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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
March 8, 1910
Died
April 8, 2000
Place of Birth
Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Also Known As
- Claire Wemlinger
- The Queen of Film Noir
Claire Trevor
0.7 Popularity
Biography
Claire Trevor (née Wemlinger; March 8, 1910 – April 8, 2000) was an American actress. She appeared in 65 feature films from 1933 to 1982, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Key Largo (1948), and received nominations for her roles in The High and the Mighty (1954) and Dead End (1937). Trevor received top billing, ahead of John Wayne, for Stagecoach (1939). Trevor's acting career spanned more than seven decades and included successes in stage, radio, television, and film. She often played the hard-boiled blonde, and every conceivable type of 'bad girl' role. She made her stage debut in the summer of 1929 with a repertory company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She subsequently returned to New York, where she appeared in a number of Brooklyn-filmed Vitaphone short films and performed in summer stock theatre. In 1932, she starred on Broadway as the female lead in Whistling in the Dark. Trevor made her film debut in Jimmy and Sally (1933). From 1933 to 1938, Trevor starred in 29 films, often having either the lead role or the role of heroine. In 1937, she was the second lead actress (after top-billed Sylvia Sidney) in Dead End, with Humphrey Bogart, which led to her nomination for Best Supporting Actress. From 1937 to 1940, she appeared with Edward G. Robinson in the popular radio series Big Town, while continuing to make movies. In the early 1940s, she also was a regular on The Old Gold Don Ameche Show on the NBC Red Radio Network, starring with Ameche in presentations of plays by Mark Hellinger. In 1939, she was well established as a solid leading lady. One of her more memorable performances during this period includes the Western Stagecoach (1939). Two of Trevor's most memorable roles were opposite Dick Powell in Murder, My Sweet (1944) and with Lawrence Tierney in Born to Kill (1947). In Key Largo (1948), Trevor played Gaye Dawn, a washed-up, alcoholic nightclub singer and gangster's moll. For that role, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her third and final Oscar nomination was for her performance in The High and the Mighty (1954). In 1957, she won an Emmy for her role in the Producers' Showcase episode entitled "Dodsworth". Trevor moved into supporting roles in the 1950s, with her appearances becoming very rare after the mid-1960s. She played Charlotte, the mother of Kay (Sally Field) in Kiss Me Goodbye (1982). Her final television role was for the 1987 television film, Norman Rockwell's Breaking Home Ties. Trevor made a guest appearance at the 70th Academy Awards in 1998. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard. [biography (excerpted) from Wikipedia]
Known For
7.5
Self (archive footage)
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
2009
8.5
Self
You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story
2008
6.5
Grace Porter
Breaking Home Ties
1987
7.5
Judith Harlan
Murder, She Wrote
1984
10.0
(archive footage)
Going Hollywood: The '30s
1984
5.8
Charlotte
Kiss Me Goodbye
1982
3.5
Sam Williams
The Cape Town Affair
1967
6.3
Edna
How to Murder Your Wife
1965
4.4
Helen Baird
The Stripper
1963
7.5
Self
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962
Credits
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
as Self (archive footage)
2009
7.5
You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story
as Self
2008
8.5
Breaking Home Ties
as Grace Porter
1987
6.5
Murder, She Wrote
as Judith Harlan
1984
7.5
Going Hollywood: The '30s
as (archive footage)
1984
10.0
Kiss Me Goodbye
as Charlotte
1982
5.8
The Cape Town Affair
as Sam Williams
1967
3.5
How to Murder Your Wife
as Edna
1965
6.3
The Stripper
as Helen Baird
1963
4.4
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
as Self
1962
7.5
The Merv Griffin Show
as Self
1962
6.2
Two Weeks in Another Town
as Clara Kruger
1962
5.9
The Investigators
as Kitty Harper
1961
5.0
Dr. Kildare
as Nurse Veronica Johnson
1961
5.5
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse
1958
5.8
Marjorie Morningstar
as Rose Morgenstern
1958
6.2
Wagon Train
as C.L. Harding
1957
6.6
If You Knew Elizabeth
as Elizabeth Owen
1957
0.0
The Mountain
as Marie
1956
6.9
Lucy Gallant
as Lady MacBeth
1955
7.0
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
as Mary Prescott
1955
7.8
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
as Mrs. Meade
1955
7.8
Man Without a Star
as Idonee
1955
6.4
Climax!
as Phyllis Talbot
1954
3.3
A Star Is Born World Premiere
as Self
1954
8.0
The High and the Mighty
as May Holst
1954
5.9
The Stranger Wore a Gun
as Josie Sullivan
1953
5.4
The Oscars
as Self
1953
7.0
General Electric Theater
as Cora Leslie
1953
6.4
Stop, You're Killing Me
as Nora Marko
1952
5.0
My Man and I
as Mrs. Elena Ames
1952
6.8
Hoodlum Empire
as Connie Williams
1952
6.1
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
as Mary Hunter
1951
7.2
Best of the Badmen
as Lily
1951
6.5
Hard, Fast and Beautiful
as Millie Farley
1951
6.0
🎬
Lux Video Theatre
as Ellen Creed
1950
6.3
🎬
Lux Video Theatre
as Mary Scott
1950
6.3
Borderline
as Madeleine Haley
1950
5.5
The Lucky Stiff
as Marguerite Seaton
1949
4.8
The Babe Ruth Story
as Claire Hodgson Ruth
1948
5.8
Key Largo
as Gaye Dawn
1948
7.4
The Velvet Touch
as Marian Webster
1948
6.2
Raw Deal
as Pat Cameron
1948
6.7
Born to Kill
as Helen Brent
1947
6.7
Crack-Up
as Terry Cordell
1946
5.6
The Bachelor's Daughters
as Cynthia Davis
1946
6.2
Johnny Angel
as Lilah 'Lily' Gustafson
1945
5.9
Murder, My Sweet
as Helen Grayle
1944
7.2
The Woman of the Town
as Dora Hand
1943
6.2
Good Luck, Mr. Yates
as Ruth Jones
1943
5.8
The Desperadoes
as Countess Maletta
1943
5.7
Street of Chance
as Ruth Dillon
1942
5.3
Crossroads
as Michelle Allaine
1942
5.8
The Adventures of Martin Eden
as Connie Dawson
1942
6.0
Texas
as Michael 'Mike' King
1941
6.5
Honky Tonk
as "Gold Dust" Nelson
1941
6.4
Dark Command
as Miss Mary McCloud
1940
6.3
Allegheny Uprising
as Janie MacDougall
1939
5.6
I Stole a Million
as Laura Benson
1939
6.0
Stagecoach
as Dallas
1939
7.6
Five of a Kind
as Christine Nelson
1938
4.2
Valley of the Giants
as Lee Roberts
1938
6.0
The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse
as Jo Keller
1938
7.1
Walking Down Broadway
as Joan Bradley
1938
5.7
Big Town Girl
as Fay Loring
1937
6.0
Second Honeymoon
as Marcia
1937
5.8
Dead End
as Francey
1937
7.0
One Mile from Heaven
as Lucy 'Tex' Warren
1937
6.7
King of Gamblers
as Dixie Moore
1937
7.0
Time Out for Romance
as Barbara Blanchard
1937
5.6
Career Woman
as Carroll Aiken
1936
6.0
15 Maiden Lane
as Jane Martin
1936
6.0
Star for a Night
as Nina Lind
1936
6.0
Sunkist Stars at Palm Springs
1936
1.0
To Mary - with Love
as Kitty Brant
1936
4.5
Human Cargo
as Bonnie Brewster
1936
6.0
Song and Dance Man
as Julia Carroll
1936
0.0
My Marriage
as Carol Barton
1936
5.0
Navy Wife
as Vicky Blake
1935
5.0
Dante's Inferno
as Elizabeth "Betty" McWade Carter
1935
6.2
Black Sheep
as Janette Foster
1935
7.0
Spring Tonic
as Betty Ingals
1935
5.3
Elinor Norton
as Elinor Norton
1934
6.0
Baby Take a Bow
as Kay Ellison
1934
5.6
Wild Gold
as Jerry Jordan
1934
5.0
Hold That Girl
as Tonie Bellamy
1934
0.0
Jimmy and Sally
as Sally Johnson
1933
4.0
The Mad Game
as Jane Lee
1933
0.0
The Last Trail
as Patricia Carter
1933
0.0
Life in the Raw
as Judy Halloway
1933
0.0