Claire Trevor

Born: 8th March, 1910
Country: USA
Died: 8th April, 2000
Occupation: Actress

Three times Academy Award nominee®, Claire Trevor was best known for playing gangsters molls and "floozies". She won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar® for 1948's Key Largo. Describing the moment her name was read out, she said: "There's sort of an explosion which makes you half deaf and blind. Somehow you find yourself on the stage and you begin to hear the applause."

Trevor, real name Claire Wemlinger, started her career on the New York stage before venturing into movies, first in Vitaphone shorts and then debuting in features in the 1933 comedy Jimmy and Sally. Her breakthrough role was Stagecoach (1939), the western that made John Wayne a star.

As well as her success on the big screen she also ventured into television, winning an Emmy® for her performance in the 1956 production of Dodsworth in which she starred opposite Fredric March.

Ms Trevor's last film performance was as a teacher in the 1987 television movie, Norman Rockwell's Breaking Home Ties.

Movie Picks :

Stagecoach (1939) Trevor won the heart of both the Ringo Kid (John Wayne) and movie audiences as Dallas, the "fallen women" whose presence in the stagecoach horrifies the passengers. Ringo alone is un-judgemental and treats her like a "lady" from the start, while the rest learn of her heart of gold as the journey progresses. Hard to imagine now, but if director John Ford hadn't got his way, we'd have seen Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper in the roles of Dallas and the Ringo Kid!

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Farewell, My Lovely aka Murder, My Sweet (1944) Trevor played Velma opposite Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe ("You've got a nice build for a detective") in the movie version of Raymond Chandler's book. The title was changed to a more murderous tone after audiences thought it was another Powell musical!

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Key Largo (1948) The Humphrey Bogart/Lauren Bacall film that won Trevor her Oscar®. She plays gangster Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson)'s alcoholic ex-singer girlfriend, Gaye Dawn, whom he delights in humiliating.

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