Jean Arthur

 Jean Arthur (October 17, 1900 – June 19, 1991)

Arthur had feature roles in three Frank Capra films: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can't Take It With You (1938), and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), films that championed the "everyday heroine". Arthur was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1944 for her performance in The More the Merrier (1943). James Harvey wrote in his recounting of the era, "No one was more closely identified with the screwball comedy than Jean Arthur. So much was she part of it, so much was her star personality defined by it, that the screwball style itself seems almost unimaginable without her."She has been called "the quintessential comedic leading lady". Her last film performance was the memorable, and distinctly non-comedic, rancher's wife in George Stevens' Shane in 1953. To the public, Arthur was known as a reclusive woman. As well as recoiling from interviews, she avoided photographers and refused to become a part of any kind of publicity, After Shane and the Broadway play Joan of Arc, Arthur went into retirement for 12 years. In 1965, she returned to show business in an episode of Gunsmoke.

In 1966, the extremely reclusive Arthur took on the role of Patricia Marshall, an attorney, on her own television sitcom, The Jean Arthur Show, which was canceled mid-season by CBS after only 12 episodes. While living in North Carolina, in 1973, Arthur made front-page news by being arrested and jailed for trespassing on a neighbor's property to console a dog she felt was being mistreated. An animal lover her entire life, Arthur said she trusted them more than people. Jean Arthur died from heart failure June 19, 1991, at age 90. She was cremated, and her ashes were scattered off the Pacific Ocean.