JUDY HOLLIDAY

'Judy Holliday' (June 21, 1921–June 7, 1965) was an Academy- and Tony Award-winning American actress.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Career

Investigated for Communism

Later life and death

Filmography

Stage Work

External links

Footnotes

Biography

Early life

Born 'Judith Tuvim' ("Tuvim" is Yiddish for "Holiday") in New York City, she was the only child of Abe and Helen Tuvim, Jewish immigrants from Russia. Her first job was as an assistant switchboard operator at the Mercury Theatre run by Orson Welles and John Houseman.

Career

She began her show business career in December, 1938, as part of a nightclub act called "The Revuers". The other four members of the group were Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Alvin Hammer and John Frank. The Revuers were a staple of the New York nightlife scene until they disbanded in early 1944.
Holliday made her Broadway debut on March 20, 1945, at the Belasco Theatre in ''Kiss Them for Me'' and was one of the recipients that year of the Clarence Derwent Award. In 1946, she was back on Broadway, as the scatterbrained Billie Dawn in ''Born Yesterday''. Author Garson Kanin had written the play specifically for his friend, the brilliant but difficult Jean Arthur. Arthur played the role of Billie out-of-town, but after many complaints and illnesses, resigned. Kanin chose Holliday as her replacement.
It has been widely reported that when Columbia bought the rights to film ''Born Yesterday'', studio boss Harry Cohn wouldn't consider casting the unknown (outside of Broadway) Holliday. Kanin, together with George Cukor, as well as Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn conspired to promote Holliday by offering her a key part in the 1949 film ''Adam's Rib''. She got rave reviews and Cohn offered her the chance to repeat her part for the film version of ''Born Yesterday''. She won the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Actress, beating out such formidable competitors as Gloria Swanson, who was nominated for ''Sunset Boulevard'' and Bette Davis for ''All About Eve''.

Investigated for Communism

In 1950, Holliday was the subject of an FBI investigation looking into allegations that she was a Communist. The investigation "did ''not'' reveal positive evidence of membership in the Communist Party" and was concluded after three months. Unlike many others tainted by the Communist scandal, she was not blacklisted from movies, but she was blacklisted from performing on radio and television for almost three years.
In 1952, she was called to testify before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee to "explain" why her name had been linked to Communist front organizations. In spite of her 172 IQ,^[1] she was advised to play dumb (like some of her film characters) and did so. She used this technique to avoid giving up names of people she knew to be Communists.
In 1954, she starred with a then-rising young star Jack Lemmon for the popular comedy, ''It Should Happen to You''. Holliday and Lemmon next starred together (in that same year) in ''Phffft!''. Their amazing comedic chemistry on screen made the two films into big hits.

Later life and death

In 1956 she starred in ''The Solid Gold Cadillac'', and, in 1960 in ''Bells Are Ringing'', in the role she had originated on Broadway in 1956, and for which she had won the 1957 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical.
In 1965 she died from breast cancer at the age of 43, survived by her young son, Jonathan Oppenheim, by her ex-husband, clarinetist and conductor David Oppenheim. She was interred in the Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. Jonathan Oppenheim grew up to become a documentary film editor of note, editing ''Paris is Burning'', ''Children Underground'', and ''Arguing the World''.
Holliday has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6901 Hollywood Blvd.

Filmography

★ ''Too Much Johnson'' (1938) (short subject)

★ ''Greenwich Village'' (1944)

★ ''Something for the Boys'' (1944)

★ ''Winged Victory'' (1944)

★ ''Adam's Rib'' (1949)

★ ''On the Town'' (1949) (voice only)

★ ''Born Yesterday'' (1950)

★ ''The Marrying Kind'' (1952)

★ ''It Should Happen to You'' (1954)

★ ''Phffft!'' (1954)

★ ''The Solid Gold Cadillac'' (1956)

★ ''Full of Life'' (1957)

★ ''Bells Are Ringing'' (1960)

Stage Work

★ ''My Dear Public'' (1942) (with The Revuers)

★ ''Kiss Them for Me'' (1945)

★ ''Born Yesterday'' (1946)

★ ''Dream Girl'' (1951)

★ ''Bells Are Ringing'' (1956)

★ ''Laurette'' (1960)

★ ''Hot Spot'' (1963)

External links

★

★ The Judy Holliday Resource Center

★ Transcript of Judy Holliday's Senate Testimony

★ Judy Holliday's FBI files

Footnotes

1. What Ever Became of "Geniuses"?, Time, 19 Dec 1977