Donna Reed:
American actress Donna Reed was born in Denison, Iowa, on January 27, 1921, and passed away in Beverly Hills, California, on January 14, 1986. She starred in numerous films in the 1940s and 1950s before becoming well-known on television for her portrayal of the innocent, endearing “girl next door.”
After completing his high school education in Iowa, Donna Reed relocated to California to attend Los Angeles City College. She was selected as Campus Queen while there, and movie talent scouts were drawn to her newspaper-published photos. In the 1941 B-movie The Get-Away, she starred in her first major role. She also had an uncredited part in Babes on Broadway (1941), the fourth movie in the Thin Man series, and Shadow of the Thin Man (1941).
Calling Dr. Gillespie (1942), starring Lionel Barrymore; The Human Comedy (1943), which was based on a William Saroyan story; See Here, Private Hargrove (1944), in which she starred opposite Robert Walker; and Albert Lewin’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), which was adapted from Oscar Wilde’s novel, were just a few of the numerous films that came after. In the Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Reed’s portrayal of the lovely and stable Mary won her enduring praise.
She went on to perform comparable parts opposite John Wayne in movies like Green Dolphin Street (1947), Saturday’s Hero (1951), and Trouble Along the Way (1953). Eventually, the critically acclaimed epic From Here to Eternity (1953) gave her an opportunity to defy her preconceived notions by casting her as a staunch prostitute who was taken aback by her own weakness.
She received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her stirring, poignant performance. She did not, however, receive many more difficult parts despite winning the Oscar. Her subsequent movies included Raoul Walsh’s Gun Fury (1953), starring Rock Hudson, and The Caddy (1953), starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.
Donna Reed collaborated with Richard Widmark on John Sturges’s Backlash (1956), as Sacagawea in The Far Horizons (1955), and played the title character’s love interest in The Benny Goodman Story (1956).
In the long-running sitcom The Donna Reed Show (1958–1966), Reed went on to have enormous success on television as the sensible and endearing wife and mother. She received four Emmy Award nominations between 1959 and 1962, and her performance earned her a Golden Globe in 1963.
She didn’t do any acting after the series finished. She guest-starred on The Love Boat in 1984, made appearances in TV films in 1979 and 1983, and took Barbara Bel Geddes’ position as Miss Ellie Ewing in the 1984–85 season of Dallas.