How she took full ownership of her career as an actress and a director.
THE HOLLYWOOD PIONEER TOOK CHARGE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE CAMERA
Iliked the strong characters,” Ida Lupino once said. “Something that has some intestinal fortitude, some guts to it.” Those were the kind of women Ida played on-screen, holding her own opposite tough guys like Humphrey Bogart in 1941’s High Sierra. Those were also the kind of characters she created when she broke down barriers to become one of Hollywood’s first female directors. “It’s almost impossible to do it unless you’re an actress or writer with power,” she said. Ida was both.
She was also to the manor born. Her father, the legendary British comic actor Stanley Lupino, “built her a theater in the backyard of their estate,” Mary Ann Anderson, Ida’s ex-assistant, tells Closer. “She wrote and directed plays as a child.”
Opportunities for women behind the scenes were rare, so Ida became an actress, excelling in film noirs like 1940’s They Drive by Night, with Bogie and George Raft. But what she really wanted to do was direct: “This gave me the freedom to call my own shots.”
As a director, Ida made low-budget indies with titles like Hard, Fast and Beautiful and later moved into TV, helming episodes of series from The Fugitive to Gilligan’s Island. Her personal life was less successful as she endured three divorces and a long estrangement from her only child. “Bridget never wanted a showbiz career,” says William Donati, author of Ida Lupino: A Biography, of Ida’s daughter with actor Howard Duff. “This disappointed Ida.” They reconciled before Ida died at 77 in 1995, leaving a powerful legacy. Says Donati, “She was a tremendous talent who still dazzles and captivate audiences.”
— Bruce Fretts, with reporting by Katie Bruno
ON DANGEROUS GROUND