Celeste Holm

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Celeste Holm

from the Gentleman's Agreement trailer (1947)
Birth name Celeste Holm
Born April 29, 1919 (age 87)
Flag of United States New York City, New York
Spouse(s) Ralph Nelson (1938 - 1939) (divorced) 1 son
Francis Davies (1940 - ?) (divorced)
A. Schuyler Dunning (1946 - ?) (divorced) 1 son
Wesley Addy (1961 - 1996) (his death)
Frank Basile (2004 - present)
Academy Awards
Best Supporting Actress
1947 Gentleman's Agreement

Celeste Holm (born on April 29, 1919) is an American stage, film, and television actress.

She is perhaps best remembered for her Academy Award-winning role in Gentleman's Agreement (1947), as well as for her Oscar-nominated performance in All About Eve (1950).

Contents

Born in New York City, Holm was an only child. Her mother, Jean Parke, was an American portrait artist and author, while her father, Theodor Holm, was a Norwegian insurance adjuster for Lloyd's of London. Holm studied acting at the University of Chicago before becoming a stage actress in the late 1930s.

Accepting her Academy Award for Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
Accepting her Academy Award for Gentleman's Agreement (1947)

Her first professional theatrical role was in a production of Hamlet starring Leslie Howard, and Holm quickly rose to prominence with her portrayal of "Ado Annie" in the original Broadway production of Oklahoma! in 1943.

After starring in the Broadway production of Bloomer Girl, 20th Century Fox signed Holm to a movie contract in 1946, and in her first two years as a film actress Holm cemented herself immediately as a formidable performer, especially when winning her Oscar and Golden Globe for best supporting actress in Gentleman's Agreement. After her famous performance in All About Eve, however, Holm realized she preferred working in live theater than on movie sets, and took on very few filmed roles over the following decade. The most successful of these was in the 1956 musical, High Society, in which she duetted with Frank Sinatra.

In 1965, she starred alongside Lesley Ann Warren as the Fairy Godmother in the tv production of Cinderella.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Holm returned more fully to screen acting, with roles in films such as Tom Sawyer, Three Men and a Baby and in television series (often as a guest star) such as Columbo and Falcon Crest.

In the 1990s, Holm was a series regular on the ABC Soap Opera Loving (1991-1992) and the CBS Primetime Series Promised Land (1996-1999).

Celeste Holm has received many honors in her lifetime: the 1968 Sarah Siddons Award for distinguished achievement in Chicago theatre, she was appointed to the National Arts Council by then-President Ronald Reagan, knighted by King Olav of Norway, and inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1992. She remains active for social causes as a spokesperson for UNICEF, and for occasional professional engagements.

Attending the Academy Awards in 1988
Attending the Academy Awards in 1988

Holm married Ralph Nelson in 1938. Their son, Ted Nelson, is the co-creator of Hypertext.

She married Francis E. Davies, a Roman Catholic (for whom she was received into the Roman Catholic church for the purposes of their wedding) in 1940, but they divorced shortly thereafter.

From 1946[1] until 1952[2], she was married to airline executive A. Schuyler Dunning, with whom she had a second son, Daniel Dunning.

Holm was married for thirty years from 1966 until 1996 to fellow actor Wesley Addy. They had no children.

On April 29, 2004, on her 85th birthday, she married a 41 year-old opera singer, Frank Basile.[3]

In 2006, Holm was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the SunDeis Film Festival at Brandeis University.[4]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Awards
Preceded by
Anne Baxter
for The Razor's Edge
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
1947
for Gentleman's Agreement
Succeeded by
Claire Trevor
for Key Largo
Preceded by
Jerry Lewis, Claudette Colbert and Joseph L. Mankiewicz
27th Academy Awards
"Oscars" host
28th Academy Awards (with Jerry Lewis and Celeste Holmes)
Succeeded by
Jerry Lewis, Mort Sahl, Tony Randall, Bob Hope, David Niven and Laurence Olivier
29th Academy Awards
Persondata
NAME Holm, Celeste
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION actress
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City, New York
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
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