Gloria Grahame was an American actress known for roles in such films as It's a Wonderful Life, The Big Heat, Naked Alibi, and Oklahoma!.http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/02/12/gloria_grahame_article.shtml She first received attention for her role of Violet Bick in It's a Wonderful Life, where she played a woman who, along with Donna Reed's character, was pursuing the affections of George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart).http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1333040/Gloria-Grahame

Gloria Grahame received professional and popular recognition for her work, including a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in The Bad and the Beautiful.http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1333040/Gloria-Grahame However, her career, as Emily Carlisle of the BBC put it, was seen as stunted by the "...rigid studio system..."http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/02/12/gloria_grahame_article.shtml that "...instantly saw her as too smart to be a sex kitten, too naughty to be an ingenue, and too pretty to be an out-and-out villain."http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/02/12/gloria_grahame_article.shtml

Gloria Grahame was born Gloria Hallward on November 28, 1923 to an architect father and an actress mother (who went by the stage name Jean Grahame).http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002108/bio Her mother worked with her as her acting coach and Gloria began acting professionally while still in high school. She found work in Off Broadway shows by 1943 and ended up working in Hollywood in 1944.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002108/bio Her role as Violet in the 1946 Frank Capra film It’s a Wonderful Life garnered her attention, as did her role as Ginny in Crossfire (1947), for which she received an Oscar nomination.http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/02/12/gloria_grahame_article.shtml

She was nominated for an Oscar for her role in The Bad and the Beautiful five years later, this time winning. Her role in Oklahoma! was another that received awards and recognition.http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/O/OK090.html However, Grahame’s personal issues began to impact her career. The roles she was able to get in Hollywood began to dwindle and were of lower caliber than they had been previously.http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/02/12/gloria_grahame_article.shtmlShe worked during this time on stage as well, and continued to do so until her death from cancer in 1981.http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/02/12/gloria_grahame_article.shtml

• 1944: Blonde Feverhttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002108/

• 1945: Without Love

• 1946: It's A Wonderful Life

• 1947: Merton of the Movies, Song of the Thin Man, Crossfire, It Happened in Brooklyn

• 1949: Roughshod, A Woman's Secret

• 1950: It's A Lonely Place

• 1952: The Bad and the Beautiful, Sudden Fear, Macao, The Greatest Show on Earth

• 1953: Prisoners of the Casbah, The Big Heat, Man on a Tightrope, The Glass Wall

• 1954: Naked Alibi, Human Desire, The Good Die Young

• 1955: The Cobweb, Not As A Stranger, Oklahoma!

• 1956: The Man Who Never Was

• 1957: Ride Out For Revenge

• 1959: Odds Against Tomorrow

• 1971: Blood and Lace, The Todd Killings, Chandler

• 1972: The Loners

• 1973: Tarot

• 1974: Mama's Dirty Girls

• 1976: Mansion of the Doomed

• 1979: A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, Chilly Scenes of Winter

• 1980: Melvin and Howard

• 1981: The Nesting

"It wasn't the way I looked at a man, it was the thought behind it." — Gloria Grahamehttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002108/bio

"I don't think I ever understood Hollywood." — Gloria Grahamehttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002108/bio