Ruby Catherine Stevens
13 min read
Reading time
2,510
Words
Published
7
Awards
Barbara Stanwyck appeared in 93 films over a 59-year career that began in 1927. Despite four Academy Award nominations, she never won competitively but received an honorary Oscar in 1982. She is best remembered as Victoria Barkley on The Big Valley 1965 and for her film noir Double Indemnity 1944. She died in 1990 at age 82.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Barbara Stanwyck — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Barbara Stanwyck by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Barbara Stanwyck — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Ruby Catherine Stevens entered the world on July 16, 1907, in Brooklyn, New York, but her mother Catherine McPhee died when she was young and her father Byron Stevens left the family. Raised by older sisters, she quit a telephone company job at age 17 to become a chorus girl, earning $40 a week.
In 1928, Stanwyck moved to Hollywood and built a reputation with dramas like Stella Dallas 1937 and the film noir Double Indemnity 1944 opposite Fred MacMurray. Comedies such as The Lady Eve 1941 and westerns like Union Pacific 1939 showcased her versatility. On television, she played Victoria Barkley on The Big Valley 1965-1969 and Mary Carson in The Thorn Birds 1983, earning two Primetime Emmy Awards.
Stanwyck married Frank Fay in 1928, adopting a son, Dion, in 1932. The marriage collapsed in 1935 after Fay threw Dion into a swimming pool during a fight. She married actor Robert Taylor in 1939, and they divorced in 1952. A committed Republican, she belonged to the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. Robert Wagner, more than 20 years her junior, later claimed a four-year relationship with Stanwyck.
Stanwyck’s career spanned 93 films and television work through 1986. In 1982, she received an Honorary Academy Award for superlative creativity and unique contribution to the art of screen acting. The American Film Institute named her the 11th greatest screen legend. Sally Field and Virginia Madsen have cited her as a role model. Audiences most associate her with Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity 1944 and the matriarch Victoria Barkley on The Big Valley.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by Barbara Stanwyck — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Barbara Stanwyck — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
I’m a Tough Old Broad from Brooklyn. I Intend to Go on Acting Until I’m Ninety and They Won’t Need to Paste My Face with Make-up.
Put Me in the Last Fifteen Minutes of a Picture and I Don’t Care What Happened Before. I Don’t Even Care If I Was iN the Rest of the Damned Thing – I’ll Take It in Those Fifteen Minutes.
My Only Problem Is Finding a Way to Play My Fortieth Fallen Female in a Different Way from My Thirty-ninth.
It’s Perhaps Not the Future I Would Choose. I Still Think It’s Possible to Make a Success of Both Marriage and Career, Even Though I Didn’t. but It’s Not a Bad Future. and I’m Not Afraid of It.
I Couldn’t Remember My Name for Weeks. I’d Be at the Theater and Hear Them Calling, Miss Stanwyck, Miss Stanwyck, and I’d Think, Where Is That Dame? Why Doesn’t She Answer? by Crickie, It’s Me!
Egotism – Usually Just a Case of Mistaken Nonentity.
There’s Nothing More Fun in the Whole World Than Seeing a Child Open a Present at Christmas. to Have a Six-year-old Boy Stroke a Bicycle with His Eyes And, Not Daring to Touch, Turn and Ask, Is It Mine, Missy? Really Mine? That’s Part of My Future. the Rest Is Work. And, I Hope, Some Wisdom.
Attention Embarrasses Me. I Don’t Like to Be on Display.
I Want to Go on Until They Have to Shoot Me.
Some Kids Are Born with Bad Blood Just Like Horses. When a Parent Has Done Everything Possible, the Only Solution Is to Save Yourself.
I’m Not a Yesterday’s Woman. I’m a Tomorrow’s Woman. If I Don’t Have a Job, What Am I Going to Give Interviews About?
I Couldn’t Stand Being Passive. I Couldn’t Play the Placid Girl.
Little-known facts about Barbara Stanwyck — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Stanwyck was frequently called the best actress who never won an Oscar.
During her marriage to Frank Fay, Stanwyck lived near Joan Crawford. Between 1932 and 1934, she would escape Fay’s volatility by climbing a fence to Crawford’s house for refuge. The two remained lifelong friends.
When Stanwyck received her Honorary Oscar in 1982, John Travolta presented the statuette. Travolta later called the experience his supreme Oscar moment, as Stanwyck had been a family favorite for years.
Marilyn Monroe, who worked with Stanwyck in Clash by Night 1952, said Stanwyck was the only older Hollywood star kind to her.
The film A Star Is Born 1937 is said to be modeled after Stanwyck’s rise and Frank Fay’s decline.
Stanwyck urged producers to keep William Holden in Golden Boy 1939, making him a star. At the 1978 Oscars, Holden publicly thanked her, and the exchange drew thunderous applause.
In 1981, Stanwyck was burglarized at home, hit on the head, and locked in a closet. Four years later, her house was destroyed by fire, destroying love letters from Robert Taylor.
Stanwyck had no funeral. She was cremated and her ashes scattered from a helicopter over Lone Pine, California, where she made Western films.
Stanwyck starred in DeMille’s Union Pacific 1939 and received the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1986. In her speech, she thanked her beloved television brother Charlton Heston.
Stanwyck planned to play the lead in Mildred Pierce 1945, but Joan Crawford got the role first.
According to the documentary Fire and Desire 1991, Stanwyck became a role model for female actors, including Sally Field and Virginia Madsen.
Cecil B. DeMille wrote that among actresses he directed, Stanwyck was his favorite. He said she always worked with all her heart.
Stanwyck’s marriage to Frank Fay ended after he tossed their adopted son Dion into a swimming pool during a drunken brawl. Divorce was finalized on December 30, 1935. Dion became estranged from Stanwyck at age 19 and they only met a few times afterward.
A 1000-page biography of Stanwyck by Victoria Wilson, published in 2013, is only the first volume covering her first 33 years.
Stanwyck was a heavy smoker, later developing bronchitis and COPD, which caused her death at age 82.
She picked up the starring role in Ball of Fire 1941 after Ginger Rogers dropped out.
Peter Breck, Lee Majors, and Linda Evans were huge fans of hers as children. As adults, they co-starred with her on The Big Valley 1965.
Stanwyck was best friends for many years with Frank Sinatra’s first wife, Nancy.
In 1944, she earned $400,000, making her the nation’s highest-paid woman.
She was voted the 40th Greatest Movie Star of All Time by Entertainment Weekly.
She worked briefly as a fashion model in the late 1920s.
Her nickname among co-workers was Missy or The Queen.
AFI listed her as #11 on 100 Years of The Greatest Screen Legends.
Her role as Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity 1944 was ranked #8 on AFI’s 100 Greatest Screen Heroes and Villains list. The performance also ranked #98 on Premiere Magazine’s 100 Greatest Performances list and #58 on their 100 Greatest Movie Characters list.
Three comedies she starred in during 1941 Meet John Doe, Ball of Fire, The Lady Eve were Oscar-nominated for Best Story, but none won.
Forty of her films were screened in a tribute at New York City’s Film Forum in December 2013.
She has four films in the National Film Registry: Baby Face 1933, The Lady Eve 1941, Ball of Fire 1941, and Double Indemnity 1944.
During her 1984 Golden Globes acceptance speech for The Thorn Birds, she spent time praising Ann-Margret for her performance in a different category, typical of her generosity.
An early episode of The Big Valley had her character lose both parents as a child, mirroring Stanwyck’s own life.
She was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1973.
Stanwyck said her favorite leading man was her second husband, Robert Taylor. They made three films together: His Brother’s Wife 1936, This Is My Affair 1937, and The Night Walker 1964.
She received the AFI Life Achievement Award.
Robert Wagner, more than 20 years her junior, claimed a four-year relationship with Stanwyck.
She was considered for Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind 1939.
A standard Hollywood joke of the time: Who’s got the biggest prick? Answer: Barbara Stanwyck, referring to her husband Frank Fay’s womanizing and her own success.
Her stage name came from a poster reading Jane Stanwyck in Barbara Frietchie.
Born Ruby Catherine Stevens of English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry, she was the youngest of five children. Her mother died and father abandoned the family; she was raised by sisters.
Stanwyck was a staunch Republican and a member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals alongside Ginger Rogers, Clark Gable, and John Wayne.
She served as acting mentor and friend to Linda Evans and Lee Majors.
She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1751 Vine St.
Through Oscar Levant, Frank Fay met Stanwyck after her Broadway debut in Burlesque 1927. They married in 1928.
Stanwyck vehemently opposed Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency, believing people should succeed without government assistance.
She appears in one Best Picture nominee: Double Indemnity 1944.
She was Turner Classic Movie’s Star of the Month for December 2012.
She twice played a character named Jessica Drummond: in My Reputation 1946 and Forty Guns 1957.
DeMille cast Stanwyck in Union Pacific 1939 after Claudette Colbert and Vivien Leigh turned it down. She became his all-time favorite actress.
Her papers are held at the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
She was profiled in the book Funny Ladies by Stephen Silverman.
Her real-life brother Bert Stevens appears as a courtroom defense aide in The File on Thelma Jordan.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Barbara Stanwyck.
Celebrities similar to Barbara Stanwyck — same craft, ranked by reach.
🇺🇸 United States
🇦🇹 Austria
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
🇮🇹 Italy
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
🇮🇳 India
🇺🇸 United States
🇺🇸 United States
