Norma Shearer (1902 - 1983) is an Oscar-winning American actress of Canadian descent.
She became the first star of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the most successful film studio in Hollywood history. Also, the actress turned out to be one of the few stars of "The Great Silent" who managed to keep her career with the advent of talkie.
Short biography: childhood and adolescence
Norma Shearer was born in 1902 in Montreal (Canada) in the family of a successful businessman Andrew Shearer and housewife Edith. The girl had a desire to become an actress at the age of nine. Norma's mother believed that with her physical characteristics this was impossible: she had slightly slanting eyes, broad shoulders, and a plump figure.
When Norma was 16, her father's company went bankrupt, forcing the family to sell the mansion and move to the suburbs. Unable to put up with the new conditions, Edith broke up with her husband and left with the children in a boarding house. In January 1919, all three moved to New York, buying a ticket with the last money raised from the sale of the piano.
The family settled in a tiny rented apartment, outside the windows of which the railway passed. There was one common bathroom and bath on the floor. There was only one double bed in the room, on which the sisters slept with their mother alternately.
Norma decided to try her luck and took part in the casting of the show of Florence Siegfeld, the most popular Broadway impessario. At that time, he was preparing another production of his most famous show "Ziegfeld Follies" with singing and dancing beauties. The girl failed miserably - her complexion caused only ridicule.
Shearer did not despair and soon went to conquer Universal Pictures. Eight girls were selected for the new film. At the casting, the assistant immediately chose seven from the front of the line. Norma coughed and thus attracted attention and became the eighth participant. And so the film debut of the future diva took place.
Carier start
Shortly after her debut, Shearer starred as an extra with the eminent director D. W. Griffith, but he called the girl non-photogenic, criticized her squinting eyes and said that she would not become a real actress. Norma began visiting ophthalmologist William Bates and doing eye muscle exercises.
In January 1921, the family returned to Montreal. Norma started working as a model for a local photographer James Rice and received a letter of recommendation from him. Soon, she received a letter from agent Edward Small of Universal Pictures: a replacement was required for the set of Pink Tights. Mother brought Norma back to New York. At the interview, she received an obscene offer and immediately complained to Small.
However, she stayed in New York and used photos and advice from Rice to find modeling work. She also received several cameo roles and played in a number of minor films in 1922, many of which have not survived. However, the girl was noticed by Samuel Marks, screenwriter for Robertson-Cole Studios. At one time, he collaborated with Irving Thalberg in the New York office of Universal Studios. In the 20s, Thalberg moved up the career ladder, becoming vice president of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in Los Angeles. Marx suggested Thalberg take a look at the tapes featuring Norma.
In 1923, Shearer received offers from three Los Angeles-based film companies: Universal, Louis B. Mayer Productions, and Hal Roach Productions, all of which came from the same manager. The actress was offered a five-year contract and a rate of $ 150 per week (which is the equivalent of $ 3,000 today).
First Lady of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
In 1923, Norma Shearer and her mother moved to Los Angeles. After getting a contract with MGM, she finally fulfilled her childhood dream by becoming a star. The main roles fell like a cornucopia. Soon, the actress bought for herself and her mother a luxurious mansion in Hollywood, located right under the legendary sign on the hill. In 1929, Shearer was named MGM's Most Important Star by Variety Magazine.
Amplua Shearer are romantic and suffering heroines, usually struggling with poverty or the betrayal of a lover. She starred in such films as The Gold Rush (1925) with Charlie Chaplin, Women (1939), Romeo and Juliet (1936), Marie Antoinette (1938).
The role of Jerry Bernard in the film Divorce (1930) earned her an Oscar as the best actress. Curiously, this film might never have been released due to attacks from traditionalists. In March 1930, to avoid the imposition of state censorship, the Film Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA) adopted the unofficial Hayes Code, according to which films should not show nudity, interracial and same-sex relationships, promiscuity, as well as brutal scenes of violence, crime and abusive vocabulary. Thalberg had to personally convince the SRC that the film in no way encourages divorce.
After Shearer was nominated for Oscar three more times for roles in the films "The Barrets of Wimpole Street" (1934), "Romeo and Juliet" and "Marie Antoinette". In 1939, she was offered the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, but she turned it down with the words: "The role I would like to play is Rhett Butler!"
There is a legend that Merlin Monroe, whose real name is Norma Jeane, was named after Shearer by her parents.
For her contribution to the cinema, Norma was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Personal life
In 1927, Shearer married Irving Thalberg, becoming the "first lady of M-G-M," and converted to Judaism. And although her career took off largely thanks to the patronage of her husband, in the 30s, when Irving suddenly died of pneumonia, her position only strengthened. The widowed actress was eager to quit, but she was persuaded to stay and sign a contract for six more films.
In 1942, Shearer retired from the cinema and married former ski instructor Martin Erroge. She did not return to the movie screens and lived the rest of her life as a housewife. In the last years of her life, the aged Norma fell ill with Alzheimer's disease. It was rumored that she called her husband Irving.
Shearer died of pneumonia in June 1983 at the age of 80. She was buried in the mausoleum next to the grave of Irving Thalberg.
Married to Irving, Norma gave birth to two children. Son Irving Thalberg, Jr. was a professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago and died in 1988 of cancer. Daughter Edith Shearer was the head of the Society for the Protection of Animals in Colorado and died in 2006 - also from cancer.
