Norma Shearer

Lovely Norma Shearer as captured by photographer George Hurrell for the 1934 film RIPTIDE. Born on August 10, 1902 in Montréal, Canada, Shearer landed her debut role at MGM in 1920 after a successful modelling career in New York City. Elegant and sophisticated, her fortuitous marriage to MGM producer Irving Thalberg helped her to become one of the studio's leading ladies. She could play light comedy or drama and was nominated for 6 Oscars over the length of her career. At the 1931 Academy Awards ceremony, not only did she win best actress for "The Divorcée" (1930), but she shared the stage with her older brother, Douglas Shearer, a technical genius who also won an Oscar that night, for sound recording. Shearer led MGM through the first 5 years of the sound era with a string of hits including "Private Lives" (1931), "A Free Soul" (1931), "Strange Interlude" (1932) and "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" (1934). She delivered an outstanding performance as the doomed queen in “Marie Antoinette” (1938) and a touching role in the witty classic "The Women" (1939). Her subsequent films were unsuccessful and she retired from acting after “Her Cardboard Lover” (1942). She was rediscovered in the late 1950s, when her films were sold to television, and in the 1970s with theatrical revivals. Her other notable films include "The Student Prince" (1927), "The Actress" (1928), "The Last of Mrs Cheyney" (1929), "Their Own Desire" (1929), "Romeo and Juliet" (1936) and "Idiot's Delight" (1939). Shearer passed away of bronchial pneumonia on June 12, 1983 at age 81. In 2008 she was commemorated on a Canadian postage stamp and was also inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.

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