Barbara Bel Geddes

Barbara Bel Geddes
Bel Geddes as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1955
Born	October 31, 1922(1922-10-31) New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	August 8, 2005 (aged 82) Northeast Harbor, Maine, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1947–1990
Spouse(s)	Carl Sawyer (1944–1951) Windsor Lewis (1951–1972)
Official website

Barbara Bel Geddes (October 31, 1922 – August 8, 2005) was an American actress, artist and children's author. She is best known for her role in the television drama series Dallas as matriarch Eleanor "Miss Ellie" Ewing. Bel Geddes also starred in the original Broadway production of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof in the role of Maggie, and also appeared in the film Vertigo (1958) directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Personal life

Bel Geddes was born in New York City, the daughter of Helen Belle (née Sneider) and stage and industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes.^[1] She married theatrical manager Carl Sawyer (aka Carl 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 until his death in 1972.

1940s and 1950s

Bel Geddes began her career as a stage actress at the age of eighteen, starring in fifteen major Broadway productions. Her most notable stage performances included the role of Maggie "The Cat" in Elia Kazan's original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1956, and the title role in the long-running Jean Kerr comedy Mary, Mary in 1961, both of which earned her Tony Award nominations. Other highlights include F. Hugh Herbert's The Moon Is Blue, John Steinbeck's Burning Bright, Edward Albee's Everything in the Garden and Silent Night, Lonely Night with Henry Fonda.

In 1946, Bel Geddes was awarded the Clarence Derwent Award, and the Donaldson Award for "Outstanding Achievement in The Theatre" for her performance in Deep Are The Roots. In 1952, she received the prestigious "Woman of the Year" Award from Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Theatricals, America's oldest theater company; In 1993, she was inducted into the American Theatre 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.

Her film career began with The Long Night (1947), starring Henry Fonda, a remake of the French film Le Jour se lève (1939). She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for I Remember Mama (1948). A House Un-American Activities Committee investigation stalled her film career for a short time. She found new opportunity in television when Alfred Hitchcock cast her in four episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "Lamb to the Slaughter", in which she played a housewife who killed her husband by bludgeoning him to death with a frozen leg of lamb, cooking the murder weapon, and then serving it to the investigating police. Hitchcock cast her again with James Stewart in Vertigo (1958), as the long-suffering bohemian Midge. Bel Geddes also starred with Danny Kaye and Louis Armstrong in the screen musical The Five Pennies.

Dallas

In 1978, Bel Geddes was the first performer contracted to star in Dallas. The role of family matriarch, 'Miss Ellie' Ewing, brought her international recognition. She appeared on the series from 1978 to 1990 (apart from her brief replacement by Donna Reed in 1984-85) and remains the only cast member to win an Emmy (Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Drama Series), as well as a Golden Globe (List of Golden Globe Awards: Television, Best Actress, Drama). Larry Hagman, who played J.R. Ewing, told the Associated Press that "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 the early 1970s, Bel Geddes underwent a radical mastectomy, an experience she relived in the 1979-80 season of Dallas. This was the storyline that earned her the Emmy Award.

In March 1983, Bel Geddes underwent quadruple by-pass heart surgery and subsequently missed a third of the 1983-84 season of Dallas, her character being temporarily written out of the show. The following year, she decided to step down from the role altogether. Rather than kill off the character, the producers decided to replace Bel Geddes with actress Donna Reed for the 1984-85 season. However, with the rival show Dynasty finally surpassing Dallas in the ratings for the 1984-85 season, and with the departure of Patrick Duffy that year, the producers made efforts to stabilize the show's slow decline. They reached an agreement with Bel Geddes that returned her to Dallas in time for the 1985-86 season.

Life after Dallas

Bel Geddes retired from Dallas (and 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 magazine: "They're always making me play well-bred ladies. I'm not very well bred, and I'm not much of a lady."

She died of lung cancer in Northeast Harbor on August 8, 2005.

Broadway credits

• Out of the Frying Pan 1941
• Little Darling 1942
• Nine Girls 1943
• Mrs. January and Mr. X 1944
• Deep Are the Roots 1946
• Burning Bright 1950
• The Moon Is Blue 1953
• The Living Room 1954
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1956
• The Sleeping Prince 1956
• Silent Night, Lonely Night 1959
• Mary, Mary 1961
• Luv 1964
• Everything in the Garden 1967
• Finishing Touches 1973

Filmography

• The Long Night (1947)
• I Remember Mama (1948)
• Blood on the Moon (1948)
• Caught (1949)
• Panic in the Streets (1950)
• Fourteen Hours (1951)
• Vertigo (1958)
• Five Branded Women (1959)
• The Five Pennies (1959)
• By Love Possessed (1961)
• Summertree (1971)
• The Todd Killings (1971)

Further reading

• Barbara Bel Geddes: I Like to Be Me, Viking Juvenile (1963) - ISBN 0-67039-059-3
• Barbara Bel Geddes: So Do I, Price Stern Sloan Pub (1973) - ISBN 0-44803-420-4

References

External links

• Official Barbara Bel Geddes Website

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Barbara Bel Geddes

• Barbara Bel Geddes at the Internet Broadway Database
• Barbara Bel Geddes at the Internet Movie Database
• Barbara Bel Geddes at Allmovie
• Barbara Bel Geddes at Find a Grave
• CNN Obituary
• Mediaweek obituary