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Evelyn Keyes, 91, Whose Film Roles Included ‘Gone With the Wind,’ Is Dead
Agence France-Presse
Evelyn Keyes, left, in 2002 with two of her “Gone With the
Wind” co-stars, Ann Rutherford and Rand Brooks.
Evelyn
Keyes, one of the last surviving co-stars of “Gone
With the Wind” and a popular film actress in the 1940s, died on July 4 at an
assisted-living home in Montecito, Calif. She was 91.
Ms. Keyes died of cancer, said the producer Allan Glaser, a friend, who told
The Associated Press that the announcement had been delayed until the death
certificate was filed.
Ms. Keyes played the pouty Suellen O’Hara, whose sister Scarlett steals her
longtime boyfriend and marries him just to pay the taxes on the plantation, in
the Academy Award-winning 1939 movie classic. But in later years she became
almost as well known for her first memoir, “Scarlett O’Hara’s Younger Sister,”
as for any of her movie roles. The book, published in 1977, concentrated on her
numerous marriages and love affairs with the mostly rich and famous.
She was quoted as saying, “I always took up with the man of the moment and
there were many such moments.”
Her first husband (1938-40) was Barton Bainbridge, a businessman. After she
left him, for the Budapest-born director Charles Vidor, he committed suicide.
She and Mr. Vidor married in 1944, but divorced the next year. Her third husband
was John
Huston, the director, writer, producer and actor.
After her 1950 divorce from Huston, Ms. Keyes was the constant companion of
the producer Mike Todd. He left her for Elizabeth
Taylor in 1956. The next year Ms. Keyes married the bandleader Artie Shaw
(whose ex-wives included Ava
Gardner and Lana
Turner). They separated in the 1970s, but did not divorce until 1985. After
his death in 2004 she sued his estate and was awarded $1.42 million.
Ms. Keyes also had romances with Anthony
Quinn, David
Niven and Kirk
Douglas, according to her book.
She made other notable films as well. In the heaven-and-earth fantasy “Here
Comes Mr. Jordan” (1941), she played the love interest of Robert Montgomery.
In “The
Jolson Story” (1946), she played a character based on Ruby Keeler, opposite
Larry
Parks as Al
Jolson.
Evelyn Keyes was born on Nov. 20, 1916, in Port Arthur, Tex. Her father died
when she was 2, and she grew up living with her mother and her grandmother in
Atlanta, where she took voice and dance lessons. Weekend dancing jobs paid for
her train fare to Hollywood.
Ms. Keyes made her film debut in Cecil
B. DeMille’s pirate picture “The
Buccaneer” (1938), starring Fredric
March. After six more movie roles, four of them uncredited, she was cast in
“Gone With the Wind.”
After that she made two pictures, “The
Lady in Question” and “Ladies
in Retirement,” directed by Mr. Vidor. She starred in at least six with Glenn
Ford, beginning with “The
Adventures of Martin Eden” and ending with “Mr. Soft
Touch.” “Mrs. Mike” (1949), a Canadian Mounties drama, was said to be one of her favorites.
Her last notable movie role was as the wife whose out-of-town trip makes it
possible for Tom Ewell to flirt with Marilyn
Monroe in Billy
Wilder’s “Seven Year Itch” (1955). Her final film role was in “Wicked
Stepmother”Bette
Davis. Her final screen appearance was in a 1993 episode of the CBS series
“Murder, She Wrote.” (1989), a horror fantasy with
The actor Tab
Hunter, a close friend, has talked about making a film based on her
autobiographical 1971 novel, “I Am a Billboard.” The tentative title is “Georgia
Peach,” but Ms. Keyes did not identify with the South.
“I have no roots,” she told The New York Times in 1977. “I deliberately set
out to destroy them, and I did. If there’s any such thing as a hometown for me,
it’s Hollywood. I was formed here as an adult.”
