Gloria Hallward, an acting pupil of her mother (stage actress and teacher Jean Grahame), acted professionally while still in high school. In 1944 Louis B. Mayer saw her on Broadway and gave her an MGM contract under the name Gloria Grahame. Her debut in the title role of Blonde Fever was auspicious, but her first public recognition came on loan-out in It's a Wonderful Life. Though her talent and sex appeal were of star quality, she did not fit the star pattern at MGM, which sold her contract to RKO in 1947. Here the same problem resurfaced; her best film in these years was made on loanout, In a Lonely Place, and soon after that she left RKO. The 1950s, her best period, brought Gloria a supporting actress Oscar and typecast her as shady, inimitably sultry ladies in seven well-known film-noir classics, but marital and child-custody troubles combined with a "difficult" reputation on the set of Oklahoma! to sideline her film career from 1956 onward. In 1960 she resumed stage acting, combined with TV work and, from 1970, some mostly inferior films. Gloria was described as a serious, skillful actress; spontaneous, honest, and strong-willed; imaginative and curious; incredibly sexy but insecure about her looks (prompting plastic surgery on her famous lips); loving appreciative male company; "a bit loony." Her busiest period of British and American stage work ended abruptly in 1981 when she collapsed from cancer symptoms during a rehearsal.
Gloria was descended from royalty. Her father's family descended from King Edward III through John of Gaunt; her mother's, from the Scottish Kings of the Hebrides. Gloria's grandfather Reginald Francis Hallward gave Oscar Wilde the idea for 'The Picture of Dorian Gray.' Mother, Jean MacDougall, stage actress as Jean Grahame (Gloria's grandmother's maiden name) and later acting coach. Father, Michael Hallward, decorator, architect and author. Gloria was not born in 1925 as usually stated, but in 1923. Gloria's older sister: actress Joy Hallward. Gloria's children: Timothy Ray, born 12 November 1948; Marianna Paulette Howard, born 1 October 1956; Anthony Ray Jr., born 30 April 1963; James Ray, born 21 September 1965. In real life, Gloria was nearsighted and often wore glasses. Tone deaf, Gloria sang without dubbing in only one film, Oklahoma!, where her songs were edited together from recordings made almost literally note by note. Her unusual 1960 marriage to former stepson Anthony Ray made a great Hollywood scandal and led to a bitter child custody battle with former husbands. Her film output totalled 39 feature films, 4 TV-movies and 2 miniseries. Gloria spent her last days in the Liverpool (UK) home of her friend Peter Turner, then was flown back to New York by her children just hours before her death. Unhappy with the tilt of her upper lip, she often stuffed cotton along her gumline to straighten it out. The effect was cosmetically less than flattering and made it difficult for her to speak. A leading man, after kissing her, ended up with a mouth full of cotton. Buried at Oakwood Memorial Park, 22601 Lassen, Chatsworth, California. Pioneer Section Lot 242, Space 8.