She was born into a family of famous performers in Great Britain. Ida Lupino began acting in movies as a teenager and later decided to move to Los Angeles. She was destined to become the mother of independent cinema, a pioneer with a rather fruitful career that lasted from the 1930s to the 1970s. Losangeleska tells more about the impressive story of a great and talented woman.
First acting attempts
She starred for the first time at the age of 15 in Her First Affaire. Mother went to the audition with her but the girl immediately attracted the director’s attention due to her bright appearance.
She auditioned for a role in Alice in Wonderland. Feeling the rebellious spirit of adolescence together with her own vision of Hollywood glamor, Ida lightened her hair and applied too much makeup. The director did not appreciate it, so she lost the role of Alice.
However, such a change in style was only beneficial because she then got numerous roles of glamorous and frivolous girls.
Popular movie star
Her beauty beckoned and Ida was given new and new roles. She was a celebrity in the 1930s and 1940s. Once a miniature and independent actress, who received $ 1,700 a week in 1937, refused the contract. The thing is that she got tired of frivolous roles. After that, Ida Lupino was out of work for a while.
The period of unemployment did not last long. Later she received a successful role of a model in The Light That Failed (1939) and the role of an authoritative sister in The Hard Way (1943). New York critics even awarded her for the best female role. The next award was for work in Devotion (1946).
She combined talent, courage and steel nerves. According to many Hollywood critics, this was the secret formula for the success of the famous Ida Lupino.
Time of change
In the early 1950s, the actress refused a lucrative contract, choosing a more risky path. She was later called a pioneer for the following decision. Ida Lupino became the first female director. It was an incredibly rare position at the time. Her debut work Not Wanted was presented in 1949. After that, many more directorial works deserved attention:
- The Hitch-Hiker movie
- The Trouble with Angels teen comedy
- The Donna Reed Show classic series
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents series
- The Twilight Zone series and the famous Bewitched.
Ida returned to acting when she got married to her third husband, Howard Duff. It was in the 1957-1958 television series Mr. Adams and Eve. She chose a plot based on their own marital experience.
Ida Lupino was last seen as an actress in Charlie’s Angels in 1976, an episode called I Will Be Remembered.
Despite lots of acting and directing work, Ida Lupino’s personal life was just as stormy and full. There were three marriages in her life. Her first husband was actor Louis Hayward. Their marriage lasted from 1938 to 1945. For the second time, the woman married film producer Collier Young (1948-1951). Then, Ida married actor Howard Duff and gave birth to a daughter. The marriage lasted from 1951 to 1984.
A female legend and Hollywood star
Ida Lupino certainly entered history as one of the most famous directors. She is the only female director of the 1950s who managed to work in an independent Hollywood production company. She was a co-author, co-producer and the only one who filmed episodes of many famous series. It is also exceptional that she was the first female director who also starred herself.
Once she refused a lucrative contract, choosing the path of an independent female producer and director in Hollywood. Ida Lupino died in 1995 in Los Angeles.
