CINEFILER

Geraldine Fitzgerald

Born
November 24, 1913
Died
July 17, 2005
Geraldine Fitzgerald, Lady Lindsay-Hogg was an Irish-American actress and a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame. She was born south of Dublin, the daughter of Edith Catherine and Edward Martin FitzGerald. She studied painting at the Dublin School of Art. Inspired by her aunt, and began her acting career in at Dublin's Gate Theatre. After two seasons in Dublin, she moved to London, where she found success in films The Mill on the Floss, The Turn of the Tide, and Cafe Mascot. Fitzgerald's success led her to the Broadway stage in 1938. She made her American debut in the Mercury Theatre production of Heartbreak House. Producer Hal B. Wallis saw her in this production and subsequently signed her to a contract with Warner Bros, where she starred in Dark Victory and Wuthering Heights. Afterwards, appeared in Shining Victory, The Gay Sisters, and Watch on the Rhine, but her career was hampered by her frequent clashes with studio management. Although she continued to work throughout the 1940s, the quality of her roles began to diminish and her career lost momentum. In 1946, shortly after completing work on Three Strangers, she left Hollywood to return to New York City, where she married her second husband, Stuart Scheftel, a grandson of Isidor Straus. She returned to Britain to film So Evil My Love, receiving strong reviews, and The Late Edwina Black, before returning to the United States. She became a naturalized United States citizen on April 18, 1955. The 1950s provided her with few opportunities in film, but during the 1960s she asserted herself as a character actor and her career enjoyed a revival. Among her successful films of this period were Ten North Frederick, The Pawnbroker, and Rachel, Rachel. Her later films included The Mango Tree, for which she received an Australian Film Institute Best Actress nomination, and Harry and Tonto, in a scene opposite Art Carney. She also starred in Arthur 1 and 2, miniseries Kennedy, Do You Remember Love, Easy Money, Poltergeist 2, as in Circle of Violence, a television film about elder abuse. Fitzgerald returned to stage acting, and won acclaim for her performance in the 1971 revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night. In 1976, she performed as a cabaret singer with the show Streetsongs, recorded an album of the show for Ben Bagley's Painted Smiles label. She also achieved success as a theatre director; becoming one of the first women to receive a Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Play. While in New York, Fitzgerald collaborated with playwright and Franciscan brother Jonathan Ringkamp to found the Everyman Theater of Brooklyn, a street theater company, that performed throughout the city. She appeared on television, in such series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Robert Montgomery Presents, Naked City, St. Elsewhere, The Golden Girls, and Cagney and Lacey. As well, she starred in Our Private World, and Mabel and Max. She won a Daytime Emmy Award as best actress for her appearance in the NBC Special Treat episode "Rodeo Red and the Runaways". Description above from the Wikipedia article Geraldine Fitzgerald, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Arthur
(1981)
Martha Bach
Wuthering Heights
(1939)
Isabella Linton
Poltergeist II: The Other Side
(1986)
Gramma-Jess
The Pawnbroker
(1964)
Marilyn Birchfield
Dark Victory
(1939)
Ann King
Rachel, Rachel
(1968)
Rev. Wood
Easy Money
(1983)
Mrs. Monahan
Harry and Tonto
(1974)
Jessie Stone
Bye Bye Monkey
(1978)
Mrs. Toland
Arthur 2: On the Rocks
(1988)
Martha Bach
Full Filmography
Acting
Open All Night
(1934)
Jill
Turn of the Tide
(1935)
Ruth Fosdyck
The Ace of Spades
(1935)
Evelyn Daventry
Department Store
(1935)
Jane Grey
Three Witnesses
(1935)
Diane Morton
Blind Justice
(1935)
Peggy Summers
The Lad
(1935)
Joan Fandon
Cafe Mascot
(1936)
Moira O'Flynn
Debt of Honour
(1936)
Peggy Mayhew
The Mill on the Floss
(1937)
Maggie Tulliver
Wuthering Heights
(1939)
Isabella Linton
Dark Victory
(1939)
Ann King
A Child Is Born
(1939)
Grace Sutton
'Til We Meet Again
(1940)
Bonny Coburn
Flight from Destiny
(1941)
Betty Farroway
Shining Victory
(1941)
Dr. Mary Murray
The Gay Sisters
(1942)
Evelyn Gaylord
Watch on the Rhine
(1943)
Marte Brankovic
Wilson
(1944)
Edith Bolling Galt
Ladies Courageous
(1944)
Virgie Alford
The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry
(1945)
Lettie Quincey
Nobody Lives Forever
(1946)
Gladys Halvorsen
Three Strangers
(1946)
Crystal Shackleford
O.S.S.
(1946)
Miss Ellen Rogers / Madame Elaine Duprez
So Evil My Love
(1948)
Susan Courtney
The Late Edwina Black
(1951)
Elizabeth Grahame
Pontius Pilate
(1952)
Claudia Procula
Dark Possession
(1954)
Charlotte Bell Wheeler
Ten North Frederick
(1958)
Edith Chapin
The Moon and Sixpence
(1959)
Amy Strickland
The Fiercest Heart
(1961)
Tante Marie
The Pawnbroker
(1964)
Marilyn Birchfield
Rachel, Rachel
(1968)
Rev. Wood
The Last American Hero
(1973)
Frau Jackson
Me
(1973)
Ma
Harry and Tonto
(1974)
Jessie Stone
Beyond the Horizon
(1975)
Mrs. Atkins
Echoes of a Summer
(1976)
Sara
Diary of the Dead
(1976)
Maud Kennaway
Ah, Wilderness!
(1976)
Essie Miller
Yesterday's Child
(1977)
Emma Talbot
The Mango Tree
(1977)
Grandma Carr
The Quinns
(1977)
Peggy Quinn
Bye Bye Monkey
(1978)
Mrs. Toland
Tartuffe
(1978)
Madame Pernelle
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
(1980)
Granny Weatherall
Arthur
(1981)
Martha Bach
Lovespell
(1981)
Bronwyn
Blood Link
(1982)
Mrs. Thomason
Easy Money
(1983)
Mrs. Monahan
Dixie: Changing Habits
(1983)
Sister Agnes
Bette Davis: The Benevolent Volcano
(1983)
Self
Do You Remember Love
(1985)
Lorraine Wyatt
Poltergeist II: The Other Side
(1986)
Gramma-Jess
Circle of Violence: A Family Drama
(1986)
Charlotte Kessling
Night of Courage
(1987)
Abby Abelsen
Arthur 2: On the Rocks
(1988)
Martha Bach
Dick Francis: Twice Shy
(1989)
Mrs. O'Rourke
Bump in the Night
(1991)
Mrs. Beauchamps
Data provided by TMDB