State women have golden touch at Oscars
If you’re an actress harboring Oscar aspirations, you should probably spend some time in Connecticut.
Actresses with Connecticut ties have been as dominant at the Academy Awards as the Huskies are in women’s basketball.
With the Oscars slated for Sunday night and Women’s History Month scrolling to “The End,” allow me to prove my point. There will be a lot of trivia, along with a twist ending that’s pretty grim.
In past columns, I’ve shared anecdotes of once being scolded by longtime Norwalk resident Teresa Wright (Oscar winner for “Mrs. Miniver” in 1942) and the night I charmed Celeste Holm (a winner for “Gentlemen’s Agreement” in 1947) by bounding off a chair to retrieve her runaway balloon in Stamford.
They are among a group of single winners. For efficiency’s sale, let’s crunch the numbers of women who claimed the golden boy more than once. That exclusive club has just 21 members, but a closeup reveals Connecticut as Hollywood East. The list should be even longer, but Greenwich native Glenn Close keeps getting robbed.
The list includes Yalies Jodie Foster (two), Meryl Streep (three) and Frances McDormand (three for acting and one for Best Picture for last year’s “Nomadland”), along with two-time winner Jane Fonda, who lived as a child in Greenwich.
Another icon, Bette Davis, lived for a spell on Crooked Mile Road in Westport. She was the second actress to claim two awards, in 1936 and 1939.
Then there’s Dianne Wiest (two Oscars), whose first acting work was at New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre in a children’s troupe in the 1960s, and Renee Zellweger (two), who has a Pomfret Center estate overlooking the Quinebaug River.
Top billing in this cast of leading ladies goes to Katharine Hepburn, who was born and buried in Hartford. She claimed more acting Oscars than anyone, four between 1933 and 1981.
That’s eight out of the 21 multiple winners, which should earn Connecticut its own red carpet. But there’s at least one more, and she’s a scene-stealer.
Luise Rainer may be the least familiar name in this group, but she boasts credits no one can ever match: She was the first person to win two golden boys, first to win them back-to-back, first to win for portraying a real person, and first to collect two before age 30. And she has a perfect record of two nominations and two wins.
Her first came for “The Great Ziegfeld” (1936), where she stood out for a single scene with a telephone in the cry-on-cue style that earned her the sobriquet “The Viennese Teardrop.”
Her second was for “The Good Earth,” in which she plays a Chinese farmer. The contrast in roles likely fueled her success. While she portrayed a stage performer in “Ziegfeld,” she was mostly mute in “Earth.” That was probably wise, given that most Chinese farmers don’t boast German accents.
She lived the longest life of any Oscar recipient, dying at age 104 in 2014. But her Hollywood career would essentially last just three years. She filed for divorce from playwright Clifford Odets in 1938, claiming he favored one career in the family (and it wasn’t hers).
Meanwhile, a string of duds tagged her with the loathsome label “Box Office Poison” by the Independent Theatre Owners Association that year. Other careers survived appearing on the list (see Hepburn, Katharine). Rainer’s did not. She would not appear on the big screen again until 1943, then vanished for 54 years until taking a final bow in “The Gambler” in 1997. Yet no other actor would win consecutive Oscars for another three decades (and again, see Hepburn, Katharine). Thus, the phrase “Oscar Curse” was born.
Unlike Connecticut’s other golden girls, Rainer’s time in Connecticut came after her career peak. She moved to Old Long Ridge Road in Stamford in 1953 with her husband, publisher Robert Knittel. She only lived in Connecticut for three years, but did a lot to support her adopted city.
In December of 1953 she was honorary director of the Stamford Community Theatre’s production of “Ramshackle Inn” at Dolan School. In 1954, she opened her home to tours for the Stamford Garden Club. In 1955, Rainer spoke at Ferguson Library for its 75th anniversary, and narrated a ballet production of “Sleeping Beauty” at Stamford High School.
She also headlined a major fundraiser for the Red Cross that featured local celebrities participating in a quiz panel format. It concluded with the blindfolded stars trying to identify a “mystery guest.” Cartoonist Alex Raymond (“Flash Gordon”) successfully named Stamford Advocate Managing Editor E.R. McCullough.
A news item in May 1956 foreshadowed her departure for England, reporting that she was auctioning appliances in her home. A month later, the Advocate reported the property was sold to “Mr. and Mrs. Keith Urmy of Pound Ridge for about $60,000.”
The Advocate didn’t guess that mystery guest. Mrs. Urmy was actress Mildred Dunnock. Dunnock was nominated for two Academy Awards as well, for “Death of a Salesman” in 1951 and “Baby Doll” in 1956, losing both times but sustaining a busy career that concluded with Robert Downey Jr.’s “The Pick-up Artist” in 1987.
Rainer wasn’t quite done in Stamford. She returned that summer when noted New Canaan designer Bimel Kehm sued her for $1,000 over plans for an unrealized dream house in the city (she also owned property on Chestnut Hill Road). She claimed on the stand that plans were overbudget. Kehm countered that she requested a marble bathroom with a 100-square-foot mirror.
Though Rainer didn’t deny desiring a mirror larger than most bijou screens, she grew heated at an accusation she demanded air-conditioning.
“I hate air-conditioners,” she exclaimed.
The closest Connecticut connection to this year’s nominees is Nina Arianda, whose scene-stealing turn as Vivian Vance in “Being the Ricardos” was snubbed by Academy voters. Vance, who played “Ethel” in “I Love Lucy,” lived on Rainer’s street in Stamford.
That’s a lot of trivia, but I promised a twist. Rainer’s legacy has been marred by another first. She was the first actor to win an Oscar for appearing in “Yellowface.” Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong desired the role, which went to Rainer because the lead actor was also white, and the Hayes Code disallowed interracial couplings.
Again, other white stars’ legacies survived much less convincing performances in Asian roles (back to Hepburn, Katharine, “Dragon Seed”). But 85 years after Rainer’s “Good Earth” win, only six East Asian actors have even been nominated.
So Connecticut can be proud of its Oscar performance, but Hollywood still has a lot to answer for.