Gloria Grahame was an Oscar winning star who caused a scandal when she married
her former stepson
She was born Gloria Hallward on November 28, 1923 in Los Angeles, California. Her father was an architect and her mother was an acting teacher. Gloria dropped out of Hollywood high school so she could become an actress. At the age of twenty starred in the Broadway show The World Full Of Girls. MGM president Louis B. Mayer saw her on stage and offered her a contract. She made her film debut in the 1944 comedy Blonde Fever. Then she had supporting roles in Song Of The Thin Man, It's A Wonderful Life, and It Happened In Brooklyn. In 1945 she married actor Stanley Clements but she left him when he became abusive. Her performance in the 1947 film noir Crossfire got great reviews and earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Despite her success she was very shy and deeply insecure about her appearance. Gloria had numerous plastic surgeries on her face and developed a habit of stuffing cotton into her mouth to make her lips bigger. She married director Nicholas Ray in June of 1948. Five months later their son Timothy was born. Nicholas directed her in the film noir In A Lonely Place. Their marriage was very rocky and they separated numerous times. While making Sudden Fear in 1951 she had an affair with her costar Jack Palance. Gloria also got into a physical fight with the films leading lady Joan Crawford! In 1952 she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in The Bad And The Beautiful. That same year she had a memorable role in Cecil B. Demille's circus epic The Greatest Show On Earth.
After divorcing Nicholas she started an affair with Glenn Ford, her leading man in the 1954 film noir Human Desire. She married producer Cy Howard in August of 1954. Their daughter Marianna was born two years later. Gloria had a supporting role in the musical Oklahoma. Unfortunately she didn't get along with her costars and her performance was panned by critics. By 1958 her marriage to Cy was over and her film career had stalled. Then on May 13, 1960 she eloped with Tony Ray, the son of her second husband Nicholas Ray. Her was fourteen years younger her and had been her stepson. When the public found out about their marriage it caused a huge scandal. Nicholas Ray claimed that he caught her and Tony in bed when he was just thirteen years old! Her ex-husband Cy sued her for custody of their daughter claiming she was unfit. All of the stress led her to have a nervous breakdown. During the 1960s she made guest appearances on the television shows The Outer Limits and The Fugitive. She and Tony had two sons together - Tony Jr. and James. Their marriage ended in 1974. Soon after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Gloria underwent radiation treatment and it went into remission. Then she began a romance with actor Peter Turner who was thirty years younger and bisexual. Her final role was in the 1981 horror movie The Nesting. Tragically in 1981 she developed a cancerous tumor on her abdomen. On October 5, 1981 she died at the age of fifty-seven. She was buried at Oakwood Memorial Park in Chatsworth, California.
