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Jean Arthur (October 17, 1900 – June 19, 1991) was an American actress.

Born Gladys Georgianna Greene in Plattsburgh, New York, she became one of Hollywood's favorite screen comediennes.

Career

Arthur debuted in the silent film Cameo Kirby in 1923, and made a few silent westerns and short comedies (all low-budget), although it was her distinctive nasal voice which eventually made her a star in the talkies. She was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1929. In 1935 she starred opposite Edward G. Robinson in the gangster farce The Whole Town's Talking, and her popularity began to rise.

It was her role opposite Gary Cooper in 1936 in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town that made her a star. She continued her fame by starring in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington in 1939, 1941's The Talk of the Town, and again in 1943 in The More the Merrier, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

She also was considered for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind.

Retirement

Never particularly happy being famous or a film star, Arthur retired when her contract with Columbia Pictures expired in 1944.

She turned down virtually all film offers, the two exceptions being Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair (1948) and the Western classic Shane (1953). In the years between these films, Arthur scored a major triumph on Broadway starring in a stage revival of Peter Pan playing the Eternal Boy when she was almost fifty.

In 1968, she was coaxed back to Broadway to appear as a midwestern spinster who falls in with a group of hippies in the play The Freaking Out of Stephanie Blake. William Goldman, in his book "The Season," reconstructs the disastrous production, which eventually closed during previews when Arthur refused to go on -- partly because of her well-known stage fright and partly because the play was shaping up to be a fiasco.

She had missed out on another triumph a few years before when she was cast in the lead of the play Born Yesterday but her nerves and insecurity got the better of her and she left the production before it reached Broadway, opening the door for Judy Holliday to take the part.

After retiring, she taught drama at Vassar College. She also returned to acting, albeit briefly, in a short-lived comedy, The Jean Arthur Show on CBS in the 1966-67 season.

Death

She died from heart failure in 1991 and had her ashes scattered at sea near Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6331 Hollywood Blvd.

Filmography

• Cameo Kirby (1923)
• The Temple of Venus (1923)
• Somebody Lied (1923) (short subject)
• Spring Fever (1923) (short subject)
• The Powerful Eye (1924) (short subject)
• Wine of Youth (1924)
• Biff Bang Buddy (1924)
• Fast and Fearless (1924)
• Bringin' Home the Bacon (1924)
• Thundering Romance (1924)
• Travelin' Fast (1924)
• Seven Chances (1925)
• The Drug Store Cowboy (1925)
• The Fighting Smile (1925)
• Tearin' Loose (1925)
• A Man of Nerve (1925)
• The Hurricane Horseman (1925)
• Thundering Through (1925)
• Under Fire (1926)
• The Roaring Rider (1926)
• Born to Battle (1926)
• The Fighting Cheat (1926)
• Eight-Cylinder Bull (1926) (short subject)
• The Mad Racer (1926) (short subject)
• Ridin' Rivals (1926) (short subject)
• Double Daring (1926)
• Lightning Bill (1926)
• Twisted Triggers (1926)
• The Cowboy Cops (1926)
• The College Boob (1926)
• The Block Signal (1926)
• Winners of the Wilderness (1927)
• Husband Hunters (1927)
• Hello Lafayette (1927) (short subject)
• The Broken Gate (1927)
• Horse Shoes (1927)
• Bigger and Better Blondes (1927) (short subject)
• The Poor Nut (1927)
• The Masked Menace (1927)
• Flying Luck (1927)
• Wallflowers (1928)
• Easy Come, Easy Go (1928)
• Warming Up (1928)
• Brotherly Love (1928)
• Sins of the Fathers (1928)
• The Canary Murder Case (1929)
• Stairs of Sand (1929)
• The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu (1929)
• The Greene Murder Case (1929)
• The Saturday Night Kid (1929)
• Street of Chance (1930)
• Young Eagles (1930)
• Paramount on Parade (1930)
• The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu (1930)
• Danger Lights (1930)
• Screen Snapshots Series 9, No. 24 (1930) (short subject)
• The Silver Horde (1930)
• The Gang Buster (1931)
• The Virtuous Husband (1931)
• The Lawyer's Secret (1931)
• Ex-Bad Boy (1931)
• Get That Venus (1933)
• The Past of Mary Holmes (1933)
• Whirlpool (1934)
• The Most Precious Thing in Life (1934)
• The Defense Rests (1934)
• The Whole Town's Talking (1935)
• Party Wire (1935)
• Public Hero #1 (1935)
• Diamond Jim (1935)
• The Public Menace (1935)
• If You Could Only Cook (1935)
• Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
• The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (1936)
• Adventure in Manhattan (1936)
• The Plainsman (1936)
• More Than a Secretary (1936)
• History Is Made at Night (1937)
• Easy Living (1937)
• You Can't Take It with You (1938)
• Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
• Too Many Husbands (1940)
• Arizona (1940)
• The Devil and Miss Jones (1941)
• The Talk of the Town (1942)
• The More the Merrier (1943)
• A Lady Takes a Chance (1943)
• The Impatient Years (1944)
• A Foreign Affair (1948)
• Shane (1953)

External links

• Jean Arthur biographical sketch on Find-A-Grave
• Allmovie bio

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