Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert (September 13, 1903 - July 30, 1996) was a French-American actress.
Born Lily Claudette Chauchoin in Paris, France, her family brought her to the United States as a small child. Specifically around 1905, the young Claudette travelled through New York Harbour and passed through the immigration portals of Ellis Island with her family.
She began acting in high school plays and a few years appeared on the Broadway stage in a bit part. Hooked, she decided to pursue a career in acting. She made her first motion picture appearance in 1927, in a silent film shot on location in Paramount Studios in New York facilities. However, talking films were taking over and that same year, Colbert appeared in her first talking film, For the Love of Mike.
With her heart-shaped face, lively wide eyes, and aristocratic manner, Colbert transcended type, making her equally convincing in diverse roles. Her versatility led to major parts in top motion pictures and made her one of the biggest box-office stars of her time.
In 1934 she won an Academy Award for Best Actress for It Happened One Night. Colbert epitomized witty sophistication when she starred in Preston Sturges' classic screwball comedy, The Palm Beach Story, oppostite Joel McCrea. Ms. Colbert's last film was Parrish in 1961.
From 1936 to 1944, she starred in numerous programs of Cecil B. DeMille's Lux Radio Theater, which was one of the most popular dramatic radio shows at the time. In 1952, she returned to work in her native France where she stayed until 1955.
After making two more Hollywood films, she went back to Broadway in 1958 doing "The Marriage Go-Round" with Charles Boyer, earning a 1959 Tony Award nomination for her work. She acted in numerous Broadway plays for the next twenty years. In 1987, she did a television mini-series titled The Two Mrs. Grenvilles and was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Mini-series or a Special. In 1988, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for TV.
During her long and successful career, Claudette Colbert played in sixty-five films.
Colbert died at her vacation home in Speightstown, Barbados and was interred there in the Parish of St. Peter Cemetery. A requiem mass was held at St. Vincent Ferrer church in New York later.
Selected Claudette Colbert films
- For the Love of Mike
- Three Came Home
- The Hole in the Wall
- The Sign of the Cross
- It Happened One Night - Academy Award for Best Actress
- The Palm Beach Story
- Midnight
- So Proudly We Hail
- Cleopatra
- Gilded Lily
- Private Worlds - (Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress)
- Drums Along the Mohawk
- Since You Went Away - (Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress)
- Guest Wife
- Tomorrow Is Forever
- The Egg and I
- Texas Lady
- Parrish
Selected Claudette Colbert television roles