterton was one of the few woman aviators of her era, and was good friends with Amelia Earhart.<ref>{{harvnb|Jones|2009|p=45}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Wallach|Taube|Zachary|Roseman|2008|p=121}}</ref> She flew solo across the U.S. several times, and served as sponsor of the Sportsman Pilot Mixed Air Derby and the annual Ruth Chatterton Air Derby during the 1930s; she also opened the National Air Races in Los Angeles in 1936.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=-b8aAQAAMAAJ&q=%22ruth+chatterton%22+amelia ''The Sportswoman (Magazine): Volume 12, Issue 11'' p. 8]</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Matowitz|2006|p=59}}</ref> She taught British film and stage actor Brian Aherne to fly, an experience he described at length in his 1969 autobiography ''A Proper Job''.<ref>{{harvnb|Aherne|1969|pp=230–231}}</ref>
===Marriages=== Chatterton was married three times and had no children. In 1924, she married British actor Ralph Forbes, who starred opposite her that same year in ''The Magnolia Lady'', a musical version of the A.E. Thomas and Alice Duer Miller hit ''Come Out of the Kitchen''.<ref>{{harvnb|Bordman|2001|p=444}}</ref><ref name="dailysun">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1928&dat=19341003&id=CtEgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=w2oFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3317,452830&hl=en|title=Ruth Chatterton Granted Divorce From Geo. Brent|date=October 3, 1934|work=The Lewiston Daily Sun|page=19|access-date=March 22, 2015|location=Lewiston, Maine}}</ref> Their divorce was finalized on August 12, 1932. The following day, August 13, Chatterton married George Brent, her ''The Rich Are Always with Us'' and ''The Crash'' co-star, in Harrison, New York.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19320814&id=K1cbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=XUsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5414,2922685&hl=en|title=Ruth Chatterton Marries George Brent, Film Actor|date=August 14, 1932|work=The Pittsburgh Press|page=2|access-date=March 22, 2015|location=Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1301&dat=19340614&id=X-pjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9pEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5699,1250249&hl=en|title=A Life Apart: Ruth Chatterton and Her Husbands|date=June 14, 1934|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|page=9|access-date=March 22, 2015|location=Sydney, Australia}}</ref> The couple separated in March 1934 and were divorced in October 1934.<ref name="dailysun"/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19340916&id=3PIwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=k-EFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1828,3581677&hl=en|title=Ruth Chatterton In Divorce Court|date=September 18, 1934|work=Reading Eagle|page=14|access-date=March 22, 2015|location=Reading, Pennsylvania}}</ref>
Chatterton married actor Barry Thomson in 1942.<ref>{{harvnb|Vazzana|2001|p=89}}</ref> They remained married until his death in 1960.<ref name="kentucky">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=266&dat=19611120&id=MOgrAAAAIBAJ&sjid=SWcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4119,6417281&hl=en|title=Ruth Chatterton Dies|date=November 25, 1961|work=Kentucky New Era|page=9|access-date=March 22, 2015|location=Hopkinsville, Kentucky}}</ref>
==Death== thumb|The Lugar Mausoleum where Chatterton's remains are interred After the death of her third husband in 1960, Chatterton lived alone in the home they shared in Redding, Connecticut. On November 21, 1961, she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while friends were visiting her home.<ref name="kentucky"/> She was taken to Norwalk Hospital in Norwalk, Connecticut, where she died on November 24, aged 68.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1873&dat=19611125&id=jLQeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ltEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5071,4492796&hl=en|title=Ruth Chatterton, Actress, Dies|date=November 25, 1961|work=Daytona Beach Morning Journal|page=3|access-date=March 22, 2015|location=Daytona Beach, Florida}}</ref> She was cremated and is interred in a niche in the Lugar Mausoleum (Section 11, Lot 303) at Beechwoods Cemetery in New Rochelle, New York.<ref>{{cite book|url=|at= # 2261|title=Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons|edition=3rd|first1=Scott|last1= Wilson|first2=Gregory W. (forward)|last2=Mank|date=2016|publisher=McFarland & Co.|isbn=978-0786479924|oclc=948561021}}</ref>
==Honors== For her contribution to the motion-picture industry, Ruth Chatterton has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6263 Hollywood Blvd.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/ruth-chatterton/|title=Hollywood Star Walk: Ruth Chatterton|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=March 22, 2015}}</ref> She is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theaterhalloffame.org/members.html#C|title=Theater Hall of Fame members}}</ref>
==Filmography== ===Film=== {| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- | 1928 | ''Sins of the Fathers'' | Greta Blanke | '''Lost film''' |- | 1929 | ''The Doctor's Secret'' | Lillian Garson | '''Lost film''' |- | 1929 | ''The Dummy'' | Agnes Meredith | |- | 1929 | ''Madame X'' | Jacqueline | Alternative title: ''Absinthe''<br/>Nominated: Academy Award for Best Actress |- | 1929 | ''Charming Sinners'' | Kathryn Miles | |- | 1929 | ''The Laughing Lady'' | Marjorie Lee | |- | 1930 | ''Sarah and Son'' | Sarah Storm | Nominated: Academy Award for Best Actress |- | 1930 | ''Paramount on Parade'' | Floozie (The Montmartre Girl) | |- | 1930 | ''The Lady of Scandal'' | Elsie | |- | 1930 | ''Anybody's Woman'' | Pansy Gray | |- | 1930 | ''The Right to Love'' | Brooks Evans / Naomi Kellogg | |- | 1931 | ''Unfaithful'' | Lady Fay Kilkerry | |- | 1931 | ''The Magnificent Lie'' | Poll | |- | 1931 | ''Once a Lady'' | Anna Keremazoff | |- | 1932 | ''Tomorrow and Tomorrow'' | Eve Redman | |- | 1932 | ''The Rich Are Always with Us'' | Caroline Grannard | |- | 1932 | ''The Crash'' | Linda Gault | |- | 1932 | ''Frisco Jenny'' | Frisco Jenny Sandoval | |- | 1933 | ''Lilly Turner'' | Lilly "Queenie" Turner Dixon | |- | 1933 | ''Female'' | Alison Drake | |- | 1934 | ''Journal of a Crime'' | Francoise Moliet | |- | 1936 | ''Lady of Secrets'' | Celia Whittaker | |- | 1936 | ''Girls' Dormitory'' | Professor Anna Mathe | |- | 1936 | ''Dodsworth'' | Fran Dodsworth | |- | 1937 | ''The Rat'' | Zelia de Chaumont | |- | 1938 | ''A Royal Divorce'' | Josephine de Beauharnais | |}
===Television=== {| class="wikitable sortable" ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- | 1948 | ''The Philco Television Playhouse'' | | Episode: "Suspect" |- | 1950 | ''Prudential Family Playhouse'' | Fran Dodsworth | Episode: "Dodsworth" |- | 1951 | ''Celanese Theatre'' | Kit Marlowe | Episode: "Old Acquaintance" |- | 1952 | ''Pulitzer Prize Playhouse'' | Alison Stanhope | Episode: "Alison's House" |- | 1952 | ''Kraft Television Theatre'' | | Episode: "Paper Moon" |- | 1953 | ''Hamlet'' | Gertrude | Television film, (final film role) |}
==See also== *List of actors with Academy Award nominations
==Works== *''Homeward Borne: A Novel'' (1950) *''The Betrayers'' (1953) *''The Pride of the Peacock'' (1954) *''The Southern Wild'' (1958) *''Lady's Man'' (1961)<ref>''[https://archive.org/details/alfredhitchcockp0000hitc <!-- quote=Chatterton "LAdy's man". --> Alfred Hitchcock Presents Stories for Late at Night]''. Random House.</ref>
==Footnotes== {{Reflist}}
==References== * {{cite book|last=Aherne|first=Brian|author-link=Brian Aherne|title=A Proper Job: An Autobiography of an Actor's Actor|edition=1|year=1969|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|location=New York}} * {{cite book|last=Blum|first=Daniel C.|title=Great Stars of the American Stage: A Pictorial Record|year=1954|publisher=Grosset & Dunlap}} * {{cite book|last=Bordman|first=Gerald |title=American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle|edition=3|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=0-195-13074-X}} * {{cite book|last=Jones|first=Kim|title=Aviation in Tulsa and Northeast Oklahoma|year=2009|publisher=Arcadie Publishing|location=New York|isbn=978-0-738-56068-7}} * {{cite book|last=Matowitz|first=Thomas G.|title=Cleveland's National Air Races (Images of Aviation)|year=2006|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|location=New York|isbn=0-738-53996-1}} * {{cite book|editor-last=McLean |editor-first=Adrienne L.|title=Glamour in a Golden Age: Movie Stars of the 1930s|year=2011|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=978-0-813-54904-0}} * {{cite book|last=Roberts|first=Jerry|title=The Great American Playwrights on the Screen: A Critical Guide to Film, Video, and DVD|year=2003|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=1-557-83512-8|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/greatamericanpla00robe_0}} * {{cite book|last1=Turner Classic Movies, Inc.|last2=Corliss|first2=Richard|title=Mom in the Movies: The Iconic Screen Mothers You Love (and a Few You Love to Hate) |year=2014|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-1-476-73828-4}} * {{cite book|last=Vazzana|first=Eugene Michael |title=Silent Film Necrology|edition=2|year=2001|publisher=McFarland|isbn=0-786-41059-0}} * {{cite book|last1=Wallach|first1=Ruth|last2=Taube|first2=Dace|last3= Zachary|first3=Claude|last4=Roseman|first4=Curtis C.|title=Historic Hotels of Los Angeles and Hollywood Images of America: California|year=2008|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|location=New York|isbn=978-0-738-55906-3}}
==Further reading==
* O'Brien, Scott. ''Ruth Chatterton: Actress, Aviator, Author''. Bear Manor Media, 2013. ISBN 1593932480 * [http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss227_main.html Ruth Chatterton Papers, 1893-1961], [https://www.smith.edu/libraries/special-collections/about/sophia-smith-collection-womens-history Sophia Smith Collection], Smith College.
==External links== {{Commons category}} * {{IBDB name}} * {{IMDb name|0154183}} * {{Tcmdb name}} * [http://film.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=2336 Photographs of Ruth Chatterton] * [http://www.nypl.org/archives/180987 Ruth Moesel Collection of Ruth Chatterton Materials, 1909-1974], Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts * [http://www.nypl.org/blog/2012/09/25/ruth-chatterton-screen-career-photographs-defense-fan-collection New York Public Library Blog on Ruth Chatterton] {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chatterton, Ruth}} Category:1892 births Category:1961 deaths Category:20th-century American actresses Category:American child actresses Category:American expatriate actresses Category:American expatriates in England Category:American film actresses Category:American people of French descent Category:American silent film actresses Category:American stage actresses Category:American television actresses Category:Paramount Pictures contract players Category:Warner Bros. contract players Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players Category:Actresses from the Bronx Category:20th-century American novelists Category:20th-century American women novelists Category:American women aviators Category:People from Redding, Connecticut Category:Novelists from New York (state) Category:Aviators from New York (state) Category:American people of English descent