Geraldine Fitzgerald
Born: 1913-11-24 in Greystones, County Wicklow, Ireland
Died: 2005-07-17
Known For: Acting
Biography
Geraldine Fitzgerald, Lady Lindsay-Hogg was an Irish-American actress and a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame. She was born south of Dublin, the daughter of Edith Catherine and Edward Martin FitzGerald. She studied painting at the Dublin School of Art. Inspired by her aunt, and began her acting career in at Dublin's Gate Theatre. After two seasons in Dublin, she moved to London, where she found success in films The Mill on the Floss, The Turn of the Tide, and Cafe Mascot. Fitzgerald's success led her to the Broadway stage in 1938. She made her American debut in the Mercury Theatre production of Heartbreak House. Producer Hal B. Wallis saw her in this production and subsequently signed her to a contract with Warner Bros, where she starred in Dark Victory and Wuthering Heights. Afterwards, appeared in Shining Victory, The Gay Sisters, and Watch on the Rhine, but her career was hampered by her frequent clashes with studio management. Although she continued to work throughout the 1940s, the quality of her roles began to diminish and her career lost momentum. In 1946, shortly after completing work on Three Strangers, she left Hollywood to return to New York City, where she married her second husband, Stuart Scheftel, a grandson of Isidor Straus. She returned to Britain to film So Evil My Love, receiving strong reviews, and The Late Edwina Black, before returning to the United States. She became a naturalized United States citizen on April 18, 1955. The 1950s provided her with few opportunities in film, but during the 1960s she asserted herself as a character actor and her career enjoyed a revival. Among her successful films of this period were Ten North Frederick, The Pawnbroker, and Rachel, Rachel. Her later films included The Mango Tree, for which she received an Australian Film Institute Best Actress nomination, and Harry and Tonto, in a scene opposite Art Carney. She also starred in Arthur 1 and 2, miniseries Kennedy, Do You Remember Love, Easy Money, Poltergeist 2, as in Circle of Violence, a television film about elder abuse. Fitzgerald returned to stage acting, and won acclaim for her performance in the 1971 revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night. In 1976, she performed as a cabaret singer with the show Streetsongs, recorded an album of the show for Ben Bagley's Painted Smiles label. She also achieved success as a theatre director; becoming one of the first women to receive a Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Play. While in New York, Fitzgerald collaborated with playwright and Franciscan brother Jonathan Ringkamp to found the Everyman Theater of Brooklyn, a street theater company, that performed throughout the city. She appeared on television, in such series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Robert Montgomery Presents, Naked City, St. Elsewhere, The Golden Girls, and Cagney and Lacey. As well, she starred in Our Private World, and Mabel and Max. She won a Daytime Emmy Award as best actress for her appearance in the NBC Special Treat episode "Rodeo Red and the Runaways". Description above from the Wikipedia article Geraldine Fitzgerald, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Filmography
1997
- Chalk as Janet Slatt
1991
- Bump in the Night as Mrs. Beauchamps
1989
- Dick Francis: Twice Shy as Mrs. O'Rourke
1988
- Arthur 2: On the Rocks as Martha Bach
1987
- A Year in the Life as Mrs. Wilbourne
- Night of Courage as Abby Abelsen
1986
- Poltergeist II: The Other Side as Gramma-Jess
- Circle of Violence: A Family Drama as Charlotte Kessling
1985
- The Golden Girls as Anna
- Do You Remember Love as Lorraine Wyatt
1983
- Kennedy as Rose Kennedy
- Easy Money as Mrs. Monahan
- Bette Davis: The Benevolent Volcano as Self
- Dixie: Changing Habits as Sister Agnes
1982
- St. Elsewhere as Margaret Ryan
- Cagney & Lacey
- Blood Link as Mrs. Thomason
1980
- The Jilting of Granny Weatherall as Granny Weatherall
1979
- Trapper John, M.D. as Bag lady
1978
- Bye Bye Monkey as Mrs. Toland
- Tartuffe as Madame Pernelle
1977
- The Quinns as Peggy Quinn
- The Mango Tree as Grandma Carr
- Yesterday's Child as Emma Talbot
1976
- Diary of the Dead as Maud Kennaway
- Echoes of a Summer as Sara
- Ah, Wilderness! as Essie Miller
1975
- Beyond the Horizon as Mrs. Atkins
- Forget-Me-Not Lane as Amy Bisley
1974
- Harry and Tonto as Jessie Stone
- The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd as Grandmother
1973
- The American Film Institute Salute to ... as Self
- The Last American Hero as Frau Jackson
- Me as Ma
1971
- Great Performances as Grandmother
1968
- Rachel, Rachel as Rev. Wood
1965
- The Pawnbroker as Marilyn Birchfield
1962
- The Alfred Hitchcock Hour as Agatha Tomlin
1961
- The Mike Douglas Show as Self
- The Defenders as Lila Windell
- The Fiercest Heart as Tante Marie
1959
- The Moon and Sixpence as Amy Strickland
1958
- Naked City as Brigid Delito
- Ten North Frederick as Edith Chapin
1956
- Tony Awards as Self - Nominee
1955
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents as Elizabeth Burton
1954
- Climax! as Miriam Lambert
- Dark Possession as Charlotte Bell Wheeler
1952
- Pontius Pilate as Claudia Procula
1951
- Schlitz Playhouse of Stars as Mary Todd Lincoln
- The Late Edwina Black as Elizabeth Grahame
1949
- Suspense as Anna
1948
- Studio One as Claudia Procula
- So Evil My Love as Susan Courtney
1946
- Three Strangers as Crystal Shackleford
- O.S.S. as Miss Ellen Rogers / Madame Elaine Duprez
- Nobody Lives Forever as Gladys Halvorsen
1945
- The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry as Lettie Quincey
1944
- Wilson as Edith Bolling Galt
- Ladies Courageous as Virgie Alford
1943
- Watch on the Rhine as Marte Brankovic
1942
- The Gay Sisters as Evelyn Gaylord
1941
- Shining Victory as Dr. Mary Murray
- Flight from Destiny as Betty Farroway
1940
- 'Til We Meet Again as Bonny Coburn
1939
- Wuthering Heights as Isabella Linton
- Dark Victory as Ann King
- A Child is Born as Grace Sutton
1937
- The Mill on the Floss as Maggie Tulliver
1936
- Debt of Honour as Peggy Mayhew
- Cafe Mascot as Moira O'Flynn
1935
- Blind Justice as Peggy Summers
- The Ace of Spades as Evelyn Daventry
- Turn of the Tide as Ruth Fosdyck
- The Lad as Joan Fandon
- Three Witnesses as Diane Morton
- Department Store as Jane Grey
1934
- Open All Night as Jill