Gloria Grahame Hallward was born on November 28, 1924 in Los Angeles. She died in 1981 at the age of 57.
The daughter of an industrial designer and a former minor actress, she began performing on the stage at age nine with the Pasadena Community Playhouse and later participated in Hollywood High School dramatics.
After some experience in stock she made her Broadway debut as Gloria Hallward in 1943 and was signed to a film contract by MGM the following year.
But it was not until the early 1950s that she made her mark on Hollywood as a sensuous, sultry leading lady whose seductive voice, pouting lips, and inviting looks were perfectly suited to her typical role as a fallen woman or erring wife.
1952: Best Year of her Career
She won an Academy Award as best supporting actress for her portrayal of Dick Powell’s Southern belle wife-tramp in Minnelli’s Hollywood melodrama, The Bad and the Beautiful (1952).
In that year, Grahame gave two other memorable performances, in the noir thriller Sudden Fear, as the woman who threatens Joan Crawford, and in DeMille’s Best Picture winner, The Greatest Show on Earth, as Angel, the elephant girl.
She played a number of other meaty parts in the next four years.
After that her roles diminished and her Hollywood career gradually declined. By the end of the decade she had retired from the screen. She later returned to films, mainly in low budget productions. Her four marriages included actor Stanley Clements (1945-1948) and directors Nicholas RAY (1948-1952) and Cy Howard (1954-1957). She died of cancer.
Oscar Alert
In 1947, for her turn in “Crossfire,” Gloria Grahame competed for Supporting Actress Oscar Ethel Barrymore in “The Paradine Case,” Celeste Holm (who won) in “”Gentleman’s Agreement,” Marjorie Main in “The Egg and I,” and Anne Revere also for “Gentleman’s Agreement.”
In 1952, Grahame won the Supporting Actress Oscar in a tight race that included Jean Hagen in “Singin’ in the Rain,” Colette Marchand in “Moulin Rouge,” Terry Moore in Come Back, Little Sheba,” and Thelma Ritter in “With a Song in My Heart.”
