Edith Norma Shearer
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Norma Shearer won Best Actress for The Divorcee at the 3rd Academy Awards in 1930. She earned six Oscar nominations, the first actor to reach that number. She starred in MGM prestige films The Barretts of Wimpole Street and Romeo and Juliet. After her husband Irving Thalberg died in 1936, she retired from acting in 1942.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Norma Shearer — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Norma Shearer by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Norma Shearer — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Norma Shearer won a beauty contest in Montreal at age fourteen. Her mother Edith took her and sister Athole to New York in 1920. Ziegfeld rejected her, but she found work as a film extra. She attended Roslyn Elementary School, Westmount High School, and the High School of Montreal.
She spent heavily on an eye doctor to correct a cross-eyed stare from muscle weakness, a condition that later affected her career.
Irving Thalberg saw Shearer’s early acting and gave her a five-year MGM contract in 1923. Her first talkie was The Trial of Mary Dugan 1929. Four films later she won the Best Actress Oscar for The Divorcee 1930. She limited her film output in the 1930s to Thalberg’s prestige projects: The Barretts of Wimpole Street 1934 and Romeo and Juliet 1936, which earned her a fifth Oscar nomination.
After Thalberg died in 1936, MGM forced her into a six-picture contract. She starred in The Women 1939 and turned down the title role in Mrs. Miniver 1942 before retiring that year.
She converted to Judaism in 1927 to marry producer Irving Thalberg. They had two children: Irving Thalberg Jr., born 1930, and Katherine, born 1935. Thalberg died of a heart attack in September 1936 at age 37.
In 1942 she married ski instructor Martin Arrouge, eleven years her junior. He waived community property rights. After retiring, she stayed out of the public eye and suffered poor health in her final decade.
Her influence extended beyond films: Anne Frank had her picture on the wall of the Secret Annex, and F. Scott Fitzgerald based his story Crazy Sunday on her. She discovered Janet Leigh and Robert Evans. After her death, she received a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame and appeared on a 2008 Canadian postage stamp.
She was the third actress to win an Academy Award, and her six nominations set a record for any actor at the time. She was called the First Lady of MGM.
Browse the complete filmography of Norma Shearer — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Norma Shearer — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Norma Shearer — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
Scarlett O’Hara Is Going to Be a Thankless and Difficult Role. the Part I’d Like to Play Is Rhett Butler.
I Get Whatever Placidity I Have from My Father. but My Mother Taught Me How to Take It on the Chin.
It Is Impossible to Get Anything Made or Accomplished Without Stepping on Some Toes; Enemies Are Inevitable When One Is a Doer.
The Morals of Yesterday Are No More. They Are as Dead as the Day They Were Lived. Economic Independence Has Put Woman on Exactly the Same Footing as Man.
Never Let Them See You in Public After You’ve Turned 35. You’re Finished If You Do!
Little-known facts about Norma Shearer — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
She converted to Judaism in 1927 to marry Irving Thalberg and continued to observe Judaism after his death until 1983.
Anne Frank placed her picture on the wall of the Secret Annex while in hiding during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam.
Six years after first husband Irving Thalberg died, she married a ski instructor 11 years her junior and retired from the screen.
She became a naturalized United States citizen in 1931.
At the height of her career, she earned $6,000 per week.
She and her brother Douglas Shearer were the first Oscar-winning brother and sister.
She was meticulous about her appearance, spending money on an eye doctor to strengthen a weak eye, swimming daily, having massages, dieting, and using light makeup to illuminate her face on screen.
She was the earliest actor of any gender to earn three, four, five, and six Oscar nominations for acting.
Even after retirement, she recommended a receptionist’s daughter to MGM, who became Janet Leigh, and discovered Robert Evans beside a swimming pool.
Her son died in 1988 of cancer; he was a philosophy professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
She would not remove her wedding ring for a role, preferring to cover it with flesh-colored tape.
She is commemorated on a 2008 postage stamp honoring prominent Canadians in Hollywood, alongside Marie Dressler, Chief Dan George, and Raymond Burr.
Sister of Athole Shearer and twelve-time Academy Award winning sound director Douglas Shearer.
She was the third actress to receive an Academy Award, winning Best Actress for The Divorcee at the 3rd Academy Awards on November 5, 1930.
F. Scott Fitzgerald based his story Crazy Sunday on a party she hosted, and she inspired the character Stella Calman.
Reportedly, Eva Perón was influenced by Shearer’s performance as Marie Antoinette.
She turned down the role of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind and the title role in Mrs. Miniver.
After Shearer and husband Irving Thalberg hosted F. Scott Fitzgerald at their Santa Monica beach house, it appeared in Crazy Sunday and the unfinished The Last Tycoon.
She turned down the role of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard; Gloria Swanson received a Best Actress nomination instead.
She gave birth to her first child at age 28, son Irving Thalberg Jr., on August 24, 1930.
She was a staunch conservative Republican active in Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidential campaign.
She made eight films in 1924.
She gave birth to her second child at age 32, daughter Katherine, on June 14, 1935.
She appeared with her mother Edith in A Clouded Name in 1924.
She was the second of three consecutive Canadian actresses to win Best Actress Oscar, following Mary Pickford and preceding Marie Dressler.
She was the first actress to receive an Academy Award nomination for a Shakespearean role, for Romeo and Juliet 1936.
She is interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, in the Great Mausoleum alongside first husband Irving Thalberg.
Her contract stipulated she would only share top billing with a male co-star, but she agreed to have Joan Crawford’s name above the title on The Women; she later relented for Rosalind Russell after a sick-out.
In 1927 she insisted on firing director Viktor Tourjansky because he was unsure of her cross-eyed stare.
Her daughter Katherine died in 2006 of cancer; she was a vegan and headed the Society for Animal Rights in Aspen from 1989.
Her peers called her the Queen of MGM Studios.
On August 10, 2020, Turner Classic Movies honored her with a day of her filmography during Summer Under the Stars.
While researching, author Suzanne Finstead discovered she was an early casting idea for Lucy Muir in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir 1947.
Joan Crawford allegedly said, Sure Norma gets all the good parts. She sleeps with the boss.
She has three granddaughters from her daughter: Ashley, Brooke, and Deva.
Sister-in-law of Howard Hawks.
She is the only actress to portray Juliet Romeo and Juliet and Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette on screen and receive Best Actress nominations for both.
She co-starred with Robert Montgomery in five MGM films: Their Own Desire, The Divorcee, Strangers May Kiss, Private Lives, and Riptide.
Her sons-in-law were skier Jack Reddish, actor Richard Anderson, and Aspen mayor Bill Stirling.
Former mother-in-law of Richard Anderson.
She is one of nine actresses nominated for playing a real-life queen, including Katharine Hepburn, Helen Mirren, and Cate Blanchett.
She appeared in five films nominated for Best Picture: The Hollywood Revue of 1929, The Divorcee, Smilin’ Through, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, and Romeo and Juliet.
Max Fleischer Studios described Betty Boop as combining the subtlety of Norma Shearer, among others, in a 1931 trade ad.
Two of her films are in the National Film Registry: He Who Gets Slapped and The Women.
She was Oscar nominated six times.
Biography in: The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 726-728.
Sister-in-law of John Ward.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Norma Shearer.
Celebrities similar to Norma Shearer — same craft, ranked by reach.
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