She won a beauty contest at age fourteen. In 1920 her mother, Edith Shearer, took Norma and her sister Athole Shearer (Mrs. Howard Hawks) to New York. Ziegfeld rejected her for his "Follies" but she got work as an extra in several movies. Irving Thalberg had seen her early efforts and, when he joined Louis B. Mayer in 1923, gave her a five year contract. He thought she should retire after their marriage, but she wanted bigger parts. Her first talkie was in The Trial of Mary Dugan; four movies later she won an Oscar in The Divorcee. She intentionally cut down film exposure during the thirties, relying on major roles in Thalberg's prestige projects: The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Romeo and Juliet (her fifth Oscar nomination). Thalberg died of pneumonia September 1936, aged thirty-seven. Norma wanted to retire but MGM more-or-less forced her into a six-picture contract. David O. Selznick offered her the part of Scarlett O'Hara, but public objection killed the deal. She starred in The Women, turned down the starring role in Mrs. Miniver, and retired in 1942. Later that year she married Sun Valley ski instructor Martin Arrouge, twenty years younger than she (he waived community property rights). From then on she shunned the limelight; she was in very poor health the last decade of her life.
Marie Antoinette (1938): $150,000

Children, with Thalberg, Irving Jr. (b. 1930) and Katherine (b. 1935) Sister of Athole Shearer and twelve time Academy Award winning sound director Douglas Shearer Daughter of Edith Shearer Even after retirement, Norma maintained her interest in the film industry. While staying at a ski lodge, she noticed a photo of the receptionist's daughter and recommended her to MGM - that girl, became the star known as Janet Leigh. She also discovered a handsome young businessman beside a swimming pool - now actor/producer Robert Evans. Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California, USA, in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Benediction. Sister-in-law of John Ward. Sister-in-law of Howard Hawks. Former mother-in-law of Richard Anderson. At the height of her career, she was earning $6,000 per week. F. Scott Fitzgerald based one of his most famous stories, "Crazy Sunday", on a party hosted by Shearer, who also inspired the story's main character, Stella Calman. Six years after the death of first husband Irving Thalberg, she married a ski instructor 20 years her junior and retired from the screen forever. Turned down the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind and the title role in Mrs. Miniver. Her son died in 1988 of cancer. He was a philosophy professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her daughter died in 2006 of cancer. A vegan, she headed the Society for Animal Rights in Aspen, Colorado from 1989. Was meticulous about her appearance. Early in her career, she spent money she could barely afford on the services on an eye doctor, who trained her to strengthen a weak eye. She swam everyday, had massages to firm her figure, and dieted religiously. She experimented with makeup until she decided on a light tone that would illuminated her face on screen.