Where is Jean Arthur now? Relationship, Net Worth, Salary

Known for movies

Short Info

Died	June 19, 1991, Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, United States
Spouse	Frank Ross, Julian Aster Ancker
Mark	She was often cast as independent "career women" when many actress were restricted to playing housewives, damsel in distress or femme fatales
Fact	Quit movies at the height of her career in 1944, following an Oscar nomination and while still Columbia Pictures' top female box-office attraction. She appeared in only two more films, for Oscar-winning directors Billy Wilder (A Foreign Affair (1948)) and George Stevens (Shane (1953)). According to John Oller's biography "Jean Arthur: The Actress Nobody Knew" (1997), Arthur was a shy person who came to loathe making movies, having developed a kind of stage fright (something not uncommon in even great and accomplished actors; Laurence Olivier said he developed stage fright in 1964, while playing in "Othello," after 40 years on stage) that made acting in movies agony for her. After she quit movies, she tried to make a go at a stage career, being part of the original cast of "Born Yesterday," but she dropped out during previews and was replaced by Judy Holliday. She later gave television a crack in the mid-'60s, but the The Jean Arthur Show (1966) was canceled after half a season.
Payments	Earned $700 from Horse Shoes (1927)

Jean Arthur was born on October 17, 1900, in Plattsburgh, New York, to Luther Greene and Elizabeth Lottie Hartt Greene. Her father was a businessman and her mother was a housewife. She had two brothers and two sisters. Arthur was educated at the Plattsburgh High School and the Clinton Liberal Institute. She began her career as a stage actress in 1919. In 1923, she made her Broadway debut in the play “The Green Goddess”.

Arthur’s film career began in 1924 with the silent film “The White Sister”. Her first talking film was “The Whole Town’s Talking” (1930). Arthur’s most famous films include “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” (1936), “You Can’t Take It With You” (1938), and “The More the Merrier” (1943). She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in “Mr.

Smith Goes to Washington” (1939). Arthur retired from films in 1944. She made a comeback in the 1950s with the television series “The Jean Arthur Show” (1953-1954). Arthur died of natural causes on June 19, 1991, at the age of 90. ..

General Info

Full Name	Jean Arthur
Died	June 19, 1991, Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, United States
Height	1.6 m
Profession	Actor
Nationality	American

Family

Spouse	Frank Ross, Julian Aster Ancker
Parents	Hubert Sidney Greene, Johanna Augusta Nelson
Siblings	Donald Hubert Greene, Robert B. Greene, Albert Sidney Greene

Accomplishments

Nominations	Academy Award for Best Actress
Movies	Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, The More the Merrier, You Can't Take It with You, Shane, Only Angels Have Wings, A Foreign Affair, The Talk of the Town, The Whole Town's Talking, The Plainsman, The Devil and Miss Jones, Easy Living, History Is Made at Night, Too Many Husbands, ...
TV Shows	The Jean Arthur Show

Social profile links

IMDB	http://imdb.com/name/nm0000795

Marks

#	Marks / Signs
1	She was often cast as independent "career women" when many actress were restricted to playing housewives, damsel in distress or femme fatales
2	Always played willful, uncompromising women
3	Distinctive unconventional looks
4	Light blonde hair
5	High-pitched, sometimes whiny sounding voice

Salary

Title	Salary
The More the Merrier (1943)	$2,500 /week
The Talk of the Town (1942)	$50,000
Horse Shoes (1927)	$700

Quotes

#	Quote
1	[While she was a model] Someone in the studio noticed me sitting in the background. They asked me whether I would pose for girls' hats, and with some diffidence I consented. My first posing was terribly self-conscious. The photographer liked my type, and employed me steadily that summer. I got $5 an hour and sometimes had five or six sittings in a day.
2	[About her early career] I was all right in long shots, but when it came to close-ups, sustained emotion was beyond me. I knew nothing about acting and often wondered why I had not continued with my plan to become a teacher of modern languages.
3	I wanted to become a really accomplished actress, but I didn't know how to act, and had no chance to learn. In those days the studios didn't have coaches or drama schools and it was almost impossible to get on the sets to watch the older players. I finally decided there was only one thing to do: go back to New York and try to get into some plays there.
4	[About her first marriage] There was nothing tragic about it - it was a case of willfulness.
5	[In 1940] Those two and a half years on Broadway were the happiest years of my life. I loved the stage. I think every girl who wants to become an actress should put in some years on the stage.
6	[on director George Stevens] George Stevens started out as a cameraman with Laurel and Hardy, and he learned so many wonderful tricks, like having us walk forward while looking backward and then bumping into something. George was a darling man, so great with comedy. It's too bad he got serious.
7	[1977 comment on Gary Cooper] I loved working with Gary Cooper. Gary was my favorite. He was so terrific-looking, and so easy to work with.
8	[on making Only Angels Have Wings (1939)] I loved sinking my head into Cary Grant's chest.
9	[on her first marriage, which only lasted a day] Julian [Julian Anckner] looked a lot like Abraham Lincoln, and that's probably why I fell in love with him. One day we were out driving and he suddenly said, "Hey, why don't we get married?" So we lied about our ages and got married in a sheriff's office. You should have heard our families' reactions - all sorts of screaming and shouting and carrying on about suicide. Well, neither Julian nor I had enough income to make it possible for us to live together, so our marriage lasted one day.
10	[on her early acting days] My very "naturalness" was my undoing. I had to learn that to appear natural on the screen requires a vast amount of training, that is the test of an actor's art. It would be more spectacular if I could say that out of the hurt and humiliation of that failure was born a determination to success, to prove I had the makings of an actress. But it wouldn't be true. That urge came later.
11	[speaking in in the 1930s] I've never had a single close intimate girlfriend in all my life. I never had a chum to whom I could confide my secrets. I suppose that accounts for the fact that now it is so painfully difficult for me to open my heart and confide in people who are, so often, almost strangers. You have to learn so very young to open your heart.
12	It's hardly fair for women to do the same things at the same hours every day of their lives, while men have new experiences, meet new people every day. I felt that way as a little girl, with two older brothers around the house. It seemed to me that they led adventurous lives, compared with mine. I felt cheated and frustrated. I became a tomboy in self-defense. I decided that I was going to do things that were exciting, or at least interesting.
13	First I played ingénues and western heroines; then I played western heroines and ingénues. That diet of roles became as monotonous as a diet of spinach. The studio wouldn't trust me with any other kind of role, because I had no experience in any other kind. And I didn't see how I was ever going to acquire any other experience if I couldn't get any other kind of role. It was a vicious circle.
14	I bumped into every kind of disappointment, and was frustrated at every turn. Roles promised me were given to other players, pictures that offered me a chance were shelved, no one was particularly interested in me, and I had not developed a strength of personality to make anyone believe I had special talents. I wanted so desperately to succeed that I drove myself relentlessly, taking no time off for pleasures, or for friendships - yet aiming at the stars, I was still floundering.
15	(on doing interviews) Quite frankly, I'd rather have my throat slit.
16	If people don't like your work, all the still pictures in the world can't help you and nothing written about you, even oceans of it, will make you popular.
17	[on Hollywood] I hated the place - not the work, but the lack of privacy, those terrible prying fan magazine writers and all the surrounding exploitation.
18	The fact that I did not marry George Bernard Shaw is the only real disappointment I've had.
19	I am not an adult, that's my explanation of myself. Except when I am working on a set, I have all the inhibitions and shyness of the bashful, backward child . . . unless I have something very much in common with a person, I am lost. I am swallowed up in my own silence.
20	I guess I became an actress because I didn't want to be myself.
21	It's a strenuous job every day of your life to live up to the way you look on the screen.

Facts

#	Fact
1	For years, during her lifetime, her date of birth listed in the World Almanac was 1905.
2	Appeared in three Frank Capra movies: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can't Take It with You (1938) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939).
3	Arthur's family regarded the Washington Heights Section of Manhattan as home.
4	She taught drama at Vassar from 1968 till 1973.
5	Rita Hayworth said Arthur didn't speak to her when they worked together on Only Angels Have Wings (1939), a snubbing Arthur later said she would regret.
6	Profiled in book, "Funny Ladies", by Stephen M. Silverman. [1999]
7	Turned down Donna Reed's role in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) because she didn't want to work with James Stewart again.
8	She was teaching at Vassar at the same time that Meryl Streep was studying there in her junior year. Upon seeing the young drama major rehearsing August Strindberg's play "Miss Julie", Arthur remarked it was "just like watching a movie star".
9	Even though Jean and James Stewart never bonded off-screen, Jimmy called Jean "the finest actress I ever worked with. No one had her humor, her timing".
10	Gary Cooper was her favorite leading man.
11	Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 3, 1991-1993, pages 29-31. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001.
12	At the Yale Law School Film Society weekend with Frank Capra in 1972, she attended a small afternoon symposium on Saturday, February 5, at Capra's invitation. He urged her to stay for the screening that night, and assured her the audience would be delighted and overwhelmingly enthusiastic. She declined because, she said, she had to go home and feed her cats.
13	Quit movies at the height of her career in 1944, following an Oscar nomination and while still Columbia Pictures' top female box-office attraction. She appeared in only two more films, for Oscar-winning directors Billy Wilder (A Foreign Affair (1948)) and George Stevens (Shane (1953)). According to John Oller's biography "Jean Arthur: The Actress Nobody Knew" (1997), Arthur was a shy person who came to loathe making movies, having developed a kind of stage fright (something not uncommon in even great and accomplished actors; Laurence Olivier said he developed stage fright in 1964, while playing in "Othello," after 40 years on stage) that made acting in movies agony for her. After she quit movies, she tried to make a go at a stage career, being part of the original cast of "Born Yesterday," but she dropped out during previews and was replaced by Judy Holliday. She later gave television a crack in the mid-'60s, but the The Jean Arthur Show (1966) was canceled after half a season.
14	Allegedly took her stage name from two of her greatest heroes: Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc) and King Arthur.
15	Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 15-16. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
16	Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. pg. 30-31. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
17	As a result of being in the doghouse with studio boss Harry Cohn, her fee for starring in The Talk of the Town (1942) was only $50,000 while her male co-stars (Ronald Colman, Cary Grant) received upwards of $100,000 each.
18	On the completion of her Columbia contract in 1944, she reportedly ran through the studio's streets, shouting "I'm free, I'm free!".
19	Director George Stevens famously called her "one of the greatest comediennes the screen has ever seen" while Frank Capra credited her as "my favorite actress".
20	Turned down the role of the lady missionary in Lost Horizon (1973), the unsuccessful musical remake of the 1937 classic of the same name.
21	As her star began to decline, she was replaced by Rita Hayworth as Columbia Pictures' top female star. Coincidentally, the two stars share the same birthday (October 17).
22	Was a leading contender for the coveted role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939).
23	After retiring from films she taught drama at Vassar and North Carolina School of the Arts from the late 1960s to 1973.
24	Marriage to Julian Anker was annulled after 1 day.
25	Department of Strange Coincidences: Jean Arthur's former spouse, producer Frank Ross, next married the actress Joan Caulfield. On the very day following Caulfield's death on 18 June 1991, Arthur died.
26	Wore her natural brunette hair color throughout the silent film portion of her career, then began bleaching her hair blonde shortly after she started making talkies.
27	Ashes scattered off of Point Lobos, California, USA.

Pictures

All pictures

Movies

Actress

Title	Year	Status	Character
Biff Bang Buddy	1924		Bonnie Norton
Fast and Fearless	1924		Mary Brown
The Iron Horse	1924		Reporter (uncredited)
Wine of Youth	1924		Flapper (uncredited)
The Powerful Eye	1924	Short	Dud's Sweetheart
Case Dismissed	1924	Short
Spring Fever	1923/II	Short
Monks a la Mode	1923	Short	Madame Maxine
Somebody Lied	1923	Short
The Temple of Venus	1923		Minor Role (uncredited)
Cameo Kirby	1923		Ann Playdell
The Jean Arthur Show	1966	TV Series	Patricia Marshall
Gunsmoke	1965	TV Series	Julie Blane
Shane	1953		Marian Starrett
A Foreign Affair	1948		Congresswoman Phoebe Frost
The Impatient Years	1944		Janie Anderson
A Lady Takes a Chance	1943		Molly J. Truesdale
The More the Merrier	1943		Connie Milligan
The Talk of the Town	1942		Nora Shelley
The Devil and Miss Jones	1941		Mary Jones
Arizona	1940		Phoebe Titus
Too Many Husbands	1940		Vicky Lowndes
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington	1939		Saunders
Only Angels Have Wings	1939		Bonnie Lee
You Can't Take It with You	1938		Alice Sycamore
Screen Snapshots Series 17, No. 12	1938	Documentary short	Jean Arthur
Easy Living	1937		Mary Smith
History Is Made at Night	1937		Irene Vail
More Than a Secretary	1936		Carol Baldwin
The Plainsman	1936		Calamity Jane
Adventure in Manhattan	1936		Claire Peyton
The Ex-Mrs. Bradford	1936		Paula Bradford
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town	1936		Babe Bennett
If You Could Only Cook	1935		Joan Hawthorne
The Public Menace	1935		Cassie Nicholls
Diamond Jim	1935		Jane Matthews / Emma
Public Hero Number 1	1935		Maria Theresa O'Reilly
Party Wire	1935		Marge Oliver
The Whole Town's Talking	1935		Miss Clark
The Defense Rests	1934		Joan Hayes
Most Precious Thing in Life	1934		Ellen Holmes, aka Biddy, Babe
Whirlpool	1934		Sandra Rankin Morrison
Get That Venus	1933		Margaret Rendleby
The Past of Mary Holmes	1933		Joan Hoyt
Ex-Bad Boy	1931		Ethel Simmons
The Lawyer's Secret	1931		Beatrice Stevens
The Virtuous Husband	1931		Barbara Olwell
The Gang Buster	1931		Sylvia Martine
The Silver Horde	1930		Mildred Wayland
Galas de la Paramount	1930		Sweetheart - Episode 'Dream Girl'
Danger Lights	1930		Mary Ryan
The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu	1930		Lia Eltham
Paramount on Parade	1930		Sweetheart (Dream Girl / In a Hospital)
Young Eagles	1930		Mary Gordon
Street of Chance	1930		Judith Marsden
Half Way to Heaven	1929		Greta Nelson
The Saturday Night Kid	1929		Janie Barry
The Greene Murder Case	1929		Ada Greene
The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu	1929		Lia Eltham
Stairs of Sand	1929		Ruth Hutt
The Canary Murder Case	1929		Alice LaFosse
Sins of the Fathers	1928		Mary Spengler
Brotherly Love	1928		Mary
Warming Up	1928		Mary Post
Easy Come, Easy Go	1928
Wallflowers	1928		Sandra
Flying Luck	1927		The Girl
The Masked Menace	1927		Faith
The Poor Nut	1927		Margie Blake
Bigger and Better Blondes	1927	Short
Horse Shoes	1927		Miss Baker
The Broken Gate	1927		Ruth Hale
Hello Lafayette	1927	Short
Husband Hunters	1927		Lettie Crane
Winners of the Wilderness	1927		Bit Role (uncredited)
The Block Signal	1926		Grace Ryan
The College Boob	1926		Angela Boothby
The Cowboy Cop	1926		Virginia Selby
Twisted Triggers	1926		Ruth Regan
Lightning Bill	1926		Marie Denton
Double Daring	1926		Marie Wells
Ridin' Rivals	1926	Short	Ruth Burroghs (as Miss Jean Arthur)
The Mad Racer	1926	Short
Eight-Cylinder Bull	1926	Short
The Fighting Cheat	1926		Ruth Wells
Born to Battle	1926		Eunice Morgan
The Roaring Rider	1926		Mary Watkins (as Miss Jean Arthur)
Under Fire	1926		Margaret Cranston
Thundering Through	1925		Ruth Burroughs
The Hurricane Horseman	1925		June Mathews
A Man of Nerve	1925		Loria Gatlin
Tearin' Loose	1925		Sally Harris
The Fighting Smile	1925		Rose Craddock
The Drug Store Cowboy	1925		Jean
Seven Chances	1925		Miss Smith - Office Receptionist (uncredited)
Travelin' Fast	1924		Betty Conway
Thundering Romance	1924		Mary Watkins
Bringin' Home the Bacon	1924		Nancy Norton

Soundtrack

Title	Year	Status
A Foreign Affair	1948	performer: "Iowa Corn Song" - uncredited
Only Angels Have Wings	1939	performer: "Some of These Days" 1910, "The Peanut Vendor" 1931 - uncredited
History Is Made at Night	1937	performer: "Adios Muchachos I Get Ideas" - uncredited
The Plainsman	1936	"Rock-a-Bye Baby" 1886, uncredited
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town	1936	performer: "Old Folks at Home Swanee River" 1851 - uncredited
Party Wire	1935	performer: "The Train's a-Comin' Goodbye My Lover, Goodbye" - uncredited
Lazy River	1934	"Cajun Love Song"

Thanks

Title	Year	Status	Character
George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey	1984	Documentary thanks

Self

Title	Year	Status	Character
The Merv Griffin Show	1973	TV Series	Herself
Screen Snapshots Series 19, No 10	1940	Documentary short	Herself
Screen Snapshots Series 19, No. 2	1939	Documentary short	Herself
Screen Snapshots Series 19, No. 1	1939	Documentary short	Herself
Screen Snapshots Series 9, No. 24	1930	Short	Herself
Paramount op parade	1930		Herself

Archive Footage

Title	Year	Status	Character
Billy Wilder Speaks	2006	TV Movie documentary	Herself
Clara Bow: Discovering the It Girl	1999	TV Movie documentary	Herself (from The Saturday Night Kid [1929]) (uncredited)
The Lady with the Torch	1999	Documentary	Herself
Frank Capra Jr. Remembers: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town	1999	Video short	Babe Bennett
Frank Capra Jr. Remembers... Mr. Smith Goes to Washington	1999	Video documentary short	Clarissa Saunders
American Masters	1989	TV Series documentary	Herself
The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind	1988	TV Movie documentary	Herself - Actress Testing for Scarlett
Going Hollywood: The '30s	1984	Documentary
George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey	1984	Documentary	Herself
AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to James Stewart	1980	TV Special documentary	Actress 'You Can't Take It with You' (uncredited)
America at the Movies	1976	Documentary	Marian Starrett
4 Clowns	1970	uncredited
Hollywood: The Selznick Years	1969	TV Movie documentary	Actress 'Gone with the Wind' screen test (uncredited)
The Ed Sullivan Show	1955	TV Series	Herself
Yesterday and Today	1953

Awards

Won Awards

Year	Award	Ceremony	Nomination	Movie
1960	Star on the Walk of Fame	Walk of Fame	Motion Picture	On February 8, 1960. 6333 Hollywood Blvd.
1942	Sour Apple	Golden Apple Awards	Least Cooperative Actress