1. Jean Arthur co-starred with Cary Grant in the adventure-drama Only Angels Have Wings and in the comedy-drama The Talk of the Town.
48 Facts About Jean Arthur
1. 2.
Jean Arthur starred as the lead in the acclaimed and highly successful comedy films The Devil and Miss Jones and A Foreign Affair, the latter of which she starred alongside Marlene Dietrich.
3.
Jean Arthur was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1944 for her performance in The More the Merrier, a comedy which starred Joel McCrea.
4.
The product of a nomadic childhood, Jean Arthur lived at times in Saranac Lake, New York; Jacksonville, Florida, and Schenectady, New York.
5.
The family lived on and off in Westbrook, Maine, from 1908 to 1915, while Jean Arthur's father worked at Lamson Studios in Portland.
6.
Jean Arthur dropped out of high school in her junior year due to a "change in family circumstances".
7.
Jean Arthur reputedly took her stage name from two of her greatest heroes, Joan of Arc and King Arthur.
8.
Jean Arthur was planning on leaving the California film industry for good, but reluctantly stayed due to her contract, and appeared in comedy shorts, instead.
9.
Jean Arthur decided to take a chance on a complete unknown, and she was cast in over 20 Westerns in a two-year period.
10.
In 1927, Jean Arthur attracted more attention when she appeared opposite Mae Busch and Charles Delaney as a gold-digging chorus girl in Husband Hunters.
11.
Jean Arthur was cast on Banks's insistence, and received a salary of $700.
12.
Jean Arthur is winsome; she neither looks nor acts like the regular movie heroine.
13.
Jean Arthur's all-talking film debut was The Canary Murder Case, in which she co-starred opposite William Powell and Louise Brooks.
14.
Jean Arthur was not among these actors, and she struggled for recognition in the film industry.
15.
Jean Arthur was given more publicity assignments, which she carried out, though she immensely disliked posing for photographers and giving interviews.
16.
Jean Arthur did not impress the film's director, John Cromwell, who advised the actress to move back to New York because she would not make it in Hollywood.
17.
Back in Hollywood, Jean Arthur saw her career deteriorating, and she dyed her hair blonde in an attempt to boost her image and avoid comparison with more successful actress Mary Brian.
18.
Jean Arthur's effort did not pay off; when her three-year contract at Paramount expired in mid-1931, she was given her release with an announcement from Paramount that the decision was due to financial setbacks caused by the Great Depression.
19.
In late 1931, Jean Arthur returned to New York City, where a Broadway agent cast Jean Arthur in an adaptation of Lysistrata, which opened at the Riviera Theater on January 24,1932.
20.
Jean Arthur next won the female lead in The Man Who Reclaimed His Head, which opened on September 8,1932, at the Broadhurst Theatre to mostly mixed notices for Arthur; negative reviews for the play caused the production to be halted quickly.
21.
Jean Arthur returned to California for the holidays, and appeared in the RKO film The Past of Mary Holmes, her first film in two years.
22.
Back on Broadway, Jean Arthur has appeared in small plays that received little attention.
23.
Jean Arthur played the daughter with sincerity and sympathy, while Holt displayed a tenderness and compassion never before seen in his two-fisted melodramas.
24.
Jean Arthur is given splendid assistance by Jean Arthur, and by the director, Roy William Neill.
25.
Holt and Jean Arthur were teamed a few months later for a follow-up, The Defense Rests ; Jean Arthur, fresh out of law school, wants to work for celebrated criminal lawyer Holt, and soon learns the inside story of Holt's success.
26.
In 1935, at age 34, Arthur starred opposite Edward G Robinson in the gangster farce The Whole Town's Talking, directed by Ford, and her popularity began to rise.
27.
Jean Arthur enjoyed the acting experience and working opposite Robinson, who remarked in his biography that it was a "delight to work with and know" Arthur.
28.
Jean Arthur was known for maneuvering to be photographed and filmed almost exclusively from the left; Arthur felt that her left was her better side, and worked hard to keep it in the fore.
29.
The turning point in Jean Arthur's career came when she was chosen by Frank Capra to star in Mr Deeds Goes to Town.
30.
Jean Arthur did not attend any social gatherings, such as formal parties in Hollywood, and acted difficult when having to work with an interviewer.
31.
Jean Arthur, who was De Mille's second choice after Mae West, described Calamity Jane as her favorite role thus far.
32.
Jean Arthur followed this with another screwball comedy, Capra's You Can't Take It with You, which teamed her with James Stewart.
33.
The film won an Academy Award for Best Picture, with Jean Arthur getting top billing.
34.
Jean Arthur reunited with director Frank Capra and Stewart for Mr Smith Goes to Washington, with Jean Arthur cast as a working woman, this time one who teaches the naive Mr Smith the ways of Washington, DC.
35.
Jean Arthur was offered a third reunion with Capra and Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life, playing the role of Stewart's wife Mary, but she refused to attend Stephens College.
36.
Jean Arthur continued to star in films such as Howard Hawks' Only Angels Have Wings, with Cary Grant, The Talk of the Town, directed by George Stevens, and again for Stevens as a government clerk in The More the Merrier, for which Jean Arthur was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
37.
Jean Arthur remained Columbia's top star until the mid-1940s, when she left the studio; Rita Hayworth took over as the studio's biggest name.
38.
Jean Arthur announced her retirement when her contract with Columbia Pictures expired in 1944.
39.
In 1965, the reclusive Jean Arthur returned to show business to star in an episode of Gunsmoke, as Julie Blane in season 10, episode 24's "Thursday's Child".
40.
In 1966, she took on the role of Patricia Marshall, an attorney, on her own television sitcom, The Jean Arthur Show, which was cancelled midseason by CBS after only 12 episodes.
41.
In 1967, Jean Arthur was coaxed back to Broadway to appear as a Midwestern "spinster" who falls in with a group of hippies in the play The Freaking Out of Stephanie Blake.
42.
Jean Arthur next decided to teach drama, first at Vassar College and then the North Carolina School of the Arts.
43.
An animal lover her entire life, Jean Arthur said she trusted them more than people.
44.
Jean Arthur was convicted, fined $75, and given three years' probation.
45.
In 1979, Patsy Kelly told Boze Hadleigh that Jean Arthur was a lesbian.
46.
Jean Arthur lived in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, for 30 years, and died from heart failure on June 19,1991, at the age of 90.
47.
Jean Arthur was cremated, and her remains were scattered off the coast of Point Lobos, California.
48.
Jean Arthur remodeled the house and created a large outdoor garden, with landscape artist George Hoy, in a Japanese architecture style, including a Japanese bronze dragon gate latch.