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Eleanor Boardman

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Personal Profile

Eleanor Boardman
  • Date of Birth:
    August 19, 1898
  • Zodiac Sign:
    Leo
  • Place of Birth:
    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A
  • Place of Death:
    Santa Barbara, California, U.S.A
  • Date of Death:
    December 12, 1991
  • Height:
    5' 6½"
  • Sex:
    Female
  • Nationality:
    American
  • Education:
    Philadelphia's Academy

Family

Eleanor Boardman
  • Spouse:
    King Vidor (1926—1931), Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast (1940—1968) {his death}

Career

Eleanor Boardman

Trivia

Eleanor Boardman
  • She made her first film in 1922 and stayed in the business until 1935, when she retired.
    submitted by - suresh kumar
  • She tested for him and impressed him enough that he finally picked her out of a pool of more than 1000 young girls who tested for the opportunity to go to Hollywood.
    submitted by - Adline Systems
  • It was at this time that a casting director for Goldwyn Pictures hit the Broadway scene looking for new faces.
    submitted by - New ID
  • In that capacity she heard that the Selwyn Organization, a major producer of Broadway plays, was looking for girls with no stage experience.
    submitted by - Amit Kher
  • When Broadway proved not quite ready to be conquered yet, she took whatever jobs she could find, including one as an artist's model.
    submitted by - Dr. Reddy Labs
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Quotes

Eleanor Boardman

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Biography

Eleanor Boardman
Last Updated: Tuesday, August 11, 2009

After graduation from Philadelphia's Academy of Fine Arts, Eleanor Boardman went to New York, where she became a photographer's model. Her best work was as "The Kodak Girl" for the Eastman company in the late 'teens. An attempt to become a stage actress came to naught when Eleanor came down with laryngitis. Thanks to her Kodak ads, she was brought to Hollywood as a contractee for the Goldwyn studios.

When Goldwyn was absorbed into MGM, Boardman became one of that studio's earliest, busiest and most popular leading ladies. Accustomed to glamourous, sophisticated roles, Eleanor balked when she was asked in 1928 by then-husband King Vidor to appear as the plain, tenement dwelling housewife in Vidor's The Crowd. She acceded to his wishes, and the result was one of the actress' finest performances (and certainly her most memorable).

She managed to survive the switchover to talkies with good roles in such films as The Great Meadow (1931) and The Squaw Man (1931), but her MGM contract was terminated as the result of an economy drive. She moved to Europe, where she married director Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast.

Eleanor's final film was the multinational (and multilingual) d'Arrast project The Three-Cornered Hat (1936). Eleanor Boardman spent the last four decades of her life in wealthy retirement in Montecito, an upper-class suburb of San Bernardino, California.

Filmography

Eleanor Boardman


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