Barbara Stanwyck (2025)

Barbara Stanwyck
(2025, 9x12, pencils)

Barbara Stanwyck was born Ruby Catherine Stevens in 1907. I know it’s common for actors and actresses to have a stage name, but come on…Ruby Stevens would have been pretty memorable. But I digress.

Before her 59-year career on screen, Barbara worked for the phone company at the age of 14 and later was a chorus girl in New York at 17. In 1928, she moved to sunny Los Angeles where her versatile acting skills and her trademark seductively husky voice made her famous. In 1944, she was recognized as the highest-paid woman in America after earning $400,000 that year. In today’s dollars, that’s like a bajillion. No wonder she was known as “the Queen”.

After a lengthy film career, she had important television roles in “The Big Valley”, “Dynasty” and its spinoff “The Colbys”. As with so many of her peers, she died of smoking-related illnesses in 1990.

Notable Films Include:
The Lady Eve (1941)
Ball of Fire (1941)
Double Indemnity (1944) w/ Fred MacMurray
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) w/ Lizabeth Scott
The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947) w/ Humphrey Bogart
Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)
Clash by Night (1952) w/ Marilyn Monroe
Titanic (1953)
Witness to Murder (1954)
Crime of Passion (1956)
There’s Always Tomorrow (1956)
Forty Guns (1957) as the villain rancher