Barbara Stanwyck: She is Woman, Hear Her Roar!
Barbara was typical of her Hollywood generation and smoked and drank too much. In 1971 she lost a kidney and began having minor health problems. Then at the age of 74 she was attacked in her home and robbed, and became paranoid about security and refused to leave her premises along. When her house burned down in 1985 she was most upset at having lost the love letters written by Robert Taylor.
But she was still working - in 1983 she had been hired to star in the TV miniseries, "The Thorn Birds" which went on to become one of the most popular miniseries of all time. Her television career gave her three Emmy awards, a lifetime achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild. When she accepted the award from SAG she could barely walk, relied on oxygen and was in poor health. But she gave her speech like a champion and walked away to thunderous applause.
Barbara's health failed dramatically during the last five years of her life, and on January 20, 1990, Barbara's heart stopped and she died in her sleep. She had no funeral and has no grave, as her ashes were scattered over Lone Pine, California.
In this article I have only touched the tip of this complex woman. She was extremely politically conservative and sided with Joseph McCarthy during the 1950s hearings to expel Communists from Hollywood. She was rumoured to be a lesbian and was romantically linked with male and female costars alike. She had a son she ignored and yet took care of the children of a friend that died and asked Barbara to take care of them in her will.
She claimed she had no regrets and lived the life she wanted to, and one can't help but believe her. I may have not seen any of her films, but I think if I were to see just one I'd see into the heart of Barbara Stanwyck. She believed in all her films, and some say she hid in the characters she played. She went from an abandoned orphan to one of the most respected actresses in history, and served as a role model for many young women past, present and future.
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