Barbara Ann Loden (July , â€" September , ) was an American actress
and director of film and theater. Richard Brody of The New Yorker
described Loden as the "female counterpart to John Cassavetes".Born
and raised in North Carolina, Loden began her career at an early age
in New York City as a commercial model and chorus-line dancer. Loden
became a regular sidekick on the irreverent Ernie Kovacs Television
Show in the mid-s and was a lifetime member of the famed Actors
Studio. She appeared in several projects directed by her second
husband, Elia Kazan, including Splendor in the Grass (). Her
subsequent performance in a Broadway production of After the Fall
earned her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress.In , Loden wrote,
directed, and starred in Wanda, a groundbreaking independent film that
won the International Critics Award at the Venice Film Festival.
Throughout the s, she continued to work directing Off-Broadway and
regional theater productions, as well as direct two short films. In ,
Loden was diagnosed with breast cancer, of which she died two years
later, aged .Loden was born on July , [a] in Asheville, North
Carolina. Her father was a barber, and she described herself as a
"hill-billy's daughter." Upon her parents' divorce in her early
childhood, Loden was raised by her religious maternal grandparents in
the Appalachian Mountains in rural Marion, North Carolina. She
described her childhood as emotionally impoverished. Loden was
described as a shy, humble, statuesque and soft-spoken loner. At age ,
she moved to New York City, where she began working as a model for
detective and romance magazines. Loden found minor success as a pin-up
girl, model, and dancer at the Copacabana nightclub before studying at
the Actors Studio, intending to become an actress. At the time, she
professed to hate film, saying, "People on the screen were perfect and
they made me feel inferior."
and director of film and theater. Richard Brody of The New Yorker
described Loden as the "female counterpart to John Cassavetes".Born
and raised in North Carolina, Loden began her career at an early age
in New York City as a commercial model and chorus-line dancer. Loden
became a regular sidekick on the irreverent Ernie Kovacs Television
Show in the mid-s and was a lifetime member of the famed Actors
Studio. She appeared in several projects directed by her second
husband, Elia Kazan, including Splendor in the Grass (). Her
subsequent performance in a Broadway production of After the Fall
earned her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress.In , Loden wrote,
directed, and starred in Wanda, a groundbreaking independent film that
won the International Critics Award at the Venice Film Festival.
Throughout the s, she continued to work directing Off-Broadway and
regional theater productions, as well as direct two short films. In ,
Loden was diagnosed with breast cancer, of which she died two years
later, aged .Loden was born on July , [a] in Asheville, North
Carolina. Her father was a barber, and she described herself as a
"hill-billy's daughter." Upon her parents' divorce in her early
childhood, Loden was raised by her religious maternal grandparents in
the Appalachian Mountains in rural Marion, North Carolina. She
described her childhood as emotionally impoverished. Loden was
described as a shy, humble, statuesque and soft-spoken loner. At age ,
she moved to New York City, where she began working as a model for
detective and romance magazines. Loden found minor success as a pin-up
girl, model, and dancer at the Copacabana nightclub before studying at
the Actors Studio, intending to become an actress. At the time, she
professed to hate film, saying, "People on the screen were perfect and
they made me feel inferior."
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