Editing Jean Arthur (section)

==Later career and retirements==
[[Image:Jean Arthur in Shane.jpg|right|thumb|With [[Alan Ladd]] in ''[[Shane (film)|Shane]]'' (1953)]]
Arthur announced her retirement when her contract with Columbia Pictures expired in 1944. She reportedly ran through the studio's streets, shouting "I'm free, I'm free!"<ref name="Morgan">{{Cite web |title=Jean Arthur, the Nonconformist |url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6930-jean-arthur-the-nonconformist |last=Morgan |first=Kim |date=May 5, 2020 |website=The Criterion Collection |language=en |access-date=May 16, 2020}}</ref> For the next several years, she turned down virtually all film offers, the two exceptions being [[Billy Wilder]]'s ''[[A Foreign Affair]]'' (1948), in which she played a congresswoman and rival of Marlene Dietrich's, and as a homesteader's wife in the classic Western ''[[Shane (film)|Shane]]'' (1953), which turned out to be the biggest box-office hit of her career. The latter was her final film, and the only color film in which she appeared.<ref>Anthony, Elizabeth. [http://www.reelclassics.com/Actresses/Arthur/arthur2.htm "Jean Arthur at Screen Classics."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071213173639/http://www.reelclassics.com/Actresses/Arthur/arthur2.htm |date=December 13, 2007 }} ''Reelclassics.com,'' July 21, 2010. Retrieved: August 14, 2010.</ref>

Arthur's postretirement work in theater was intermittent, somewhat curtailed by her unease and discomfort about working in public.<ref>[http://tcmdb.com/participant/participant.jsp?participantId=6045 "TCM Movie Database: Jean Arthur."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930235833/http://tcmdb.com/participant/participant.jsp?participantId=6045 |date=September 30, 2007 }} ''Tcmdb.com,'' August 14, 2010.</ref> Capra claimed she vomited in her dressing room between scenes, yet emerged each time to perform a flawless take. According to John Oller's biography, ''Jean Arthur: The Actress Nobody Knew'' (1997), Arthur developed a kind of [[stage fright]] punctuated with bouts of [[psychosomatic illness]]es. A prime example was in 1945, when she was cast in the lead of the [[Garson Kanin]] play ''[[Born Yesterday (play)|Born Yesterday]]''. Her nerves and insecurity got the better of her and she left the production before it reached Broadway, opening the door for a then-unknown [[Judy Holliday]] to take the part.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DiI1wIyatvUC&dq=%22original+star,+Jean+Arthur+quit+during+the+tryout%22&pg=PA86 |first1=Gerald Martin |last1=Bordman |first2=Thomas S. |last2=Hischak |title=The Oxford Companion to American Theatre |publisher=Oxford University Press, US |year=2004 |isbn=0-19-516986-7 |access-date=May 19, 2023 |archive-date=May 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230519155333/https://books.google.com/books?id=DiI1wIyatvUC&pg=PA86&dq=%22original+star,+Jean+Arthur+quit+during+the+tryout%22 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/21/theater/theater-born-yesterday-is-reborn-in-chicago.html |first=Eugene |last=Kennedy |title='Born Yesterday' Reborn in Chicago |page=5 (Section 2) |newspaper=The New York Times |date=February 21, 1988 |access-date=May 19, 2023 |archive-date=May 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230519145204/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/21/theater/theater-born-yesterday-is-reborn-in-chicago.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Jean Arthur Ron Harper Leonard Stone The Jean Arthur Show.JPG|thumb|With [[Ron Harper (actor)|Ron Harper]] and [[Leonard Stone]] in ''[[The Jean Arthur Show]]'' (1966)]]

After ''Shane'' and ''Saint Joan'', Arthur went into retirement for 11 years.

In 1965, the reclusive Arthur returned to show business to star in an episode of ''[[Gunsmoke]]'', as Julie Blane in season 10, episode 24's "Thursday's Child". In 1966, she took on the role of Patricia Marshall, an [[Lawyer|attorney]], on her own television sitcom, ''[[The Jean Arthur Show]]'', which was cancelled midseason by [[CBS]] after only 12 episodes.

In 1967, Arthur was coaxed back to Broadway to appear as a Midwestern "[[spinster]]" who falls in with a group of [[hippie]]s in the play ''[[The Freaking Out of Stephanie Blake]]''. In his book ''The Season, ''[[William Goldman]] reconstructed the disastrous production, which eventually closed during previews when Arthur refused to go on.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://newcriterion.com/article/the-best-book-on-theater/|title=The best book on theater &#124; The New Criterion|first=Kyle|last=Smith|date=May 19, 2021|access-date=May 21, 2024|archive-date=May 21, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521121947/https://newcriterion.com/article/the-best-book-on-theater/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Arthur next decided to teach drama, first at [[Vassar College]] and then the [[North Carolina School of the Arts]].

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.<ref name=gdt>{{cite news|title=Actress Jean Arthur arrested, convicted|newspaper=Greeley Daily Tribune|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2722754/greeley_daily_tribune/|agency=Greeley Daily Tribune|date=April 14, 1973|page=18|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|access-date=June 30, 2015|archive-date=August 16, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240816010223/https://www.newspapers.com/article/greeley-daily-tribune/2722754/|url-status=live}} {{Open access}}</ref> An animal lover her entire life, Arthur said she trusted them more than people.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Oller|first=John|title=Jean Arthur: The Actress Nobody Knew|publisher=Limelight Editions|year=2004|isbn=0-87910-278-0|page=167|language=English}}</ref> She was convicted, fined $75, and given three years' probation.<ref name=gdt/>

After 11 performances of ''[[First Monday in October]]'' in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1975, Arthur then retired for good, retreating to Driftwood Cottage, her oceanside home on [[Carmel Point]] at the southern city limits of [[Carmel-by-the-Sea, California]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.architecturaldigest.com/article/1976/5/architectural-digest-visits-jean-arthur|title=Architectural Digest: Jean Arthur|website=archive.architecturaldigest.com|author=Russell Mac Masters|date=1976|access-date=November 8, 2022|archive-date=November 8, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221108180156/https://archive.architecturaldigest.com/article/1976/5/architectural-digest-visits-jean-arthur|url-status=live}}</ref> steadfastly refusing interviews until her resistance was broken down by the author of a book about Capra. Arthur once famously said that she would rather have her throat slit than give an interview.<ref>Parish 2002, p. 92.</ref>

Arthur was a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] and supported the campaigns of [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai Stevenson]] during the [[1952 United States presidential election|1952 presidential election]] and [[John F. Kennedy]] in 1960.<ref>''Motion Picture and Television Magazine'', November 1952, page 33, Ideal Publishers</ref>