Norma Shearer
Known For
Acting
Born
1902-08-10 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Died
1983-06-12
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Edith Norma Shearer (August 10, 1902 – June 12, 1983) was a Canadian-American actress. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in North America from the mid-1920s through the 1930s. Her early films cast her as the girl next door, but for most of the Pre-Code film era, beginning with the 1930 film The Divorcee, for which she won an Oscar for Best Actress, she played sexually liberated women in sophisticated contemporary comedies. Later she appeared in historical and period films. Unlike many of her MGM contemporaries, Shearer's fame declined steeply after retirement. By the time of her death in 1983, she was largely remembered at best for her "noble" roles in The Women, Marie Antoinette, and Romeo and Juliet. Shearer's legacy began to be re-evaluated in the 1990s with the publication of two biographies and the TCM (Turner Classic Movies) and VHS release of her films, many of them unseen since the implementation of the Production Code some sixty years before. Focus shifted to her pre-Code "divorcee" persona, and Shearer was rediscovered as "the exemplar of sophisticated [1930's] woman-hood... exploring love and sex with an honesty that would be considered frank by modern standards". Simultaneously, Shearer's ten-year collaboration with portrait photographer George Hurrell and her lasting contribution to fashion through the designs of Adrian were also recognized. Shearer is widely celebrated by some as one of cinema's feminist pioneers: "the first American film actress to make it chic and acceptable to be single and not a virgin on screen". In March 2008, two of her most famous pre-code films, The Divorcee and A Free Soul, were released on DVD. Description above from the Wikipedia article Norma Shearer, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Most Known For
MGM Parade
Riptide
as Lady Mary Rexford
Pleasure Mad
as Elinor Benton
Her Cardboard Lover
as Consuelo Croyden
That's Entertainment!
as (archive footage) (uncredited)
Escape
as Countess Ruby von Treck
The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
as Self (archive footage)
The Women
as Mary Haines
The Waning Sex
as Nina Duane
The Stolen Jools
as Owner of Stolen Jewels
Marie Antoinette
as Marie Antoinette
Twenty Years After
as (archive footage)
Idiot's Delight
as Irene Fellara
Romeo and Juliet
as Juliet
The Restless Sex
as Reveler at Artists Ball (uncredited)
The Bootleggers
as Helen Barnes
A Free Soul
as Jan Ashe
The Hollywood Revue of 1929
as Self / Juliet
A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
as Self
That's Entertainment! III
as (archive footage)