Barbara Bel Geddes

Barbara Bel Geddes married twice in her life. Her first husband, Carl Sawyer (né Schreuer), whom she wed on January 24, 1944, was a theatrical manager. After seven years of marriage, their divorce was finalized on March 13, 1951. They had a child together, a daughter named Susan.

She and stage director Windsor Lewis married on April 15, 1951. She bore him a daughter, Betsy Lewis. In 1966, after Windsor was diagnosed with cancer, Bel Geddes took a long hiatus from the show business to take care of him. He died on May 15, 1972.

In the 1950s, she was included in the Hollywood Blacklist by House Un-American Activities Committee for alleged socialist activities. Her film career suffered as a result. She chose to focus on stage acting during this period.

Barbara Bel Geddes was born on October 31, 1922 in New York City to Norman Bel Geddes and Helen Belle (née Schneider). Norman was a renowned theatrical and industrial manager who had worked on over 200 plays. At some point, her father married again, this time to the famous theatrical costume designer Edith Lutyens. Bel Geddes had a sister named Joan.

After attending The Putney School in Putney, Vermont, Barbara Bel Geddes began her acting career on stage at the age of 18. Her first prominent role was in the Broadway play ‘Deep Are the Roots’, which was first staged in 1945. The play was a huge success and her performance was praised by the critics. Furthermore, she received the Clarence Derwent Award and the Donaldson Award (forerunner of the Tony Awards) for Outstanding Achievement in The Theatre for the role.

Between 1951 and 1953, she appeared on stage 924 times for F. Hugh Herbert’s hit comedy ‘The Moon Is Blue’. In 1955, she portrayed the character of Maggie “The Cat” in the inaugural production of Tennessee Williams' ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’.

In 1961, she was cast as the eponymous character in Jean Carr’s comedy ‘Mary, Mary’, which ran for over 1500 performances, making it the longest-running Broadway show of all time. Bel Geddes received Tony nods for both of these roles.

In her illustrious theatre career, she was also part of productions of John Steinbeck's ‘Burning Bright’ and Edward Albee's ‘Everything in the Garden’. She co-starred with Henry Fonda in a production of ‘Silent Night, Lonely Night’.

Barbara Bel Geddes made her big screen debut opposite Henry Fonda in the 1947 film ‘The Long Night’, which was actually the remake of a 1939 French film named ‘Le Jour Se Lève’.

In George Stevens’ 1948 drama ‘I Remember Mama’, she was cast as the Norwegian immigrant author Katrin Hanson; this role has come to be viewed as her greatest cinematic performance. In the 1950 film-noir ‘Panic in the Streets’, she worked with Richard Widmark.

She shared screen space with James Stewart and Kim Novak in Hitchcock’s classic 1958 film ‘Vertigo’. Starring as Marjorie “Midge" Wood, she did not portray the female love interest, but the friend and confidant of John "Scottie" Ferguson (Stewart), the central protagonist of the film.

In ‘The Five Pennies’, the semi-biographical film inspired by the life of jazz cornettist and composer Ernest Loring "Red" Nichols, Bel Geddes was cast as Willa Stutsman opposite Danny Kaye’s Nichols. Her last film was the 1971 psychological thriller ‘The Todd Killings’.