Born August 10, 1902 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, (Edith) Norma Shearer was the third child of Andrew, a successful contractor, and Edith, a minor actress, Shearer. Older brother Douglas Shearer (1899-1971) became the head of the MGM sound department who won seven Oscars. Older sister Athole Shearer (1900-1985) was married to Howard Hawks from 1928-1940 but spent most of her life in mental institutions.
In 1918, after the collapse of Andrew’s business, Edith left him and brought her two daughters to New York where she encouraged them to enter the “picture business” which was then thriving on the East Coast. Norma also tried out for the Ziegfeld Follies, but Flo Ziegfeld rejected her.
Both Edith and Athole appeared in uncredited roles in three films made between 1920 and 1923. The ambitious Norma’s first role was in a 1919 short, followed by those same three films and then some. Moving to Hollywood in 1923, she was in 24 films before she got her big break in her twenty-fifth film, 1924’s He Who Gets Slapped with Lon Chaney and John Gilbert. Three years later, she became a major star with her fortieth film, 1927’s The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg opposite Ramon Novarro. That same year she married MGM’s head of production, Irving Thalberg, who expected her to retire after their marriage. Instead, she insisted on bigger roles which he made her audition for before using his authority to cast her in them.
Shearer’s first talkie was 1929’s The Trial of Mary Dugan which was a huge hit. Still not convinced she could play anything but proper ladies, Shearer had pictures taken of her in lingerie that convinced Thalberg that she could handle the saucy drama of The Divorcee which not only got her the part but an Oscar as well.
Shearer was Oscar nominated for two 1930 films, the other being the more conventional Their Own Desire, winning for The Divorcee over MGM’s more established star, Greta Garbo in Anna Christie. Also in 1930, she gave birth to her son, Irving, Jr. In 1931, she was Oscar nominated for the third time for A Free Soul for which Lionel Barrymore won an Oscar playing her father.
At this point in her career, Shearer no longer had to prove anything and only took prestige roles in films produced by her husband. She starred in 1932’s Strange Interlude and Smilin’ Through. In 1934, she starred in Riptide and The Barretts of Wimpole Street, receiving her fourth Oscar nomination for the latter. In 1935, she gave birth to daughter Katherine. In 1936, she starred in Romeo and Juliet which was released just weeks before her husband’s death. She later earned her fifth Oscar nomination for her performance in the film.
Shearer returned to the screen two years after her husband’s death to star in Marie Antoinette for which she received her sixth Oscar nomination. She was the first star of either sex to be nominated for four, five, and six Oscars.
The first choice for Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, she turned down the role in appear in two other prestige 1939 films, Idiot’s Delight and The Women. 1940’s Escape was the last film for which she received strong reviews. Her last two films, 1942’s We Were Dancing and Her Cardboard Lover were flops that she made after refusing to play a middle-aged mother in Mrs. Miniver for which Greer Garson later won an Oscar.
That same year, Shearer retired and married Martin Arrouge, eleven years her junior, who was her children’s ski instructor. She never acted again but did later discover stars Janet Leigh and Robert Evans, who she recommended to her Hollywood friends.
Norma Shearer was in ill health for the last ten years of her life, dying on June 12, 1983 at 80.
ESSENTIAL FILMS
THE DIVORCEE (1930), directed by Robert Z. Leonard
Based on a bestselling novel, this pre-code drama gave Shearer a change of pace which paid off big with an Oscar. She was not MGM’s first choice for the part of the philandering wife – Greta Garbo was, but she turned it down. Joan Crawford campaigned hard for the role and was about to be cast by Irving Thalberg when Shearer convinced him with a lingerie photoshoot that she could play something other than proper ladies. Crawford never forgave her. Chester Morris as Shearer’s husband and Robert Montgomery as his best friend with whom she has an affair co-starred. It’s a dated but fascinating look at what Hollywood could get away with at the dawn of the talkies.
THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET (1934), directed by Sidney Franklin
The first film version of the 1931 Broadway smash gave Shearer one of her best roles as poet Elizabeth Barrett who defied her tyrannical father by marrying fellow poet Robert Browning played by Fredric March. Charles Laughton played her father with such intensity that, although the incestuous undertones of the character were toned down for the film version, they still came through as Laughton famously said, “they can’t censor the gleam in my eye”. Equally fine were Maureen O’Sullivan as Shearer’s equally defiant sister and Una O’Connor in one of her signature roles as the family’s deliberately slow-moving maid.
MARIE ANTOINETTE (1938), directed by W.S. Van Dyke
Two years after the death of husband Irving Thalberg who guided her career, Shearer returned to the screen in one of her finest roles as the French queen opposite Tyrone Power on loan-out from 20th Century-Fox as a Norwegian count. Sadly, it was a notorious flop at the box-office, but was nonetheless nominated for four Oscars. Shearer received her sixth and final Oscar nomination, Robert Morley was nominated for his screen debut as Louis XVI, and there were nominations for the film’s costume design and music score. Also in the cast were John Barrymore as Louis XV, Gladys George as Madame Du Barry, Joseph Schildkraut, and Henry Stephenson.
IDIOT’S DELIGHT (1939), directed by Clarence Brown
Based on the 1936 Pulitzer Prize-winning play starring Alfred Lunt and Lunn Fontanne, Shearer was coifed in a wig which was a replica of the one worn by Fontanne, but she was actually mimicking Greta Garbo in the role, another one that Joan Crawford had sought but lost to her. Clark Gable in his only role as a song-and-dance man is second billed but has the larger role than Shearer’s in this comedy-drama that takes place in the days leading up to World War II. Edward Arnold, Charles Coburn, Joseph Schildkraut, and Burgess Meredith co-star. Laura Hope Crews, Virginia Grey, Virginia Dale, Peter Willes, and Pat Paterson have featured roles.
THE WOMEN (1939), directed by George Cukor
Shearer’s contract only allowed male co-stars to receive equal over-the-title billing, but she granted an exception to Joan Crawford which infuriated Rosalind Russell to the point where she refused to show up for the film until Shearer relented and allowed her the same equal billing in this classic comedy, the most enduring film of Shearer’s career. While Russell and Mary Boland received most of the film’s glowing notices, Shearer, Crawford, Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine, Lucile Watson, Phyllis Povah, Virginia Weidler, Marjorie Main and the rest of the all-female cast were also lauded. It was remade much less successfully in 1956 and 2008.
NORMA SHEARER AND OSCAR
Their Own Desire (1929/30) – nominated – Best Actress
The Divorcee (1929/30) – Oscar – Best Actress
A Free Soul (1930/31) – nominated – Best Actress
The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934) – nominated – Best Actress
Romeo and Juliet (1936) – nominated – Best Actress
Marie Antoinette (1938) – nominated – Best Actress
