Barbara Stanwyck

On August 26, 1928, Stanwyck married her Burlesque co-star, Frank Fay. In 1932, they adopted their only son, Anthony Dion Fay. However, the marriage did not work and the couple divorced on December 30, 1935. Stanwyck won custody of their adoptive son. However, he became estranged once he grew up.

On May 14, 1939, Stanwyck married Robert Tailor after three years of courtship. Although they had a happy time they decided to divorce mutually in 1950. At Tailor’s insistence, Stanwyck filed the divorce paper. The couple was finally divorced in February, 1951.

After retiring from work in 1986, she remained busy with her charity work. She died on January 20, 1990 from congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Barbara Stanwyck was born as Ruby Catherine Stevens on July 16, 1907, in Brooklyn, New York. Her father, Byron E Stevens, was a bricklayer. Her mother’s name was Catherine Ann Stevens. She was their fifth child.

When Ruby was four years old, Catherine died from complication arising out of a miscarriage. Soon after, Bryon abandoned the family and Ruby’s nine year old sister Mildred had to take charge. Later Ruby and her brother Bryon were put in foster homes while Mildred entered the show business.

In 1916 and 1917, Ruby took leave from school to accompany Mildred on her tours. Her ambition to become a performer developed during this period. Whatever little money she had was spent on watching films. When she was nine she started smoking.

At the age of thirteen, Ruby left school to take up the job of wrapping packages at a departmental store in Brooklyn. Subsequently, she took series of jobs; such as filing cards at the Brooklyn telephone, cutting dress patterns for Vogue magazine and typing for the Jerome H. Remick Music Company.

However, her real goal was to enter show business. Mildred tried to dissuade her; but finally gave up. At the age of sixteen, Ruby obtained a job as a dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies at Broadway.

On October 20, 1926, Ruby began her career in acting, winning the lead role of a cabaret dancer in 'The Noose’. For the show, she created a new name for herself by combining the first name of her character, Barbara Frietchie with the last name of the leading lady of the play’s London production, Jane Stanwyck. The show ran for nine months.

Subsequently in 1927, she won another lead role in the Broadway play 'Burlesque’. It ran for two years and established her as Broadway star. In the same year, she also played the part of a fan dancer in ‘Broadway Nights’, a silent film, but did not get any credit.

Therefore, her actual film career began in 1929, when she was chosen to play Ann Carter in ‘Locked Door’, a talkie film. In the same year, she had another film ‘Mexican Rose’ released. Unfortunately, neither film was successful.

In 1930, she was selected to play Kay Arnold in ‘Ladies of Leisure’, a romantic drama film directed by Frank Capra. While the film received positive reviews, Barbara Stanwyck got special mention and with that she became a star.

The film was followed by few more successful films such as ‘Illicit’, ‘Ten Cents a Dance’ (both released in 1930); ‘Stolen Jools’, ‘Night Nurse’ and ‘The Miracle Woman’ (all released in 1931). Finally it was another Frank Capra film ‘Forbidden’ (also released in 1931), which took her to the A-list of Hollywood stars.

‘Double Indemnity’, made in 1944 is probably her best work. Widely regarded as classic, it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the U.S. Library of Congress in 1992. In this film, she played a provocative housewife who wishes her husband were dead and persuades an infatuated life insurance sales man into helping her to murder her husband in a way that it would look like an accident. It was an immediate hit with the audience. Apart from winning Oscar nomination, the film earned $5 million at the box office.