Jean Arthur: The Actress Nobody Knew

by John Oller

Book Overview

The luminous star of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Shane, and other classic films was, as the subtitle aptly puts it, "the actress nobody knew." Jean Arthur (1900-91) kept her personal life private, disdained the Hollywood publicity machine, and was called "difficult" because of her perfectionism and remoteness from costars on the movie set. John Oller, a lawyer, tracked down kinsfolk and friends never before interviewed to capture the elusive personality...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0879102780
• ISBN13: 9780879102784
• Release Date: August 2004
• Publisher: Limelight
• Length: 388 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

The last word on the great Jean Arthur

Jean Arthur would seem to be an impossible subject for a biography. The actress, who died in 1991 at the age of 90, was so reclusive she made Garbo look like a party doll. Interviews exist, but not many; fan magazine profiles inevitably puzzled over her, disgusted by an actress who refused to promote her own career. Her autograph is probably rarer than Garbo's, and she left little in the way of writings, no diaries and not much correspondence. Her stage career was based more on quality than quantity, consisting of a mere 17 appearances, some of which were in plays that closed after a single performance. Fortunately for author John Oller, Arthur made a substantial number of films (89) and, more importantly in trying to unravel this tricky subject, she made a strong impression -- negative, positive, sometimes both -- on practically everybody she encountered, from fellow actors to her stage and film directors to students in her teaching classes to secretaries and stage hands. They've provided Oller with a wealth of history and anecdotal detail. What emerges is a surprisingly detailed, highly readable account of a complex woman whose integrity and perfectionism -- and sometimes pettiness and even arrogance -- both fueled her work and undermined it at almost every turn. Arthur's high reputation persists on the basis of stage triumphs in Peter Pan and other plays, and supremely of unforgettable performances in screwball comedies like George Stevens's The More the Merrier, Capra films like Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and You Can't Take It with You, and Borzage's dreamy History Is Made at Night. Behind her luminous face and trademark husky voice, according to Oller, was a woman tormented by self-doubt and neurosis who could be charming one minute and a harridan the next. These qualities surfaced quite early in her career before she developed her loathing of the fan magazines. In 1928 she told an interviewer, "I'm hard-boiled now. I don't expect anything" -- harsh words indeed for "a girl of 20," as she said she was. (She was actually 28; like most stars, Arthur wasn't above lying about her age.) Each rejection -- and there were many early on -- was accompanied by crying jags and nervous fits that would only get worse as time went on. Arthur's early films must have been difficult for the highly intelligent, well-read, sophisticated woman Oller portrays; they were mostly horse operas and slapstick comedies, along with walk-ons in bigger pictures. Hollywood didn't know how to use her at first: in Paramount on Parade (1930), the musically ungifted actress performed two numbers. But Arthur's striking personality shone through by the early 1930s, and she gave memorable performances in a series of films that are remembered today as much for her presence as anything else. In spite of consistent success and critical raves, though, she continued to struggle with anxiety. Capra says she threw up before and after every scene in one of his films (in an inspired phrase

Sad story

This is a well written but sad story of a woman's life. Jean Arthur (Gladys Greene) never managed to fit in anywhere. Not Hollywood, not teaching, not the theater, not family. She left a glittering film legacy, but I just felt sad for her. Full of energy, full of life, yet so alone.

NEGLECTED STAR GETS STAR TREATMENT AT LAST

It would appear that writing a compelling, readable, and entertaining biography is a daunting task. So many are dry, filled with facts and dates of little interest, or just plain dull. The difference here is that John Oller can actually WRITE. Ms. Arthur is, without doubt, one of the sorely neglected stars of any era. Her comic genius in "The More The Merrier" alone would merit a critical gushing today if anyone in the 21st century had even a modicum of the lady's superb timing and class. That she has appeared in several other classics (perhaps most notably "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington") certainly warrants a full scale biography and Mr. Oller succeeds brilliantly. The notoriously private Ms. Arthur is not painted as arch nor perverse; simply a woman with a different take on life and Hollywood. She saw there was more to life than glamour and makeup (even attending college during career lulls)and her 'eccentric' personality becomes all the more endearing under Mr. Oller's critical, yet always fair, judgments. The book isn't overstuffed with facts and dates; just what is needed. I wish all biographers would realize that sometimes less is, indeed, more. Highly recommended.

TO JOHN OLLER WE GIVE THANKS

I had waited impatiently for almost 30 years for someone to tackle a biography of Jean Arthur, one of my favorite actresses and one of the brightest comediennes of the '30s and '40s. In my youthful naivete, seeing that nobody seemed interested in the project, I thought about taking on the job myself. Thank goodness I waited for John Oller to write his book instead! There's no way that anyone could have done a better job with this most reclusive and challenging of subjects. Even during her heyday, Ms. Arthur was an extremely private person--"America's Garbo," as she was called--and in the final decades of her life, snubbed all efforts from outsiders seeking autographs or interviews about her glorious past. It may seem faint praise to call Mr. Oller's book a definitive biography when it is the ONLY one to have ever been written, but I just don't see how anyone will ever gain more access to Jean Arthur information than he has presented here. Oller has taken the time to interview dozens of Arthur's friends and family members, as well as associates from her film and stage careers and from her various teaching posts. The book is remarkably evenhanded. Arthur was apparently a very complex person, with lots of insecurities and neuroses that made her somewhat of a problem to work with. (I'm trying to be kind here.) Oller clearly thinks the world of the actress, but at the same time doesn't shrink from telling us when a producer or neighbor had something rotten to say of her. And when Oller runs into an area where the evidence leads to no clear result (such as the case of Arthur's possible bisexuality), he gives us the facts as well as can be known and leaves it at that. The book is anything but sensationalistic. This biography traces Arthur's roots all the way back to the 13th century (!) but at the same time does not get bogged down in needless verbiage. It moves swiftly along; indeed, I almost found myself wishing that Oller would devote more space to some of my favorite Arthur movies. One would think that the most interesting segment of this actress' story would be the great Hollywood years, but as it turned out, the latter portion of the book, dealing with Arthur's life after Hollywood, was even more interesting. Oller takes us on a trip through Arthur's stage career, her life as a student and teacher, and her reclusive final years in Carmel, CA. It's all fascinating material, especially for fans of the actress who were never privy to any of this stuff before. The author writes well; it's hard to believe that this biography is his first book. By reading closely and looking at the notes at the rear of this work, one deduces that Mr. Oller spent the better part of a decade on this project...and the results have paid off extremely well. That said, I should also note that there ARE some small problems with the book; some minor mistakes that a close reading reveals. For example, there are some errors as regards dates. Oller writes that Arthur's play

At last -- a biography for those of us who love Jean Arthur

A very well written and extremely thorough biography of one of the best and brightest stars of the 1930s and early 1940s. The enigma of Jean Arthur -- why she retired at the height of her career during World War Two -- is answered, and the answer offers a fascinating character study of value not only to those of us who love Miss Arthur but to anyone interested in gifted people and in the struggle of a woman attempting to exercise power in the form of self-determination in a male-dominated world. The book also offers an excellent inside view of the film industry and the Broadway theater of the 1940s and 1950s.