Ida Lupino

Ida Lupino

in The Hard Way (1943)
Born 4 February 1918(1918-02-04)
Camberwell, London, UK
Died 3 August 1995(1995-08-03) (aged 77)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation Actress, director
Years active 1931–1978
Spouse

Ida Lupino (4 February 1918[1] – 3 August 1995) was an English-born film actress and director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers. In her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed seven others, mostly in the United States. She appeared in serial television programmes 58 times and directed 50 other episodes. Additionally, she contributed as a writer to five films and four TV episodes.[2]

Contents

Acting career

Lupino was born in 1918 into an English family of performers.[3] Her father, Stanley Lupino, was a music hall comedian, and her mother, Connie Emerald (1892–1959), was an actress.[4] As a girl, Ida Lupino was encouraged to enter show business by both her parents and her uncle, Lupino Lane. She trained at RADA and made her first film appearance in The Love Race (1931), the next year making Her First Affaire. She spent the next several years playing minor roles. She moved to Hollywood in 1933.[5]

Following her appearance in The Light That Failed (1939) Lupino began to be taken seriously as a dramatic actress. As a result, her parts improved during the 1940s, and she described herself as "the poor man's Bette Davis."[6]

During this period, Lupino became known for her hard-boiled roles,[7] as in such films as They Drive by Night (1940) and High Sierra (1941), both opposite Humphrey Bogart. For her performance in The Hard Way (1943), she won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. She worked regularly and was in demand throughout the 1940s without becoming a major star until later. In 1947, Lupino left Warner Bros. to freelance. Notable films she appeared in around that time include Road House and On Dangerous Ground.

Directing career

In the mid-1940s, while on suspension for turning down a role,[8] Lupino became interested in directing. She described herself as being bored on set while "someone else seemed to be doing all the interesting work."[7] She and her husband Collier Young formed an independent company, The Filmakers [sic], and Lupino became a producer, director and screenwriter of low-budget, issue-oriented films.[9]

Her first directing job came unexpectedly in 1949 when Elmer Clifton suffered a mild heart attack and could not finish Not Wanted, the film he was directing for Filmakers. Lupino stepped in to finish the film and went on to direct her own projects, becoming Hollywood's only female film director of the time.[10]

In an article for the Village Voice, Carrie Rickey wrote that Lupino was a model of modern feminist filmmaking, stating:

Not only did Lupino take control of production, direction and screenplay, but each of her movies addresses the brutal repercussions of sexuality, independence, and dependence.[11]

After four "woman's" films about social issues – including Outrage (1950), a film about rape – Lupino directed her first hard-paced, fast-moving picture, The Hitch-Hiker (1953), making her the first woman to direct a film noir. Writer Richard Koszarski noted that:

Her films display the obsessions and consistencies of a true auteur... In her films The Bigamist and The Hitch-Hiker Lupino was able to reduce the male to the same sort of dangerous, irrational force that women represented in most male-directed examples of Hollywood film noir.[12]

Lupino often joked that if she had been the "poor man's Bette Davis" as an actress, then she had become the "poor man's Don Siegel" as a director.[13] In 1952, Lupino was invited to become the "fourth star" in Four Star Productions by Dick Powell, David Niven and Charles Boyer, after Joel McCrea and Rosalind Russell had dropped out of the company.

Television

Lupino continued acting throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Her directing efforts during these years were almost exclusively television productions such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Thriller, The Twilight Zone, Have Gun – Will Travel, The Donna Reed Show, Gilligan's Island, 77 Sunset Strip, The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, The Rifleman, The Virginian, Sam Benedict, The Untouchables, The Fugitive and Bewitched.

Lupino appeared in 19 episodes of Four Star Playhouse from 1952 to 1956. From January 1957 through September 1958, Lupino starred with her then husband, Howard Duff, in the CBS sitcom Mr. Adams and Eve, in which the duo played husband and wife film stars named Howard Adams and Eve Drake, living in Beverly Hills, California. Duff and Lupino also co-starred as themselves in 1959 in one of the 13 one-hour installments of The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour. Lupino guest-starred on numerous television programs, including The Ford Television Theatre (1954), The Twilight Zone (1959), Bonanza (1959), Burke's Law (1963–64), The Virginian (1963–65), Batman (1968), The Mod Squad (1969), Family Affair (1969–70), Columbo (1972–74), Barnaby Jones (1974), The Streets of San Francisco ("Blockade", 1974), Ellery Queen (1975), Police Woman (1975) and Charlie's Angels (1977), to name a few. She made her final film appearance in 1978 and retired at the age of 60.

Awards and homage

Lupino has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to the fields of television and motion pictures. They are located at 1724 Vine Street and 6821 Hollywood Boulevard. Lupino is the titular subject of a jazz homage composed by Carla Bley in 1964, originally for the album Turning Point.[14]

Personal life

Lupino was born in Camberwell, London, (allegedly under a table during a World War I zeppelin raid) to actress Connie O'Shea (Connie Emerald) and music hall entertainer Stanley Lupino, a member of the theatrical Lupino family. Ida's birth year is 1918 and not 1914 as some biographies have claimed.[1] Her sister Rita Lupino, born in 1920, became an actress and dancer. During World War II she served as a Lieutenant in the Women's Ambulance and Defense Corps.[15]

Lupino was married and divorced three times.

In 1983, Lupino petitioned a California court to appoint her business manager, Mary Ann Anderson to become her Convervator due to poor business dealings from her prior business management company and her long separation form Howard Duff.

Lupino died from a stroke while undergoing treatment for colon cancer in Los Angeles in August 1995, at the age of 77. Lupino's memiors, Ida Lupino: Beyond the Camera, were edited after her death and published by Mary Ann Anderson.[16]

Filmography

Film credits as actress and/or director
Title Year As actress Role As director Notes
Love Race, TheThe Love Race 1931 Yes Minor supporting role
Her First Affaire 1932 Yes Anne
Ghost Camera, TheThe Ghost Camera 1933 Yes Mary Fulton
High Finance 1933 Yes Jill
Money for Speed 1933 Yes Jane
I Lived with You 1933 Yes Ada Wallis
Prince of Arcadia 1933 Yes The Princess
Search for Beauty 1934 Yes Barbara Hilton
Come on Marines 1934 Yes Esther Smith-Hamilton
Ready for Love 1934 Yes Marigold Tate
Paris in Spring 1935 Yes Mignon de Charelle
Smart Girl 1935 Yes Pat Reynolds
Peter Ibbetson 1935 Yes Agnes
Fiesta de Santa Barbara, LaLa Fiesta de Santa Barbara 1935 Yes Herself
Anything Goes 1936 Yes Hope Harcourt
One Rainy Afternoon 1936 Yes Monique Pelerin
Yours for the Asking 1936 Yes Gert Malloy
Gay Desperado, TheThe Gay Desperado 1936 Yes Jane
Sea Devils 1937 Yes Doris Malone
Let's Get Married 1937 Yes Paula Quinn
Artists and Models 1937 Yes Paula Sewell/Paula Monterey
Fight for Your Lady 1937 Yes Marietta
Lone Wolf Spy Hunt, TheThe Lone Wolf Spy Hunt 1939 Yes Val Carson
Lady and the Mob, TheThe Lady and the Mob 1939 Yes Lila Thorne
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, TheThe Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 1939 Yes Ann Brandon
Light That Failed, TheThe Light That Failed 1939 Yes Bessie Broke
Screen Snapshots Series 18, No. 6 1939 Yes Herself Promotional short film
They Drive by Night 1940 Yes Lana Carlsen
High Sierra 1940 Yes Marie
Sea Wolf, TheThe Sea Wolf 1941 Yes Ruth Webster
Out of the Fog 1941 Yes Stella Goodwin
Ladies in Retirement 1941 Yes Ellen Creed
Moontide 1942 Yes Anna
Life Begins at Eight-Thirty 1942 Yes Kathy Thomas
Forever and a Day 1943 Yes Jenny
Hard Way, TheThe Hard Way 1943 Yes Mrs. Helen Chernen
Thank Your Lucky Stars 1943 Yes Herself
In Our Time 1944 Yes Jennifer Whittredge
Hollywood Canteen 1944 Yes Herself
Pillow to Post 1945 Yes Jean Howard
Devotion 1946 Yes Emily Bronte
Man I Love, TheThe Man I Love 1947 Yes Petey Brown
Deep Valley 1947 Yes Libby Saul
Escape Me Never 1947 Yes Gemma Smith
Road House 1948 Yes Lily Stevens
Lust for Gold 1949 Yes Julia Thomas
Not Wanted 1949 Yes
Never Fear 1949 Yes
Woman in Hiding 1950 Yes Deborah Chandler Clark
Outrage 1950 Yes Country Dance Attendee Yes
Hard, Fast and Beautiful 1951 Yes Seabright Tennis Match Supervisor Yes
On the Loose 1951 Yes Narrator
On Dangerous Ground 1952 Yes Mary Malden
Beware, My Lovely 1952 Yes Mrs. Helen Gordon
Hitch-Hiker, TheThe Hitch-Hiker 1953 Yes
Jennifer 1953 Yes Agnes Langley
Bigamist, TheThe Bigamist 1953 Yes Phyllis Martin Yes
Private Hell 36 1954 Yes Lilli Marlowe
Women's Prison 1955 Yes Amelia van Zandt
Big Knife, TheThe Big Knife 1955 Yes Marion Castle
While the City Sleeps 1956 Yes Mildred Donner
Strange Intruder 1956 Yes Alice Carmichael
Trouble with Angels, TheThe Trouble with Angels 1966 Yes
Junior Bonner 1972 Yes Elvira Bonner
Devil's Rain, TheThe Devil's Rain 1975 Yes Mrs. Preston
Food of the Gods, TheThe Food of the Gods 1976 Yes Mrs. Skinner
Charlie's Angels 1977 Yes Gloria Gibson TV series
My Boys are Good Boys 1978 Yes Mrs. Morton

Notes

  1. ^ a b Recorded in Births Mar 1918 Camberwell Vol. 1d, p. 1019 (Free BMD). Transcribed as "Lupine" in the official births index
  2. ^ Ida Lupino at the Internet Movie Database
  3. ^ Allrovi Biography
  4. ^ Acker, Alley, Reel Women - Pioneers of the Cinema, The Continuum Publishing Company, 1991, p. 75, ISBN 0826404995
  5. ^ Ida Lupino TCM biography. Accessed 4 July 2011.
  6. ^ Katz, Ephraim; Fred Klein, Ronald Dean Nolan (1998). The Film Encyclopedia (3rd Edition ed.). New York: HarperPerennial. p. 858. ISBN 0-06-273492-X. 
  7. ^ a b Acker, p. 76
  8. ^ Rickey, Carrie, "Lupino Noir," Village Voice, October 29 - November 4, 1980, p. 43
  9. ^ Acker, pp. 74, 76,
  10. ^ Acker, p. 75
  11. ^ Rickey, VV, p. 43, as quoted in Reel Women by Acker, p. 76
  12. ^ Koszarski, Richard, Hollywood Directors, New York: Oxford University Press, 1976 ISBN 0195020855 (0-19-502085-5)
  13. ^ Wood, Bret. "Outrage (1950)". Turner Classic Movies Online. http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article.jsp?cid=102732&mainArticleId=159651. Retrieved 2008-08-10. 
  14. ^ "Ida Lupino". YouTube clip, played by Paul Bley, accessed September 5, 2010
  15. ^ "Partners in Winning the War: American Women in WWII". National Women's History Museum. http://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/partners/34.htm. Retrieved 8 May 2011. 
  16. ^ "Ida Lupino : Beyond The Camera", Paul Green: Author, Blog at WordPress.com, 6 July 2011

External links