Miriam Hopkins

Ellen Miriam Hopkins (1902 October 18 – 1972 October 9) was an American actress.

Born in Savannah, Georgia and raised in nearby Bainbridge, she attended a finishing school in Vermont and Syracuse University. At the age of 20, she became a chorus girl in New York City. In 1930, she signed with Paramount Studios, and made her official film debut in Fast and Loose.

Her first great success was in Ernst Lubitsch's masterpiece Trouble in Paradise (1932), in which she proved her charm and her wit as a beautiful and jealous pickpocket. During the rest of the 1930s she appeared in such films as The Smiling Lieutenant (1931), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), Becky Sharp (1935), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, Barbary Coast (1935), These Three (1936) and The Old Maid (1939).

Bette Davis later wrote of Hopkins' difficult manner during the production of their two films The Old Maid (1939) and Old Acquaintance (1943), saying that Hopkins was a very talented actress, but her insecurity led her to constantly try to upstage her co-stars and steal their scenes. It is said that in Trouble in Paradise Lubitsch had to nail her chair to the floor to prevent her from upstaging co-star Kay Francis. One of the scenes in Old Acquaintance which Davis admitted to enjoying very much was one where she slaps Hopkins hard. There were even press photos taken with both divas in boxing rings with gloves up and director Vincent Sherman between the two. Davis attributed the demise of Hopkins' film career to her reputation in Hollywood as temperamental and difficult. After Old Acquaintance she didn't work again in film until 1949's The Heiress. In Mitchell Leisen's 1951's classic screwball comedy The Mating Season she gave a comic performance as Gene Tierney's over the top mother, Thelma Ritter also co-starred as Tierney's maid-mother in law.

Hopkins was one of the actresses who auditioned to portray Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, having one advantage that no other leading lady had: she was a native Georgian; however she did not get the part, which went to Vivien Leigh, with Paulette Goddard close behind.

She was married and divorced four times: first to actor Brandon Peters, second to aviator Austin Parker, third to the director Anatole Litvak, and fourth to war correspondent Raymond B. Brock. In 1932, Hopkins adopted a son, Michael Hopkins.

She was also known for throwing wild parties that bordered on orgies and engaging in a bisexual lifestyle, as chronicled in The Sewing Circle, a book written (by Boze Hadleigh) about lesbians in Hollywood.

Hopkins died in New York, New York from a heart attack nine days before her 70th birthday.

She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for motion pictures at 1701 Vine Street, and one for television at 1708 Vine Street.

Filmography

• The Home Girl (1928) (short subject)
• Fast and Loose (1930)
• The Smiling Lieutenant (1931)
• 24 Hours (1931)
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
• Hollywood on Parade (1932) (short subject)
• Two Kinds of Women (1932)
• Dancers in the Dark (1932)
• World and the Flesh (1932)
• Trouble in Paradise (1932)
• The Story of Temple Drake (1933)
• The Stranger's Return (1933)
• Design for Living (1933)
• All of Me (1934)
• She Loves Me Not (1934)
• The Richest Girl in the World (1934)
• Becky Sharp (1935)
• Barbary Coast (1935)
• Splendor (1935)
• These Three (1936)
• Men Are Not Gods (1936)
• The Woman I Love (1937)
• Woman Chases Man (1937)
• Wise Girl (1937)
• The Old Maid (1939)
• Virginia City (1940)
• Lady with Red Hair (1940)
• A Gentleman After Dark (1942)
• Old Acquaintance (1943)
• The Heiress (1949)
• The Mating Season (1951)
• Carrie (1952)
• The Children's Hour (1961)
• Fanny Hill (1964)
• The Chase (1966)
• Savage Intruder (1969)

External links

• Miriam Hopkins at the Internet Movie Database
• Miriam Hopkins' Photos & Gravesite

This article is based on a GNU FDL LGBT Wikia article: Hopkins Miriam Hopkins

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