In the Spotlight:
EVE ARDEN
The superior witty actress was born Eunice M. Quedens on April 30, 1908 in Mill Valley, California to Lucille and Charles Peter Quedens. Her parents divorced when she was just a child.
Arden said that she was an insecure child, declaring later in life that she needed therapy.
At 16, Arden left Tamalpais High School and joined a stock theater company. She made her film debut, under her real name, in the backstage musical "Song of Love" in 1929. She plays a wisecracking showgirl who becomes a rival to the film's star. The film was one of Columbia Pictures' earliest successes.
Eve Arden's Broadway debut came in 1934, when she was cast in that year's "Ziegfeld Follies" revue.
Eve: Ready, willing, and able for stardom.
Her film career took off in 1937 when she appeared in the films "Oh Doctor" and "Stage Door" with Katharine Hepburn, where she portrayed a fast-talking, witty supporting character. The role gained Arden considerable notice and was to be a template for many of Arden's future roles.
Eve (seated) with Katharine Hepburn & Ginger Rogers in "Stage Door" (1937).
Her many memorable screen roles include, "At the Circus" with the Marx Bros., "No, No, Nanette", "Comrade X" with Gable & Lamarr, "Whistling in the Dark", "Manpower" with Dietrich, "Cover Girl" with Hayworth, "The Doughgirls" with Sheridan, and a supporting role as Joan Crawford's wise-cracking pal in 1945's "Mildred Pierce" for which she received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress.
Eve with Groucho Marx in "At the Circus" (1939).
Eve with Pat O'Brien and Douglas Fowley in "Slightly Honorable" (1940).
Eve with Lana Turner in "Ziegfeld Girl" (1941).
Eve as Cornelia 'Stonewall' Jackson in "Cover Girl" (1944).
Eve as Sgt. Natalia Moskoroff with Jane Wyman, Alexis Smith & Ann Sheridan in "The Doughgirls" (1944).
Doing her part on Armed Forces Radio 1940s.
Arden's quick wit also made her a natural talent for radio; she became a regular on Danny Kaye's short-lived but memorably zany comedy-variety show in 1946.
According to some sources, she had an affair with Danny Kaye in the 1940s.
She also co-starred with Barbara Stanwyck in "My Reputation", "The Kid from Booklyn" with Danny Kaye, "Night and Day" with Cary Grant, "The Unfaithful", "The Voice of the Turtle" with Ronald Reagan, "One Touch of Venus" with Ava Gardner, "Whiplash", the ultimate soap "Paid in Full" with Lizabeth Scott, "Tea for Two" with Doris Day, and "Goodbye, My Fancy" with Crawford.
Eve & Wayne Morris (2nd left) in "The Voice of the Turtle" (1947).
Eve in her Oscar nominated role in "Mildred Pierce" with Joan Crawford & Ann Blyth.
Eve, Tom Conway & sleepy Ava Gardner in "One Touch of Venus" (1948).
Eve with Dane Clark in "Whiplash" (1948).
Doris Day, Billy De Wolfe & Eve in "Tea for Two" (1950).
Eve Arden, radio star.
Eve with Joan Crawford in "Goodbye, My Fancy" (1951).
Arden's display of comic talent and timing set the stage for her to be cast in the role for which she is best known, as Madison High School English teacher Connie Brooks in "Our Miss Brooks".
Eve with Gale Gordon on the TV series "Our Miss Brooks".
Arden portrayed the character on radio from 1948 to 1957 winning poll awards, and in a television version of the program from 1952 to 1956 winning an Emmy Award and in a 1956 feature film.
Arden also co-starred with Kaye Ballard in the 1967-1969 situation comedy "The Mothers-in-Law", and few years afterward, she made a new sitcom pilot co-starring Don Knotts, but it failed to attract a network buyer. Too bad.
She was one of many stars to take on the title roles in "Hello, Dolly!" and "Auntie Mame" in the 1960s; in 1967, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre.
Also was James Stewart's wistful secretary in Otto Preminger's then-explicit murder mystery, "Anatomy of a Murder" and as Lottie Lacey in "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs" .
Eve as Lottie Lacey in "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs" (1960).
She became familiar to a new generation of film-goers when she played harassed Principal McGee in both 1978's "Grease" and 1982's "Grease 2", as well as making appearances on such television shows as "Alice" and "Falcon Crest".
Eve dancing with Sid Caesar in the musical "Grease" (1978).
Arden published her biography, "The Three Phases of Eve", in 1985. It is notable for its discretion in regard to Arden's many co-stars, and her loyalty to the Hollywood studio system that nurtured her career.
In addition to her Academy Award nomination and Emmy Award, Arden also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1995.
She was married to Ned Bergen from 1939 to 1947, and to actor Brooks West from 1952 until his death in 1984 from a heart ailment. She and West had four children, three of whom were adopted.
Eve was happily married to actor Brooks West from 1952 to 1984.
Mamma Eve with two of her four children.
In 1990 Arden died of advanced colorectal cancer and heart disease at her home in Los Angeles, California at the age of 82, and is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California.
Quoted: "I've worked with a lot of great glamorous girls in movies and the theater. And I'll admit, I've often thought it would be wonderful to be a femme fatale. But then I'd always come back to thinking that if they only had what I've had - a family, real love, an anchor - they would have been so much happier during all the hours when the marquees and the floodlights are dark."