Gladys George: Career Summary:
Age at stage debut: child (with her parents)
Age at Broadway debut: early 20s
Occupational Inheritance: father actor
Age at film debut:
Oscar Awards: 1 nomination, in 1936, age 32
Career span:
Last film:
She was born as Gladys Clare Evans on September 13, 1904 in Patten, Maine to English parents. Her father was Sir Arthur Clare, Shakespearean actor.
George went on the stage at the age of 3, touring the U.S. with her parents. She starred on stage in “Personal Appearance,” a comedy by Lawrence Riley. This role was reprised by Mae West in “Go West, Young Man.”
Oscar Nomination:
In 1936, George was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar nomination for Valiant Is the Word for Carrie.
George’s Broadway credits include “The Distant City,” “Lady in Waiting,” and “The Betrothal.”
She also appeared in Madame X (1937), Love is a Headache, The Roaring Twenties (1939), The Way of All Flesh (1940), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and He Ran All the Way (1951).
She played the widow of Miles Archer (Iva Archer) in The Maltese Falcon and Mme. Du Barry in “Marie Antoinette.”
Her last successful roles were as Lute Mae Sanders in Flamingo Road, her brief appearance as the corrupt nurse Miss Hatch in Detective Story, and Lullaby of Broadway as the alcoholic mother of Doris Day’s wholesome character.
Marriages: 4 (2 with actors)
Gladys George was married and divorced four times.
On March 31, 1922, she and actor Ben Erway eloped and married in Oakland, California. They were remarried in San Luis Obispo August 3, 1922, then separated and divorced in October 1930.
Her second husband was millionaire paper manufacturer Edward Fowler, who walked out in 1933 after finding his wife had an affair with her leading man, Leonard Penn. At the time George was playing a nymphomaniacal star in the Broadway hit “Personal Appearance.”
George and actor Leonard Penn were married in a probate court in New Haven, Connecticut, September 19, 1935.
Her last husband Kenneth Bradley, whom she married when she was 46, was a hotel bellboy 20 years her junior.
George was afflicted with throat cancer, heart disease, and cirrhosis of the liver.
She died from a cerebral hemorrhage on December 8, 1954 in Los Angeles, aged 50.