Born October 27, 1918, (Muriel) Teresa Wright became interested in acting after seeing Helen Hayes in Broadway’s Victoria Regina in 1936. Following her high school graduation in 1938 she was on Broadway herself as understudy to Martha Scott and Dorothy McGuire in Our Town. She took over the lead when Scott went to Hollywood to make the film version. She then originated the ingénue role in 1939’ Life with Father, the role later played by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1947 film version. It was in that production that Samuel Goldwyn discovered her and signed her to a five-year contract.
Wright’s first three film roles – as Bette Davis’ impressionable daughter in William Wyler’s The Little Foxes, Greer Garson’s forthright daughter-in-law in Wyler’s Mrs. Miniver and Mrs. Lou Gehrig in Sam Wood’s The Pride of the Yankees all earned her Oscar nominations capped by a win for Mrs. Miniver. Her three acting nominations in two years was a record she held for 51 years until Emma Thompson tied her with her two 1993 nominations for The Remains of the Day and In the Name of the Father after having won Best Actress of 1992 for Howards End.
The young actress had two more iconic 1940s roles in Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt and Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives. She was also memorable in Raoul Walsh’s 1947 western, Pursued and Irving Reis’ 1948 romantic drama, Enchantment.
She started out the 1950s in a strong role opposite Marlon Brando making his film debut in Elia Kazan’s The Men but by 1953 she was already playing character roles as Spencer Tracy’s wife and Jean Simmons’ mother in George Cukor’s The Actress based on the early life of Ruth Gordon. She then co-starred with Robert Mitchum and Tab Hunter in William Wyler’s 1954 western, Track of the Cat.
Much on TV for the remainder of the decade, she had what would be her last starring role on screen in 1956’s The Search for Bridey Murphy. Back on Broadway in 1967, she originated the role of the wife in The Dark at the Top of the Stairs that would be played by Dorothy McGuire in the 1960 film version. On TV in 1959, she originated the role of Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker for which she received the first of three Emmy nominations opposite Patty McCormack as the young Helen Keller.
In the 1960s she originated the role of the sister in Broadway’s I Never Sang for My Father later played in the film version by Estelle Parsons. In the 1970s she was in the highly regarded revivals of Ah, Wilderness! and Death of a Salesman and had a memorable role on screen in James Ivory’s Roseland in 1977.
In the 1980s she had small roles not really worthy of her in Somewhere in Time and The Good Mother but in 1997 Francis Ford Coppola gave her a final character part of great charm in The Rainmaker.
Teresa Wright was married to writer Niven Busch from 1942 to 1952 with whom she had two children. She was married to playwright from 1959 to 1978. Although divorced, they remained close friends until her death in 2005 at 86. Anderson died in 2009 at 91.
ESSENTIAL FILMS
MRS. MINIVER (1942), directed by William Wyler
Wright received an unprecedented three Oscar nominations in two years for her first three films: The Little Foxes; Mrs. Miniver and The Pride of the Yankees. Unforgettable in all three, she won the Oscar for Mrs. Miniver as the granddaughter of the town matriarch, co-nominee Dame May Whitty. Wright falls in love with and marries Richard Ney, the son of the beloved lady of the title played by Greer Garson in what was also an Oscar-winning role. Walter Pidgeon as Mr. Miniver, Henry Travers as the local station master who names his prize rose after Garson were also nominated for their fine perforamnces in the year’s Best Picture winner.
THE PRIDE OF THE YANKEES (1942), directed by Sam Wood
Equally beloved was Wright’s portrayal of baseball great Lou Gehrig’s wife in The Pride of the Yankees opposite Gary Cooper as Gehrig and Babe Ruth as himself, a role that brought her life-long affection and admiration. In 1998 her grandson, producer Jonah Smith (Requiem for a Dream; Waking Life), accompanied Wright to Yankee Stadium where she threw out the first ball of the season. In July 2005 when the roll call of former Yankee players who died within the year was called, Wright’s name was mentioned along with players, in tribute to her performance in the film.
SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1943), Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Wright had one of her best roles as the admiring niece of a man who may or may not be a serial killer in Hitchcock’s own favorite of his many films. Wright and Joseph Cotton as her uncle are at the top of their game and are ably supported by Patricia Collinge, Wright’s aunt in The Little Foxes, as her mother here, Henry Travers, one of her co-stars in Mrs. Miniver as her father, and Hume Cronyn as a very talkative boarder. Filmed mainly in Santa Rosa, California, this was one of the few on-location films of the war years. The screenplay by Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson and Alma Reville (Mrs. Hitchcock) was nominated for an Oscar.
THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946), directed by William Wyler
Wyler’s post-war masterpiece succeeds on many levels, not the least of which is its acting. Myrna Loy and Fredric March were top billed as Wright’s parents and March and Harold Russell as WWII veterans won Oscars for their performances, but for many, Wright and Dana Andrews as tan airman reduced to returning to work as a soda jerk after the war, are the film’s heart and soul. Wright’s natural forthrightness comes through loud and clear as a young woman who falls in love with the married airman who had been cheated on by his faithless wife (Virginia Mayo). The final scene in which Wright and Andrews make eye contact at a wedding still moves audiences today.
THE RAINMAKER (1997), directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Coppola’s film is one of the better ones made a John Grisham thriller. Matt Damon had a second major hit with this one following closely on the heels of Good Will Hunting for which he and Ben Affleck won an Oscar for their screenplay. The all-star supporting cast included Claire Danes, Danny De Vito, Jon Voight, Mary Kay Place, Dean Stockwell, Mickey Rourke, and Wright as Damon’s charming landlady. It wasn’t a great part, but it was the best that she had been given in a long time. Film fans wouldn’t see her again until the 2003 Oscars when she made her final appearance at the 75th Annual Academy Awards.
TERESA WRIGHT AND OSCAR
The Little Foxes (1941) – nominated Best Supporting Actress
The Pride of the Yankees (1942) – nominated Best Actress
Mrs. Miniver (1942) – Oscar – Best Actress
