Trivia of Miriam Hopkins

 Trivia of Miriam Hopkins (18 October 1902 - 9 October 1972)

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

*In 1930, Hopkins signed with Paramount Pictures and made her official film debut in American pre-Code romantic comedy Fast and Loose along Carole Lombard.

*Her first great success was in the 1931 horror drama film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, where she portrayed Ivy Pearson, a prostitute who becomes entangled with Jekyll and Hyde.In the first place Miriam Hopkins originally turned down the role of Ivy Pearson, saying she wanted to play Muriel Carew instead. She soon changed her mind when the director informed her many actresses in Hollywood could be cast in her place.

*Hopkins' early films were considered sexually risqué; produced in the years before the Motion Picture Production Code was rigorously enforced, they featured issues that would be prohibited after 1934. For instance, The Story of Temple Drake depicted a rape scene, and Design for Living featured a ménage à trois with Fredric March and Gary Cooper.

*She was Margaret Mitchell's first choice to play Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939).She was the only candidate to be a native Georgian, but the part went to British actress Vivien Leigh.

*Co-starred with Joel McCrea in five films : The Riches Girl in The World (1934), Barbary Coast (1935) , Splendor (1935), These Three (1936), and Woman Chase Man (1937).

*Had a long-running feud with Bette Davis that started before they even entered films, because of jealousy. They were both stage actresses with the same company where Hopkins had been the bigger star who first made it to Hollywood to become a star in films. They were both nominated for Best Actress Oscar in 1935, and Davis won and became the bigger star. She won her second Oscar for Jezebel (1938), which had been a flop on Broadway for Hopkins back in 1933. Davis had an affair with director Anatole Litvak, who at one point was married to Hopkins, although there have been conflicting reports whether the affair took place while he was still married to Hopkins. They competed with each other for screen time in the two films they acted together: The Old Maid (1939) and Old Acquaintance (1943). Long after Hopkins died, the only nice thing that Davis said about her was that she was a good actress, but otherwise she was a "real bitch".