Evelyn Keyes(1916-2008)
- Actress
- Soundtrack
No shrinking violet this one, but despite her talent, vivacity and
sheer drive, lovely and alluring blonde Evelyn Keyes would remain for the most part typed as a "B" girl on the silver screen. In spite of her ripe contributions to such superior pictures as
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941),
The Jolson Story (1946),
Mrs. Mike (1949),
The Prowler (1951) and
99 River Street (1953), she
received no significant awards during her career. In fact, film-goers seem to remember her best not for one of these
exceptional co-starring parts, but for her bit role as Scarlett
O'Hara's kid sister in
Gone with the Wind (1939), American's most beloved epic film. Evelyn also kept Hollywood alive and kicking with two
sensationalistic memoirs that chronicled her four dicey marriages,
numerous affairs with the rich and famous, and negative takes on the
Hollywood studio system.
Evelyn Louise Keyes was born in Port Arthur, Texas, on November 20,
1916 (for decades she would deceive the public as to her real age). Her
father died when she was two, and she and her only brother and three
sisters grew up living with her mother and her grandmother in Atlanta,
Georgia. Taking voice, dance and piano lessons, she was hopeful of
becoming a ballerina. Instead, she entered a beauty pageant or two and
worked as a chorus girl before relocating to California at age 20.
Shortly after her arrival in Los Angeles, a chance meeting with the
legendary Cecil B. DeMille led to a Paramount Pictures contract. Stories
differ as to how she met De Mille. Hollywood folklore has it that she
was "discovered" by a talent scout in true
Lana Turner fashion while eating at a
restaurant. Another, more believable story has it that she hooked up
with one of De Mille's former writers, which led to an introduction.
Nevertheless, she was groomed as a starlet and initially placed in bit
and/or unbilled roles. De Mille first gave her a small part in his
pirate epic The Buccaneer (1938),
then placed her rather obscurely in his sprawling railroad saga
Union Pacific (1939). It was
David O. Selznick who gave her the bit
part of whiny, bratty Suellen O'Hara, who loses her beau to the more
calculating Scarlett in
"Gone with the Wind". This led directly to her signing with Columbia Pictures. In
1938, just prior to the filming of GWTW, she married businessman Barton
Bainbridge, her first of four. The marriage soured within a
year or so, however, after she took up with Budapest-born director
Charles Vidor, who directed three of
her pictures:
The Lady in Question (1940)
(her first at Columbia),
Ladies in Retirement (1941)
and The Desperadoes (1943). This
second marriage lasted about as long as the first (1943-1945),
supposedly due to Vidor's infidelities.
At Columbia Evelyn hit pin-up status and sparked a number of war-era
pictures. She played Boris Karloff's
daughter in the crime horror
Before I Hang (1940) and a blind
woman who befriends the hideously scarred
Peter Lorre in the excellent
The Face Behind the Mask (1941).
Still, she could not rise above her secondary status. For every one
nifty "B" picture that could propel her into the higher ranks, such as
Dangerous Blondes (1943), there
was always a low-caliber western
(Beyond the Sacramento (1940)),
adventure
(A Thousand and One Nights (1945))
or musical
(The Thrill of Brazil (1946))
lurking about to keep her humble.
In the post-war years, a third tempestuous but highly adventurous
marriage (1946-1950) to Hollywood titan
John Huston made the tabloid papers
practically on a weekly basis. They divorced after four years. She
did some of her best work during this period, particularly as
the wife of Al Jolson opposite
Larry Parks' splendid impersonation.
She also showed she had a strong range and earned snappy
notices alongside Dick Powell in the
film noir Johnny O'Clock (1947) as
well as the title comedy character in
The Mating of Millie (1948)
co-starring Glenn Ford.
Her last (and just as questionable) marriage was to another "father
figure" type, musician Artie Shaw, a
womanizer if ever there was one who had already had been discarded
by trophy wives Ava Gardner and
Lana Turner (and five others) by the time he
and Evelyn married in 1957. She had pretty much put her career on
the back burner by this point. Surprisingly, this marriage lasted
longer than any of their previous ones. The couple separated in the
1970s but did not divorce until 1985.
Evelyn returned to the acting fold every once in while. Scarcely on
stage (she once played Sally Bowles in a theatrical production of "I Am
a Camera" in 1953), she joined up with
Don Ameche in a 1972 tour of the musical "No,
No, Nanette". She also would show up on an episode of The Love Boat (1977) or Murder, She Wrote (1984) every now and then. She remained childless (there was one adopted child, Pedro, by Huston, but they were estranged).
Very much the traveler, Evelyn lived sporadically all over the world, including France, England and Mexico, and spoke Spanish and French fluently. She was also a writer and published a Hollywood-themed novel in her later
years. Her GWTW association and tell-all memoirs in 1977 and 1991 kept
her a point of interest right up until the end. Not surprisingly, this firecracker of a lady passed away on the 4th of July -- at age 91 of uterine cancer at an assisted-living residence in Montecito, California.
sheer drive, lovely and alluring blonde Evelyn Keyes would remain for the most part typed as a "B" girl on the silver screen. In spite of her ripe contributions to such superior pictures as
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941),
The Jolson Story (1946),
Mrs. Mike (1949),
The Prowler (1951) and
99 River Street (1953), she
received no significant awards during her career. In fact, film-goers seem to remember her best not for one of these
exceptional co-starring parts, but for her bit role as Scarlett
O'Hara's kid sister in
Gone with the Wind (1939), American's most beloved epic film. Evelyn also kept Hollywood alive and kicking with two
sensationalistic memoirs that chronicled her four dicey marriages,
numerous affairs with the rich and famous, and negative takes on the
Hollywood studio system.
Evelyn Louise Keyes was born in Port Arthur, Texas, on November 20,
1916 (for decades she would deceive the public as to her real age). Her
father died when she was two, and she and her only brother and three
sisters grew up living with her mother and her grandmother in Atlanta,
Georgia. Taking voice, dance and piano lessons, she was hopeful of
becoming a ballerina. Instead, she entered a beauty pageant or two and
worked as a chorus girl before relocating to California at age 20.
Shortly after her arrival in Los Angeles, a chance meeting with the
legendary Cecil B. DeMille led to a Paramount Pictures contract. Stories
differ as to how she met De Mille. Hollywood folklore has it that she
was "discovered" by a talent scout in true
Lana Turner fashion while eating at a
restaurant. Another, more believable story has it that she hooked up
with one of De Mille's former writers, which led to an introduction.
Nevertheless, she was groomed as a starlet and initially placed in bit
and/or unbilled roles. De Mille first gave her a small part in his
pirate epic The Buccaneer (1938),
then placed her rather obscurely in his sprawling railroad saga
Union Pacific (1939). It was
David O. Selznick who gave her the bit
part of whiny, bratty Suellen O'Hara, who loses her beau to the more
calculating Scarlett in
"Gone with the Wind". This led directly to her signing with Columbia Pictures. In
1938, just prior to the filming of GWTW, she married businessman Barton
Bainbridge, her first of four. The marriage soured within a
year or so, however, after she took up with Budapest-born director
Charles Vidor, who directed three of
her pictures:
The Lady in Question (1940)
(her first at Columbia),
Ladies in Retirement (1941)
and The Desperadoes (1943). This
second marriage lasted about as long as the first (1943-1945),
supposedly due to Vidor's infidelities.
At Columbia Evelyn hit pin-up status and sparked a number of war-era
pictures. She played Boris Karloff's
daughter in the crime horror
Before I Hang (1940) and a blind
woman who befriends the hideously scarred
Peter Lorre in the excellent
The Face Behind the Mask (1941).
Still, she could not rise above her secondary status. For every one
nifty "B" picture that could propel her into the higher ranks, such as
Dangerous Blondes (1943), there
was always a low-caliber western
(Beyond the Sacramento (1940)),
adventure
(A Thousand and One Nights (1945))
or musical
(The Thrill of Brazil (1946))
lurking about to keep her humble.
In the post-war years, a third tempestuous but highly adventurous
marriage (1946-1950) to Hollywood titan
John Huston made the tabloid papers
practically on a weekly basis. They divorced after four years. She
did some of her best work during this period, particularly as
the wife of Al Jolson opposite
Larry Parks' splendid impersonation.
She also showed she had a strong range and earned snappy
notices alongside Dick Powell in the
film noir Johnny O'Clock (1947) as
well as the title comedy character in
The Mating of Millie (1948)
co-starring Glenn Ford.
Her last (and just as questionable) marriage was to another "father
figure" type, musician Artie Shaw, a
womanizer if ever there was one who had already had been discarded
by trophy wives Ava Gardner and
Lana Turner (and five others) by the time he
and Evelyn married in 1957. She had pretty much put her career on
the back burner by this point. Surprisingly, this marriage lasted
longer than any of their previous ones. The couple separated in the
1970s but did not divorce until 1985.
Evelyn returned to the acting fold every once in while. Scarcely on
stage (she once played Sally Bowles in a theatrical production of "I Am
a Camera" in 1953), she joined up with
Don Ameche in a 1972 tour of the musical "No,
No, Nanette". She also would show up on an episode of The Love Boat (1977) or Murder, She Wrote (1984) every now and then. She remained childless (there was one adopted child, Pedro, by Huston, but they were estranged).
Very much the traveler, Evelyn lived sporadically all over the world, including France, England and Mexico, and spoke Spanish and French fluently. She was also a writer and published a Hollywood-themed novel in her later
years. Her GWTW association and tell-all memoirs in 1977 and 1991 kept
her a point of interest right up until the end. Not surprisingly, this firecracker of a lady passed away on the 4th of July -- at age 91 of uterine cancer at an assisted-living residence in Montecito, California.