Teresa Wright 1918-2005

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Author Message   LibraryLady(ncjanow) Supporter Username: Librarylady Post Number: 2279 Registered: 5-2001 Posted on Tuesday, March 8, 2005 - 8:57 am:        Columbia High School Hall of Fame R.I.P. Teresa March 8, 2005 Teresa Wright, Stage and Film Star, Dies at 86 By DOUGLAS MARTIN Teresa Wright, the high-minded ingénue who marshaled intelligence and spunk to avoid being typecast as another 1940's "sweater girl" and became the only actor to be nominated for Academy Awards for her first three films, died on Sunday at Yale-New Haven Hospital. She was 86. The cause was a heart attack, her daughter, Mary-Kelly Busch, said. Miss Wright had many parts on Broadway and once performed at a White House dinner for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but her meteoric landing in Hollywood in 1941 is the stuff of legend. After seeing her on Broadway, Samuel Goldwyn, the legendary producer, asked her to play the role of Bette Davis's daughter in "The Little Foxes" in 1941. Her performance in the film moved its director, William Wyler, to tell The New York Times that she was the most promising young actress he had ever directed. She proved his point by being nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress for the picture. The next year, she was nominated for best actress for her next role, opposite Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig's wife in "The Pride of the Yankees," and won the Oscar for best supporting actress as the love interest of Greer Garson's war-bound son in "Mrs. Miniver." Her work included a starring role in Wyler's "Best Years of Our Lives," winner of the best-picture Oscar in 1946; playing opposite Marlon Brando in his first movie, "The Men," in 1950; and creating the character of Charlie, the innocent but suspicious niece of a serial killer, in Alfred Hitchcock's harrowing "Shadow of a Doubt" in 1943. After the 1950's, she drifted away from movies and worked on the stage in roles like Linda Loman opposite George C. Scott's Willy in a 1975 Broadway production of "Death of a Salesman." She was nominated for three Emmy Awards for her dramatic roles on television and in 1997 appeared in a cinematic adaptation of John Grisham's "Rainmaker." For all her allure as the fetching "girl next door," Miss Wright fiercely fought not to be a glamour girl. She loathed pictures in bathing suits and interviews with fan magazines, and told Goldwyn as much. He assured her he was not of "the bathing suit school of Hollywood producers," according to The Times in 1942, and promised to promote her more ethereal talents. "There would be no leg art, no whispered romances for the columnists, no orchid and ermine setting for her background," her contract stipulated, according to The Times. But Miss Wright's disregard for Hollywood's demands eventually caused Goldwyn to terminate her contract, in 1948. In their highly publicized exchange, he said she was lax in publicizing her pictures. She said movies had become too brazenly commercial. "I was going to be Joan of Arc," she said in an interview with The New York Post in 1969, "and all I proved was that I was an actress who would work for less money." For her next picture, "The Men," instead of the $125,000 she had once commanded, she received $20,000, but her co-star was Marlon Brando. Muriel Teresa Wright was born on Oct. 27, 1918, in Manhattan. She dropped her first named in her early 20's when she found another Muriel Wright was already registered with Actors' Equity. Her parents separated soon after she was born, and her father, an insurance salesman, farmed her out to various relatives in New York and New Jersey. She did not start school until she was 8, and did not graduate from high school in Maplewood, N.J., until she was almost 20. She was inspired to become an actress by seeing Helen Hayes in "Victoria Regina" on Broadway while still a student. She played leading parts in high school plays, but a teacher told her to stick with typing. Another teacher helped her get a scholarship to the Wharf Theater in Provincetown, Mass., the summer of her junior year. That led to summer stock work, an understudy role on Broadway in "Our Town" and, in 1939, the part of Mary in "Life With Father," based on the memoirs of Clarence Day. After seeing it, Goldwyn went backstage to hire her. Miss Wright was married for 10 years to Niven Busch, a screenwriter and novelist. She married the playwright Robert Anderson in 1959, and they divorced in the early 1970's. Ms. Busch, Miss Wright's daughter, said the two remained close. In addition to her daughter, who lives in Clinton, Conn., Miss Wright is survived by her son, Niven Perence Busch of Indianapolis, and two grandchildren. In 1998, Miss Wright was asked to throw the first pitch at a Yankees game in honor of the anniversary of Lou Gehrig's famous farewell speech to fans in 1939, the climax of "Pride of the Yankees." She said it was her first game. But after years of ignoring baseball, she then became a fervent fan herself, raptly following the Yankees on television and at their stadium. "The whole thing is pure theater to me," she explained.   Hank Zona Citizen Username: Hankzona Post Number: 2091 Registered: 3-2002 Posted on Tuesday, March 8, 2005 - 9:13 am:        I got to see her on Broadway in 1991 in "On Borrowed Time", opposite George C. Scott and also featuring a soon to bust out Nathan Lane. She came off as very natural, especially sharing the stage with a couple of very strong acting personalities. My wife, a Maplewood native and Columbia grad, pointed out to me that night that Teresa Wright had gone to Columbia HS.   Pizzaz Citizen Username: Pizzaz Post Number: 1599 Registered: 11-2001 Posted on Tuesday, March 8, 2005 - 10:05 am:        For those who don't recall, here's a picture of Teresa Wright. May she find everlasting peace.   mtierney Citizen Username: Mtierney Post Number: 794 Registered: 3-2001 Posted on Tuesday, March 8, 2005 - 12:22 pm:        Shadow of a Doubt with Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotton has to be the best scary movie ever IMHO - all done without a drop of onscreen bloodletting or four letter words! Alfred Hitchcock at the top of his form.   mb3303 Citizen Username: Mb3303 Post Number: 120 Registered: 2-2002 Posted on Tuesday, March 8, 2005 - 4:04 pm:        http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/03/08/obit.wright.ap/index.html NOTE THE MENTION OF MAPLEWOOD AND COLUMBIA HS   tabby Citizen Username: Tabby Post Number: 182 Registered: 8-2001 Posted on Tuesday, March 8, 2005 - 9:30 pm:        Her 2 most famous roles: Mrs. Lou Gehrig-who can forget the camera on her face during his speech?? and in The Best Years of Our Lives, again ,so much emotion without saying a word.   galileo Citizen Username: Galileo Post Number: 174 Registered: 7-2001 Posted on Tuesday, March 8, 2005 - 11:31 pm:        Teresa Wright always contributed to the CHS Alumni Association.Just a few years ago she attended their annual meeting.She came out on the train and walked to the high school.A friend of mine was there and said she was quite ignored. Maybe she wanted it that way.W#hen it was time to leave my friend gave her a ride to the station and saw that she got safely on the train. I would love to have seen her.She was a great actress.Mildred Memory,a CHS teacher who started the Parnassium Society influenced her a great deal.