Ida Lupino Fast Facts
Born: February 4, 1918 in Camberwell, London, England
Died: August 3, 1995 (aged 77) in Los Angeles, California
Cause of Death: Died of a stroke while battling colon cancer.
Spouse(s):
Louis Hayward (m.1938–1945; divorced)
Collier Young (m.1948–1951; divorced)
Howard Duff (m.1951–1984; divorced)
Daughter: Bridget Duff was born on April 23, 1952.
Nickname: Little Scout
Height: 5' 4" (1.63 m)
Trademark: Calling everyone "Darling."
BIOGRAPHY
Acting CareerIda Lupino was born in 1918 into an English family of performers. Her father, Stanley Lupino, was a music hall comedian, and her mother, Connie Emerald (1892–1959), was an actress. As a girl, Ida Lupino was encouraged to enter show business by both her parents and her uncle, Lupino Lane, an acrobatic film and stage comic and director. At the age of seven Lupino wrote and starred in the play Mademoiselle for a school production. She trained at RADA for two terms and made her first film appearance in The Love Race (1931), the next year making Her First Affaire, a film her mother originally tested for. She played leading roles in five British films in 1933 at Warner Bros.' Teddington studios and for Julius Hagen at Twickenham, including in The Ghost Camera with John Mills and I Lived with You with Ivor Novello. She moved to Hollywood at the end of that year for the opportunity to play the lead role in Alice in Wonderland (1933).
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| A youthful Ida |
Mark Hellinger, associate producer at Warner Bros. was particularly impressed by this performance, and hired her for a role in They Drive by Night (1940), which led to a Warner Bros. contract, which she negotiated to include some freelance rights.
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| Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart in High Sierra |
Directing Career
In the mid-1940s, while on suspension for turning down a role, Lupino became interested in directing. Her time on suspension allowed her to spend her time observing the filming and editing processes, which would aid her in her directorial endeavors. She described herself as being bored on set while "someone else seemed to be doing all the interesting work." She co-wrote and co-produced some of her own films as well. She and her husband Collier Young formed an independent company, The Filmmakers, and Lupino became a producer, director and screenwriter of low-budget, issue-oriented films. This company would go on to produce twelve feature films, six of which she directed or co-directed, five of which she wrote or co-wrote, three of which she acted in, and one of which she co-produced. Lupino claims she "…did not set out to be a director," but it was a reality she had to face when her first directing job came unexpectedly in 1949 when Elmer Clifton suffered a mild heart attack and could not finish Not Wanted, a film she co-produced and co-wrote. Lupino stepped in to finish the film but did not take directorial credit out of respect for Clifton. Although the subject of the film was controversial, it received a vast amount of publicity. She was even invited to discuss the film with Eleanor Roosevelt on a national radio program. She went on to direct her own projects, becoming Hollywood's only female film director of the time and the first actress to produce, direct and write her own product.
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| Director Ida Lupino |
Not only did Lupino take control of production, direction and screenplay, but each of her movies addresses the brutal repercussions of sexuality, independence and dependence.
After four "women's" films about social issues – including Outrage (1950), a film about rape, Lupino directed her first hard-paced, fast-moving film, The Hitch-Hiker (1953), making her the first woman to direct a film noir. Writer Richard Koszarski noted that:
Her films display the obsessions and consistencies of a true auteur... In her films The Bigamist and The Hitch-Hiker Lupino was able to reduce the male to the same sort of dangerous, irrational force that women represented in most male-directed examples of Hollywood film noir.
Lupino often joked that if she had been the "poor man's Bette Davis" as an actress, then she had become the "poor man's Don Siegel" as a director. In 1952, Lupino was invited to become the "fourth star" in Four Star Productions by Dick Powell, David Niven and Charles Boyer, after Joel McCrea and Rosalind Russell had dropped out of the company.
Because she was a female director, her studio emphasized her femininity, often at the urging of Lupino herself. As one professor puts it “…Lupino’s cinematic tenure can be understood as a varied and complex attempt to control both image and image reception.” She even credited her refusal to renew her contract with Warner Bros. under the pretenses of her domesticity, claiming “I had decided that nothing lay ahead of me but the life of the neurotic star with no family and no home.” She wanted to seem unthreatening in a male-dominated environment, which is made clear by a statement she made in which she says, “That’s where being a man makes a great deal of difference. I don’t suppose the men particularly care about leaving their wives and children. During the vacation period the wife can always fly over and be with him. It’s difficult for a wife to say to her husband, come sit on the set and watch,” in regards to the benefit of being a male director. Although directing became Lupino’s passion, the drive for money kept her on camera, so that she could acquire the appropriate funds to make her own productions.
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| Ida in the '50s |
Lupino continued acting throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Her directing efforts during these years were almost exclusively television productions such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Thriller, The Twilight Zone, Have Gun – Will Travel, The Donna Reed Show, Gilligan's Island, 77 Sunset Strip, The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, The Rifleman, The Virginian, Sam Benedict, The Untouchables, The Fugitive and Bewitched.
Lupino appeared in nineteen episodes of Four Star Playhouse from 1952 to 1956. From January 1957 to September 1958, Lupino starred with her then husband, Howard Duff, in the CBS sitcom Mr. Adams and Eve, in which the duo played husband and wife film stars named Howard Adams and Eve Drake, living in Beverly Hills, California. Duff and Lupino also co-starred as themselves in 1959 in one of the thirteen one-hour installments of The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour. Lupino guest-starred on numerous television programmes, including The Ford Television Theatre (1954), The Twilight Zone (1959), Bonanza (1959), Burke's Law (1963–64), The Virginian (1963–65), Batman (1968), The Mod Squad (1969), Family Affair (1969–70), Columbo (1972–74), Barnaby Jones (1974), The Streets of San Francisco ("Blockade", 1974), Ellery Queen (1975), Police Woman (1975) and Charlie's Angels (1977), to name a few. She is also noted as having two distinctions with “The Twilight Zone.” She is the only woman to have directed an episode (“The Masks”) and the only person to have served as both a director (the aforementioned “The Masks”) and an on-screen performer (in “The 16 Millimeter Shrine”). She made her final film appearance in 1978 and retired at the age of 60.
Television
Lupino continued acting throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Her directing efforts during these years were almost exclusively television productions such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Thriller, The Twilight Zone, Have Gun: Will Travel, The Donna Reed Show, Gilligan's Island, 77 Sunset Strip, The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, The Rifleman, The Virginian, Sam Benedict, The Untouchables, The Fugitive and Bewitched.
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| Ida on Columbo |
Lupino appeared in nineteen episodes of Four Star Playhouse from 1952 to 1956. From January 1957 to September 1958, Lupino starred with her then-husband, Howard Duff, in the CBS sitcom Mr. Adams and Eve, in which the duo played husband and wife film stars named Howard Adams and Eve Drake, living in Beverly Hills, California. Duff and Lupino also co-starred as themselves in 1959 in one of the thirteen one-hour installments of The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour. Lupino guest-starred on numerous television programs, including The Ford Television Theater (1954), The Twilight Zone (1959), Bonanza (1959), Burke's Law (1963–64), The Virginian (1963–65), Batman (1968), The Mod Squad (1969), Family Affair (1969–70), Columbo (1972–74), Barnaby Jones (1974), The Streets of San Francisco, Ellery Queen (1975), Police Woman (1975) and Charlie's Angels (1977), to name a few. She is also noted as having two distinctions with The Twilight Zone. She is the only woman to have directed an episode (“The Masks”) and the only person to have served as both a director (the aforementioned “The Masks”) and an on-screen performer (in “The 16 Millimeter Shrine”). She made her final film appearance in 1978 and retired at the age of 60.
Awards
Lupino has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to the fields of television and film. They are located at 1724 Vine Street and 6821 Hollywood Boulevard. She won the inaugural Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Devil's Rain.
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| Ida Lupino and Howard Duff |
Personal life
Lupino was born in Camberwell, London, (allegedly under a table during a World War I zeppelin raid) to actress Connie O'Shea (Connie Emerald) and music hall entertainer Stanley Lupino, a member of the theatrical Lupino family. Lupino's birth year is 1918 and not 1914 as some biographies have claimed. Her sister Rita Lupino, born in 1920, became an actress and dancer. During World War II she served as a Lieutenant in the Women's Ambulance and Defense Corps. After taking a hiatus from appearing in films, she composed music for a short time, even having her piece “Aladdin’s Lamp" performed by the L.A. Philharmonic in 1937. She also worked extensively in radio. Lupino became a U.S. citizen in 1948.
Lupino was married and divorced three times.
Louis Hayward, actor (November 16, 1938 – May 11, 1945)
Collier Young, producer (August 5, 1948 – October 20, 1951)
Howard Duff, actor (October 21, 1951 – 1984) with whom she had daughter Bridget Duff on April 23, 1952.
In 1983, Lupino petitioned a California court to appoint her business manager, Mary Ann Anderson, as her conservator due to poor business dealings from her prior business management company and her long separation from Howard Duff.
Lupino died from a stroke while undergoing treatment for colon cancer in Los Angeles on August 3, 1995 at the age of 77. Lupino's memoirs, Ida Lupino: Beyond the Camera, were edited after her death and published by Mary Ann Anderson.
Trivia
Daughter of British revue star and film comedian Stanley Lupino and Connie Emerald.
Daughter Bridget Duff with ex-husband Howard Duff. Her daughter was born on April 23, 1952. She only weighed 4 pounds and almost died.
Widely respected as a pioneer for women filmmakers.
As rigid and tough-minded as Bette Davis, Ida would often refuse to play a Davis hand-me-down role and was often suspended by Warner Bros. for doing so. It was during those breaks that she would go on movie sets, chum around with the male directors and learned the craft of directing. Blazing new trails, she became the only notable and respected female filmmaker of her era in Hollywood.
The second woman to be admitted to the Director's Guild.
Arrived from England aboard the Berengaria at New York on August 25, 1933 at age 15.
Cousin of actor Richard Lupino and Lauri Lupino Lane.
Second cousin of actor Wallace Lupino and Lupino Lane.
Profiled in Killer Tomatoes: Fifteen Tough Film Dames by Ray Hagen and Laura Wagner (McFarland, 2004).
Became a lifelong friend of Mala Powers whom she directed in Outrage. When Ida died in 1995, Mala was the executor of her estate.
Richard Boone told columnist Erskine Johnson in 1961 about her skills as a director, "Ida stimulates me as an actor because she knows acting. In a weekly show, you get into acting patterns. Ida gets you out of them."
Lupino was originally scheduled to play "Cassie" in Kings Row (1942), but when Warners decided to loan her to Fox for two films, she was replaced by Betty Field.
At age ten Lupino asked her father to construct a theater for her and her sister. The project resulted in an elaborate structure with electrical equipment, a pit, and seating for a hundred.
Lupino is an Italian surname. Her ancestors came from Bologna, Italy.
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| Ida in color |
Personal quotes
My agent had told me that he was going to make me the Janet Gaynor of England - I was going to play all the sweet roles. Whereupon, at the tender age of thirteen, I set upon the path of playing nothing but hookers.
I'd love to see more women working as directors and producers. Today it's almost impossible to do it unless you are an actress or writer with power . . . I wouldn't hesitate right this minute to hire a talented woman if the subject matter were right.
The beautiful thing about Warner Bros. when I was there was, I only worked with great people, actors, directors, producers. But when I left, nobody said goodbye.
[To Jack Warner after turning down a four year exclusive contract] I don't want to be told someday that I will be replaced by some starlet as I was told I would replace Bette.
[To a method actor] Darling, we have a three day schedule. There's no time to do anything but to do it.
