Celeste Holm

Celeste Holm
Holm in 1955
Born	(1917-04-29)April 29, 1917 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	New York City, New York, U.S.
Cause of death	Heart attack
Alma mater	University of Chicago
Occupation	Actress, singer
Years active	1937–2012
Spouse(s)	Ralph Nelson (m.1936–1939; divorced) Francis Davies (m.1940–1945; divorced) A. Schuyler Dunning (m.1946–1953; divorced) Wesley Addy (m.1961–1996; his death) Frank Basile (m.2004–2012; her death)
Website	Celeste Holm Official Website

Celeste Holm (April 29, 1917 – July 15, 2012) was an American stage, film and television actress.

Holm won an Academy Award for her performance in Gentleman's Agreement (1947), and was Oscar nominated for her roles in Come to the Stable (1949) and All About Eve (1950). She originated the role of Ado Annie in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! (1943).

Early life

Born and raised in Manhattan, Holm was an only child. Her mother, Jean Parke, was an American portrait artist and author; her father, Theodor Holm, was a Norwegian businessman whose company provided marine adjustment services for Lloyd's of London. Because of her parents' occupations, she traveled often during her youth and attended various schools in the Netherlands, France and the United States. She graduated from University High School for Girls in Chicago, where she performed in many school stage productions. She then studied drama at the University of Chicago before becoming a stage actress in the late 1930s.

Career

File:Studio publicity Celeste Holm.jpg

Publicity photo, c.1940

Holm's first professional theatrical role was in a production of Hamlet starring Leslie Howard. She first appeared on Broadway in a small part in Gloriana (1938), a comedy which lasted for only five performances, but her first major part on Broadway was in William Saroyan's revival of The Time of Your Life (1940) as Mary L. with fellow newcomer Gene Kelly. The role that got her the most recognition from critics and audiences was as Ado Annie in the premiere production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! in 1943.

After she starred in the Broadway production of Bloomer Girl, 20th Century Fox signed Holm to a movie contract in 1946. She made her film debut that same year in Three Little Girls in Blue, making a startling entrance in a "Technicolor red" dress singing "Always a Lady," a belting Ado Annie-type song, although the character was different—a lady. In 1947 she won an Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in Gentleman's Agreement. After another supporting role in All About Eve, however, Holm realized she preferred live theater to movie work, and only accepted a few select film roles over the next decade. The most successful of these were the comedy The Tender Trap (1955) and the musical High Society (1956), both of which co-starred Frank Sinatra. She starred as a professor-turned-reporter in New York City in the CBS television series Honestly, Celeste! (fall 1954) and was thereafter a panelist on Who Pays? (1959). She also appeared several times on ABC's The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom.

In 1958, she starred as a reporter in an unsold television pilot called The Celeste Holm Show, based on the book No Facilities for Women. Holm also starred in the musical The Utter Glory of Morrissey Hall. In 1965, she played the Fairy Godmother alongside Lesley Ann Warren in the CBS production of Cinderella. In 1970–71, she was featured on the NBC sitcom Nancy, with Renne Jarrett, John Fink and Robert F. Simon. In the story line, Holm played Abby Townsend, the press secretary of the First Lady of the United States and the chaperone of Jarrett's character, Nancy Smith, the President's daughter. During the 1970s and 1980s, Holm did more screen acting, with roles in films such as Tom Sawyer and Three Men and a Baby, and in television series (often as a guest star) such as Columbo, The Eleventh Hour, Archie Bunker's Place and Falcon Crest. In 1979, she played the role of First Lady Florence Harding in the television mini-series, Backstairs at the White House. She was a regular on the ABC soap opera Loving, appearing first in 1986 in the role of Lydia Woodhouse and again as Isabelle Dwyer Alden #2 from 1991 to 1992. She last appeared on television in the CBS television series Promised Land (1996–99).

Honors

Accepting her Academy Award for Gentleman's Agreement (1947)

A life member of The Actors Studio, Holm received numerous honors during her lifetime, including the 1968 Sarah Siddons Award for distinguished achievement in Chicago theatre; she was appointed to the National Arts Council by then-President Ronald Reagan, appointed Knight, First Class of the Order of St. Olav by King Olav of Norway in 1979, and inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1992. She remained active for social causes as a spokesperson for UNICEF, and for occasional professional engagements. From 1995 she was Chairman of the Board of Arts Horizons, a not-for-profit arts-in-education organization. In 1995, Holm's was inducted into the Scandinavian-American Hall of Fame.

In 2006, Holm was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the SunDeis Film Festival at Brandeis University.

Holm was a guest at the 2009 Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention in Aberdeen, Maryland. Some of the movies in which she appeared were screened at the festival, and the un-aired television pilot for Meet Me in St. Louis was shown. She received an honorary award during the dinner banquet at the close of the event.

Personal life

Attending the Academy Awards in 1988

• Holm's first marriage was to Ralph Nelson in 1936. Their son, Internet pioneer and sociologist Ted Nelson (born 1937), was raised by his maternal grandparents. The marriage ended in 1939. In his 2010 memoir, Possiplex, her son, credited with coining the term "hypertext," described this and other choices as "entirely the right decisions." He reportedly did not name his mother in the book.
• Holm married Francis Emerson Harding Davies, an English auditor, on January 7, 1940. Davies was a Roman Catholic, and she was received into the Roman Catholic Church for the purposes of their 1940 wedding; the marriage was dissolved on May 8, 1945.
• From 1946 to 1952, Holm was married to airline public relations executive A. Schuyler Dunning, with whom she had a second son, businessman Daniel Dunning.
• From 1961 to 1996, she was married to actor Wesley Addy (1913–1996), until his death at age 83 in 1996. The couple lived together on her family farm in the Schooley's Mountain section of Washington Township, Morris County, New Jersey.
• On April 29, 2004, her 87th birthday, Holm married opera singer Frank Basile, age 41. The couple met in October 1999 at a fundraiser at which Basile was hired to sing. Soon after their marriage, Holm and Basile sued to overturn the irrevocable trust that was created in 2002 by Daniel Dunning, Holm's younger son. The trust was ostensibly set up to shelter Holm's financial assets from taxes though Basile contended the real purpose of the trust was to keep him away from her money. The lawsuit began a five-year battle with her sons, which cost millions of dollars, and according to an article in The New York Times, left Holm and her husband with a fragile hold on their apartment, which Holm purchased for $10,000 cash in 1953 from her film earnings, and which is now believed to be worth at least $10,000,000.

Health and death

According to her husband, Holm had been treated for memory loss since 2002, suffered skin cancer, bleeding ulcers and a collapsed lung, and had hip replacements and pacemakers.

In June 2012, Holm was admitted to New York's Roosevelt Hospital with dehydration. She suffered a heart attack on July 13, 2012 in the facility. She died at her Central Park West apartment on July 15, 2012.

She was survived by husband Frank Basile and her sons and grandchildren.

Work

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1946	Three Little Girls in Blue	Miriam Harrington
1947	Carnival in Costa Rica	Celeste
	Gentleman's Agreement	Anne Dettrey	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress (2nd place)
1948	Road House	Susie Smith
	The Snake Pit	Grace
1949	Chicken Every Sunday	Emily Hefferan
	A Letter to Three Wives	Addie Ross (voice, uncredited)
	Come to the Stable	Sister Scholastica	Nominated-Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
	Everybody Does It	Doris Blair Borland
1950	Champagne for Caesar	Flame O'Neill
	All About Eve	Karen	Nominated-Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
1955	The Tender Trap	Sylvia Crewes
1956	High Society	Liz Imbrie
1962	Bachelor Flat	Helen Bushmill
1963	Hailstones and Halibut Bones	Narrator (voice)	short film
1967	Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding!	Louise Halloran
1973	Tom Sawyer	Aunt Polly
1976	Bittersweet Love	Marian
1977	The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover	Florence Hollister
1987	Three Men and a Baby	Mrs. Holden
1989	Nora's Christmas Gift	Nora Richards	video
1997	Still Breathing	Ida
2005	Alchemy	Iris
2012	Driving Me Crazy	Mrs. Ginsberg
2013	College Debts	Grandma GG	Completed

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1950	All Star Revue	Guest Actress	Episode "1.6"
1951	Lux Video Theatre	Eliza Margaret Best	Episode: "The Pacing Goose" Episode: "Second Sight"
1952	Schlitz Playhouse		Episode: "Four's a Family"
	Lux Video Theatre	Katherine Case	Episode: "The Bargain"
1953	Lux Video Theatre	Miss Prynne	Episode: "Lost Sunday"
	Hollywood Opening Night		Episode: "Mrs. Genius"
	Your Jeweler's Showcase		Episode: "Heart's Desire"
1954	Honestly, Celeste!	Celeste Anders	TV series
1955	The United States Steel Hour	Madge Collins	Episode: "The Bogey Man"
1956	Climax!	Mary Miller	Episode: "The Empty Room Blues"
	Sneak Preview		TV series
	Carolyn	Carolyn Daniels	TV movie
	The Steve Allen Show	Mad Meggie	Episode: "2.8"
	Producers' Showcase	Mad Meggie	Episode: "Jack and the Beanstalk"
1957	Schlitz Playhouse	Lettie Morgan	Episode: "The Wedding Present"
	Goodyear Playhouse	Maggie Travis	Episode: "The Princess Back Home"
	Zane Grey Theater	Sarah Kimball	Episode: "Fugitive"
	The Yeoman of the Guard	Phoebe Meryll	TV movie
1960	Art Carney Special		Episode: "The Man in the Dog Suit"
	The Christophers		Episode: "Women of the Bible"
1961	Play of the Week	Virginia	Episode: "A Clearing in the Woods"
1962	Follow the Sun	Miss Bullfinch	Episode: "The Irresistible Miss Bullfinch"
	Checkmate	Laraine Whitman	Episode: "So Beats My Plastic Heart"
	Alcoa Premiere	Laura Bennett	Episode: "Cry Out in Silence"
1963	Dr. Kildare	Nurse Jane Munson	Episode: "The Pack Rat and Prima Donna"
	Burke's Law	Helen Forsythe	Episode: "Who Killed the Kind Doctor?"
1964	The Eleventh Hour	Billie Hamilton	Episode "How Do I Say I Love You?"
1965	Mr. Novak	Rose Herrod	Episode: "An Elephant Is Like a Tree"
	Cinderella	Fairy Godmother	TV movie
	Run for Your Life	Margot Horst	Episode: "The Cold, Cold War of Paul Bryan"
	Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color	Mrs. Fuller	4 episodes
	The Fugitive	Flo Hagerman	Episode: "The Old Man Picked a Lemon"
1966	The Long Hot Summer	Libby Rankin	Episode: "Face of Fear"
	Meet Me in St. Louis	Mrs. Smith	TV movie
1967	The Fugitive	Pearl Patton	Episode: "Concrete Evidence"
	The F.B.I.	Flo Clementi	Episode: "The Executioners: Part 1" Episode: "The Executioners: Part 2"
	Cosa Nostra, Arch Enemy of the FBI	Flo Clementi	TV movie
	Insight	Mrs. Berns	Episode: "Fat Hands and a Diamond Ring"
1970	The Name of the Game	Irene Comdon	Episode: "The Brass Ring"
	Swing Out, Sweet Land	Nancy Lincoln	TV movie
1970–1971	Nancy	Abigail	17 episodes
1972	The Delphi Bureau	Sybil Van Loween	Episode: "Pilot"
1973	Medical Center	Dr. Linda Wilson	Episode: "No Margin for Error"
1974	Medical Center	Geraldine Stern	Episode: "Web of Intrigue"
	The Streets of San Francisco	Mrs. Shaninger	Episode: "Crossfire"
	The Underground Man	Beatrice Broadhurst	TV movie
	Death Cruise	Elizabeth Mason	TV movie
	The Manhunter		Episode: "The Truck Murders"
1976	The American Woman: Portraits of Courage	Elizabeth Cady Stanton	TV movie
	Captains and the Kings	Sister Angela	TV miniseries
	Columbo	Mrs. Brandt	Episode: Old Fashioned Murder
1977	The Love Boat II	Eva McFarland	TV movie
	The Wonderful World of Disney		Episode: "The Bluegrass Special"
	Wonder Woman	Dolly Tucker	Episode: "I Do, I Do"
1978	Lucan		Episode: "You Can't Have My Baby"
	Fantasy Island	Mabel Jarvis	Episode: "The Beachcomber/The Last Whodunnit"
1979	Fantasy Island	Sister Veronica	Episode: "The Look Alikes/Winemaker"
	Backstairs at the White House	Mrs. Florence Harding	TV miniseries Nominated-Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special
	Trapper John, M.D.	Claudia	Episode: "The Shattered Image"
	The Love Boat	Estelle Castlewood	Episode: "A Good and Faithful Servant/The Secret Life of Burl Smith/Tug of War/Designated Lover"
1981	Midnight Lace	Sylvia Randall	TV movie
	As the World Turns	Lauren Roberts	TV series
	Archie Bunker's Place	Estelle Harris	Episode: "Growing Up is Hard to Do" Episode: "Custody"
1982	American Playhouse	Celebrity	Episode: "The Shady Hill Kidnapping"
	Trapper John, M.D.	Lillie Townsend	Episode: "Don't Rain on My Charade"
1983	Archie Bunker's Place	Estelle Harris	Episode: "Three Women"
	This Girl for Hire	Zandra Stoneham	TV movie
1984	Jessie	Molly Hayden	TV movie
	Jessie	Molly Hayden
	The Love Boat	Florence Flanders	Episode: "Buck Stops Here, The/For Better or Worse/Bet on It"
1985	Matt Houston	Katherine Hershey	Episode: "Company Secrets"
	Falcon Crest	Anna Rossini	6 episodes
1987	Murder by the Book	Claire	TV movie
	Magnum, P.I.	Abigail Baldwin	Episode: "The Love That Lies"
1988	Spenser: For Hire	Rose	Episode: "Haunting"
1989	CBS Summer Playhouse	Samantha Orbison	Episode: "Road Show"
	Polly	Miss Snow	TV movie
1989–1990	Christine Cromwell	Samantha Cromwell	4 episodes
1990	Polly: Comin' Home!	Miss Snow	TV movie
1991–1992	Loving	Isabella Alden	TV series
1992	Cheers	Grandmother Gaines	Episode: "No Rest for the Woody"
1995	Great Performances		Episode: "Talking With"
1996	Home of the Brave	Hattie Greene	TV movie
	Once You Meet a Stranger	Clara	TV movie
	Touched by an Angel	Hattie Greene	Episode: "Promised Land"
1996–1999	Promised Land	Hattie Greene	67 episodes
1997	Touched by an Angel	Hattie Greene	Episode: "The Road Home: Part 1" Episode: "Amazing Grace: Part 2"
1998	Touched by an Angel	Hattie Greene	Episode: "Vengeance Is Mine: Part 1"
2000	The Beat	Frances Robinson	13 episodes
2002	Third Watch	Florence	Episode: "Transformed"
2004	Whoopi	Diana	Episode: "The Squatters"

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1938	Gloriana	Lady Mary
1940	The Time of Your Life	Mary L
1940	Another Sun	Maria
1940	The Return of the Vagabond	His Daughter
1941	Eight O'Clock Tuesday	Marcia Godden
1941	My Fair Ladies	Lady Keith-Odlyn
1942	Papa Is All	Emma
1942	All the Comforts of Home	Fifi Oritanski
1942	The Damask Cheek	Calla Longstreth
1943	Oklahoma!	Ado Annie Carnes
1944	Bloomer Girl	Evalina
1950	Affairs of State	Irene Elliott
1951	The King and I	Anna Leonowens	Replacement
1952	Anna Christie	Anna Christopherson
1954	His and Hers	Maggie Palmer
1958	Interlock	Mrs. Price
1958	Third Best Sport	Helen Sayre
1960	Invitation to a March	Camilla Jablonski
1967	Mame	Mame Dennis	Replacement
1970	Candida	Candida
1974	Habeas Corpus	Lady Rumpers
1979	The Utter Glory of Morrissey Hall	Julia Faysle
1991	I Hate Hamlet	Lilian Troy
1994	Allegro	Grandma Taylor

Radio

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1946			Guest on Bob Crosby Show
1950	Everybody Does It		Episode of Screen Guild Theater
1952	Up in Central Park		Episode of Music In the Air
1952	Foreign Affairs		Episode of Screen Guild Theater
1953	Cluny Brown		Episode of Star Playhouse
1976	Afterward		Episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theater

External links

• Celeste Holm at the Internet Broadway Database
• Celeste Holm at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Celeste Holm at the Internet Movie Database
• Celeste Holm at Find a Grave
• Celeste Holm at the TCM Movie Database
• Portrait of Celeste Holm and Wesley Addy by Margaret Holland Sargent
• Obituary at We Love Soaps