Barbara Stanwyck: Complete Biography of the Legendary Movie Diva
Explore the complete biography of Barbara Stanwyck, a legendary movie diva known for her iconic roles in classic Hollywood cinema and lasting impact on film history.
Born Ruby Stevens, she was the youngest of five siblings. Orphaned of her mother at age two, shortly after her father left the family to work in the Panama Canal Zone. She was raised alternately by a family friend and her chorus singer sister, Mildred, in Brooklyn.
Between the ages of eight and eleven, she traveled on vacation with Mildred during her shows. At 11, she lived with a Jewish couple, the Harold Cohens of Flatbush, where she first experienced affection. However, after Mrs. Cohen became pregnant, she was rejected again. She left school at 13, despite Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn listing her as “graduated with honors.”
She began working while hiding her age, first at a large Brooklyn department store, then for the New York Telephone Company. She shared an apartment with Maude Groodie, a vaudeville actress and friend from her travels with Mildred.
At 15, she became a chorus girl in New York cabarets, hired by Billy Crisp and Earl Lindsay. In 1926, a friend introduced her to Willard Mack, a producer and director who hired her for one of his shows. She appeared in The Noose, which ran 197 performances at the Hudson Theatre. Willard suggested she change her name, combining the title of a play (Barbara Fritchie) with the name of the actress who played it (Jane Stanwick), eventually settling on Barbara Stanwyck. The show was a success, and thus Hollywood’s future legend was born.
In 1927, she starred in Burlesque as the lead, with 338 performances. Paramount bought the film rights and adapted it as The Dance of Life (1929), but she was replaced by Nancy Carroll for the film version.
Barbara moved to Hollywood in 1927 and starred in Broadway Nights (1927), which had little impact on her career. In 1929, she starred in The Locked Door, which was a commercial failure. Her breakthrough came in 1930 with Frank Capra’s Ladies of Leisure.
She was married twice. Her first husband, Frank Fay, believing in her talent, took her to Hollywood in 1930 and secured her several screen tests. They adopted a boy, John Charles Green, renamed Dion Anthony Fay. The couple soon separated, and Barbara won a lengthy custody battle for Dion, who passed away in 1961.
Her second marriage was to actor Robert Taylor in 1939, lasting 11 years until their divorce on December 14, 1950. Barbara then vowed never to marry again—and kept that promise.
Two of her most memorable roles, which earned her two Emmy Awards, were as the matriarch in the TV series The Big Valley in the 1960s and as the farmer Mary Carson in The Thorn Birds (1983). Although nominated four times for an Oscar, she only received an honorary Academy Award in 1982 for her lifetime achievements.
Barbara Stanwyck passed away from heart failure at age 82 at St. John’s Hospital, with her close friend Nancy Sinatra by her side.
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