FORGOTTEN ONES: INGER STEVENS

Watching an episode of "The Twilight Zone" this weekend, I was reminded of what a wonderful actress Inger Stevens was. She died way too young in 1970 at the age of 36.Inger Stevens was born Inger Stensland in Stockholm, Sweden. She was an insecure child and often ill.

When she was nine, her parents divorced and she moved with her father to New York City. At age 13, she and her father moved to Manhattan, Kansas, where she attended Manhattan High School. At 16, she worked in burlesque shows in Kansas City. At 18, she left Kansas for New York City. She worked as a chorus girl and in the Garment District while taking classes at the Actors Studio.

Stevens appeared on television series, commercials and in plays, until she got her big break in the movie Man on Fire starring Bing Crosby. Inger would later date Bing, but he would break up with her when she refused to become a Catholic.

Roles in major films followed, but she achieved her greatest success in the ABC television series The Farmer's Daughter, with William Windom. Previously, Stevens appeared in episodes of Bonanza, Route 66, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Eleventh Hour, Sam Benedict and The Twilight Zone.

Following the cancellation of The Farmer's Daughter in 1966, Stevens appeared in such movies as A Guide for the Married Man (1967), with Walter Matthau, Hang 'Em High, with Clint Eastwood, 5 Card Stud, with Dean Martin, and Madigan, with Henry Fonda and Richard Widmark, all in 1968. Stevens was attempting to make a comeback on television with the detective drama series The Most Deadly Game when she died.

Her first husband was her agent, Anthony Soglio, to whom she was married from 1955 to 1957. From 1961 until her death, she was secretly married to Ike Jones, an African-American actor. She was also romantically linked with Bing Crosby, Anthony Quinn, Dean Martin, Clint Eastwood, Harry Belafonte, Mario Lanza, and Burt Reynolds.

On the morning of April 30, 1970, a house guest found Stevens lying face down on her kitchen floor, having overdosed on Tedral (a combination drug of theophylline, ephedrine and phenobarbital, commonly prescribed in the treatment of breathing disorders such as asthma, emphysema, and bronchitis), washed down with alcohol. After an autopsy, her body was cremated and her ashes were scattered over the Pacific Ocean...

RIP: ANNE FRANCIS

Anne Francis, who costarred in the 1950s science-fiction classic "Forbidden Planet" and later played the title role in "Honey West," the mid-1960s TV series about a sexy female private detective with a pet ocelot, died Sunday. She was 80.

Francis, who was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007 and underwent surgery and chemotherapy, died of complications of pancreatic cancer at a retirement home in Santa Barbara, said Jane Uemura, her daughter. Friends and family members were with her, said a family spokeswoman, Melissa Fitch.

A shapely blond with a signature beauty mark next to her lower lip, Francis was a former child model and radio actress when she first came to notice on the big screen in the early 1950s. She had leading or supporting roles in more than 30 movies, including "Bad Day at Black Rock," "Battle Cry," "Blackboard Jungle," "The Hired Gun," "Don't Go Near the Water," "Brainstorm," "Funny Girl" and "Hook, Line and Sinker."'

She also achieved cult status as one of the stars of "Forbidden Planet," the 1956 MGM movie costarring Walter Pidgeon and Leslie Nielsen and featuring a helpful robot named Robby.Francis, however, never became a major movie star and was more frequently seen on television as a guest star on scores of series from the late '50s and decades beyond, including an episode of "The Twilight Zone" in which she played a department store mannequin who comes to life at night.

But it's as the star of "Honey West," the first female detective to be featured in a weekly TV series, that Francis may be best remembered.Based on the title character in G.G. Fickling's series of Honey West paperback mysteries launched in 1957, Francis' Honey West was introduced to TV viewers in an episode of "Burke's Law" in the spring of 1965.The episode served as the pilot for the half-hour "Honey West" series, which was executive produced by Aaron Spelling and made its debut in the fall of 1965.In it, West, who inherited a Los Angeles detective agency from her late father, had a partner named Sam Bolt (played by John Ericson), shared an apartment with her Aunt Meg ( Irene Hervey) and owned a man-hating pet ocelot named Bruce Biteabit. In what Francis later described as "a tongue-in-cheek, female James Bond," her karate-chopping private eye drove a custom-built Cobra convertible sports car and, when necessary, worked out of a specially equipped mobile surveillance van that masqueraded as a TV service vehicle.

Among her Bond-style gimmicks: a lipstick radio transmitter, a fake martini olive on a toothpick for bugging conversations, earrings that exploded with tear gas when they were thrown to the floor and a black garter with pink lace that doubled as a gas mask. As the glamorous and sexy Honey, Francis was outfitted in an eye-catching wardrobe that included a black snakeskin trench coat, a white beaded gown trimmed in sable and a tiger- skin bathing suit with matching cape. In a television era of Donna Reed and Harriet Nelson housewives, the independent, take-charge Honey West has been described as being a role model for young baby-boomer women.

"She was probably the forerunner of what we would call the good aspects of female independence," Francis told the (Memphis) Commercial Appeal in 1997.

"Producers and writers I work with, young women in their 30s and 40s, tell me all the time, 'You have no idea what an influence you had on me with Honey West. You showed that I could do something unusual with my life, that I could have my freedom and not be dependent on another human being for my livelihood.'"

Francis won a Golden Globe as best female TV star and received an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of Honey West.

The series received good ratings, but ABC canceled it in 1966 after 30 episodes. "They were able to buy 'The Avengers' [spy drama] from England for less than it cost to produce our show," Francis later said.

While at MGM, she co-starred in "Forbidden Planet," a big-budget, box-office hit that received an Oscar nomination for special effects. Francis played Altaira, the alluring daughter of the scientist character played by Pidgeon: the two sole-surviving human inhabitants of the mysterious, technologically advanced planet.

"I got that part because I was under contract to MGM and I had good legs," Francis, who wore futuristically abbreviated costumes, said in a 1992 interview for Starlog magazine.

At the time, she recalled, "I don't think that any of us really were aware of the fact that it was going to turn into a longtime cult film, probably much, much stronger today than it was then. … 'Forbidden Planet' just had a life of its own, something that none of us was aware was going to happen."

Francis, who wrote the 1982 memoir "Voices From Home: An Inner Journey," continued to appear on television throughout the '90s.In addition to Uemura, the twice-divorced Francis is survived by another daughter, Maggie, and a grandson, Fitch said.

LOUIS ARMSTRONG COLLECTION ONLINE

The new year is underway and it should be a terrific one for fans and students of trumpeter - bandleader Louis Armstrong. "The world is more interested than ever in Louis Armstrong," says Michael Cogswell, Director of The Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens, NY. "That's evident not only from the ever-increasing number of people from around the world who visit our Museum," he reports, "but also from the number of researchers using our archives and the great popularity of recent Armstrong films and books." Because in part of a $105,384, two-year grant from the Museums for America program of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), cataloging for the three largest collections at the Armstrong House Museum is already online.By the end of 2011, the entire collection will be included.

"Thanks to the vision and generosity of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, we have been able to build a world-renowned research archives," says Cogswell."And now, thanks to this IMLS grant, our catalog will be online for everyone to peruse and enjoy."

Project Archivist Ricky Riccardi, an Armstrong expert, has spent the past 15 months arranging, preserving, and cataloging more than 200 cubic feet of Armstrong material.

"Working with this collection has been an absolute dream come true, but getting to share it online with other Armstrong lovers from around the world really makes this something special," Riccardi enthuses. "And it's not just for Armstrong experts; the online catalog will appeal to music fans, art historians, 20th-century pop culture buffs, musicians, photographers, you name it. There's something for everyone."

Cogswell adds, "One of our most common reference questions is, ‘What kind of trumpet did Louis Armstrong play?' Now, anybody, anywhere in the world 24/7, can simply go on the web to learn the make, model, and serial numbers and to see photos of Louis's own gold-plated trumpets."

According to publicity, "The Louis Armstrong House Museum holds the world's largest archives devoted to a single jazz musician. Its collections encompass more than 5,000 sound recordings, 15,000 photographs, 30 films, 100 scrapbooks, 20 linear feet of letters and papers, and six trumpets. Researchers, record companies, publishers, film producers, public school students, and many others routinely use these materials. Since 1994, more than a dozen books and recordings have been published based on research from the collections, including Terry Teachout's Pops, a notable book of 2010.

The research core of the archives is the Louis Armstrong Collection, comprising Satchmo's vast personal trove of home-recorded tapes, photographs, scrapbooks, manuscript band parts, and other materials discovered inside his modest house in Corona, Queens, after his wife, Lucille, passed away in 1983. A grant from the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation made possible the Museum's acquisition of the world's largest private collection of Armstrong material from Jack Bradley, Armstrong's friend and a noted jazz photographer."

Bradley's items included hundreds of candid, previously unpublished photographs of Armstrong taken or collected by Bradley over five decades.

The direct link to The Louis Armstrong House Museum's catalog is here

THE PASSING SCENE OF 2010

As we say goodbye to the year that was 2010, we also say goodbye to some wonderful entertainers. Many of them performed and delighted audiences with their talents for generations. These wonderful entertainers left us this year - they are gone but hopefully not forgotten...

Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis (1925 - 2010)
Actor. Born Bernard Schwartz, his father was a tailor who immigrated from Hungary; he was brought up in poverty in a tough Bronx neighborhood. He would go on to be one of the greatest actors of a generation, starring in films such as Some Like It Hot and The Defiant Ones.

Leslie Nielsen (1926 - 2010)
Actor. Born Leslie William Nielsen, he was a World War II-era Royal Canadian Air Force veteran. He attended the Lorne Greene Academy of Radio Arts and Neighborhood Playhouse (New York City actor's training school) before beginning steady television work in the late 1940s. He gained his greatest fame in comedy movies such as Airplane! and Naked Gun.

Barbara Billingsley (1915 - 2010)
Actress. Born Barbara Lillian Combes, she attended Los Angeles Junior College in the mid 1930s and then moved to New York City, where she worked as a model. In the 1950s she represented a generation of housewives playing Mrs. Cleaver on the television series, Leave It To Beaver.

Tom Bosley (1927 - 2010)
Actor. He will be remembered for his role as the patriarch Howard Cunningham in the popular TV series "Happy Days" (1974 to 1984). Born in Chicago, he served in the US Navy, and attended DePaul University following his return home.

Rue McClanahan (1934 - 2010)
Actress. Best known as the co-star of the popular TV sitcom The Golden Girls. Born Eddi-Rue McClanahan, she grew up in Ardmore, Oklahoma, graduated from the University of Tulsa, and began a career as an actress in 1957.

Art Linkletter (1912 - 2010)
Television and Radio Personality, Author. He hosted two of the longest-running programs in broadcast history and was a presence in American media for more than six decades. "Art Linkletter's House Party," a variety show, debuted on radio in 1944 and was seen on CBS television from 1952 to 1969.

Dennis Hopper (1936 - 2010)
Actor, Director. He was considered one of Hollywood's most outspoken and versatile actors. He appeared in over 150 motion pictures during his lifetime, working as both an actor and film director, in a career that spanned over five decades. He was known in the motion picture industry for his anti-establishm.

Lena Horne

Lena Horne (1917 - 2010)
Entertainer. She broke through racial barriers as the first black performer to sign a long-term contract with a major Hollywood studio. Born Lena Mary Calhoun Horne, her grandparents were active in the NAACP and she was a cover girl for the organization's monthly bulletin at the age of two.

Patricia Neal (1926 - 2010)
Actress. Striking, husky-voiced leading lady of stage and screen. She won a Best Actress Academy Award for "Hud" (1963). In 1965 Neal nearly lost her life to a series of crippling strokes, but fought back and triumphantly resumed her career.

Peter Graves (1926 - 2010)
Actor. Born Peter Aurness, he participated in athletics and was an accomplished musician before beginning his career as a radio announcer, where he utilized his robust speaking voice. After studying drama at the University of Minnesota, he followed his older brother James Arness into the entertainment field.

Fess Parker (1924 - 2010)
Actor. Born Fess Elisha Parker, Junior in Fort Worth Texas, he would become famous for playing Davy Crockett on television.

Jimmy Dean (1928 - 2010)
Entertainer. Jimmy Ray Dean was an American country music singer, television host, actor and businessman. Although he may be best known today as the creator of the Jimmy Dean Sausage brand, he first rose to fame for his 1961 country crossover hit "Big Bad John"; and became a national television personality.

Lynn Redgrave (1943 - 2010)
Actress. She had a long career on stage, television, and film. The child of a distinguished British theatrical family, she was raised within the show-business milieu and studied at the London School of Speech and Drama before making her professional stage debut in "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Jean Simmons (1929 - 2010)
Actress. A leading lady of captivating beauty, she appeared in British and American motion pictures. She was only 15 when chosen for the role of 'Heidi' in the 1944 picture "Give Us the Moon", followed with performances in "Great Expectations" as 'Young Estella' (1946) and "Black Narcissus" (1947).

John Forsythe (1918 - 2010)
American Stage, Television and Film Actor. Forsythe starred in three television series, spanning three decades, as single playboy father Bentley Gregg in the 1950s sitcom Bachelor Father (1957–1962); as the unseen millionaire Charles Townsend on the 1970s crime drama Charlie's Angels (1976–1981).

Gloria Stuart (1910 - 2010)
Actress. Best remembered for her Academy Award nominated role of the more mature, 'Rose Calvert ' in the multi-Academy Award winning motion picture, "Titanic" (1997). Stuart's film career spanned nearly seven decades. During the "Golden Age" of Hollywood she worked along side James Cagney, Claude Rains, and Eddie Cantor.

Dixie Carter

Dixie Carter (1939 - 2010)
Actress. She graduated from the University of Memphis and competed in the 1959 Miss Tennessee pageant, earning first runner-up. She then began an acting career, first on the Memphis stage and later in New York City theaters. Her most famous role was on TV's Designing Women

Kevin McCarthy (1914 - 2010)
Actor. The younger brother of author Mary McCarthy, they were both orphaned when their parents fell victim to the 1918 influenza epidemic, and he would be raised by various relatives. His most famous role was in The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers.

Gary Coleman (1968 - 2010)
Actor. As a child he appeared in episodes of "The Jeffersons" and "Good Times" before attaining celebrity status as a star of the NBC situation comedy "Diff'rent Strokes", where his character's usual retort to his brother (played by Todd Bridges) "What'choo talkin' 'bout, Willis?" became a national catchphrase.

Jill Clayburgh (1944 - 2010)
Actress. A star of both the large and small screens, she was twice nominated for the Academy Award as Best Actress. Raised in an upper class Manhattan family, she received a degree in theater from Sarah Lawrence College in 1966.

Robert Culp (1930 - 2010)
Actor, Screenwriter. Best known for his work in television, he earned an international reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on I Spy (1965-1968), the espionage series, where he and co-star Bill Cosby played a pair of secret agents.

James MacArthur (1937 - 2010)
Actor. He is most identified with the role of Detective Danny "Danno" Williams in the long-running police drama "Hawaii Five-O" (1968 to 1979). The line "Book 'em, Danno", often used during the series' run, is one of the most memorable in television history.

Mitch Miller (1911 - 2010)
Conductor, Record Producer. He shall probably be best remembered for getting a large television audience to "Sing Along With Mitch" on Friday nights in the early 1960s.

Blake Edwards (1922 - 2010)
Motion Picture Director, Screenwriter, Producer. He is best remembered for the "Pink Panther" film series. Born William Blake Crump, his parents divorced while he was a child, and his mother would remarry to Jack McEdwards, a Hollywood production manager who helped to get Edwards in the business. He was also married to Julie Andrews.

J. D. Salinger (1919 - 2010)
Novelist, Short Story Writer. His book "The Catcher in the Rye" (1951) is considered the classic 20th Century novel of alienated youth. It has sold over 60 million copies worldwide.

Eddie Fisher (1928 - 2010)
Entertainer. One of America's most popular singers of the 1950s, his career was later overshadowed by his private life. The Philadelphia native began performing as a teen and got his big break in 1949 with an appearance on Eddie Cantor's radio show, which led to a recording contract with RCA Victor.

Zelda Rubinstein (1933 - 2010)
Actress. She is best remembered as the ghost-hunting psychic from the "Poltergeist" movies of the 1980s. The 4'3" Rubinstein, who preferred the designation "little person", attended the University of Pittsburgh and the University of California, Berkeley.

Meinhardt Raabe (1915 - 2010)
American Actor. One of the last surviving Munchkin-actors in The Wizard of Oz, he was also the last surviving cast member with any dialogue in the film. At 4'7", he played the coroner in The Wizard of Oz in 1939, with his lines being: "As coroner, I must aver. I thoroughly examined her. And she's no...

Frances Reid (1914 - 2010)
Actress. She is fondly remembered for her role of Alice Horton in the daytime TV serial "The Days of Our Lives", from the show's debut in 1965 until 2007. Raised in Berkeley, California, the daughter of a banker, she studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse and made her Broadway debut in 1939.

Kathryn Grayson

Kathryn Grayson (1922 - 2010)
Singer, Actress. She starred in a number of film and Broadway musicals from the 1940s to the 1960s. Born Zelma Kathryn Hedrick, she moved from North Carolina to St. Louis with her family where, at 12, she was discovered singing on the stage of an empty opera house. She became one of MGM's best loved singing stars.

Agathe Von Trapp (1913 - 2010)
Entertainer. She was a member of the Von Trapp family of singers, who escaped Nazi-occupied Austria and found success in America. Their story was told in the Broadway musical and Oscar-winning film "The Sound Of Music" (1965), in which she was portrayed as Liesl, the daughter who was "16 going on 17.

Billie Richards (1921 - 2010)
Actress. Known primarily for voice characterizations, she shall be remembered as the title lead in the 1964 television special "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". Raised in Toronto, she was dancing by age two and at five was appearing in a revue titled "The Merry Makers".

Ilene Woods (1929 - 2010)
Actress, Singer. She voiced the title role of Walt Disney's 1950 animated classic "Cinderella". Born Jacqueline Ruth Woods, she originally wanted to be a teacher, but was pushed into show business by an ambitious mother who arranged for her to receive dance and music lessons.

Steve Landesberg (1936 - 2010)
Actor, Comedian. Best remembered as Arthur P. Dietrich, the intellectual, unflappably deadpan detective from the long-running 1970s television series "Barney Miller".

Art Gilmore (1912 - 2010)
Voice Artist, Actor. Best remembered as the 'voice' for such hit television shows as "The Red Skelton Show " and "Highway Patrol", he had a career that spanned over 6 years.

Marie Osborne (1911 - 2010)
Actress. Appearing in around two dozen Hollywood features, she was silent film's first major child star. Born Helen Alice Myers, she was placed at age three months with a foster family named Osborn who changed her name to Marie and later added an "e" to their surname.

Dorothy Provine

Dorothy Provine (1935 - 2010)
Actress. Born to a businessman and an interior designer, she was raised in Washington. She was educated at the University of Washington, where she received a BA in Theater Arts and began performing in several amateur stage productions. Her most famous role was as Milton Berle's wife in the comedy It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World in 1963.

These stars have stopped glowing but they will never fade away...

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: GUY LOMBARDO

Guy Lombardo was New Year's Eve for the better part of 50 years. When he died in 1977, so did New Year's Eve for many people. This undated picture below is a great picture of Guy Lombardo. He stayed up for midnight on New Year's Eve for years and yet here he is catching a snooze. It is a classic picture of a classy guy...

RIP: LINA ROMAY

Lina Romay, who sang with the Latin-inflected Xavier Cugat orchestra in the early 1940s before beginning a decade-long career as a film and TV actress, has died. She was 91. Romay's son, Jay Gould, says his mother died Dec. 17 of natural causes at a hospital in Pasadena.

Romay began her entertainment career by touring as the Cugat orchestra's lead singer.

A performance with the orchestra in the 1942 Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth film "You Were Never Lovelier" led to roles in some 15 other films and appearances on the Milton Berle Show, the Red Skelton Show and other TV programs.

An exceptionally fine singer, she was often heard on popular radio shows of the 1940's such as Jack Benny, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. She sang on Hollywood Canteen and in USO shows broadcast to American serviceman overseas during WW2. My research has uncovered her appearances on at least 15 Command Performance radio shows. She also was featured in several Mail Call broadcasts, and with the Marx Bros, quite an impressive lineup! She sang on Bing Crosby's Philco Shows and others. She even had her own radio show, some of which are available by some private collectors. We know, based on what I've read, her early days as the lead female singer with Xavier Cugat's orchestra, while he was the headlining at the Waldorf Astoria. But I think she left his employ when she signed a film contract with MGM during that period. She also has appeared on Broadway, most notably in Michael Todd's Peep Show and singing in many small venues.

Her show business career ended in 1953, but from the late 1970s into the 1980s, she worked as a Spanish-language radio announcer for horse races at Hollywood Park Racetrack.

SPOTLIGHT ON JEAN ARTHUR

Jean Arthur was born on October 17, 1900 and was arguably the epitome of the female screwball comedy actress. As James Harvey wrote in his recounting of the era, "No one was more closely identified with the screwball comedy than Jean Arthur. So much was she part of it, so much was her star personality defined by it, that the screwball style itself seems almost unimaginable without her." Arthur has been called "the quintessential comedic leading lady."

Arthur is best known for her feature roles in three Frank Capra films: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can't Take It With You (1938), and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), films that championed the everyday heroine. A memorable later performance was in George Stevens' Shane (1953), her last screen appearance. Arthur was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1944 for her performance in The More the Merrier (1943). However, she never won an Oscar.

Arthur was born Gladys Georgianna Greene in Plattsburgh, New York to Protestant parents Johanna Augusta Nelson and Hubert Sidney Greene. She lived off and on in Westbrook, Maine from 1908 to 1915 while her father worked at Lamson Studios in Portland, Maine as a photographer. The product of a nomadic childhood, Arthur also lived at times in Jacksonville, Florida; Schenectady, New York; and, during a portion of her high school years, in the Washington Heights neighborhood of upper Manhattan. She came from a family of three older brothers: Donald Hubert (1891), Robert B. (1892) and Albert Sidney (1894). Her maternal grandparents were immigrants from Norway who settled in the American West. She reputedly took her stage name from two of her greatest heroes, Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc) and King Arthur.

The turning point in Jean Arthur's career came when she was chosen by director Frank Capra to star in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. Capra had spotted her in a daily rush from the film Whirlpool in 1934 and convinced Cohn to have Columbia Studios sign her for his next film as a tough newspaperwoman who falls in love with a country bumpkin millionaire. Arthur co-starred in three celebrated 1930s Capra films: her role opposite Gary Cooper in 1936 in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town made her a star, while her fame was cemented with You Can't Take It With You (1938) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington in 1939, both with James Stewart. She was re-teamed with Cooper, playing Calamity Jane in Cecil B. DeMille's The Plainsman (1936), and appeared as a working girl, her typical role, in Mitchell Leisen's 1937 screwball comedy Easy Living opposite Ray Milland. So strong was her box office appeal by 1939 that she was one of four finalists that year for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind; the film's producer, David O. Selznick, had briefly romanced Arthur in the late 1920s when they both were with Paramount Pictures.

She continued to star in films such as Howard Hawks' Only Angels Have Wings in 1939, with love interest Cary Grant, 1942's The Talk of the Town, directed by George Stevens (also with Grant), and again for Stevens as a government clerk in 1943's The More the Merrier, for which Jean Arthur was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress (losing to Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette). As a result of being in the doghouse with studio boss Harry Cohn, her fee for The Talk of the Town (1942) was only $50,000 while her male co-stars Grant and Ronald Colman received upwards of $100,000 each. Arthur remained Columbia's top star until the mid-1940s, when she left the studio and Rita Hayworth took over as the studio's reigning queen. Stevens famously called her "one of the greatest comediennes the screen has ever seen", while Capra credited her as "my favorite actress".

Alan Ladd and Jean Arthur in Shane (1953)Arthur "retired" when her contract with Columbia Pictures expired in 1944. She reportedly ran through the studio's streets, shouting "I'm free, I'm free!" For the next several years, she turned down virtually all film offers, the two exceptions being Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair (1948), in which she played a congresswoman and rival of Marlene Dietrich, and as a homesteader's wife in the classic Western Shane (1953), which turned out to be the biggest box-office hit of her career. The latter was her final film, and the only color film she appeared in.

Arthur next decided to teach drama, first at Vassar College and then the North Carolina School of the Arts. While teaching at Vassar, she stopped a rather stridently overacted scene performance and directed the students' attention to a large tree growing outside the window of the performance space, advising the students on the art of naturalistic acting: "I wish people knew how to be people as well as that tree knows how to be a tree."

Her students at Vassar included the young Meryl Streep. Arthur recognized Streep's talent and potential very early on and after watching her performance in a Vassar play, Arthur said it was "like watching a movie star." Jean Arthur died quietly in retirement on June 19, 1991 at the age of 90...