Claire Trevor

Claire Trevor (1910-2000)

Nicknamed "Queen of Film Noir" because of her many appearances in "bad girl? roles in film noir and other black-and-white thrillers, Claire Trevor appeared in over 60 films. Trevor was born Claire Wemlinger, of Irish and French extraction, on March 8, 1910 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York, the only child of a 5th Avenue merchant-tailor and his wife.

Related Topics:
Film Noir - "bad girl? - Black-and-white - March 8 - 1910 - Bensonhurst - Brooklyn - New York

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Claire Trevor's acting career spanned more than seven decades and included success in stage, radio, television and film. Trevor often played the hard-boiled blond, and every conceivable type of "bad girl" role. After attending American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she began her acting career in the late '20s in stock. By 1932 she was starring on Broadway; that same year she began appearing in Brooklyn-filmed Vitaphone shorts. Her feature film debut came in: Jimmy and Sally (1933) as "Sally Johnson".

Related Topics:
American Academy of Dramatic Arts - Vitaphone

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A three-time Oscar nominee, Claire Trevor earned Oscar nominations for Dead End, a 1937 melodrama in which she played a good girl who grows up to be a prostitute, and for The High and the Mighty, a 1954 airplane disaster epic. She won the Best Supporting Actress award for her 1948 performance in Key Largo, co-starring with Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and Lauren Bacall. In Key Largo, Trevor played the mistress to Robinson's sadistic gangster. In one scene, he forces her to sing for a drink she badly wants. Trevor struggles through the song only to be refused the drink by Robinson "because you were rotten."

Related Topics:
Oscar - Dead End - Melodrama - The High and the Mighty - 1954 - Best Supporting Actress - 1948 - Key Largo - Humphrey Bogart - Edward G. Robinson - Lauren Bacall

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In 1956, Trevor won an Emmy for Best Live Television Performance by an Actress for Dodsworth, with Fredric March, on NBC's Producer's Showcase. A theatre at the University of California is named in Trevor's honor.

Related Topics:
1956 - Emmy - Fredric March - NBC - University of California

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In 1978 her only biological child, her son Charles Dunsmoore, died in an airliner crash and her last husband, Milton Bren, died from a brain tumor in 1979. Trevor retired from acting in 1987. She died of respiratory failure in Newport Beach, April 8, 2000 at the age of 90, survived by several wealthy step-children by her marriage to Bren.

Related Topics:
Brain tumor - Respiratory failure - April 8 - 2000

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Claire Trevor has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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