Claire Trevor

Claire Trevor
Claire Trevor
	Trevor in the 1930s
Born	Claire Wemlinger; March 8, 1910; New York City, NY, U.S.
Died	April 8, 2000 (aged 90); Newport Beach, California, U.S.
Alma mater	Columbia University; American Academy of Dramatic Arts
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1929–1987
Known for	Key Largo; Dead End; The High and the Mighty;
Spouses	Clark Andrews (m. 1938; div. 1942); Cylos William Dunsmore (m. 1943; div. 1947); Milton H. Bren (m. 1948; died 1979);
Children	1

Claire Trevor (née Wemlinger; March 8, 1910^[1] – April 8, 2000) was an American actress. She appeared in 65 feature films from 1933 to 1982,^[2] winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Key Largo (1948), and received nominations for her roles in The High and the Mighty (1954) and Dead End (1937). Trevor received top billing, ahead of John Wayne, for Stagecoach (1939).

Early life

Trevor was born on March 8, 1910, in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York City, the only child of Noel Wemlinger, a Fifth Avenue merchant tailor (of French birth but German ancestry), and his wife, Benjamina ("Betty"), who was of Irish birth. She was raised in New York City, and from 1923 on, in Larchmont, New York.^[3]^[4] For many years, her year of birth was misreported as 1909, which is why her age at the time of her death was initially given as 91, not 90.^[5]

Career

According to her biography on the website of Claire Trevor School of the Arts, "Trevor's acting career spanned more than seven decades and included successes in stage, radio, television, and film...[She] often played the hard-boiled blonde, and every conceivable type of 'bad girl' role."^[6]

After completing high school, Trevor began her career with six months of art classes at Columbia University and six months at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She made her stage debut in the summer of 1929 with a repertory company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She subsequently returned to New York, where she appeared in a number of Brooklyn-filmed Vitaphone short films and performed in summer stock theatre.^[4] In 1932, she starred on Broadway as the female lead in Whistling in the Dark.^[4]

Trevor made her film debut in Jimmy and Sally (1933), a film originally written for the popular screen duo of James Dunn and Sally Eilers. When Eilers declined the role, Trevor was cast in her place.^[7]^[8] From 1933 to 1938, Trevor starred in 29 films, often having either the lead role or the role of heroine. In 1937, she was the second lead actress (after top-billed Sylvia Sidney) in Dead End, with Humphrey Bogart, which led to her nomination for Best Supporting Actress. From 1937 to 1940, she appeared with Edward G. Robinson in the popular radio series Big Town, while continuing to make movies. In the early 1940s, she also was a regular on The Old Gold Don Ameche Show on the NBC Red Radio Network, starring with Ameche in presentations of plays by Mark Hellinger.^[9] In 1939, she was well established as a solid leading lady. One of her more memorable performances during this period includes the Western Stagecoach (1939).^[4]

Trevor in *The High and the Mighty* (1954), which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress

Two of Trevor's most memorable roles were opposite Dick Powell in Murder, My Sweet (1944) and with Lawrence Tierney in Born to Kill (1947). In Key Largo (1948), Trevor played Gaye Dawn, a washed-up, alcoholic nightclub singer and gangster's moll. For that role, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her third and final Oscar nomination was for her performance in The High and the Mighty (1954).^[4] In 1957, she won an Emmy for her role in the Producers' Showcase episode entitled "Dodsworth".^[10]^[4] Trevor moved into supporting roles in the 1950s, with her appearances becoming very rare after the mid-1960s. She played Charlotte, the mother of Kay (Sally Field) in Kiss Me Goodbye (1982).^[4] Her final television role was for the 1987 television film, Norman Rockwell's Breaking Home Ties. Trevor made a guest appearance at the 70th Academy Awards in 1998.

Personal life and death

Trevor married Clark Andrews, director of her radio show, in 1938; they divorced four years later. She married Navy Lieutenant Cylos William Dunsmore in 1943. Their son Charles was her only child.^[11] The couple divorced in 1947. The next year, Trevor married Milton Bren, a film producer with two sons from a previous marriage, and moved to Newport Beach, California.^[4]

In 1978, Trevor's son, Charles, died in the crash of PSA Flight 182, and this was followed by the death of her husband Milton from a brain tumor in 1979. Devastated by these losses, she returned to Manhattan for some years, living in a Fifth Avenue apartment and taking a few acting roles amid a busy social life.^[4] She eventually returned to California, where she remained for the rest of her life, becoming a generous supporter of the arts.^[5]

Trevor supported Thomas Dewey in the 1944 United States presidential election.^[12]

On April 8, 2000, Trevor died at a hospital in Newport Beach, California.^[5] For her contribution to the motion picture industry, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard.^[13]

Legacy

The Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine, was named in Trevor's honor. Her Oscar and Emmy statuettes are on display in the Arts Plaza, next to the Claire Trevor Theatre.

Filmography

Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1933	Life in the Raw	Judy Halloway	Film debut
	Jimmy and Sally	Sally Johnson
	The Mad Game	Jane Lee
	The Last Trail	Patricia Carter
1934	Elinor Norton	Elinor Norton
	Baby Take a Bow	Kay Ellison
	Wild Gold	Jerry Jordan
	Hold That Girl	Tonie Bellamy
1935	Spring Tonic	Betty Ingals
	Black Sheep	Jeanette Foster
	My Marriage	Carol Barton
	Navy Wife	Vicky Blake
	Dante's Inferno	Betty McWade
1936	Career Woman	Carroll Aiken
	Star for a Night	Nina Lind
	To Mary – with Love	Kitty Brant
	Human Cargo	Bonnie Brewster
	Song and Dance Man	Julia Carroll
	15 Maiden Lane	Jane Martin
1937	Big Town Girl	Fay Loring
	Second Honeymoon	Marcia
	One Mile from Heaven	Lucy 'Tex' Warren
	King of Gamblers	Dixie Moore
	Time Out for Romance	Barbara Blanchard
	Dead End	Francey	Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
1938	Five of a Kind	Christine Nelson
	Valley of the Giants	Lee Roberts
	Walking Down Broadway	Joan Bradley
	The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse	Jo Keller
1939	Stagecoach	Dallas
	I Stole a Million	Laura Benson
	Allegheny Uprising	Janie MacDougall
1940	Dark Command	Miss Mary Cloud
1941	Texas	'Mike' King
1941	Honky Tonk	'Gold Dust' Nelson
1942	The Adventures of Martin Eden	Connie Dawson
	Crossroads	Michelle Allaine
	Street of Chance	Ruth Dillon
1943	The Woman of the Town	Dora Hand
	Good Luck, Mr. Yates	Ruth Jones
	The Desperadoes	Countess Maletta
1944	Murder, My Sweet	Mrs. Helen Grayle
1945	Johnny Angel	Lilah 'Lily' Gustafson
1946	The Bachelor's Daughters	Cynthia
1946	Crack-Up	Terry Cordell
1947	Born to Kill	Helen Trent
1948	Raw Deal	Pat Cameron
	The Velvet Touch	Marian Webster
	The Babe Ruth Story	Claire (Hodgson) Ruth
	Key Largo	Gaye Dawn	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
1949	The Lucky Stiff	Marguerite Seaton
1950	Borderline	Madeleine Haley, aka Gladys LaRue
1951	Best of the Badmen	Lily
1951	Hard, Fast and Beautiful	Millie Farley
1952	Stop, You're Killing Me	Nora Marko
	My Man and I	Mrs. Ansel Ames
	Hoodlum Empire	Connie Williams
1953	The Stranger Wore a Gun	Josie Sullivan
1954	The High and the Mighty	May Holst	Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
1955	Man Without a Star	Idonee
1955	Lucy Gallant	Lady MacBeth
1956	The Mountain	Marie
1958	Marjorie Morningstar	Rose Morgenstern
1962	Two Weeks in Another Town	Clara Kruger
1963	The Stripper	Helen Baird
1965	How to Murder Your Wife	Edna
1967	The Cape Town Affair	Sam Williams
1982	Kiss Me Goodbye	Charlotte Banning	Final film role
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1953	The Ford Television Theatre	Nora Hale	Season 2 Episode 14: Alias Nora Hale
1954	The Ford Television Theatre	Felicia Crandell	Season 3 Episode 7: The Summer Memory
	Lux Video Theatre	Ellen Creed	Season 5 Episode 16: Ladies in Retirement Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Single Performance
	General Electric Theater	Cora Leslie	Season 2 Episode 15: Foggy Night
1955	Lux Video Theatre	Mary Scott	Season 5 Episode 34: No Bad Songs for Me
1956	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars	Mary Hunter	Season 5 Episode 15: Fool Proof
	Producers' Showcase	Fran Dodsworth	Season 2 Episode 10: Dodsworth Primetime Emmy Award for Best Single Performance by an Actress
	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Mary Prescott	Season 1 Episode 21: Safe Conduct
1957	Playhouse 90	Elizabeth Owen	Season 1 Episode 28: If You Knew Elizabeth
1959	Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse	Savannah Brown	Season 1 Episode 11: Happy Hill
	Wagon Train	C.L. Harding	Season 3 Episode 3: The C.L. Harding Story
	The Untouchables	Kate Clark 'Ma' Barker	Season 1 Episode 2: Ma Barker and Her Boys
1961	The Investigators	Kitty Harper	Season 1 Episode 3: New Sound for the Blues
1961	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Mrs. Meade	Season 6 Episode 16: A Crime for Mothers
1962	Dr. Kildare	Veronica Johnson, Nurse	Season 2 Episode 12: The Bed I've Made
1983	The Love Boat	Nancy Fairchild	Season 7 Episode 13: The Misunderstanding/Love Below Decks/The End is Near
1987	Murder, She Wrote	Judith Harlan	Season 4 Episode 3: Witness for the Defense
1987	Breaking Home Times	Grace Porter	Television film

Radio appearances

Year	Program	Episode/source
1946	Suspense	"The Plan"
1946	Reader's Digest – Radio Edition	Two for a Penny^[14]
1949	Suspense	"The Light Switch"
1952	Hollywood Star Playhouse	Father's Day^[15]