All Movies List
The Two Mrs. Grenvilles

as Alice Grenville

1987
The Two Mrs. Grenvilles

as Alice Grenville

1987
Blithe Spirit

as Ruth Condomine

1956
Texas Lady

as Prudence Webb

1955
Let's Make It Legal

as Miriam Halsworth

1951
The Secret Fury

as Ellen Ewing

1950
Three Came Home

as Agnes Newton Keith

1950
Sleep, My Love

as Alison Courtland

1948
The Egg and I

as Betty MacDonald

1947
Tomorrow Is Forever

as Elizabeth Hamilton

1946
Guest Wife

as Mary Price

1945
Since You Went Away

as Mrs. Anne Hilton

1944
So Proudly We Hail

as Lt. Janet 'Davy' Davidson

1943
The Palm Beach Story

as Geraldine 'Gerry' Jeffers

1942
Remember the Day

as Nora Trinell

1941
Skylark

as Lydia Kenyon

1941
Boom Town

as Betsy Bartlett

1940
Arise, My Love

as Augusta Nash

1940
Midnight

as Eve Peabody

1939
It's a Wonderful World

as Edwina Corday

1939
Drums Along the Mohawk

as Lana (Magdelana)

1939
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife

as Nicole De Loiselle

1938
Tovarich

as Grand Duchess Tatiana Petrovna Romanov

1937
I Met Him in Paris

as Kay Denham

1937
Under Two Flags

as Cigarette

1936
The Gilded Lily

as Marilyn David

1935
She Married Her Boss

as Julia Scott

1935
It Happened One Night

as Ellie Andrews

1934
Cleopatra

as Cleopatra

1934
Claudette Colbert Claudette Colbert

Birthday

1903-09-13

Place of Birth

Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne, France

Biography

Claudette Colbert was born in Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne, France on September 13, 1903 and was brought to the United States as a child three years later. Born Emilie 'Lily' Claudette Chauchoin, she went to high school in New York. She was studying at the Art Students League when, in 1923, she took the name Claudette Colbert for her first Broadway role in "The Wild Westcotts". Her most noteworthy stage vehicle was the "The Barker" in 1927. Her first film was a silent For the Love of Mike (1927), directed by Frank Capra. Made on a shoestring, the movie was a flop, and she vowed that it would be her last film role: "I only left Broadway when the crash came. The Depression killed the theater, and the pictures were manna from heaven". She had her first film success the next year, however, in The Lady Lies (1929). Her early notable films were all box-office hits and included Cleopatra (1934), in which she played the title role enticingly. She had her greatest triumph playing a runaway heiress, with enormous charm, opposite Clark Gable in Capra's comedy It Happened One Night (1934), for which she won the Academy Award as Best Actress. By 1938 her keen ability in business made her the highest paid star in Hollywood. By 1950, though, her star had begun to wane. She returned to the stage in 1956 when she replaced Margaret Sullavan during the spring and summer in the comedy "Janus". Appearances in other Broadway productions followed, including "The Marriage-Go-Round". Besides the stage, she did TV specials and had a supporting role in a notable TV movie, The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987), for which she received a Golden Globe award. In 1989 she was presented with a Life Achievement award from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She married actor Norman Foster in 1928, although they never lived together and were divorced after seven years. She married surgeon Dr. Joel Pressman soon after and remained married until his death in 1968. In latter years she divided her time between an apartment in New York and a 200-year-old plantation house in Speightstown, Barbados, where she entertained such guests as Frank Sinatra and Ronald Reagan. She remained on Barbados Island after her stroke. On July 30, 1996, Claudette died in Speightstown, Barbados. She was 92.
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