Career Highlights: Stella Dallas, All This and Heaven Too, Whirlpool
First Major Screen Credit: Stella Dallas (1937)
Biography
Descended from a well-established New England family, St. Louis-born Barbara O'Neil was educated at Sarah Lawrence College and launched her acting career with the Cape Cod-based University Players. The co-founder of this prestigious group was Joshua Logan, who became O'Neil's husband (they were later divorced). She made her Broadway debut in 1930's Saint's Parade and came to Hollywood in 1937 to appear in Samuel Goldwyn's Stella Dallas. Signed to a Universal contract, O'Neil was rather wasted in antiseptic roles in Tower of London (1939) and The Sun Never Sets (1939), although she was given ample opportunity to shine as Charles Boyer's self-destructive wife in When Tomorrow Comes (1939). Her best 1939 assignment, however, was while on loan-out to David O. Selznick. The 29-year-old O'Neil played Eileen O'Hara, the strong-willed mother of Scarlett O'Hara, in Gone With the Wind. The following year, she was re-teamed with Charles Boyer as the maniacally possessive Duchess de Praslin in All This and Heaven Too, a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination. While she continued making films until 1959, the actress seemed happiest and most fulfilled as a Broadway actress. She retired in 1960 after appearing in the original New York production of Little Moon of Alban. O'Neil died in 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Barbara O'Neil (July 17, 1910 – September 3, 1980) was an American actress.
Career
O'Neil was born in St. Louis, Missouri. She began her acting career in summer stock. In July 1931 Bretaigne Windust, Charles Leatherbee (the grandson of Charles Richard Crane), and Joshua Logan, the three directors of the University Players, a three-year old summer stock company at West Falmouth on Cape Code, were looking for a leading lady type for their repertory season that winter in Baltimore. At the suggestion of George Pierce Baker, they auditioned and hired O'Neil, one of his talented students at the Yale School of Drama. Romances born of the University Players led to three significant marriages: O'Neil to Joshua Logan for a few years in the 1930s, Logan's younger sister Mary Lee Logan to Charles Leatherbee, and between actress Margaret Sullavan and actor Henry Fonda of a few months in 1932.