Academy to Celebrate Screen Legend Barbara Stanwyck

Beverly Hills, CA — The life and career of screen legend Barbara Stanwyck will be celebrated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with a centennial tribute on Wednesday, May 16, at 8 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The program will feature film clips and conversation with Stanwyck’s friends and colleagues, including actors Kirk Douglas, Linda Evans and Patricia Crowley, costume designer Nolan Miller and journalist Army Archerd.

Stanwyck starred in more than 80 movies, ranging from romantic comedies to serious dramas, noir films to Westerns. She received four Academy Award® nominations and in 1981 was presented with an Honorary Award (an Oscar® statuette) for her “superlative creativity and unique contribution to the art of screen acting.”

Born Ruby Stevens on July 16, 1907 in Brooklyn, New York, Stanwyck began her career in show business in 1922 as a chorus girl for $35 a week. In 1944 her earnings of $400,000 made her the highest-paid woman in the U.S.

Her early work encompassed a wide range of roles, including the easy women of “Mexicali Rose” (1929), “Ladies of Leisure” (1930), and “Baby Face” (1933); the compassionate student nurse in “Night Nurse” (1931), opposite Clark Gable; and the self-sacrificing mother in “Stella Dallas” (1937), the role that earned Stanwyck her first Best Actress Oscar nomination.

Stanwyck received three additional nominations for her lead performances in “Ball of Fire” (1941), “Double Indemnity” (1944) and “Sorry, Wrong Number” (1948).

Ticketholders to the centennial tribute will have the opportunity to preview “Presenting Miss Barbara Stanwyck,” an exhibition of more than 50 rarely seen movie posters from Stanwyck films released between 1929 and 1957. The exhibition opens to the public on Thursday, May 17, in the Academy’s Grand Lobby.

The centennial celebration will continue with a retrospective screening series at the UCLA Film & Television Archive’s Billy Wilder Theater beginning on Friday, May 18. The series featuring nine nights of classic Stanwyck films will run through Sunday, June 10. For screening information and tickets, call UCLA at (310) 206-FILM or visit www.cinema.ucla.edu.

Tickets to the Academy’s “Centennial Tribute to Barbara Stanwyck” are $5 for the general public and $3 for Academy members. Doors open at 7 p.m. Seats are unreserved. The Samuel Goldwyn Theater is located at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. Free parking is provided in the garages located at 8920 and 9025 Wilshire Boulevard. For additional information, call (310) 247-3600.