Claire Trevor
Acting • Born 1910-03-08 – Died 2000-04-08
Biography
Claire Trevor (née Wemlinger; March 8, 1910 – April 8, 2000) was an American actress. She appeared in 65 feature films from 1933 to 1982, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Key Largo (1948), and received nominations for her roles in The High and the Mighty (1954) and Dead End (1937). Trevor received top billing, ahead of John Wayne, for Stagecoach (1939). Trevor's acting career spanned more than seven decades and included successes in stage, radio, television, and film. She often played the hard-boiled blonde, and every conceivable type of 'bad girl' role. She made her stage debut in the summer of 1929 with a repertory company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She subsequently returned to New York, where she appeared in a number of Brooklyn-filmed Vitaphone short films and performed in summer stock theatre. In 1932, she starred on Broadway as the female lead in Whistling in the Dark. Trevor made her film debut in Jimmy and Sally (1933). From 1933 to 1938, Trevor starred in 29 films, often having either the lead role or the role of heroine. In 1937, she was the second lead actress (after top-billed Sylvia Sidney) in Dead End, with Humphrey Bogart, which led to her nomination for Best Supporting Actress. From 1937 to 1940, she appeared with Edward G. Robinson in the popular radio series Big Town, while continuing to make movies. In the early 1940s, she also was a regular on The Old Gold Don Ameche Show on the NBC Red Radio Network, starring with Ameche in presentations of plays by Mark Hellinger. In 1939, she was well established as a solid leading lady. One of her more memorable performances during this period includes the Western Stagecoach (1939). Two of Trevor's most memorable roles were opposite Dick Powell in Murder, My Sweet (1944) and with Lawrence Tierney in Born to Kill (1947). In Key Largo (1948), Trevor played Gaye Dawn, a washed-up, alcoholic nightclub singer and gangster's moll. For that role, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her third and final Oscar nomination was for her performance in The High and the Mighty (1954). In 1957, she won an Emmy for her role in the Producers' Showcase episode entitled "Dodsworth". Trevor moved into supporting roles in the 1950s, with her appearances becoming very rare after the mid-1960s. She played Charlotte, the mother of Kay (Sally Field) in Kiss Me Goodbye (1982). Her final television role was for the 1987 television film, Norman Rockwell's Breaking Home Ties. Trevor made a guest appearance at the 70th Academy Awards in 1998. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard. [biography (excerpted) from Wikipedia]
Filmography
90 credits
Stagecoach
Movie • 1939
Dallas
Murder, My Sweet
Movie • 1944
Helen Grayle
Key Largo
Movie • 1948
Gaye Dawn
Baby Take a Bow
Movie • 1934
Kay Ellison
Hoodlum Empire
Movie • 1952
Connie Williams
How to Murder Your Wife
Movie • 1965
Edna
Marjorie Morningstar
Movie • 1958
Rose Morgenstern
Crack-Up
Movie • 1946
Terry Cordell
Raw Deal
Movie • 1948
Pat Cameron
Born to Kill
Movie • 1947
Helen Brent
Wild Gold
Movie • 1934
Jerry Jordan
Dead End
Movie • 1937
Francey
Dark Command
Movie • 1940
Miss Mary McCloud
The Velvet Touch
Movie • 1948
Marian Webster
Johnny Angel
Movie • 1945
Lilah 'Lily' Gustafson
Street of Chance
Movie • 1942
Ruth Dillon
Crossroads
Movie • 1942
Michelle Allaine
Man Without a Star
Movie • 1955
Idonee
The Stranger Wore a Gun
Movie • 1953
Josie Sullivan
The Cape Town Affair
Movie • 1967
Sam Williams
The Babe Ruth Story
Movie • 1948
Claire Hodgson Ruth
Allegheny Uprising
Movie • 1939
Janie MacDougall
Two Weeks in Another Town
Movie • 1962
Clara Kruger
I Stole a Million
Movie • 1939
Laura Benson
Borderline
Movie • 1950
Madeleine Haley
The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse
Movie • 1938
Jo Keller
The High and the Mighty
Movie • 1954
May Holst
Kiss Me Goodbye
Movie • 1982
Charlotte
Hard, Fast and Beautiful!
Movie • 1951
Millie Farley
Texas
Movie • 1941
Michael 'Mike' King
The Mountain
Movie • 1956
Marie
Stop, You're Killing Me
Movie • 1952
Nora Marko
The Desperadoes
Movie • 1943
Countess Maletta
Honky Tonk
Movie • 1941
"Gold Dust" Nelson
Best of the Badmen
Movie • 1951
Lily
Career Woman
Movie • 1936
Carroll Aiken
Lucy Gallant
Movie • 1955
Lady MacBeth
Good Luck, Mr. Yates
Movie • 1943
Ruth Jones
The Lucky Stiff
Movie • 1949
Marguerite Seaton
Dante's Inferno
Movie • 1935
Elizabeth "Betty" McWade Carter
Black Sheep
Movie • 1935
Janette Foster
One Mile from Heaven
Movie • 1937
Lucy 'Tex' Warren
15 Maiden Lane
Movie • 1936
Jane Martin
Second Honeymoon
Movie • 1937
Marcia
The Stripper
Movie • 1963
Helen Baird
Valley of the Giants
Movie • 1938
Lee Roberts
Spring Tonic
Movie • 1935
Betty Ingals
Five of a Kind
Movie • 1938
Christine Nelson
The Bachelor's Daughters
Movie • 1946
Cynthia Davis
The Woman of the Town
Movie • 1943
Dora Hand
The Mad Game
Movie • 1933
Jane Lee
Going Hollywood: The '30s
Movie • 1984
(archive footage)
My Man and I
Movie • 1952
Mrs. Elena Ames
Human Cargo
Movie • 1936
Bonnie Brewster
To Mary - with Love
Movie • 1936
Kitty Brant
Life in the Raw
Movie • 1933
Judy Halloway
The Adventures of Martin Eden
Movie • 1942
Connie Dawson
Song and Dance Man
Movie • 1936
Julia Carroll
Navy Wife
Movie • 1935
Vicky Blake
Time Out for Romance
Movie • 1937
Barbara Blanchard
Big Town Girl
Movie • 1937
Fay Loring
Hold That Girl
Movie • 1934
Tonie Bellamy
King of Gamblers
Movie • 1937
Dixie Moore
You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story
Movie • 2008
Self
The Last Trail
Movie • 1933
Patricia Carter
Star for a Night
Movie • 1936
Nina Lind
Jimmy and Sally
Movie • 1933
Sally Johnson
Elinor Norton
Movie • 1934
Elinor Norton
My Marriage
Movie • 1936
Carol Barton
Walking Down Broadway
Movie • 1938
Joan Bradley
A Star Is Born World Premiere
Movie • 1954
Self
Breaking Home Ties
Movie • 1987
Grace Porter
Sunkist Stars at Palm Springs
Movie • 1936
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
Movie • 2009
Self (archive footage)
If You Knew Elizabeth
Movie • 1957
Elizabeth Owen
General Electric Theater
TV • 1953
Cora Leslie
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
TV • 1955
Mary Prescott
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse
TV • 1958
Lux Video Theatre
TV • 1950
Ellen Creed
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
TV • 1951
Mary Hunter
Climax!
TV • 1954
Phyllis Talbot
Dr. Kildare
TV • 1961
Nurse Veronica Johnson
The Oscars
TV • 1953
Self
Wagon Train
TV • 1957
C.L. Harding
Lux Video Theatre
TV • 1950
Mary Scott
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
TV • 1955
Mrs. Meade
Murder, She Wrote
TV • 1984
Judith Harlan
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
TV • 1962
Self
The Merv Griffin Show
TV • 1962
Self
The Investigators
TV • 1961
Kitty Harper