- Born
- Died
- Birth nameEdith Norma Shearer
- Nicknames
- The First Lady of MGM
- Queen Norma
- Height5′ 1″ (1.55 m)
- She won a beauty contest at age fourteen. In 1920 her mother, Edith Shearer, took Norma and her sister Athole Shearer (Mrs. Howard Hawks) to New York. Ziegfeld rejected her for his "Follies," but she got work as an extra in several movies. She spent much money on eye doctor's services trying to correct her cross-eyed stare caused by a muscle weakness. Irving Thalberg had seen her early acting efforts and, when he joined Louis B. Mayer in 1923, gave her a five year contract. He thought she should retire after their marriage, but she wanted bigger parts. In 1927, she insisted on firing the director Viktor Tourjansky because he was unsure of her cross-eyed stare. Her first talkie was in The Trial of Mary Dugan (1929); four movies later, she won an Oscar in The Divorcee (1930). She intentionally cut down film exposure during the 1930s, relying on major roles in Thalberg's prestige projects: The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934) and Romeo and Juliet (1936) (her fifth Oscar nomination). Thalberg died of a second heart attack in September, 1936, at age 37. Norma wanted to retire, but MGM more-or-less forced her into a six-picture contract. David O. Selznick offered her the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939), but public objection to her cross-eyed stare killed the deal. She starred in The Women (1939), turned down the starring role in Mrs. Miniver (1942), and retired in 1942. Later that year she married Sun Valley ski instructor Martin Arrouge, eleven years younger than she (he waived community property rights). From then on, she shunned the limelight; she was in very poor health the last decade of her life.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
- SpousesMartin Arrouge(August 23, 1942 - June 12, 1983) (her death)Irving Thalberg(September 29, 1927 - September 14, 1936) (his death, 2 children)
- Parents
- RelativesAthole Shearer(Sibling)Douglas Shearer(Sibling)
- She converted to Judaism in 1927 in order to marry Irving Thalberg. Even after he died, she continued to observe Judaism until her own death in 1983.
- She is one of the celebrities whose picture Anne Frank placed on the wall of her bedroom in the "Secret Annex" while in hiding during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam.
- Six years after the death of first husband Irving Thalberg, she married a ski instructor 11 years her junior and retired from the screen forever.
- Even after retirement, Norma maintained her interest in the film industry. While staying at a ski lodge, she noticed a photo of the receptionist's daughter and recommended her to MGM - that girl, became the star known as Janet Leigh. She also discovered a handsome young businessman beside a swimming pool - now actor/producer Robert Evans.
- Her son died in 1988 of cancer. He was a philosophy professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
- Scarlett O'Hara is going to be a thankless and difficult role. The part I'd like to play is Rhett Butler.
- I get whatever placidity I have from my father. But my mother taught me how to take it on the chin.
- It is impossible to get anything made or accomplished without stepping on some toes; enemies are inevitable when one is a doer.
- The morals of yesterday are no more. They are as dead as the day they were lived. Economic independence has put woman on exactly the same footing as man.
- Never let them see you in public after you've turned 35. You're finished if you do!
- Escape (1940) - $150,000
- The Women (1939) - $150,000
- Marie Antoinette (1938) - $150,000
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