Camilla Läckberg
 

It’s always been my life’s dream to write detective novels. It first came true in 2003 when my first book The Ice Princess was published in Sweden and now, my seventh book, The Lighthouse Keeper has reached the shelves in Sweden at the same time as the rights to my books have been sold to over 30 countries worldwide. Here on my website you can find out about me, my books, and Fjällbacka, the place where I grew up and the scene of all my murders. Most of the characters in my books are fictional, but some are real people living in the area, and I’ll be telling you more about them in these pages. Happy reading! Camilla Läckberg

Camilla’s books are set in Fjällbacka, the coastal village where Camilla was born and raised. In northern Bohuslän, about 140 km north of Göteborg, lies the little community of Fjällbacka. Already a fishing village in the 17th century, Fjällbacka is now an idyll that’s steeped in history. Its name derives from the imposing rocky outcrop that the village encircles. Thousands of tourists visit Fjällbacka in the summer. For the rest of the year, there’s about 1,000 permanent residents. Fjällbacka might be small, but there are still hotels, cafés and shops. The best way to get to Fjällbacka without a car is by train to Uddevalla. You can also take a train to Dingle and from there take a bus to Fjällbacka, or alternatively fly to Trollhättan and make your way from there.

Crime-writers’ school – the seven steps I get lots of questions about my writing, many of them asking for advice. Unfortunately there are no miracle tips I can give. The most important thing is to make sure that you sit down and start writing, not that each sentence is perfectly composed. A wise person once said that writing is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, and I can personally vouch for the truth of that! So don’t get in a stew over how the words fall – just make sure THAT they fall. Let the words just flow. In other words: write, write, write! Here, I’d like to present my own seven-part crime-writers’ school. Each part contains tips and exercises as well as some pointers for books that you might find inspiring. Good luck!

Please address all queries about Camilla Läckberg and her books to Nordin Agency for further assistance. E-mail: info@nordinagency.se Phone: +46-8-571 685 25 Address: Nordin Agency, P.O. Box 4244, 203 13 Malmö, Sweden For questions regarding sponsoring and press, please contact Christina Saliba at Weber Shandwick. E-mail: christina.saliba@webershandwick.se Phone: +46-70-341 46 54. For more information in Swedish about Camilla Läckberg please visit Camilla's Swedish website: www.camillalackberg.se .

"The Ice Princess" in the US press

6/17/2010 11:47:44 AM, 19 comment(s)

I'm sorry that I'm starting out a bit slowly with my blogging in English. But there are several reasons; we haven't established a good blogging tool yet so that I can easily make my own blog posts. My Outlook took a nosedive this weekend so my computer is on repair until Friday. And I'm in Fjällbacka with a massive schedule for doing the cookbok and also an internet connection that is... well not great...
 
So hang in there - my blogging will get better!! :-)
 
But I can quickly mention that I'm very happy to have had articles in both New York Times and Washington Post yesterday.... That's a good first week for "The Ice Princess".......

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/16/AR2010061605087.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/books/16noir.html?hp

Place a comment
Comments (19)
Dear Camilla,
just finished your last book (well, the last which was translated in Dutch). Again a book I could not put away untill I finished it. Well done!! Can't hardly wait for the next one!
Kind regards,
Roos
The Netherlands
Roos, 6/18/2010 12:27:04 PM
Hi. I am a swede who lives in the USA. I read the article in the Washington Post and it makes me proud that swedes are getting a name for themselves in this genre. I have read your first two books and is currently reading the third; Stenhuggaren. I have really like the stories and sped through the books. My only complaint, and it's minor, is that there is too much coffee drinking amongst the characters! Always that coffee. Always. I gets irritating. Second and last comment; it is frustrating to read how Erica is "hating her life" while having the opportunity to stay home with the baby. Living in a country where there basically is no maternity leave, Erica comes across as a spoiled and ungrateful mother. What would not American mothers do to be able to stay home on paid maternity leave with their babies!! Other than these comments, keep up the good work!
SB, 6/22/2010 6:19:15 PM
Casey Carlyle (Michelle Trachtenberg), a bookworm and physics geek, decides to use her academic skill by pursuing a scholarship to Harvard University. For the scholarship, Casey must present a project about physics. While watching a figure skating competition, Casey realizes that her favorite childhood hobby, which is ice skating on the pond outside her house, would make a perfect project for getting her scholarship. At first, she watches other skaters at the local ice rink, but decides to try to improve her own skating by applying the physics and what she found out from watching other skaters. She becomes a proficient skater, even skipping two levels to become a junior skater.

Unsure of what she really wants, Casey has a difficult time juggling schoolwork, skating, and a job at a food stand in the ice rink to pay for her skating lessons. Her mother, Joan (Joan Cusack), realizes that Casey's constant skating is affecting her schoolwork and tells her to stop, but Casey refuses.
iceprincess, 8/18/2010 3:59:23 PM
Affogato
An affogato (Italian for "drowned") is a coffee-based beverage or dessert. "Affogato style", which refers to the act of topping a drink or dessert with espresso, may also incorporate caramel sauce or chocolate sauce.

[edit] Caffè Americano
Caffè Americano or simply Americano (the name is also spelled with varying capitalization and use of diacritics: e.g. Café Americano, Cafe Americano, etc.) is a style of coffee prepared by adding hot water to espresso, giving a similar strength to but different flavor from regular drip coffee. The strength of an Americano varies with the number of shots of espresso added.

Long black
Lungo
Red eye
coffee drinker, 8/18/2010 4:02:24 PM
Marilyn Manson (born Brian Hugh Warner; January 5, 1969) is an American musician and artist known for his controversial stage persona and image as the lead singer of the eponymous band, Marilyn Manson. His stage name was formed from the names of actress Marilyn Monroe and convicted murder-planner[1] Charles Manson.[2][3] He has a long legacy of being depicted in the media as a bad influence on children. The seemingly outrageous styles for which he models and the controversy surrounding his lyrics have led to his very pronounced public appeal.[4]
Manson, 8/20/2010 9:07:54 AM
A changeling is a creature found in Western European folklore and folk religion. It is typically described as being the offspring of a fairy, troll, elf or other legendary creature that has been secretly left in the place of a human child. The apparent changeling could also be a stock, an enchanted piece of wood that would soon appear to grow sick and die. The theme of the swapped child is common among medieval literature and reflects concern over infants afflicted by as-then unknown diseases, disorders, or mental retardation.

A human child might be taken due to many factors: to act as a servant, the love of a human child, or malice.[1
CamillaChangeling, 8/20/2010 9:18:30 AM
I sit and wait
Does an angel contemplate my fate
And do they know
The places where we go
When we're grey and old
'cos I have been told
That salvation lets their wings unfold
So when I'm lying in my bed
Thoughts running through my head
And I feel the love is dead
I'm loving angels instead

And through it all she offers me protection
A lot of love and affection
Whether I'm right or wrong
And down the waterfall
Wherever it may take me
I know that life won't break me
When I come to call she won't forsake me
I'm loving angels instead

When I'm feeling weak
And my pain walks down a one way street
I look above
And I know I'll always be blessed with love
And as the feeling grows
She breathes flesh to my bones
And when love is dead
I'm loving angels instead

And through it all she offers me protection
A lot of love and affection
Whether I'm right or wrong
And down the waterfall
Wherever it may take me
I know that life won't break me
When I come to call she won't forsake me
I'm loving angels instead

And through it all she offers me protection
A lot of love and affection
Whether I'm right or wrong
And down the waterfall
Wherever it may take me
I know that life won't break me
When I come to call she won't forsake me
I'm loving angels instead
camco, 8/29/2010 11:16:32 AM
Camilla,
There are loads of free alternatives to Outlook Express; why not keep a back up. Then if one goes on the blink you've got another. Open. org does a similar diary as Microsoft with office functions.
nowandthen, 8/29/2010 5:01:10 PM
It's Christmas time, and there's no need to be afraid
At Christmas time, we let in light and we banish shade
And in our world of plenty, we can spread a smile of joy
Throw your arms around the world at Christmas time

But say a prayer and pray for the other ones
At Christmas time, it's hard, but when your having fun
There's a world outside your window
And it's a world of dread and fear
And the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears
And the Christmas bells that ring there
Are the clanging chimes of doom
Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you

And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time
The greatest gift they'll get this year is life
Where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow
Do they know it's Christmas time at all

Here's to you, raise your glass for everyone
Here's to them underneath that burning sun
Do they know it's Christmas time at all

Feed the world, let them know it's Christmas time
Feed the world, let them know it's Christmas time
Feed the world, let them know it's Christmas time
Feed the world, let them know it's Christmas time
feedworld, 8/29/2010 6:21:00 PM
Swedish author Camilla Lackberg won France's Le Grand Prix de Litterature Policier for Best International Crime Novel of the Year when this novel was published in Sweden (2008). Her unique style and sense of plot have won her numerous prizes, not only in her own country, but throughout the world, where this book has now been translated into twenty-five languages. The Ice Princess begins mysteriously with an unnamed person finding a woman's body in a filled bathtub in a rural house so cold that ice has formed around her. Her wrists are slashed in an apparent suicide. The woman is former resident Alexandra Wijkner, nee Carlgren, who grew in this house and who had been visiting it regularly on weekends. Erica Falck, a writer, had been her best friend until Alex unexpectedly fled Fjallbacka when she was ten. As Erica begins her research into Alex's life for an article for the local newspaper, she soon finds herself working informally with Patrik Hedstrom, a local policeman who had loved Erica from afar when they were schoolmates.

In the course of the novel, the intersecting lives of the townspeople unfold. Though they are of different social levels, the town is small, and everyone has contact with everyone else. Lackberg creates her characters from the inside out, letting the characters drive her story, the plot developing in a leisurely way as the author presents scenes from the characters' lives and lets the reader see them as people. Each has some secret life that is not shared with the rest of the town, and Alex, herself, has secrets which, when revealed, will change the lives of many people in Fjallbacka.

For readers accustomed to crime novels filled with macho heroes, extravagant action, chases, shoot-outs, and fights to the death, Lackberg may be a surprise, though the novel certainly has plenty of action. Her characters are not larger than life--they reflect real life, generally ordinary people, rooted in reality, who, when faced with extraordinary events, try to deal with them in ordinary ways. As the various characters live their lives and discover tiny pieces of information, the reader begins to acquire a bigger picture of the circumstances surrounding Alex's death. The mystery is enhanced by five anonymous meditations scattered throughout the novel which reveal the inner world of one or more characters.

As in real life, there are some small issues which do not get resolved--we never know why one or two people don't tell the truth--and a few subplots could have used some pruning. Lackberg, the literary juggler, successfully keeps many balls in the air at once, and as an additional death occurs and crimes from the past are discovered, resolution, if not reconciliation, occurs. The secret underlying all the action is stunning in its depravity and in the lengths to which some people will go to preserve secrecy. This is a carefully conceived mystery which will delight those whose interests lean toward the inner worlds of the characters rather than their willingness to take up the sword. Mary Whipple
small, 9/5/2010 4:56:26 PM
I try to ignore this view. When I’m at my writing desk I turn my back to it. When I look up — though these days one no longer looks up from his work, but merely past the monitor — I see only the spines of books along their shelves. What I don’t see is the pitched window of the attic, the bend that the Spree, Berlin’s main river, makes behind me, the distant facade of the magnificent Bode Museum; above all I don’t see the three bridges with their streams of cars and pedestrians under which pass huge barges headed in both directions. Some of the barges carry freight, while others blast music as people dance and raise beer bottles on the deck, although on most of them sit tourists with their cameras, attentive as schoolchildren. I always wonder what they are photographing. The majority probably photograph the so-called Palace of Tears, that glass border-crossing station that once sat between East and West Berlin; today it is empty, although it will soon become a dance club. A few will also photograph the Berlin Ensemble, originally a theater founded and run by Bertolt Brecht; it is to the left of my window and visible only if I lean out. The most important thing, however, cannot be photographed: the invisible line where the Berlin Wall once stood. Absence can’t be captured, not even with the best camera, and so the tourists turn their helpless devices to the gray facades of the new buildings, to the rows of identical windows, one of which, high up near the roof, stands open, and behind it a barely visible figure quickly turns away and goes back to work at his desk.
Berlin, 9/5/2010 7:48:12 PM
James M. Cain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search
James Mallahan Cain
Born July 1, 1892(1892-07-01)
Annapolis, Maryland, United States
Died October 27, 1977 (aged 85)
University Park, Maryland, United States
Occupation Novelist, journalist
Nationality American
Genres Crime

James Mallahan Cain (July 1, 1892 – October 27, 1977) was an American author and journalist. Although Cain himself vehemently opposed labelling, he is usually associated with the hardboiled school of American crime fiction and seen as one of the creators of the roman noir. Several of his crime novels inspired highly successful movies.

Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Career
3 Personal life
4 Quotation
5 Bibliography
6 Films
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Early life
Cain was born into an Irish Catholic family in Annapolis, Maryland. The son of a prominent educator and an opera singer, he had inherited his love for music from his mother, but his high hopes of starting a career as a singer himself were thwarted when she told him that his voice was not good enough. After graduating from Washington College where his father, James W. Cain served as president, in 1910, Cain began working as a journalist for the Baltimore Sun.

Cain was drafted into the United States Army and spent the final year of World War I in France writing for an Army magazine.

[edit] Career
Back in the States, he continued working as a journalist writing editorials for the New York World and articles for American Mercury. He briefly served as the managing editor of The New Yorker, but later turned to screenplays and finally to fiction.

Although Cain spent many years in Hollywood working on screenplays, his name only appears on the credits of three films: Algiers, Stand Up and Fight, and Gypsy Wildcat.

Cain's first novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice, was published in 1934. Two years later the serialized Double Indemnity was published.

Cain made use of his love of music and of the opera in particular in at least three of his novels: Serenade (about an American opera singer who loses his voice and who, after spending part of his life south of the border, re-enters the States illegally with a Mexican prostitute in tow); Mildred Pierce (in which, as part of the subplot, the only daughter of a successful businesswoman trains as an opera singer); and Career in C Major, a short semi-comic novel about the unhappy husband of an aspiring opera singer who unexpectedly discovers that he has a better voice than she does (Cain's fourth wife, Florence Macbeth, was a retired opera singer).

[edit] Personal life
Cain was married to Mary Clough in 1919. The marriage ended in divorce and he promptly married Elina Sjösted Tyszecka. Although Cain never had any children of his own, he was close to Elina's two children from a prior marriage. In 1944 Cain married film actress Aileen Pringle, but the marriage was a tempestuous union and dissolved in a bitter divorce two years later.[1] Cain married for the fourth time to Florence Macbeth, an opera singer. Their marriage lasted until her death in 1966.

Cain continued writing up to his death at the age of 85. However, the many novels he published from the late 1940s onward never rivaled his earlier successes.

[edit] Quotation
"I make no conscious effort to be tough, or hard-boiled, or grim, or any of the things I am usually called. I merely try to write as the character would write, and I never forget that the average man, from the fields, the streets, the bars, the offices, and even the gutters of his country, has acquired a vividness of speech that goes beyond anything I could invent, and that if I stick to this heritage, this logos of the American countryside, I shall attain a maximum of effectiveness with very little effort."
(from the Preface to Double Indemnity)
[edit] Bibliography
(with the dates of the first book publication)

Our Government (1930)
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934)
Serenade (1937)
Mildred Pierce (1941)
Love's Lovely Counterfeit (1942)
Career in C Major and Other Stories (1943)
Double Indemnity (1943) (first published in Liberty Magazine, 1936)
The Embezzler (1944) (first published as Money and the Woman, Liberty Magazine, 1938)
Past All Dishonor (1946)
The Butterfly (1947)
The Moth (1948)
Sinful Woman (1948)
Jealous Woman (1950)
The Root of His Evil (1951) (also published as Shameless)
Galatea (1953)
Mignon (1962)
The Magician's Wife (1965)
Rainbow's End (1975)
The Institute (1976)
The Baby in the Icebox (1981); short stories
Cloud Nine (1984)
The Enchanted Isle (1985)
[edit] Films
The following films were adapted from Cain's novels and stories.

She Made Her Bed, USA, 1934, directed by Ralph Murphy (story "The Baby in the Icebox")
Le Dernier tournant, France, 1939, directed by Pierre Chenal (novel The Postman Always Rings Twice)
Ossessione, Italy, 1943, directed by Luchino Visconti (novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, uncredited)
Double Indemnity, USA, 1944, directed by Billy Wilder
Mildred Pierce, USA, 1945, directed by Michael Curtiz
The Postman Always Rings Twice, USA, 1946, directed by Tay Garnett
Slightly Scarlet, USA, 1956, directed by Allan Dwan (novel Love's Lovely Counterfeit)
Serenade, USA, 1956, directed by Anthony Mann
The Postman Always Rings Twice, USA, 1981, directed by Bob Rafelson
Butterfly, USA, 1982, directed by Matt Cimber
Girl in the Cadillac, USA, 1995, directed by Lucas Platt (novel The Enchanted Isle)
[edit] References
This article includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (November 2008)

1.^ Hoopes
Hoopes, Roy (1982). Cain. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 0030493315.
[edit] External links
James M. Cain's collection at the University of Maryland Library
Bibliography and reviews
"James M. Cain", an essay by William Marling
Biography



Persondata
NAME Cain, James M.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cain, James Mallahan (full name)
SHORT DESCRIPTION Novelist, short story writer, journalist
DATE OF BIRTH July 1, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Annapolis, Maryland, United States
DATE OF DEATH October 27, 1977
PLACE OF DEATH University Park, Maryland, United States
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_M._Cain"
Categories: 1892 births | 1977 deaths | American crime fiction writers | American military personnel of World War I | American novelists | Writers from California | Writers from Maryland | People from Annapolis, Maryland | Washington College alumni
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postman, 9/6/2010 8:17:18 PM
Mildred Pierce (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search
Mildred Pierce

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Produced by Executive Producer:
Jack L. Warner
Producer:
Jerry Wald
Written by Ranald MacDougall
William Faulkner
Catherine Turney
James M. Cain (Novel)
Starring Joan Crawford
Ann Blyth
Jack Carson
Zachary Scott
Eve Arden
Music by Max Steiner
Cinematography Ernest Haller
Editing by David Weisbart
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date(s) September 24, 1945 (1945-09-24)
Running time 111 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Mildred Pierce is a 1945 Warner Bros. feature film starring Joan Crawford, Ann Blyth, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, and Eve Arden in a film noir tale about a long-suffering mother and her ungrateful daughter. The screenplay by Ranald MacDougall, William Faulkner, and Catherine Turney was based upon the 1941 novel Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain. The film was directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Jerry Wald with Jack L. Warner as executive producer. Mildred Pierce was Crawford's first starring film for Warner Bros. after leaving MGM and won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Contents [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Critical reception
4 Comparison to novel
5 DVD release
6 Awards
7 Honors
8 Remake
9 References
10 External links

[edit] Plot

from the trailer for the filmWhile the novel is told by a third-person narrator in strict chronological order, the film uses voice-over narration (the voice of Mildred). The story is framed by the questioning of Mildred by police after they discover the body of her second husband, Monte Beragon.

The film, in noir fashion, opens with Beragon (Scott) being shot. He murmurs the name "Mildred" as he collapses and dies. The police are led to believe that the murderer is restaurant owner Mildred Pierce's (Crawford) first husband, Bert Pierce, who under interrogation confesses to the crime. She then relates her life story in flashback.

We see housewife Mildred unhappily married to a newly unemployed Bert Pierce (Bruce Bennett). He was originally a real estate partner of Wally Fay (Carson), who propositions Mildred after learning that she and Bert are about to divorce. Mildred keeps custody of her two daughters: 16-year-old Veda (Blyth), a snobbish social climber and aspiring pianist, and 10-year-old Kay (Jo Anne Marlowe), a tomboy.

Mildred's principal goal is to provide for eldest daughter Veda, who longs for possessions the family cannot afford. Mildred needs a job and the best she can find is as a waitress — a fact she hides from Veda. One day, Veda gives their maid Lottie (Butterfly McQueen) Mildred's waitress uniform, thinking nothing of it, until Mildred admits that she is a waitress, infuriating Veda, who thinks it a lowly employ.

Mildred's younger daughter Kay contracts pneumonia and dies; to bury her grief, Mildred throws herself into opening her own restaurant on the coast (next to what appears to be the Santa Monica beach). With the help of her new friend and former supervisor, Ida (Arden), Mildred's new restaurant is a success. Wally helps her buy the property, and then it expands into a chain of "Mildred's" throughout Southern California.

Mildred continues to smother Veda in affection and worldly goods, but Veda is nonetheless appalled by Mildred's common background and choice of profession. Mildred goes as far as entering into a loveless marriage with the formerly wealthy Monty Beragon in order to improve her social standing and impress her daughter. Beragon lives the life of a playboy supplemented by Mildred, much to Mildred's dismay and potential ruin. Mildred ends up losing business thanks to Monte's manipulation and Veda's greed.

When Veda takes up with the scheming Monty, a showdown ensues at the beach house where the film began. We discover what really happened: that Veda, furious over Monte's unwillingness to take her seriously, is the one who shoots him. Mildred can cover for her daughter no more, and Veda is led off to jail.

[edit] Cast
Joan Crawford as Mildred Pierce Beragon
Jack Carson as Wally Fay
Zachary Scott as Monte Beragon
Eve Arden as Ida Corwin
Ann Blyth as Veda Pierce Forrester
Butterfly McQueen as Lottie
Bruce Bennett as Albert ('Bert') Pierce
Lee Patrick as Mrs. Maggie Biederhof
Moroni Olsen as Inspector Peterson
Veda Ann Borg as Miriam Ellis
Jo Ann Marlowe as Kay Pierce
[edit] Critical reception
The staff at Variety liked the film, especially the screenplay, and wrote, "At first reading James M. Cain's novel of the same title might not suggest screenable material, but the cleanup job has resulted in a class feature, showmanly produced by Jerry Wald and tellingly directed by Michael Curtiz...The dramatics are heavy but so skillfully handled that they never cloy. Joan Crawford reaches a peak of her acting career in this pic. Ann Blyth, as the daughter, scores dramatically in her first genuine acting assignment. Zachary Scott makes the most of his character as the Pasadena heel, a talented performance."[1]

Critic Jeremiah Kipp gave the film a mixed review: "Mildred Pierce is melodramatic trash, constructed like a reliable Aristotelian warhorse where characters have planted the seeds of their own doom in the first act, only to have grief-stricken revelations at the climax. Directed by studio favorite Michael Curtiz in German Expressionistic mode, which doesn't quite go with the California beaches and sunlight but sets the bleak tone of domestic film noir, and scored by Max Steiner with a sensational bombast that's rousing even when it doesn't match the quieter, pensive mood of individual scenes, Mildred Pierce is professionally executed and moves at a brisk clip."[2]

[edit] Comparison to novel
Though James M. Cain was often labeled a "hard-boiled crime writer," his novel Mildred Pierce was mostly a psychological work and relatively nonviolent. The adaptation was designed as a thriller and a murder was introduced into the plot.[3] The novel spans a period of nine years (from 1931 to 1940), whereas the action of the film is set in the 1940s and spans only four years. Accordingly, in the film, the characters do not really grow older: Mildred does not change her appearance, she does not put on weight and become matronly; Veda ages only four years, from around 13 to around 17. Generally speaking, Mildred is more of a tycoon in the film; her restaurants are glamorous places, and she owns a whole chain ("Mildred's") rather than just three. The evil Veda, who is prodigiously talented and brilliantly devious in the novel, is a somewhat less formidable figure in the film. All references to the Depression and the Prohibition era, which were important in the novel, were absent from the screenplay.

The plot is simplified and the number of characters reduced. For example, Veda's training and success as a singer (including her performance at the Hollywood Bowl) were dropped in the film and her music teachers merely mentioned in passing. Lucy Gessler, a key character in the novel and Mildred's good friend, is not present in the film.

[edit] DVD release
Mildred Pierce is available on Region 2 DVD in a single disc edition which includes an 86-minute documentary into the career and personal life of Joan Crawford with contributions from fellow actors and directors, including Diane Baker, Betsy Palmer, Anna Lee, Anita Page, Cliff Robertson, Virginia Grey, Dickie Moore, Norma Shearer, Ben Cooper, Margaret O'Brien, Judy Geeson, and Vincent Sherman. Mildred Pierce is also included in a Region 2 release a signature collection of Joan Crawford's films together with the films Possessed, Grand Hotel, The Damned Don't Cry! and Humoresque.

The Region 1 edition is flipper single disc with "Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star" documentary and a series of trailer galleries on the reverse of the film.

[edit] Awards
Wins

National Board of Review: Best Actress, Joan Crawford; 1945.
Academy Award: Best Actress in a Leading Role, Joan Crawford; 1946.
Nominations

Academy Awards: 1946
Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Eve Arden
Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Ann Blyth
Best Black-and-White Cinematography, Ernest Haller
Best Picture, Jerry Wald
Best Screenplay Writing, Ranald MacDougall
[edit] Honors
[show]v • d • eClassic-era films noir in the National Film Registry

1940-49 The Maltese Falcon · Shadow of a Doubt · Laura · Double Indemnity · Mildred Pierce · Detour · The Big Sleep
The Killers · Notorious · Out of the Past · Force of Evil · The Naked City · White Heat


Honors

In 1996 the drama was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected for preservation in the United States Library of Congress National Film Registry.
[edit] Remake
As of April 2010, Kate Winslet is currently filming the part of Mildred in a television remake of the film.[4]

[edit] References
1.^ Variety. Film review, 1945. Last accessed: February 7, 2008.
2.^ Kipp, Jeremiah. Slant, magazine, film review, 2005. Last accessed: February 8, 2008.
3.^ Mildred Pierce at Allmovie.
4.^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000701/
[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mildred Pierce (film)

Mildred Pierce at the Internet Movie Database
Mildred Pierce at Allmovie
Mildred Pierce at the TCM Movie Database
Mildred Pierce at the Joan Crawford Encyclopedia
Mildred Pierce film trailer at You Tube
[show]v • d • eFilmography of Joan Crawford

1928-1939 Our Dancing Daughters (1928) • West Point (1928) • Paid (1930) • Dance, Fools, Dance (1931) • Laughing Sinners (1931) • Possessed (1931) • This Modern Age (1931) • Dancing Lady (1933) • Chained (1934) • Forsaking All Others (1934) • Love on the Run (1936)

1940-1949 Strange Cargo (1940) • Susan and God (1940) • A Woman's Face (1941) • When Ladies Meet (1941) • They All Kissed the Bride (1942) • Reunion in France (1942) • Above Suspicion (1943) • Hollywood Canteen (1944) • Mildred Pierce (1945) • Humoresque (1946) • Possessed (1947) • Daisy Kenyon (1947) • Flamingo Road (1949) • It's a Great Feeling (1949)

1950-1959 The Damned Don't Cry! (1950) • Harriet Craig (1950) • Goodbye, My Fancy (1951) • This Woman Is Dangerous (1952) • Sudden Fear (1952) • Torch Song (1953) • Johnny Guitar (1954) • Female on the Beach (1955) • Queen Bee (1955) • Autumn Leaves (1956) • The Story of Esther Costello (1957) • The Best of Everything (1959)

1960-1970 What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) • The Caretakers (1963) • Strait-Jacket (1964) • I Saw What You Did (1965) • Berserk! (1967) • Trog (1970)

[show]v • d • eThe films of Michael Curtiz

1910s The Last Bohemian • Today and Tomorrow • Captive Souls • My Husband's Getting Married • The Exile • The Borrowed Babies • The Princess in a Nightrobe • Prisoner of the Night • Bánk Bán • Golddigger • One Who Is Loved By Two • Seven of Spades • The Strength of the Fatherland • The Karthauzer • The Black Rainbow • The Wolf • The Medic • Mr. Doctor • Master Zoard • The Red Samson • The Last Dawn • Spring in Winter • Tartar Invasion • Secret of St. Job Forest • Nobody's Son • The Charlatan • A Penny's History • The Fishing Bell • Earth's Man • The Colonel • Peace's Road • Jean the Tenant • The Merry Widow • Magic Waltz • A skorpió I. • The Devil • Lulu • Lu, the Coquette • Júdás • The Ugly Boy • Alraune (with Edmund Fritz) • 99 • The Sunflower Woman • Liliom (unfinished) • The Lady with the Black Gloves


1920s Boccaccio • The Star of Damascus • The Scourge of God • Miss Tutti Frutti • Good and Evil • Mrs. Dane's Confession • Labyrinth of Horror • Sodom and Gomorrah • Young Medardus • Avalanche • Nameless • A Deadly Game • General Babka • Harun al Raschid • The Moon of Israel • Red Heels • Cab No. 13 • The Golden Butterfly • The Third Degree • A Million Bid • The Desired Woman • Good Time Charley • Tenderloin • Noah's Ark • Glad Rag Doll • Madonna of Avenue A • The Gamblers • Hearts in Exile


1930s Mammy • Under a Texas Moon • The Matrimonial Bed • Bright Lights • A Soldier's Plaything • River's End • Demon of the Sea • God's Gift to Women • The Mad Genius • The Woman from Monte Carlo • The Strange Love of Molly Louvain • Doctor X • The Cabin in the Cotton • 20,000 Years in Sing Sing • Mystery of the Wax Museum • The Keyhole • Private Detective 62 • Goodbye Again • The Kennel Murder Case • Female • Mandalay • Jimmy the Gent • The Key • British Agent • The Case of the Curious Bride • Black Fury • Front Page Woman • Little Big Shot • Captain Blood • The Walking Dead • The Charge of the Light Brigade • Stolen Holiday • Mountain Justice • Kid Galahad • The Perfect Specimen • Gold Is Where You Find It • The Adventures of Robin Hood (with William Keighley) • Four's a Crowd • Four Daughters • Angels with Dirty Faces • Dodge City • Daughters Courageous • The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex • Four Wives


1940s Virginia City • The Sea Hawk • Santa Fe Trail • The Sea Wolf • Dive Bomber • Captains of the Clouds • Yankee Doodle Dandy • Casablanca • Mission to Moscow • This Is the Army • Passage to Marseille • Janie • Roughly Speaking • Mildred Pierce • Night and Day • Life with Father • The Unsuspected • Romance on the High Seas • My Dream Is Yours (with Friz Freleng) • Flamingo Road • The Lady Takes a Sailor


1950s Young Man with a Horn • Bright Leaf • The Breaking Point • Force of Arms • Jim Thorpe -- All-American • I'll See You in My Dreams • The Story of Will Rogers • The Jazz Singer • Trouble Along the Way • The Boy from Oklahoma • The Egyptian • White Christmas • We're No Angels • The Scarlet Hour • The Vagabond King • The Best Things in Life Are Free • The Helen Morgan Story • The Proud Rebel • King Creole • The Hangman • The Man in the Net


1960s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn • A Breath of Scandal • Francis of Assisi • The Comancheros


Short films Jön az öcsém (1919) • Sons of Liberty (1939)


Productions Bright Lights (1935)


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Joan Crawford
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search
For other people named Joan Crawford, see Joan Crawford (disambiguation).
Joan Crawford

Crawford photographed in 1948
Born Lucille Fay LeSueur
March 23, 1905(1905-03-23)
San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Died May 10, 1977 (aged 72)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation Actress
Years active 1925–1972
Spouse(s) Douglas Fairbanks, Jr (1929–1933)
Franchot Tone (1935–1939)
Phillip Terry (1942–1946)
Alfred Steele (1955–1959)

Joan Crawford (March 23, 1905 – May 10, 1977),[1][2] born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre.[3] Starting as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway, Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. Initially frustrated by the size and quality of her parts, Crawford began a campaign of self-publicity and became nationally known as a flapper by the end of the 1920s. In the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Crawford often played hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well-received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. Crawford became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, but her films began losing money and by the end of the 1930s she was labeled "box office poison".

After an absence of nearly two years from the screen, Crawford staged a comeback by starring in Mildred Pierce (1945), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 1955, she became involved with the Pepsi-Cola Company through her marriage to company president Alfred Steele. After his death in 1959, Crawford was elected to fill his vacancy on the board of directors but was forcibly retired in 1973. She continued acting in film and television regularly through the 1960s, when her performances became fewer; after the release of the British horror film Trog in 1970, Crawford retired from the screen. Following a public appearance in 1974, after which unflattering photographs were published, Crawford withdrew from public life and became more and more reclusive until her death in 1977.

Crawford married four times. Her first three marriages ended in divorce; the last ended with the death of husband Al Steele. She adopted five children, one of whom was reclaimed by his birth mother. Crawford's relationships with her two older children, Christina and Christopher, were acrimonious. Crawford disinherited the two and, after Crawford's death, Christina wrote a "tell-all" memoir, Mommie Dearest, in which she alleged a lifelong pattern of physical and emotional abuse perpetrated by Crawford.

Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Career
2.1 Early career
2.2 Self-promotion and early successes
2.3 From Queen of the Movies to box office poison
2.4 Move to Warner Bros.
2.5 Radio and television
2.6 Al Steele and Pepsi Cola Company
2.7 Later career
3 Final years and death
4 Mommie Dearest
5 Filmography
6 See also
7 Notes
8 Further reading
9 References
10 External links

[edit] Early life
Crawford was born Lucille Fay LeSueur in San Antonio, Texas, the third child of Tennessee-born Thomas E. LeSueur (1868–1938) and Anna Bell Johnson (1884–1958). Her older siblings were Daisy LeSueur, who died very young, and Hal LeSueur. Thomas LeSueur abandoned the family a few months before Crawford's birth. He reappeared in Abilene, Texas, in 1930 as a 62-year-old construction laborer on the George R. Davis House, built in Prairie School architecture.[4]

Crawford's mother subsequently married Henry J. Cassin. The family lived in Lawton, Oklahoma, where Cassin ran a movie theater. Crawford was unaware that Cassin was not her birth father until her brother Hal told her.[5] The 1910 federal census for Comanche County, Oklahoma, enumerated on April 20, showed Henry and Anna living at 910 "D" Street in Lawton. Crawford was listed as five years old, thus showing 1905 as her likely year of birth. However, the state of Texas did not require the filing of birth certificates until 1908, allowing Crawford to claim she was born in 1908.

Crawford preferred the nickname "Billie" as a child and she loved watching vaudeville acts perform on the stage of her stepfather's theater. Her ambition was to be a dancer. However, in an attempt to escape piano lessons to run and play with friends, she leapt from the front porch of her home and cut her foot deeply on a broken milk bottle. Crawford had three operations and was unable to attend elementary school for a year and a half. She eventually fully recovered and returned to dancing.

Around 1916, Crawford's family moved to Kansas City, Missouri. Cassin was first listed in the City Directory in 1917, living at 403 East Ninth Street. While still in elementary school, Crawford was placed in St. Agnes Academy, a Catholic school in Kansas City. Later, after her mother and stepfather broke up, she stayed on at St. Agnes as a work student. She then went to Rockingham Academy as a work student. While attending Rockingham she began dating and had her first serious relationship, with a trumpet player named Ray Sterling. It was Sterling who inspired her to begin challenging herself academically,[6] and in 1922, Crawford registered at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. She gave her year of birth as 1906. Crawford attended Stephens for less than a year, as she recognized that she was not academically prepared for college.

[edit] Career
[edit] Early career

Joan Crawford in 1928Under the name Lucille LeSueur, Crawford began dancing in the choruses of traveling revues and was spotted dancing in Detroit by producer Jacob J. Shubert.[7] Shubert put her in the chorus line for his 1924 show Innocent Eyes at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway in New York City. While appearing in Innocent Eyes Crawford met a saxophone player named James Welton. The two were allegedly married in 1924 and the couple lived together for several months, although this supposed marriage was never mentioned in later life by Crawford.[8] She wanted additional work and approached Loews Theaters publicist Nils Granlund. Granlund secured a position for her with producer Harry Richmond's act and arranged for her to do a screen test which he sent to producer Harry Rapf in Hollywood.[9] Stories have persisted that Crawford further supplemented her income by appearing in one or more stag, or soft-core pornographic, films,[8] although this has been disputed.[10] Rapf notified Granlund on December 24, 1924 that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had offered Crawford a contract at $75 a week. Granlund immediately wired LeSueur – who had returned to her mother's home in Kansas City – with the news; she borrowed $400 (which she never paid back) for travel expenses.[11] The night after Christmas she left Kansas City and arrived in Culver City, California.

As Lucille LeSueur, her first film was Pretty Ladies in 1925, which starred ZaSu Pitts. Also in 1925 she appeared in a small role in The Only Thing and in Old Clothes opposite Jackie Coogan. MGM publicity head Pete Smith recognized her ability but felt that her name sounded fake; it also, he told studio head Louis B. Mayer, sounded like "Le Sewer". Smith organized a contest in conjunction with the fan magazine Movie Weekly to allow readers to select her new name. Initially the name "Joan Arden" was selected but, when another actress was found to have prior claim to that name, the alternate name "Crawford" became the choice.[12] Crawford initially wanted her new first name to be pronounced "Jo-anne". She hated the name Crawford, saying it sounded like "crawfish". Her friend, actor William Haines, quipped, "They might have called you 'Cranberry' and served you every Thanksgiving with the turkey!"[13] Crawford continued to dislike the name throughout her life but, she said, "liked the security that went with it".[14]

[edit] Self-promotion and early successes
Growing increasingly frustrated over the size and quality of the parts she was given, Crawford embarked on a campaign of self-promotion. As MGM screenwriter Frederica Sagor Maas recalled, "No one decided to make Joan Crawford a star. Joan Crawford became a star because Joan Crawford decided to become a star."[15] She began attending dances in the afternoons and evenings at hotels around Hollywood, where she often won dance competitions with her performances of the Charleston and the Black Bottom.[16] Her strategy worked, and MGM cast her in the film where she first made an impression on audiences, Edmund Goulding's Sally, Irene and Mary (1925). She played Irene, a struggling chorus girl. In the same year, Crawford worked on Lady of the Night, starring Norma Shearer. Crawford was made up and used as a double for Shearer and her face is briefly seen. Crawford coveted the roles that Shearer played but knew that Shearer's husband, producer Irving Thalberg, guaranteed Shearer first choice of roles in any MGM property. "How can I compete with Norma?" Crawford was quoted as saying. "She sleeps with the boss."[17]

The following year, Crawford was named one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars, along with Mary Astor, Mary Brian, Dolores Costello, Dolores del Río, Janet Gaynor and Fay Wray. For the next two years, Crawford appeared in increasingly important films. In 1926, she made Paris, where she was able to show her sex appeal. She became the romantic interest for some of MGM's leading male stars, among them Ramón Novarro, William Haines, John Gilbert and Tim McCoy. Crawford appeared in The Unknown (1927), starring Lon Chaney, Sr. who played a carnival knife thrower with no arms. Crawford played his skimpily clad young carnival assistant whom he hopes to marry. She stated that she learned more about acting from watching Chaney work than from anything else in her career. "It was then", she said, "I became aware for the first time of the difference between standing in front of a camera, and acting."[18]

In 1928, Crawford starred opposite Ramón Novarro in Across to Singapore, but it was her role as Diana Medford in Our Dancing Daughters (1928) that catapulted her to stardom. The role established her as a symbol of modern 1920s-style femininity that rivaled the image of Clara Bow, the original IT girl, and who was at that time Hollywood's foremost flapper. A stream of hits followed Our Dancing Daughters, including two more flapper-themed movies, in which Crawford embodied for her legion of fans (many of whom were women) an idealized vision of the free-spirited, all-American girl. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote of her:[19]

“ Joan Crawford is doubtless the best example of the flapper, the girl you see in smart night clubs, gowned to the apex of sophistication, toying iced glasses with a remote, faintly bitter expression, dancing deliciously, laughing a great deal, with wide, hurt eyes. Young things with a talent for living. ”

On June 3, 1929, Crawford married Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. at Saint Malachy's Roman Catholic Church in New York City.[20] Fairbanks was the son of Douglas Fairbanks and the stepson of Mary Pickford, who were considered Hollywood royalty. Fairbanks Sr. and Pickford were opposed to the marriage and did not invite the couple to their home, Pickfair, for eight months after the marriage. The relationship between Crawford and Fairbanks, Sr. eventually warmed; she called him "Uncle Doug" and he called her "Billie".[21] Following that first invitation, Crawford and Fairbanks, Jr. became more frequent guests, which was hard on Crawford. While the Fairbanks men played golf together, Crawford was left with Pickford or left alone.[22]

To rid herself of her Southwestern accent, Crawford tirelessly practiced diction and elocution. She said:[23]

“ If I were to speak lines, it would be a good idea, I thought, to read aloud to myself, listen carefully to my voice quality and enunciation, and try to learn in that manner. I would lock myself in my room and read newspapers, magazines and books aloud. At my elbow I kept a dictionary. When I came to a word I did not know how to pronounce, I looked it up and repeated it correctly fifteen times. ”

Her first talkie was Untamed (1929), opposite Robert Montgomery, which was a box office success. Crawford made an effective transition to sound movies. One critic wrote, "Miss Crawford sings appealingly and dances thrillingly as usual; her voice is alluring and her dramatic efforts in the difficult role she portrays are at all times convincing."

[edit] From Queen of the Movies to box office poison

Crawford as Sadie Thompson in Rain (1932)With the early sound film, Our Blushing Brides (1930), another financial success, MGM began to develop a more sophisticated image of Crawford, rather than continuing to promote her flapper girl persona of the silent era.[24] In 1931, she starred opposite Clark Gable in Possessed. They began an affair during the production, resulting in an ultimatum from studio chief Louis B. Mayer to Gable that the affair end. Gable complied, although for many years their affair resumed sporadically and secretly. Upon release, Possessed was an enormous hit.

The studio then cast her in Grand Hotel, which starred the most famous actors of the 1930s and was MGM's most prestigious movie of 1932. Crawford later achieved continued success with Letty Lynton (1932). Soon after its release, a plagiarism suit forced MGM to withdraw it. It has never been shown on television or made available on home video, and is therefore considered the "lost" Crawford film. The film is mostly remembered because of the "Letty Lynton dress", designed by Adrian: a white cotton organdy gown with large ruffled sleeves, puffed at the shoulder. It was with this gown that Crawford's broad shoulders began to be accentuated by costume. Macy's copied the dress in 1932, and it sold over 500,000 replicas nationwide.[25]

In May 1933, Crawford divorced Fairbanks. Crawford cited "grievous mental cruelty"; "a jealous and suspicious attitude" toward her friends and "loud arguments about the most trivial subjects" lasting "far into the night".[26]

Following Possessed, Crawford starred opposite Gable in the hit Dancing Lady (1933), in which she received top billing. Crawford's next movies, Sadie McKee, Chained and Forsaking All Others (all 1934), were among the top money makers of the mid-1930s.


Crawford's former Brentwood home as it appeared in 1997In 1935, Crawford married her second husband, Franchot Tone, a stage actor from New York who planned to use his film salary to finance his theatre group. Tone and Crawford appeared together in Today We Live (1933) and were immediately drawn to each other, although Crawford was hesitant about entering into another romance so soon after her split from Fairbanks.[27] The couple built a small theatre at Crawford's Brentwood home and put on productions of classic plays for select groups of friends.[28] Before and during their marriage, Crawford worked to promote Tone's Hollywood career but Tone was ultimately not interested in being a movie star and Crawford eventually wearied of the effort.[29] Tone began drinking and physically abusing Crawford and she filed for divorce, which was granted in 1939.[30] Crawford and Tone eventually reconciled their friendship and Tone even proposed in 1964 that they remarry. When Tone died in 1968, Crawford arranged for him to be cremated and his ashes scattered at Muskoka Lakes, Canada.[31]

The Motion Picture Herald placed Crawford on its list of the top-ten moneymaking stars from 1932, the first year of the poll, through 1936 and Life magazine proclaimed her "First Queen of the Movies" in 1937.[32] Later in 1937 she dropped out of the top ten for the first time, and in 1938 the Independent Film Journal named her and several other stars as "box office poison" based on their supposed lack of popular appeal.[33] However, Crawford made a small comeback with her role as home-wrecker Crystal Allen in director George Cukor's comedy The Women in 1939. She also broke from formula by taking the unglamorous role of Julie in Strange Cargo (1940), her eighth and final film with Clark Gable. Crawford then starred as a facially disfigured blackmailer in A Woman's Face (1941). While the film was only a moderate box office success, her performance was hailed by many critics.

Crawford adopted her first child, a daughter, in 1940. Because she was single, California law prevented her from adopting within the state so she arranged the adoption through an agency in Las Vegas. The child was temporarily called Joan until Crawford changed her name to Christina. She married actor Phillip Terry on July 21, 1942 after a six-month courtship.[34] Together the couple adopted a son whom they named Christopher, but his birth mother reclaimed the child. They adopted another boy, whom they named Phillip Terry, Jr. After the marriage ended in 1946, Crawford changed the child's name to Christopher Crawford.

After 18 years, Crawford's contract was terminated by mutual consent on June 29, 1943. In lieu of one more movie owed under her contract, MGM bought her out for $100,000.

[edit] Move to Warner Bros.
For $500,000 for three movies, Crawford signed with Warner Bros. and was placed on the payroll on July 1, 1943. She made a cameo with many other stars in the G.I. morale-booster Hollywood Canteen (1944). Crawford said one of the main reasons she signed with Warner Bros. was because she wanted to play the character "Mattie" in a proposed 1944 film version of Edith Wharton's novel Ethan Frome (1911). However, Bette Davis wanted to play Mattie and reportedly told Jack Warner, "Joan's far too old, and besides, she can't act."


Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce (1945)Crawford wanted to play the title role in Mildred Pierce (1945), but Davis was the studio's first choice. However, Davis did not want to play the mother of a seventeen year old daughter and she turned the role down. Director Michael Curtiz did not want Crawford and told Jack Warner, "She comes over here with her high-hat airs and her goddamn shoulder pads...why should I waste my time directing a has-been?"[35] Curtiz demanded Crawford prove her suitability by taking a screen test. After the test, Curtiz agreed to Crawford's casting. Crawford starred opposite Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth and Butterfly McQueen. Mildred Pierce was a commercial success. It epitomized the lush visual style and the hard-boiled film noir sensibility that defined Warner Bros. movies of the later 1940s. Crawford earned the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

From 1945 to 1952, Crawford reigned as a top star and respected actress, appearing in such roles as Helen Wright in Humoresque (1946), Louise Howell Graham in Possessed (1947, for which she was nominated for a second Oscar for Best Actress) and the title role in Daisy Kenyon (also 1947). She did a critically well received sendup of her screen image in a cameo in the Doris Day-Jack Carson musical, It's a Great Feeling (1949). Crawford's other movie roles of the era include Lane Bellamy in Flamingo Road (1949), a dual role in the film noir The Damned Don't Cry (1950) and her performance in the title role of Harriet Craig (1950) at Columbia Pictures. After filming This Woman Is Dangerous (1952), Crawford asked to be released from her Warner Bros. contract. As she had done before, Crawford triumphed as Myra Hudson in Sudden Fear (1952) at RKO, which was the movie that introduced her co-star, Jack Palance, to the screen and earned Crawford a third and final Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

Crawford adopted two more children in 1947, twins whom she named Cindy and Cathy.[36]

[edit] Radio and television
Crawford worked in the radio series The Screen Guild Theater on January 8, 1939; Good News; Baby, broadcast March 2, 1940 on Arch Oboler's Lights Out; The Word on Everyman's Theater (1941); Chained on the Lux Radio Theater and Norman Corwin's Document A/777 (1948). She appeared in episodes of anthology TV shows in the 1950s and, in 1959, made a pilot for her series, The Joan Crawford Show, but the show was never picked up by a network.

[edit] Al Steele and Pepsi Cola Company
Crawford married her final husband, Alfred Steele, at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas on May 10, 1955.[37] Crawford and Steele met at a party in 1950 when Steele was an executive with Coca-Cola. They renewed their acquaintance at a New Year's Eve party in 1954. Steele by that time had become the president of Pepsi Cola.[38] Crawford traveled extensively on behalf of Pepsi following the marriage. She estimated that she traveled over 100,000 miles for the company.[2] Steele died of a heart attack in April 1959. Crawford was initially advised that her services were no longer required. After she told the story to Louella Parsons, Pepsi reversed its position and Crawford was elected to fill the vacant seat on the board of directors.[39] Crawford, left near-penniless following Steele's death,[40] accepted a supporting role in the film The Best of Everything (1959). It was her first non-starring role in her later career.

Crawford received the sixth annual "Pally Award", which was in the shape of a bronze Pepsi bottle. It was awarded to the employee making the most significant contribution to company sales. In 1973, Crawford was retired from the company at the behest of company executive Don Kendall, whom Crawford had referred to for years as "Fang."[41]

[edit] Later career
After her triumph in RKO's Sudden Fear, Crawford appeared in films ranging from the camp western film Johnny Guitar (1954) to the drama Autumn Leaves (1956), opposite a young Cliff Robertson. By the early 1960s, however, Crawford's status in motion pictures had diminished.


As Blanche Hudson in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)Crawford starred as Blanche Hudson, a physically disabled woman and former A-list movie star in conflict with her psychotic sister in the highly successful thriller What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962). Despite the actresses' earlier tensions, Crawford suggested Bette Davis for the role of Jane. The two stars maintained publicly that there was no feud between them. However, Crawford accused Davis of kicking her during the filming of a scene in which Jane attacks Blanche, and reportedly retaliated by wearing weights under her clothes in a scene in which Davis had to carry her.[42] The director, Robert Aldrich, explained that Davis and Crawford were each aware of how important the film was to their respective careers and commented, "It's proper to say that they really detested each other, but they behaved absolutely perfectly."[43] After filming was completed, their public comments against each other allowed the tension to develop into a lifelong feud. The film became a huge success, recouping its costs in 11 days of nationwide release and temporarily reviving Crawford's career. Davis was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Jane Hudson. Crawford secretly contacted all the other Oscar nominees to tell them if they were unable to attend the ceremony, she would be happy to accept the Oscar on their behalf. Both Davis and Crawford were backstage when the absent Anne Bancroft was announced as the winner and Crawford accepted the award on her behalf. Davis claimed for the rest of her life that Crawford campaigned against her, a charge Crawford denied. That same year, Crawford starred as Lucy Harbin in William Castle's horror mystery Strait-Jacket (1964).

Director Robert Aldrich cast Crawford and Davis in Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). After a campaign of intimidation by Davis while the film was on location in Louisiana, Crawford returned to Hollywood and entered a hospital. After a prolonged absence in which Crawford was accused of feigning illness, Aldrich was forced to replace her with Olivia de Havilland. Crawford was devastated. "I heard the news of my replacement over the radio, lying in my hospital bed", Crawford said. "I wept for 39 hours."[44] Crawford nursed grudges against Davis and Aldrich for the rest of her life, saying of Aldrich, "He is a man who loves evil, horrendous, vile things." (to which Aldrich replied, "If the shoe fits, wear it, and I am very fond of Miss Crawford.")[44]

Upon her release from the hospital Crawford played the role of Amy Nelson in I Saw What You Did (1965), another William Castle vehicle. She starred as Monica Rivers in Herman Cohen's horror thriller film Berserk! (1968). After the film's release, Crawford guest-starred as herself on The Lucy Show. The episode, "Lucy and the Lost Star", first aired on February 26, 1968. Crawford struggled during rehearsals and drank heavily on-set, leading series star Lucille Ball to suggest replacing her with Gloria Swanson. Crawford was letter-perfect the day of the show and received two standing ovations from the studio audience.[45]

In October 1968, Crawford's 29-year-old daughter, Christina (who was then acting in New York on the soap opera The Secret Storm), needed immediate medical attention for a ruptured ovarian tumor. Until Christina was well enough to return, Crawford offered to play her role, to which producer Gloria Monty readily agreed. Although Crawford did well in rehearsal, she lost her composure while taping and the director and producer were left to struggle to piece together the necessary footage.[46]

Crawford's appearance in the 1969 TV film Night Gallery (which served as pilot to the series that followed), marked one of Steven Spielberg's earliest directing jobs. She starred on the big screen one final time, playing Dr. Brockton in Herman Cohen's science fiction horror film Trog (1970), rounding out a career spanning 45 years and over 80 motion pictures. Crawford made four more TV appearances, as Stephanie White in an episode of The Virginian (1970), entitled "The Nightmare"; as a board member in an episode of The Name of the Game (1971), entitled "Los Angeles"; as Allison Hayes in the made-for-TV movie Beyond the Water's Edge (1972); and as Joan Fairchild (her final performance) on an episode of the television series, The Sixth Sense, entitled, "Dear Joan: We're Going To Scare You To Death" (1972).

[edit] Final years and death

Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell at Crawford's last public appearance. Following publication of this picture Crawford retired from public life and became increasingly reclusive.In 1970, Crawford was presented with the Cecil B. DeMille Award by John Wayne at the Golden Globes, which was telecast from the Coconut Grove at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. She also spoke at her alma mater, Stephens College, from which she never graduated.

Crawford published her autobiography, A Portrait of Joan – written with Jane Kesner Ardmore – in 1962 through Doubleday. Crawford's next book, My Way of Life, was published in 1971 by Simon and Schuster. Those expecting a racy tell-all were disappointed, although Crawford's meticulous ways were revealed in her advice on grooming, wardrobe, exercise, and even food storage.

In September 1973, Crawford moved from apartment 22-G to the smaller apartment 22-H in the Imperial House. Her last public appearance was September 23, 1974, at a party honoring her old friend Rosalind Russell at New York's Rainbow Room. Russell was suffering from breast cancer at the time and died two years later in 1976. When Crawford saw the unflattering photos of both stars that appeared in the papers the next day, she said, "If that's how I look, then they won't see me anymore."[47] Crawford canceled all public appearances, began declining interviews and left her apartment less and less. Her dental-related issues, including surgery which left her in need of round the clock nursing care, also plagued her from 1972 until the middle of 1975. While on antibiotics for this problem in October 1974, Crawford's drinking caused her to black out, slip and strike her face. This incident scared her enough to give up drinking and smoking, although in public she insisted it was due to her return to Christian Science. The whole incident is recorded in a series of letters sent to her insurance company held at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts, as well as being documented by her friend, Carl Johnnes, in his book.[48]

On May 8, 1977, Crawford gave away her beloved Shih Tzu "Princess Lotus Blossom", which she was too weak to care for properly.[49] Crawford died two days later at her New York apartment from a heart attack, while also ill with pancreatic cancer.[2] A funeral was held at Campbell Funeral Home, New York, on May 13, 1977. All four of her adopted children attended, as did her niece, Joan Crawford LeSueur (aka Joan Lowe), who was the daughter of her late brother, Hal LeSueur (who had died in 1963). In her will, which was signed October 28, 1976, Crawford bequeathed to her two youngest children, Cindy and Cathy, $77,500 each from her $2,000,000 estate. She explicitly disinherited the two eldest, Christina and Christopher, writing "It is my intention to make no provision herein for my son Christopher or my daughter Christina for reasons which are well known to them."[50]

A memorial service was held for Crawford at All Souls' Unitarian Church on Lexington Avenue in New York on May 16, 1977, and was attended by, among others, her old Hollywood friend Myrna Loy. Another memorial service, organized by George Cukor, was held on June 24 in the Samuel Goldwyn Theater at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, California. Crawford was cremated and her ashes placed in a crypt with her last husband, Alfred Steele, in Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York.

Crawford's hand and footprints are immortalized in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. She also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1750 Vine Street. In 1999, Playboy listed Crawford as one of the "100 Sexiest Women of the 20th century", ranking her #84.

[edit] Mommie Dearest
In November 1978, a year and a half after Crawford's death, Christina published an exposé titled Mommie Dearest which contained allegations that Crawford was emotionally and physically abusive to Christina and her brother Christopher. Many of Crawford's friends and co-workers, including Van Johnson, Ann Blyth, Marlene Dietrich, Myrna Loy, Cesar Romero, and Crawford's other daughters, Cathy and Cindy, denounced the book, categorically denying any abuse.[51] But others, including Helen Hayes[52] and Crawford's rival Bette Davis, strongly supported the book, with Davis saying that Christina could not have made it up (Davis would ironically become the target of her own daughter B. D. Hyman's tell-all book in 1985, My Mother's Keeper).[53] Christina's book became a bestseller and was later made into the 1981 film Mommie Dearest, starring Faye Dunaway as Crawford.

[edit] Filmography
Main article: Joan Crawford filmography
[edit] See also
Dance portal
[edit] Notes
1.^ For most of her life, Crawford maintained that she was born in 1908. San Antonio birth records are not available earlier than 1910. The 1905 date is based on the 1910 U.S. Census, where she was listed as five years old. The Social Security Death Index uses the birth date of March 23, 1908. Crawford gave this date when she applied for Social Security in California, but applicants were not required to show documentation for the date of birth unless they applied for age-based Social Security retirement benefits.
2.^ a b c "Joan Crawford Dies at Home; Joan Crawford, Screen Star, Dies in Manhattan Home". New York Times. May 11, 1977, Wednesday. http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0323.html. Retrieved 2007-08-21.
3.^ Obituary Variety, May 18, 1977.
4.^ Donald S. Fracier, Robert F. Pace, and photographer Steve Butman, Abilene Landmarks: An Illustrated Tour, Abilene, Texas: State House Press, 2008, p. 41
5.^ Newquist, p. 25
6.^ Thomas, pp 23–24
7.^ Thomas, p. 30
8.^ a b Considine, p. 12
9.^ Granlund, p. 147
10.^ Thomas, p. 106
11.^ Granlund, p 135.
12.^ Thomas, p. 42
13.^ Haines, quoted in Thomas, p. 43
14.^ Crawford, quoted in Newquist, p. 31
15.^ Maas, quoted in LaSalle, p. 123
16.^ Thompson, p. 47
17.^ Crawford, quoted in LaSalle, p. 120
18.^ Crawford, quoted in Skal, p. 73
19.^ Fitzgerald, quoted in Thomas, p. vii
20.^ "Joan Crawford Weds in the East". Jefferson City MO Daily Capital News. 1929-06-04.
21.^ Thomas, p. 80
22.^ Thomas, p. 63
23.^ Crawford, quoted in Thomas, p. 65
24.^ Hay, Peter (1991), MGM: When the Lion Roars, Atlanta: Turner Publishing, Inc., p. 72, ISBN 1-878685-04-X
25.^ Leese, p. 18
26.^ "U.S.". Time magazine. 1933-03-08. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,745463,00.html. Retrieved 2009-02-10.
27.^ Thomas, p. 94
28.^ Considine, pp. 91–2
29.^ Thomas, p. 114
30.^ Considine, pp. 97–8
31.^ Thomas, p. 241
32.^ Thomas, p. 113
33.^ Thomas, p. 115
34.^ "Joan Crawford Weds Actor Phillip Terry". Lubbock (TX) Morning Avalanche (UP): p. 11. 1942-07-22.
35.^ Curtiz, quoted in Thomas, p. 136
36.^ Day, Elizabeth (25 May 2008). "I'll never forgive Mommie". Guardian UK (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/may/25/biography.film. Retrieved May 6, 2010.
37.^ "Joan Crawford Is Wed in Las Vegas to Businessman". Moberly (MO) Monitor-Index and Democrat (Associated Press): p. 8. 1955-05-10.
38.^ Thomas, p. 190
39.^ Considine, p. 286
40.^ "'I'm Broke, Says Joan Crawford". Jefferson City (MO) Post-Tribune (Associated Press): p. 1. 1959-06-01.
41.^ Quirk, Lawrence; Schoell (2002). Joan Crawford: the essential biography. Twenty-First Century Books. pp. 312. ISBN 0813122546. http://books.google.com/books?id=_yQtRavDvtUC&pg=RA3-PA246&lpg=RA3-PA246&dq=Joan+Crawford+fang&source=bl&ots=TUwbex8DUx&sig=OR562YCuPa9B3Run0NXFVJD4X1g&hl=en&ei=81DdSsqpMI7EsQPQ7fDZDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CA8Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=fang&f=false.
42.^ Considine, pp. 316–17
43.^ considine
44.^ a b Considine, p. 363
45.^ Thomas, p. 231
46.^ Thomas, pp. 238–9
47.^ Considine, p. 396
48.^ Carl Johnnes. Joan Crawford: The Last Years. Dell Publishing. ISBN 0440115361.
49.^ Thomas, p. 266
50.^ Crawford will, quoted in Thomas, p. 263
51.^ Considine, p. 412
52.^ Hayes, Helen; Hatch, Katherine (1990). My Life in Three Acts. Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich. ISBN 0151636958.
53.^ Considine, p. 413
[edit] Further reading
Just Joan: A Joan Crawford Appreciation by Donna Marie Nowak. Albany, BearManor Media 2010. ISBN 978-1-59393-542-9.

[edit] References
Bret, David (2006). Joan Crawford: Hollywood Martyr. Robson. ISBN 1861059310.
Considine, Shaun (1989). Bette and Joan: The Divine Feud. New York, E. P. Dutton, a division of Penguin Books. ISBN 052524770X.
Granlund, Nils T. (1957). Blondes, Brunettes, and Bullets. New York, David McKay Company.
Hoefling, Larry J. (2008). Nils Thor Granlund: The Swedish Showman Who Invented American Entertainment. Inlandia Press. ISBN 098223130X.
LaSalle, Mick (2000). Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood. New York, Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312252072.
Leese, Elizabeth (1991). Costume Design in the Movies. Dover Books. ISBN 048626548X.
Newquist, Roy, with introduction by John Springer (1980). Conversations with Joan Crawford. New Jersey, Citadel Press, a division of Lyle Stuart, Inc. ISBN 0806507209.
Skal, David J. (1993). The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror. Penguin Books. ISBN 0140240020.
Thomas, Bob (1978). Joan Crawford: A Biography. New York, Bantam Books. ISBN 0553129422.
[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Joan Crawford

The Best of Everything: A Joan Crawford Encyclopedia
Joan Crawford at the Internet Movie Database
Joan Crawford at the Internet Broadway Database
"Joan Crawford". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=242.
Joan Crawford at the TCM Movie Database
Excerpt of 2008 biography from Vanity Fair
Joan Crawford at the Open Directory Project



[hide]v • d • eAcademy Award for Best Actress

Joan Fontaine (1941) · Greer Garson (1942) · Jennifer Jones (1943) · Ingrid Bergman (1944) · Joan Crawford (1945) · Olivia de Havilland (1946) · Loretta Young (1947) · Jane Wyman (1948) · Olivia de Havilland (1949) · Judy Holliday (1950) · Vivien Leigh (1951) · Shirley Booth (1952) · Audrey Hepburn (1953) · Grace Kelly (1954) · Anna Magnani (1955) · Ingrid Bergman (1956) · Joanne Woodward (1957) · Susan Hayward (1958) · Simone Signoret (1959) · Elizabeth Taylor (1960)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Complete list · (1928–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–present)


Persondata
NAME Crawford, Joan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES LeSueur, Lucille Fay
SHORT DESCRIPTION American actress
DATE OF BIRTH March 23, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH May 10, 1977
PLACE OF DEATH New York City, New York, U.S.


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Joan Crawford, 9/6/2010 8:22:30 PM
Searching for happiness and never finding it. One big line of losers for Lackberg to wittle her time away with, until she gets old and her looks go and it's not fun anymore. Then what? A drug overdose? Suicide? Alcoholism? I feel sorry for her Camilla is on the downward slope like those time-wasters she hangs around with.Martin is as fed up with her as her first husband was. She is a crap mother; they'd sack her for her maternal skills if they could
muther, 9/7/2010 6:10:04 PM
Erika gets trapped in a walk-in freezer. She pushes that punch action opener but realizes she has only fifteen minutes before all her life signs give up; she will be as stiff as the sides of meat that hang next to her.
erikacold, 9/7/2010 6:26:38 PM
Romola Garai
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search
Romola Garai

Garai at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival
Born Romola Sadie Garai
6 August 1982 (1982-08-06) (age 28)
Hong Kong
Occupation Actress
Years active 2000–present

Romola Sadie Garai (pronounced /ˈrɒmələ ˈseɪdi ˈɡæri/;[1] born 6 August 1982) is an English actress and model.

Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Acting career
3 Personal life
4 Filmography
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Early life
Garai was born in Hong Kong,[2][3] the daughter of Janet, a journalist, and Adrian Garai, a banker.[4] Her first name is the female version of Romulus, one of the founders of Rome.[5] Garai's father is of Hungarian Jewish descent;[6] her great-grandfather was Bert Garai, the founder of the Keystone Press.[7]

Garai is the third of four siblings.[8] She relocated to Singapore at five before her family returned to Wiltshire in the United Kingdom when she was eight. She attended an independent boarding school, Stonar School in Wiltshire, and later moved at sixteen to London to attend the City of London School for Girls where she ended up finishing off her A-levels. She was fond of drama and appeared in school plays, and also with the National Youth Theatre up until the age of eighteen, where she was spotted by an agent who whisked her away to play the younger version of Dame Judi Dench's character in the critically-acclaimed BBC Films / HBO co-production for television, The Last of the Blonde Bombshells.[3]

After A-levels, she studied English Literature at Queen Mary, University of London before transferring and graduating from the Open University.[9] She originally intended to only focus on her studies but later began acting full time during the summer holiday.[3] She is a former model.[5]

[edit] Acting career
Garai's first professional acting role was in a television production, The Last of the Blonde Bombshells.[10] She then landed a part in a BBC-produced television series called Attachments.[10] It was this production that prompted her to make the decision to stop her education and concentrate solely on her acting career.[3]

Garai's first major film role was in 2002's Nicholas Nickleby.[10] She played Kate Nickleby, a supporting role, in the well-reviewed film. The entire cast was widely recognized for their work and were awarded Best Ensemble by the National Board of Review. In 2003's I Capture the Castle, she played 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain. She received glowing praise for her work. Her performance earned her a nomination for a Most Promising Newcomer award from the British Independent Film Awards.[11] Many critics hailed her as the next Julie Christie taking into account not only Romola's acting talent but also her uncanny resemblance to the screen legend.[citation needed] Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004) was Garai's biggest critical flop to date.[citation needed] Her performance received mixed reviews – many critics felt let down after her previous impressive turns.[citation needed] Later that same year Vanity Fair was released.

In 2005, Garai received another BIFA nomination, this time for their Best Supporting Actress award, for her performance as Siobhan in the independent film Inside I'm Dancing.[11] Her portrayal earned her the British Supporting Actress of the Year award from the London Film Critics Circle. Also in 2005, she starred in a two-part drama made for television, entitled The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant.

While critics hailed it as "pleasingly old-fashioned adventure," it was her performance that won the most admiration and earn her two nominations: Best Lead Actress in Television from the Australian Film Institute and Most Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series from the Logie Awards. As The Observer noted: "As for the tireless Garai, she once again demonstrated an instinctive understanding of the vital difference between overperforming and overacting."

She can be seen in Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of William Shakespeare's As You Like It (2006), as Celia. The film was released in some European cinemas before being broadcast in 2007 on HBO cable television in the U.S. In 2009, it opened in theatres in Mexico.[12]

In 2007, Garai starred as Angel Deverell in Francois Ozon's Angel. The Independent named her one of the actresses of the year for her performance in Angel.[13] Romola was also nominated for the Prix Lumiere award[14] (the French equivalent of the Golden Globes), as Best Female Newcomer for Angel, making her the first British actress to be nominated for a Prix Lumiere.

The same year she also starred in the Oscar-nominated movie Atonement as the teenaged Briony Tallis, alongside James McAvoy and Keira Knightley. The movie went on to receive seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. Garai earned a Best Actress nomination from the Evening Standard British Film Awards for her performance.[15] She also appeared in two Royal Shakespeare Company productions: as Cordelia in King Lear and as Nina in The Seagull, starring alongside Ian McKellen, Frances Barber, Sylvester McCoy, Jonathan Hyde, and William Gaunt. The run, which toured the world, went into residence in the New London Theatre where it ended mid-January 2008. She received rave reviews, especially as Nina in The Seagull, The Independent calling her a "woman on the edge of stardom,"[16] and This Is London calling her "superlative," and stating that the play was "distinguished by the illuminating, psychological insights of Miss Garai's performance."[17] She reprised her role as Cordelia in a televised version of King Lear.

In 2008 she appeared in the feature film The Other Man alongside Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, and Antonio Banderas.

Garai next starred in Stephen Poliakoff's World War II thriller Glorious 39, alongside Julie Christie, Jenny Agutter, Bill Nighy, Sir Christopher Lee and Eddie Redmayne.[18] The movie had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.[19]

In 2009, she played the title role in a television adaptation of Jane Austen's famously irrepressible Emma, a four-hour miniseries that premiered on BBC One in October 2009, co-starring Jonny Lee Miller and Sir Michael Gambon.[20] Emma then appeared on American television as part of PBS' Masterpiece Classic anthology series, airing in most U.S. markets over three consecutive Sunday evenings during January and February 2010. American actress Laura Linney, who had co-starred with Garai in The Other Man, was the presenter for Masterpiece Classic during the anthology's "season" (US) / "series" (UK) at the time, and she introduced each of the three installments that featured her former co-star.

She is attached to play iconic American First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in Flying Into Love;[21] she will also appear in Hettie MacDonald's feature Nova Scotia, in which she plays a character called Lucy Hay;[22] and also in director Gareth Bryn's Driven, which is written by Catrin Clarke.[23] Romola has also signed to play the female lead in I Was Bono's Doppelgänger, alongside Charlie Cox and another former co-star, Bill Nighy.[24] Filming was set to begin in August 2009.

In 2009 The Sunday Times Magazine named her as one of Britain's Rising Stars[25] alongside Matthew Goode, Andrea Riseborough, Hugh Dancy, Eddie Redmayne and many others. Past recipients of this honour include Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Michael Sheen. In January of that year she travelled to the Syrian-Iraqi border to make a short film titled No Man's Land for the UNHCR, highlighting the plight of 800 Palestinian refugees living in the Al-Tanaf refugee camp. Of her visit to the refugee camps Garai states, "My trip to a refugee camp in Syria destroyed any hope that the horrors of Iraq might end, or that we are doing enough to help its victims."[26] Garai has been hailed by her Glorious 39 director Stephen Poliakoff as "the next Kate Winslet" and someone who will "dominate British cinema" in the future.[27] Garai would like to diversify into writing,[5] especially for the theatre, which remains her first love. Romola has signed on to star alongside her Nicholas Nickleby co-star Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess in Lone Scherfig's One Day [28]. She will also play the part of a single junkie mom in the indie Brit flick Junkhearts with Eddie Marsan and Tom Sturridge [29]. She is the girl diving on the cover of album Further by the Chemical Brothers [30].

[edit] Personal life
Garai's great-grandfather immigrated from Budapest to New York in the 1920s, then moved to London, where he founded the Keystone Press Agency.[31] Most of her Hungarian-Jewish ancestors were killed in the Holocaust. Garai admits she has "not yet" been to Hungary and feels modern, cosmopolitan, and British.[10] She lives in London and in 2009 finished her degree in English Literature with the Open University.[32]

Garai guards her private life, saying, "It's too simplistic to say that people start to believe what's written about them. But what happens is that you become a certain way to please people, to be liked, to be what's expected of you, to change yourself so that you become the best possible version of yourself for people who don't know you. And I think that's a terrible, pernicious thing."[33] She adds, "In a way, I'd rather go into an interview and be disliked, and have unpleasant things written about me, than to have a wonderful, glowing article written that is in no way a reflection of who I am."[33]

Garai enjoys traveling and cooking in her spare time, calling it 'therapeutic'[34] in many ways. She has visited Hong Kong, Malaysia, Italy, Austria, Morocco, and Switzerland, and the States, "To be the outsider for a period of time changes you for the better. It shakes up your comfort level. You have to really make an effort to enter into other people's culture and psychology and language, which the British are very bad at doing."[34] Garai is very close with directors Francois Ozon and Stephen Poliakoff, both of whom she occasionally calls for career advice.[10]

[edit] Filmography
Nicholas Nickleby (2002) as Kate Nickleby
Daniel Deronda (2002, miniseries) as Gwendolen Harleth, later to become Grandcourt
I Capture the Castle (2003) as Cassandra Mortmain
Inside I'm Dancing (also known as Rory O'Shea Was Here) (2004) as Siobhan
Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004) as Katey Miller
Vanity Fair (2004) as Amelia Sedley
The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant (2005, mini series) as Mary
Scoop (2006) as Vivian
Renaissance (2006, voice only) as Ilona Tasuiev
As You Like It (2006) as Celia
Amazing Grace (2006) as Barbara Wilberforce
The Real Life of Angel Deverell (2007) also known as Angel
Atonement (2007) as Briony (age 18)
King Lear (2008, stage play, filmed for Great Performances) as Cordelia
The Other Man (2008) as Abigail
Glorious 39 (2009) as Anne Keyes
Emma (2009, mini series) as Emma Woodhouse
One Day as Sylvie
[edit] References
1.^ See: Garai, Romola; Mustafa Khalili (20 March 2009). "'For these refugees, resettlement is the only option'". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/mar/19/syria-refugees-romola-garai. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
2.^ "Romola Garai Interview with Premiere France". Premiere France. http://youtube.com/watch?v=rVW7A5h67g4. Retrieved 2007-05-18.
3.^ a b c d Jack Foley (2003). "I Capture The Castle - Romola Garai Q&A". Indie London. http://www.indielondon.co.uk/film/capture_the_castle_gariaQ&A.html. Retrieved 2007-05-18.
4.^ "Petticoat tales". Herald Scotland. 2007-03-17. http://www.heraldscotland.com/petticoat-tales-1.835133. Retrieved 2009-10-01.
5.^ a b c McLean, Craig (2004-10-10). "Romola Garai: Dancing Queen". London: The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/romola-garai-dancing-queen-542935.html. Retrieved 2009-10-01.
6.^ Lewis, Tim (November 2004). "Fifteen Stupid Questions for Romola Garai". British Esquire. http://www.romola-garai.com/articles/2004/2004_esquire_nov.html. Retrieved 5 December 2009.
7.^ Duerden, Nick (2007-03-15). "Romola Garai: A woman on the edge of stardom". The Independent (London). http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article2360312.ece. Retrieved 2007-05-18.
8.^ Molony, Julia (2009-11-22). "Romola gets the balance right". The Independent. http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/film-cinema/romola-gets-the-balance-right-1950692.html. Retrieved 2009-11-22.
9.^ "Passed/Failed: An education in the life of the actor Romola Garai". The Independent (London). 25 March 2010. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/passedfailed-an-education-in-the-life-of-the-actor-romola-garai-1926578.html. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
10.^ a b c d e Lakhani, Nina (15 November 2009). "Romola Garai: An actor's life for me – at least for now". The Independent (London). http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/romola-garai-an-actors-life-for-me-ndash-at-least-for-now-1820967.html. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
11.^ a b "Romola Garai: BIFA Nominations". The British Independent Film Awards. http://www.bifa.org.uk/. Retrieved 5 December 2009.
12.^ "As You Like It (2006) - Release dates". IMDb. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450972/releaseinfo. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
13.^ Romney, Jonathan (28 December 2008). "Film in 2008: Who was top of the heap? A talking tin can". The Independent (London). http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/film-in-2008-who-was-top-of-the-heap-a-talking-tin-can-1213404.html. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
14.^ Hayhurst, David (18 December 2007). "French quartet vie for Prix Lumieres". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117977889.html?categoryid=13&cs=1. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
15.^ "Keira Knightley - Atonement leads Evening Standard British Film Awards". Contactmusic.com. 21 January 2008. http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/atonement%20leads%20evening%20standard%20british%20film%20awards_1056970. Retrieved 15 November 2009. "Knightley goes up against her co-star Romola Garai for the Best Actress award..."
16.^ Duerden, Nick (15 March 2007). "Romola Garai: A woman on the edge of stardom". The Independent (London). http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/romola-garai-a-woman-on-the-edge-of-stardom-440326.html. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
17.^ de Jongh, Nicholas (28 November 2007). "The fall of a high-flying bird". London Evening Standard. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/theatre/show-23377371-details/The%20Seagull/showReview.do?reviewId=23423456. Retrieved 15 november 2009.
18.^ Poliakoff, Stephen (15 November 2009). "Romola Garai stars in Glorious 39". The Times (London). http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6912742.ece. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
19.^ Punter, Jennie (23 July 2009). "Toronto adds to Special Presentations". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118006395.html?categoryid=13&cs=1. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
20.^ Singh, Anita (4 April 2009). "Romola Garai to play Emma in BBC's latest Jane Austen adaptation". Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/5100713/Romola-Garai-to-play-Emma-in-BBCs-latest-Jane-Austen-adaptation.html. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
21.^ "Flying into Love". Hollywood.com. http://www.hollywood.com/movie/Flying_into_Love/4574674. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
22.^ "Nova Scotia". Bard Entertainments. http://www.bardentertainments.co.uk/Site/Nova_Scotia.html. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
23.^ Price, Karen (28 March 2009). "Wales is the new star of the movies". WalesOnline. http://www.walesonline.co.uk/showbiz-and-lifestyle/2009/03/28/wales-is-the-new-star-of-the-movies-91466-23250703/. Retrieved 5 December 2009. "An additional £150,000 has been awarded by the Film Agency for Wales to Rondo Media for the feature film Driven by writer Catrin Clarke... Directed by Gareth Bryn, it will feature Romola Garai, who was in Atonement, in the lead role of Beth."
24.^ Ward, Audrey (14 May 2009). "Salt tempts buyers with I Was Bono’s Doppelganger". Screen Daily. http://www.screendaily.com/news/production/uk-ireland/salt-tempts-buyers-with-i-was-bonos-doppelganger/5001114.article. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
25.^ "Britain's got talent". The Sunday Times (London). 25 January 2009. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article5579683.ece. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
26.^ Garai, Romola (20 March 2009). "No man's land". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/19/iraq-syria-refugees. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
27.^ "Poliakoff returns to the big screen". WalesOnline. 24 November 2009. http://www.walesonline.co.uk/showbiz-and-lifestyle/2009/11/24/poliakoff-returns-to-the-big-screen-91466-25240597/. Retrieved 5 December 2009.
28.^ http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=66281
29.^ http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/17390
30.^ http://www.ifc.com/news/2010/08/exclusive-video-behind-the-vis.php
31.^ Smith, Aidan (23 November 2009). "Interview: Romola Garai, actress". Scotsman.com. http://www.scotsman.com/features/Interview-Romola-Garai-actress.5849358.jp. Retrieved 5 December 2009.
32.^ Preston, John (10 August 2008). "Romola Garai: on a roll". Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3558305/Romola-Garai-on-a-roll.html. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
33.^ a b Hawker, Philippa (17 November 2007). "Where angels fear not". The Age. http://www.theage.com.au/news/film/where-angels-fear-not/2007/11/16/1194766927209.html. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
34.^ a b Cohen, Scott Lyle (March 2004). "Romola Garai: her personal history reads like a Jane Austen novel. Now she's taking her adventures to Hollywood". Interview. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_2_34/ai_113764214/?tag=content;col1. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
[edit] External links
Romola Garai at the Internet Movie Database
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romola_Garai"
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Romola Garai, 9/7/2010 9:17:08 PM
Camilla to get paid for writing something. Wow, I wouldn't watch any reality shows, just read-other literature- write mostly, maybe listen to some classical music. You'll never get a Nobel Prize for literature watching crap TV......
Booker, 9/7/2010 9:40:09 PM
Camilla, please will you promise us that you will not watch any more Reality TV otherwise I cannot see us being friends anymore
Girlcrazy, 9/7/2010 9:46:50 PM