35 Facts About Barbara Loden

Barbara Ann Loden was an American actress and director of film and theater.

Barbara Loden became a regular sidekick on the irreverent Ernie Kovacs Television Show in the mid-1950s and was a lifetime member of the famed Actors Studio.

Barbara Loden appeared in several projects directed by her second husband, Elia Kazan, including Splendor in the Grass.

In 1970, Barbara Loden wrote, directed, and starred in Wanda, a groundbreaking independent film that won the International Critics Award at the 1970 Venice Film Festival.

In 1978, Barbara Loden was diagnosed with breast cancer, of which she died two years later, aged 48.

Barbara Loden was born on July 8,1932 in Asheville, North Carolina.

Barbara Loden was described as a shy, humble, statuesque and soft-spoken loner.

Barbara Loden found minor success as a pin-up girl, model, and dancer at the Copacabana nightclub before studying at the Actors Studio, intending to become an actress.

Barbara Loden made her New York theater debut in 1957 in Compulsion and appeared on stage in The Highest Tree with Robert Redford as well as Night Circus with Ben Gazzara.

Barbara Loden joined the cast of The Ernie Kovacs Show as a "scantily clad" sidekick to Kovacs, a job that her first husband, television producer and film distributor Larry Joachim, helped her obtain.

Barbara Loden said she owed a lot to Kovacs, as another producer on the show initially vetoed Kovacs's decision to hire her.

In interviews, Barbara Loden said, "Ernie felt sorry for me" and gave her another job as a stunt sidekick, rolling around in a rug or getting hit in the face with a pie.

In 1960, Barbara Loden appeared in Elia Kazan's film Wild River as Montgomery Clift's secretary.

Barbara Loden was perhaps better known for her role in Splendor in the Grass, in which she played Warren Beatty's sister.

Barbara Loden famously portrayed Maggie, a fictionalized version of Marilyn Monroe, in Kazan's Lincoln Center Repertory Company stage production of After the Fall, which was written by Monroe's former husband, playwright Arthur Miller.

Barbara Loden received a Tony award for best actress for her performance in After the Fall as well as an annual award of the Outer Circle, an organization of writers who covered Broadway for national magazines.

Barbara Loden married her first husband, film and television producer and film distributor Larry Joachim, in the 1950s, and they had a son, Marco.

Barbara Loden had another son, Leo, with Kazan, and though estranged and considering divorce, they were still married at the time of her death from breast cancer at the age of 48.

Barbara Loden's acting career on film had a troubled history.

Barbara Loden's first major film role was to be in the Frank Perry-directed The Swimmer starring Burt Lancaster, but during post-production there was a dispute about the scene between producer Sam Spiegel and the film's writer-director team, the Perrys.

Barbara Loden had secretly been shown a private screening of the film by his friend and producer Spiegel and had reportedly interfered with the final cut.

At some point during her acting career, Barbara Loden came across a newspaper article about a woman who, when on trial for accomplice to bank robbery, thanked the judge for her own sentencing.

Four months before her death, Barbara Loden was interviewed in Katja Raganelli's 1980 documentary I Am Wanda.

In June 1980, Barbara Loden was working with her acting teacher Paul Mann on a one-act play to be shown on Off-Off-Broadway.

Barbara Loden had planned to work as director, producer, and leading actress, but lost the energy to complete the project.

At the time of her diagnosis, Barbara Loden was prepared to direct a feature about Kate Chopin's The Awakening, but her cancer treatments prevented her from starting it.

Barbara Loden died at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City from the disease on September 5,1980.

Barbara Loden rejected Hollywood style, wanting to only present the world "as it actually is".

Barbara Loden worked mainly with non-professional actors, which resulted in the film's original script being loosely referenced.

Barbara Loden said that the character Maggie, whom Loden won a Tony for portraying, was like her in that she was "not educated" and "had a very strong need to be accepted".

An unmade play by Barbara Loden planned to explore these themes further, but was never finished due to her death.

Wanda has been described as a feminist work, but Barbara Loden did not intend it to be.

Barbara Loden never knew exactly what he was going to say, therefore everything would come out of his mouth very alive.

In 2012, Supplement a la vie de Barbara Loden by acclaimed French author Nathalie Leger was published.

In 2021, Anna Backman Rogers's book Still Life: Notes on Barbara Loden's "Wanda" was published.