Geraldine Fitzgerald

Actress / Actriz

There is a lot of information about Geraldine Fitzgerald on the Internet but as I don’t know much about cinema, maybe I forget something more important than what I say.

She was born in Greystones, County Wicklow, South of Dublin, in Ireland on 24th November, 1913.

She was an actress and a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

Her father was an attorney. He was Roman Catholic, and her mother was Protestant but she converted to Catholicism.

Although she studied painting at the Dublin School of Art, she began her acting career inspired by her aunt, who was actress.

She had her debut in 1932 at Dublin´s Gate Theatre. Immediately she moved to London and she found success in British Films.

In 1938 she debuted in the Mercury Theatre in America with Orson Welles, with whom she had an affair.

Geraldine Fitzgerald was very successful in Hollywood. She took part in important productions of Warner Bros and 20th Century Fox. She was nominated to the Oscar for her performance in Wuthering Heights (Cumbres Borrascosas) in 1939- But there was a time when her career was hampered by her confrontations with studio management. She was a difficult character. But she triumphed again during the 1960s. Geraldine Fitzgerald also returned to the theatre with success.

She performed as a cabaret singer with the show Streetsongs. She recorded an album of the show for Ben Bagley´s Painted Smiles label.

Geraldine Fitzgerald also achieved success as a theatre director. In 1982 she became one of first women to receive a nomination for Best Direction of a Play. She also appeared on TV in several series.

For her wide and varied career as actress, Geraldine Fitzgerald has a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

She was married twice and she had two children, one of them looked a lot like Orson Welles although she was never married to him.

Geraldine Fitzgerald died at the of age 91 in New York, following a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, where you can visit her grave.

Lorenzo Ortas

English for Fun 4B 2018-19