Biography: Celeste Holm

Celeste Holm (born April 29, 1917) is an American stage, film, and television actress, perhaps best remembered for her Academy Award-winning performance in Gentleman's Agreement (1947), as well as for her Oscar-nominated performance in All About Eve (1950).

Biography

Early life

Born in New York City, Holm grew up in Long Valley, New Jersey as an only child. Her mother, Jean Parke, was an American portrait artist and author, while her father, Theodor Holm, was a Norwegian insurance adjuster for Lloyd's of London. Holm studied acting at the University of Chicago before becoming a stage actress in the late 1930s following a brief first marriage, which produced her first child, son Ted Nelson.

Career

Holm's first professional theatrical role was in a production of Hamlet starring Leslie Howard. Holm's first major Broadway part was as Mary L. in William Saroyan's 1940 revival of The Time of Your Life co-starring fellow newcomer Gene Kelly (her first role on Broadway was actually a small part in 1938 comedy Gloriana, which lasted 5 performances). However, the role which got her the most recognition from critics and audiences alike was her portrayal of Ado Annie in the flagshi production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! in 1943.

After she starred in the Broadway production of Bloomer Girl, 20th Century Fox signed Holm to a movie contract in 1946, and in her first two years as a film actress Holm cemented herself immediately as a formidable performer, especially when she won an Oscar and Golden Globe for best supporting actress in Gentleman's Agreement. After her famous performance in All About Eve, however, Holm realized she preferred live theater to movie work, and took on very few film roles over the following decade. The most successful of these were the comedy The Tender Trap (1955) and the musical High Society (1956), both co-starring Holm with Frank Sinatra. Holm starred in the TV series Honestly, Celeste! (1954-1955) and was a panelist on Who Pays? (1959). She starred as a reporter in an unsold television show pilot called The Celeste Holm Show in 1958, based on the book No Facilities for Women.

In 1965, she starred alongside Lesley Ann Warren as the Fairy Godmother in the CBS television production of Cinderella. In 1970 and '71 she was featured on NBC-TV's "Nancy". During the 1970s and 1980s, Holm returned more fully to screen acting, with roles in films such as Tom Sawyer, Three Men and a Baby and in television series (often as a guest star) such as Columbo and Falcon Crest. In the 1990s, Holm was a series regular on the ABC soap opera Loving as Isabella Alden #2 (1991-1992) and the CBS primetime series Promised Land (1996-1999).

In 1983, Holm starred in a London revival of Lady in the Dark.

Celeste Holm has received many honors in her lifetime: the 1968 Sarah Siddons Award for distinguished achievement in Chicago theatre; she was appointed to the National Arts Council by then-President Ronald Reagan, knighted by King Olav of Norway, and inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1992. She remains active for social causes as a spokesperson for UNICEF, and for occasional professional engagements.

Private life

Holm's first marriage was to Ralph Nelson around 1938. Their son, Ted Nelson, is the co-creator of Hypertext.

She married Francis E. Davies, a Roman Catholic for whom she was received into the Roman Catholic church for the purposes of their 1940 wedding. They divorced shortly thereafter.

From 1946 until 1952, she was married to airline executive A. Schuyler Dunning, with whom she had a second son, Daniel Dunning.

Holm was married to fellow actor Wesley Addy from 1966 until his death in 1996. It was by far her longest marriage. They had no children. They played a married couple on Loving.

On April 29, 2004, on her 87th birthday she married opera singer Frank Basile.

In 2006, Holm was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the SunDeis Film Festival at Brandeis University.

Filmography

• Three Little Girls in Blue (1946)
• Carnival in Costa Rica (1947)
• Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
• Road House (1948)
• The Snake Pit (1948)
• Chicken Every Sunday (1949)
• A Letter to Three Wives (1949) (voice only)
• Come to the Stable (1949)
• Everybody Does It (1949)
• Champagne for Caesar (1950)
• All About Eve (1950)
• The Tender Trap (1955)
• High Society (1956)
• Bachelor Flat (1962)
• Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding! (1967)
• Tom Sawyer (1973)
• Bittersweet Love (1976)
• The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977)
• Three Men and a Baby (1987)
• Still Breathing (1997)
• Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There (2003) (documentary)
• Alchemy (2005)

Upcoming:

• Driving Me Crazy (2009)
• Four Fags in a Fabulous Car (2009)

References

1. Staff writers (1952-05-12). "Births, deaths, marriages, divorces", Time. Retrieved on 15 May 2008. 
2. Jones, Kenneth (2004-04-30). "December Bride: Shocking Guests, Celeste Holm Marries Beau at 85th Birthday Party", Playbill. 
3. "SunDeis 2006". SunDeis Film Festival web site. Archived from the original on 2006-09-10. Retrieved on 2007-10-29.