23 Facts About Miriam Hopkins

Ellen Miriam Hopkins was an American actress known for her versatility.

Miriam Hopkins portrayed a pickpocket in Ernst Lubitsch's romantic comedy Trouble in Paradise, a bar singer Ivy in Rouben Mamoulian's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and the titular character in the controversial drama The Story of Temple Drake.

Miriam Hopkins received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for the 1935 film Becky Sharp, becoming the first performer nominated for a color picture.

Miriam Hopkins was nominated for a Golden Globe for The Heiress.

Miriam Hopkins was considered a distinguished hostess in Hollywood and moved in intellectual and creative circles.

Miriam Hopkins was raised in Bainbridge, near the Alabama border.

Miriam Hopkins attended Goddard Seminary in Barre, Vermont, and Syracuse University in New York State.

At age 20, Miriam Hopkins became a chorus girl in New York City; she acted regularly on the stage throughout the 1920s, including in the 1926 stage adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy.

Miriam Hopkins starred on Broadway in the lead of Jezebel, a 1933 play by Owen Davis.

When it was adapted as a 1938 film of the same name, Miriam Hopkins was bitterly disappointed that Bette Davis was chosen for the role she had played on stage.

In 1930, Miriam Hopkins signed with Paramount Pictures and made her official film debut in Fast and Loose.

Miriam Hopkins received rave reviews, including one from Mordaunt Hall of the New York Times, saying she portrayed Ivy "splendidly".

Miriam Hopkins's successes continued during the remainder of the decade with the romantic comedy The Richest Girl in the World ; the historical drama Becky Sharp, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress; Barbary Coast ; These Three ; and The Old Maid.

Miriam Hopkins was one of the early actresses approached to play the role of Ellie Andrews in It Happened One Night.

Miriam Hopkins rejected the part, and Claudette Colbert was cast.

Miriam Hopkins auditioned for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind; she was the only candidate to be a native Georgian, but the part went to British actress Vivien Leigh.

Miriam Hopkins acted in The Children's Hour, a remake of her film These Three.

Miriam Hopkins performed in teleplays from the late 1940s through the late 1960s, in such programs as The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre, Pulitzer Prize Playhouse, Lux Video Theatre, and in episodes of The Investigators and The Outer Limits, and even in an episode of The Flying Nun in 1969.

Miriam Hopkins has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for film at 1709 Vine Street and one for television at 1716 Vine Street.

Miriam Hopkins knew them all, had read their work, had listened to their music, had bought their paintings.

Miriam Hopkins was a staunch Democrat who strongly supported the presidency of Franklin D Roosevelt.

Miriam Hopkins died in New York City from a heart attack on October 9,1972.

Miriam Hopkins is buried in Oak City Cemetery in Bainbridge, Georgia.