{"id":1992,"date":"2013-11-17T18:08:51","date_gmt":"2013-11-18T02:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qgp.ykq.mybluehost.me\/cinephiled\/?p=1992"},"modified":"2013-11-20T12:26:36","modified_gmt":"2013-11-20T20:26:36","slug":"charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie\u2019s Hollywood Star-of-the-Week: Teresa Wright"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"charlie-oscar2\"<\/a>A weekly feature in which my four-year-old son is let loose on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Los Angeles, and chooses a star from among the more than 2,500 honorees. His \u201crandom\u201d picks sometimes reveal unexplained connections such as the summer day in 2012 when he sat down on the star of actress Celeste Holm and refused to budge. We later learned that the Oscar-winning actress had died only hours earlier.<\/em><\/p>\n

Some days on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Charlie is a bit hesitant, trying out one star before quickly moving to the next. He usually asks me to say each name out loud as we\u2019re stepping over them, a practice that makes tourists stare and causes me to go hoarse when we\u2019re covering lots of ground. Some toddlers love Dr. Seuss, but my son\u2019s ABCs sound more like June Allyson, John Barrymore, Eddie Cantor, Doris Day, and so on. But this morning Charlie didn\u2019t hesitate at all \u2014 he seemed to know exactly where he was going when he landed on the star of lovely Oscar-winning actress Teresa Wright.<\/p>\n

\"Shadow<\/a>Wright, born on October 27, 1918, is a favorite in our home \u2014 we recently watched her in Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s psychological thriller Shadow of a Doubt<\/em> in which she plays the adoring niece of Joseph Cotton. It\u2019s a wonderful film, one that Hitchcock often cited as his favorite, shot on location in Santa Rosa, California. Hitchcock perfectly establishes the wholesome ambiance of small-town America and then masterfully turns everything upside down as we see Wright\u2019s character beginning to suspect that her beloved uncle is actually a serial killer. Despite her limited experience in front of the camera, Hitchcock remarked that he thought Wright was one of the most intelligent actresses he\u2019d ever worked with.<\/p>\n

Shadow of a Doubt<\/em> was only Teresa Wright\u2019s fourth film. In an impressive achievement that has never been repeated, the actress was nominated for Academy Awards for her first three pictures. Discovered by producer Samuel Goldwyn while \u00a0appearing in the Broadway production of Life with Father<\/em>, Wright was brought to Hollywood to play Bette Davis\u2019 daughter in William Wyler\u2019s film version of Lillian Hellman\u2019s The Little Foxes<\/em>. That debut performance received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She next appeared as Lou Gehrig\u2019s wife opposite Gary Cooper in Pride of the Yankees<\/em> for which she received a Best Actress nomination. Later that year, Wright co-starred in another favorite of ours, Wyler\u2019s war-time drama Mrs. Miniver<\/em> with Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. With a Best Supporting Actress nomination for that picture, Wright became one of a small group to be nominated for two Academy Awards in the same year. Mrs. Miniver<\/em> was the favorite at the awards ceremony \u2014 in addition to wins for Best Picture and Best Director, Greer Garson and Teresa Wright both received Oscars for their work on the film.<\/p>\n

\"heflin-garson-cagney-wright-oscar_opt\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here she is clutching her award at the ceremony, which was held at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on March 4, 1943. Wright is standing with Garson, Best Actor winner James Cagney (for Yankee Doodle Dandy<\/em>) and Best Supporting Actor winner Van Heflin (for Johnny Eager<\/em>). Teresa was only 24 years old. Garson\u2019s long-winded acceptance speech that night is now a part of Oscar lore. While many have exaggerated the length of the British star\u2019s words to more than 20 minutes, it actually clocked in at just under six \u2014 still long enough to make the Academy enact a strict time limit on acceptance speeches ever since!<\/p>\n

\"life-teresawright\"<\/a>Sadly, Wright never repeated the success of her first films in her later\u00a0 career. She didn\u2019t have much patience with the star-building nonsense of the studio system and had clauses added to her contract that forbade them from forcing her to do cheesecake publicity shots (including posing for photographs in a bathing suit unless she is in the water, wearing a bunny cap with long ears for Easter, or looking insinuatingly at a turkey for Thanksgiving). She reteamed with William Wyler for The Best Years of Our Lives<\/em> which won the Best Picture Oscar in 1946, and also appeared in Fred Zinneman\u2019s The Men<\/em> (1950) opposite Marlon Brando (in his film debut) and George Cuckor\u2019s The Actress<\/em> (1953) with Spencer Tracy and Jean Simmons. After a public falling out with Sam Goldwyn resulted in him canceling her $5,000 a week contract, Wright issued the following statement:<\/p>\n

I accept Mr. Goldwyn’s termination of my contract without protest \u2014 in fact, with relief. The types of contracts standardized in the motion picture industry between players and producers are archaic in form and absurd in concept. I am determined never to set my name to another one … I have worked for Mr. Goldwyn seven years because I consider him a great producer, and he has paid me well, but in the future I shall gladly work for less if by doing so I can retain my hold upon the common decencies without which the most glorified job becomes intolerable.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wright then moved into live television, winning acclaim for roles in TV versions of dramas such as The Miracle Worker<\/em> and Miracle on 34th\u00a0Street.<\/em> She appeared in films less regularly over the years, but occasionally returned to give strong performances in movies such as Somewhere in Time<\/em> (1980) with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, The Good Mother<\/em> (1988) with Diane Keaton, and her final appearance in Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s The Rainmaker<\/em>\u00a0(1997). The actress also returned to Broadway, starring in revivals of Death of a Salesman<\/em> with George C. Scott and Morning\u2019s at Seven<\/em>, which I was lucky enough to see.<\/p>\n

Teresa Wright died on March 6, 2005, at the age of 86. Following her role in Pride of the Yankees<\/em>, Wright had become a lifelong Yankees fan. She threw out the first pitch in 1998, and a few months after her death, when the roll call of former Yankees who had died that year was announced at Yankee Stadium, Teresa Wright’s name was read out along with the ballplayers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A weekly feature in which my four-year-old son is let loose on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Los Angeles, and chooses a star from among the more than 2,500 honorees. His \u201crandom\u201d picks sometimes reveal unexplained connections such as the summer day in 2012 when he sat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":2001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,18],"tags":[207,492],"yoast_head":"\nCharlie\u2019s Hollywood Star-of-the-Week: Teresa Wright - Cinephiled<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Charlie\u2019s Hollywood Star-of-the-Week: Teresa Wright - Cinephiled\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A weekly feature in which my four-year-old son is let loose on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Los Angeles, and chooses a star from among the more than 2,500 honorees. His \u201crandom\u201d picks sometimes reveal unexplained connections such as the summer day in 2012 when he sat […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cinephiled\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cinephiled\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/danny.miller.3701\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-11-18T02:08:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-11-20T20:26:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/charlie-wright-star1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"916\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"517\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Danny Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@dannymmiller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Cinephiled\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Danny Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright\/\",\"name\":\"Charlie\u2019s Hollywood Star-of-the-Week: Teresa Wright - Cinephiled\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/charlie-wright-star1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-11-18T02:08:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-11-20T20:26:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ee4ce35f6f386eaf8eaea06d913edda4\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/charlie-wright-star1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/charlie-wright-star1.jpg\",\"width\":916,\"height\":517},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Charlie\u2019s Hollywood Star-of-the-Week: Teresa Wright\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/\",\"name\":\"Cinephiled\",\"description\":\"Movie Reviews, Interviews and Analysis for Film Lovers\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ee4ce35f6f386eaf8eaea06d913edda4\",\"name\":\"Danny Miller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7863d6768a59c9e90182f0c1dba965c7?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7863d6768a59c9e90182f0c1dba965c7?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Danny Miller\"},\"description\":\"I learned how to read so I could decipher the credits of my favorite movies. Don't all four-year-olds know the names Joseph Mankiewicz, George Cukor and Virginia Weidler? I've written for the L.A. Times, Chicago Reader, and MSN Movies among others and can be reached at dannymiller@westadams.net or on Twitter @dannymmiller\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/danny.miller.3701\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/dannymmiller\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/author\/dmiller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Charlie\u2019s Hollywood Star-of-the-Week: Teresa Wright - Cinephiled","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Charlie\u2019s Hollywood Star-of-the-Week: Teresa Wright - Cinephiled","og_description":"A weekly feature in which my four-year-old son is let loose on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Los Angeles, and chooses a star from among the more than 2,500 honorees. His \u201crandom\u201d picks sometimes reveal unexplained connections such as the summer day in 2012 when he sat […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright\/","og_site_name":"Cinephiled","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cinephiled","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/danny.miller.3701","article_published_time":"2013-11-18T02:08:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-11-20T20:26:36+00:00","og_image":[{"width":916,"height":517,"url":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/charlie-wright-star1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Danny Miller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@dannymmiller","twitter_site":"@Cinephiled","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Danny Miller","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright\/","url":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright\/","name":"Charlie\u2019s Hollywood Star-of-the-Week: Teresa Wright - Cinephiled","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/charlie-wright-star1.jpg","datePublished":"2013-11-18T02:08:51+00:00","dateModified":"2013-11-20T20:26:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ee4ce35f6f386eaf8eaea06d913edda4"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/charlie-wright-star1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/charlie-wright-star1.jpg","width":916,"height":517},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/charlies-hollywood-star-week-teresa-wright\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Charlie\u2019s Hollywood Star-of-the-Week: Teresa Wright"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/","name":"Cinephiled","description":"Movie Reviews, Interviews and Analysis for Film Lovers","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ee4ce35f6f386eaf8eaea06d913edda4","name":"Danny Miller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7863d6768a59c9e90182f0c1dba965c7?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7863d6768a59c9e90182f0c1dba965c7?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Danny Miller"},"description":"I learned how to read so I could decipher the credits of my favorite movies. Don't all four-year-olds know the names Joseph Mankiewicz, George Cukor and Virginia Weidler? I've written for the L.A. Times, Chicago Reader, and MSN Movies among others and can be reached at dannymiller@westadams.net or on Twitter @dannymmiller","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/danny.miller.3701","https:\/\/x.com\/dannymmiller"],"url":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/author\/dmiller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1992"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2008,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992\/revisions\/2008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}