Celebrity Biographies
Ida Lupino
The British Ida Lupino was not only an unparalleled actress, but also made history by becoming one of the pioneering women in the field of directing and scriptwriting, at a time when it was not usual for them to dedicate themselves to those necessities. And the truth is that she did it with her own style and outstanding results.
Born in the British capital, on February 4, 1918, Ida Lupino comes from a family dedicated to the world of entertainment, as her mother, Connie O’Shea, was an actress, and her father, Stanley Lupino, was very famous as an actor. varieties. After a brief appearance in the film The Love Race , in 1933 she accompanied her mother to her audition and stole the part she wanted to get, in the film Her First Affaire .
But in her native country, Ida Lupino did not have much luck, and she was relegated to minor secondary roles, until in 1934 she made the leap to Hollywood cinema, with Search for Beauty , followed by titles such as Dream of Eternal Love or Sherlock Holmes . against Moriarty .
Especially providential for Ida Lupino’s career was her meeting with one of the greats, director Raoul Walsh , who was very pleased with her work opposite Humphrey Bogart in the drama The Blind Passion . The filmmaker recruited her again for The Last Refuge and The Man I Love . With these Warner productions, Ida Lupino kicked off the 1940s in an ascending line, during which she worked with star filmmakers such as Michael Curtiz ( Sea Wolf ) and Jean Negulesco ( El parador del camino ). The actress married Louis Hayward, an actor who appeared on screen alongside her in Charles Vidor ‘s Mystery of Fiske Manor , but was not to be with her for long.
At the end of the decade Ida Lupino got tired to a large extent of the roles that came her way, and of not being considered a megastar, like Katharine Hepburn or Bette Davis . She defined herself as the “Bette Davis of the poor”. She then decided to promote the movies she wanted to work on. Thus, she wrote and produced Not Wanted , which was directed by Elmer Clifton, but he suffered serious health problems and had to stop filming. Then, Ida replaced him in various scenes, and although she did not appear in the credits, she had verified that she was not bad at directing.
Her first official film as a credited director was Never Fear , written with screenwriter Collier Young , whom she had married in 1948, after her divorce from Hayward. Ida Lupino became the second woman inducted into the Directors Guild.
Lupino distinguished himself for addressing in his films, without modesty, extremely harsh subjects, such as the consequences of a rape, in Outrage , where he gave a role to his sister Rita Lupino , to see if she would succeed in the cinema, which did not happen. . His most important film is possibly The Hitchhiker , a sober film noir, with Edmond O’Brien in a role inspired by a real character. Despite the solidity of her work, Lupino tried to take humor in herself. “If as an actress I was the poor man’s Bette Davis, as a filmmaker I am the poor man’s Don Siegel ,” she commented. She was also responsible for The Bigamist , with Edmond O’Brien, and Rebel Angels , a comedy at the service ofRosalind Russell .
As an actress, her appearances stand out in On Dangerous Ground , by Nicholas Ray , While New York Sleeps , by Fritz Lang , or Junior Bonner , by Sam Peckinpah . During much of the 1950s and 1960s, Lupino concentrated most of her activity as a director and actress on television, in telefilms and series such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents . She ended up dating actor Howard Duff , with whom she starred in Mr. Adams and Eve , a cathodic comedy. She was active until 1978, when she decided to retire, after starring in the little-known drama My Boys Are Good Boys .
While being treated for colon cancer, Ida Lupino suffered a stroke that ended her life on August 3, 1995, in Los Angeles.