|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spring Byington (October 17, 1886 – September 7, 1971) was an Oscar-nominated American actress.
BiographyEarly lifeShe was born Spring Dell Byington in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She had one younger sister, Helene Kimball Byington, born September 4, 1890 in Colorado. Their father was Prof. Edwin Lee Byington (1852–1891), a well respected educator and superintendent of schools in Colorado. When he died unexpectedly, his wife (Helene Maud Cleghorn Byington) decided to send their daughters to live with her parents, Arthur and Charlotte Cleghorn, in Port Hope, Ontario. While there, Mrs. Byington moved to Boston and became a student at the Boston University School of Medicine where she graduated in 1896. Upon graduation she moved back to Denver, Colorado and began a practice with fellow graduate Dr. Mary Ford.
Early Career and MarriageAt 18, the actress married Roy Chandler, a Broadway stage manager. The couple lived in Buenos Aires for three years, where she gave birth to daughters Phyllis (born 1916) and Lois (born approx. 1918). Their marriage ended after four years and Spring returned to New York with her daughters.[1] BroadwayUpon returning to New York, Spring divided her time between working in Manhattan and staying with her daughters whom she had placed to live with friends J. Allen and Lois Bobcock in Leonardsville Village, New York (Madison County). She began touring in 1919 with a production of "Birds in Paradise" which brought the Hawaiian culture to the mainland, and in 1921 began work with the Stuart Walker Company for which she played roles in "My Pim Passes By", "The Ruined Lady" and "Rollo's Wild Oats" among others. This connection landed her a role in her first Broadway performance in 1924, George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly's Beggar on Horseback which ran for six months. She renewed the role in March and April 1925 and continued on Broadway with an additional 18 productions in ten years from 1925 to 1935. These included roles in Kaufman and Moss Hart's Once in a Lifetime, Rachel Crothers's When Ladies Meet and Dawn Powell's Jig Saw. HollywoodIn her last years of Broadway she began work in films. The first was a short film titled "Papa's Slay Ride" in 1931 and the second, and most famous, was "Little Women" in 1933 as "Marmee" with Katharine Hepburn as her daughter "Jo". She became a household name during "The Jones Family" series of films and continued as a character actress in Hollywood for several years.[1] In 1938, Byington was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for You Can't Take it With You, losing to Fay Bainter for Jezebel (in which Byington also had a role, as antebellum society matron Mrs Kendrick).
Death and afterwardShe donated her body to medical science upon her death. After Harry Morgan joined the cast of the television show M*A*S*H in 1975, the photo used for Colonel Potter's wife, Mildred, was one of Spring Byington. Morgan had previously co-starred with Byington in December Bride as neighbor Pete Porter. Personal lifeSpring Byington was an extremely intelligent and energetic woman her entire life. She spoke Spanish fluently which she learned during a great deal of time spent with her husband in Buenos Aires and also learned Brazilian Portuguese in her golden years. In July 1958 she confided to reporter Hazel Johnson that she had acquired a "small coffee plantation" in Brazil the month before and was learning Portuguese. "Miss Byington explained that she first listens to a 'conditioning record' before she goes to sleep. An hour later her Portuguese lessons automatically begin feeding into her pillow by means of a small speaker." She was also fascinated by science fiction novels and preferred books such as George Orwell's 1984 and is noted to have surprised her costars of December Bride with knowledge of the earth's satellites and constellations in the night sky. In August 1955 she began taking flying lessons in Glendale, California. In another interview given to Margaret McManes in September 1955 she stated that she didn't care for sewing, gardens only sketchily, and declared cooking is "for those who know how. I'll never solve broccoli." This tomboyish personality helps to validate the claims made by Boze Hadleigh that Spring was a lesbian which was published in his book Hollywood Lesbians (1996). Hadleigh notes in his published interview with character actress Marjorie Main, who insinuated the possibility of Spring's lesbianism - "... it's true that Spring never had any use for men." Another reference to her relationship with Main is given by author Darwin Porter in his biography of Katharine Hepburn, Katherine the Great, published in 2004. In this Porter wrote: "In the second week of the shoot, Byington asked Kate if, "I can bring a special and dear friend to your picnic?" Kate gladly extended an invitation, and the next day Byington turned up on the set with actress Marjorie Main. After the first two minutes of watching the two women together, Kate concluded that Laura had been wrong about Byington. She indeed was a lesbian, and made it rather clear that she and Main were locked into a torrid affair." Other than these two publications, there are no other known points of evidence to suggest Spring's homosexuality. FlimographyBroadway
Selected Films
Jones Family films
Television
AwardsByington has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for movies at 6507 Hollywood Blvd. and one for television at 6233 Hollywood Blvd. Nominations
References
Sites |
Searched sites for "Spring Byington" |
|
No sites found. |
Sorry, no matching site records were found. |
Want your site listed here?
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Submit
your site |
 |
|
Relevant quality search results and fast easy navigation throughout the
different sections of the site, make Americola.com |
