Barbara O'Neil (July , â€" September , ) was an American film and
stage actress. She appeared in the film Gone with the Wind () and was
nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her
performance in All This, and Heaven Too ().O'Neil was born in St.
Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Barbara Blackman O'Neil and David
O'Neil, a "lumber baron" and poet. Her mother was a socialite and
suffragist. She spent her childhood mostly in Europe and graduated
from Sarah Lawrence College. Her maternal grandmother was Carrie
Horton Blackman, a successful portrait painter. Her parents had a son,
David, who died before O'Neil was born.O'Neil began her acting career
in summer stock. In July , 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 Cod, were looking for a leading lady
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 marriages: actress Margaret Sullavan
to Henry Fonda for a few months in , director/actor Joshua Logan's
younger sister Mary Lee Logan to Charles Leatherbee, and Joshua Logan
to Barbara O'Neil, briefly, in the early s. O'Neil never remarried.
She made her Broadway debut in a play about Carrie Nation. Her other
stage credits include originating the role of Madam Serena Merle in a
Broadway adaptation of The Portrait of a Lady in .O'Neil debuted in
the film Stella Dallas (), and was cast in the role of Ellen O'Hara,
Scarlett O'Hara's mother, in Gone with the Wind () though she was only
three years older than her onscreen daughter (Vivien Leigh) after her
role was turned down by Lillian Gish. The following year, she appeared
in All This, and Heaven Too (as the wife of Charles Boyer); she was
nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the
role of the domineering and jealous Duchesse de Praslin.
stage actress. She appeared in the film Gone with the Wind () and was
nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her
performance in All This, and Heaven Too ().O'Neil was born in St.
Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Barbara Blackman O'Neil and David
O'Neil, a "lumber baron" and poet. Her mother was a socialite and
suffragist. She spent her childhood mostly in Europe and graduated
from Sarah Lawrence College. Her maternal grandmother was Carrie
Horton Blackman, a successful portrait painter. Her parents had a son,
David, who died before O'Neil was born.O'Neil began her acting career
in summer stock. In July , 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 Cod, were looking for a leading lady
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 marriages: actress Margaret Sullavan
to Henry Fonda for a few months in , director/actor Joshua Logan's
younger sister Mary Lee Logan to Charles Leatherbee, and Joshua Logan
to Barbara O'Neil, briefly, in the early s. O'Neil never remarried.
She made her Broadway debut in a play about Carrie Nation. Her other
stage credits include originating the role of Madam Serena Merle in a
Broadway adaptation of The Portrait of a Lady in .O'Neil debuted in
the film Stella Dallas (), and was cast in the role of Ellen O'Hara,
Scarlett O'Hara's mother, in Gone with the Wind () though she was only
three years older than her onscreen daughter (Vivien Leigh) after her
role was turned down by Lillian Gish. The following year, she appeared
in All This, and Heaven Too (as the wife of Charles Boyer); she was
nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the
role of the domineering and jealous Duchesse de Praslin.
Share this
SUBSCRIBE OUR NEWSLETTER
SUBSCRIBE OUR NEWSLETTER
Join us for free and get valuable content delivered right through your inbox.