Claudette Colbert - Movies, Bio & Filmography

Meet Claudette Colbert

★ Acting🎥 79 films📺 19 TV shows📅 1927–2003🔥 1

Also known as: Emilie Claudette Chauchoin, Клодетт Кольбер

Born in Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne, France

1903-09-13 (age 92 at death)

Died 1996-07-30

Claudette Colbert (September 13, 1903 — July 30, 1996) was an American actress. Born  Emilie Claudette Chauchoin in Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne, France, she was brought to the United States as a child three years later and went to high school in New York. While studying at the Art Students League when, in 1923, she took the name Claudette Colbert for her first Broadway role in "The Wild Westcotts". Her most noteworthy stage vehicle was the "The Barker" in 1927. Her first film was a silent For the Love of Mike (1927), directed by Frank Capra. Made on a shoestring, the movie was a flop, and she vowed that it would be her last film role: "I only left Broadway when the crash came. The Depression killed the theater, and the pictures were manna from heaven". She had her first film success the next year, however, in The Lady Lies (1929).

Her early notable films were all box-office hits and included Cleopatra (1934), in which she played the title role enticingly. She had her greatest triumph playing a runaway heiress, with enormous charm, opposite Clark Gable in Capra's comedy It Happened One Night (1934), for which she won the Academy Award as Best Actress. By 1938 her keen ability in business made her the highest paid star in Hollywood. By 1950, though, her star had begun to wane. She returned to the stage in 1956 when she replaced Margaret Sullavan during the spring and summer in the comedy "Janus". Appearances in other Broadway productions followed, including "The Marriage-Go-Round". Besides the stage, she did TV specials and had a supporting role in a notable TV movie, The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987), for which she received a Golden Globe award. In 1989 she was presented with a Life Achievement award from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

She married actor Norman Foster in 1928, although they never lived together and were divorced after seven years. She married surgeon Dr. Joel Pressman soon after and remained married until his death in 1968. In latter years she divided her time between an apartment in New York and a 200-year-old plantation house in Speightstown, Barbados, where she entertained such guests as Frank Sinatra and Ronald Reagan. She remained on Barbados Island after her stroke. On July 30, 1996, Claudette died in Speightstown, Barbados. She was 92.From Wikipedia
Claudette Colbert (koʊlˈbɛər/ kohl-BAIR, born Émilie "Lily" Claudette Chauchoin (ʃoʃwɛ̃/ show-shwan); September 13, 1903 – July 30, 1996) was an American actress. Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the late 1920s and progressed to films with the advent of talking pictures. Initially contracted to Paramount Pictures, Colbert became one of the few major actresses of the period who worked freelance; that is to say, independently of the studio system. In 1999, Colbert was named the 12th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema the by the American Film Institute.
With her Mid-Atlantic accent, versatility, witty dialogues, aristocratic demeanor, and flair for light comedy and emotional drama, Colbert became one of the popular stars of the 1930s and 1940s. In all, Colbert acted in more than 60 movies. Among her frequent co-stars were Fred MacMurray in seven films (1935–1949), and Fredric March in four (1930–1933).
Colbert won the Academy Award for Best Actress for It Happened One Night (1934), and received two other Academy Award nominations during her career. Her other notable films include Cleopatra (1934), The Palm Beach Story (1942) and Since You Went Away (1944).
By the mid-1950s Colbert had turned from motion pictures to television and stage work; she earned a Tony Award nomination for The Marriage-Go-Round in 1959. Her career began to wane in the early 1960s. In the late 1970s she experienced a comeback in the theater, and received a Sarah Siddons Award for her Chicago theater work in 1980. Her television appearance in The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987) earned her a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award nomination.

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