Barbara O'Neil

Barbara O'Neil (17 July 1910 – 3 September 1980) was an American actress.

O'Neil was born in St. Louis, Missouri. She began her acting career in summer stock. In July 1931 Bretaigne Windust, Charles Leatherbee (the grandson of Charles Richard Crane), and Joshua Logan, the three directors of the University Players, a three-year old summer stock company at West Falmouth on Cape Code, were looking for a leading lady type for their repertory season that winter in Baltimore. At the suggestion of George Pierce Baker, they auditioned and hired O'Neil, one of his talented students at the Yale School of Drama. Romances born of the University Players led to three significant marriages: O'Neil to Joshua Logan for a few years in the 1930s, Logan's little sister Mary Lee Logan to Charles Leatherbee, and that of a few months in 1932 between actress Margaret Sullavan and actor Henry Fonda.

In 1937 O'Neil debuted in film in the movie Stella Dallas and in 1939 she was cast in the role of Ellen O'Hara, Scarlett O'Hara's mother, in Gone with the Wind. The following year, she appeared in All This and Heaven Too; she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the role of the jealous Duchesse de Praslin.

Her later films include Shining Victory (1941), I Remember Mama ,The Nun's Story and Otto Preminger's Whirlpool (1949).

External links

• Barbara O'Neil at the Internet Movie Database