{"id":2598,"date":"2005-03-08T16:01:19","date_gmt":"2005-03-08T21:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=2598"},"modified":"2022-10-09T16:12:24","modified_gmt":"2022-10-09T20:12:24","slug":"rip-teresa-wright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=2598","title":{"rendered":"R.I.P. Teresa Wright"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just heard the sad news that Teresa Wright<\/a>, wonderful Academy-award winning actress, has passed away at the age of 86. Here she is in Mrs. Miniver <\/i>– the film for which she won her Oscar:<\/p>\n

She, while along with being a very talented actress, represented a kind of anti-glamour (despite the fact that she is obviously very beautiful) – something that people really responded to. She always seemed like a real person. I mean, look at her face in that photo. She looks real, human, not made up to the point of garish oblivion. The frou-frou starlet thing held no interest for her. Not only did it hold no interest for her, but she really felt like she couldn’t<\/i> go that route. It wouldn’t be right<\/i> for her. Not that she judged those it WAS right for (the Marilyn Monroes of the world)… but she knew it wasn’t right for her<\/i>.<\/p>\n

From that article, comes a quote from Miss Wright:<\/p>\n

“I’m just not the glamour type. Glamour girls are born, not made. And the real ones can be glamorous even if they don’t wear magnificent clothes. I’ll bet Lana Turner would look glamorous in anything.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What I like about Teresa Wright is that she seemed to have one of the most necessary qualities for any long career: self-knowledge. And it shows up in her performances. She’s a great example of that – other actresses (or actors) may get talked into doing things they feel isn’t right for them, may get big heads from flattery (“Of course you’re as beautiful as Lana Turner!!”, etc.), and because of all this – make grave judgments in error, in terms of how their image is managed, or what projects they appear in. Teresa Wright was usually well cast, and a lot of that has to do with her self-knowledge. She knew what she could do, and what she shouldn’t attempt.<\/p>\n

She refused to do cheesecake publicity shots, and refused to be dressed up in bikinis or bathing suits, saying, “I argued that I didn’t have any of the attributes to pose for cheesecake. I said I would have to make good on my acting ability, which was the only attribute I could offer.”<\/p>\n

Perhaps not the ONLY attribute. Her loveliness is pretty much indisputable. It was just that being beautiful didn’t interest her. What did interest her was acting.<\/p>\n

Here’s an obituary<\/a>, with lots of good information about Wright.<\/p>\n

In Scott Berg’s biography of Sam Goldwyn<\/a> (which I have on, ahem, Bookcase # 4<\/a>) – Teresa Wright is a major character. Not just because of her involvement with the mega-hit Best Years of Our Lives<\/i>, but because Goldwyn fired her in 1948, for many reasons, but mainly because she was too independent-minded, and too recalcitrant for him. She had a mind of her own. Goldwyn hated women (especially actresses) with minds of their own. She left that contract with no regrets, and still went on acting. She was still acting way up into the late 1990s. Amazing.<\/p>\n

Even though her name may not be that well known … and in a way, sadly, she is one of the many many forgotten geniuses of the artform … I know people who still count her as one of their favorite actresses ever. I know people who still cherish her work, who still look to her as one of the best.<\/p>\n

Teresa Wright: rest in peace.<\/p>\n

Maybe I should rent Best Years of Our Lives<\/i> this weekend. Have a wee tribute.<\/p>\n

The second I heard the news, I thought of Mitch. He’s mentioned his admiration for her before here on this blog.. Go read his tribute to Teresa here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just heard the sad news that Teresa Wright, wonderful Academy-award winning actress, has passed away at the age of 86. Here she is in Mrs. Miniver – the film for which she won her Oscar: She, while along with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,23],"tags":[1542],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2598"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178302,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598\/revisions\/178302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}