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Barbara Bel Geddes
1952 Barbara Bel Geddes.JPG
Bel Geddes in 1952
Born (1922-10-31)October 31, 1922
New York City, U.S.
Died August 8, 2005(2005-08-08) (aged 82)
Occupation Actress
Years active 1941–1990
Spouse(s)
  • Carl Sawyer
    (m. 1944; div. 1951)
  • Windsor Lewis
    (m. 1951; died 1972)
Parent(s)

Barbara Bel Geddes (October 31, 1922 – August 8, 2005) was an American stage and screen actress, artist, and children's author whose career spanned almost five decades. She was best known for her starring role as Miss Ellie Ewing in the television series Dallas. Bel Geddes also starred as Maggie in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955. Her notable films included I Remember Mama (1948) and Vertigo (1958). Throughout her career, she was the recipient of several acting awards and nominations.

Early and personal life

Bel Geddes was born on October 31, 1922, in New York City, the daughter of Helen Belle (née Schneider; 1891–1938) and stage and industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes (1893–1958). She married theatrical manager Carl Sawyer (né Schreuer) in 1944; they had one daughter, Susan. They divorced in 1951. Later that year, she married stage director Windsor Lewis, with whom she had a daughter, Betsy. When Lewis became ill in 1967, Bel Geddes suspended her career to care for him; he died in 1972.

Career

BarbaraBelGeddes
Bel Geddes as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), photographed by Carl van Vechten

Broadway

Bel Geddes came to prominence in the 1946 Broadway production of Deep Are the Roots. The performance garnered her the Clarence Derwent Award, the Theatre World Award and the Donaldson Award (forerunner of the Tony Awards) presented to her by Laurette Taylor, for "Outstanding Achievement in The Theatre". From 1951 to 1953, Bel Geddes played 924 performances of the F. Hugh Herbert hit comedy The Moon Is Blue. In 1955, she created the role of Maggie "The Cat" in Elia Kazan's original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and in 1961 created the title role in the Jean Kerr comedy Mary, Mary which became Broadway's longest-running show with over 1,500 performances. Both roles earned her Tony Award nominations. Other highlights include John Steinbeck's Burning Bright, Edward Albee's Everything in the Garden, and Silent Night, Lonely Night with Henry Fonda. She starred with Michael Redgrave in the Broadway production of The Sleeping Prince. In the film adaptation, retitled The Prince and the Showgirl, the roles were reprised by Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier.

In 1952, she was presented with the prestigious Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year award from America's oldest theater company, Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Theatricals; in 1993, having appeared in 15 Broadway productions, she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame (located in the Gershwin Theatre in New York City), a distinction she shared with her father, stage and industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes.

Hollywood

Kazan's Panic in the Street trailer screenshot (24)
Bel Geddes in Elia Kazan's Panic in the Streets (1950)

Bel Geddes began her film career starring with Henry Fonda in The Long Night (1947), a remake of the 1939 French film Le jour se lève. "I went out to California awfully young", she said. "I remember Lillian Hellman and Elia Kazan telling me, 'Don't go, learn your craft.' But I loved films." The following year, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the George Stevens film I Remember Mama.

She played Richard Widmark's wife Nancy in Kazan's 1950 film noir Panic in the Streets. In 1958, Alfred Hitchcock cast her with James Stewart in Vertigo as the long-suffering bohemian, Midge. Bel Geddes also starred with Danny Kaye and Louis Armstrong in the screen musical The Five Pennies.

When an investigation from the House Un-American Activities Committee had Bel Geddes's name put on the Hollywood blacklist during the 1950s, it stalled her film career for a time, and she carried on with her acting on Broadway and an occasional part on television. Bel Geddes found new opportunity in television when she was cast in four episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. She appeared in series such as Playhouse 90, CBS Playhouse, Riverboat, Dr. Kildare, and Death Valley Days. In 1977, she starred in the highly acclaimed production of the Thornton Wilder classic Our Town with Hal Holbrook.

Dallas

Miss Ellie Ewing
Bel Geddes as Miss Ellie Ewing in the television series Dallas

In 1978, Bel Geddes was the first artist signed to star in Dallas. The role of the family matriarch, Miss Ellie Ewing, brought her renewed international recognition. She appeared in many episodes, in almost every season of the series, for a total of 276 episodes from 1978 to 1990 (she was absent from the 1984–85 and 1990–91 seasons) and remains the only cast member to win the Emmy Award (Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Drama Series) and the Golden Globe (List of Golden Globe Awards: Television, Best Actress, Drama). In 1985, she also received Germany's Golden Camera Award.

Larry Hagman (who was only nine years junior to Bel Geddes), who played J. R. Ewing, told the Associated Press: "She was the rock of Dallas. She was just a really nice woman and a wonderful actress. She was kind of the glue that held the whole thing together." In a later interview for the website "Ultimate Dallas", Hagman said, "The reason I took the show, they said Barbara Bel Geddes is going to play your mother, and I said, 'Well, that's a touch of class, you know,' so of course I wanted to work with her."

In 1971, Bel Geddes underwent a radical mastectomy, which was an experience that she relived while playing Miss Ellie in the 1979–1980 season of Dallas. The performance garnered her the Emmy Award. She was also honored by former First Lady Betty Ford for helping to raise breast cancer awareness.

On March 15, 1983, Bel Geddes narrowly avoided a heart attack, but the media falsely reported that she had had a heart attack. Only days after she had completed filming for the 1982–1983 season, her doctor discovered a condition that required emergency quadruple bypass surgery. She subsequently missed the first 11 episodes of the 1983–1984 season and was replaced with actress Donna Reed for the 1984–1985 season. With her health improved, CBS-TV persuaded Lorimar Productions to return Bel Geddes to the role of Miss Ellie for the 1985–1986 season. Bel Geddes remained in the role until the later stages of the penultimate season of Dallas in 1990.

Life after Dallas

Bel Geddes retired from acting in 1990 and settled in her home in Northeast Harbor, Maine, where she continued to work as a fine artist. She was the author of two children's books, I Like to Be Me and So Do I, as well as the creator of a popular line of greeting cards. Looking back on her career, Bel Geddes told People: "They're always making me play well-bred ladies. I'm not very well bred, and I'm not much of a lady."

Death

Bel Geddes died of lung cancer on August 8, 2005, at her estate in Northeast Harbor, Maine, at the age of 82. Her ashes were scattered from a simple wooden boat into the harbor waters bordering her estate. At the revival of Dallas in 2012, Patrick Duffy (who played her youngest son, Bobby, in the original series) said: "Barbara is a big piece of our history, and it's important to me to honor her." "Through the whole first season, I don't think an episode goes by that Mama is not mentioned in reference to Southfork and the land", he said.

Credits

Broadway

Start of run End of run Title Role Notes
February 11, 1941 May 10, 1941 Out of the Frying Pan Dottie Coburn
October 27, 1942 November 14, 1942 Little Darling Cynthia Brown
January 13, 1943 January 16, 1943 Nine Girls Alice
March 31, 1944 May 6, 1944 Mrs. January and Mr. X Wilhelmina
September 26, 1945 November 16, 1946 Deep Are the Roots Genevra Langdon Winner – Donaldson Award, Theatre World Award, Clarence Derwent Award
October 18, 1950 October 28, 1950 Burning Bright Mordeen
March 8, 1951 May 30, 1953 The Moon Is Blue Patty O'Neill
November 17, 1954 December 4, 1954 The Living Room Rose Pemberton
March 24, 1955 November 17, 1956 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Maggie Nominated – Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play
November 1, 1956 December 22, 1956 The Sleeping Prince Marchy
December 3, 1959 March 19, 1960 Silent Night, Lonely Night Katherine
March 8, 1961 December 12, 1964 Mary, Mary Mary McKellaway Nominated – Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play
November 11, 1964 January 7, 1967 Luv Ellen Manville
November 29, 1967 February 10, 1968 Everything in the Garden Jenny
February 8, 1973 June 30, 1973 Finishing Touches Katy Cooper

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1947 The Long Night Jo Ann
1948 I Remember Mama Katrin Hanson Nominated – Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Blood on the Moon Amy Lufton
1949 Caught Leonora Eames
1950 Panic in the Streets Nancy Reed
1951 Fourteen Hours Virginia Foster
1958 Vertigo Midge Wood
1959 The Five Pennies Willa Stutsman
1960 Five Branded Women Marja
1961 By Love Possessed Clarissa Winner
1971 Summertree Ruth
The Todd Killings Mrs. Todd

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1950 Robert Montgomery Presents Rebecca de Winter / Tracy Samantha Lord 2 episodes
Pulitzer Prize Playhouse Bethel Merriday 1 episode: "Bethel Merriday"
The Nash Airflyte Theater Molly Morgan 1 episode: "Molly Morgan"
1954 The Campbell Playhouse 1 episode: "XXXXX Isn't Everything"
1957 Schlitz Playhouse of Stars Marcia 2 episodes
1957–1958 Studio One Charlotte Lamb 2 episodes
1958 Playhouse 90 Sidney Cantrell 1 episode: "Rumors of Evening"
Decision Marcia 1 episode: "Fifty Beautiful Girls"
The United States Steel Hour Lily Barton 1 episode: "Mid-Summer"
1959 Riverboat Missy Belle 1 episode: "Payment in Full"
1960 Dow Hour of Great Mysteries 1 episode: "The Burning Court"
1958–1960 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Lucia Clay/Mary Maloney/Helen Brewster/Sybilla Meade 4 episodes: "The Foghorn", "Lamb to the Slaughter", "The Morning of the Bride", "Sybilla"
1965 Dr. Kildare Dr. Ruth Halliman 1 episode: "A Miracle for Margaret"
1968 CBS Playhouse Doris Gray 1 episode: "Secrets"
1969 Journey to the Unknown Inga Madison 1 episode: "The Madison Equation"
Daniel Boone Molly Malone 1 episode: "Sweet Molly Malone"
1976 Spencer's Pilots Maggie 1 episode: "The Search"
1977 Our Town Mrs. Webb TV movie
1978–1990 Dallas Miss Ellie Ewing Farlow 281 episodes
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (1980)
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama (1982)
Goldene Kamera for Best actress on television (1985)
Soap Opera Digest Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Mature Role in a Prime Time Soap Opera (1984)
Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (1979, 1981)
Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama (1980,1981)
Nominated – Soap Opera Digest Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Mature Role on a Prime Time Serial (1986, 1988), (final appearance)

See also

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