Ona Munson

IMDB profile

Add to favorites

Edit page

Search at Amazon

Stats

Birth Name: Owena Elizabeth Wolcott

Born: 16 June 1903 Died: 11 February 1955

Country of origin: United States

Height: 5' 2"

Relationship Status: Married

Partner: Eugene Berman

Lists

25 votes

Movie Stars Who Killed Themselves 1915-1970 (21 items)
list by Dark Warrior

Published 10 years ago

6 comments

9 votes

Childless women (167 items)
list by music_muses

Published 3 years, 6 months ago

2 comments

5 votes

Hollywood Walk of Fame - M (172 items)
list by filmbuilder

Published 11 years, 7 months ago

1 comment

View all Ona Munson lists

Photos

1 vote

View all Ona Munson pictures

Description: Ona Munson was born Owena Elizabeth Wolcott on June 16, 1903 in Portland, Oregon. She took singing and dancing lessons when she was a child. At the age of fourteen, Ona moved to New York City with her mother. She began her career performing in vaudeville. In 1919 she made her Broadway debut in George White's Scandals. She appeared in several hit Broadway shows including No, No, Nanette and Hold Everything. Ona married stage actor Edward Buzzell in 1926. She went to Hollywood in 1930 to make the comedy Going Wild (1930). Soon after, she divorced her husband and started dating director Ernst Lubitsch. She starred in The Hot Heires Ona Munson was born Owena Elizabeth Wolcott on June 16, 1903 in Portland, Oregon. She took singing and dancing lessons when she was a child. At the age of fourteen, Ona moved to New York City with her mother. She began her career performing in vaudeville. In 1919 she made her Broadway debut in George White's Scandals. She appeared in several hit Broadway shows including No, No, Nanette and Hold Everything. Ona married stage actor Edward Buzzell in 1926. She went to Hollywood in 1930 to make the comedy Going Wild (1930). Soon after, she divorced her husband and started dating director Ernst Lubitsch. She starred in The Hot Heiress (1931) with Ben Lyon and in Broadminded (1931) with Joe E. Brown. Ona returned to Broadway in 1933 for a production of Hold Your Horses. While appearing in the show Ghosts she had a brief romance with actress Alla Nazimova. She also had relationships with Greta Garbo, Tallulah Bankhead, and director Dorothy Arzner. In 1939 she was cast as Belle Watling, a Southern madam, in Gone with the Wind (1939). The movie was a huge success but Ona ended up being typecast in similar roles. She got rave reviews playing a madam again in the film The Shanghai Gesture (1941).

Ona had a passionate love affair with playwright Mercedes de Acosta. She said they shared "the deepest spiritual moment that life brings". Worried about being outed as a lesbian she ended the romance and married Stewart McDonald, a loan administrator, in 1941. Their marriage was an arrangement since Stewart was also gay. During World War 2 she was chosen to be "Hollywood's official hostess" and acted as a godmother to hundreds of soldiers. She made some movies at Warner Brothers but her career stalled. Her final film was the thriller The Red House (1947). Ona divorced Stewart and married French painter Eugene Berman in 1950. This was another lavender marriage to a gay man. The couple moved to an apartment in The Belnord on Manhattan's Upper West Side. During the early 1950s Ona appeared in a few television shows. Unfortunately she was plagued by health problems and became very depressed. On February 1955 she committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. She was fifty-one years old. Ona left a note that said "This is the only way I know to be free again ... Please don't follow me." She is buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. ... (more)

Tags: Born 1903 (2), Died 1955 (2), Suicide (1), 1930s (1), 1940s (1), American (1), Actress (1), Overdose (1), Drug Overdose (1), Supporting Actress (1), Died Young (1), Died Aged 51 (1), Born June 16 (1), Born In Oregon (1)

My tags:

Add tags

Movies

TV

1. The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind

Rating:

8.3

12 Watched

2. Armstrong Circle Theatre (1950)

Rating:

8.8

3 want to see

3. Broadway Television Theatre (1952)

0 want to see

Update feed

SA-512 posted a image 1 month, 1 week ago

SA-512 posted a image 3 months ago

music_muses added this to a list 3 years, 6 months ago

Childless women (167 person items)

ZeddHead voted for an image 3 years, 8 months ago

SA-512 posted a image 3 years, 8 months ago

SA-512 posted a image 4 years, 1 month ago

SA-512 posted 2 images [View All] 4 years, 1 month ago

SA-512 posted a image 4 years, 12 months ago

SA-512 posted a image 5 years, 5 months ago

Kandi voted for 3 images 6 years, 5 months ago

SA-512 posted 9 images [View All] 6 years, 5 months ago

SA-512 posted a image 6 years, 7 months ago

onclelapin posted a image 9 years, 1 month ago

Clarabowlover voted for an image 10 years ago

Dark Warrior added this to a list 10 years ago

Movie Stars Who Killed Themselves 1915-1970 (21 person items)

" American Actress June 16 1903 - February 11 1955 She commited suicide at the age of 51 y.o. by ingesting some barbiturate in her apartment in New York. Notable Films Going Wild (1930) with Walter Pidgeon Gone With The Wind (1939) Lady From Louisiana (1941) with John Wayne Idaho (1943) with Roy Rogers Dakota (1945) "

Dark Warrior voted for an image 10 years ago


Condition
Added date
Private notes Only visible to you
or cancel