Norma Shearer
Date of birth: 1902-08-10
Place of birth: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Known for: Acting
Also known as: Edith Norma Shearer, Queen Norma, Norma Sherer, The First Lady of MGM
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Edith Norma Shearer (August 10, 1902 – June 12, 1983) was a Canadian-American actress. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in North America from the mid-1920s through the 1930s. Her early films cast her as the girl next door, but for most of the Pre-Code film era, beginning with the 1930 film The Divorcee, for which she won an Oscar for Best Actress, she played sexually liberated women in sophisticated contemporary comedies. Later she appeared in historical and period films. Unlike many of her MGM contemporaries, Shearer's fame declined steeply after retirement. By the time of her death in 1983, she was largely remembered at best for her "noble" roles in The Women, Marie Antoinette, and Romeo and Juliet. Shearer's legacy began to be re-evaluated in the 1990s with the publication of two biographies and the TCM (Turner Classic Movies) and VHS release of her films, many of them unseen since the implementation of the Production Code some sixty years before. Focus shifted to her pre-Code "divorcee" persona, and Shearer was rediscovered as "the exemplar of sophisticated [1930's] woman-hood... exploring love and sex with an honesty that would be considered frank by modern standards". Simultaneously, Shearer's ten-year collaboration with portrait photographer George Hurrell and her lasting contribution to fashion through the designs of Adrian were also recognized. Shearer is widely celebrated by some as one of cinema's feminist pioneers: "the first American film actress to make it chic and acceptable to be single and not a virgin on screen". In March 2008, two of her most famous pre-code films, The Divorcee and A Free Soul, were released on DVD. Description above from the Wikipedia article Norma Shearer, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Movie Credits
The Women
1939-09-01
A happily married woman lets her catty friends talk her into divorce when her husband strays.
The Hollywood Revue of 1929
1929-11-23
An all-star revue featuring MGM contract players.
The Wolf Man
1924-02-17
Gerald Stanley (John Gilbert) is an English gentleman who is engaged to Beatrice Joyce (Alma Frances
He Who Gets Slapped
1924-12-22
After a baron steals his scientific discoveries, runs away with his wife, and slaps him in public, a
Empty Hands
1924-08-17
Claire Endicott throws a wild party and her father walks in to find her flirting with the very marri
Marie Antoinette
1938-08-26
The young Austrian princess Marie Antoinette is arranged to marry Louis XVI, future king of France,
Idiot's Delight
1939-01-27
A group of disparate travelers are thrown together in a posh Alpine hotel when the borders are close
Romeo and Juliet
1936-09-03
Young love is poisoned by a generations long feud between two noble families.
The Barretts of Wimpole Street
1934-09-21
Remarkable poet Elizabeth Barrett is slowly recovering from a crippling illness with the help of her
Channing of the Northwest
1922-04-10
A foppish Londoner joins the Royal Canadian Mounties and tries to break a smuggling ring.
Married Flirts
1924-10-27
Nelly is so intent on her writing career, that she neglects her appearance and her husband, Wayne. J
A Man's Man
1929-05-25
An aspiring actress goes to Hollywood to make movies and marries a soda jerk.
The Divorcee
1930-04-19
When a woman discovers that her husband has been unfaithful, she decides to pay him back in kind.
A Free Soul
1931-06-02
An alcoholic lawyer who successfully defended a notorious gambler on a murder charge objects when hi
The Stolen Jools
1931-04-04
Famous actress Norma Shearer's jewels are stolen… (Star-packed promotional short film intended to ra
Lady of the Night
1925-02-23
The story of two baby girls, born near in proximity but worlds apart in society: Molly Helmer, the d
Smilin' Through
1932-09-24
On the day of his wedding, Sir John Carteret's fiancée, Moonyeen, is killed by a jealous rival named
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
1928-01-30
A young prince falls in love with a beautiful barmaid while at university in old Heidelberg.
Her Cardboard Lover
1942-07-16
A flirt tries to make her fiancée jealous by hiring a gigolo.
Strangers May Kiss
1931-04-04
After years of fighting off the advances of her old flame Steve, Lisbeth settles into a steamy, casu
Private Lives
1931-12-12
Amanda and Elyot are one another's former spouse. Elyot is remarried to Sibyl and Amanda married Vic
Their Own Desire
1929-12-27
Lally is a rich girl whose father writes books and plays polo. After 23 years of marriage her father
Hollywood: The Dream Factory
1972-01-10
A documentary about the glorious history of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and its decline leading to t
The Trial of Mary Dugan
1929-06-08
A woman is tried for the murder of her lover. Director Bayard Veiller's 1929 courtroom drama stars N
Escape
1940-11-01
An American goes to pre-war Germany to find his mother and discovers her in a concentration camp. Wi
Strange Interlude
1932-12-30
After Nina Leeds finds out that insanity runs in her husband's family, she has a love child with a h
Let Us Be Gay
1930-07-11
A housewife divorces her self-centered husband. Years later, she attends a party where her ex is pur
Pretty Ladies
1925-09-06
Maggie, a headlining comedienne with the Follies, takes a fall off the stage into the orchestra pit
Upstage
1926-11-06
Dolly Havens, a small-town girl with big-town ambitions that are larger than her talents, hooks up w
A Lady of Chance
1928-12-01
A con woman working the Atlantic City hotels targets a visiting businessman from Alabama.
The Waning Sex
1926-09-05
Nina Duane is a criminal lawyer whose gender was professionally resented by Philip Barry, the Distri
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
1983-02-25
Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, war
The Devil's Circus
1926-02-14
In 1913, Carl is released from prison, where he served a sentence for stealing. Spurned by his circu
Riptide
1934-03-29
Mary is an impetuous romantic who marries British aristocrat Lord Philip Rexford on a whim. Their ma
After Midnight
1927-08-20
When Joe, a hold-up man, tries to rob Mary, a nightclub hostess, she winds winds up knocking him out
We Were Dancing
1942-04-30
A penniless former princess weds an equally cash-strapped baron, so they support themselves by becom
Lucretia Lombard
1923-12-08
Lucretia Morgan has been married to an old man for the past seven years. The marriage is loveless bu
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney
1929-07-06
There is a big charity function at the house of Mrs. Cheyney and a lot of society is present. With h
A Clouded Name
1923-02-19
To avoid seeing Marjorie Dare, Jim Allen visits Stewart Leighton at the latter's country home. (Five
Checking Out: Grand Hotel
2004-02-03
Until 1932's Grand Hotel, never had there existed an all-star ensemble cast on film. Conceived by MG
The Tower of Lies
1925-10-10
After his beloved daughter leaves for the city to pay off his debt, an old farmer goes mad when her
Sports on the Silver Screen
1997-03-16
HBO (in association with the American Film Institute) presents this 1997 anthology, narrated by Liev
The Christmas Party
1931-12-17
In this holiday short, Jackie Cooper wants to throw a Christmas party for his friends on his footbal
Broadway After Dark
1924-05-19
Ralph Norton, man-about-town and wealthy favorite in Broadway society circles, is attracted to Helen
You're the Top: The Cole Porter Story
1990-07-23
Biographical portrait of one of Broadway's most brilliant songwriters. Told through the use of archi
The Actress
1928-04-27
A theatrical troupe from the west end of London loses its leading lady when she goes off to marry a
Way Down East
1920-09-03
A naive country girl is tricked into a sham marriage by a wealthy womanizer, then must rebuild her l
Going Hollywood
1933-12-22
Sylvia is a French teacher at an all-girls school who wants to find love. When she hears Bill Willia
That's Entertainment!
1974-06-21
Various MGM stars from yesterday present their favorite musical moments from the studio's 50 year hi
Joan Crawford: Always the Star
1996-09-30
Glamorous and hugely popular Joan Crawford raised herself from brutal poverty to Academy Award-winni
We’re Switching to Hollywood
1931-06-09
A German reporter visits Hollywood and is escorted through the MGM Studio by a German nobleman, who
A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
1940-10-24
This short documentary, presented and directed by MGM sound engineer Douglas Shearer, goes behind th
1925 Studio Tour
1925-04-09
A tour of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio in 1925 shows the people who make the movies there, and giv
The Restless Sex
1920-11-12
A love triangle drama, based on a novel by Robert W. Chambers, who is better-known for weird fiction
That's Entertainment! III
1994-07-01
Some of MGM'S musical stars review the studios history of musicals. From The Hollywood Revue of 1929
The Romance of Celluloid
1937-08-27
Several behind the scenes aspects of the movie-making business, which results in the enjoyment the m
Waking Up the Town
1925-03-30
Jim Joyce runs a garage with old Abner Hope. When Hope's granddaughter, Mary Ellen, comes to visit,
The Latest from Paris
1928-02-04
The Latest from Paris takes place in New York's garment district, where business rivals Blogg and Li
The Snob
1924-11-10
Two schoolteachers, married for love, are parted by the husband's obsessive desire for wealth and so
A Slave of Fashion
1925-08-23
Katherine Emerson, an Iowa girl hungry for the good things in life, leaves her small hometown and se
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
1940-07-31
This 1940 presentation features highlights of earlier (1928 onward) Oscar ceremonies including Shirl
Judy Garland: By Myself
2004-02-25
As Hollywood biographies go, Judy Garland's story is one of the saddest success stories you'll ever
Hollywood: Style Center of the World
1940-05-29
This short promotes the premise that movies often create a demand for the fashions seen in them. It
Hollywood Goes to Town
1938-07-07
This short shows how Hollywood gets ready for the world premiere of an "important" movie. The film c
Complicated Women
2003-05-06
Looks at the stereotype-breaking films of the period from 1929, when movies entered the sound era, u
Twenty Years After
1944-01-01
This short celebrates the 20th anniversary of MGM. Segments are shown from several early hits, then
From the Ends of the Earth
1939-05-28
An MGM short showing how materials are shipped by boat 'From the Ends of the Earth' to Hollywood. Fe
The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
1988-10-01
This documentary revisits the making of Gone with the Wind via archival footage, screen tests, insig
Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood
2008-03-03
A look at the forces that shaped Pre-Code Hollywood and brought about the strict enforcement of the
The Film Parade
1933-01-01
Pioneer filmmaker J. Stuart Blackton was intrigued by the idea of a film about the history of the mo
Another Romance of Celluloid
1938-02-05
This second entry in MGM's "Romance of Film" series documents how celluloid movie film is processed
Master Will Shakespeare
1936-06-13
A short biography of William Shakespeare that highlights the various jobs he worked at in the theate
His Secretary
1925-12-06
When a secretary overhears her boss disparaging her looks, she decides to show him how wrong he is.
Blue Water
1924-04-16
A fisherman in the Bay of Fundy loses his sweetheart while he is at sea. A lost film.
Excuse Me
1925-01-19
A sailor and his would-be bride search their train for a clergyman to marry them.
The Wanters
1923-11-26
Elliot Worthington falls in love with Myra, the maid in his sister's household. Myra is dismissed; E
The Trail of the Law
1924-01-25
In Maine, a girl masquerades as a boy during the day after her mother is killed by an unknown assail
The Bootleggers
1922-04-01
Jose Fernand seems interested in luring Helen Barnes onto his ship than he is in smuggling. The inno
The Taming of the Shrewd
1922-04-10
Part 5 of The Leather Pushers boxing film series.
The Devil's Partner
1923-06-01
An adventure tale set in the North Woods. The villain, smuggler Jules Payette, would give anything i
Broken Barriers
1924-08-18
A young girl is forced to give up college when her father loses all his money. She soon meets and fa
The Stealers
1920-10-03
Rev. Robert Martin is an ex-minister who has lost his faith because of his wife's faithlessness, and
Man and Wife
1923-03-25
Dora Perkins is a country girl who runs away to New York City. She gets work as a nurse and marries
Pleasure Mad
1923-11-05
Torchy's Millions
1920-10-03
A 1920 silent comedy short.
The Man Who Paid
1922-03-01
In the desolated wilds is a Trading Post, to which Oliver Thornton went to seek obscurity after bein
The Star Boarder
1919-05-26
Larry's absurdly plush life of ease as a convict comes to an end when his sentence is up. Tossed out
The Demi-Bride
1927-02-19
Trouble begins when Madame Girard steps out on her husband, Criquette's father, to fool around with
The End of the World
1925-04-01
Jack Joyce, who worked in old Abner Hope's garage, was always dreaming of big schemes, but had no ca
Screen Snapshots Series 18, No. 8
1939-04-08
Ice skating is the theme; at the Tropical Ice Garden, in Westwood Hills, are seen a flock of skating
The Flapper
1920-05-10
A Southern teen at a ritzy boarding school gets into mischief while acting the sophisticated grownup
The End of the World
1925-04-01
Jack Joyce, who worked in old Abner Hope's garage, was always dreaming of big schemes, but had no ca
Anniversary
1963-01-01
Here you will see Marie Dressler, Mary Pickford, Norma Shearer, Walter Huston and a host of other Ca
Brasileiros em Hollywood
1970-01-01