Teresa Wright

Muriel Teresa Wright (October 27, 1918 – March 6, 2005) was an American actress. She won the 1942 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Carol Beldon in Mrs. Miniver. She was nominated for the same award in 1941 for her debut work in The Little Foxes. Also in 1942, she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Pride of the Yankees, opposite Gary Cooper. She is also known for her performances in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943), and in William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).

Wright received three Emmy Award nominations for her performances in the original Playhouse 90 television version of The Miracle Worker (1957), in the NBC Sunday Showcase feature The Margaret Bourke-White Story (1959), and in the CBS drama series Dolphin Cove (1989). She earned the acclaim of top film directors, including William Wyler, who called her the most promising actress he had directed,<ref name="washpost-bernstein"/> and Alfred Hitchcock, who admired her thorough preparation and quiet professionalism.Template:Sfn

Early life

Muriel Teresa Wright was born on October 27, 1918, in New York City,<ref name="independent-vallance"/> the daughter of Martha Espy and Arthur Hendricksen Wright, an insurance agent.Template:CnTemplate:Sfn Her parents separated when she was young. She grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey, where she attended Columbia High School.<ref name="independent-vallance"/> After seeing Helen Hayes star in Victoria Regina at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City in 1936, Wright took an interest in acting and began playing leading roles in school plays.<ref name="nytimes-martin"/>

Wright earned a scholarship to the Wharf Theater in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where she was an apprentice for two summers.<ref name="independent-vallance"/><ref name="nytimes-martin"/> Following her high school graduation in 1938, she went to New York, shortened her name to "Teresa Wright", and was hired as understudy to Dorothy McGuire and Martha Scott for the role of Emily in Thornton Wilder's stage production of Our Town at Henry Miller's Theatre.Template:Cn Wright took over the role when Scott left for Hollywood to film the on-screen version of the play.<ref name="independent-vallance"/>

Acting career

Template:Multiple image In autumn 1939, Wright began a two-year appearance in the stage play Life with Father, playing the role of Mary Skinner. It was there that she was discovered by Samuel Goldwyn, who came to see her in the show she had been appearing in for almost a year. Goldwyn would later recall his first encounter with her backstage:

Goldwyn immediately hired the young actress for the role of Bette Davis' daughter in the 1941 adaptation of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes, signing her to a five-year Hollywood contract with the Goldwyn Studios. Asserting her seriousness as an actress, Wright insisted her contract contain unique clauses by Hollywood standards:

In 1941, Wright was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her film début in The Little Foxes. The following year, she was nominated again, this time for Best Actress for The Pride of the Yankees, in which she played opposite Gary Cooper as the wife of Lou Gehrig. The same year, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as the daughter-in-law of Greer Garson's character in Mrs. Miniver. Wright is the first of only nine actors who have been nominated in both categories in the same year.<ref name="independent-vallance"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Her three Academy Award nominations and one Academy Award in her first three films is unique.<ref name="latimes-oliver"/> She remains the only performer to have received Academy Award nominations for her first three films.<ref name="altfilm-soares"/>

In 1943, Wright appeared in the acclaimed Universal film Shadow of a Doubt, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, playing a young woman who discovers her beloved uncle (played by Joseph Cotten) is a serial murderer. Hitchcock thought Wright was one of the more intelligent actors he had worked with, and through his direction, he brought out her vivacity, warmth, and youthful idealism—characteristics uncommon in Hitchcock's heroines.<ref name="guardian-bergan"/> In 1946, Wright delivered another notable performance in William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives, an award-winning film about the adjustments of servicemen returning home after World War II. Critic James Agee praised her performance in The Nation:

Four years later, she would appear in another story of war veterans, Fred Zinnemann's The Men (1950), which starred Marlon Brando in his film debut.<ref name="guardian-bergan"/> In 1947, Wright appeared in the western Pursued opposite Robert Mitchum. The moody "Freudian western" was written by her first husband Niven Busch. The following year, she starred in Enchantment, a story of two generations of lovers in parallel romances. Wright received glowing reviews for her performance. Newsweek commented: "Miss Wright, one of the screen's finest, glows as the Cinderella who captivated three men." And The New York Times concluded: "Teresa Wright plays with that breathless, bright-eyed rapture which she so remarkably commands."<ref name="independent-vallance"/>

In December 1948, after rebelling against the studio system that brought her fame, Wright had a public falling out with Samuel Goldwyn, which resulted in the cancellation of Wright's contract with his studio. In a statement published in The New York Times, Goldwyn cited as reasons her refusal to publicize the film Enchantment, and her being "uncooperative" and refusing to "follow reasonable instructions".<ref name="reel-classics-tw"/> In her written response, Wright denied Goldwyn's charges and expressed no regret over losing her $5,000 per week contract. Template:Blockquote

Years later, in an interview with The New York Post, Wright recalled: "I was going to be Joan of Arc, and all I proved was that I was an actress who would work for less money." For her next film, The Men (1950), instead of the $125,000 she had once commanded, she received $20,000.<ref name="nytimes-martin"/>

File:The Capture (1950) 1.jpg

Wright and Lew Ayres in The Capture (1950)

In the 1950s, Wright appeared in several unsuccessful films, including The Capture (1950), Something to Live For (1952), California Conquest (1952), The Steel Trap (1952), Count the Hours (1953), The Actress (1953) and Track of the Cat (1954), opposite Robert Mitchum again.Template:Cn Despite the poor box-office showing of these films, Wright was usually praised for her performances.<ref name="independent-vallance"/> Toward the end of the decade, Wright began to work more frequently in television and theatre. She received Emmy Award nominations for her performances in the Playhouse 90 original television version of The Miracle Worker (1957) and in the Breck Sunday Showcase feature The Margaret Bourke-White Story (1960).Template:Cn In 1955 she played Doris Walker in The 20th Century-Fox Hour remake of the 1947 movie Miracle on 34th Street, opposite MacDonald Carey and Thomas Mitchell. In 1957, she starred on Broadway in The Dark at the Top of the Stairs by William Inge. Directed by Elia Kazan, it ran for 468 performances.

On February 8, 1960, Wright was inducted to the Hollywood Walk of Fame with two stars: one for motion pictures at 1658 Vine Street, and one for television at 6405 Hollywood Boulevard.<ref name="walk-of-fame"/>

In the 1960s, Wright returned to the New York stage appearing in three plays: Mary, Mary (1962) at the Helen Hayes Theatre in the role of Mary McKellaway, I Never Sang for My Father (1968) at the Longacre Theatre in the role of Alice, and Who's Happy Now? (1969) at the Village South Theatre in the role of Mary Hallen. During this period, she toured throughout the United States in stage productions of Mary, Mary (1962), Tchin-Tchin (1963) in the role of Pamela Pew-Picket, and The Locksmith (1965) in the role of Katherine Butler Hathaway. In addition to her stage work, Wright made numerous television appearances throughout the decade, including episodes for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1964) on CBS, Bonanza (1964) on NBC, The Defenders (1964, 1965) on CBS and CBS Playhouse (1969).Template:Cn

In 1975, Wright appeared in the Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman, and in 1980, appeared in the revival of Morning's at Seven, for which she won a Drama Desk Award as a member of the Outstanding Ensemble Performance.

She appeared on The Love Boat S6 E11 "A Christmas Presence" as Sister Regina, who foils a con man's scheme to smuggle stolen gold molded as a painted creche scene. The episode aired on 12/18/1982. In 1989, she received her third Emmy Award nomination for her performance in the CBS drama series Dolphin Cove.Template:Cn She also appeared in Murder, She Wrote in the episode "Mr. Penroy's Vacation". Her last television role was in an episode of the CBS drama series Picket Fences in 1996.Template:Citation needed

Wright's later film appearances included a major role in Somewhere in Time (1980), the grandmother in The Good Mother (1988) with Diane Keaton, and her final role as Miss Birdie in John Grisham's The Rainmaker (1997), directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Personal life

Wright was married to writer Niven Busch from 1942 to 1952. They had two children: a son, Niven Terence Busch, born December 2, 1944; and a daughter, Mary-Kelly Busch, born September 12, 1947.<ref name="washpost-bernstein" /> She married playwright Robert Anderson in 1959.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> They divorced in 1978, but maintained a close relationship until the end of her life.

In her last decade, Wright lived quietly in her New England home in the town of Bridgewater, Connecticut, in Litchfield County, appearing occasionally at film festivals and forums and at events associated with the New York Yankees. In 1996, she reminisced about Alfred Hitchcock at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, and in 2003, she appeared on the Academy Awards show in a segment honoring previous Oscar-winners.<ref name="independent-vallance" />

Her daughter, Mary-Kelly, is an author of books for children and young adults.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Wright has two grandchildren, one of whom, Jonah Smith, co-produced Darren Aronofsky's films Pi (1998) and Requiem for a Dream (2000). In 1998, Smith accompanied Wright on her first visit to Yankee Stadium when she was invited to throw the ceremonial first pitch. Her appearance in Pride of the Yankees had sparked an interest in baseball and led her to become a Yankees fan.

Death and legacy

Teresa Wright died on March 6, 2005 after suffering a heart attack at age 86 in Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut.<ref name="washpost-bernstein" /> She donated her body to Yale School of Medicine before being buried at Evergreen Cemetery in New Haven.<ref name="resting" />

When the roll call of former Yankees who had died was announced at Old Timer's Day on July 5, 2005, Wright's name was read among the ballplayers and members of the Yankees family.

A Girl's Got to Breathe: The Life of Teresa Wright by Donald Spoto was published in February 2016. Spoto was a close friend to Wright for more than 30 years, and was given exclusive access by her family to her papers and correspondence.<ref>"Review: A Girl's Got to Breathe: The Life of Teresa Wright, University Press of Mississippi Donald Spoto". Publishers Weekly. December 7, 2015. "Prolific celebrity biographer Spoto (The Redgraves: A Family Epic) paints an engaging and intimate portrait of Oscar-winning actor Teresa Wright." Retrieved March 18, 2022.</ref><ref>Rees, Stephen (February 1, 2016). "Performing Arts; Review: Spoto, Donald. A Girl's Got To Breathe: The Life of Teresa Wright'". Library Journal. "VERDICT This affectionate tribute to a shamefully neglected talent benefits greatly from the insights of Wright's children and friends. With the performer's views on Marlon Brando, Sterling Hayden, and notable American directors and playwrights, it is recommended for students of American film and theater." Retrieved March 18, 2022.</ref>

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes	Template:Tooltip
1941	Template:Sortname	Alexandra Giddens	William Wyler	Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress	<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1942	Mrs. Miniver	Carol Beldon	William Wyler	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress	<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1942	Template:Sortname	Eleanor Twitchell Gehrig	Sam Wood	Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actress	<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1943	Shadow of a Doubt	Charlotte "Charlie" Newton	Alfred Hitchcock		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1944	Casanova Brown	Isabel Drury	Sam Wood		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1946	Template:Sortname	Peggy Stephenson	William Wyler		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1947	Pursued	Thorley Callum	Raoul Walsh		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1947	The Imperfect Lady	Millicent Hopkins	Lewis Allen		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1947	The Trouble with Women	Kate Farrell	Sidney Lanfield		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1948	Enchantment	Lark Ingoldsby	Irving Reis		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1950	Template:Sortname	Ellen Tevlin Vanner	John Sturges		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1950	Template:Sortname	Ellen "Elly" Wilosek	Fred Zinnemann		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1952	Something to Live For	Edna Miller	George Stevens		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1952	California Conquest	Julie Lawrence	Lew Landers		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1952	Template:Sortname	Laurie Osborne	Andrew L. Stone		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1953	Count the Hours	Ellen Braden	Don Siegel		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1953	Template:Sortname	Annie Jones	George Cukor		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1954	Track of the Cat	Grace Bridges	William A. Wellman		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1956	The Search for Bridey Murphy	Ruth Simmons	Noel Langley		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1957	Escapade in Japan	Mary Saunders	Arthur Lubin		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1958	The Restless Years	Elizabeth Grant	Helmut Käutner		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1964	The Alfred Hitchcock Hour	Marion Brown	Joseph Newman	Season 2 Episode 12: "Three Wives Too Many"	<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1964	The Alfred Hitchcock Hour	Stella	Harvey Hart	Season 3 Episode 6: "Lonely Place"	<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1964	Bonanza	Katherine Saunders	William F. Claxton	Season 5 Episode 16: "My Son, My Son"	<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1969	Hail, Hero!	Santha Dixon	David Miller		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1969	Template:Sortname	Mrs. Spencer	Richard Brooks		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1972	Crawlspace	Alice Graves	John Newland	TV movie	<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1974	Hawkins		Jud Taylor	Season 1 Episode 6: "Murder on the 13th Floor"
1974	The Elevator	Edith Reynolds	Jerry Jameson	TV movie	<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1976	Flood!	Alice Cutler	Earl Bellamy	TV movie	<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1977	Roseland	May (The Waltz)	James Ivory		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1980	Somewhere in Time	Laura Roberts	Jeannot Szwarc		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1983	Bill: On His Own	Mae Driscoll	Anthony Page	TV movie	<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1987	Template:Sortname	Miranda's Grandmother	Calvin Skaggs	TV movie	<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1988	Template:Sortname	Eleanor, Grandmother	Leonard Nimoy		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1990	Perry Mason: The Case of the Desperate Deception	Helene Berman	Christian I. Nyby II	TV movie	<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1990	The Exorcist III	Penitent	William Peter Blatty	Cameo, uncredited
1993	Template:Sortname		Robin Swicord	Short	<ref name="tcm-tw"/>
1997	Template:Sortname	Colleen "Miss Birdie" Birdsong	Francis Ford Coppola		<ref name="tcm-tw"/>

References

Sources

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External links

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