Geraldine Fitzgerald

Geraldine Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald on the cover of Life magazine (August 7, 1944)
Born Geraldine Mary Fitzgerald
(1913-11-24)November 24, 1913
Greystones, County Wicklow, Ireland
Died July 17, 2005(2005-07-17) (aged 91)
New York City, U.S.
Occupation Actress
Years active 1932–1991
Spouse(s)
  • Edward Lindsay-Hogg
    (m. 1936; div. 1946)
  • Stuart Scheftel
    (m. 1946; d. 1994)
Children 2, including Michael Lindsay-Hogg

Geraldine Mary Fitzgerald (November 24, 1913 – July 17, 2005)[1] was an Irish actress and a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame.[2]

Early life

Fitzgerald was born in Greystones, County Wicklow,[3] south of Dublin, the daughter of Edith Catherine (née Richards) and Edward Martin FitzGerald, who was an attorney.[4][5] Her father was Roman Catholic and her mother was Protestant, but converted to Catholicism.

She studied painting at the Dublin School of Art. Inspired by her aunt, actress Shelagh Richards, Fitzgerald began her acting career in 1932 at Dublin's Gate Theatre. After two seasons in Dublin, she moved to London,[6]:12 where she found success in British films including The Mill on the Floss, The Turn of the Tide, and Cafe Mascot.[4]

Career

Fitzgerald with Orson Welles in the Mercury Theatre production of Heartbreak House (1938)
Dark Victory (1939), Fitzgerald's first American film

Fitzgerald's success led her to New York and the Broadway stage in 1938. She made her American debut opposite Orson Welles in the Mercury Theatre production of Heartbreak House. Hollywood producer Hal B. Wallis saw her in this production and subsequently signed her to a contract with Warner Bros.[7] She had two significant successes in 1939: a role in the Bette Davis film Dark Victory,[8] and an Academy Award nomination for her supporting performance as Isabella Linton in William Wyler's Wuthering Heights.[4]

She then appeared in Shining Victory (1941), The Gay Sisters (1942), and Watch on the Rhine (1943) for Warner Bros., and Wilson (1944) for 20th Century Fox, but her career was hampered by her frequent clashes with studio management. She lost the role of Brigid O'Shaughnessy, villainess in The Maltese Falcon (1941), after clashes with executive Jack L. Warner. Although she continued to work throughout the 1940s, co-starring with John Garfield in the Warner Bros. crime drama Nobody Lives Forever (1946), the quality of her roles began to diminish and her career lost momentum.

In 1946, shortly after completing work on Three Strangers, she left Hollywood to return to New York City, where she married her second husband, Stuart Scheftel, a grandson of Isidor Straus. She returned to Britain to film So Evil My Love (1948), receiving strong reviews for her performance as an alcoholic adultress, and The Late Edwina Black (1951), before returning to the United States. She became a naturalized United States citizen on April 18, 1955.[9]

The 1950s provided her with few opportunities in film, but during the 1960s she asserted herself as a character actor and her career enjoyed a revival. Among her successful films of this period were Ten North Frederick (1958), The Pawnbroker (1964), and Rachel, Rachel (1968). Her later films included The Mango Tree (1977), for which she received an Australian Film Institute Best Actress nomination, and Harry and Tonto (1974), in a scene opposite Art Carney. In the comedy Arthur (1981), she portrayed Dudley Moore's wealthy and eccentric grandmother, even though she was only 22 years older than Moore. In 1983, she portrayed Rose Kennedy in the miniseries Kennedy with Martin Sheen, and co-starred as Joanne Woodward's mother in the 1985 drama Do You Remember Love. Fitzgerald appeared in the 1983 Rodney Dangerfield comedy Easy Money, the horror film Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986), and the comedy Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988).[10] In 1986, she starred alongside Tuesday Weld and River Phoenix in Circle of Violence, a television film about elder abuse.

Fitzgerald returned to stage acting, and won acclaim for her performance in the 1971 revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night. In 1976, she performed as a cabaret singer with the show Streetsongs, which played three successful runs on Broadway and was the subject of a PBS television special. She recorded an album of the show for Ben Bagley's Painted Smiles label.[11] She also achieved success as a theatre director; in 1982, she became one of the first women to receive a Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Play for a production of Mass Appeal.[12] While in New York, Fitzgerald collaborated with playwright and Franciscan brother Jonathan Ringkamp to found the Everyman Theater of Brooklyn, a street theater company. The company performed throughout the city, including at Ethical Culture and La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, both in Manhattan. The company first performed at La MaMa in September 1972, with a production called Everyman at La MaMa.[13] They then performed The Francis-Day, a musical about Francis of Assissi, at La MaMa in July 1973.[14]

She appeared on television, in such series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Robert Montgomery Presents, Naked City, St. Elsewhere, The Golden Girls, and Cagney and Lacey. She had a regular role in the short-lived 1965 CBS serial Our Private World. In 1987, she played a title role in the television pilot Mabel and Max, produced by Barbra Streisand. She received an Emmy Award nomination for a guest role playing Anna in The Golden Girls Mother's Day episode in 1988, and played a different character in the episode "Not Another Monday".[10] She won a Daytime Emmy Award as best actress for her appearance in the NBC Special Treat episode "Rodeo Red and the Runaways".

On February 8, 1960, Fitzgerald was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6353 Hollywood Boulevard, for her contributions to motion pictures.[15]

Personal life

Geraldine Fitzgerald and three-year-old Michael Lindsay-Hogg (1944)

Fitzgerald married Sir Edward Lindsay-Hogg, 4th Bt. in London on November 18, 1936. She was granted a divorce in Reno on August 30, 1946, after three years of separation.[16] She had one son, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, by her first marriage, and a daughter, Susan Scheftel, by her second marriage[4] to American businessman Stuart Straus Scheftel,[4] grandson of Ida and Isidor Straus.[17]

Her son's resemblance to Orson Welles, with whom she worked and was linked romantically in the late 1930s, led to rumors that Welles was his biological father. Fitzgerald never confirmed this to her son, but in his 2011 autobiography Lindsay-Hogg wrote that this question was resolved by his mother's close friend Gloria Vanderbilt, who had written that Fitzgerald told her that Welles was the father.[18][19]:265–267

A 2015 biography of Welles by Patrick McGilligan claims the impossibility of Welles's paternity; Fitzgerald left the United States for Ireland in May 1939, and her son, born May 1940, was conceived before her return in late October. Welles did not travel overseas during that period.[20]

English actress Tara Fitzgerald is Fitzgerald's great-niece.[21][7]

Death

Fitzgerald died at age 91 in New York City, following a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.[8] She is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx.

Filmography

Year Title Role
1934Open All NightJill
Blind JusticePeggy Summers
1935Lieutenant Daring R.N.Joan Fayre
The LadJoan Fandon
Three WitnessesDiana Morton
Department StoreJane Grey
The Ace of SpadesEvelyn Daventry
Turn of the TideRuth Fosdyck
1936Debt of HonourPeggy Mayhew
Cafe MascotMoira O'Flynn
The Mill on the FlossMaggie Tulliver
1939Wuthering HeightsIsabella
Dark VictoryAnn King
A Child Is BornGrace Sutton
1940'Til We Meet AgainBonny Coburn
1941Flight from DestinyBetty Farroway
Shining VictoryDr. Mary Murray
1942The Gay SistersEvelyn Gaylord
1943Watch on the RhineMarthe de Brancovis
1944Ladies CourageousVirgie Alford
WilsonEdith Bolling Galt
1945The Strange Affair of Uncle HarryLettie Quincey
1946Three StrangersCrystal Shackleford
O.S.S.Ellen Rogers / Elaine Duprez
Nobody Lives ForeverGladys Halvorsen
1948So Evil My LoveSusan Courtney
1951The Late Edwina BlackElizabeth
1958Ten North FrederickEdith Chapin
1961The Fiercest HeartTante Maria
1964The PawnbrokerMarilyn Birchfield
1968Rachel, RachelRev. Wood
1973The Last American HeroMrs. Jackson
1974Harry and TontoJessie
1976Diary of the DeadMaud Kennaway
Echoes of a SummerSara
1977The Mango TreeGrandma Carr
1978Bye Bye MonkeyMrs. Toland
1981ArthurMartha Bach
LovespellBronwyn
1982Blood LinkMrs. Thomason
1983Easy MoneyMrs. Monahan
1986Poltergeist II: The Other SideGramma-Jess
1988Arthur 2: On the RocksMartha Bach

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1951–1955Robert Montgomery PresentsElizabeth4 episodes
1960Shirley Temple's StorybookAunt RosaEpisode: "The Black Sheep"
1961Alfred Hitchcock PresentsElizabeth BurtonEpisode: "A Woman's Help"
1964The NursesNurse Carrie Bruno1 episode
1975NBC Special TreatElla McCuneDaytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Children's Programming
1977The QuinnsPeggy QuinnTV Movie
Yesterday's ChildEmma TalbotTV Movie
1983KennedyRose KennedyTV Miniseries
1985Do You Remember LoveLorraine WyattTV Movie
1986Circle of Violence: A Family DramaCharlotte KesslingTV Movie
1988–1989Golden GirlsMartha / Anna2 episodes
Nominated - Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Guest Performance in a Comedy Series
1991Bump in the NightMrs. BeauchampsTV Movie

Radio appearances

YearProgramEpisode/source
1941Philip Morris PlayhouseStage Door[22]

References

  1. ↑ Geraldine Fitzgerald profile, nndb.com; accessed November 9, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Members". Theater Hall of Fame. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Geraldine Fitzgerald". Biography.com.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Adams, Bernard (July 19, 2005). "Geraldine Fitzgerald: Independent-minded actress". The Independent. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
  5. ↑ 22
  6. ↑ "Heartbreak House". Playbill, May 2, 1938. Retrieved 2015-09-02.
  7. 1 2 Lyman, Rick (July 19, 2005). "Geraldine Fitzgerald, 91, Star of Stage and Film, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-08-26.
  8. 1 2 "Geraldine Fitzgerald". The Telegraph. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
  9. ↑ Grealdine Fitzgerald Scheftel naturalization papers, ancestry.com; accessed November 9, 2015.
  10. 1 2 Geraldine Fitzgerald on IMDb
  11. ↑ Profile, castalbums.org; accessed November 9, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Geraldine Fitzgerald". Tony Awards. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
  13. ↑ La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. "Production: Everyman at La MaMa (1972)". Accessed May 14, 2018.
  14. ↑ La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. "Production: Francis-Day, The (1973)". Accessed May 14, 2018.
  15. ↑ "Geraldine Fitzgerald". Hollywood Walk of Fame. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
  16. ↑ "Geraldine Fitzgerald Divorced". The New York Times. August 31, 1946. Retrieved 2015-09-02.
  17. ↑ Lyons, Richard D. (January 21, 1994). "Stuart Scheftel, 83; Executive Took Part In Many Civic Posts". New York Times.
  18. ↑ Alex Witchel (September 30, 2011). "Are You My Father, Orson Welles?". The New York Times.
  19. ↑ Lindsay-Hogg, Michael (2011). Luck and Circumstance: A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York and Points Beyond. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-307-59468-6.
  20. ↑ McGilligan, Patrick (2015). Young Orson. New York: Harper. p. 602. ISBN 978-0-06-211248-4.
  21. ↑ "Geraldine Fitzgerald, Irish Actress and Director Who Acted in O'Neill and Directed Mass Appeal, Dead at 91". Playbill. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
  22. ↑ "Johnny Presents". Harrisburg Telegraph. December 5, 1941. p. 19. Retrieved July 26, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
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