Tallulah Bankhead was born in Huntsville, Alabama, on January 31, 1902. Her father was a mover and shaker in the Democratic Party who served as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from June 4, 1936, to Sept. 16, 1940. Tallulah had been interested in acting and at the age of 15 started her stage career in the local theater troupes of Huntsville and the surrounding areas. At 16 she won a beauty contest and, bolstered by this achievement, moved to New York City to live with her aunt and to try her hand at Broadway. She was offered a role in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but didn't take it after she refused John Barrymore's invitation for a visit to the casting couch. Unfortunately, for the young Miss Bankhead, she didn't make any headway on the stages of New York, so she pulled up stakes and moved to London, in 1923, to try her luck there.

For the next several years she was the most popular actress of London's famed West End, the British equivalent of Broadway. After starring in several well-received plays, she gained the attention of Paramount Pictures executives and returned to the US to try her hand at the film world. Her first two films, Woman's Law and His House in Order, didn't exactly set the world on fire, so she returned to do more stage work. She tried film work again with Tarnished Lady, where she played Nancy Courtney, a woman who marries for money but ultimately gets bored with her husband and leaves him, only to come back to him when he is broke. The critics gave it a mixed reception. Tallulah's personality didn't shine on film as Paramount executives had hoped. She tried again with My Sin as a woman with a secret past about to marry into money. Later that year she made The Cheat, playing Elsa Carlyle, a woman who sold herself to a wealthy Oriental merchant who brands her like she was his own property and is subsequently murdered. The next year she shot Thunder Below, Faithless, Make Me a Star (she had a cameo role along with several other Paramount stars) and Devil and the Deep. The latter film was a star-studded affair that made money at the box-office due to the cast (Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton and newcomer Cary Grant). The films she was making just didn't do her talent any justice, so it was back to Broadway--she didn't make another film for 11 years. She toured nationally, performing in all but three states.

She was also a big hit at social affairs, where she often shocked the staid members of that society with her "untraditional" behavior. She chain-smoked and enjoyed more than her share of Kentucky bourbon, and made it a "habit" to take her clothes off and chat in the nude. A friend and fellow actress remarked on one occasion, "Tallulah dear, why are you always taking your clothes off? You have such lovely frocks." She was also famous--or infamous--for throwing wild parties that would last for days. She returned to films in 1943 with a cameo in Stage Door Canteen, but it was Lifeboat for director Alfred Hitchcock that put her back into the limelight. The limelight didn't shine for long, however. After shooting A Royal Scandal she didn't appear on film again until she landed a role in Die! Die! My Darling!. Her film and small-screen work consisted of a few TV spots and the voice of the Sea Witch in the animated film The Daydreamer, so she went back to the stage, which had always been first and foremost in her heart. To Tallulah there was nothing like a live audience to perform for, because they, always, showed a lot of gratitude. On 12 December 1968, Tallulah died of pneumonia in her beloved New York City. While she made most of her fame on the stages of the world, the film industry and its history became richer because of her talent and her very colorful personality. Today her phrase, "Hello, Dahling" is known throughout the entertainment world.
Die! Die! My Darling! (1965): $50,000
A Royal Scandal (1945): $125,000
Lifeboat (1944): $75,000
Thunder Below (1932): $6,000/week
The Cheat (1931): $5,000/week
My Sin (1931): $5,000/week
Tarnished Lady (1931): $50,000
His House in Order (1928): £ 500/week

Screen, stage, radio, and television actress. President Harry S. Truman once claimed that her 1952 autobiography was the best book he had read since coming to the White House. Once owned a pet lion named Winston. She was the first white woman to appear on the cover of 'Ebony' magazine. Member of the Algonquin roundtable. Sent to Catholic convent schools by her father in the hopes (unrealized) that she would learn to stay out of trouble. The screen credit for her role as The Black Widow in Batman read "Miss Tallulah Bankhead". She narrowly missed out on the part of Scarlett O'Hara in 'Gone With The Wind' . Host of the NBC Radio variety show "The Big Show" (1950-1952). In 1949, Proctor and Gamble launched a radio advertising campaign for its Prell shampoo, using a jingle and the character "Tallulah The Tube". Miss Bankhead was so closely identified by her first name that she sued, eventually settling out of court. The town of Tallulah, Louisiana, in the northeast part of the state was re-named for her after she spent the night there in the 1930s. At a press conference: "I'm so glad to see there's a man here from the New York Times because if I say 'goddammit,' they will print it 'good heavens' or good gracious.'" She was said to be the inspiration for the character of Cruella De Vil in Walt Disney's One Hundred and One Dalmatians. She was infamous for not wearing underwear. According to Hume Cronyn, during the filming of Lifeboat the crew complained about her flashing them when she had to climb a ladder to go into the mock-up of a lifeboat. When their objections to Bankhead's exhibitionism reached director Alfred Hitchcock, he reportedly quipped that he didn't know if it was a matter for wardrobe or hairdressing. Originated the female lead in Clifford Odets' "Clash by Night" on Broadway. The part was taken by Barbara Stanwyck in the 1952 movie. A bisexual, she had a one-time affair with actress Hattie McDaniel, according to chronicler of the Hollywood underground Kenneth Anger, and a longer-term arrangement with singer Billie Holiday, according to Joe Lobenthal's "Tallulah! The Life and Times of a Leading Lady". An incident in her life was the inspiration for movie All About Eve. It is ironic that Bette Davis played the Bankhead character, as Davis played in films two great roles originated by Bankhead on Broadway: Judith Traherne in "Dark Victory" and Regina in Lillian Hellman's "The Little Foxes." It's even more ironic that both Davis and Bankhead despised each other. Marlon Brando, who co-starred with her in the play "The Eagle Has Two Heads" in the mid-1940s, said that Bankhead was primarily a personality actor--that is, someone who did not have developed acting skills but got by on the basis of their personality. Brando believed that she could have been a great actress and a major movie star if she hadn't been addicted to sex and alcohol. Was nominated for Broadway's 1961 Tony Award as Best Actress (Dramatic) for "Midgie Purvis." Is portrayed by Carrie Nye in Moviola: The Scarlett O'Hara War Loved jazz music and was a mainstay at many popular jazz clubs in New York and LA. Her role as the black widow on the Batman television series is the last on-screen appearance she made.