Evelyn Keyes

Evelyn Keyes
Evelyn Keyes in 99 River Street (1953)
Born	Evelyn Louise Keyes November 20, 1916(1916-11-20) [1] Port Arthur, Texas, U.S.
Died	July 4, 2008 (aged 91) Montecito, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1938–1993
Spouse(s)	Barton Bainbridge (1938–1940) Charles Vidor (1943–1945) John Huston (1946–1950) Artie Shaw (1957–1985)
Domestic partner(s)	Michael Todd (1953–1956)

Evelyn Louise Keyes (November 20, 1916 – July 4, 2008) was an American film actress. She is best-known for her role as Suellen O'Hara in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind.

Early life

Evelyn Keyes was born on November 20, 1916 to Omar Dow Keyes and Maude Ollive Keyes, the daughter of a Methodist minister. After Omar Keyes died when she was three years old, she moved with her mother to Atlanta, Georgia where they lived with her grandparents. As a teenager, Keyes took dancing lessons and performed for local clubs such as the Daughters of the Confederacy.

Film career

A chorus girl by age 18, Keyes was put under contract by Cecil B. DeMille. After a handful of B movies at Paramount Pictures, she landed her most notable role, that of Scarlett O'Hara's sister Suellen in Gone with the Wind (1939).^[2]

Columbia Pictures signed her to a contract. In 1941 she played an ingenue role in Here Comes Mr. Jordan, but the studio evidently thought her too young to play romantic roles in major films, so she spent most of the 1940s playing leads in many of Columbia's B dramas and mysteries. She developed her dramatic skill sufficiently to be given the feminine lead opposite Larry Parks in Columbia's blockbuster hit The Jolson Story (1946). Her later performances were fewer, but noteworthy, like her 1949 role as Kathy Flannigan in Mrs. Mike.^[3] Keyes' last important film role was a small part as Tom Ewell's vacationing wife in The Seven Year Itch (1955), which starred Marilyn Monroe. Keyes officially retired in 1956, but continued to act.

Personal life

She was married to Barton Bainbridge from 1938 until his death from suicide in 1940. Later she married and divorced director Charles Vidor (1943–1945), actor/director John Huston (23 July 1946–February 1950),^[4][5][6] and bandleader Artie Shaw (1957–1985).^[7] Keyes said of her many relationships, "I was always interested in the man of the moment, and there were many such moments." While married to Huston, the couple adopted a Mexican child, Pablo, whom Huston had discovered while on the set of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

Her autobiography, Scarlett O'Hara's Younger Sister: My Lively Life in and Out of Hollywood, was published in 1977.^[2] Keyes expressed her opinion that Mrs. Mike was her best film. She also wrote of the personal cost she paid by having an abortion just before Gone with the Wind was to begin filming.^[8] The experience left her unable to have children. Among the many Hollywood affairs she recounted were those to producer Michael Todd (who left Evelyn for Elizabeth Taylor), Anthony Quinn, David Niven and Kirk Douglas.

Evelyn Keyes in The Seven Year Itch (1955)

She died of uterine cancer on July 4, 2008 at her home in Montecito, California, near Santa Barbara.^[2] She had also suffered from Alzheimer's disease.^[9]

Filmography

• The Buccaneer (1938) as Madeleine
• Dangerous to Know (1938) (uncredited)
• Men with Wings (1938) (uncredited) Nurse
• Sons of the Legion (1938) as Linda Lee
• Artists and Models Abroad (1938) aka Stranded in Paris (UK) (uncredited)
• Paris Honeymoon (1939) (uncredited) as Village Girl
• Sudden Money (1939) as Mary Patterson
• Union Pacific (1939) as Mrs. Calvin
• Gone with the Wind (1939) as Suellen O'Hara
• Slightly Honorable (1940) as Miss Vlissingen
• The Lady in Question (1940) as Francois Morestan
• Before I Hang (1940) as Martha Garth
• Beyond the Sacramento (1940) aka Power of Justice (UK) as Lynn Perry
• The Face Behind the Mask (1941) aka Behind the Mask (UK) as Helen Williams
• Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) as Bette Logan
• Ladies in Retirement (1941) as Lucy
• The Adventures of Martin Eden (1942) aka High Seas (USA reissue title) as Ruth Morley
• Flight Lieutenant (1942) as Susie Thompson
• The Desperadoes (1943) as Allison McLeod
• Dangerous Blondes (1943) as Jane Craig
• There's Something About a Soldier (1943) as Carol Harkness
• Nine Girls (1944) as Mary O'Ryan
• Strange Affair (1944) as Jacqueline Harrison
• A Thousand and One Nights (1945) aka 1001 Nights as the Genie^[10]
• Renegades (1946) aka Kansan, as Hannah Brockway^[11]
• The Thrill of Brazil (1946) as Vicki Dean^[12]
• The Jolson Story (1946) as Julie Benson (a character based on Jolson's wife, Ruby Keeler)^[13]
• Johnny O'Clock (1947) as Nancy Hobson
• The Mating of Millie (1948) as Millie McGonigle
• Enchantment (1948) as Grizel Dane
• Mr. Soft Touch (1949) aka House of Settlement (UK), as Jenny Jones
• Mrs. Mike (1949) as Kathy Flannigan^[3]
• The Killer That Stalked New York (1950) aka Frightened City (UK) (USA copyright title), as Sheila Bennet^[14]
• Smuggler's Island (1951) as Vivian Craig
• The Prowler (1951) as Susan Gilvray
• Iron Man (1951) as Rose Warren^[15]
• One Big Affair (1952) as Jean Harper
• C'est arrivé à Paris (1953) aka It Happened in Paris (USA), as Patricia Moran
• Rough Shoot (1953) aka Shoot First (USA), as Cecily Paine^[16]
• 99 River Street (1953) aka Crosstown, as Linda James^[17]
• Hell's Half Acre (1954) as Donna Williams^[18]
• The Seven Year Itch (1955) as Helen Sherman
• Top of the World (1955) as Virgie Rayne (Mrs. Gannon)
• Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) as The Flirt
• Across 110th Street (1972) (cameo)
• A Return to Salem's Lot (1987) as Mrs. Axel
• The Making of a Legend: Gone With The Wind (1988) as herself (interview)
• Wicked Stepmother (1989) as Witch Instructor

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Evelyn Keyes

• Evelyn Keyes, Actress in 'Gone With the Wind' dies at 91
• New York Times Biography
• Evelyn Keyes at the Internet Movie Database
• Evelyn Keyes at Find a Grave