ACTOR · BORN 1900 · DIED 1991
Jean Arthur
- Born
- 17 October 1900, Plattsburgh, New York, USA
- Died
- 19 June 1991
- Known for
- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Shane (1953), You Can't Take It with You (1938), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
50 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
All facts (50)
- #001
Although Jean Arthur and James Stewart never formed a bond off screen, Jimmy called Jean "the finest actress I ever worked with. No one had her humor, her timing."
- #002
Director George Stevens called her "one of the greatest comediennes the screen has ever seen," Frank Capra described her as "my favorite actress," and Billy Wilder called her performance for him in A Foreign Affair (1948) "simply wonderful."
- #003
Despite her confident screen persona, Arthur suffered from chronic stage fright and social anxiety. She hated interviews, refused to do publicity, and often vomited in her dressing room between takes. Frank Capra said, "When you push that neurotic girl forcibly but gently… she will magically turn into a warm, lovable, poised and self-confident actress in front of the camera."
- #004
Gary Cooper and Joel McCrea were her favorite leading men.
- #005
She taught drama at Vassar from 1968 to 1973.
- #006
Meryl Streep was studying there while Arthur was teaching at Vassar during Streep's junior year. Watching the young drama star rehearse August Strindberg's play "Miss Julie," Arthur remarked that it was "just like watching a movie star."
- #007
She appeared in three Frank Capra films: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can't Take It with You (1938) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939).
- #008
She turned down the role played by Donna Reed in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) because she did not want to work with James Stewart again.
- #009
Arthur was cold and hostile toward Rita Hayworth when they worked together on Only Angels Have Wings (1939); Arthur later said she regretted it.
- #010
In 1944, after completing her Columbia contract, she was reported to have run through the studio's streets shouting "I'm free, I'm free!"
- #011
After her first (and only) Oscar nomination, she left cinema in 1944 at the peak of her career, still Columbia Pictures' highest-grossing female draw. She appeared in only two more films, both for Oscar-winning directors: Billy Wilder (A Foreign Affair (1948)) and George Stevens (Shane (1953)).
- #012
Her ashes were scattered at Point Lobos, California, USA.
- #013
In the early part of her career she kept her natural dark hair color, and around 1930 she began dyeing her hair blonde to distinguish herself from Paramount star Mary Brian, whom she was said to resemble.
- #014
She appeared in six Oscar Best Picture nominees: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can't Take It with You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), The Talk of the Town (1942), The More the Merrier (1943) and Shane (1953). You Can't Take It with You won in 1938.
- #015
In 1972 she attended a small symposium held on the afternoon of Saturday, February 5, at the invitation of Frank Capra, during the Yale Law School Film Society weekend with Capra. He encouraged her to stay for that night's screening and assured her the audience would be very pleased and extremely enthusiastic. She declined, saying she had to go home and feed her cats.
- #016
After a fall in which she broke her hip, she suffered a major stroke and spent the last two years of her life disabled, cared for by her loyal friend and companion Ellen Mastroianni (1911-1997).
- #017
She appeared in four films selected by the Library of Congress for the National Film Registry as "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Iron Horse (1924), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and Shane (1953).
- #018
She is said to have taken her stage name from her two greatest heroes: Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc) and King Arthur.
- #019
After she left Hollywood in 1944, Rita Hayworth took her place as Columbia's top female star. Coincidentally, the two stars shared the same birthday (October 17).
- #020
In 1936 Jean Arthur earned $119,000, far more than the President of the United States or baseball legend Lou Gehrig.
- #021
As a result of staying in the doghouse with studio boss Harry Cohn, Jean Arthur was paid only $50,000 for her starring role in The Talk of the Town (1942), while each of her male co-stars (Ronald Colman, Cary Grant) received more than $100,000.
- #022
An insatiable and adventurous reader, Jean Arthur admired the works of Erich Fromm, Henrik Ibsen, J. M. Barrie and George Bernard Shaw.
- #023
The two roles Jean Arthur always longed to play were Joan of Arc and Peter Pan. After leaving Columbia, she played both on stage.
- #024
After retiring from films, Jean Arthur taught drama classes at Vassar and the North Carolina School of the Arts from the late 1960s until 1973.
- #025
Jean Arthur's first marriage, to photographer Julian Ancker, was annulled after one day.
- #026
Although Jean Arthur came to Hollywood at 22, she did not find success in films until more than a decade later. In the mid-thirties she appeared in a series of moderately successful films at Columbia, culminating in the hit Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), released when she was 36. Arthur said her early career was essentially about "playing colorless, vapid ingenues."
- #027
Jean Arthur was one of the leading candidates for the coveted role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939).
- #028
Jean Arthur's family regarded Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood as home.
- #029
Like other well-known actresses, notably Claudette Colbert, Jean Arthur was most often photographed from her left side; cinematographers determined it was her most flattering angle. A glance at Arizona (1940) or The Lady Takes a Chance (1943) is enough to confirm this. Frank Capra, who had already dealt with a similar issue with Colbert while making It Happened One Night (1934), had the procedure down by the time he made Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) with Arthur, and rarely gave audiences a close look at her "evil" side when the situation called for it.
- #030
In 1973, while living in North Carolina, Jean Arthur made front-page news when she was arrested and jailed for trespassing on a neighbor's property to comfort a dog she believed was being mistreated. A lifelong animal lover, Arthur said she trusted animals more than people. She was convicted, fined $75 and sentenced to three years' probation.
- #031
Jean Arthur turned down the role of the missionary woman in Lost Horizon (1973), the failed musical remake of the 1937 classic of the same name.
- #032
Many biographies have noted the contrast between Jean Arthur's stage persona and her private life. On stage and in film she generally played clever, tough girls. In private life she was known to be reclusive, secretive and extremely insecure.
- #033
Jean Arthur underwent analysis with the psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm for a year and a half.
- #034
Jean Arthur was honored when her films were shown on TCM's "Summer Under the Stars" month on August 2, 2022.
- #035
Jean Arthur was a WAMPAS Baby Star of 1929.
- #036
Coincidentally, Jean Arthur's former husband, producer Frank Ross, later married the actress Joan Caulfield. Caulfield and Arthur died a day apart, on June 18 and 19, 1991. Ross had died the previous year.
- #037
Like Greta Garbo, Jean Arthur was known for disliking publicity in Hollywood; she guarded her privacy closely and rarely gave autographs or interviews.
- #038
Jean Arthur's real name was Gladys Georgianna Greene. She was reportedly descended from Nathaniel Greene, one of the founders of the small town of St. Albans, Vermont.
- #039
From the late 1930s until 1944, Arthur was Columbia Pictures' top star. She had a famously difficult working relationship with studio president Harry Cohn, who cut her salary on a number of productions. When Arthur left the studio in 1944, Rita Hayworth took over as its top star, and Cohn began casting Hayworth in higher-profile roles than she had been used to.
- #040
Arthur was cast in the female lead of the fantasy film "The Temple of Venus" (1923), but was fired and replaced shortly afterward for her perceived lack of talent and experience. Feeling she had failed, Arthur planned to leave the California film industry altogether. Studio executive Lester F. Scott, Jr. still saw potential in her and cast her in more than 20 B-Westerns over a two-year period. Arthur was never well paid during this time, but she was also never out of work, which helped her land better roles at other studios.
- #041
The profile appears in Stephen M. Silverman's book "Funny Ladies".
- #042
After Shane and Saint Joan, Arthur retired for 11 years.
- #043
For years, the birth date listed in the World Almanac during her lifetime was 1905.
- #044
In 1931, at the end of her three-year contract, Arthur was fired by Paramount Pictures. Studio representatives reportedly told her they were not actually unhappy with her previous performances or her work ethic, and that Paramount was cutting staff because of financial troubles.
- #045
In 1973, Arthur was arrested for trespassing on a neighbor's property in order to rescue an abused dog she had heard whimpering. She was convicted, fined 75 dollars and sentenced to three years' probation. She testified in court that she loved the dog and that the dog loved her.
- #046
Biography: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 3, 1991-1993, pages 29-31. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001.
- #047
Biography: "Who's Who in Comedy", Ronald L. Smith. Pages 30-31. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387.
- #048
Biography: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 15-16. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
- #049
Arthur reportedly dyed her hair blonde because she was tired of being perceived as and cast like Mary Brian. The two actresses also had the same natural hair color, and Arthur wanted to step out of Brian's shadow.
- #050
In January 2026, she was honored as TCM's "Star of the Month".
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