Trivia of Claudette Colbert

Trivia of Claudette Colbert (13 September 1903 - 30 July 1996)

*Was born as Emilie Chauchoin to Georges Claude Chauchoin and Jeanne Marie in Paris, France. Her family migrated to New York City, US, when she was a small child.Determined to make a career for herself in theater, she adopted the stage name of Claudette Colbert as an actress and made her Broadway debut in 1923 in a play called ‘The Wild Wescotts’ in which she played a small role.

*She and director Frank Capra starting debut in same movie in 1927 , For The Love of The Mike.Capra was still young and green, and Colbert didn't trust him.Both of them felt their debut experience was awful.In 1934, Colbert worked with Frank Capra again in movie "It Happened One Night", playing spoiled heiress Ellie Andrews. After their previous collaboration, Capra and Colbert had no love lost for each other, and Colbert wasn't even supposed to get the part. She was Capra's last choice after seven other starlets turned him down.

*While filming It Happened One Night (1934), Claudette Colbert complained nearly every day during the making of the film. On the last day of shooting she told a friend, "I just finished making the worst picture I've ever made". She demanded high salary, almost refuse expose her leg for the hitchhiking scene, and undressing in front of camera.Though Colbert dislike this film, It Happened One Night (1934) became the first film to perform a "clean sweep" of the top five Academy Award categories.Known as the Oscar "grand slam": Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay.

*While making Cleopatra (1934), Colbert was recovering from appendicitis—and it nearly turned fatal. The elaborate, heavy costumes and lengthy days on set made it difficult for her to even stand for more than a few minutes at the time.Her effort be paid.Colbert become the only actress to star in three films nominated for Best Picture in the same year (1934), three prestigious films of the day which confirmed her as a "top" star: "Cleopatra", "Imitation of Life", and "It Happened One Night", which won.

*Most shots of her in her films were of her left profile. She considered her left side to be her best and only rarely allowed full face or right profile shots; an injury to her nose had created a bump on the right. Once an entire set had to be rebuilt so she would not have to show her right side, resulting in some cameramen calling the right side of her face "the dark side of the moon".

*Following her highly productive film career, she ventured into television as well. Starting from the mid-1950s, she acted in several television programs, including adaptations of ‘Blithe Spirit’ (1956), and ‘The Bells of St. Mary’s’ (1959).Her final appearance before the cameras was in a TV movie, The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987).

*She loves Barbados and planned retire with her husband, Joel Pressman in there.She even bought an old plantation house which she had renovated and restored to its former colonial beauty. But in 1967, he was diagnosed with advanced cancer, and he spent his last few months in the USA.Pressman died in 1968, aged 67. Colbert had her husband buried on their property in Barbados. Colbert and Passman had a happy marriage, and she was heartbroken at his relatively earlier death. Colbert spent the last thirty years of her life divided between New York and Barbados till her death in 1996.