Trivia of Barbara Stanwyck

Trivia of Barbara Stanwyck

*She became a Ziegfeld's Follies dancer at the age of 15.

*Lived near Joan Crawford during her marriage to Frank Fay. According to Christina Crawford, between 1932 and 1934, Stanwyck would escape from the alcoholic and volatile Fay when things got too hot by scaling a fence on their property. She would stay with Crawford, who lived across the street, until the heat died down. Stanwyck and Crawford had been friends since the days when they were single young actresses and remained friends until Crawford's death.

*Throughout her career she was known for her kindness and patience with younger performers. Marilyn Monroe, who worked with Stanwyck in the 1952 film Clash by Night (1952) said that Stanwyck was the only member of Hollywood's older generation who was kind to her.

*William Holden remained forever grateful to Stanwyck for his career.Holden was considered to be too lightweight for the lead role in Golden Boy (1939), but Stanwyck urged producers to keep him in the picture, and the role made him a star. In 1978, at the The 50th Annual Academy Awards (1978), before starting the presentation of the sound award, Holden publicly thanked her for what she did. She nearly broke down in tears and kissed Holden, and the exchange received thunderous audience applause.

*Stanwyck told journalist Ron Miller that her favorite leading man was her second husband, Robert Taylor. They made three movies together: His Brother's Wife (1936), This Is My Affair (1937), and The Night Walker (1964).

*On October 27, 1981, Stanwyck was awakened by a burglar at 1:00 in the morning. She was hit on the head with an unknown object then forced into a closet while the intruder ransacked the house and got away with $5,000 worth of jewels. She was treated for minor head wounds at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and released the next day. Four years later, in 1985, the house was destroyed in a fire. She expressed upset at losing personal keepsakes, including love letters from Robert Taylor.

*Often called "The Best Actress Who Never Won an Oscar."But when she was awarded an Honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement at 1982, the statuette was presented to her by John Travolta who later confessed that the experience was his supreme Oscar moment. Stanwyck had been a Travolta family favorite for years.