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1. Stage actress and moving picture star (1920's - 1950's).
The following was copied from the Encyclopaedia Britannica:
"in full Tallulah Brockman Bankhead American actress who was as famous for her off-
stage shenanigans as for her theatrical achievements.
Bankhead, the daughter of Alabama congressman and future speaker of the House,
William Brockman Bankhead, was named after the town of Tallulah Falls, Georgia. In
spite of a strict convent education, Bankhead was a willful, headstrong child with a
remarkable facility for attracting attention. After winning a local beauty contest at age
15, she submitted her photograph to a movie fan magazine and, as a result, landed bit
roles in a few silent films made in 1918. That same year, she made her Broadway
debut in Squab Farm Though she lacked training and discipline, she possessed a
dazzling stage presence, her husky voice providing fascinating contrast with her gor-
geous face and figure. Quickly ascending to stardom, she just as easily gained renown
for her quick-witted outspokenness and indefatigable partygoing.
In 1923 she journeyed to England to appear opposite Gerald DuMaurier in The Rope
Dancers and thereby launched what was perhaps the most spectacular London stage
career of the 1920s. Her calculatedly outrageous public behaviour, her multiple ro-
mances, and her habit of wearing flimsy lingerie onstage whether the script called for it
or not endeared her to fans ---notably her own claque, 'the Gallery Girls, "who showed
up at every performance to express their noisy idolatry while annoying her detractors.
After a succession of mediocre 'sex dramas "that made few demands on her talent,
Bankhead confounded her critics with her brilliant performance as a troubled young
waitress in the London production of Sidney Howard's They Knew What They Wanted
(1925).
In 1931 she returned to the United States to star in films for both Paramount and
MGM. Inexplicably, the studio executives tried to transform her into a 'second Marlene
Dietrich, "which resulted in such overwrought melodramas as My Sin (1931) and Devil
and the Deep (1932). Giving up on Hollywood, Bankhead returned to Broadway, where
she chalked up one stage triumph after another. Her theatrical career reached its zenith
with her performances in The Little Foxes (1939) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1942),
both of which earned her the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. It was also during
this period that she was briefly married to actor John Emery. In 1943 she decided to
give Hollywood a second try; again, the results were disappointing, with the notable
exception of her superb multifaceted performance in Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944).
She went on to enjoy considerably more success on network radio, hosting the all-star
variety series The Big Show (1950-52).
By the late 1940s and early 1950s, Bankhead's hedonistic lifestyle and excessive
drinking had taken its toll. She is quoted as having said, 'My father warned me about
men and booze, but he never mentioned a word about women and cocaine. "Most of
her Broadway endeavours during this decade were flops, and critics complained that
she had become a self-caricature. She kept her career afloat by publishing a best-
selling autobiography, touring in such plays as Private Lives (1948) and Dear Charles
(1955) and headlining her own nightclub act. In 1965 she made her last film appearance,
playing a homicidal religious fanatic in the British thriller Die! Die! My Darling! Tallulah
Bankhead's final acting assignments included a 'Special Guest Villain"stint on the TV
series Batman (1966-68); when advised that the series was considered 'high camp,
"her response was vintage Tallulah: 'Don't tell me about camp, dahling! I invented it! ""
.
Ingo
Brockmann
