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1 | At the same time she left Dallas (1978), she had no choice other than to sell her 200-year-old farmhouse in upstate New York. [1990]. |
2 | Long lives ran in her family. |
3 | Really hated to discuss her acting days. |
4 | Really hated to talk about the theater and/or films. |
5 | Created the role of Miss Ellie Ewing on Dallas (1978). |
6 | In 1927, when Bel Geddes was only 4, her father, Norman Bel Geddes, opened an industrial-design studio, and designed a wide range of commercial products, from cocktail shakers to commemorative medallions to radio cabinets. |
7 | Was often admired by Larry Hagman, who became a fan of hers, since he was a teenager. |
8 | Had signed a contract with Paramount in 1958. |
9 | Lifelong friend of Barry Nelson. |
10 | After four movies, Howard Hughes, who had bought control of RKO in 1948, dropped her contract because 'she wasn't sexy enough.'. |
11 | In 1945, Bel Geddes made a splash on Broadway at 22, with her first important role in "Deep Are the Roots," winning the New York Drama Critics Award as Best Actress. |
12 | On Dallas (1978), her original TV husband (Jim Davis) had died in a plane crash, after his character was down in South America drilling for oil, in real-life, she lost Davis herself, to multiple myeloma, the year after Season 5 was about to go in production. |
13 | Carcinoma ran in her family. |
14 | When Bel Geddes was growing up, in New York, she was always fascinated by actors and directors and all theatre people. |
15 | Was the most difficult star to be interviewed. |
16 | Rented a brownstone duplex in Manhattan. |
17 | On Dallas (1978), her character had lost her TV husband. In real-life she lost her husband before the show began. |
18 | After herself, her ex-Dallas (1978) co-star, Howard Keel, also underwent open heart surgery. She was also the only person and the only reason why she'd been an inspiration to him, after her own surgery went so successful. |
19 | Barbara Bel Geddes passed away on August 8, 2005, at age 82; and within five months of three other legends, who were born in 1923, aged 82: Hank Stram, Jean Carson and Don Adams. |
20 | She was most widely known to be a very private lady. |
21 | Began working on Dallas (1978) when she was age 55. |
22 | Lived in Los Angeles, California, from 1947 to 1951, and again from 1958 to 1962. |
23 | Her father Norman Bel Geddes staged more than 200 plays. |
24 | Bel Geddes received the prestigious Woman of the Year Award by Hasty Pudding Theatricals USA, America's oldest theater company in 1952. |
25 | She did not participate in the Dallas Reunion: Return to Southfork (2004) because she was too ill to attend. She delivered a telegram to the cast. She died the following year. |
26 | Served as honorary chairperson and enthusiastic supporter of Lifeline for Wildlife, Inc., a nonprofit organization founded in 1978, by her daughter, Betsy Lewis. |
27 | Left acting temporarily to take care of her ailing husband, Windsor Lewis. Lewis died in 1972. |
28 | Was David Jacobs's first and only choice for the female starring role as Miss Ellie Ewing on Dallas (1978). She accepted the job only because she was flat broke, much due in part of her savings after her husband's death, six years earlier. |
29 | Lived in a farm house, in Ellenville, New York, from 1962 to 1990. |
30 | Although her income from Dallas (1978) should have been enough to leave her financially secure, a $9 million lawsuit against her agent forced her to file for bankruptcy. |
31 | Played Larry Hagman's mother on Dallas (1978), in real-life, Bel Geddes was 9 years Hagman's senior. |
32 | Acting mentor and friends of Patrick Duffy, Victoria Principal, Steve Kanaly and Charlene Tilton. |
33 | She commuted from her farm house in New York to Los Angeles every weekend for 13 years while starring in Dallas (1978). |
34 | At a young age, she spent a lot of time with her father, who was involved in hundreds of theater productions in many capacities. |
35 | When she left Dallas (1978) in 1984, her co-star Larry Hagman suggested that his real-life mother Mary Martin replaced her in the same role, when Bel Geddes was temporarily replaced by Donna Reed. |
36 | Bel Geddes was the only cast member of the original Dallas (1978) series to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, as well as a Golden Globe Award. |
37 | She had the following animals: ducks, geese, fish, turtles and goats. |
38 | In the book "Dallas: The Complete Story of the World's Favorite Prime-Time Soap" by Barbara A. Curran, producer Leonard Katzman said that at the time no one was looking for big-name actors. When asked what attracted her to the young serial, the actress said: "I needed a job and I needed to make some money.". |
39 | Life Magazine named her 'Hollywood's Most Attractive New Star' on April 12, 1948. |
40 | Began her career as a contract player for RKO Pictures in 1946. |
41 | Received the Theatre World Award and the Clarence Derwent Award in 1946 for her first mature performance in Deep Are the Roots, directed by Elia Kazan. |
42 | Worked with Patrick Duffy's wife's (Carolyn Rosser) father in her first Broadway play, The Moon is Blue. Patrick Duffy later played her youngest son in the long-running series Dallas (1978). |
43 | Before she was a successful actress, she alongside an experienced actress, Carol Goodner, once did a commercial for Lux Soap, in Bel Geddes's early career. |
44 | Had appeared in nearly each and every episode of Dallas (1978), for 6 1/2 yrs, until 1983 when she suffered a heart attack, and left temporarily in 1984. The following year, she came back, a second time, who appeared in nearly every show, until she left, for good, in 1990, to enjoy her quiet retirement. |
45 | Theater ran in her family. |
46 | Survived by 2 daughters and 3 grandchildren. |
47 | Was a spokesperson for Campbell's Soup Products in 1985. |
48 | She died only 9 months after her Dallas (1978) co-star Howard Keel. |
49 | Was a breast cancer survivor. |
50 | Went into semi-retirement in the late 1960s to take care of her dying husband. |
51 | Had appeared in her first movie at age 24. |
52 | Her parents were separated when she was only 4, she, her father and her sister moved to Millburn, New Jersey. |
53 | Her hobbies included spending time with family, dining, gardening, painting, drawing, traveling and taking care of farm animals. |
54 | When she attended Putney School, she had displayed no dramatic talent whatsoever. |
55 | Met her first husband, Carl Schreuer, after failing to get a contract for movie roles. |
56 | Was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame, located in the Gershwin Theatre in New York City, in 1993, a distinction she shared with her father, stage and industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes. |
57 | Was referred by Dallas (1978)'s co-stars, Larry Hagman's and Patrick Duffy's characters to both call her 'Mama.'. |
58 | Like her father, Bel Geddes was also born in New York. |
59 | Upon her death, she was cremated and her ashes were scattered from a simple wooden boat into the harbor waters bordering her home. |
60 | She and the rest of her Dallas (1978) cast, attended the funeral of her one-time co-star and best friend, Jim Davis, on 1 May 1981. |
61 | Her father married twice more, just before Norman's death in 1958. |
62 | Before her first birthday, her father's revolutionary vision as a set designer led to a pivotal collaboration with Max Rheinhardt in the theatrical production of 'The Miracle.'. |
63 | Stepmother, Edith Lutyens Bel Geddes died on August 16, 2002, at age 95. |
64 | Her parents were originally from both Michigan and Ohio. |
65 | Her older sister, Joan, died on September 4, 2001, at age 84. Her sister worked worked in a 4-year stint as a researcher and theatrical assistant for their father. |
66 | Followed in her father's and her sister's footsteps in becoming an author. |
67 | Her last name 'Bel Geddes' was described as a theatrical flourish, while another called it 'an act of prehistoric feminism.'. |
68 | Her parents, Norman Bel Geddes and Helen (Belle) Sneider, were married in Toledo, Ohio, in 1916, almost 7 years before they had her. |
69 | Her mother died when she was only age 15, at that time, she moved in with her father in Putney, Vermont. |
70 | Friends with: Shirley Jones, Jane Wyman, Betty Grable, Larry Hagman, Jim Davis, Howard Keel, Ken Kercheval, Linda Gray, David Jacobs, Leonard Katzman, Marlon Brando and his sister Jocelyn Brando, Elia Kazan, Tennessee Williams, George Kennedy, Priscilla Pointer, Julie Harris, Barry Nelson, Dennis Patrick, Betty Hutton, Frances Bergen, Ellen Corby, Conrad Bachmann, Harry Guardino, Charles McGraw, Alfred Hitchcock, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Alexis Smith, Dale Robertson, Martha Scott, David Wayne, Don Porter, Steve Forrest, Richard Basehart, Frank Faylen, Keenan Wynn, Maureen O'Hara and Paul Douglas. |
71 | After her long role on Dallas (1978), she retired from acting at age 67. |
72 | Graduated from Andrewbrook, an all-girls French convent school, in Tarrytown, New York, in 1940. |
73 | Left Dallas (1978) at the end of the seventh season, due to health problems. She came back at the beginning of the ninth season until she retired from acting in 1990. |
74 | She did not appear in two Dallas (1978) reunion movies, nor Dallas Reunion: Return to Southfork (2004), just the year before her death. |
75 | Of Scottish-German ancestry by her father. |
76 | Before she was a successful actress, she used to work at a summer stock as an apprentice in Clinton, Connecticut. |
77 | Like her ex-Dallas (1978) co-star, Larry Hagman, Bel Geddes was also a heavy smoker for years, which eventually lead to her heart attack, decades before being diagnosed with lung cancer, which claimed her life. |
78 | She attended Putney School, a private school in Putney, Vermont. |
79 | Made her Broadway debut when she was 18. |
80 | Best remembered by the public for her starring role as Miss Ellie Ewing Farlow on Dallas (1978). |
81 | Prior to her retirement, she was the best-selling author of 2 children's books. |
82 | Was the first and only choice to audition for the role of Miss Ellie Ewing on Dallas (1978). |
83 | Her future Dallas (1978) co-star's, Patrick Duffy's father-in-law, worked with her father Norman Bel Geddes, long before Duffy's future wife saw her in a Broadway play. |
84 | A longtime smoker, she was forced to quit by her doctors after her heart attack in March 1984. |
85 | Was twice nominated for Broadway's best dramatic actress Tony Award: in 1956 for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and in 1961 for Mary, Mary. |
86 | She played the lead in Mary, Mary on Broadway. Debbie Reynolds garnered the role in the Hollywood film version - Mary, Mary (1963). |
87 | She played the showgirl in The Sleeping Prince on Broadway. Marilyn Monroe garnered the role in the Hollywood film version - The Prince and the Showgirl (1957). |
88 | Operated on for breast cancer in 1971/72, and relived the experience in Dallas (1978) when Miss Ellie underwent a mastectomy. |
89 | Spent her retirement years in Northeast Harbor, Maine up until her death. |
90 | Designed stationery for Caspari and Crane in her retirement years. |
91 | Grandmother of: Samantha, Hannah, Joshua, Maggie, and Oliver. |
92 | At age 16 she was kicked out of the fancy Putney Finishing School in New England for being a disruptive influence. |
93 | Stepdaughter of famous theatrical costumer designer Edith Lutyens-Bel Geddes |
94 | Daughter of stage designer/art director Norman Bel Geddes and Helen Belle Sneider Geddes. |
95 | Mother of: Susan and Betsy. |
96 | She played Maggie the Cat in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Elizabeth Taylor garnered the role in the Hollywood film version - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)). |
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