Fitzgerald, Geraldine (1912—)

Irish-American actress nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in Wuthering Heights. Born in Dublin, Ireland, on November 24, 1912; daughter of Edward (an attorney) and Edith Fitzgerald; studied at Dublin Art School and Queen's College, London; married Edward Lindsay-Hogg (a song-writer), in 1936 (marriage dissolved, 1946); married Stuart Scheftel (president of Museum of Famous People and co-founder of Pan-Am Building), in 1946 (died 1995); children: (first marriage) Michael Lindsay-Hogg (b. 1940, a film and theater director); (second marriage) one daughter Susan Scheftel (b. 1948).

Awards:

Handel Medallion (New York City, 1974); nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1939 for Wuthering Heights.

Made debut at the Gate Theater in Dublin (1932); made New York debut as Ellie Dunn in Heartbreak House, Mercury Theater, New York (1938); appeared as Rebecca in Sons and Soldiers, Morosco Theater, New York (1943), Tanis Talbot in Portrait in Black, Shubert, New Haven (1945), Jennifer Dubedat in The Doctor's Dilemma, Phoenix Theater, New York (1955), Goneril in King Lear, City Center, New York (1956), Ann Richards in Hide and Seek, Ethel Barrymore Theater, New York (1957), Gertrude in Hamlet, American Shakespeare Festival, Stratford, Connecticut (1958), the Queen in The Cave Dwellers, Greenwich Mews Theater, New York (1961), the Mother in Ah, Wilderness!, Ford's Theater, Washington D.C. (1969), Mary Tyrone in Long Day's Journey into Night, Promenade Theater, New York (1971); (actress and co-au-thor with Brother Jonathan OSF) Everyman and Roach, Society for Ethical Culture Auditorium (1971); appeared as Jenny in The Threepenny Opera, WPA Theater, New York (1972), Juno Boyle in Juno and the Paycock, Long Wharf, New Haven (1973), Amy in Forget-Me-Not-Lane, Long Wharf (1973), Aline Solness in The Master Builder, Long Wharf (1973), Essie Miller in Ah, Wilderness!, Circle in the Square Theater, New York (1974), Felicity in The Shadow Box, Long Wharf and Morosco Theater, New York (1977), Nora Melody in A Touch of the Poet, Helen Hayes Theater, New York (1978); appeared in one-woman show Songs of the Streets: O'Neill and Carlotta, Public Theatre, New York (1979); made theatrical history as the first woman to appear as the Stage Manager in Our Town at the Williamstown Festival in Massachusetts. Founded the Everyman Street Theatre; directed Mass Appeal at the Manhattan Theatre Club (1980) and The Lunch Girls, Theatre Row (1981).

Selected filmography:

The Turn of the Tide (1935); Three Witnesses (1935); Blind Justice (1935); Radio Parade of 1935 (1935); Department Store (1935); The Mill on the Floss (1936); Dark Victory (1939); Wuthering Heights (1939); A Child Is Born (1939); Till We Meet Again (1940); Flight from Destiny (1941); Shining Victory (1941); The Gay Sisters (1942); Watch on the Rhine (1943); Ladies Courageous (1944); Wilson (1944); Uncle Harry (1945); Three Strangers (1946); O.S.S. (1946); Nobody Lives Forever (1946); So Evil, My Love (1948); The Late Edwina Black (1951); 10 North Frederick (1958); The Fiercest Heart (1961); The Pawnbroker (1965); Rachel, Rachel (1968); Believe in Me (1971); The Last American Hero (1973); Harry and Tonto (1974); Echoes of a Summer (1976); The Mango Tree (1977); Arthur (1981); Easy Money (1983); Pope of Greenwich Village (1984); Poltergeist II (1986); Arthur 2 (1988); King of the Hill (1993).

Television:

Violet Jordan in "The Best of Everything" (1970); "Yesterday's Child" (1976); Orogon's Mother in "Tartuffe" (1977); "Street Songs" (1979); also appeared in "Our Private World," "The Moon and Sixpence," "Dodsworth," and "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall."

Geraldine Fitzgerald's family was closely involved in the Irish theater. Her aunt, Shelah Richards , who later became a director and television executive, acted with the Gate Theater company which had been founded by Micheál MacLiammóir and Hilton Edwards in 1928. Richards was married to the playwright and poet Denis Johnston and their daughter is the novelist Jennifer Johnston . Fitzgerald and her sister Pamela began acting professionally while both were in their teens. They performed at the Gate in the early 1930s and came to know Orson Welles when he spent a season there. Geraldine came to public attention when she played Isabella Linton in the Ria Mooney -Donald Stauffer stage adaptation of Wuthering Heights. In his memoir All for Hecuba (1961),

MacLiammóir described her as: "Geraldine with her tawny hair and laughing gold-flecked eyes, her radiant youth, and the funny little break in her voice."

In 1934, she went to England where she appeared in a series of low-budget films, among them The Ace of Spades, Radio Follies, and Turn of the Tide. In 1936, she appeared in Café Mascot which was produced by Gabriel Pascal and the following year she starred in the film of George Eliot's (Mary Anne Evans ) The Mill on the Floss. Fitzgerald had married Edward Lindsay-Hogg in 1936, and in 1938 they left for New York where she played Ellie Dunn in Heartbreak House. Orson Welles then invited her to appear in the Mercury Theater's production of Wuthering Heights. In 1939, she moved to Hollywood where her career got off to an auspicious start in William Wyler's film of Wuthering Heights in which she again played Isabella Linton. Her performance received an Academy Award nomination. She also appeared in Dark Victory in which she played Bette Davis ' friend Ann King.

Fitzgerald had a busy film career over the next decade, with her best work in Flight from Destiny (1941), Watch on the Rhine (1943), Wilson (1944), and Three Strangers (1946). But she became increasingly frustrated by the kind of roles she was being offered and fought with the studio executives for better parts. In the early 1950s, she returned to New York to appear on television and revive her stage career, which she did triumphantly. Between 1955 and 1961, she played Jennifer Dubedat in The Doctor's Dilemma, Gertrude in Hamlet, Goneril in King Lear, and the Queen in William Saroyan's The Cave Dwellers. Her film career was also revived with Ten North Frederick (1958), The Pawnbroker (1964) and Rachel, Rachel (1968).

In 1971, Fitzgerald got the best notices of her career when she played Mary Tyrone in Long Day's Journey Into Night on Broadway. The following year, she was Jenny in The Three-penny Opera, and in 1973 she was again acclaimed for her performance of Juno in Juno and the Paycock. She gave other memorable performances in that decade in The Glass Menagerie, The Shadow Box, and A Touch of the Poet. In 1979, she devised her one-woman show Songs of the Streets: O'Neill and Carlotta. She also returned to Ireland to make the film Tristan and Isolde in which she played the role of Bronwyn. In 1980, she directed Mass Appeal for the stage. During the 1980s, Fitzgerald continued to act on stage and on television, but she also made successful cameo film appearances in Arthur (1981), The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984), Poltergeist II (1986) and Arthur 2 (1988). In 1993, she made her debut as a lyricist and librettist in Sharon, a musical based on Sharon's Grave by the Irish playwright John B. Keane which she also directed. She made her last film, King of the Hill, in 1993, after which she retired from acting. Fitzgerald was an active member of the New York State Council for the Arts, the Screen Actors' Guild and Actors' Equity. Her son is the film and theater director Michael Lindsay-Hogg.

Deirdre McMahon , Lecturer in History, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland