Norma Shearer
Norma Shearer was an Academy Award-winning Canadian American actress. She was the first actress to be nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars for a whopping 5 times. Shearer was known for playing sexy, bold, and brazen damsels on screen. She was labeled by MGM as the “First Lady of the Screen” after her marriage with “The Boy Wonder” producer Irving G. Thalberg.
Early Life
Edith Norma Shearer was born on August 10, , into a well-to-do family in Montreal, Canada. She had a brother and a sister and attended both the Montreal High School and Westmount High School.
Shearerwanted to be an actress from a very early age, however, she was not blessed with striking physical features. In , her father’s business suffered huge losses, and the Shearer family suddenly faced abject poverty. Her mother took Shearer and her sister and moved to a shabby boarding house before leaving for New York City.
Early Struggles
But life was not easy in New York. Shearer’s mother went to Broadway Impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., but he turned down her daughter brutally. Even the legendary D.W. Griffith told Shearer that she will never
Norma Shearer
Known as the “Queen of MGM”, Norma Shearer appeared in over 60 films throughout her year career. Norma successfully transitioned from silent films to talkies in the late s and became one of the most popular actresses in early Hollywood.
Norma is remembered for being a strong-willed woman. She influenced how women were seen in film through her revolutionary roles, which portrayed the independent, self-sufficient women of the s and s. By controlling her own public image and career, Norma transformed herself into a fashion icon and one of the most recognizable and influential women in early Hollywood.
This exhibition highlights Norma’s early life in Canada, her relationships, and the impact she had on the film industry as the “Queen of MGM”. We invite you to discover Norma through this vibrant collection of films and photographs.
Norma Shearer
| American actress Date of Birth: Country: Canada |
Content:
- Early Life and Family
- Trials and Tribulations
- Arrival in New York City
- Early Acting Roles
- Turning Point
- Hollywood Success
- Marriage to Irving Thalberg
- Academy Award and Leading Lady
- Loss and Retirement
- Later Years
- Legacy
Early Life and Family
Norma Shearer was born Norma Shearer Tremblay on August 10, , in Montreal, Canada. Her father, Andrew Shearer, was a successful building contractor, and her mother, Edith Shearer, was a beautiful and elegant woman known for her extramarital affairs and drug use. Edith desired her daughter to become a concert pianist, but Norma, from the tender age of nine, was determined to be an actress. Edith, however, doubted her daughter's ability due to her perceived lack of beauty.
Physically, Norma was a heavyset adolescent with broad shoulders, sturdy legs, and small, slightly crossed eyes. Despite these perceived flaws, Norma possessed an unyielding belief in her ability to captivate audiences through her charm.
Trials and Tribulations
Norma's pursuit of acting faced its first significant hurdle in when her father's company went bankrupt and
Norma Shearer ()
Her career started in the silent era and she easily made the transition to Talkies, aided by her brother Douglas, who was Recording Director at MGM. Norma and Douglas were the first Oscar-winning brother and sister.
Her "good girl" image at the start of her career in Silent Movies changed with a series of highly successful pre-Code, sexually liberated roles. After the Code began to be enforced she developed a more demure image and she appeared in period dramas and "prestige" pictures such as 'The Barretts of Wimpole Street' produced by her husband, the young MGM mogul, Irving Thalberg.
She has not been remembered as some of her contemporaries have but recently her career has been re-evaluated and celebrated 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".
Biography
She was born Edith Norma Shearer in Montreal, CanadBiographies you may also like
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