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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ClassyCo" data-source="post: 268459" data-attributes="member: 7">Tallulah Bankhead was the poster woman for the glamorous, demanding, like-it-or-lump-it stage star. Every time I watch ALL ABOUT EVE, I think (in my fantasy mind) that this is how Tallulah behaved; entitled, temperamental, and bawdy. I don't mean any of this as a threat to Miss Bankhead. I want that made perfectly clear. I have always been fascinated by her. Being a Southerner myself, I've always liked how Tallulah (and that was her real name) was born and raised in Alabama. Her family was very wealthy, and she began her career in show business when she was a teenager. She eventually made her way overseas, where she had great success on the British stage, most famously in a 1923 production of THE DANCERS. Her reviews were favorable, and she appeared in a few other plays during her stay in Britain before she finally returned to America. She found her way to Hollywood in the thirties, hoping to forego a film career. Her motion picture debut was in TARNISHED LADY (1931), directed by George Cukor, who became a lifelong friend. Bankhead reportedly behaved well on the set during production, but quickly found that she saw the film-making process as boring. Despite her disinterest in films, Bankhead was offered a salary of $50,000 per film, and she couldn't pass on the offer. Her 1932 film DEVIL AND THE DEEP is notable for her co-starring with Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, and Cary Grant. She later said the only reason she wanted to make the movie was to sleep with "that divine Gary Cooper!" Despite a healthy dose of film appearances at the start of the thirties (she appeared in seven films between 1931 and 1933), true film success eluded Tallulah. Her reviews had been mixed, sometimes completely negative, and her pictures had not been big hits in theaters. Bankhead instead refocused her career towards Broadway. She starred in productions of FORSAKING ALL OTHERS (played by Joan Crawford on the screen in 1934) and JEZEBEL (played in an Oscar-winning performance by Bette Davis in 1938), among other well-reviewed and popular plays. She also appeared in stage versions of DARK VICTORY and THE LITTLE FOXES, both which were adapted for the screen starring Bette Davis in 1939 and 1941, respectively. At the end of the thirties, she was briefly considered (and even screen tested) for Scarlett O'Hara in GONE WITH THE WIND, but producer David O. Selznick felt she photographed too old in Technicolor and that she lacked the innocence needed for the film's earliest scenes. Bankhead's bread and butter continued to be her Broadway work. One has to wonder if she ever got annoyed that Bette Davis got to immortalized many of her stage characters on the silver screen. It would certainly be understandable had Tallulah been upset, but those films would not have been the award-winning box office hits they were had Bette Davis not been at the helm. Bankhead did eventually return to films in 1944 when she starred in LIFEBOAT, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Her performance drew almost unanimous acclaim, and she won the New York Film Critics Circle award for her work. When she accepted the trophy in New York, she exclaimed: "Dahlings, I was wonderful." She later starred in a production of PRIVATE LIVES, written by Noel Coward. NBC radio hired Bankhead in the early fifties to host their series THE BIG SHOW, in hopes of beating out the programs over on CBS. Tallulah Bankhead and her entire career is wrapped up in caricature, especially in my mind. Her "dahling" talk and husky voice made her terribly distinctive, and yet easy prey of drag queens that were destined to impersonate her. Her late career turn in DIE! DIE! MY DARLING (1965; or FANATIC, whichever title) got a good performance out of her, even if it flew under the rug because it was psycho-biddy fare. Her colorful personal life also fueled interest in her, especially the rumors about her multiple affairs, and her leanings towards bisexuality and lesbianism. Tallulah died in 1968, aged sixty-six. [ATTACH=full]26776[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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