Donna Reed
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Donna Reed | |
| Birth name | Donnabelle Mullenger |
| Born | January 27, 1921 Denison, Iowa  United States |
| Died | January 14, 1986 age 64 Beverly Hills, California |
| Notable roles | Donna Stone on The Donna Reed Show, Mary Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life |
| Academy Awards | |
|---|---|
| Best Supporting Actress 1953 From Here to Eternity |
|
Donna Reed (January 27, 1921 - January 14, 1986) was an Academy Award-winning American actress.
Contents |
[edit] Early life
Ms. Reed was born Donnabelle Mullenger on a farm near Denison, Iowa. Her parents are William Richard Mullenger (whose paternal grandparents were born in England) and Hazel Jane Shives .One of her nephews, Todd Mullenger, is treasurer at Corrections Corporation of America. His sons are Matt Mullenger and Andrew Mullenger.
[edit] Career
Reed is probably best remembered for her roles as the wholesome housewife "Donna Stone" on television's The Donna Reed Show and as "Mary Bailey" in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946). She won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing a prostitute in From Here to Eternity (1953).
Donna Reed was the mother of four children (two with husband Tony Owen, and two adopted with Owen). She was committed to both motherhood and gender equality. In 1967, in opposition to the Vietnam War, she co-founded Another Mother for Peace.
In her later years she temporarily replaced an ailing Barbara Bel Geddes as "Miss Ellie" in the television series Dallas in the 1984-1985 season. When Bel Geddes was well enough to return to the role, Reed was fired. She sued the show's production company and received an undisclosed seven-figure settlement, but this settlement came shortly before her death from cancer.
[edit] Death
She died on January 14, 1986, at age 64 in Beverly Hills, California from pancreatic cancer, and was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.
The Donna Reed Foundation for the Performing Arts, based in Reed's hometown of Denison, was organized after Reed's death in 1986. The non-profit organization grants scholarships for performing arts students, runs an annual festival of performing arts workshops, and operates The Donna Reed Center for the Performing Arts. The performing arts center was formerly an opera house built in 1914, and later renovated into the Ritz Movie Theater where Donna Reed, as a young girl in Denison, first fell in love with movies.
[edit] Filmography
- The Get-Away (1941)
- Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
- Babes on Broadway (1941)
- Personalities (1942) (short subject)
- The Bugle Sounds (1942)
- The Courtship of Andy Hardy (1942)
- Mokey (1942)
- Calling Dr. Gillespie (1942)
- Apache Trail (1942)
- Eyes in the Night (1942)
- The Human Comedy (1943)
- Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case (1943)
- The Man from Down Under (1943)
- Thousands Cheer (1943)
- See Here, Private Hargrove (1944)
- Gentle Annie (1944)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
- They Were Expendable (1945)
- Faithful in My Fashion (1946)
- It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
- Green Dolphin Street (1947)
- Beyond Glory (1948)
- Chicago Deadline (1949)
- Screen Actors (1950) (short subject)
- Saturday's Hero (1951)
- Scandal Sheet (1952)
- Hangman's Knot (1952)
- Trouble Along the Way (1953)
- USSR Today (1953) (documentary)
- Raiders of the Seven Seas (1953)
- From Here to Eternity (1953; Best Supporting Actress Academy Award)
- The Caddy (1953)
- Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Laugh Parade (1953) (short subject)
- Gun Fury (1953)
- They Rode West (1954)
- Three Hours to Kill (1954)
- The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954)
- The Far Horizons (1955)
- The Benny Goodman Story (1955)
- Ransom! (1956)
- Backlash (1956)
- Beyond Mombasa (1956)
- The Whole Truth (1958)
- Pepe (1960) (Cameo)
- Yellow-Headed Summer (1974)
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Gloria Grahame for The Bad and the Beautiful |
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress 1953 for From Here to Eternity |
Succeeded by Eva Marie Saint for On the Waterfront |
